2,556 research outputs found
Optical alignment and spinning of laser-trapped microscopic particles
Light-induced rotation of absorbing microscopic particles by transfer of
angular momentum from light to the material raises the possibility of optically
driven micromachines. The phenomenon has been observed using elliptically
polarized laser beams or beams with helical phase structure. But it is
difficult to develop high power in such experiments because of overheating and
unwanted axial forces, limiting the achievable rotation rates to a few hertz.
This problem can in principle be overcome by using transparent particles,
transferring angular momentum by a mechanism first observed by Beth in 1936,
when he reported a tiny torque developed in a quartz waveplate due to the
change in polarization of transmitted light. Here we show that an optical
torque can be induced on microscopic birefringent particles of calcite held by
optical tweezers. Depending on the polarization of the incident beam, the
particles either become aligned with the plane of polarization (and thus can be
rotated through specified angles) or spin with constant rotation frequency.
Because these microscopic particles are transparent, they can be held in
three-dimensional optical traps at very high power without heating. We have
observed rotation rates in excess of 350 Hz.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Optical microrheology using rotating laser-trapped particles
We demonstrate an optical system that can apply and accurately measure the
torque exerted by the trapping beam on a rotating birefringent probe particle.
This allows the viscosity and surface effects within liquid media to be
measured quantitatively on a micron-size scale using a trapped rotating
spherical probe particle. We use the system to measure the viscosity inside a
prototype cellular structure.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. v2: bibliographic details, minor text correction
Optical angular momentum transfer to trapped absorbing particles
Particle rotation resulting from the absorption of light carrying angular momentum has been measured. When absorbing CuO particles (1-5μm) were trapped in a focused ‘‘donut’’ laser beam, they rotated, due to the helical phase structure of the beam. Changing the polarization of the light from plane to circular caused the rotation frequency to increase or decrease, depending on the sense of the polarization with respect to the helicity of the beam. Rotation frequencies were obtained by Fourier analysis of amplitude fluctuations in the backscattered light from the particles. © 1996 The American Physical Society
Theory of Optical Tweezers
We derive a partial-wave (Mie) expansion of the axial force exerted on a
transparent sphere by a laser beam focused through a high numerical aperture
objective. The results hold throughout the range of interest for practical
applications. The ray optics limit is shown to follow from the Mie expansion by
size averaging. Numerical plots show large deviations from ray optics near the
focal region and oscillatory behavior (explained in terms of a simple
interferometer picture) of the force as a function of the size parameter.
Available experimental data favor the present model over previous ones.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Mechanical Effects of Optical Vortices
We concentrate on the forces and torques exerted on transparent and absorbing particles trapped in laser beams containing optical vortices. We review previous theoretical and experimental work and then present new calculations of the effect of vortex beams on absorbing particles
Transverse Pressure and Strangeness Dynamics in Relativistic Heavy Ion Reactions
Transverse hadron spectra from proton-proton, proton-nucleus and
nucleus-nucleus collisions from 2 AGeV to 21.3 ATeV are investigated within two
independent transport approaches (HSD and UrQMD). For central Au+Au (Pb+Pb)
collisions at energies above 5 AGeV, the measured
transverse mass spectra have a larger inverse slope parameter than expected
from the default calculations. The additional pressure - as suggested by
lattice QCD calculations at finite quark chemical potential and
temperature - might be generated by strong interactions in the early
pre-hadronic/partonic phase of central Au+Au (Pb+Pb) collisions. This is
supported by a non-monotonic energy dependence of in the present
transport model.Comment: Proceedings of Strange Quark Matter 200
Coherent atomic beam splitter using transients of a chaotic system
A coherent atomic beam splitter can be realized using the transient dynamics of a chaotic system. We have experimentally observed such an effect using ultracold rubidium atoms. Our experimental results are in good agreement with numerical simulations of the Schrödinger equation for the syste
Low autocorrelated multi-phase sequences
The interplay between the ground state energy of the generalized Bernasconi
model to multi-phase, and the minimal value of the maximal autocorrelation
function, , , is examined analytically and
the main results are: (a) The minimal value of is
significantly smaller than the typical value for random
sequences . (b) over all sequences
of length N is obtained in an energy which is about 30% above the ground-state
energy of the generalized Bernasconi model, independent of the number of phases
m. (c) The maximal merit factor grows linearly with m. (d) For a
given N, indicating that for m=N,
, i.e. a Barker code exits. The analytical results are
confirmed by simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Resonances and fluctuations at SPS and RHIC
We perform an analysis of preliminary data on hadron yields and fluctuations
within the Statistical hadronization ansatz. We describe the theoretical
disagreements between different statistical models currently on the market, and
show how the simultaneous analysis of yields and fluctuations can be used to
determine if one of them can be connected to underlying physics. We perform
such an analysis on preliminary RHIC and SPS A-A data that includes particle
yields, ratios and event by event fluctuations. We show that the equilibrium
statistical model can not describe the fluctuation measured at RHIC and
SPS, unless an unrealistically small volume is assumed. Such small volume then
makes it impossible to describe the total particle multiplicity. The
non-equilibrium model,on the other hand, describes both the fluctuation
and yields acceptably due to the extra boost to the fluctuation provided
by the high pion chemical potential. We show, however, that both models
significantly over-estimate the fluctuation measured at the SPS, and
speculate for the reason behind this.Comment: Presented at Hot Quarks, 2006 In press, European Physical Journal
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