577 research outputs found
Ex Situ and In Situ Ellipsometric Studies of the Thermal Oxide on InP
The thermally grown InP oxide as etched by an aqueous dilute HF solution has been studied by ellipsometric techniques. The ex-situ measurement reveals a two-layer structure for the oxide grown at 440°C. The refractive indices for both oxide layers have been determined using a two-layer optical model. The etching process has also been monitored ellipsometrically in the real etching environment, in-situ. A fused silica cell, which enables the windows to be aligned properly, has been specifically designed for the in-situ solution measurement. A liquid layer at the solutionoxide interface has been identified, and the layer is shown to contain P and In species resulting from the etching reactions. A theory based on the Lorentz-Lorenz relation results in a reasonable qualitative description of the liquid layer. During the etching of the oxide the liquid layer shrinks at a linear rate, and after removal of the outer oxide layer the liquid layer forms a dense electric double layer
An adaptive inelastic magnetic mirror for Bose-Einstein condensates
We report the reflection and focussing of a Bose-Einstein condensate by a new
pulsed magnetic mirror. The mirror is adaptive, inelastic, and of extremely
high optical quality. The deviations from specularity are less than 0.5 mrad
rms, making this the best atomic mirror demonstrated to date. We have also used
the mirror to realize the analog of a beam-expander, producing an ultra-cold
collimated fountain of matter wavesComment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Testing quantum correlations in a confined atomic cloud by scattering fast atoms
We suggest measuring one-particle density matrix of a trapped ultracold
atomic cloud by scattering fast atoms in a pure momentum state off the cloud.
The lowest-order probability of the inelastic process, resulting in a pair of
outcoming fast atoms for each incoming one, turns out to be given by a Fourier
transform of the density matrix. Accordingly, important information about
quantum correlations can be deduced directly from the differential scattering
cross-section. A possible design of the atomic detector is also discussed.Comment: 5 RevTex pages, no figures, submitted to PR
Interference of a Tonks-Girardeau Gas on a Ring
We study the quantum dynamics of a one-dimensional gas of impenetrable bosons
on a ring, and investigate the interference that results when an initially
trapped gas localized on one side of the ring is released, split via an
optical-dipole grating, and recombined on the other side of the ring. Large
visibility interference fringes arise when the wavevector of the optical dipole
grating is larger than the effective Fermi wavevector of the initial gas.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Surface Effects in Magnetic Microtraps
We have investigated Bose-Einstein condensates and ultra cold atoms in the
vicinity of a surface of a magnetic microtrap. The atoms are prepared along
copper conductors at distances to the surface between 300 um and 20 um. In this
range, the lifetime decreases from 20 s to 0.7 s showing a linear dependence on
the distance to the surface. The atoms manifest a weak thermal coupling to the
surface, with measured heating rates remaining below 500 nK/s. In addition, we
observe a periodic fragmentation of the condensate and thermal clouds when the
surface is approached.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; v2: corrected references; v3: final versio
On the stability of standing matter waves in a trap
We discuss excited Bose-condensed states and find the criterion of dynamical
stability of a kink-wise state, i.e., a standing matter wave with one nodal
plane perpendicular to the axis of a cylindrical trap. The dynamical stability
requires a strong radial confinement corresponding to the radial frequency
larger than the mean-field interparticle interaction. We address the question
of thermodynamic instability related to the presence of excitations with
negative energy.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Barrier effects on the collective excitations of split Bose-Einstein condensates
We investigate the collective excitations of a single-species Bose gas at T=0
in a harmonic trap where the confinement undergoes some splitting along one
spatial direction. We mostly consider onedimensional potentials consisting of
two harmonic wells separated a distance 2 z_0, since they essentially contain
all the barrier effects that one may visualize in the 3D situation. We find,
within a hydrodynamic approximation, that regardless the dimensionality of the
system, pairs of levels in the excitation spectrum, corresponding to
neighbouring even and odd excitations, merge together as one increases the
barrier height up to the current value of the chemical potential. The
excitation spectra computed in the hydrodynamical or Thomas-Fermi limit are
compared with the results of exactly solving the time-dependent
Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We analyze as well the characteristics of the
spatial pattern of excitations of threedimensional boson systems according to
the amount of splitting of the condensate.Comment: RevTeX, 12 pages, 13 ps figure
Mean-field analysis of collapsing and exploding Bose-Einstein condensates
The dynamics of collapsing and exploding trapped Bose-Einstein condensat es
caused by a sudden switch of interactions from repulsive to attractive a re
studied by numerically integrating the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with atomic
loss for an axially symmetric trap. We investigate the decay rate of
condensates and the phenomena of bursts and jets of atoms, and compare our
results with those of the experiments performed by E. A. Donley {\it et al.}
[Nature {\bf 412}, 295 (2001)]. Our study suggests that the condensate decay
and the burst production is due to local intermittent implosions in the
condensate, and that atomic clouds of bursts and jets are coherent. We also
predict nonlinear pattern formation caused by the density instability of
attractive condensates.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, axi-symmetric results are adde
The role of Schizosaccharomyces pombe SUMO ligases in genome stability
SUMOylation is a post-translational modification that affects a large number of proteins, many of which are nuclear. While the role of SUMOylation is beginning to be elucidated, it is clear that understanding the mechanisms that regulate the process is likely to be important. Control of the levels of SUMOylation is brought about through a balance of conjugating and deconjugating activities, i.e. of SUMO (small ubiquitin-related modifier) conjugators and ligases versus SUMO proteases. Although conjugation of SUMO to proteins can occur in the absence of a SUMO ligase, it is apparent that SUMO ligases facilitate the SUMOylation of specific subsets of proteins. Two SUMO ligases in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Pli1 and Nse2, have been identified, both of which have roles in genome stability. We report here on a comparison between the properties of the two proteins and discuss potential roles for the proteins
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