58 research outputs found
Cavity-enhanced photoionization of an ultracold rubidium beam for application in focused ion beams
A two-step photoionization strategy of an ultracold rubidium beam for
application in a focused ion beam instrument is analyzed and implemented. In
this strategy the atomic beam is partly selected with an aperture after which
the transmitted atoms are ionized in the overlap of a tightly cylindrically
focused excitation laser beam and an ionization laser beam whose power is
enhanced in a build-up cavity. The advantage of this strategy, as compared to
without the use of a build-up cavity, is that higher ionization degrees can be
reached at higher currents. Optical Bloch equations including the
photoionization process are used to calculate what ionization degree and
ionization position distribution can be reached. Furthermore, the ionization
strategy is tested on an ultracold beam of Rb atoms. The beam current is
measured as a function of the excitation and ionization laser beam intensity
and the selection aperture size. Although details are different, the global
trends of the measurements agree well with the calculation. With a selection
aperture diameter of 52 m, a current of pA is
measured, which according to calculations is 63% of the current equivalent of
the transmitted atomic flux. Taking into account the ionization degree the ion
beam peak reduced brightness is estimated at A/(msreV).Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure
Direct magneto-optical compression of an effusive atomic beam for high-resolution focused ion beam application
An atomic rubidium beam formed in a 70 mm long two-dimensional
magneto-optical trap (2D MOT), directly loaded from a collimated Knudsen
source, is analyzed using laser-induced fluorescence. The longitudinal velocity
distribution, the transverse temperature and the flux of the atomic beam are
reported. The equivalent transverse reduced brightness of an ion beam with
similar properties as the atomic beam is calculated because the beam is
developed to be photoionized and applied in a focused ion beam. In a single
two-dimensional magneto-optical trapping step an equivalent transverse reduced
brightness of A/(m sr eV) was
achieved with a beam flux equivalent to nA. The
temperature of the beam is further reduced with an optical molasses after the
2D MOT. This increased the equivalent brightness to A/(m sr eV). For currents below 10 pA, for which disorder-induced
heating can be suppressed, this number is also a good estimate of the ion beam
brightness that can be expected. Such an ion beam brightness would be a six
times improvement over the liquid metal ion source and could improve the
resolution in focused ion beam nanofabrication.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl
Performance predictions for a laser intensified thermal beam for use in high resolution Focused Ion Beam instruments
Photo-ionization of a laser-cooled and compressed atomic beam from a
high-flux thermal source can be used to create a high-brightness ion beam for
use in Focus Ion Beam (FIB) instruments. Here we show using calculations and
Doppler cooling simulations that an atomic rubidium beam with a brightness of
at a current of 1 nA can be created using a
compact 5 cm long 2D magneto-optical compressor which is more than an order of
magnitude better than the current state of the art Liquid Metal Ion Source.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures submitted to: Phys. Rev.
Stripes and spin-incommensurabilities are favored by lattice anisotropies
Structural distortions in cuprate materials give a natural origin for
anisotropies in electron properties. We study a modified one-band t-J model in
which we allow for different hoppings and antiferromagnetic couplings in the
two spatial directions ( and ). Incommensurate peaks
in the spin structure factor show up only in the presence of a lattice
anisotropy, whereas charge correlations, indicating enhanced fluctuations at
incommensurate wave vectors, are almost unaffected with respect to the
isotropic case.Comment: accepted for publication on Physical Review Letters, one color figur
Performance predictions of a focused ion beam from a laser cooled and compressed atomic beam
Focused ion beams are indispensable tools in the semiconductor industry
because of their ability to image and modify structures at the nanometer length
scale. Here we report on performance predictions of a new type of focused ion
beam based on photo-ionization of a laser cooled and compressed atomic beam.
Particle tracing simulations are performed to investigate the effects of
disorder-induced heating after ionization in a large electric field. They lead
to a constraint on this electric field strength which is used as input for an
analytical model which predicts the minimum attainable spot size as a function
of amongst others the flux density of the atomic beam, the temperature of this
beam and the total current. At low currents (I<10 pA) the spot size will be
limited by a combination of spherical aberration and brightness, while at
higher currents this is a combination of chromatic aberration and brightness.
It is expected that a nanometer size spot is possible at a current of 1 pA. The
analytical model was verified with particle tracing simulations of a complete
focused ion beam setup. A genetic algorithm was used to find the optimum
acceleration electric field as a function of the current. At low currents the
result agrees well with the analytical model while at higher currents the spot
sizes found are even lower due to effects that are not taken into account in
the analytical model
Optimization of Gutzwiller Wavefunctions in Quantum Monte Carlo
Gutzwiller functions are popular variational wavefunctions for correlated
electrons in Hubbard models. Following the variational principle, we are
interested in the Gutzwiller parameters that minimize e.g. the expectation
value of the energy. Rewriting the expectation value as a rational function in
the Gutzwiller parameters, we find a very efficient way for performing that
minimization. The method can be used to optimize general Gutzwiller-type
wavefunctions both, in variational and in fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo.Comment: 9 pages RevTeX with 10 eps figure
Using a Smartphone App and Coaching Group Sessions to Promote Residents' Reflection in the Workplace
Item does not contain fulltextPROBLEM: Reflecting on workplace-based experiences is necessary for professional development. However, residents need support to raise their awareness of valuable moments for learning and to thoughtfully analyze those learning moments afterwards. APPROACH: From October to December 2012, the authors held a multidisciplinary six-week postgraduate training module focused on general competencies. Residents were randomly assigned to one of four conditions with varying degrees of reflection support; they were offered (1) a smartphone app, (2) coaching group sessions, (3) a combination of both, or (4) neither type of support. The app allowed participants to capture in real time learning moments as a text note, audio recording, picture, or video. Coaching sessions held every two weeks aimed to deepen participants' reflection on captured learning moments. Questionnaire responses and reflection data were compared between conditions to assess the effects of the app and coaching sessions on intensity and frequency of reflection. OUTCOMES: Sixty-four residents participated. App users reflected more often, captured more learning moments, and reported greater learning progress than nonapp users. Participants who attended coaching sessions were more alert to learning moments and pursued more follow-up learning activities to improve on the general competencies. Those who received both types of support were most alert to these learning moments. NEXT STEPS: A simple mobile app for capturing learning moments shows promise as a tool to support workplace-based learning, especially when combined with coaching sessions. Future research should evaluate these tools on a broader scale and in conjunction with residents' and students' personal digital portfolios
Spontaneous plaquette dimerization in the Heisenberg model
We investigate the non magnetic phase of the spin-half frustrated Heisenberg
antiferromagnet on the square lattice using exact diagonalization (up to 36
sites) and quantum Monte Carlo techniques (up to 144 sites). The spin gap and
the susceptibilities for the most important crystal symmetry breaking operators
are computed. A genuine and somehow unexpected `plaquette RVB', with
spontaneously broken translation symmetry and no broken rotation symmetry,
comes out from our numerical simulations as the most plausible ground state for
.Comment: 4 pages, 5 postscript figure
An Improved Upper Bound for the Ground State Energy of Fermion Lattice Models
We present an improved upper bound for the ground state energy of lattice
fermion models with sign problem. The bound can be computed by numerical
simulation of a recently proposed family of deformed Hamiltonians with no sign
problem. For one dimensional models, we expect the bound to be particularly
effective and practical extrapolation procedures are discussed. In particular,
in a model of spinless interacting fermions and in the Hubbard model at various
filling and Coulomb repulsion we show how such techniques can estimate ground
state energies and correlation function with great accuracy.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures; to appear in Physical Review
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