1,616 research outputs found
Quantum Heating of a nonlinear resonator probed by a superconducting qubit
We measure the quantum fluctuations of a pumped nonlinear resonator, using a
superconducting artificial atom as an in-situ probe. The qubit excitation
spectrum gives access to the frequency and temperature of the intracavity field
fluctuations. These are found to be in agreement with theoretical predictions;
in particular we experimentally observe the phenomenon of quantum heating
Circuit QED with a Nonlinear Resonator : ac-Stark Shift and Dephasing
We have performed spectroscopic measurements of a superconducting qubit
dispersively coupled to a nonlinear resonator driven by a pump microwave field.
Measurements of the qubit frequency shift provide a sensitive probe of the
intracavity field, yielding a precise characterization of the resonator
nonlinearity. The qubit linewidth has a complex dependence on the pump
frequency and amplitude, which is correlated with the gain of the nonlinear
resonator operated as a small-signal amplifier. The corresponding dephasing
rate is found to be close to the quantum limit in the low-gain limit of the
amplifier.Comment: Paper : 4 pages, 3 figures; Supplementary material : 1 page, 1 figur
Strongly quadrature-dependent noise in superconducting micro-resonators measured at the vacuum-noise limit
We measure frequency- and dissipation-quadrature noise in superconducting
lithographed microwave resonators with sensitivity near the vacuum noise level
using a Josephson parametric amplifier. At an excitation power of 100~nW, these
resonators show significant frequency noise caused by two-level systems. No
excess dissipation-quadrature noise (above the vacuum noise) is observed to our
measurement sensitivity. These measurements demonstrate that the excess
dissipation-quadrature noise is negligible compared to vacuum fluctuations, at
typical readout powers used in micro-resonator applications. Our results have
important implications for resonant readout of various devices such as
detectors, qubits and nano-mechanical oscillators.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure
Absorption properties of Mediterranean aerosols obtained from multi-year ground-based remote sensing observations.
International audienceAerosol absorption properties are of high importance to assess aerosol impact on regional climate. This study presents an analysis of aerosol absorption products obtained over the Mediterranean basin or land stations in the region from multi-year ground-based AERONET observations with a focus on the Absorbing Aerosol Optical Depth (AAOD), Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) and their spectral dependence. The AAOD and Absorption Angström Exponent (AAE) dataset is composed of daily averaged AERONET level 2 data from a total of 22 Mediterranean stations having long time series, mainly under the influence of urban-industrial aerosols and/or soil dust. This dataset covers the 17-yr period 1996-2012 with most data being from 2003-2011 (~89% of level-2 AAOD data). Since AERONET level-2 absorption products require a high aerosol load (AOD at 440 nm > 0.4), which is most often related to the presence of desert dust, we also consider level-1.5 SSA data, despite their higher uncertainty, and filter out data with an Angström exponent < 1.0 in order to study absorption by carbonaceous aerosols. The SSA dataset includes AERONET level-2 products. Sun-photometer observations show that values of AAOD at 440 nm vary between 0.024 ± 0.01 (resp. 0.040 ± 0.01) and 0.050 ± 0.01 (0.055 ± 0.01) for urban (dusty) sites. Analysis shows that the Mediterranean urban-industrial aerosols appear "moderately" absorbing with values of SSA close to ~0.94-0.95 ± 0.04 (at 440 nm) in most cases except over the large cities of Rome and Athens, where aerosol appears more absorbing (SSA ~0.89-0.90 ± 0.04). The aerosol Absorption Angström Exponent (AAE, estimated using 440 and 870 nm) is found to be larger than 1 for most sites over the Mediterranean, a manifestation of mineral dust (iron) and/or brown carbon producing the observed absorption. AERONET level-2 sun-photometer data indicate a possible East-West gradient, with higher values over the eastern basin (AAEEast = 1.39/AAEWest = 1.33). The North-South AAE gradient is more pronounced, especially over the western basin. Our additional analysis of AERONET level-1.5 data also shows that organic absorbing aerosols significantly affect some Mediterranean sites. These results indicate that current climate models treating organics as nonabsorbing over the Mediterranean certainly underestimate the warming effect due to carbonaceous aerosols
Patterned silicon substrates: a common platform for room temperature GaN and ZnO polariton lasers
A new platform for fabricating polariton lasers operating at room temperature
is introduced: nitride-based distributed Bragg reflectors epitaxially grown on
patterned silicon substrates. The patterning allows for an enhanced strain
relaxation thereby enabling to stack a large number of crack-free AlN/AlGaN
pairs and achieve cavity quality factors of several thousands with a large
spatial homogeneity. GaN and ZnO active regions are epitaxially grown thereon
and the cavities are completed with top dielectric Bragg reflectors. The two
structures display strong-coupling and polariton lasing at room temperature and
constitute an intermediate step in the way towards integrated polariton
devices
Calibration and validation of Corona Kh-4B to generate height models and orthoimages
At 48 years of age CORONA-KH-4B images are important for actual urban planning in Bangladesh, where no old maps or aerial images exist, indicating locations of former water courses that are no longer visible, but causing problems for the stability of building ground. CORONA KH-4B images are available for very low cost or even free of charge. A forward and a backward-looking panoramic camera with a nadir angle of approximately 15° enabled a stereoscopic coverage. Taken from a height of 154km, an image covers approximately 220km × 14km up to 17km with a height to base relation of 1:1.85. The ground sampling distance (GSD) varies with the incidence angle from 1.77m in the centre of the image up to 2.18m in Y-direction and 2.69m in the X-direction at the ends of the images. These nice conditions of the old images are affected by geometric problems of the panoramic images. A geometric bending can be improved by a correction based on the available sidelines, nevertheless deformations dominantly in the longitudinal direction only can be determined based on ground control points. A group of neighboured images have similar deformations, allowing the determination of a correction grid, describing the systematic image errors. This improved the geometry strongly, but could not eliminate all individual and local geometric problems. The high morphologic quality of the CORONA images, but limited absolute height accuracy has been improved by merging with the highly accurate TDM90 height model. For ortho images a fitting of neighboured images was required. © 2020 Copernicus GmbH. All rights reserved
Quantum Fluctuations in the Chirped Pendulum
An anharmonic oscillator when driven with a fast, frequency chirped voltage
pulse can oscillate with either small or large amplitude depending on whether
the drive voltage is below or above a critical value-a well studied classical
phenomenon known as autoresonance. Using a 6 GHz superconducting resonator
embedded with a Josephson tunnel junction, we have studied for the first time
the role of noise in this non-equilibrium system and find that the width of the
threshold for capture into autoresonance decreases as the square root of T, and
saturates below 150 mK due to zero point motion of the oscillator. This unique
scaling results from the non-equilibrium excitation where fluctuations, both
quantum and classical, only determine the initial oscillator motion and not its
subsequent dynamics. We have investigated this paradigm in an electrical
circuit but our findings are applicable to all out of equilibrium nonlinear
oscillators.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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