10,359 research outputs found
High-speed measurement of rotational anisotropy nonlinear optical harmonic generation using position sensitive detection
We present a method of performing high-speed rotational anisotropy nonlinear
optical harmonic generation experiments at rotational frequencies of several
hertz by projecting the harmonic light reflected at different angles from a
sample onto a stationary position sensitive detector. The high rotational speed
of the technique, to times larger than existing methods, permits
precise measurements of the crystallographic and electronic symmetries of
samples by averaging over low frequency laser power, beam pointing, and pulse
width fluctuations. We demonstrate the sensitivity of our technique by
resolving the bulk four-fold rotational symmetry of GaAs about its [001] axis
using second harmonic generation
Robust nonlinear canonical correlation analysis: application to seasonal climate forecasting
International audienceRobust variants of nonlinear canonical correlation analysis (NLCCA) are introduced to improve performance on datasets with low signal-to-noise ratios, for example those encountered when making seasonal climate forecasts. The neural network model architecture of standard NLCCA is kept intact, but the cost functions used to set the model parameters are replaced with more robust variants. The Pearson product-moment correlation in the double-barreled network is replaced by the biweight midcorrelation, and the mean squared error (mse) in the inverse mapping networks can be replaced by the mean absolute error (mae). Robust variants of NLCCA are demonstrated on a synthetic dataset and are used to forecast sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean based on the sea level pressure field. Results suggest that adoption of the biweight midcorrelation can lead to improved performance, especially when a strong, common event exists in both predictor/predictand datasets. Replacing the mse by the mae leads to improved performance on the synthetic dataset, but not on the climate dataset except at the longest lead time, which suggests that the appropriate cost function for the inverse mapping networks is more problem dependent
A parity-breaking electronic nematic phase transition in the spin-orbit coupled metal CdReO
Strong electron interactions can drive metallic systems toward a variety of
well-known symmetry-broken phases, but the instabilities of correlated metals
with strong spin-orbit coupling have only recently begun to be explored. We
uncovered a multipolar nematic phase of matter in the metallic pyrochlore
CdReO using spatially resolved second-harmonic optical anisotropy
measurements. Like previously discovered electronic nematic phases, this
multipolar phase spontaneously breaks rotational symmetry while preserving
translational invariance. However, it has the distinguishing property of being
odd under spatial inversion, which is allowed only in the presence of
spin-orbit coupling. By examining the critical behavior of the multipolar
nematic order parameter, we show that it drives the thermal phase transition
near 200 kelvin in CdReO and induces a parity-breaking lattice
distortion as a secondary order.Comment: 9 pages main text, 4 figures, 10 pages supplementary informatio
Effects of Kinks on DNA Elasticity
We study the elastic response of a worm-like polymer chain with reversible
kink-like structural defects. This is a generic model for (a) the
double-stranded DNA with sharp bends induced by binding of certain proteins,
and (b) effects of trans-gauche rotations in the backbone of the
single-stranded DNA. The problem is solved both analytically and numerically by
generalizing the well-known analogy to the Quantum Rotator. In the small
stretching force regime, we find that the persistence length is renormalized
due to the presence of the kinks. In the opposite regime, the response to the
strong stretching is determined solely by the bare persistence length with
exponential corrections due to the ``ideal gas of kinks''. This high-force
behavior changes significantly in the limit of high bending rigidity of the
chain. In that case, the leading corrections to the mechanical response are
likely to be due to the formation of multi-kink structures, such as kink pairs.Comment: v1: 16 pages, 7 figures, LaTeX; submitted to Physical Review E; v2: a
new subsection on soft kinks added to section Theory, sections Introduction
and Conclusions expanded, references added, other minor changes; v3: a
reference adde
NP-hardness of decoding quantum error-correction codes
Though the theory of quantum error correction is intimately related to the
classical coding theory, in particular, one can construct quantum error
correction codes (QECCs) from classical codes with the dual containing
property, this does not necessarily imply that the computational complexity of
decoding QECCs is the same as their classical counterparts. Instead, decoding
QECCs can be very much different from decoding classical codes due to the
degeneracy property. Intuitively, one expect degeneracy would simplify the
decoding since two different errors might not and need not be distinguished in
order to correct them. However, we show that general quantum decoding problem
is NP-hard regardless of the quantum codes being degenerate or non-degenerate.
This finding implies that no considerably fast decoding algorithm exists for
the general quantum decoding problems, and suggests the existence of a quantum
cryptosystem based on the hardness of decoding QECCs.Comment: 5 pages, no figure. Final version for publicatio
Anomalous metallic state of CuTiSe: an optical spectroscopy study
We report an optical spectroscopy study on the newly discovered
superconductor CuTiSe. Consistent with the development from a
semimetal or semiconductor with a very small indirect energy gap upon doping
TiSe, it is found that the compound has a low carrier density. Most
remarkably, the study reveals a substantial shift of the "screened" plasma edge
in reflectance towards high energy with decreasing temperature. This
phenomenon, rarely seen in metals, indicates either a sizeable increase of the
conducting carrier concentration or/and a decrease of the effective mass of
carriers with reducing temperature. We attribute the shift primarily to the
later effect.Comment: 4 figures, 4+ page
Nonlinear optical probe of tunable surface electrons on a topological insulator
We use ultrafast laser pulses to experimentally demonstrate that the
second-order optical response of bulk single crystals of the topological
insulator BiSe is sensitive to its surface electrons. By performing
surface doping dependence measurements as a function of photon polarization and
sample orientation we show that second harmonic generation can simultaneously
probe both the surface crystalline structure and the surface charge of
BiSe. Furthermore, we find that second harmonic generation using
circularly polarized photons reveals the time-reversal symmetry properties of
the system and is surprisingly robust against surface charging, which makes it
a promising tool for spectroscopic studies of topological surfaces and buried
interfaces
Semimetal to semimetal charge density wave transition in 1T-TiSe
We report an infrared study on 1-TiSe, the parent compound of the
newly discovered superconductor CuTiSe. Previous studies of this
compound have not conclusively resolved whether it is a semimetal or a
semiconductor: information that is important in determining the origin of its
unconventional CDW transition. Here we present optical spectroscopy results
that clearly reveal that the compound is metallic in both the high-temperature
normal phase and the low-temperature CDW phase. The carrier scattering rate is
dramatically different in the normal and CDW phases and the carrier density is
found to change with temperature. We conclude that the observed properties can
be explained within the scenario of an Overhauser-type CDW mechanism.Comment: 4 pages, 4 page
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