450 research outputs found
Topological stability of stored optical vortices
We report an experiment in which an optical vortex is stored in a vapor of Rb
atoms. Due to its 2\pi phase twist, this mode, also known as the Laguerre-Gauss
mode, is topologically stable and cannot unwind even under conditions of strong
diffusion. To supplement our finding, we stored a flat phase Gaussian beam with
a dark center. Contrary to the optical vortex, which stays stable for over 100
microseconds, the dark center in the retrieved flat-phased image was filled
with light at storage times as small as 10 microseconds. This experiment proves
that higher electromagnetic modes can be converted into atomic coherences, and
that modes with phase singularities are robust to decoherence effects such as
diffusion. This opens the possibility to more elaborate schemes for two
dimensional information storage in atomic vapors.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures v2: minor grammatical corrections v3: problem with
references fixed v4: minor clarifications added to the tex
Theory of Dicke narrowing in coherent population trapping
The Doppler effect is one of the dominant broadening mechanisms in thermal
vapor spectroscopy. For two-photon transitions one would naively expect the
Doppler effect to cause a residual broadening, proportional to the wave-vector
difference. In coherent population trapping (CPT), which is a narrow-band
phenomenon, such broadening was not observed experimentally. This has been
commonly attributed to frequent velocity-changing collisions, known to narrow
Doppler-broadened one-photon absorption lines (Dicke narrowing). Here we show
theoretically that such a narrowing mechanism indeed exists for CPT resonances.
The narrowing factor is the ratio between the atom's mean free path and the
wavelength associated with the wave-vector difference of the two radiation
fields. A possible experiment to verify the theory is suggested.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; Introduction revise
Ramsey-like measurement of the decoherence rate between Zeeman sub-levels
Two-photon processes that involve different sub-levels of the ground state of
an atom, are highly sensitive to depopulation and decoherence within the ground
state. For example, the spectral width of electromagnetically induced
transparency resonances in type system, are strongly affected by the
ground state depopulation and decoherence rates. We present a direct
measurement of decay rates between hyperfine and Zeeman sub-levels in the
ground state of Rb vapor. Similar to the relaxation-in-the-dark
technique, pumping lasers are used to pre-align the atomic vapor in a well
defined quantum state. The free propagation of the atomic state is monitored
using a Ramsey-like method. Coherence times in the range 1-10 ms were measured
for room temperature atomic vapor. In the range of the experimental parameters
used in this study, the dominant process inducing Zeeman decoherence is the
spin-exchange collisions between rubidium atoms.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
The effects of the pre-pulse on capillary discharge extreme ultraviolet laser
In the past few years collisionally pumped extreme ultraviolet (XUV) lasers
utilizing a capillary discharge were demonstrated. An intense current pulse is
applied to a gas filled capillary, inducing magnetic collapse (Z-pinch) and
formation of a highly ionized plasma column. Usually, a small current pulse
(pre-pulse) is applied to the gas in order to pre-ionize it prior to the onset
of the main current pulse. In this paper we investigate the effects of the
pre-pulse on a capillary discharge Ne-like Ar XUV laser (46.9nm). The
importance of the pre-pulse in achieving suitable initial conditions of the gas
column and preventing instabilities during the collapse is demonstrated.
Furthermore, measurements of the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE)
properties (intensity, duration) in different pre-pulse currents revealed
unexpected sensitivity. Increasing the pre-pulse current by a factor of two
caused the ASE intensity to decrease by an order of magnitude - and to nearly
disappear. This effect is accompanied by a slight increase in the lasing
duration. We attribute this effect to axial flow in the gas during the
pre-pulse.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Contact replacement for NMR resonance assignment
Motivation: Complementing its traditional role in structural studies of proteins, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is playing an increasingly important role in functional studies. NMR dynamics experiments characterize motions involved in target recognition, ligand binding, etc., while NMR chemical shift perturbation experiments identify and localize proteinβprotein and proteinβligand interactions. The key bottleneck in these studies is to determine the backbone resonance assignment, which allows spectral peaks to be mapped to specific atoms. This article develops a novel approach to address that bottleneck, exploiting an available X-ray structure or homology model to assign the entire backbone from a set of relatively fast and cheap NMR experiments
Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective
This Report has a number of inter-related general purposes. One is to explore the extent to which food, nutrition, physical activity, and body composition modify the risk of cancer, and to specify which factors are most important. To the extent that environmental factors such as food, nutrition, and physical activity influence the risk of cancer, it is a preventable disease. The Report specifies recommendations based on solid evidence which, when followed, will be expected to reduce the incidence of cancer
Elimination, reversal, and directional bias of optical diffraction
We experimentally demonstrate the manipulation of optical diffraction,
utilizing the atomic thermal motion in a hot vapor medium of
electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT). By properly tuning the EIT
parameters, the refraction induced by the atomic motion may completely
counterbalance the paraxial free-space diffraction and by that eliminates the
effect of diffraction for arbitrary images. By further manipulation, the
diffraction can be doubled, biased asymmetrically to induced deflection, or
even reversed. The latter allows an experimental implementation of an analogy
to a negative-index lens
The crossover from propagating to strongly scattered acoustic modes of glasses observed in densified silica
Spectroscopic results on low frequency excitations of densified silica are
presented and related to characteristic thermal properties of glasses. The end
of the longitudinal acoustic branch is marked by a rapid increase of the
Brillouin linewidth with the scattering vector. This rapid growth saturates at
a crossover frequency Omega_co which nearly coincides with the center of the
boson peak. The latter is clearly due to additional optic-like excitations
related to nearly rigid SiO_4 librations as indicated by hyper-Raman
scattering. Whether the onset of strong scattering is best described by
hybridization of acoustic modes with these librations, by their elastic
scattering (Rayleigh scattering) on the local excitations, or by soft
potentials remains to be settled.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, to be published in a special issue of J. Phys.
Condens. Matte
Charge-ordering phase transition and order-disorder effects in the Raman spectra of NaV2O5
In the ac polarized Raman spectra of NaV2O5 we have found anomalous phonon
broadening, and an energy shift of the low-frequency mode as a function of the
temperature. These effects are related to the breaking of translational
symmetry, caused by electrical disorder that originates from the fluctuating
nature of the V {4.5+} valence state of vanadium. The structural correlation
length, obtained from comparisons between the measured and calculated Raman
scattering spectra, diverges at T< 5 K, indicating the existence of the
long-range charge order at very low temperatures, probably at T=0 K.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, new version, to appear in PR
- β¦