Optical phase noise engineering via acousto-optic interaction and its interferometric applications

We exercise rapid and fine control over the phase of light by transferring digitally gen- erated phase jumps from radio frequency (rf) electrical signals onto light by means of acousto-optic interaction. By tailoring the statistics of phase jumps in the electrical signal and thereby engineering the optical phase noise, we manipulate the visibil- ity of interference fringes in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer that incorporates two acousto-optic modulators. Such controlled dephasing finds applications in modern experiments involving the spread or diffusion of light in an optical network. Further, we analytically show how engineered partial phase noise can convert the dark port of a stabilised interferometer to a weak source of highly correlated photons.Comment: 5 figure

Engineering transport by concatenated maps

We present a generalized kick rotor model in which the phase of the kick can vary from kick to kick. This additional freedom allows one to control the transport in phase space. For a specific choice of kick-to-kick phases, we predict novel forms of accelerator modes which are potentially of high relevance for future experimental studies

Wreath-laying in The George Eliot Memorial Gardens, Nuneaton

I am honoured to have been asked to lay a wreath in memory of George Eliot this afternoon. And, I can truly say, I do it in grateful memory. Not many years ago I would have to have confessed that I had not yet read any of her novels. On coming to Coventry, I decided to remedy this situation. For me, whatever town or city I have lived in, its sense of place has been defined very much by its literary associations, the part it has played in the imaginations of its writers and poets. As far as Coventry is concerned, there is only one novelist. Her novels, I am sure you will agree, are among the greatest of their century, indeed, among the greatest in the language. To discover the power of George Eliot\u27 s writing was, for me, an illumination. And as I stand here today, with those who share my admiration and love of an outstanding Midlands lady, I have to say that I envy anyone who comes to the pages of Adam Bede or Middlemarch for the first time. Life would be less rich, less colourful, without the woman we honour here in her home town. Now, perhaps there is a certain appropriateness in a clergyman laying a wreath here, and giving this address. Clergy seemed to be amongst George Eliot\u27s favourite characters. There is a marvellous procession of clergy in her novels: Mr. Casaubon, Mr. Cadwallader, Mr. Tyke, Amos Barton, Mr. Gilfil, Mr. Stelling, Mr. Irwine, to name but a few - what a fascinating glimpse they give of nineteenth-century religious life, in all its strengths and weaknesses. But there is also a pleasing irony in a clergyman taking part in this ceremony in this particular year. For 1992 marks a significant anniversary in the career of our authoress. One hundred and fifty years ago, in 1842, Marian Evans committed the famous act that was, in its day, both outrageous and courageous. She refused to attend church with her father. Robert Evans, the fine-looking man whose portrait bangs here in Nuneaton, was perhaps less interested in Marian\u27s inner religious struggles than in making sure that his daughter behaved as was proper for a middle-class young woman with eligible prospects. As so often, religion was not so much a matter of conviction or truth, rather a convenient social tool

Photonic crystal nanofiber using an external grating

We implement a photonic crystal nanofiber device by reversibly combining an optical nanofiber and a nanofabricated grating. Using the finite-difference time-domain method, we design the system for minimal optical loss while tailoring the resonant wavelength and bandwidth of the device. Experimentally we demonstrate that the combined system shows a strong photonic stop-band in good agreement with numerical predictions. The resulting device may be used to realize strong light-matter coupling near to the nanofiber surface

The Twenty-Third George Eliot Memorial Lecture- 1994

On Sunday, 2 January 1842, Mary Ann Evans\u27s father wrote in his diary: \u27Went to Trinity Church in the forenoon Miss Lewis went with me. Mary Ann did not go. I stopd the sacrament (sic) and Miss Lewis stopd also.\u27 Two weeks later, again: \u27Went to church in the forenoon. Mary Ann did not go to church\u27. Robert Evans was perhaps principally interested in making sure that his daughter behaved as was proper for a middle class young woman with eligible prospects. Her scruples may have concerned him less. But there is no disguising the genuine grief he felt at this wayward act of subversion. He and his daughter were barely on speaking terms for two months, communicating only by letter. She wrote to him: Such being my very strong convictions, it cannot be a question with any mind of strict integrity, whatever judgment may be passed on their truth, that I could not without vile hypocrisy and a miserable truckling to the smile of the world for the sake of my supposed interests, profess to join in worship which I wholly disapprove. This, and this alone I will not do even for your sake. What she called her \u27holy war\u27 lasted four months. After that, she agreed to conform and resume churchgoing. But for Marian, nothing had changed. She had not reverted to orthodox Christian belief: far from it. For this profoundly inward woman had been rocked to her foundations by a deep spiritual crisis, after which things could never be the same again. What happened to Marian Evans in Coventry in 1842 was, I believe, of the profoundest importance for her career. Whereas it was Nuneaton that gave the world the woman, it was Coventry, and her loss of faith, that conceived the writer. After that, it was Lewes, the best literary midwife of the nineteenth century, who brought the novelist to birth. For Marian\u27 s crisis brought to the surface hitherto repressed energies. It marked the beginning of her true creativity, which must surely be connected to her relentless questioning of both the personal and public status quo