Recovery of continuous wave squeezing at low frequencies

We propose and demonstrate a system that produces squeezed vacuum using a pair of optical parametric amplifiers. This scheme allows the production of phase sidebands on the squeezed vacuum which facilitate phase locking in downstream applications. We observe strong, stably locked, continuous wave vacuum squeezing at frequencies as low as 220 kHz. We propose an alternative resonator configuration to overcome low frequency squeezing degradation caused by the optical parametric amplifiers.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Workplace stress among construction professionals in South Africa: The role of harassment and discrimination

The discrimination/harassment experiences of survey respondents in different construction professional groups in SouthAfrica is compared, and the relationship between harassment/discrimination and perceived work stress is examined

A FUSE survey of high-latitude Galactic molecular hydrogen

Measurements of molecular hydrogen (H_2) column densities are presented for the first six rotational levels (J=0 to 5) for 73 extragalactic targets observed with FUSE. All of these have a final signal-to-noise ratio larger than \snlimit, and are located at galactic latitude |b|>20 deg. The individual observations were calibrated with the FUSE calibration pipeline CalFUSE version 2.1 or higher, and then carefully aligned in velocity. The final velocity shifts for all the FUSE segments are listed. H_2 column densities or limits are determined for the 6 lowest rotational (J) levels for each HI component in the line of sight, using a curve-of-growth approach at low column densities ~16.5), and Voigt-profile fitting at higher column densities. Detections include 73 measurements of low-velocity H_2 in the Galactic Disk and lower Halo. Eight sightlines yield non-detections for Galactic H_2. The measured column densities range from log N(H_2)=14 to log N(H_2)=20. Strong correlations are found between log N(H_2) and T_01, the excitation temperature of the H_2, as well as between log N(H_2) and the level population ratios (log (N(J')/N(J))). The average fraction of nuclei in molecular hydrogen (f(H_2)) in each sightline is calculated; however, because there are many HI clouds in each sightline, the physics of the transition from HI to H_2 can not be studied. Detections also include H2 in 16 intermediate-velocity clouds in the Galactic Halo (out of 35 IVCs). Molecular hydrogen is seen in one high-velocity cloud (the Leading Arm of the Magellanic Stream), although 19 high-velocity clouds are intersected; this strongly suggests that dust is rare or absent in these objects. Finally, there are five detections of H_2 in external galaxies.Comment: Accepted for ApJ Supplement. Note: figs 7 and 8 not included because astro-ph rejects them as too bi

Cavity optoelectromechanical regenerative amplification

Cavity optoelectromechanical regenerative amplification is demonstrated. An optical cavity enhances mechanical transduction, allowing sensitive measurement even for heavy oscillators. A 27.3 MHz mechanical mode of a microtoroid was linewidth narrowed to 6.6\pm1.4 mHz, 30 times smaller than previously achieved with radiation pressure driving in such a system. These results may have applications in areas such as ultrasensitive optomechanical mass spectroscopy

Colloidal Processing and sintering of nanosized transition aluminas

The dispersion of nanosized gamma aluminas with high specific surfaces areas (100 m2 /g) and primary particle sizes around 20 nm, using polyacrylic acid, has been investigated. The effect of pH and polymer concentration showed that the highest density green bodies were produced using high polymer concentrations (6 wt.%) and pH of 6. Interparticle potential calculations have been made and help explain the underlying dispersion mechanism at least on a qualitative level. The dispersions were then used to slip cast green bodies followed by drying and sintering. The types of gamma alumina powder have been investigated, the pure gamma alumina, doped with MgO and also with the addition of alpha alumina seeds. The high degree of agglomeration of the gamma alumina powders led to very low densities (60%) even the alpha seeded alumina reached only 85% theoretical density. Attrition milling with zirconia media improves both green density and sintered densities significantly with all powders showing sintered densities >97%. Microstructural analysis on polished and etched surfaces show, however, that the grain sizes are well above 1 Am over 50 times greater than the initial gamma alumina primary particles. A two-step sintering cycle was investigated with the Mg doped powder and average grain sizes around 580 nm were achieved

Quantum limited particle sensing in optical tweezers

Particle sensing in optical tweezers systems provides information on the position, velocity and force of the specimen particles. The conventional quadrant detection scheme is applied ubiquitously in optical tweezers experiments to quantify these parameters. In this paper we show that quadrant detection is non-optimal for particle sensing in optical tweezers and propose an alternative optimal particle sensing scheme based on spatial homodyne detection. A formalism for particle sensing in terms of transverse spatial modes is developed and numerical simulations of the efficacy of both quadrant and spatial homodyne detection are shown. We demonstrate that an order of magnitude improvement in particle sensing sensitivity can be achieved using spatial homodyne over quadrant detection.Comment: Submitted to Biophys

Squeezing and entanglement delay using slow light

We examine the interaction of a weak probe with $N$ atoms in a lambda-level configuration under the conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). In contrast to previous works on EIT, we calculate the output state of the resultant slowly propagating light field while taking into account the effects of ground state dephasing and atomic noise for a more realistic model. In particular, we propose two experiments using slow light with a nonclassical probe field and show that two properties of the probe, entanglement and squeezing, characterizing the quantum state of the probe field, can be well-preserved throughout the passage.Comment: 2 figures; v2: fixed some minor typographical errors in a couple of equations and corrected author spelling in one reference. v3: Added three authors; changed the entaglement definition to conform to a more accepted standard (Duan's entanglement measure); altered the abstract slightly. v4: fixed formatting of figure

The Dust Content of Galaxy Clusters

We report on the detection of reddening toward z ~ 0.2 galaxy clusters. This is measured by correlating the Sloan Digital Sky Survey cluster and quasar catalogs and by comparing the photometric and spectroscopic properties of quasars behind the clusters to those in the field. We find mean E(B-V) values of a few times 10^-3 mag for sight lines passing ~Mpc from the clusters' center. The reddening curve is typical of dust but cannot be used to distinguish between different dust types. The radial dependence of the extinction is shallow near the cluster center suggesting that most of the detected dust lies at the outskirts of the clusters. Gravitational magnification of background z ~ 1.7 sources seen on Mpc (projected) scales around the clusters is found to be of order a few per cent, in qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions. Contamination by different spectral properties of the lensed quasar population is unlikely but cannot be excluded.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Dephasing representation of quantum fidelity for general pure and mixed states

General semiclassical expression for quantum fidelity (Loschmidt echo) of arbitrary pure and mixed states is derived. It expresses fidelity as an interference sum of dephasing trajectories weighed by the Wigner function of the initial state, and does not require that the initial state be localized in position or momentum. This general dephasing representation is special in that, counterintuitively, all of fidelity decay is due to dephasing and none due to the decay of classical overlaps. Surprising accuracy of the approximation is justified by invoking the shadowing theorem: twice--both for physical perturbations and for numerical errors. It is shown how the general expression reduces to the special forms for position and momentum states and for wave packets localized in position or momentum. The superiority of the general over the specialized forms is explained and supported by numerical tests for wave packets, non-local pure states, and for simple and random mixed states. The tests are done in non-universal regimes in mixed phase space where detailed features of fidelity are important. Although semiclassically motivated, present approach is valid for abstract systems with a finite Hilbert basis provided that the discrete Wigner transform is used. This makes the method applicable, via a phase space approach, e. g., to problems of quantum computation.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure