978 research outputs found
Core excitation in Ozone localized to one of two symmetry-equivalent chemical bonds - molecular alignment through vibronic coupling
Core excitation from terminal oxygen O in O is shown to be an
excitation from a localized core orbital to a localized valence orbital. The
valence orbital is localized to one of the two equivalent chemical bonds. We
experimentally demonstrate this with the Auger Doppler effect which is
observable when O is core-excited to the highly dissociative
O1s7a state. Auger electrons emitted from the atomic oxygen
fragment carry information about the molecular orientation relative to the
electromagnetic field vector at the moment of excitation. The data together
with analytical functions for the electron-peak profiles give clear evidence
that the preferred molecular orientation for excitation only depends on the
orientation of one bond, not on the total molecular orientation. The
localization of the valence orbital "7a" is caused by mixing of the valence
orbital "5b" through vibronic coupling of anti-symmetric stretching mode
with b-symmetry. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first discussion
of the localization of a core excitation of O. This result explains the
success of the widely used assumption of localized core excitation in
adsorbates and large molecules
Quantifying nonorthogonality
An exploratory approach to the possibility of analyzing nonorthogonality as a
quantifiable property is presented. Three different measures for the
nonorthogonality of pure states are introduced, and one of these measures is
extended to single-particle density matrices using methods that are similar to
recently introduced techniques for quantifying entanglement. Several
interesting special cases are considered. It is pointed out that a measure of
nonorthogonality can meaningfully be associated with a single mixed quantum
state. It is then shown how nonorthogonality can be unlocked with classical
information; this analysis reveals interesting inequalities and points to a
number of connections between nonorthogonality and entanglement.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Ultrafast nonlinear response of gold gyroid three-dimensional metamaterials
We explore the nonlinear optical response of 3D gyroidal metamaterials, which show >10-fold enhancements compared to all other metallic nanomaterials as well as bulk gold. A simple analytical model for this metamaterial response shows how the reflectivity spectrum scales with the metal fill fraction and the refractive index of the material that the metallic nanostructure is embedded in. The ultrafast response arising from the interconnected 3D nanostructure can be separated into electronic and lattice contributions with strong spectral dependences on the dielectric filling of the gyroids, which invert the sign of the nonlinear transient reflectivity changes. These metamaterials thus provide a wide variety of tuneable nonlinear optical properties, which can be utilised for frequency mixing, optical switching, phase modulators, novel emitters, and enhanced sensing.This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final version is available from APS in Physical Review Applied at http://journals.aps.org/prapplied/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.2.044002#fulltext#fulltext
Gyroid Optical Metamaterials: Calculating the Effective Permittivity of Multidomain Samples
Gold gyroid optical metamaterials are known to possess a reduced plasma frequency and linear dichroism imparted by their intricate subwavelength single gyroid morphology. The anisotropic optical properties are, however, only evident when a large individual gyroid domain is investigated. Multidomain gyroid metamaterials, fabricated using a polyisoprene--polystyrene--poly(ethylene oxide) triblock terpolymer and consisting of multiple small gyroid domains with random orientation and handedness, instead exhibit isotropic optical properties. Comparing three effective medium models, we here show that the specular reflectance spectra of such multidomain gyroid optical metamaterials can be accurately modeled over a broad range of incident angles by a Bruggeman effective medium consisting of a random wire array. This model accurately reproduces previously published results tracking the variation in normal incidence reflectance spectra of gold gyroid optical metamaterials as a function of host refractive index and volume fill fraction of gold. The effective permittivity derived from this theory confirms the change in sign of the real part of the permittivity in the visible spectral region (so, that gold gyroid metamaterials exhibit both dielectric and metallic behavior at optical wavelengths). That a Bruggeman effective medium can accurately model the experimental reflectance spectra implies that small multidomain gold gyroid optical metamaterials behave both qualitatively and quantitatively as an amorphous composite of gold and air (i.e., nanoporous gold) and that coherent electromagnetic contributions arising from the subwavelength gyroid symmetry are not dominant.This research was supported through the Swiss National Science Foundation through the National Center of Competence in Research Bio-Inspired Materials and grant numbers 200021_163220 (to U.S.) and PZ00P2_168223 (to B.D.W.), the Adolphe Merkle Foundation, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the Cambridge NanoDTC EP/G037221/1, EP/L027151/1, and EP/ G060649/1, and ERC LINASS 320503 and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 706329 (to I.G.). Y.G. and U.W. thank the National Science Foundation (DMR-1409105) for financial support
Photoinduced 3D orientational order in side chain liquid crystalline azopolymers
We apply experimental technique based on the combination of methods dealing
with principal refractive indices and absorption coefficients to study the
photoinduced 3D orientational order in the films of liquid crystalline (LC)
azopolymers. The technique is used to identify 3D orientational configurations
of trans azobenzene chromophores and to characterize the degree of ordering in
terms of order parameters. We study two types of LC azopolymers which form
structures with preferred in-plane and out-of-plane alignment of
azochromophores, correspondingly. Using irradiation with the polarized light of
two different wavelengths we find that the kinetics of photoinduced anisotropy
can be dominated by either photo-reorientation or photoselection mechanisms
depending on the wavelength. We formulate the phenomenological model describing
the kinetics of photoinduced anisotropy in terms of the isomer concentrations
and the order parameter tensor. We present the numerical results for absorption
coefficients that are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data.
The model is also used to interpret the effect of changing the mechanism with
the wavelength of the pumping light.Comment: uses revtex4 28 pages, 10 figure
Experimental study of photoionization of ozone in the 12 to 21 eV region
The total and partial ion yield of ozone using time-of-flight is presented. The measurements were done using multicoincidence between a photoelectron and a photoion (PEPICO). Comparison with the photoelectron spectrum and previous measurements using other techniques allowed the assignment of most broad features in the spectra. Kinetic energy released is obtained for O+ and O-2(+) ions. A discussion about the dissociation channels is included. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.115115041504
Pulsar Searches with the SKA
The Square Kilometre Array will be an amazing instrument for pulsar
astronomy. While the full SKA will be sensitive enough to detect all pulsars in
the Galaxy visible from Earth, already with SKA1, pulsar searches will discover
enough pulsars to increase the currently known population by a factor of four,
no doubt including a range of amazing unknown sources. Real time processing is
needed to deal with the 60 PB of pulsar search data collected per day, using a
signal processing pipeline required to perform more than 10 POps. Here we
present the suggested design of the pulsar search engine for the SKA and
discuss challenges and solutions to the pulsar search venture.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. To be published in Proceedings of IAU Symposium
337: Pulsar Astrophysics - The Next 50 Year
The Uncertainty Principle in the Presence of Quantum Memory
The uncertainty principle, originally formulated by Heisenberg, dramatically
illustrates the difference between classical and quantum mechanics. The
principle bounds the uncertainties about the outcomes of two incompatible
measurements, such as position and momentum, on a particle. It implies that one
cannot predict the outcomes for both possible choices of measurement to
arbitrary precision, even if information about the preparation of the particle
is available in a classical memory. However, if the particle is prepared
entangled with a quantum memory, a device which is likely to soon be available,
it is possible to predict the outcomes for both measurement choices precisely.
In this work we strengthen the uncertainty principle to incorporate this case,
providing a lower bound on the uncertainties which depends on the amount of
entanglement between the particle and the quantum memory. We detail the
application of our result to witnessing entanglement and to quantum key
distribution.Comment: 5 pages plus 12 of supplementary information. Updated to match the
journal versio
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