305 research outputs found
Internal-state thermometry by depletion spectroscopy in a cold guided beam of formaldehyde
We present measurements of the internal state distribution of
electrostatically guided formaldehyde. Upon excitation with continuous tunable
ultraviolet laser light the molecules dissociate, leading to a decrease in the
molecular flux. The population of individual guided states is measured by
addressing transitions originating from them. The measured populations of
selected states show good agreement with theoretical calculations for different
temperatures of the molecule source. The purity of the guided beam as deduced
from the entropy of the guided sample using a source temperature of 150K
corresponds to that of a thermal ensemble with a temperature of about 30 K
Spatially encoded light for Large-alphabet Quantum Key Distribution
Most Quantum Key Distribution protocols use a two-dimensional basis such as
HV polarization as first proposed by Bennett and Brassard in 1984. These
protocols are consequently limited to a key generation density of 1 bit per
photon. We increase this key density by encoding information in the transverse
spatial displacement of the used photons. Employing this higher-dimensional
Hilbert space together with modern single-photon-detecting cameras, we
demonstrate a proof-of-principle large-alphabet Quantum Key Distribution
experiment with 1024 symbols and a shared information between sender and
receiver of 7 bit per photon.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, Added references, Updated Fig. 1 in the main
text, Updated Fig.1 in supplementary material, Added section Trojan-horse
attacks in supplementary material, title changed, Added paragraphs about
final key rate and overfilling the detector to result sectio
Calculating the Fine Structure of a Fabry-Perot Resonator using Spheroidal Wave Functions
A new set of vector solutions to Maxwell's equations based on solutions to
the wave equation in spheroidal coordinates allows laser beams to be described
beyond the paraxial approximation. Using these solutions allows us to calculate
the complete first-order corrections in the short-wavelength limit to
eigenmodes and eigenfrequencies in a Fabry-Perot resonator with perfectly
conducting mirrors. Experimentally relevant effects are predicted. Modes which
are degenerate according to the paraxial approximation are split according to
their total angular momentum. This includes a splitting due to coupling between
orbital angular momentum and spin angular momentum
Trapping of Neutral Rubidium with a Macroscopic Three-Phase Electric Trap
We trap neutral ground-state rubidium atoms in a macroscopic trap based on
purely electric fields. For this, three electrostatic field configurations are
alternated in a periodic manner. The rubidium is precooled in a magneto-optical
trap, transferred into a magnetic trap and then translated into the electric
trap. The electric trap consists of six rod-shaped electrodes in cubic
arrangement, giving ample optical access. Up to 10^5 atoms have been trapped
with an initial temperature of around 20 microkelvin in the three-phase
electric trap. The observations are in good agreement with detailed numerical
simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Velocity-selected molecular pulses produced by an electric guide
Electrostatic velocity filtering is a technique for the production of
continuous guided beams of slow polar molecules from a thermal gas. We extended
this technique to produce pulses of slow molecules with a narrow velocity
distribution around a tunable velocity. The pulses are generated by
sequentially switching the voltages on adjacent segments of an electric
quadrupole guide synchronously with the molecules propagating at the desired
velocity. This technique is demonstrated for deuterated ammonia (ND),
delivering pulses with a velocity in the range of and a
relative velocity spread of at FWHM. At velocities around
, the pulses contain up to molecules each. The data are
well reproduced by Monte-Carlo simulations, which provide useful insight into
the mechanisms of velocity selection.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Cold guided beams of water isotopologs
Electrostatic velocity filtering and guiding is an established technique to
produce high fluxes of cold polar molecules. In this paper we clarify different
aspects of this technique by comparing experiments to detailed calculations. In
the experiment, we produce cold guided beams of the three water isotopologs
H2O, D2O and HDO. Their different rotational constants and orientations of
electric dipole moments lead to remarkably different Stark shift properties,
despite the molecules being very similar in a chemical sense. Therefore, the
signals of the guided water isotopologs differ on an absolute scale and also
exhibit characteristic electrode voltage dependencies. We find excellent
agreement between the relative guided fractions and voltage dependencies of the
investigated isotopologs and predictions made by our theoretical model of
electrostatic velocity filtering.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures; small changes to the text, updated reference
Opto-Electrical Cooling of Polar Molecules
We present an opto-electrical cooling scheme for polar molecules based on a
Sisyphus-type cooling cycle in suitably tailored electric trapping fields.
Dissipation is provided by spontaneous vibrational decay in a closed level
scheme found in symmetric-top rotors comprising six low-field-seeking
rovibrational states. A generic trap design is presented. Suitable molecules
are identified with vibrational decay rates on the order of 100Hz. A simulation
of the cooling process shows that the molecular temperature can be reduced from
1K to 1mK in approximately 10s. The molecules remain electrically trapped
during this time, indicating that the ultracold regime can be reached in an
experimentally feasible scheme
Electrostatic extraction of cold molecules from a cryogenic reservoir
We present a method which delivers a continuous, high-density beam of slow
and internally cold polar molecules. In our source, warm molecules are first
cooled by collisions with a cryogenic helium buffer gas. Cold molecules are
then extracted by means of an electrostatic quadrupole guide. For ND the
source produces fluxes up to molecules/s with
peak densities up to molecules/cm. For
HCO the population of rovibrational states is monitored by depletion
spectroscopy, resulting in single-state populations up to .Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, changes to the text, updated figures and
reference
Deterministic and controllable photonic scattering media via direct laser writing
Photonic scattering materials, such as biological tissue and white paper, are
made of randomly positioned nanoscale inhomogeneities in refractive index that
lead to multiple scattering of light. Typically these materials, both
naturally-occurring or man-made, are formed through self assembly of the
scattering inhomogeneities, which imposes challenges in tailoring the disorder
and hence the optical properties. Here, We report on the nanofabrication of
photonic scattering media using direct laser writing with deterministic design.
These deterministic scattering media consist of submicron thick polymer
nanorods that are randomly oriented within a cubic volume. We study the total
transmission of light as a function of the number density of rods and of the
sample thickness to extract the scattering and transport mean free paths using
radiative transfer theory. Such photonic scattering media with deterministic
and controllable properties are model systems for fundamental light scattering
in particular with strong anisotropy and offer new applications in solid-state
lighting and photovoltaics.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure
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