3,857 research outputs found
Magnetic field-induced spectroscopy of forbidden optical transitions with application to lattice-based optical atomic clocks
We develop a method of spectroscopy that uses a weak static magnetic field to
enable direct optical excitation of forbidden electric-dipole transitions that
are otherwise prohibitively weak. The power of this scheme is demonstrated
using the important application of optical atomic clocks based on neutral atoms
confined to an optical lattice. The simple experimental implementation of this
method -- a single clock laser combined with a DC magnetic field-- relaxes
stringent requirements in current lattice-based clocks (e.g., magnetic field
shielding and light polarization), and could therefore expedite the realization
of the extraordinary performance level predicted for these clocks. We estimate
that a clock using alkaline earth-like atoms such as Yb could achieve a
fractional frequency uncertainty of well below 10^-17 for the metrologically
preferred even isotopes
The critical current of YBa2Cu3O7-d Low Angle Grain Boundaries
Transport critical current measurements have been performed on 5 degree
[001]-tilt thin film YBa2Cu3O7-delta single grain boundaries with magnetic
field rotated in the plane of the film, phi. The variation of the critical
current has been determined as a function of the angle between the magnetic
field and the grain boundary plane. In applied fields above 1 T the critical
current, j_c, is found to be strongly suppressed only when the magnetic field
is within an angle phi_k of the grain boundary. Outside this angular range the
behavior of the artificial grain boundary is dominated by the critical current
of the grains. We show that the phi dependence of j_c in the suppressed region
is well described by a flux cutting model.Comment: To be published in PRL, new version with minor changes following
referees report
Controlling the exchange interaction using the spin-flip transition of antiferromagnetic spins in NiFe / -FeO
We report studies of exchange bias and coercivity in ferromagnetic
NiFe layers coupled to antiferromagnetic (AF) (0001),
(110), and (112) -FeO layers. We show that AF
spin configurations which permit spin-flop coupling give rise to a strong
uniaxial anisotropy and hence a large coercivity, and that by annealing in
magnetic fields parallel to specific directions in the AF we can control either
coercivity or exchange bias. In particular, we show for the first time that a
reversible temperature-induced spin reorientation in the AF can be used to
control the exchange interaction.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Report on a collecting trip of the British Myriapod Group to Hungary in 1994
During a collecting trip participated jointly by the members of the British Myriapod Group and by Hungarian
experts in 1994, 34 species of millipedes, 14 of centipedes, 8 of woodlice and 73 of spiders were recorded from
Hungary. Two records of the millipede species Boreoiulus tenuis (Bigler, 1913) and Styrioiulus styricus (Verhoeff,
1896) were new to the fauna of Hungary
Photoinduced time-resolved electrodynamics of superconducting metals and alloys
The photoexcited state in superconducting metals and alloys was studied via
pump-probe spectroscopy. A pulsed Ti:sapphire laser was used to create the
non-equilibrium state and the far-infrared pulses of a synchrotron storage
ring, to which the laser is synchronized, measured the changes in the material
optical properties. Both the time- and frequency- dependent photoinduced
spectra of Pb, Nb, NbN, Nb{0.5}Ti{0.5}N, and Pb{0.75}Bi{0.25} superconducting
thin films were measured in the low-fluence regime. The time dependent data
establish the regions where the relaxation rate is dominated either by the
phonon escape time (phonon bottleneck effect) or by the intrinsic quasiparticle
recombination time. The photoinduced spectra measure directly the reduction of
the superconducting gap due to an excess number of quasiparticles created by
the short laser pulses. This gap shift allows us to establish the temperature
range over which the low fluence approximation is valid.Comment: 12 pages with 10 figure
Observation and absolute frequency measurements of the 1S0 - 3P0 optical clock transition in ytterbium
We report the direct excitation of the highly forbidden (6s^2) 1S0 - (6s6p)
3P0 optical transition in two odd isotopes of ytterbium. As the excitation
laser frequency is scanned, absorption is detected by monitoring the depletion
from an atomic cloud at ~70 uK in a magneto-optical trap. The measured
frequency in 171Yb (F=1/2) is 518,295,836,593.2 +/- 4.4 kHz. The measured
frequency in 173Yb (F=5/2) is 518,294,576,850.0 +/- 4.4 kHz. Measurements are
made with a femtosecond-laser frequency comb calibrated by the NIST cesium
fountain clock and represent nearly a million-fold reduction in uncertainty.
The natural linewidth of these J=0 to J=0 transitions is calculated to be ~10
mHz, making them well-suited to support a new generation of optical atomic
clocks based on confinement in an optical lattice.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Critical currents in vicinal YBaCuO films
Most measurements of critical current densities in
YBaCuO thin films to date have been performed on films
where the \textit{c}-axis is grown normal to the film surface. With such films,
the analysis of the dependence of on the magnetic field angle is complex.
The effects of extrinsic contributions to the angular field dependence of
, such as the measurement geometry and disposition of pinning centres, are
convoluted with those intrinsically due to the anisotropy of the material. As a
consequence of this, it is difficult to distinguish between proposed FLL
structure models on the basis of angular critical current density measurements
on \textit{c}-axis films. Films grown on mis-cut (vicinal) substrates have a
reduced measurement symmetry and thus provide a greater insight into the
critical current anisotropy. In this paper previous descriptions of the
magnetic field angle dependence of in YBaCuO are
reviewed. Measurements on YBaCuO thin films grown on a
range of vicinal substrates are presented and the results interpreted in terms
of the structure and dimensionality of the FLL in YBaCuO.
There is strong evidence for a transition in the structure of the flux line
lattice depending on magnetic field magnitude, orientation and temperature. As
a consequence, a simple scaling law can not, by itself, describe the observed
critical current anisotropy in YBaCuO. The experimentally
obtained behaviour of YBCO is successfully described in terms of
a kinked vortex structure for fields applied near parallel to the \textit{a-b}
planes.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, Submitted to PR
Hyper-Ramsey Spectroscopy of Optical Clock Transitions
We present non-standard optical Ramsey schemes that use pulses individually
tailored in duration, phase, and frequency to cancel spurious frequency shifts
related to the excitation itself. In particular, the field shifts and their
uncertainties of Ramsey fringes can be radically suppressed (by 2-4 orders of
magnitude) in comparison with the usual Ramsey method (using two equal pulses)
as well as with single-pulse Rabi spectroscopy. Atom interferometers and
optical clocks based on two-photon transitions, heavily forbidden transitions,
or magnetically induced spectroscopy could significantly benefit from this
method. In the latter case these frequency shifts can be suppressed
considerably below a fractional level of 10^{-17}. Moreover, our approach opens
the door for the high-precision optical clocks based on direct frequency comb
spectroscopy.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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