Laser cooling and control of excitations in superfluid helium

Superfluidity is an emergent quantum phenomenon which arises due to strong interactions between elementary excitations in liquid helium. These excitations have been probed with great success using techniques such as neutron and light scattering. However measurements to-date have been limited, quite generally, to average properties of bulk superfluid or the driven response far out of thermal equilibrium. Here, we use cavity optomechanics to probe the thermodynamics of superfluid excitations in real-time. Furthermore, strong light-matter interactions allow both laser cooling and amplification of the thermal motion. This provides a new tool to understand and control the microscopic behaviour of superfluids, including phonon-phonon interactions, quantised vortices and two-dimensional quantum phenomena such as the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. The third sound modes studied here also offer a pathway towards quantum optomechanics with thin superfluid films, including femtogram effective masses, high mechanical quality factors, strong phonon-phonon and phonon-vortex interactions, and self-assembly into complex geometries with sub-nanometre feature size.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary information attache

Microphotonic Forces From Superfluid Flow

In cavity optomechanics, radiation pressure and photothermal forces are widely utilized to cool and control micromechanical motion, with applications ranging from precision sensing and quantum information to fundamental science. Here, we realize an alternative approach to optical forcing based on superfluid flow and evaporation in response to optical heating. We demonstrate optical forcing of the motion of a cryogenic microtoroidal resonator at a level of 1.46 nN, roughly one order of magnitude larger than the radiation pressure force. We use this force to feedback cool the motion of a microtoroid mechanical mode to 137 mK. The photoconvective forces demonstrated here provide a new tool for high bandwidth control of mechanical motion in cryogenic conditions, and have the potential to allow efficient transfer of electromagnetic energy to motional kinetic energy.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Approximating Fractional Time Quantum Evolution

An algorithm is presented for approximating arbitrary powers of a black box unitary operation, $\mathcal{U}^t$, where $t$ is a real number, and $\mathcal{U}$ is a black box implementing an unknown unitary. The complexity of this algorithm is calculated in terms of the number of calls to the black box, the errors in the approximation, and a certain `gap' parameter. For general $\mathcal{U}$ and large $t$, one should apply $\mathcal{U}$ a total of $\lfloor t \rfloor$ times followed by our procedure for approximating the fractional power $\mathcal{U}^{t-\lfloor t \rfloor}$. An example is also given where for large integers $t$ this method is more efficient than direct application of $t$ copies of $\mathcal{U}$. Further applications and related algorithms are also discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Vertical Profiles of Aerosol Optical Properties Over Central Illinois and Comparison with Surface and Satellite Measurements

Between June 2006 and September 2009, an instrumented light aircraft measured over 400 vertical profiles of aerosol and trace gas properties over eastern and central Illinois. The primary objectives of this program were to (1) measure the in situ aerosol properties and determine their vertical and temporal variability and (2) relate these aircraft measurements to concurrent surface and satellite measurements. Underflights of the CALIPSO satellite show reasonable agreement in a majority of retrieved profiles between aircraft-measured extinction at 532 nm (adjusted to ambient relative humidity) and CALIPSO-retrieved extinction, and suggest that routine aircraft profiling programs can be used to better understand and validate satellite retrieval algorithms. CALIPSO tended to overestimate the aerosol extinction at this location in some boundary layer flight segments when scattered or broken clouds were present, which could be related to problems with CALIPSO cloud screening methods. The in situ aircraft-collected aerosol data suggest extinction thresholds for the likelihood of aerosol layers being detected by the CALIOP lidar. These statistical data offer guidance as to the likelihood of CALIPSO's ability to retrieve aerosol extinction at various locations around the globe

Accessing and assessing lunar resources with PROSPECT

PROSPECT is a package in development by ESA to assess the in-situ resource potential of lunar regolith. PROSPECT will: obtain sub-surface regolith samples, extract volatiles, identify chemical species, quantify abundances, and characterize isotopes

Efficacy of conjoint behavioral consultation in developmental-behavioral pediatric services.

• Purpose: To evaluate the effects of the CBC model in addressing presenting concerns for children across home, school, and health care systems. • What are the general effects of CBC in addressing identified concerns in a medically-referred sample? • How do parents and teachers perceive CBC in terms of its perceived effectiveness and acceptability? • How satisfied are parents and teachers with CBC consultants and services when provided across homeschool- medical settings

All-Optical Broadband Excitation of the Motional State of Trapped Ions

We have developed a novel all-optical broadband scheme for exciting, amplifying and measuring the secular motion of ions in a radio frequency trap. Oscillation induced by optical excitation has been coherently amplified to precisely control and measure the ion's secular motion. Requiring only laser line-of-sight, we have shown that the ion's oscillation amplitude can be precisely controlled. Our excitation scheme can generate coherent motion which is robust against variations in the secular frequency. Therefore, our scheme is ideal to excite the desired level of oscillatory motion under conditions where the secular frequency is evolving in time. Measuring the oscillation amplitude through Doppler velocimetry, we have characterized the experimental parameters and compared them with a molecular dynamics simulation which provides a complete description of the system.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure