Single microwave photon detection in the micromaser

High efficiency single photon detection is an interesting problem for many areas of physics, including low temperature measurement, quantum information science and particle physics. For optical photons, there are many examples of devices capable of detecting single photons with high efficiency. However reliable single photon detection of microwaves is very difficult, principally due to their low energy. In this paper we present the theory of a cascade amplifier operating in the microwave regime that has an optimal quantum efficiency of 93%. The device uses a microwave photon to trigger the stimulated emission of a sequence of atoms where the energy transition is readily detectable. A detailed description of the detector's operation and some discussion of the potential limitations of the detector are presented.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Synthesis, structure and conductivity of sulfate and phosphate doped SrCoO3

In this paper we report the successful incorporation of sulfate and phosphate into SrCoO3 leading to a change from a 2H– to a 3C–perovskite polymorph. Structural characterization by neutron diffraction showed extra weak peaks related to oxygen vacancy ordering, and these could be indexed on an expanded tetragonal cell, containing two inequivalent Co sites, similar to previously reported for Sb doped SrCoO3. Conductivity measurements on the doped systems showed a large enhancement compared to the undoped hexagonal system, consistent with corner–sharing of CoO6 octahedra for the former. Further work on the doped samples shows, however, that they are metastable, transforming back to the hexagonal cell on annealing at intermediate temperatures. The incorporation of Fe was shown, however, to improve the stability at intermediate temperatures, and these co–doped phases also showed high conductivities

Harms and benefits: Collecting ethnicity data in a clinical context

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.02.03