Fluorescence of laser created electron-hole plasma in graphene

We present an experimental observation of non-linear up- and down-converted optical luminescence of graphene and thin graphite subject to picosecond infrared laser pulses. We show that the excitation yields to a high density electron-hole plasma in graphene. It is further shown that the excited charge carries can efficiently exchange energy due to scattering in momentum space. The recombination of the resulting non-equilibrium electron-hole pairs yields to the observed white light luminescence. Due to the scattering mechanism the power dependence of the luminescence is quadratic until it saturates for higher laser power. Studying the luminescence intensity as a function of layer thickness gives further insight into its nature and provides a new tool for substrate independent thickness determination of multilayer flakes

Optical control of nuclear resonant absorption: theory and experiment

Modification of nuclear resonant absorption by means of laser radiation is analyzed both theoretically and experimentally. Theoretical analysis is done on the basis of four-level model of atom. This model includes both electronic and nuclear excitations. It is predicted that under coherent laser driving nuclear resonant Mossbauer absorption can be significantly modified, e.g. new Mossbauer resonances can appear, some of the existing resonances can vanish, both can be Rabi-split, broadened by laser action. In addition, it is predicted that Mossbauer absorption can be completely suppressed due to coherent population trapping. Experimental observation of laser-induced transformations of Mossbauer spectra of 57Fe2+ : MgO is accomplished. New Mossbauer lines appear with laser driving while the existing are broadened. Possible explanations of the observed changes in 57Fe2+ : MgO Mossbauer spectra are population of higher-lying electronic states of iron ion and significant modification of electronic relaxation processes due to modified Jahn-Teller interaction

Sub-optical resolution of single spins using magnetic resonance imaging at room temperature in diamond

There has been much recent interest in extending the technique of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) down to the level of single spins with sub-optical wavelength resolution. However, the signal to noise ratio for images of individual spins is usually low and this necessitates long acquisition times and low temperatures to achieve high resolution. An exception to this is the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center in diamond whose spin state can be detected optically at room temperature. Here we apply MRI to magnetically equivalent NV spins in order to resolve them with resolution well below the optical wavelength of the readout light. In addition, using a microwave version of MRI we achieved a resolution that is 1/270 size of the coplanar striplines, which define the effective wavelength of the microwaves that were used to excite the transition. This technique can eventually be extended to imaging of large numbers of NVs in a confocal spot and possibly to image nearby dark spins via their mutual magnetic interaction with the NV spin.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, Journal of Luminescence (Article in Press

Coherent population trapping in ruby crystal at room temperature

Observation of coherent population trapping (CPT) at ground-state Zeeman sublevels of $Cr^{3+}$-ion in ruby is reported. The experiments are performed at room temperature by using both nanosecond optical pulses and nanosecond trains of ultrashort pulses. In both cases sharp drops in the resonantly induced fluorescence are detected as the external magnetic field is varied. Theoretical analysis of CPT in a transient regime due to pulsed action of optical pulses is presented.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR