Measurement of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit magnetic fields

Spin-orbit coupling is a manifestation of special relativity. In the reference frame of a moving electron, electric fields transform into magnetic fields, which interact with the electron spin and lift the degeneracy of spin-up and spin-down states. In solid-state systems, the resulting spin-orbit fields are referred to as Dresselhaus or Rashba fields, depending on whether the electric fields originate from bulk or structure inversion asymmetry, respectively. Yet, it remains a challenge to determine the absolute value of both contributions in a single sample. Here we show that both fields can be measured by optically monitoring the angular dependence of the electrons' spin precession on their direction of movement with respect to the crystal lattice. Furthermore, we demonstrate spin resonance induced by the spin-orbit fields. We apply our method to GaAs/InGaAs quantum-well electrons, but it can be used universally to characterise spin-orbit interactions in semiconductors, facilitating the design of spintronic devices

Cerebral activations related to ballistic, stepwise interrupted and gradually modulated movements in parkinson patients

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience impaired initiation and inhibition of movements such as difficulty to start/stop walking. At single-joint level this is accompanied by reduced inhibition of antagonist muscle activity. While normal basal ganglia (BG) contributions to motor control include selecting appropriate muscles by inhibiting others, it is unclear how PD-related changes in BG function cause impaired movement initiation and inhibition at single-joint level. To further elucidate these changes we studied 4 right-hand movement tasks with fMRI, by dissociating activations related to abrupt movement initiation, inhibition and gradual movement modulation. Initiation and inhibition were inferred from ballistic and stepwise interrupted movement, respectively, while smooth wrist circumduction enabled the assessment of gradually modulated movement. Task-related activations were compared between PD patients (N = 12) and healthy subjects (N = 18). In healthy subjects, movement initiation was characterized by antero-ventral striatum, substantia nigra (SN) and premotor activations while inhibition was dominated by subthalamic nucleus (STN) and pallidal activations, in line with the known role of these areas in simple movement. Gradual movement mainly involved antero-dorsal putamen and pallidum. Compared to healthy subjects, patients showed reduced striatal/SN and increased pallidal activation for initiation, whereas for inhibition STN activation was reduced and striatal-thalamo-cortical activation increased. For gradual movement patients showed reduced pallidal and increased thalamo-cortical activation. We conclude that PD-related changes during movement initiation fit the (rather static) model of alterations in direct and indirect BG pathways. Reduced STN activation and regional cortical increased activation in PD during inhibition and gradual movement modulation are better explained by a dynamic model that also takes into account enhanced responsiveness to external stimuli in this disease and the effects of hyper-fluctuating cortical inputs to the striatum and STN in particular

Quantum oscillations of the critical current and high-field superconducting proximity in ballistic graphene

Graphene-based Josephson junctions provide a novel platform for studying the proximity effect due to graphene's unique electronic spectrum and the possibility to tune junction properties by gate voltage. Here we describe graphene junctions with a mean free path of several micrometres, low contact resistance and large supercurrents. Such devices exhibit pronounced Fabry-P\'erot oscillations not only in the normal-state resistance but also in the critical current. The proximity effect is mostly suppressed in magnetic fields below 10mT, showing the conventional Fraunhofer pattern. Unexpectedly, some proximity survives even in fields higher than 1 T. Superconducting states randomly appear and disappear as a function of field and carrier concentration, and each of them exhibits a supercurrent carrying capacity close to the universal quantum limit. We attribute the high-field Josephson effect to mesoscopic Andreev states that persist near graphene edges. Our work reveals new proximity regimes that can be controlled by quantum confinement and cyclotron motion

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta