Diameter dependence of ferromagnetic spin moment in Au nanocrystals

Au nanoparticles exhibit ferromagnetic spin polarization and show diameter dependence in magnetization. The magnetic moment per Au atom in the particle attains its maximum value at a diameter of about 3 nanometer (nm) in the Magnetization-Diameter curve. Because Au metal is a typical diamagnetic material, its ferromagnetic polarization mechanism is thought to be quite different from the ferromagnetism observed in transition metals. The size effect strongly suggests the existence of some spin correlation effect at the nanoscale. The so-called ``Fermi hole effect'' is the most probable one given in the free electron gas system. Ferromagnetism in Au nanoparticles is discussed using this model.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Effects of nonlinear sweep in the Landau-Zener-Stueckelberg effect

We study the Landau-Zener-Stueckelberg (LZS) effect for a two-level system with a time-dependent nonlinear bias field (the sweep function) W(t). Our main concern is to investigate the influence of the nonlinearity of W(t) on the probability P to remain in the initial state. The dimensionless quantity epsilon = pi Delta ^2/(2 hbar v) depends on the coupling Delta of both levels and on the sweep rate v. For fast sweep rates, i.e., epsilon << l and monotonic, analytic sweep functions linearizable in the vicinity of the resonance we find the transition probability 1-P ~= epsilon (1+a), where a>0 is the correction to the LSZ result due to the nonlinearity of the sweep. Further increase of the sweep rate with nonlinearity fixed brings the system into the nonlinear-sweep regime characterized by 1-P ~= epsilon ^gamma with gamma neq 1 depending on the type of sweep function. In case of slow sweep rates, i.e., epsilon >>1 an interesting interference phenomenon occurs. For analytic W(t) the probability P=P_0 e^-eta is determined by the singularities of sqrt{Delta ^2+W^2(t)} in the upper complex plane of t. If W(t) is close to linear, there is only one singularity, that leads to the LZS result P=e^-epsilon with important corrections to the exponent due to nonlinearity. However, for, e.g., W(t) ~ t^3 there is a pair of singularities in the upper complex plane. Interference of their contributions leads to oscillations of the prefactor P_0 that depends on the sweep rate through epsilon and turns to zero at some epsilon. Measurements of the oscillation period and of the exponential factor would allow to determine Delta, independently.Comment: 11 PR pages, 12 figures. To be published in PR

Coarse-Grained Picture for Controlling Complex Quantum Systems

We propose a coarse-grained picture to control ``complex'' quantum dynamics, i.e., multi-level-multi-level transition with a random interaction. Assuming that optimally controlled dynamics can be described as a Rabi-like oscillation between an initial and final state, we derive an analytic optimal field as a solution to optimal control theory. For random matrix systems, we numerically confirm that the analytic optimal field steers an initial state to a target state which both contains many eigenstates.Comment: jpsj2.cls, 2 pages, 3 figure files; appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Vol.73, No.11 (Nov. 15, 2004

Direct evidence for ferromagnetic spin polarization in gold nanoparticles

We report the first direct observation of ferromagnetic spin polarization of Au nanoparticles with a mean diameter of 1.9 nm using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). Owing to the element selectivity of XMCD, only the gold magnetization is explored. Magnetization of gold atoms estimated by XMCD shows a good agreement with the results obtained by conventional magnetometry. This result is evidence of intrinsic spin polarization in nano-sized gold.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let