Novel Cascaded Ultra Bright Pulsed Source of Polarization Entangled Photons

A new ultra bright pulsed source of polarization entangled photons has been realized using type-II phase matching in spontaneous parametric down conversion process in two cascaded crystals. The optical axes of the crystals are aligned in such a way that the extraordinarily (ordinarily) polarized cone from one crystal overlaps with the ordinarily (extraordinarily) polarized cone from the second crystal. This spatial overlapping removes the association between the polarization and the output angle of the photons that exist in a single type-II down conversion process. Hence, entanglement of photons originating from any point on the output cones is possible if a suitable optical delay line is used. This delay line is particularly simple and easy to implement.Comment: 8 pages 8 figure

Bright source of spectrally uncorrelated polarization-entangled photons with nearly single-mode emission

We present results of a bright polarization-entangled photon source operating at 1552 nm via type-II collinear degenerate spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate crystal. We report a conservative inferred pair generation rate of 123,000 pairs/s/mW into collection modes. Minimization of spectral and spatial entanglement was achieved by group velocity matching the pump, signal and idler modes and through properly focusing the pump beam. By utilizing a pair of calcite beam displacers, we are able to overlap photons from adjacent down-conversion processes to obtain polarization-entanglement visibility of 94.7 +/- 1.1% with accidentals subtracted.Comment: 4 pages, 7 color figures. Revised manuscript includes the following changes: corrected pair generation rate from 44,000/s/mW pump to 123,000/s/mW pump; replaced Fig. 1b to enhance clarity; minor alterations to the title, abstract and introduction; grammatical correction

Search Interfaces for Mathematicians

Access to mathematical knowledge has changed dramatically in recent years, therefore changing mathematical search practices. Our aim with this study is to scrutinize professional mathematicians' search behavior. With this understanding we want to be able to reason why mathematicians use which tool for what search problem in what phase of the search process. To gain these insights we conducted 24 repertory grid interviews with mathematically inclined people (ranging from senior professional mathematicians to non-mathematicians). From the interview data we elicited patterns for the user group "mathematicians" that can be applied when understanding design issues or creating new designs for mathematical search interfaces.Comment: conference article "CICM'14: International Conference on Computer Mathematics 2014", DML-Track: Digital Math Libraries 17 page

Generation of Pure-State Single-Photon Wavepackets by Conditional Preparation Based on Spontaneous Parametric Downconversion

We study the conditional preparation of single photons based on parametric downconversion, where the detection of one photon from a given pair heralds the existence of a single photon in the conjugate mode. We derive conditions on the modal characteristics of the photon pairs, which ensure that the conditionally prepared single photons are quantum-mechanically pure. We propose specific experimental techniques that yield photon pairs ideally suited for single-photon conditional preparation.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Australasian asphaltite strandings revisited: Their origin and the effects of weathering and biodegradation on their biomarker and isotopic profiles

Reports of bitumen strandings on the coastlines of South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia date from the early 19th Century (Sprigg and Woolley, 1963; Currie et al., 1992; Volkman et al., 1992; McKirdy et al., 1994; Padley, 1995; Edwards et al., 1998 and references therein). The locations of these strandings along Australia’s southern margin (Fig. 1), and their greater frequency in southeastern South Australia, western Victoria and southern Tasmania, fuelled early petroleum exploration in the region on the assumption that they were sourced from local submarine seepages (Sprigg, 1986; Volkman et al., 1992; McKirdy et al., 1994). Accounts describe a variety of oily substances that can be assigned to three categories, each with a different origin: oils (crude and refined), waxy bitumens and asphaltites (McKirdy et al., 1986, 1994; Padley, 1995; Edwards et al., 1998)

Generation of multi-modal dialogue for a net environment

In this paper an architecture and special purpose markup language for simulated affective face-to-face communication is presented. In systems based on this architecture, users will be able to watch embodied conversational agents interact with each other in virtual locations on the internet. The markup language, or Rich Representation Language (RRL), has been designed to provide an integrated representation of speech, gesture, posture and facial animation