2,645 research outputs found
Climate or rural development policy?
Being heavily energy dependent, it is not much of a surprise that Europe pays special attention to reducing the use of fossil fuels. Each one of the ten new member states is characterized by relatively low per capita energy consumption and relatively low energy efficiency, and the share of renewables in their energy mix tends to be low, too. The paper examines the problem when policy measures create a decrease in environmental capital instead of an increase. In this case it hardly seems justified to talk about environmental protection. The authors describe a case of a Hungarian rapeseed oil mill which would not be of too much interest on its own but given that almost all similar plants went bankrupt, there are some important lessons to learn from its survival. The enterprise the authors examined aimed at establishing a micro-regional network. They completed a brown-field development to establish a small plant on the premises of a former large agricultural cooperative. By partnering with the former employees and suppliers of the sometime cooperative, they enjoyed some benefits which all the other green-field businesses focusing on fuel production could not. The project improved food security, energy security and population retention as well
Laser frequency stabilization to a single ion
A fundamental limit to the stability of a single-ion optical frequency
standard is set by quantum noise in the measurement of the internal state of
the ion. We discuss how the interrogation sequence and the processing of the
atomic resonance signal can be optimized in order to obtain the highest
possible stability under realistic experimental conditions. A servo algorithm
is presented that stabilizes a laser frequency to the single-ion signal and
that eliminates errors due to laser frequency drift. Numerical simulations of
the servo characteristics are compared to experimental data from a frequency
comparison of two single-ion standards based on a transition at 688 THz in
171Yb+. Experimentally, an instability sigma_y(100 s)=9*10^{-16} is obtained in
the frequency difference between both standards.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, submitted to J. Phys.
Quenched Narrow-Line Laser Cooling of 40Ca to Near the Photon Recoil Limit
We present a cooling method that should be generally applicable to atoms with
narrow optical transitions. This technique uses velocity-selective pulses to
drive atoms towards a zero-velocity dark state and then quenches the excited
state to increase the cooling rate. We demonstrate this technique of quenched
narrow-line cooling by reducing the 1-D temperature of a sample of neutral 40Ca
atoms. We velocity select and cool with the 1S0(4s2) to 3P1(4s4p) 657 nm
intercombination line and quench with the 3P1(4s4p) to 1S0(4s5s)
intercombination line at 553 nm, which increases the cooling rate eight-fold.
Limited only by available quenching laser power, we have transferred 18 % of
the atoms from our initial 2 mK velocity distribution and achieved temperatures
as low as 4 microK, corresponding to a vrms of 2.8 cm/s or 2 recoils at 657 nm.
This cooling technique, which is closely related to Raman cooling, can be
extended to three dimensions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; Submitted to PRA Rapid Communication
Absolute Frequency Measurements of the Hg^+ and Ca Optical Clock Transitions with a Femtosecond Laser
The frequency comb created by a femtosecond mode-locked laser and a
microstructured fiber is used to phase coherently measure the frequencies of
both the Hg^+ and Ca optical standards with respect to the SI second as
realized at NIST. We find the transition frequencies to be f_Hg=1 064 721 609
899 143(10) Hz and f_Ca=455 986 240 494 158(26) Hz, respectively. In addition
to the unprecedented precision demonstrated here, this work is the precursor to
all-optical atomic clocks based on the Hg^+ and Ca standards. Furthermore, when
combined with previous measurements, we find no time variations of these atomic
frequencies within the uncertainties of |(df_Ca/dt)/f_Ca| < 8 x 10^{-14}
yr^{-1}, and |(df_Hg/dt)/f_Hg|< 30 x 10^{-14} yr^{-1}.Comment: 6 pages, including 4 figures. RevTex 4. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Observation and absolute frequency measurements of the 1S0 - 3P0 optical clock transition in ytterbium
We report the direct excitation of the highly forbidden (6s^2) 1S0 - (6s6p)
3P0 optical transition in two odd isotopes of ytterbium. As the excitation
laser frequency is scanned, absorption is detected by monitoring the depletion
from an atomic cloud at ~70 uK in a magneto-optical trap. The measured
frequency in 171Yb (F=1/2) is 518,295,836,593.2 +/- 4.4 kHz. The measured
frequency in 173Yb (F=5/2) is 518,294,576,850.0 +/- 4.4 kHz. Measurements are
made with a femtosecond-laser frequency comb calibrated by the NIST cesium
fountain clock and represent nearly a million-fold reduction in uncertainty.
The natural linewidth of these J=0 to J=0 transitions is calculated to be ~10
mHz, making them well-suited to support a new generation of optical atomic
clocks based on confinement in an optical lattice.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
The optical calcium frequency standards of PTB and NIST
We describe the current status of the Ca optical frequency standards with
laser-cooled neutral atoms realized in two different laboratories for the
purpose of developing a possible future optical atomic clock.
Frequency measurements performed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
(PTB) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) make the
frequency of the clock transition of 40Ca one of the best known optical
frequencies (relative uncertainty 1.2e-14) and the measurements of this
frequency in both laboratories agree to well within their respective
uncertainties.
Prospects for improvement by orders of magnitude in the relative uncertainty
of the standard look feasible.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Comptes Rendus Physiqu
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Fabrication and characterisation of Si micropillar PV structures
Arrays of vertical silicon micropillar radial junction solar cells have been fabricated by diffusion of direct application spin on dopant and from the vapour phase through proximity rapid thermal diffusion. The micropillars were fabricated by optical lithography and deep reactive ion etching. The micropillar arrays show superior antireflective properties over the measured spectrum and good correlation to finite difference time domain modelling of identical geometry arrays. Junctions formed by a conventional spin on doping process of phosphorus containing dopant solution produced Suns-Voc values in the region of 0·3 V. This value is likely due to difficulties encountered in achieving an even distribution of dopant over the entire surface of the arrays. An alternative method utilising spin on dopant but employing an intermediate vapour phase diffusion step produced promising results with Suns-Voc values reaching 0·5 V following a post-diffusion drive-in ste
Sub-femtosecond absolute timing precision with a 10 GHz hybrid photonic-microwave oscillator
We present an optical-electronic approach to generating microwave signals
with high spectral purity. By circumventing shot noise and operating near
fundamental thermal limits, we demonstrate 10 GHz signals with an absolute
timing jitter for a single hybrid oscillator of 420 attoseconds (1Hz - 5 GHz)
Observation of Individual Josephson Vortices in YBCO Bicrystal Grain-boundary Junctions
The response of YBCO bicrystal grain-boundary junctions to small dc magnetic
fields (0 - 10 Oe) has been probed with a low-power microwave (rf) signal of
4.4 GHz in a microwave-resonator setup. Peaks in the microwave loss at certain
dc magnetic fields are observed that result from individual Josephson vortices
penetrating into the grain-boundary junctions under study. The system is
modeled as a long Josephson junction described by the sine-Gordon equation with
the appropriate boundary conditions. Excellent quantitative agreement between
the experimental data and the model has been obtained. Hysteresis effect of dc
magnetic field is also studied and the results of measurement and calculation
are compared.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
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