Inverse-designed diamond photonics

Diamond hosts optically active color centers with great promise in quantum computation, networking, and sensing. Realization of such applications is contingent upon the integration of color centers into photonic circuits. However, current diamond quantum optics experiments are restricted to single devices and few quantum emitters because fabrication constraints limit device functionalities, thus precluding color center integrated photonic circuits. In this work, we utilize inverse design methods to overcome constraints of cutting-edge diamond nanofabrication methods and fabricate compact and robust diamond devices with unique specifications. Our design method leverages advanced optimization techniques to search the full parameter space for fabricable device designs. We experimentally demonstrate inverse-designed photonic free-space interfaces as well as their scalable integration with two vastly different devices: classical photonic crystal cavities and inverse-designed waveguide-splitters. The multi-device integration capability and performance of our inverse-designed diamond platform represents a critical advancement toward integrated diamond quantum optical circuits

Topologically Protected Quantum State Transfer in a Chiral Spin Liquid

Topology plays a central role in ensuring the robustness of a wide variety of physical phenomena. Notable examples range from the robust current carrying edge states associated with the quantum Hall and the quantum spin Hall effects to proposals involving topologically protected quantum memory and quantum logic operations. Here, we propose and analyze a topologically protected channel for the transfer of quantum states between remote quantum nodes. In our approach, state transfer is mediated by the edge mode of a chiral spin liquid. We demonstrate that the proposed method is intrinsically robust to realistic imperfections associated with disorder and decoherence. Possible experimental implementations and applications to the detection and characterization of spin liquid phases are discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Quantum Simulation of Antiferromagnetic Spin Chains in an Optical Lattice

Understanding exotic forms of magnetism in quantum mechanical systems is a central goal of modern condensed matter physics, with implications from high temperature superconductors to spintronic devices. Simulating magnetic materials in the vicinity of a quantum phase transition is computationally intractable on classical computers due to the extreme complexity arising from quantum entanglement between the constituent magnetic spins. Here we employ a degenerate Bose gas confined in an optical lattice to simulate a chain of interacting quantum Ising spins as they undergo a phase transition. Strong spin interactions are achieved through a site-occupation to pseudo-spin mapping. As we vary an applied field, quantum fluctuations drive a phase transition from a paramagnetic phase into an antiferromagnetic phase. In the paramagnetic phase the interaction between the spins is overwhelmed by the applied field which aligns the spins. In the antiferromagnetic phase the interaction dominates and produces staggered magnetic ordering. Magnetic domain formation is observed through both in-situ site-resolved imaging and noise correlation measurements. By demonstrating a route to quantum magnetism in an optical lattice, this work should facilitate further investigations of magnetic models using ultracold atoms, improving our understanding of real magnetic materials.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Near-field Electrical Detection of Optical Plasmons and Single Plasmon Sources

Photonic circuits can be much faster than their electronic counterparts, but they are difficult to miniaturize below the optical wavelength scale. Nanoscale photonic circuits based on surface plasmon polaritons (SPs) are a promising solution to this problem because they can localize light below the diffraction limit. However, there is a general tradeoff between the localization of an SP and the efficiency with which it can be detected with conventional far-field optics. Here we describe a new all-electrical SP detection technique based on the near-field coupling between guided plasmons and a nanowire field-effect transistor. We use the technique to electrically detect the plasmon emission from an individual colloidal quantum dot coupled to an SP waveguide. Our detectors are both nanoscale and highly efficient (0.1 electrons/plasmon), and a plasmonic gating effect can be used to amplify the signal even higher (up to 50 electrons/plasmon). These results enable new on-chip optical sensing applications and are a key step towards "dark" optoplasmonic nanocircuits in which SPs can be generated, manipulated, and detected without involving far-field radiation.Comment: manuscript followed by supplementary informatio

Towards an understanding of contextual features that influence the linguistic formality of British Sign Language users

This paper seeks to understand linguistic formality through the identification and measurement of contextual features. Using an adapted sociometric methodology to combine systemic functional linguistics and sign linguistics, a survey identifies the elements of context that have an effect upon the level of linguistic formality employed by British Sign Language users. The responses of 51 participants are analysed in order to ascertain (i) the level of linguistic formality that would be employed in certain communicative scenarios, and (ii) the contextual features of these scenarios that have an influence on linguistic formality. The results obtained from this study posit that there is an overall agreement shared between British Sign Language users when choosing levels of linguistic formality based on broad contextual description alone. The people involved in the communication and their interpersonal relationships tend to be the biggest influence on the level of formality employed, whereas the topic of the interaction appears to show no significant influence upon linguistic formality on its own. This work contributes further evidence to the importance of studying language within communicative contexts and the importance of formality as an influential factor in linguistic production. It is hoped that this will encourage future studies to derive linguistic data of British Sign Language users, or indee

Lakes beneath the ice sheet: The occurrence, analysis, and future exploration of Lake Vostok and other Antarctic subglacial lakes

Airborne geophysics has been used to identify more than 100 lakes beneath the ice sheets of Antarctica. The largest, Lake Vostok, is more than 250 km in length and 1 km deep. Subglacial lakes occur because the ice base is kept warm by geothermal heating, and generated meltwater collects in topographic hollows. For lake water to be in equilibrium with the ice sheet, its roof must slope ten times more than the ice sheet surface. This slope causes differential temperatures and melting/freezing rates across the lake ceiling, which excites water circulation. The exploration of subglacial lakes has two goals: to find and understand the life that may inhabit these unique environments and to measure the climate records that occur in sediments on lake floors. The technological developments required for in situ measurements mean, however, that direct studies of subglacial lakes may take several years to happen

Fine mapping of a linkage peak with integration of lipid traits identifies novel coronary artery disease genes on chromosome 5

Coronary artery disease (CAD), and one of its intermediate risk factors, dyslipidemia, possess a demonstrable genetic component, although the genetic architecture is incompletely defined. We previously reported a linkage peak on chromosome 5q31-33 for early-onset CAD where the strength of evidence for linkage was increased in families with higher mean low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C). Therefore, we sought to fine-map the peak using association mapping of LDL-C as an intermediate disease-related trait to further define the etiology of this linkage peak. The study populations consisted of 1908 individuals from the CATHGEN biorepository of patients undergoing cardiac catheterization; 254 families (N = 827 individuals) from the GENECARD familial study of early-onset CAD; and 162 aorta samples harvested from deceased donors. Linkage disequilibrium-tagged SNPs were selected with an average of one SNP per 20 kb for 126.6-160.2 MB (region of highest linkage) and less dense spacing (one SNP per 50 kb) for the flanking regions (117.7-126.6 and 160.2-167.5 MB) and genotyped on all samples using a custom Illumina array. Association analysis of each SNP with LDL-C was performed using multivariable linear regression (CATHGEN) and the quantitative trait transmission disequilibrium test (QTDT; GENECARD). SNPs associated with the intermediate quantitative trait, LDL-C, were then assessed for association with CAD (i.e., a qualitative phenotype) using linkage and association in the presence of linkage (APL; GENECARD) and logistic regression (CATHGEN and aortas)

Comparação entre métodos de determinação da biomassa microbiana baseados no princípio da fumigação e extração.

We report measurement of the cross section of $e^+e^-\to \pi^+\pi^-\psi(2S)$ between 4.0 and $5.5 {\rm GeV}$, based on an analysis of initial state radiation events in a $980 \rm fb^{-1}$ data sample recorded with the Belle detector. The properties of the $Y(4360)$ and $Y(4660)$ states are determined. Fitting the mass spectrum of $\pi^+\pi^-\psi(2S)$ with two coherent Breit-Wigner functions, we find two solutions with identical mass and width but different couplings to electron-positron pairs: $M_{Y(4360)} = (4347\pm 6\pm 3) {\rm MeV}/c^2$, $\Gamma_{Y(4360)} = (103\pm 9\pm 5) {\rm MeV}$, $M_{Y(4660)} = (4652\pm10\pm 8) {\rm MeV}/c^2$, $\Gamma_{Y(4660)} = (68\pm 11\pm 1) \rm MeV$; and ${\cal{B}}[Y(4360)\to \pi^+\pi^-\psi(2S)]\cdot \Gamma_{Y(4360)}^{e^+e^-} = (10.9\pm 0.6\pm 0.7) \rm eV$ and ${\cal{B}}[Y(4660)\to \pi^+\pi^-\psi(2S)]\cdot \Gamma_{Y(4660)}^{e^+e^-} = (8.1\pm 1.1\pm 0.5) \rm eV$ for one solution; or ${\cal{B}}[Y(4360)\to \pi^+\pi^-\psi(2S)]\cdot \Gamma_{Y(4360)}^{e^+e^-} = (9.2\pm 0.6\pm 0.6) \rm eV$ and ${\cal{B}}[Y(4660)\to \pi^+\pi^-\psi(2S)]\cdot \Gamma_{Y(4660)}^{e^+e^-} = (2.0\pm 0.3\pm 0.2) \rm eV$ for the other. Here, the first errors are statistical and the second systematic. Evidence for a charged charmoniumlike structure at $4.05 {\rm GeV}/c^2$ is observed in the $\pi^{\pm}\psi(2S)$ intermediate state in the $Y(4360)$ decays.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figure

Inverse-designed diamond photonics

Diamond hosts optically active color centers with great promise in quantum computation, networking, and sensing. Realization of such applications is contingent upon the integration of color centers into photonic circuits. However, current diamond quantum optics experiments are restricted to single devices and few quantum emitters because fabrication constraints limit device functionalities, thus precluding color center integrated photonic circuits. In this work, we utilize inverse design methods to overcome constraints of cutting-edge diamond nanofabrication methods and fabricate compact and robust diamond devices with unique specifications. Our design method leverages advanced optimization techniques to search the full parameter space for fabricable device designs. We experimentally demonstrate inverse-designed photonic free-space interfaces as well as their scalable integration with two vastly different devices: classical photonic crystal cavities and inverse-designed waveguide-splitters. The multi-device integration capability and performance of our inverse-designed diamond platform represents a critical advancement toward integrated diamond quantum optical circuits