Magneto-Optical Trap for Thulium Atoms

Thulium atoms are trapped in a magneto-optical trap using a strong transition at 410 nm with a small branching ratio. We trap up to $7\times10^{4}$ atoms at a temperature of 0.8(2) mK after deceleration in a 40 cm long Zeeman slower. Optical leaks from the cooling cycle influence the lifetime of atoms in the MOT which varies between 0.3 -1.5 s in our experiments. The lower limit for the leaking rate from the upper cooling level is measured to be 22(6) s$^{-1}$. The repumping laser transferring the atomic population out of the F=3 hyperfine ground-state sublevel gives a 30% increase for the lifetime and the number of atoms in the trap.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Coherent magnetization precession in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As induced by picosecond acoustic pulses

We show that the magnetization of a thin ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As layer can be modulated by picosecond acoustic pulses. In this approach a picosecond strain pulse injected into the structure induces a tilt of the magnetization vector M, followed by the precession of M around its equilibrium orientation. This effect can be understood in terms of changes in magneto-crystalline anisotropy induced by the pulse. A model where only one anisotropy constant is affected by the strain pulse provides a good description of the observed time-dependent response.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Plasmonic crystals for ultrafast nanophotonics: Optical switching of surface plasmon polaritons

We demonstrate that the dispersion of surface plasmon polaritons in a periodically perforated gold film can be efficiently manipulated by femtosecond laser pulses with the wavelengths far from the intrinsic resonances of gold. Using a time- and frequency- resolved pump-probe technique we observe shifting of the plasmon polariton resonances with response times from 200 to 800 fs depending on the probe photon energy, through which we obtain comprehensive insight into the electron dynamics in gold. We show that Wood anomalies in the optical spectra provide pronounced resonances in differential transmission and reflection with magnitudes up to 3% for moderate pump fluences of 0.5 mJ/cm^2.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Observation of non-local dielectric relaxation in glycerol

Since its introduction, liquid viscosity and relaxation time $\tau$ have been considered to be an intrinsic property of the system that is essentially local in nature and therefore independent of system size. We perform dielectric relaxation experiments in glycerol, and find that this is the case at high temperature only. At low temperature, $\tau$ increases with system size and becomes non-local. We discuss the origin of this effect in a picture based on liquid elasticity length, the length over which local relaxation events in a liquid interact via induced elastic waves, and find good agreement between experiment and theory

Survey of charge symmetry breaking operators for dd -> alpha pi0

The charge-symmetry-breaking amplitudes for the recently observed d d -> alpha pi0 reaction are investigated. Chiral perturbation theory is used to classify and identify the leading-order terms. Specific forms of the related one- and two-body tree level diagrams are derived. As a first step toward a full calculation, a few tree-level two-body diagrams are evaluated at each considered order, using a simplified set of d and alpha wave functions and a plane-wave approximation for the initial dd state. The leading-order pion-exchange term is shown to be suppressed in this model because of poor overlap of the initial and final states. The higher-order one-body and short-range (heavy-meson-exchange) amplitudes provide better matching between the initial and final states and therefore contribute significantly and coherently to the cross section. The consequences this might have for a full calculation, with realistic wave functions and a more complete set of amplitudes, are discussed.Comment: REVTeX 4, 35 pages, 8 eps figures, submitted to PR