Redistribution of light frequency by multiple scattering in a resonant atomic vapor

The propagation of light in a resonant atomic vapor can \textit{a priori} be thought of as a multiple scattering process, in which each scattering event redistributes both the direction and the frequency of the photons. Particularly, the frequency redistribution may result in L\'evy flights of photons, directly affecting the transport properties of light in a resonant atomic vapor and turning this propagation into a superdifusion process. Here, we report on a Monte-Carlo simulation developed to study the evolution of the spectrum of the light in a resonant thermal vapor. We observe the gradual change of the spectrum and its convergence towards a regime of Complete Frequency Redistribution as the number of scattering events increases. We also analyse the probability density function of the step length of photons between emissions and reabsorptions in the vapor, which governs the statistics of the light diffusion. We observe two different regime in the light transport: superdiffusive when the vapor is excited near the line center and normal diffusion for excitation far from the line center. The regime of Complete Frequency Redistribution is not reached for excitation far from resonance even after many absorption/reemission cycles due to correlations between emitted and absorbed frequencies.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figure

Implementation of a Standardized Handoff System for a General Surgery Residency Program

Introduction: The I-PASS Handoff Bundle is an evidence based standardized set of educational materials designed to decrease handoff failures in patient care. Two of every three sentinel events , the most serious events reported to the Joint Commission, are due to failures of communication, including miscommunication during patient care handoffs. Implementation of the I-PASS method results in decreased medical errors and preventable adverse events There are few studies that evaluate this validated method in the context of a General Surgery resident program We aim to implement the I-PASS system into the transition of care process for General Surgery residents at our institution, and to analyze of the quality of the handoff process before and after the implementation.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/patientsafetyposters/1047/thumbnail.jp

Cold Atom Physics Using Ultra-Thin Optical Fibers: Light-Induced Dipole Forces and Surface Interactions

The strong evanescent field around ultra-thin unclad optical fibers bears a high potential for detecting, trapping, and manipulating cold atoms. Introducing such a fiber into a cold atom cloud, we investigate the interaction of a small number of cold Caesium atoms with the guided fiber mode and with the fiber surface. Using high resolution spectroscopy, we observe and analyze light-induced dipole forces, van der Waals interaction, and a significant enhancement of the spontaneous emission rate of the atoms. The latter can be assigned to the modification of the vacuum modes by the fiber.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Phenotypic spectrum of MFN2 mutations in the Spanish population

INTRODUCTION: The most common form of axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease is type 2A, caused by mutations in the mitochondrial GTPase mitofusin 2 (MFN2). OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study is to establish the incidence of MFN2 mutations in a cohort of Spanish patients with axonal CMT neuropathy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Eighty-five families with suspected axonal CMT were studied. All MFN2 exons were studied through direct sequencing. A bioenergetics study in fibroblasts was conducted using a skin biopsy taken from a patient with an Arg468His mutation. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients from 14 different families were identified with nine different MFN2 mutations (Arg94Trp, Arg94Gln, Ile203Met, Asn252Lys, Gln276His, Gly296Arg, Met376Val, Arg364Gln and Arg468His). All mutations were found in the heterozygous state and four of these mutations had not been described previously. MFN2 mutations were responsible for CMT2 in 16% +/- 7% of the families studied and in 30.8 +/- 14.2% (12/39) of families with known dominant inheritance. The bioenergetic studies in fibroblasts show typical results of MFN2 patients with a mitochondrial coupling defect (ATP/O) and an increase of the respiration rate linked to complex II. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that mutations in MFN2 are the most frequent cause of CMT2 in this region. The Arg468His mutation was the most prevalent (6/14 families), and our study confirms that it is pathological, presenting as a neuropathy in a mild to moderate degree. This study also demonstrates the value of MFN2 studies in cases of congenital axonal neuropathy, especially in cases of dominant inheritance, severe clinical symptoms or additional symptoms such as optic atrophy

Selective Reflection Spectroscopy on the UV Third Resonance Line of Cs : Simultaneous Probing of a van der Waals Atom-Surface Interaction Sensitive to Far IR Couplings and of Interatomic Collisions

We report on the analysis of FM selective reflection experiments on the 6S1/2->8P3/2 transition of Cs at 388 nm, and on the measurement of the surface van der Waals interaction exerted by a sapphire interface on Cs(8P3/2). Various improvements in the systematic fitting of the experiments have permitted to supersede the major difficulty of a severe overlap of the hyperfine components, originating on the one hand in a relatively small natural structure, and on the other hand on a large pressure broadening imposed by the high atomic density needed for the observation of selective reflection on a weak transition. The strength of the van der Waals surface interaction is evaluated to be 73$\pm$10 kHz.$\mu$m3. An evaluation of the pressure shift of the transition is also provided as a by-product of the measurement. We finally discuss the significance of an apparent disagreement between the experimental measurement of the surface interaction, and the theoretical value calculated for an electromagnetic vacuum at a null temperature. The possible influence of the thermal excitation of the surface is evoked, because, the dominant contributions to the vW interaction for Cs(8P3/2) lie in the far infrared range.Comment: submitted to Laser Physics - issue in the memory of Herbert Walther

Observation of modified radiative properties of cold atoms in vacuum near a dielectric surface

We have observed a distance-dependent absorption linewidth of cold $^{87}$Rb atoms close to a dielectric-vacuum interface. This is the first observation of modified radiative properties in vacuum near a dielectric surface. A cloud of cold atoms was created using a magneto-optical trap (MOT) and optical molasses cooling. Evanescent waves (EW) were used to observe the behavior of the atoms near the surface. We observed an increase of the absorption linewidth with up to 25% with respect to the free-space value. Approximately half the broadening can be explained by cavity-quantum electrodynamics (CQED) as an increase of the natural linewidth and inhomogeneous broadening. The remainder we attribute to local Stark shifts near the surface. By varying the characteristic EW length we have observed a distance dependence characteristic for CQED.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, some minor revision

L\'evy flights of photons in hot atomic vapours

Properties of random and fluctuating systems are often studied through the use of Gaussian distributions. However, in a number of situations, rare events have drastic consequences, which can not be explained by Gaussian statistics. Considerable efforts have thus been devoted to the study of non Gaussian fluctuations such as L\'evy statistics, generalizing the standard description of random walks. Unfortunately only macroscopic signatures, obtained by averaging over many random steps, are usually observed in physical systems. We present experimental results investigating the elementary process of anomalous diffusion of photons in hot atomic vapours. We measure the step size distribution of the random walk and show that it follows a power law characteristic of L\'evy flights.Comment: This final version is identical to the one published in Nature Physic

Early-onset Behr syndrome due to compound heterozygous mutations in OPA1

International audienceNo abstract availabl

Casimir force on amplifying bodies

Based on a unified approach to macroscopic QED that allows for the inclusion of amplification in a limited space and frequency range, we study the Casimir force as a Lorentz force on an arbitrary partially amplifying system of linearly locally responding (isotropic) magnetoelectric bodies. We demonstrate that the force on a weakly polarisable/magnetisable amplifying object in the presence of a purely absorbing environment can be expressed as a sum over the Casimir--Polder forces on the excited atoms inside the body. As an example, the resonant force between a plate consisting of a dilute gas of excited atoms and a perfect mirror is calculated