Status of the isophot detector development

ISOPHOT is one of the four focal plane experiments of the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). Scheduled for a 1993 launch, it will operate extrinsic silicon and germanium photoconductors at low temperature and low background during the longer than 18 month mission. These detectors cover the wavelength range from 2.5 to 200 microns and are used as single elements and in arrays. A cryogenic preamplifier was developed to read out a total number of 223 detector pixels

Exact phase shifts for atom interferometry

In the case of an external Hamiltonian at most quadratic in position and momentum operators, we use the ABCD formulation of atom optics to establish an exact analytical phase shift expression for atom interferometers with arbitrary spatial or temporal beam splitter configurations. This result is expressed in terms of coordinates and momenta of the wave packet centers at the interaction vertices only.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Multiwavelength interferometric observations and modeling of circumstellar disks

We investigate the structure of the innermost region of three circumstellar disks around pre-main sequence stars HD 142666, AS 205 N, and AS 205 S. We determine the inner radii of the dust disks and, in particular, search for transition objects where dust has been depleted and inner disk gaps have formed at radii of a few tenths of AU up to several AU. We performed interferometric observations with IOTA, AMBER, and MIDI in the infrared wavelength ranges 1.6-2.5um and 8-13um with projected baseline lengths between 25m and 102m. The data analysis was based on radiative transfer simulations in 3D models of young stellar objects (YSOs) to reproduce the spectral energy distribution and the interferometric visibilities simultaneously. Accretion effects and disk gaps could be considered in the modeling approach. Results from previous studies restricted the parameter space. The objects of this study were spatially resolved in the infrared wavelength range using the interferometers. Based on these observations, a disk gap could be found for the source HD 142666 that classifies it as transition object. There is a disk hole up to a radius of R_in=0.30AU and a (dust-free) ring between 0.35AU and 0.80AU in the disk of HD 142666. The classification of AS 205 as a system of classical T Tauri stars could be confirmed using the canonical model approach, i. e., there are no hints of disk gaps in our observations.Comment: accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic

Anomalous Lattice Response at the Mott Transition in a Quasi-2D Organic Conductor

Discontinuous changes of the lattice parameters at the Mott metal-insulator transition are detected by high-resolution dilatometry on deuterated crystals of the layered organic conductor $\kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_{2}$Cu[N(CN)$_{2}$]Br. The uniaxial expansivities uncover a striking and unexpected anisotropy, notably a zero-effect along the in-plane c-axis along which the electronic interactions are relatively strong. A huge thermal expansion anomaly is observed near the end-point of the first-order transition line enabling to explore the critical behavior with very high sensitivity. The analysis yields critical fluctuations with an exponent $\tilde{\alpha} \simeq$ 0.8 $\pm$ 0.15 at odds with the novel criticality recently proposed for these materials [Kagawa \textit{et al.}, Nature \textbf{436}, 534 (2005)]. Our data suggest an intricate role of the lattice degrees of freedom in the Mott transition for the present materials.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Towards a Noninvasive Intracranial Tumor Irradiation Using 3D Optical Imaging and Multimodal Data Registration

Conformal radiotherapy (CRT) results in high-precision tumor volume irradiation. In fractioned radiotherapy (FRT), lesions are irradiated in several sessions so that healthy neighbouring tissues are better preserved than when treatment is carried out in one fraction. In the case of intracranial tumors, classical methods of patient positioning in the irradiation machine coordinate system are invasive and only allow for CRT in one irradiation session. This contribution presents a noninvasive positioning method representing a first step towards the combination of CRT and FRT. The 3D data used for the positioning is point clouds spread over the patient's head (CT-data usually acquired during treatment) and points distributed over the patient's face which are acquired with a structured light sensor fixed in the therapy room. The geometrical transformation linking the coordinate systems of the diagnosis device (CT-modality) and the 3D sensor of the therapy room (visible light modality) is obtained by registering the surfaces represented by the two 3D point sets. The geometrical relationship between the coordinate systems of the 3D sensor and the irradiation machine is given by a calibration of the sensor position in the therapy room. The global transformation, computed with the two previous transformations, is sufficient to predict the tumor position in the irradiation machine coordinate system with only the corresponding position in the CT-coordinate system. Results obtained for a phantom show that the mean positioning error of tumors on the treatment machine isocentre is 0.4 mm. Tests performed with human data proved that the registration algorithm is accurate (0.1 mm mean distance between homologous points) and robust even for facial expression changes

Ramsey interferometry with oppositely detuned fields

We report a narrowing of the interference pattern obtained in an atomic Ramsey interferometer if the two separated fields have different frequency and their phase difference is controlled. The width of the Ramsey fringes depends inversely on the free flight time of ground state atoms before entering the first field region in addition to the time between the fields. The effect is stable also for atomic wavepackets with initial position and momentum distributions and for realistic mode functions.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Tunneling Study of the Charge-Ordering Gap on the Surface of La0.350_{0.350}Pr0.275_{0.275}Ca0.375_{0.375}MnO3_3 Thin Films

Variable temperature scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy studies on (110) oriented epitaxial thin films of La$_{0.350}$Pr$_{0.275}$Ca$_{0.375}$MnO$_3$ are reported in the temperature range of 77 to 340 K. The films, grown on lattice matched NdGaO$_3$ substrates, show a hysteretic metal-insulator transition in resistivity at 170 K. The topographic STM images show step-terrace morphology while the conductance images display a nearly homogeneous surface. The normalized conductance spectra at low temperatures (T$<$150 K) show an energy gap of 0.5 eV while for T$\geq$180 K a gap of 0.16 eV is found from the activated behavior of the zero bias conductance. The presence of energy gap and the absence of phase separation on the surface over more than 2 $\mu$m$\times$2 $\mu$m area contradicts the metallic behavior seen in resistivity measurements at low temperatures. We discuss the measured energy gap in terms of the stabilization of the insulating CO phase at the film surface.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures To appear in Phys. Rev.

Collisional modelling of the AU Microscopii debris disc

The spatially resolved AU Mic debris disc is among the most famous and best-studied debris discs. We aim at a comprehensive understanding of the dust production and the dynamics of the disc objects with in depth collisional modelling including stellar radiative and corpuscular forces. Our models are compared to a suite of observational data for thermal and scattered light emission, ranging from the ALMA radial surface brightness profile at 1.3mm to polarisation measurements in the visible. Most of the data can be reproduced with a planetesimal belt having an outer edge at around 40au and subsequent inward transport of dust by stellar winds. A low dynamical excitation of the planetesimals with eccentricities up to 0.03 is preferred. The radial width of the planetesimal belt cannot be constrained tightly. Belts that are 5au and 17au wide, as well as a broad 44au-wide belt are consistent with observations. All models show surface density profiles increasing with distance from the star as inferred from observations. The best model is achieved by assuming a stellar mass loss rate that exceeds the solar one by a factor of 50. While the SED and the shape of the ALMA profile are well reproduced, the models deviate from the scattered light data more strongly. The observations show a bluer disc colour and a lower degree of polarisation for projected distances <40au than predicted by the models. The problem may be mitigated by irregularly-shaped dust grains which have scattering properties different from the Mie spheres used. From tests with a handful of selected dust materials, we derive a preference for mixtures of silicate, carbon, and ice of moderate porosity. We address the origin of the unresolved central excess emission detected by ALMA and show that it cannot stem from an additional inner belt alone. Instead, it should derive, at least partly, from the chromosphere of the central star.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics (accepted for publication), 18 pages, 11 figure

Coexistence and competition of magnetism and superconductivity on the nanometer scale in underdoped BaFe1.89Co0.11As2

We report muon spin rotation (muSR) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy experiments on underdoped BaFe1.89Co0.11As2 which show that bulk magnetism and superconductivity (SC) coexist and compete on the nanometer length scale. Our combined data reveal a bulk magnetic order, likely due to an incommensurate spin density wave (SDW), which develops below Tmag \approx 32 K and becomes reduced in magnitude (but not in volume) below Tc = 21.7 K. A slowly fluctuating precursor of the SDW seems to develop alrady below the structural transition at Ts \approx 50 K. The bulk nature of SC is established by the muSR data which show a bulk SC vortex lattice and the IR data which reveal that the majority of low-energy states is gapped and participates in the condensate at T << Tc