Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) as a Route to Achieving Optical Control in Plasmonics

Optical properties of ensembles of three-level quantum emitters coupled to plasmonic systems are investigated employing a self-consistent model. It is shown that stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) technique can be successfully adopted to control optical properties of hybrid materials with collective effects present and playing an important role in light-matter interactions. We consider a core-shell nanowire comprised of a silver core and a shell of coupled quantum emitters and utilize STIRAP scheme to control scattering efficiency of such a system in a frequency and spatial dependent manner. After the STIRAP induced population transfer to the final state takes place, the core-shell nanowire exhibits two sets of Rabi splittings with Fano lineshapes indicating strong interactions between two different atomic transitions driven by plasmon near-fields.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted, Physical Review

π\pi-J/ψJ/\psi Correlation and Elliptic Flow Parameter v2v_2 of Charmed Mesons at RHIC Energy

We study the correlation between the trigger $\pi$ and the associated $J/\psi$ on near and away sides in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV. In the region of trigger momentum $p_t>4$ GeV/$c$, the $\pi$ spectrum is composed of thermal-shower and shower-shower recombinations in the frame work of the recombination model. We consider the azimuthal anisotropy in the quenched hard parton distribution and then calculate the elliptic flow parameter $v_2$ of charmed mesons ($J/\psi$, $D^0$ and $D_s$) for different centralities.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

Effects of retro-nasal aroma release on satiation

It is suggested that the brain response of a food odour sensed retro-nasally is related to satiation. The extent of retro-nasal aroma release during consumption depends on the physical structure of a food, i.e. solid foods generate a longer, more pronounced retro-nasal aroma release than liquid foods. The aim of this study was to investigate if a beverage becomes more satiating when the retro-nasal aroma release profile coincides with the profile of a (soft) solid food. In a double-blind placebo-controlled randomised cross-over full factorial design, twenty-seven healthy subjects (fourteen males and thirteen females; aged 16-65 years; BMI 19-37 kg/m(2) were administered aroma profiles by a computer-controlled stimulator based on air dilution olfactometry. Profile A consisted of a profile that is obtained during consumption of normal beverages. Profile B is normally observed during consumption of (soft) solids. The two profiles were produced with strawberry aroma and administered in a retro-nasal fashion, while the subjects consumed a sweetened milk drink. Before, during and after the sensory stimulation, appetite profile measurements were performed. Subjects felt significantly more satiated if they were aroma stimulated with profile B (P = 0.04). After stimulation with sweet strawberry aroma, there was a significant decrease in desire to eat sweet products (P = 0.0001). In conclusion, perceived satiation was increased by altering the extent of retro-nasal aroma release

Enhancement factor distribution around a single SERS Hot-spot and its relation to Single Molecule detection

We provide the theoretical framework to understand the phenomenology and statistics of single-molecule (SM) signals arising in Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) under the presence of so-called electromagnetic hot-spots (HS's). We show that most characteristics of the SM-SERS phenomenon can be tracked down to the presence of tail-like (power law) distribution of enhancements and we propose a specific model for it. We analyze, in the light of this, the phenomenology of SM-SERS and show how the different experimental manifestations of the effect reported in the literature can be analyzed and understood under a unified ``universal'' framework with a minimum set of parameters.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, submitted to J. Chem. Phy