597 research outputs found
Evanescent straight tapered-fiber coupling of ultra-high Q optomechanical micro-resonators in a low-vibration helium-4 exchange-gas cryostat
We developed an apparatus to couple a 50-micrometer diameter
whispering-gallery silica microtoroidal resonator in a helium-4 cryostat using
a straight optical tapered-fiber at 1550nm wavelength. On a top-loading probe
specifically adapted for increased mechanical stability, we use a
specifically-developed "cryotaper" to optically probe the cavity, allowing thus
to record the calibrated mechanical spectrum of the optomechanical system at
low temperatures. We then demonstrate excellent thermalization of a 63-MHz
mechanical mode of a toroidal resonator down to the cryostat's base temperature
of 1.65K, thereby proving the viability of the cryogenic refrigeration via heat
conduction through static low-pressure exchange gas. In the context of
optomechanics, we therefore provide a versatile and powerful tool with
state-of-the-art performances in optical coupling efficiency, mechanical
stability and cryogenic cooling.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Even harmonic generation in isotropic media of dissociating homonuclear molecules
Isotropic gases irradiated by long pulses of intense IR light can generate
very high harmonics of the incident field. It is generally accepted that, due
to the symmetry of the generating medium, be it an atomic or an isotropic
molecular gas, only odd harmonics of the driving field can be produced. Here we
show how the interplay of electronic and nuclear dynamics can lead to a marked
breakdown of this standard picture: a substantial part of the harmonic spectrum
can consist of even rather than odd harmonics. We demonstrate the effect using
ab-initio solutions of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation for
and its isotopes in full dimensionality. By means of a simple
analytical model, we identify its physical origin, which is the appearance of a
permanent dipole moment in dissociating homonuclear molecules, caused by
light-induced localization of the electric charge during dissociation. The
effect arises for sufficiently long laser pulses and the region of the spectrum
where even harmonics are produced is controlled by pulse duration. Our results
(i) show how the interplay of femtosecond nuclear and attosecond electronic
dynamics, which affects the charge flow inside the dissociating molecule, is
reflected in the nonlinear response, and (ii) force one to augment standard
selection rules found in nonlinear optics textbooks by considering
light-induced modifications of the medium during the generation process.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
High-sensitivity monitoring of micromechanical vibration using optical whispering gallery mode resonators
The inherent coupling of optical and mechanical modes in high finesse optical
microresonators provide a natural, highly sensitive transduction mechanism for
micromechanical vibrations. Using homodyne and polarization spectroscopy
techniques, we achieve shot-noise limited displacement sensitivities of
10^(-19) m Hz^(-1/2). In an unprecedented manner, this enables the detection
and study of a variety of mechanical modes, which are identified as radial
breathing, flexural and torsional modes using 3-dimensional finite element
modelling. Furthermore, a broadband equivalent displacement noise is measured
and found to agree well with models for thermorefractive noise in silica
dielectric cavities. Implications for ground-state cooling, displacement
sensing and Kerr squeezing are discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figure
Cryogenic properties of optomechanical silica microcavities
We present the optical and mechanical properties of high-Q fused silica
microtoroidal resonators at cryogenic temperatures (down to 1.6 K). A thermally
induced optical multistability is observed and theoretically described; it
serves to characterize quantitatively the static heating induced by light
absorption. Moreover the influence of structural defect states in glass on the
toroid mechanical properties is observed and the resulting implications of
cavity optomechanical systems on the study of mechanical dissipation discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Ambient Air Pollution, Social Inequalities and Asthma Exacerbation in Greater Strasbourg (France) Metropolitan Area: the PAISA Study
International audienceThe socio-economic status (SES) of populations has an influence on the incidence or mortality rates of numerous health outcomes, among which respiratory diseases (Prescott et al., 2003; Ellison-Loschmann et al., 2007). Considering asthma, the possible contribution of SES to overall prevalence –regardless of asthma severity-, remains controversial in industrialized countries. Several studies indicate that allergic asthma is more prevalent in more well-off populations whereas the non-allergic forms of asthma are more common in the deprived ones (Cesaroni et al., 2003; Blanc et al., 2006). On the other hand, severe asthma whatever its etiology appears to be more frequent in the latter populations, as compared to the more affluent (Basagana et al., 2004). Risk factors for exacerbations (e.g., passive smoking (Wright Subramanian, 2007), psychosocial stress (Gold & Wright, 2005), cockroach allergens (Kitch et al., 2000), and suboptimal compliance with anti-inflammatory medication (Gottlieb et al., 1995)) are generally more common among people with asthma and low SES than their better-off counterparts. These observations support the hypothesis that some factors more present in deprived populations contribute to asthma exacerbation (Mielck et al., 1996)
Resolved Sideband Cooling of a Micromechanical Oscillator
Micro- and nanoscale opto-mechanical systems provide radiation pressure
coupling of optical and mechanical degree of freedom and are actively pursued
for their ability to explore quantum mechanical phenomena of macroscopic
objects. Many of these investigations require preparation of the mechanical
system in or close to its quantum ground state. Remarkable progress in ground
state cooling has been achieved for trapped ions and atoms confined in optical
lattices. Imperative to this progress has been the technique of resolved
sideband cooling, which allows overcoming the inherent temperature limit of
Doppler cooling and necessitates a harmonic trapping frequency which exceeds
the atomic species' transition rate. The recent advent of cavity back-action
cooling of mechanical oscillators by radiation pressure has followed a similar
path with Doppler-type cooling being demonstrated, but lacking inherently the
ability to attain ground state cooling as recently predicted. Here we
demonstrate for the first time resolved sideband cooling of a mechanical
oscillator. By pumping the first lower sideband of an optical microcavity,
whose decay rate is more than twenty times smaller than the eigen-frequency of
the associated mechanical oscillator, cooling rates above 1.5 MHz are attained.
Direct spectroscopy of the motional sidebands reveals 40-fold suppression of
motional increasing processes, which could enable reaching phonon occupancies
well below unity (<0.03). Elemental demonstration of resolved sideband cooling
as reported here should find widespread use in opto-mechanical cooling
experiments. Apart from ground state cooling, this regime allows realization of
motion measurement with an accuracy exceeding the standard quantum limit.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure
Shard scheduler: object placement and migration in sharded account-based blockchains
We propose Shard Scheduler, a system for object placement and migration in account-based sharded blockchains. Our system calculates optimal placement and decides on object migrations across shards. It supports complex multi-account transactions caused by smart contracts. Placement and migration decisions made by Shard Scheduler are fully deterministic, verifiable, and can be made part of the consensus protocol. Shard Scheduler reduces the number of costly cross-shard transactions, ensures balanced load distribution and maximizes the number of processed transactions for the blockchain as a whole. To this end, it leverages a novel incentive model motivating miners to maximize the global throughput of the entire blockchain rather than the throughput of a specific shard. In our simulations, Shard Scheduler can reduce the number of costly cross-shard transactions by half while ensuring equal load and increasing throughput more than 2 fold when using 60 shards. We also implement and evaluate Shard Scheduler on Chainspace, more than doubling its throughput and reducing user-perceived latency by 70% when using 10 shards
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Content Censorship in the InterPlanetary File System
The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is currently the largest decentralized storage solution in operation, with thousands of active participants and millions of daily content transfers. IPFS is used as remote data storage for numerous blockchain-based smart contracts, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT), and decentralized applications.
We present a content censorship attack that can be executed with minimal effort and cost, and that prevents the retrieval of any chosen content in the IPFS network. The attack exploits a conceptual issue in a core component of IPFS, the Kademlia Distributed Hash Table (DHT), which is used to resolve content IDs to peer addresses. We provide efficient detection and mitigation mechanisms for this vulnerability. Our mechanisms achieve a 99.6% detection rate and mitigate 100% of the detected attacks with minimal signaling and computational overhead. We followed responsible disclosure procedures, and our countermeasures are scheduled for deployment in the future versions of IPFS
Nucleon-induced reactions at intermediate energies: New data at 96 MeV and theoretical status
Double-differential cross sections for light charged particle production (up
to A=4) were measured in 96 MeV neutron-induced reactions, at TSL laboratory
cyclotron in Uppsala (Sweden). Measurements for three targets, Fe, Pb, and U,
were performed using two independent devices, SCANDAL and MEDLEY. The data were
recorded with low energy thresholds and for a wide angular range (20-160
degrees). The normalization procedure used to extract the cross sections is
based on the np elastic scattering reaction that we measured and for which we
present experimental results. A good control of the systematic uncertainties
affecting the results is achieved. Calculations using the exciton model are
reported. Two different theoretical approches proposed to improve its
predictive power regarding the complex particle emission are tested. The
capabilities of each approach is illustrated by comparison with the 96 MeV data
that we measured, and with other experimental results available in the
literature.Comment: 21 pages, 28 figure
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