153 research outputs found
Controlling the sense of molecular rotation
We introduce a new scheme for controlling the sense of molecular rotation. By
varying the polarization and the delay between two ultrashort laser pulses, we
induce unidirectional molecular rotation, thereby forcing the molecules to
rotate clockwise/counterclockwise under field-free conditions. We show that
unidirectionally rotating molecules are confined to the plane defined by the
two polarization vectors of the pulses, which leads to a permanent anisotropy
in the molecular angular distribution. The latter may be useful for controlling
collisional cross-sections and optical and kinetic processes in molecular
gases. We discuss the application of this control scheme to individual
components within a molecular mixture in a selective manner.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, Submitted to the New Journal of Physics for the
"coherent control" special issu
Orientation and Alignment Echoes
We present what is probably the simplest classical system featuring the echo
phenomenon - a collection of randomly oriented free rotors with dispersed
rotational velocities. Following excitation by a pair of time-delayed impulsive
kicks, the mean orientation/alignment of the ensemble exhibits multiple echoes
and fractional echoes. We elucidate the mechanism of the echo formation by
kick-induced filamentation of phase space, and provide the first experimental
demonstration of classical alignment echoes in a thermal gas of CO_2 molecules
excited by a pair of femtosecond laser pulses
Polarization in Strong-Field Ionization of Excited Helium
We analyze how bound-state excitation, electron exchange and the residual binding potential influence above-threshold ionization (ATI) in helium prepared in an excited p state, oriented parallel and perpendicular to a linearly polarized mid-IR field. Using the ab initio B-spline algebraic diagrammatic construction, and several one-electron methods with effective potentials, including the Schrödinger solver Qprop, modified versions of the strong-field approximation (SFA) and the Coulomb quantum-orbit strong-field approximation, we find that these specific physical mechanisms leave significant imprints in ATI spectra and photoelectron momentum distributions. Examples are changes of up to two orders of magnitude in the high-energy photoelectron region, and ramp-like structures that can be traced back to Coulomb-distorted trajectories. The present work also shows that electron exchange renders rescattering less effective, causing suppressions in the ATI plateau. Due to the long-range potential, the electron continuum dynamics are no longer confined to the polarization axis, in contrast to the predictions of traditional approaches. Thus, one may in principle probe excited-state configurations perpendicular to the driving-field polarization without the need for orthogonally polarized fields
Phytochrome Mediated Responses in Agrobacterium fabrum: Growth, Motility and Plant Infection
The soil bacterium and plant pathogen Agrobacterium fabrum C58 has two phytochrome photoreceptors, Agp1 and Agp2. We found that plant infection and tumor induction by A. fabrum is down-regulated by light and that phytochrome knockout mutants of A. fabrum have diminished infection rates. The regulation pattern of infection matches with that of bacterial conjugation reported earlier, suggesting similar regulatory mechanisms. In the regulation of conjugation and plant infection, phytochromes are active in darkness. This is a major difference to plant phytochromes, which are typically active after irradiation. We also found that propagation and motility were affected in agp1â and agp2â knockout mutants, although propagation was not always affected by light. The regulatory patterns can partially but not completely be explained by modulated histidine kinase activities of Agp1 and Agp2. In a mass spectrometry-based proteomic study, 24 proteins were different between light and dark grown A. fabrum, whereas 382 proteins differed between wild type and phytochrome knockout mutants, pointing again to light independent roles of Agp1 and Agp2
Cooling in a Bistable Optical Cavity
We propose a generic approach to nonresonant laser cooling of atoms/molecules
in a bistable optical cavity. The method exemplifies a photonic version of
Sisyphus cooling, in which the matter-dressed cavity extracts energy from the
particles and discharges it to the external field as a result of sudden
transitions between two stable states
Time-Resolved Measurement of Interatomic Coulombic Decay in Ne_2
The lifetime of interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD) [L. S. Cederbaum et al.,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 4778 (1997)] in Ne_2 is determined via an extreme
ultraviolet pump-probe experiment at the Free-Electron Laser in Hamburg. The
pump pulse creates a 2s inner-shell vacancy in one of the two Ne atoms,
whereupon the ionized dimer undergoes ICD resulting in a repulsive
Ne^{+}(2p^{-1}) - Ne^{+}(2p^{-1}) state, which is probed with a second pulse,
removing a further electron. The yield of coincident Ne^{+} - Ne^{2+} pairs is
recorded as a function of the pump-probe delay, allowing us to deduce the ICD
lifetime of the Ne_{2}^{+}(2s^{-1}) state to be (150 +/- 50) fs in agreement
with quantum calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted by PRL on July 11th, 201
Noise auto-correlation spectroscopy with coherent Raman scattering
Ultrafast lasers have become one of the most powerful tools in coherent
nonlinear optical spectroscopy. Short pulses enable direct observation of fast
molecular dynamics, whereas broad spectral bandwidth offers ways of controlling
nonlinear optical processes by means of quantum interferences. Special care is
usually taken to preserve the coherence of laser pulses as it determines the
accuracy of a spectroscopic measurement. Here we present a new approach to
coherent Raman spectroscopy based on deliberately introduced noise, which
increases the spectral resolution, robustness and efficiency. We probe laser
induced molecular vibrations using a broadband laser pulse with intentionally
randomized amplitude and phase. The vibrational resonances result in and are
identified through the appearance of intensity correlations in the noisy
spectrum of coherently scattered photons. Spectral resolution is neither
limited by the pulse bandwidth, nor sensitive to the quality of the temporal
and spectral profile of the pulses. This is particularly attractive for the
applications in microscopy, biological imaging and remote sensing, where
dispersion and scattering properties of the medium often undermine the
applicability of ultrafast lasers. The proposed method combines the efficiency
and resolution of a coherent process with the robustness of incoherent light.
As we demonstrate here, it can be implemented by simply destroying the
coherence of a laser pulse, and without any elaborate temporal scanning or
spectral shaping commonly required by the frequency-resolved spectroscopic
methods with ultrashort pulses.Comment: To appear in Nature Physic
Nanofabrication by magnetic focusing of supersonic beams
We present a new method for nanoscale atom lithography. We propose the use of
a supersonic atomic beam, which provides an extremely high-brightness and cold
source of fast atoms. The atoms are to be focused onto a substrate using a thin
magnetic film, into which apertures with widths on the order of 100 nm have
been etched. Focused spot sizes near or below 10 nm, with focal lengths on the
order of 10 microns, are predicted. This scheme is applicable both to precision
patterning of surfaces with metastable atomic beams and to direct deposition of
material.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Isotopic and spin selectivity of H_2 adsorbed in bundles of carbon nanotubes
Due to its large surface area and strongly attractive potential, a bundle of
carbon nanotubes is an ideal substrate material for gas storage. In addition,
adsorption in nanotubes can be exploited in order to separate the components of
a mixture. In this paper, we investigate the preferential adsorption of D_2
versus H_2(isotope selectivity) and of ortho versus para(spin selectivity)
molecules confined in the one-dimensional grooves and interstitial channels of
carbon nanotube bundles. We perform selectivity calculations in the low
coverage regime, neglecting interactions between adsorbate molecules. We find
substantial spin selectivity for a range of temperatures up to 100 K, and even
greater isotope selectivity for an extended range of temperatures,up to 300 K.
This isotope selectivity is consistent with recent experimental data, which
exhibit a large difference between the isosteric heats of D_2 and H_2 adsorbed
in these bundles.Comment: Paper submitted to Phys.Rev. B; 17 pages, 2 tables, 6 figure
Analytic results for Gaussian wave packets in four model systems: II. Autocorrelation functions
The autocorrelation function, A(t), measures the overlap (in Hilbert space)
of a time-dependent quantum mechanical wave function, psi(x,t), with its
initial value, psi(x,0). It finds extensive use in the theoretical analysis and
experimental measurement of such phenomena as quantum wave packet revivals. We
evaluate explicit expressions for the autocorrelation function for
time-dependent Gaussian solutions of the Schrodinger equation corresponding to
the cases of a free particle, a particle undergoing uniform acceleration, a
particle in a harmonic oscillator potential, and a system corresponding to an
unstable equilibrium (the so-called `inverted' oscillator.) We emphasize the
importance of momentum-space methods where such calculations are often more
straightforwardly realized, as well as stressing their role in providing
complementary information to results obtained using position-space
wavefunctions.Comment: 18 pages, RevTeX, to appear in Found. Phys. Lett, Vol. 17, Dec. 200
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