1,019 research outputs found
Proximity Effects in Radiative Transfer
Though the dependence of near-field radiative transfer on the gap between two
planar objects is well understood, that between curved objects is still
unclear. We show, based on the analysis of the surface polariton mediated
radiative transfer between two spheres of equal radii and minimum gap ,
that the near--field radiative transfer scales as as
and as for larger values of up to the far--field limit. We
propose a modified form of the proximity approximation to predict near--field
radiative transfer between curved objects from simulations of radiative
transfer between planar surfaces.Comment: 5 journal pages, 4 figure
Material dependence of Casimir forces: gradient expansion beyond proximity
A widely used method for estimating Casimir interactions [H. B. G. Casimir,
Proc. K. Ned. Akad. Wet. 51, 793 (1948)] between gently curved material
surfaces at short distances is the proximity force approximation (PFA). While
this approximation is asymptotically exact at vanishing separations,
quantifying corrections to PFA has been notoriously difficult. Here we use a
derivative expansion to compute the leading curvature correction to PFA for
metals (gold) and insulators (SiO) at room temperature. We derive an
explicit expression for the amplitude of the PFA correction to
the force gradient for axially symmetric surfaces. In the non-retarded limit,
the corrections to the Casimir free energy are found to scale logarithmically
with distance. For gold, has an unusually large temperature
dependence.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Giant Modal Gain, Amplified Surface Plasmon Polariton Propagation, and Slowing Down of Energy Velocity in a Metal-Semiconductor-Metal Structure
We investigated surface plasmon polariton (SPP) propagation in a
metal-semiconductor-metal structure where semiconductor is highly excited to
have optical gain. We show that near the SPP resonance, the imaginary part of
the propagation wavevector changes from positive to hugely negative,
corresponding to an amplified SPP propagation. The SPP experiences a giant gain
that is 1000 times of material gain in the excited semiconductor. We show that
such a giant gain is related to the slowing down of average energy propagation
in the structur
Quantum and thermal Casimir interaction between a sphere and a plate: Comparison of Drude and plasma models
We calculate the Casimir interaction between a sphere and a plate, both
described by the plasma model, the Drude model, or generalizations of the two
models. We compare the results at both zero and finite temperatures. At
asymptotically large separations we obtain analytical results for the
interaction that reveal a non-universal, i.e., material dependent interaction
for the plasma model. The latter result contains the asymptotic interaction for
Drude metals and perfect reflectors as different but universal limiting cases.
This observation is related to the screening of a static magnetic field by a
London superconductor. For small separations we find corrections to the
proximity force approximation (PFA) that support correlations between geometry
and material properties that are not captured by the Lifshitz theory. Our
results at finite temperatures reveal for Drude metals a non-monotonic
temperature dependence of the Casimir free energy and a negative entropy over a
sizeable range of separations.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Influence of the magnetic field on the plasmonic properties of transparent Ni anti-dot arrays
Extraordinary optical transmission is observed due to the excitation of
surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in 2-Dimensional hexagonal anti-dot patterns
of pure Ni thin films, grown on sapphire substrates. A strong enhancement of
the polar Kerr rotation is recorded at the surface plasmon related transmission
maximum. Angular resolved reflectivity measurements under an applied field,
reveal an enhancement and a shift of the normalized reflectivity difference
upon reversal of the magnetic saturation (transverse magneto-optical Kerr
effect-TMOKE). The change of the TMOKE signal clearly shows the magnetic field
modulation of the dispersion relation of SPPs launched in a 2D patterned
ferromagnetic Ni film
Long-Term Effects of Alternative Group Selection Harvesting Designs on Stand Production
Interest in group selection harvesting has increased in recent years because of limitations associated with both clearcutting and single-tree selection. Field data have suggested that group selection openings can have higher production rates than single-tree gaps, but whether this translates into higher production rates at the stand level is not clear. We used CANOPY, a crown-based northern hardwoods model calibrated with data from uneven-aged and even-aged stands, to simulate sustainable harvest volumes of a number of different group selection approaches over 300 years, and also compared results with those from single-tree selection and clearcutting. When a combination of single-tree and group selection was used with groups making up 3% of the stand area per cutting cycle, net harvestable production rates were similar to those of single-tree selection, and opening size (100-4000m2) had little effect on production rates. As the percentage of the matrix in groups increased from 1 to 9% per cutting cycle, production actually showed a small but consistent decline of about 6 to 7%. When group selection was used alone with no cutting between the groups, production rates varied considerably depending on opening size and rotation age. Small group selection (200 m2) had production rates similar to or slightly higher than single-tree selection, whereas 2000 m2 openings resulted in a production declines of 30 to 35%. Large patch sizes appear to have relatively low net production because of unsalvaged mortality. Similar trends were observed in unthinned even-aged stands compared to those thinned at 15-yr intervals. Although our results confirmed that trees in even-aged stands are more efficient producers than those in uneven-aged stands, there appear to be countervailing tendencies that reduce production rates in large single-cohort patches, including a lag time during the first few decades when production rates of merchantable volume in large openings are very low
Comparison between experiment and theory for the thermal Casimir force
We analyze recent experiments on measuring the thermal Casimir force with
account of possible background effects. Special attention is paid to the
validity of the proximity force approximation (PFA) used in the comparison
between the experimental data and computational results in experiments
employing a sphere-plate geometry. The PFA results are compared with the exact
results where they are available. The possibility to use fitting procedures in
theory-experiment comparison is discussed. On this basis we reconsider
experiments exploiting spherical lenses of centimeter-size radii.Comment: Plenary talk at the 10th International Conference "Quantum Field
Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions" (Benasque, Spain, 2011);
16 pages, 5 figure
Resonant photon tunneling enhancement of the van der Waals friction
We study the van der Waals friction between two flat metal surfaces in
relative motion. For good conductors we find that normal relative motion gives
a much larger friction than for parallel relative motion. The friction may
increase by many order of magnitude when the surfaces are covered by
adsorbates, or can support low-frequency surface plasmons. In this case the
friction is determined by resonant photon tunneling between adsorbate
vibrational modes, or surface plasmon modes.Comment: Published in PR
Phase-change chalcogenide glass metamaterial
Combining metamaterials with functional media brings a new dimension to their
performance. Here we demonstrate substantial resonance frequency tuning in a
photonic metamaterial hybridized with an electrically/optically switchable
chalcogenide glass. The transition between amorphous and crystalline forms
brings about a 10% shift in the near-infrared resonance wavelength of an
asymmetric split-ring array, providing transmission modulation functionality
with a contrast ratio of 4:1 in a device of sub-wavelength thickness.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
Optical detection of spin transport in non-magnetic metals
We determine the dynamic magnetization induced in non-magnetic metal wedges
composed of silver, copper and platinum by means of Brillouin light scattering
(BLS) microscopy. The magnetization is transferred from a ferromagnetic
Ni80Fe20 layer to the metal wedge via the spin pumping effect. The spin pumping
efficiency can be controlled by adding an insulating but transparent interlayer
between the magnetic and non-magnetic layer. By comparing the experimental
results to a dynamical macroscopic spin-transport model we determine the
transverse relaxation time of the pumped spin current which is much smaller
than the longitudinal relaxation time
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