Statistical investigation of VLF quasiperiodic emissions measured by the DEMETER spacecraft

International audienceWe present a survey of quasiperiodic (QP) ELF/VLF emissions detected onboard the DEMETER (Detection of Electro-Magnetic Emissions Transmitted from Earthquake Regions) satellite (altitude of about 700 km, nearly Sun-synchronous orbit at 10:30/22:30 LT). Six years of data have been visually inspected for the presence of QP emissions with modulation periods higher than 10 s and with frequency bandwidths higher than 200 Hz. It is found that these QP events occur in about 5% of daytime half orbits, while they are basically absent during the night. The events occur predominantly during quiet geomagnetic conditions following the periods of enhanced geomagnetic activity. Their occurrence and properties are systematically analyzed. QP emissions occur most often at frequencies from about 750 Hz to 2 kHz, but they may be observed at frequencies as low as 500 Hz and as high as 8 kHz. Modulation periods of QP events may range from about 10 to 100 s, with typical values of 20 s. Frequency drifts of the identified events are generally positive, but they are lower for events with larger modulation periods. The events are usually limited to higher L values (L > 2). The upper L shell boundary of their occurrence could not be identified using the DEMETER data, but they are found to extend up to at least L ~ 6. The occurrence rate of the events is significantly lower at the longitudes of the South Atlantic anomaly (by a factor of more than 2)

Fast optical control of spin in semiconductor interfacial structures

We report on a picosecond-fast optical removal of spin polarization from a self-confined photo-carrier system at an undoped GaAs/AlGaAs interface possessing superior long-range and high-speed spin transport properties. We employed a modified resonant spin amplification technique with unequal intensities of subsequent pump pulses to experimentally distinguish the evolution of spin populations originating from different excitation laser pulses. We demonstrate that the density of spins, which is injected into the system by means of the optical orientation, can be controlled by reducing the electrostatic confinement of the system using an additional generation of photocarriers. It is also shown that the disturbed confinement recovers within hundreds of picoseconds after which spins can be again photo-injected into the system

Systematic study of Mn-doping trends in optical properties of (Ga,Mn)As

We report on a systematic study of optical properties of (Ga,Mn)As epilayers spanning the wide range of accessible substitutional Mn_Ga dopings. The growth and post-growth annealing procedures were optimized for each nominal Mn doping in order to obtain films which are as close as possible to uniform uncompensated (Ga,Mn)As mixed crystals. We observe a broad maximum in the mid-infrared absorption spectra whose position exhibits a prevailing blue-shift for increasing Mn-doping. In the visible range, a peak in the magnetic circular dichroism blue shifts with increasing Mn-doping. These observed trends confirm that disorder-broadened valence band states provide a better one-particle representation for the electronic structure of high-doped (Ga,Mn)As with metallic conduction than an energy spectrum assuming the Fermi level pinned in a narrow impurity band.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figure

Quasiperiodic emissions observed by the Cluster spacecraft and their association with ULF magnetic pulsations

International audience[1] Quasiperiodic (QP) emissions are electromagnetic waves at frequencies of about 0.5–4 kHz characterized by a periodic time modulation of the wave intensity, with a typical modulation period on the order of minutes. We present results of a survey of QP emissions observed by the Wide-Band Data (WBD) instruments on board the Cluster spacecraft. All WBD data measured in the appropriate frequency range during the first 10 years of operation (2001–2010) at radial distances lower than 10 R E were visually inspected for the presence of QP emissions, resulting in 21 positively identified events. These are systematically analyzed, and their frequency ranges and modulation periods are determined. Moreover, a detailed wave analysis has been done for the events that were strong enough to be seen in low-resolution Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Field Fluctuations-Spectrum Analyzer data. Wave vectors are found to be nearly field-aligned in the equatorial region, but they become oblique at larger geomagnetic latitudes. This is consistent with a hypothesis of unducted propagation. ULF magnetic field pulsations were detected at the same time as QP emissions in 4 out of the 21 events. They were polarized in the plane perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field, and their frequencies roughly corresponded to the modulation period of the QP events. Citation: Němec , F., O. Santolík, J. S. Pickett, M. Parrot, and N. Cornilleau-Wehrlin (2013), Quasiperiodic emissions observed by the Cluster spacecraft and their association with ULF magnetic pulsations

Enhanced ionization of the Martian nightside ionosphere during solar energetic particle events

Electron densities in the Martian nightside ionosphere are more than 90% of time too low to be detected by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding radar sounder on board the Mars Express spacecraft. However, the relative number of ionograms with peak electron density high enough to be detected represents a good statistical proxy of the ionospheric density. We focus on solar energetic particle (SEP) events, and we analyze their effects on ionospheric formation. SEP time intervals were identified in situ using the background counts recorded by the ion sensor of the ASPERA-3 instrument on board Mars Express. We show that peak electron densities during the SEP events are large enough to be detected in more than 30% of measurements, and, moreover, the reflections of the sounding signal from the ground almost entirely disappear. Nightside electron densities during SEP events are thus substantially increased as compared to normal nightside conditions

Voigt effect-based wide-field magneto-optical microscope integrated in a pump-probe experimental setup

In this work, we describe an experimental setup for a spatially resolved pump-probe experiment with an integrated wide-field magneto-optical (MO) microscope. The MO microscope can be used to study ferromagnetic materials with both perpendicular-to-plane and in-plane magnetic anisotropy via polar Kerr and Voigt effects, respectively. The functionality of the Voigt effect-based microscope was tested using an in-plane magnetized ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As. It was revealed that the presence of mechanical defects in the (Ga,Mn)As epilayer alters significantly the magnetic anisotropy in their proximity. The importance of MO experiments with simultaneous temporal and spatial resolutions was demonstrated using a (Ga,Mn)As sample attached to a piezoelectric transducer, which produces a voltage-controlled strain. We observed a considerably different behavior in different parts of the sample that enabled us to identify sample parts where the epilayer magnetic anisotropy was significantly modified by the presence of the piezoelectric transducer and where it was not. Finally, we discuss the possible applicability of our experimental setup for the research of compensated antiferromagnets, where only MO effects even in magnetic moments are present

Spectral features of lightning-induced ion cyclotron waves at low latitudes: DEMETER observations and simulation

International audience[1] We use a comprehensive analysis of 6-component ELF wave data from the DEMETER satellite to study proton whistlers, placing emphasis on low-latitude events originating from lightning strokes in the hemisphere opposite to the hemisphere of observation. In this case, the formation of proton whistlers does not involve mode conversion caused by a strong mode coupling at a crossover frequency, although a polarization reversal remains an important element in formation of the phenomenon. DEMETER measurements of the six electromagnetic field components in the frequency band below 1000 Hz make it possible to determine not only the dynamic spectrum, but also the wave polarization, the wave normal angle, and the normalized parallel component of the Poynting vector. This permits us to address fine features of proton whistlers, in particular, we show that the deviation of the upper cutoff frequency from the equatorial cyclotron frequency is related to the Doppler shift. Experimental study of proton whistlers is supplemented by an investigation of ion cyclotron wave propagation in a multicomponent magnetoplasma and by numerical modeling of spectrograms, both in the frame of geometrical optics

Anisotropy of Magnetic Field and Velocity Fluctuations in the Solar Wind

We present a large statistical study of the fluctuation anisotropy in minimum variance (MV) frames of the magnetic field and solar wind velocity. We use 2, 10, 20, and 40 minute intervals of simultaneous magnetic field (the Wind spacecraft) and velocity (the Spektr-R spacecraft) observations. Our study confirms that magnetic turbulence is a composite of fluctuations varying along the mean magnetic field and those changing in the direction perpendicular to the mean field. Regardless of the length scale within the studied range of spacecraft-frame frequencies, ≈90% of the observed magnetic field fluctuations exhibit an MV direction aligned with the mean magnetic field, ≈10% of events have the MV direction perpendicular to the background field, and a negligible portion of fluctuations has no preferential direction. On the other hand, the MV direction of velocity fluctuations tends to be distributed more uniformly. An analysis of magnetic compressibility and density fluctuations suggests that the fluctuations resemble properties of Alfvénic fluctuations if the MV direction is aligned with background magnetic field whereas slow-mode-like fluctuations have the MV direction perpendicular to the background field. The proportion between Alfvénic and slow-mode-like fluctuations depends on plasma β and length scale: the dependence on the solar wind speed is weak. We present 3D numerical MHD simulations and show that the numerical results are compatible with our experimental results

Experimental observation of the optical spin-orbit torque

Spin polarized carriers electrically injected into a magnet from an external polarizer can exert a spin transfer torque (STT) on the magnetization. The phe- nomenon belongs to the area of spintronics research focusing on manipulating magnetic moments by electric fields and is the basis of the emerging technologies for scalable magnetoresistive random access memories. In our previous work we have reported experimental observation of the optical counterpart of STT in which a circularly polarized pump laser pulse acts as the external polarizer, allowing to study and utilize the phenomenon on several orders of magnitude shorter timescales than in the electric current induced STT. Recently it has been theoretically proposed and experimentally demonstrated that in the absence of an external polarizer, carriers in a magnet under applied electric field can develop a non-equilibrium spin polarization due to the relativistic spin-orbit coupling, resulting in a current induced spin-orbit torque (SOT) acting on the magnetization. In this paper we report the observation of the optical counterpart of SOT. At picosecond time-scales, we detect excitations of magnetization of a ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As which are independent of the polarization of the pump laser pulses and are induced by non-equilibrium spin-orbit coupled photo-holes.Comment: 4 figure, supplementary information. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1101.104