6 research outputs found
The activated torsion oscillation magnetometer
The activated torsion oscillation magnetometer exploits the mechanical
resonance of a cantilever beam, driven by the torque exerted on the sample by
an ac field applied perpendicularly to the film plane. We describe a model for
the cantilever dynamics which leads to the calculation of the cantilever
dynamic profile and allows the mechanical sensitivity of the instrument to be
expressed in terms of the minimum electronically detectable displacement. We
have developed a capacitance detector of small oscillations which is able to
detect displacements of the order of 0.1 nm. We show that sensitivities of the
order of 0.5(10-11 Am2 can be in principle achieved. We will subsequently
describe the main features of the ATOM prototype which we have built and
tested, with particular attention to the design solutions which have been
adopted in order to reduce the effects of parasitic vibrations due either to
acoustic noise, originating from the ac field coil, or to eddy currents in the
capacitor electrodes. The instrument is mounted in a continuous flow cryostat
and can work in the 4.2-300 K temperature range. Finally, we will show that our
experimental set-up has a second mode of operation, named Torsion Induction
Magnetometer (TIM).Comment: Invited Talk at the Moscow International Symposium on Magnetism, 2002
to appear in the J. Mag. Mag. Mat Revised versio
Dynamical Axion Field in Topological Magnetic Insulators
Axions are very light, very weakly interacting particles postulated more than
30 years ago in the context of the Standard Model of particle physics. Their
existence could explain the missing dark matter of the universe. However,
despite intensive searches, they have yet to be detected. In this work, we show
that magnetic fluctuations of topological insulators couple to the
electromagnetic fields exactly like the axions, and propose several experiments
to detect this dynamical axion field. In particular, we show that the axion
coupling enables a nonlinear modulation of the electromagnetic field, leading
to attenuated total reflection. We propose a novel optical modulators device
based on this principle.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure