Purcell enhancement of single-photon emitters in silicon

Individual spins that are coupled to telecommunication photons offer unique promise for distributed quantum information processing once a coherent and efficient spin-photon interface can be fabricated at scale. We implement such an interface by integrating erbium dopants into a nanophotonic silicon resonator. We achieve spin-resolved excitation of individual emitters with < 0.1 GHz spectral diffusion linewidth. Upon resonant driving, we observe optical Rabi oscillations and single-photon emission with a 78-fold Purcell enhancement. Our results establish a promising new platform for quantum networks

A bespoke health risk assessment methodology for the radiation protection of astronauts

An alternative approach that is particularly suitable for the radiation health risk assessment (HRA) of astronauts is presented. The quantity, Radiation Attributed Decrease of Survival (RADS), representing the cumulative decrease in the unknown survival curve at a certain attained age, due to the radiation exposure at an earlier age, forms the basis for this alternative approach. Results are provided for all solid cancer plus leukemia incidence RADS from estimated doses from theoretical radiation exposures accumulated during long-term missions to the Moon or Mars. For example, it is shown that a 1000-day Mars exploration mission with a hypothetical mission effective dose of 1.07 Sv at typical astronaut ages around 40 years old, will result in the probability of surviving free of all types of solid cancer and leukemia until retirement age (65 years) being reduced by 4.2% (95% CI 3.2; 5.3) for males and 5.8% (95% CI 4.8; 7.0) for females. RADS dose–responses are given, for the outcomes for incidence of all solid cancer, leukemia, lung and female breast cancer. Results showing how RADS varies with age at exposure, attained age and other factors are also presented. The advantages of this alternative approach, over currently applied methodologies for the long-term radiation protection of astronauts after mission exposures, are presented with example calculations applicable to European astronaut occupational HRA. Some tentative suggestions for new types of occupational risk limits for space missions are given while acknowledging that the setting of astronaut radiation-related risk limits will ultimately be decided by the Space Agencies. Suggestions are provided for further work which builds on and extends this new HRA approach, e.g., by eventually including non-cancer effects and detailed space dosimetry

On prognostic estimates of radiation risk in medicine and radiation protection

The problem of expressing cumulative detrimental effect of radiation exposure is revisited. All conventionally used and computationally complex lifetime or time-integrated risks are based on current population and health statistical data, with unknown future secular trends, that are projected far into the future. It is shown that application of conventionally used lifetime or time-integrated attributable risks (LAR, AR) should be limited to exposures under 1 Gy. More general quantities, such as excess lifetime risk (ELR) and, to a lesser extent, risk of exposure-induced death (REID), are free of dose constraints, but are even more computationally complex than LAR and AR and rely on the unknown total radiation effect on demographic and health statistical data. Appropriate assessment of time-integrated risk of a specific outcome following high-dose (more than 1 Gy) exposure requires consideration of competing risks for other radiation-attributed outcomes and the resulting ELR estimate has an essentially non-linear dose response. Limitations caused by basing conventionally applied time-integrated risks on current population and health statistical data are that they are: (a) not well suited for risk estimates for atypical groups of exposed persons not readily represented by the general population; and (b) not optimal for risk projections decades into the future due to large uncertainties in developments of the future secular trends in the population-specific disease rates. Alternative disease-specific quantities, baseline and attributable survival fractions, based on reduction of survival chances are considered here and are shown to be very useful in circumventing most aspects of these limitations. Another main quantity, named as radiation-attributed decrease of survival (RADS), is recommended here to represent cumulative radiation risk conditional on survival until a certain age. RADS, historically known in statistical literature as “cumulative risk”, is only based on the radiation-attributed hazard and is insensitive to competing risks. Therefore, RADS is eminently suitable for risk projections in emergency situations and for estimating radiation risks for persons exposed after therapeutic or interventional medical applications of radiation or in other highly atypical groups of exposed persons, such as astronauts

Coherent Control in the Ground and Optically Excited States of an Ensemble of Erbium Dopants

Ensembles of erbium dopants can realize quantum memories and frequency converters that operate in the minimal-loss wavelength band of fiber optical communication. Their operation requires the initialization, coherent control and readout of the electronic spin state. In this work, we use a split-ring microwave resonator to demonstrate such control in both the ground and optically excited state. The presented techniques can also be applied to other combinations of dopant and host, and may facilitate the development of new quantum memory protocols and sensing schemes.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2005.0882

Quantifying exposure of plants and animals to radiation: a new methodology

The IAEA is updating its simple methodology for calculation of doses to people from radioactive discharges. The update will provide a harmonised dose assessment methodology for both humans and flora and fauna. The approach is intended for the assessment of planned releases from facilities and estimates radiation exposure during the 100th year of discharge (expected life-time of a nuclear facility). The environmental protection elements of the methodology will, as far as practicable, utilise relevant aspects of the ICRP’s framework for environmental protection. Here we describe the new IAEA methodology for calculating the radiation exposure of terrestrial wildlife focussing on differences with existing methodologies and demonstrating the potential impact of these differences. The application of whole body concentration ratios, CRwo-soils, is often aimed to be conservative. However, it has been suggested that the application of CRwo-soils in situations of prolonged atmospheric discharges will result in an underestimation of the exposure of plants and some animals. This is because radionuclides deposited onto plant surfaces are predicted to contribute a significant component of the total plant activity. Ignoring externally deposited radionuclides from the assessment is also inconsistent with models used to assess human exposure. Consequently, the new methodology adopted by the IAEA incorporates an explicit consideration of this exposure pathway, including consideration of herbivorous animals feeding on plants with external deposition. Other differences in the new approach compared to existing environmental assessment tools are the correction of CRwo-soils for radionuclide physical half-life and the approach used to consider the scenario-specific contribution of radioactive progeny to parent radionuclide dose. The paper will compare results using the existing and new methodologies

Time-integrated radiation risk metrics and interpopulation variability of survival

Task Group 115 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection is focusing on mission-related exposures to space radiation and concomitant health risks for space crew members including, among others, risk of cancer development. Uncertainties in cumulative radiation risk estimates come from the stochastic nature of the considered health outcome (i.e., cancer), uncertainties of statistical inference and model parameters, unknown secular trends used for projections of population statistics and unknown variability of survival properties between individuals or population groups. The variability of survival is usually ignored when dealing with large groups, which can be assumed well represented by the statistical data for the contemporary general population, either in a specific country or world averaged. Space crew members differ in many aspects from individuals represented by the general population, including, for example, their lifestyle and health status, nutrition, medical care, training and education. The individuality of response to radiation and lifespan is explored in this modelling study. Task Group 115 is currently evaluating applicability and robustness of various risk metrics for quantification of radiation-attributed risks of cancer for space crew members. This paper demonstrates the impact of interpopulation variability of survival curves on values and uncertainty of the estimates of the time-integrated radiation risk of cancer

A bespoke health risk assessment methodology for the radiation protection of astronauts

An alternative approach that is particularly suitable for the radiation health risk assessment (HRA) of astronauts is presented. The quantity, Radiation Attributed Decrease of Survival (RADS), representing the cumulative decrease in the unknown survival curve at a certain attained age, due to the radiation exposure at an earlier age, forms the basis for this alternative approach. Results are provided for all solid cancer plus leukemia incidence RADS from estimated doses from theoretical radiation exposures accumulated during long-term missions to the Moon or Mars. For example, it is shown that a 1000-day Mars exploration mission with a hypothetical mission effective dose of 1.07 Sv at typical astronaut ages around 40 years old, will result in the probability of surviving free of all types of solid cancer and leukemia until retirement age (65 years) being reduced by 4.2% (95% CI 3.2; 5.3) for males and 5.8% (95% CI 4.8; 7.0) for females. RADS dose–responses are given, for the outcomes for incidence of all solid cancer, leukemia, lung and female breast cancer. Results showing how RADS varies with age at exposure, attained age and other factors are also presented. The advantages of this alternative approach, over currently applied methodologies for the long-term radiation protection of astronauts after mission exposures, are presented with example calculations applicable to European astronaut occupational HRA. Some tentative suggestions for new types of occupational risk limits for space missions are given while acknowledging that the setting of astronaut radiation-related risk limits will ultimately be decided by the Space Agencies. Suggestions are provided for further work which builds on and extends this new HRA approach, e.g., by eventually including non-cancer effects and detailed space dosimetry.ISSN:0301-634XISSN:1432-209

Pre- and post-accident environmental transfer of radionuclides in Japan: lessons learned in the IAEA MODARIA II programme

An international review of radioecological data derived after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was an important component of activities in working group 4 of the IAEA Models and data for radiological impact assessment, phase II (MODARIA II) programme. Japanese and international scientists reviewed radioecological data in the terrestrial and aquatic environments in Japan reported both before and after the accident. The environmental transfer processes considered included: (a) interception and retention radionuclides by plants, (b) loss of radionuclides from plant and systemic transport of radionuclides in plants (translocation), (c) behaviour of radiocaesium in soil, (d) uptake of radionuclides from soil by agricultural crops and wild plants, (e) transfer of radionuclides from feedstuffs to domestic and wild animals, (f) behaviour of radiocaesium in forest trees and forest systems, (g) behaviour of radiocaesium in freshwater systems, coastal areas and in the ocean, (h) transport of radiocaesium from catchments through rivers, streams and lakes to the ocean, (i) uptake of radiocaesium by aquatic organisms, and (j) modification of radionuclide concentrations in food products during food processing and culinary preparation. These data were compared with relevant global data within IAEA TECDOC-1927 'Environmental transfer of radionuclides in Japan following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant'. This paper summarises the outcomes of the data collation and analysis within MODARIA II work group 4 and compares the Japan-specific data with existing radioecological knowledge acquired from past and contemporary radioecological studies. The key radioecological lessons learned are outlined and discussed