205 research outputs found
Dynamics at the nanoscale
However fascinating structures may be at the nanoscale, time-dependent behaviour at the nanoscale has far greater importance. Some of the dynamics is random, with fluctuations controlling rate processes and making thermal ratchets possible. Some of the dynamics causes the transfer of energy, of signals, or of charge. Such transfers are especially efficiently controlled in biological systems. Other dynamical processes occur when we wish to control the nanoscale, e.g., to avoid local failures of gate dielectrics, or to manipulate structures by electronic excitation, to use spin manipulation in quantum information processing. Our prime purpose is to make clear the enormous range and variety of time-dependent nanoscale phenomena. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Optomechanically induced transparency
Coherent interaction of laser radiation with multilevel atoms and molecules
can lead to quantum interference in the electronic excitation pathways. A
prominent example observed in atomic three-level-systems is the phenomenon of
electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), in which a control laser
induces a narrow spectral transparency window for a weak probe laser beam. The
concomitant rapid variation of the refractive index in this spectral window can
give rise to dramatic reduction of the group velocity of a propagating pulse of
probe light. Dynamic control of EIT via the control laser enables even a
complete stop, that is, storage, of probe light pulses in the atomic medium.
Here, we demonstrate optomechanically induced transparency (OMIT)--formally
equivalent to EIT--in a cavity optomechanical system operating in the resolved
sideband regime. A control laser tuned to the lower motional sideband of the
cavity resonance induces a dipole-like interaction of optical and mechanical
degrees of freedom. Under these conditions, the destructive interference of
excitation pathways for an intracavity probe field gives rise to a window of
transparency when a two-photon resonance condition is met. As a salient feature
of EIT, the power of the control laser determines the width and depth of the
probe transparency window. OMIT could therefore provide a new approach for
delaying, slowing and storing light pulses in long-lived mechanical excitations
of optomechanical systems, whose optical and mechanical properties can be
tailored in almost arbitrary ways in the micro- and nano-optomechanical
platforms developed to date
Octave Spanning Frequency Comb on a Chip
Optical frequency combs have revolutionized the field of frequency metrology
within the last decade and have become enabling tools for atomic clocks, gas
sensing and astrophysical spectrometer calibration. The rapidly increasing
number of applications has heightened interest in more compact comb generators.
Optical microresonator based comb generators bear promise in this regard.
Critical to their future use as 'frequency markers', is however the absolute
frequency stabilization of the optical comb spectrum. A powerful technique for
this stabilization is self-referencing, which requires a spectrum that spans a
full octave, i.e. a factor of two in frequency. In the case of mode locked
lasers, overcoming the limited bandwidth has become possible only with the
advent of photonic crystal fibres for supercontinuum generation. Here, we
report for the first time the generation of an octave-spanning frequency comb
directly from a toroidal microresonator on a silicon chip. The comb spectrum
covers the wavelength range from 990 nm to 2170 nm and is retrieved from a
continuous wave laser interacting with the modes of an ultra high Q
microresonator, without relying on external broadening. Full tunability of the
generated frequency comb over a bandwidth exceeding an entire free spectral
range is demonstrated. This allows positioning of a frequency comb mode to any
desired frequency within the comb bandwidth. The ability to derive octave
spanning spectra from microresonator comb generators represents a key step
towards achieving a radio-frequency to optical link on a chip, which could
unify the fields of metrology with micro- and nano-photonics and enable
entirely new devices that bring frequency metrology into a chip scale setting
for compact applications such as space based optical clocks
Optomechanical sideband cooling of a micromechanical oscillator close to the quantum ground state
Cooling a mesoscopic mechanical oscillator to its quantum ground state is
elementary for the preparation and control of low entropy quantum states of
large scale objects. Here, we pre-cool a 70-MHz micromechanical silica
oscillator to an occupancy below 200 quanta by thermalizing it with a 600-mK
cold 3He gas. Two-level system induced damping via structural defect states is
shown to be strongly reduced, and simultaneously serves as novel thermometry
method to independently quantify excess heating due to the cooling laser. We
demonstrate that dynamical backaction sideband cooling can reduce the average
occupancy to 9+-1 quanta, implying that the mechanical oscillator can be found
(10+- 1)% of the time in its quantum ground state.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Negative oxygen vacancies in HfO as charge traps in high-k stacks
We calculated the optical excitation and thermal ionization energies of
oxygen vacancies in m-HfO using atomic basis sets, a non-local density
functional and periodic supercell. The thermal ionization energies of
negatively charged V and V centres are consistent with values
obtained by the electrical measurements. The results suggest that negative
oxygen vacancies are the likely candidates for intrinsic electron traps in the
hafnum-based gate stack devices.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure
Dipole-active optical phonons in YTiO_3: ellipsometry study and lattice-dynamics calculations
The anisotropic complex dielectric response was accurately extracted from
spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements at phonon frequencies for the three
principal crystallographic directions of an orthorhombic (Pbnm) YTiO_3 single
crystal. We identify all twenty five infrared-active phonon modes allowed by
symmetry, 7B_1u, 9B_2u, and 9B_3u, polarized along the c-, b-, and a-axis,
respectively. From a classical dispersion analysis of the complex dielectric
functions \tilde\epsilon(\omega) and their inverses -1/\tilde\epsilon(\omega)
we define the resonant frequencies, widths, and oscillator strengths of the
transverse (TO) and longitudinal (LO) phonon modes. We calculate
eigenfrequencies and eigenvectors of B_1u, B_2u, and B_3u normal modes and
suggest assignments of the TO phonon modes observed in our ellipsometry spectra
by comparing their frequencies and oscillator strengths with those resulting
from the present lattice-dynamics study. Based on these assignments, we
estimate dynamical effective charges of the atoms in the YTiO_3 lattice. We
find that, in general, the dynamical effective charges in YTiO_3 lattice are
typical for a family of perovskite oxides. By contrast to a ferroelectric
BaTiO_3, the dynamical effective charge of oxygen related to a displacement
along the c-axis does not show the anomalously large value. At the same time,
the dynamical effective charges of Y and ab-plane oxygen exhibit anisotropy,
indicating strong hybridization along the a-axis.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
The oxide gate dielectric: do we know all we should?
Silicon's importance as a semiconductor owes much to its oxide. This oxide passivates, enables key process steps, and has been the gate dielectric of choice for MOSFETs for many years. Experience and know-how in using this oxide makes it hard for radical alternatives to be accepted. Yet it may not be possible for silicon dioxide to meet the stringent demands of the Semiconductor Industry Roadmap as a gate dielectric. This leads to clear technological questions. Is the oxide the best that can be grown? Could a better oxide be obtained,by some modification of the growth process? What are the performance criteria that define the 'best' oxide? Are evolutionary changes, like incorporating nitrogen, to be preferred to introducing new oxides, such as those of Hf or Zr? Would there be long term problems with the new oxides? As so often in microelectronics, the technology demands new materials and new ideas from condensed matter physics. The critical role of the gate dielectric points to challenges for basic condensed matter theory, and this paper attempts to define these issues. It is certainly not sufficient to predict an equilibrium structure for oxide on silicon. The front and back regions of the oxide differ in measurable ways. Dynamical events like breakdown behaviour are certainly partly controlled by defects. Many experiments show the standard view of growth processes, 'bulk' diffusion and some interface reaction, is incomplete at best. How defects evolve as the oxide grows, and how impurities like H affect what happens could be crucial. Any analysis, even if only to create a framework of understanding, should address the various experiments exploiting different oxygen isotopes, the systematics of oxidation kinetics, and those electron microscope observations that show apparent layer-by-layer growth on terraces. The present paper aims to define an appropriate context for other detailed studies in the hope that progress in theory can contribute effectively to microelectronics futures
Measuring nanomechanical motion with an imprecision far below the standard quantum limit
We demonstrate a transducer of nanomechanical motion based on cavity enhanced
optical near-fields capable of achieving a shot-noise limited imprecision more
than 10 dB below the standard quantum limit (SQL). Residual background due to
fundamental thermodynamical frequency fluctuations allows a total imprecision 3
dB below the SQL at room temperature (corresponding to 600 am/Hz^(1/2) in
absolute units) and is known to reduce to negligible values for moderate
cryogenic temperatures. The transducer operates deeply in the quantum
backaction dominated regime, prerequisite for exploring quantum backaction,
measurement-induced squeezing and accessing sub-SQL sensitivity using
backaction evading techniques
Continuum elastic sphere vibrations as a model for low-lying optical modes in icosahedral quasicrystals
The nearly dispersionless, so-called "optical" vibrational modes observed by
inelastic neutron scattering from icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn and Zn-Mg-Y
quasicrystals are found to correspond well to modes of a continuum elastic
sphere that has the same diameter as the corresponding icosahedral basic units
of the quasicrystal. When the sphere is considered as free, most of the
experimentally found modes can be accounted for, in both systems. Taking into
account the mechanical connection between the clusters and the remainder of the
quasicrystal allows a complete assignment of all optical modes in the case of
Al-Pd-Mn. This approach provides support to the relevance of clusters in the
vibrational properties of quasicrystals.Comment: 9 pages without figure
Modelling charge self-trapping in wide-gap dielectrics: Localization problem in local density functionals
We discuss the adiabatic self-trapping of small polarons within the density
functional theory (DFT). In particular, we carried out plane-wave
pseudo-potential calculations of the triplet exciton in NaCl and found no
energy minimum corresponding to the self-trapped exciton (STE) contrary to the
experimental evidence and previous calculations. To explore the origin of this
problem we modelled the self-trapped hole in NaCl using hybrid density
functionals and an embedded cluster method. Calculations show that the
stability of the self-trapped state of the hole drastically depends on the
amount of the exact exchange in the density functional: at less than 30% of the
Hartree-Fock exchange, only delocalized hole is stable, at 50% - both
delocalized and self-trapped states are stable, while further increase of exact
exchange results in only the self-trapped state being stable. We argue that the
main contributions to the self-trapping energy such as the kinetic energy of
the localizing charge, the chemical bond formation of the di-halogen quasi
molecule, and the lattice polarization, are represented incorrectly within the
Kohn-Sham (KS) based approaches.Comment: 6 figures, 1 tabl
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