124 research outputs found
A compact design for the Josephson mixer: the lumped element circuit
We present a compact and efficient design in terms of gain, bandwidth and
dynamical range for the Josephson mixer, the superconducting circuit performing
three-wave mixing at microwave frequencies. In an all lumped-element based
circuit with galvanically coupled ports, we demonstrate non degenerate
amplification for microwave signals over a bandwidth up to 50 MHz for a power
gain of 20 dB. The quantum efficiency of the mixer is shown to be about 70
and its saturation power reaches dBm.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Generating Entangled Microwave Radiation Over Two Transmission Lines
Using a superconducting circuit, the Josephson mixer, we demonstrate the
first experimental realization of spatially separated two-mode squeezed states
of microwave light. Driven by a pump tone, a first Josephson mixer generates,
out of quantum vacuum, a pair of entangled fields at different frequencies on
separate transmission lines. A second mixer, driven by a -phase shifted
copy of the first pump tone, recombines and disentangles the two fields. The
resulting output noise level is measured to be lower than for vacuum state at
the input of the second mixer, an unambiguous proof of entanglement. Moreover,
the output noise level provides a direct, quantitative measure of entanglement,
leading here to the demonstration of 6 Mebit.s (Mega entangled bits per
second) generated by the first mixer.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary Information can be found here as an
ancillary fil
Widely tunable, non-degenerate three-wave mixing microwave device operating near the quantum limit
We present the first experimental realization of a widely frequency tunable,
non-degenerate three-wave mixing device for quantum signals at GHz frequency.
It is based on a new superconducting building-block consisting of a ring of
four Josephson junctions shunted by a cross of four linear inductances. The
phase configuration of the ring remains unique over a wide range of magnetic
fluxes threading the loop. It is thus possible to vary the inductance of the
ring with flux while retaining a strong, dissipation-free, and noiseless
non-linearity. The device has been operated in amplifier mode and its noise
performance has been evaluated by using the noise spectrum emitted by a voltage
biased tunnel junction at finite frequency as a test signal. The unprecedented
accuracy with which the crossover between zero-point-fluctuations and shot
noise has been measured provides an upper-bound for the noise and dissipation
intrinsic to the device.Comment: Accepted for Physical Review Letters. Supplementary material can be
found in the source packag
Rotator cuff tears after 70years of age: A prospective, randomized, comparative study between decompression and arthroscopic repair in 154 patients
SummaryIntroductionArthroscopic repair of rotator cuff tears leads to better clinical outcomes than subacromial decompression alone; however the former is rarely proposed to patients above 70years of age. Our hypothesis was that arthroscopic repair would be superior to decompression in patient 70years or older. The primary goal was to compare the clinical results obtained with each technique. The secondary goal was to analyze the effects of age, tendon retraction and fatty infiltration on the outcome.MethodsThis was a prospective, comparative, randomized, multicenter study where 154 patients were included who were at least 70years of age. Of the included patients, 143 (70 repair and 73 decompression) were seen at one-year follow-up; these patients had an average age of 74.6years. Shoulders had a complete supraspinatus tear with extension limited to the upper-third of the infraspinatus and Patte stage 1 or 2 retraction. Clinical outcomes were evaluated with the Constant, ASES and SST scores.ResultsAll scores improved significantly with both techniques: Constant +33.81 (P<0.001), ASES +52.1 (P<0.001), SST +5.86 (P<0.001). However, repair led to even better results than decompression: Constant (+35.85 vs. +31.8, P<0.05), ASES (+56.09 vs. +48.17, P=0.01), SST (+6.33 vs. +5.38, P=0.02). The difference between repair and decompression was not correlated with age; arthroscopic repair was also better in patients above 75years of age (Constant, ASES and SST scores P<0.01). There was no significant correlation between the final outcomes and initial retraction: Constant (P=0.14), ASES (P=0.92), SST (P=0.47). The difference between repair and decompression was greater in patients with stages 0 and 1 fatty infiltration (Constant P<0.02) than in patients with stages 2 and 3 fatty infiltration (Constant P<0.05).ConclusionThere was a significant improvement in all-clinical scores for both techniques 1year after surgery. Repair was significantly better than decompression for all clinical outcomes, even in patients above 75years of age. The difference observed between repair and decompression was greater in patients with more retracted tears and lesser in patients with more severe fatty infiltration.Level of proofII (prospective, randomized study with low power)
High-Precision Mass-Dependent Molybdenum Isotope Variations in Magmatic Rocks Determined by Double-Spike MC-ICP-MS
Small massâdependent variations of molybdenum isotope ratios in oceanic and island arc rocks are expected as a result of recycling altered oceanic crust and sediments into the mantle at convergent plate margins over geological timescales. However, the determination of molybdenum isotope data precise and accurate enough to identify these subtle isotopic differences remains challenging. Large sample sizes â in excess of 200 mg â need to be chemically processed to isolate enough molybdenum in order to allow sufficiently highâprecision isotope analyses using doubleâspike MCâICPâMS techniques. Established methods are either unable to process such large amounts of silicate material or require several distinct chemical processing steps, making the analyses very timeâconsuming. Here, we present a new and efficient singleâpass chromatographic exchange technique for the chemical isolation of molybdenum from silicate and metal matrices. To test our new method, we analysed USGS reference materials BHVOâ2 and BIRâ1. Our new data are consistent with those derived from more involved and timeâconsuming methods for these two reference materials previously published. We also provide the first molybdenum isotope data for USGS reference materials AGVâ2, the GSJ reference material JBâ2 as well as metal NIST SRM 361.ISSN:1639-4488ISSN:1751-908
Spatially-resolved decoherence of donor spins in silicon strained by a metallic electrode
Electron spins are amongst the most coherent solid-state systems known,
however, to be used in devices for quantum sensing and information processing
applications, they must be typically placed near interfaces. Understanding and
mitigating the impacts of such interfaces on the coherence and spectral
properties of electron spins is critical to realize such applications, but is
also challenging: inferring such data from single-spin studies requires many
measurements to obtain meaningful results, while ensemble measurements
typically give averaged results that hide critical information. Here, we report
a comprehensive study of the coherence of near-surface bismuth donor spins in
28-silicon at millikelvin temperatures. In particular, we use strain-induced
frequency shifts caused by a metallic electrode to make spatial maps of spin
coherence as a function of depth and position relative to the electrode. By
measuring magnetic-field-insensitive clock transitions we separate magnetic
noise caused by surface spins from charge noise. Our results include
quantitative models of the strain-split spin resonance spectra and extraction
of paramagnetic impurity concentrations at the silicon surface. The interplay
of these decoherence mechanisms for such near-surface electron spins is
critical for their application in quantum technologies, while the combination
of the strain splitting and clock transition extends the coherence lifetimes by
up to two orders of magnitude, reaching up to 300 ms at a mean depth of only
100nm. The technique we introduce here to spatially map coherence in
near-surface ensembles is directly applicable to other spin systems of active
interest, such as defects in diamond, silicon carbide, and rare earth ions in
optical crystals.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figure
Arthroscopic repair of the rotator cuff: Prospective study of tendon healing after 70Â years of age in 145 patients
SummaryIntroductionThe level of activity of patients older than 70Â years is tending to increase, as are their expectations in terms of joint function recuperation. It has not been proven that rotator cuff repair healing is satisfactory in the elderly. The main hypothesis of this study was: repair of supraspinous lesions in patients older than 70Â years is reliable in terms of both clinical results and healing. The secondary hypothesis was: tendon healing is significantly correlated with the Constant, ASES, and SST scores as well as with age, tendon retraction, and fatty infiltration.Material and methodsMulticenter prospective study on 145 patients older than 70Â years, with 135 patients reviewed at 1Â year (93%). The mean age was 73.9Â years. Full-thickness tears of the supraspinatus extended at most to the upper third of the infraspinatus and retraction limited to Patte stages 1 and 2 were included. Clinical assessment was carried out in accordance with the Constant, ASES, and SST scores. Healing was evaluated with ultrasound.ResultsA significant improvement was noted in the Constant (44/76)+31.5 (P<0.0001), ASES (35/90)+54.4 (P<0.0001), and SST (3.5/10)+6.6 (P>0.0001) scores at 1Â year of follow-up. The healing rate was 89% with 15 re-tears, nine of which were stage 1 and six stage 2. The clinical result was not correlated with patient age (Constant, P=0.24; ASES, P=0.38; SST, P=0.83) nor with the retraction stage (Constant, P=0.71; ASES, P=0.35; SST, P=0.69) or the stage of fatty infiltration (P>0.7). Healing was correlated with the quality of the clinical result (Constant, P=0.02; ASES, P=0.03) and age (P=0.01) but was not correlated with retraction or the fatty infiltration stage (P>0.3).Discussion/conclusionArthroscopic repair significantly improves the clinical results, even in patients older than 70Â years. The clinical results are not correlated with age (but deterioration of the result was not noted after 75Â years) or frontal retraction (but the study only included retractions limited to stages 1 and 2). The healing rate is satisfactory, but this study is limited to small ruptures of the supraspinatus, and the postoperative ultrasound analysis probably inferior to CT imaging with contrast agent injection, often used as the reference. Healing proves to be correlated with the quality of the clinical result and patient age
Enzymatic synthesis and formation kinetics of mono- and di-hydroxylated chlorinated paraffins with the bacterial dehalogenase LinB from Sphingobium indicum
Transformation studies of chlorinated paraffins (CPs) and the effects of CP transformation products on humans, biota and environment are rare. The focus here is on hydroxylation reactions. As for polyhalogenated persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in general, hydroxylation reactions convert lipophilic material to more polar compounds with increased mobility. We investigated the in-vitro transformation of single-chain CP-mixtures to hydroxylated products with the dehalogenase LinB from Sphingobium indicum. C11-, C12- and C13-single-chain CP-homologues were exposed to LinB and mono-hydroxylated (CP-ols) and di-hydroxylated (CP-diols) transformation products were formed. Liquid-chromatography coupled to mass-spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to detect hydroxylated products and to separate them from the starting material. The presented data can be used to identify these CP-ol and CP-diol homologues in other samples. Hydroxylated products had lower chlorination degrees (nCl) than respective CP-starting-materials. Reactive and persistent CP-material was found in each homologue group. Reactive material is converted within hours by LinB, while more persistent CPs are transformed within days. Homologue-specific kinetic models were established to simulate the stepwise hydroxylation of persistent CPs to mono- and di-hydroxylated products. First-order rate constants for the formation of CP-ols (k1) and CP-diols (k2) were deduced for different homologues. Lower-chlorinated CP-ols did not accumulate to large extent and were transformed quickly to CP-diols, while higher-chlorinated CP-ols and -diols both accumulated. By enzymatic transformation of single-chain CPs with LinB, we synthesized unique sets of mono- and di-hydroxylated materials, which can be used as analytical standards and as starting materials for metabolic, toxicity and environmental fate studies
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