636 research outputs found
Location of the Energy Levels of the Rare-Earth Ion in BaF2 and CdF2
The location of the energy levels of rare-earth (RE) elements in the energy
band diagram of BaF2 and CdF2 crystals is determined. The role of RE3+ and RE2+
ions in the capture of charge carriers, luminescence, and the formation of
radiation defects is evaluated. It is shown that the substantial difference in
the luminescence properties of BaF2:RE and CdF2:RE is associated with the
location of the excited energy levels in the band diagram of the crystals
Quantum Nature of Light Measured With a Single Detector
We realized the most fundamental quantum optical experiment to prove the
non-classical character of light: Only a single quantum emitter and a single
superconducting nanowire detector were used. A particular appeal of our
experiment is its elegance and simplicity. Yet its results unambiguously
enforce a quantum theory for light. Previous experiments relied on more complex
setups, such as the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss configuration, where a beam splitter
directs light to two photodetectors, giving the false impression that the beam
splitter is required. Our work results in a major simplification of the widely
used photon-correlation techniques with applications ranging from quantum
information processing to single-molecule detection.Comment: 7 page
Energy levels and lifetimes of Nd IV, Pm IV, Sm IV, and Eu IV
To address the shortage of experimental data for electron spectra of
triply-ionized rare earth elements we have calculated energy levels and
lifetimes of 4f{n+1} and 4f{n}5d configurations of Nd IV (n=2), Pm IV (n=3), Sm
IV (n=4), and Eu IV (n=5) using Hartree-Fock and configuration interaction
methods. To control the accuracy of our calculations we also performed similar
calculations for Pr III, Nd III and Sm III, for which experimental data are
available. The results are important, in particular, for physics of magnetic
garnets.Comment: 4 pages 1 tabl
Improved Fast Neutron Spectroscopy via Detector Segmentation
Organic scintillators are widely used for fast neutron detection and
spectroscopy. Several effects complicate the interpretation of results from
detectors based upon these materials. First, fast neutrons will often leave a
detector before depositing all of their energy within it. Second, fast neutrons
will typically scatter several times within a detector, and there is a
non-proportional relationship between the energy of, and the scintillation
light produced by, each individual scatter; therefore, there is not a
deterministic relationship between the scintillation light observed and the
neutron energy deposited. Here we demonstrate a hardware technique for reducing
both of these effects. Use of a segmented detector allows for the
event-by-event correction of the light yield non-proportionality and for the
preferential selection of events with near-complete energy deposition, since
these will typically have high segment multiplicities.Comment: Accepted for publication in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in
Physics Research Section
Generation of degenerate, factorizable, pulsed squeezed light at telecom wavelengths
We characterize a periodically poled KTP crystal that produces an entangled,
two-mode, squeezed state with orthogonal polarizations, nearly identical,
factorizable frequency modes, and few photons in unwanted frequency modes. We
focus the pump beam to create a nearly circular joint spectral probability
distribution between the two modes. After disentangling the two modes, we
observe Hong-Ou-Mandel interference with a raw (background corrected)
visibility of 86 % (95 %) when an 8.6 nm bandwidth spectral filter is applied.
We measure second order photon correlations of the entangled and disentangled
squeezed states with both superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors and
photon-number-resolving transition-edge sensors. Both methods agree and verify
that the detected modes contain the desired photon number distributions
The thermally induced metal–semiconducting phase transition of samarium monosulfide (SmS) thin films
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