3,287 research outputs found
Negative refraction with tunable absorption in an active dense gas of atoms
Applications of negative index materials (NIM) presently are severely limited
by absorption. Next to improvements of metamaterial designs, it has been
suggested that dense gases of atoms could form a NIM with negligible losses. In
such gases, the low absorption is facilitated by quantum interference. Here, we
show that additional gain mechanisms can be used to tune and effectively remove
absorption in a dense gas NIM. In our setup, the atoms are coherently prepared
by control laser fields, and further driven by a weak incoherent pump field to
induce gain. We employ nonlinear optical Bloch equations to analyze the optical
response. Metastable Neon is identified as a suitable experimental candidate at
infrared frequencies to implement a lossless active negative index material.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure
Elastic properties of graphene flakes: boundary effects and lattice vibrations
We present a calculation of the free energy, the surface free energy and the
elastic constants ("Lam'e parameters" i.e, Poisson ratio, Young's modulus) of
graphene flakes on the level of the density functional theory employing
different standard functionals. We observe that the Lam'e parameters in small
flakes can differ from the bulk values by 30% for hydrogenated zig-zag edges.
The change results from the edge of the flake that compresses the interior.
When including the vibrational zero point motion, we detect a decrease in the
bending rigidity by ~26%. This correction is depending on the flake size, N,
because the vibrational frequencies flow with growing N due to the release of
the edge induced compression. We calculate Grueneisen parameters and find good
agreement with previous authors.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure
Colloids in light fields: particle dynamics in random and periodic energy landscapes
The dynamics of colloidal particles in potential energy landscapes have
mainly been investigated theoretically. In contrast, here we discuss the
experimental realization of potential energy landscapes with the help of light
fields and the observation of the particle dynamics by video microscopy. The
experimentally observed dynamics in periodic and random potentials are compared
to simulation and theoretical results in terms of, e.g. the mean-squared
displacement, the time-dependent diffusion coefficient or the non-Gaussian
parameter. The dynamics are initially diffusive followed by intermediate
subdiffusive behaviour which again becomes diffusive at long times. How
pronounced and extended the different regimes are, depends on the specific
conditions, in particular the shape of the potential as well as its roughness
or amplitude but also the particle concentration. Here we focus on dilute
systems, but the dynamics of interacting systems in external potentials, and
thus the interplay between particle-particle and particle-potential
interactions, is also mentioned briefly. Furthermore, the observed dynamics of
dilute systems resemble the dynamics of concentrated systems close to their
glass transition, with which it is compared. The effect of certain potential
energy landscapes on the dynamics of individual particles appears similar to
the effect of interparticle interactions in the absence of an external
potential
Novel insights into transfer processes in the reaction 16O+208Pb at sub-barrier energies
The collision of the doubly-magic nuclei O+Pb is a benchmark
in nuclear reaction studies. Our new measurements of back-scattered
projectile-like fragments at sub-barrier energies show show that transfer of 2
protons () is much more probable than -particle transfer.
transfer probabilities are strongly enhanced compared to expectations for the
sequential transfer of two uncorrelated protons; at energies around the fusion
barrier absolute probabilities for two proton transfer are similar to those for
one proton transfer. This strong enhancement indicates strong pairing
correlations in O, and suggests evidence for the occurrence of a nuclear
supercurrent of two-proton Cooper pairs in this reaction, already at energies
well below the fusion barrier.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Tunable sub-luminal propagation of narrowband x-ray pulses
Group velocity control is demonstrated for x-ray photons of 14.4 keV energy
via a direct measurement of the temporal delay imposed on spectrally narrow
x-ray pulses. Sub-luminal light propagation is achieved by inducing a steep
positive linear dispersion in the optical response of Fe M\"ossbauer
nuclei embedded in a thin film planar x-ray cavity. The direct detection of the
temporal pulse delay is enabled by generating frequency-tunable spectrally
narrow x-ray pulses from broadband pulsed synchrotron radiation. Our
theoretical model is in good agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Effects of Nuclear Structure on Quasi-fission
The quasi-fission mechanism hinders fusion of heavy systems because of a mass
flow between the reactants, leading to a re-separation of more symmetric
fragments in the exit channel. A good understanding of the competition between
fusion and quasi-fission mechanisms is expected to be of great help to optimize
the formation and study of heavy and superheavy nuclei. Quantum microscopic
models, such as the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approach, allow for a treatment
of all degrees of freedom associated to the dynamics of each nucleon. This
provides a description of the complex reaction mechanisms, such as
quasi-fission, with no parameter adjusted on reaction mechanisms. In
particular, the role of the deformation and orientation of a heavy target, as
well as the entrance channel magicity and isospin are investigated with
theoretical and experimental approaches.Comment: Invited talk to NSRT12. To be published in Eur. Phys. J. Web of Con
Relativistic and Radiative Corrections to the Mollow Spectrum
The incoherent, inelastic part of the resonance fluorescence spectrum of a
laser-driven atom is known as the Mollow spectrum [B. R. Mollow, Phys. Rev.
188, 1969 (1969)]. Starting from this level of description, we discuss
theoretical foundations of high-precision spectroscopy using the resonance
fluorescence light of strongly laser-driven atoms. Specifically, we evaluate
the leading relativistic and radiative corrections to the Mollow spectrum, up
to the relative orders of (Z alpha)^2 and alpha(Z alpha)^2, respectively, and
Bloch-Siegert shifts as well as stimulated radiative corrections involving
off-resonant virtual states. Complete results are provided for the hydrogen
1S-2P_{1/2} and 1S-2P_{3/2} transitions; these include all relevant correction
terms up to the specified order of approximation and could directly be compared
to experimental data. As an application, the outcome of such experiments would
allow for a sensitive test of the validity of the dressed-state basis as the
natural description of the combined atom-laser system.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure; RevTe
Lamb Shift of Laser-Dressed Atomic States
We discuss radiative corrections to an atomic two-level system subject to an
intense driving laser field. It is shown that the Lamb shift of the
laser-dressed states, which are the natural state basis of the combined
atom-laser system, cannot be explained in terms of the Lamb shift received by
the atomic bare states which is usually observed in spectroscopic experiments.
In the final part, we propose an experimental scheme to measure these
corrections based on the incoherent resonance fluorescence spectrum of the
driven atom.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, submitted for publicatio
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