955 research outputs found
The first direct detection of gravitational waves opens a vast new frontier in astronomy
The first direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs),
announced on 11 February 2016, has opened a vast new
frontier in astronomy. Albert Einstein predicted the existence of these waves about a century ago as a consequence of his general theory of relativity. Radio
astronomy observations of the binary pulsar system PSR
1913 + 16 over a 20 year period beginning in 1975 provided
strong observational evidence that gravitational waves carried energy away from the orbits of neutron stars at precisely the level predicted by general relativity
(GR). This relentless conversion of orbital energy into
gravitational wave energy causes binary orbits to decay
until the objects eventually collide and merge. The frontier
of precision measurement science, using laser interferometers, was pushed for more than four decades to
achieve this first direct detection, marking a milestone in
experimental physics and engineering. Even more significantly, this milestone also opens a new window onto our universe and a completely new kind of astronomy to
explore
Photoinduced time-resolved electrodynamics of superconducting metals and alloys
The photoexcited state in superconducting metals and alloys was studied via
pump-probe spectroscopy. A pulsed Ti:sapphire laser was used to create the
non-equilibrium state and the far-infrared pulses of a synchrotron storage
ring, to which the laser is synchronized, measured the changes in the material
optical properties. Both the time- and frequency- dependent photoinduced
spectra of Pb, Nb, NbN, Nb{0.5}Ti{0.5}N, and Pb{0.75}Bi{0.25} superconducting
thin films were measured in the low-fluence regime. The time dependent data
establish the regions where the relaxation rate is dominated either by the
phonon escape time (phonon bottleneck effect) or by the intrinsic quasiparticle
recombination time. The photoinduced spectra measure directly the reduction of
the superconducting gap due to an excess number of quasiparticles created by
the short laser pulses. This gap shift allows us to establish the temperature
range over which the low fluence approximation is valid.Comment: 12 pages with 10 figure
Near-field radiative heat transfer between macroscopic planar surfaces
Near-field radiative heat transfer allows heat to propagate across a small
vacuum gap in quantities that are several orders of magnitude greater then the
heat transfer by far-field, blackbody radiation. Although heat transfer via
near-field effects has been discussed for many years, experimental verification
of this theory has been very limited. We have measured the heat transfer
between two macroscopic sapphire plates, finding an increase in agreement with
expectations from theory. These experiments, conducted near 300 K, have
measured the heat transfer as a function of separation over mm to m and as
a function of temperature differences between 2.5 and 30 K. The experiments
demonstrate that evanescence can be put to work to transfer heat from an object
without actually touching it
The first direct detection of gravitational waves opens a vast new frontier in astronomy
The first direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs),
announced on 11 February 2016, has opened a vast new
frontier in astronomy. Albert Einstein predicted the existence of these waves about a century ago as a consequence of his general theory of relativity. Radio
astronomy observations of the binary pulsar system PSR
1913 + 16 over a 20 year period beginning in 1975 provided
strong observational evidence that gravitational waves carried energy away from the orbits of neutron stars at precisely the level predicted by general relativity
(GR). This relentless conversion of orbital energy into
gravitational wave energy causes binary orbits to decay
until the objects eventually collide and merge. The frontier
of precision measurement science, using laser interferometers, was pushed for more than four decades to
achieve this first direct detection, marking a milestone in
experimental physics and engineering. Even more significantly, this milestone also opens a new window onto our universe and a completely new kind of astronomy to
explore
Small optic suspensions for Advanced LIGO input optics and other precision optical experiments
We report on the design and performance of small optic suspensions developed
to suppress seismic motion of out-of-cavity optics in the Input Optics
subsystem of the Advanced LIGO interferometric gravitational wave detector.
These compact single stage suspensions provide isolation in all six degrees of
freedom of the optic, local sensing and actuation in three of them, and passive
damping for the other three
Characterization of thermal effects in the Enhanced LIGO Input Optics
We present the design and performance of the LIGO Input Optics subsystem as
implemented for the sixth science run of the LIGO interferometers. The Initial
LIGO Input Optics experienced thermal side effects when operating with 7 W
input power. We designed, built, and implemented improved versions of the Input
Optics for Enhanced LIGO, an incremental upgrade to the Initial LIGO
interferometers, designed to run with 30 W input power. At four times the power
of Initial LIGO, the Enhanced LIGO Input Optics demonstrated improved
performance including better optical isolation, less thermal drift, minimal
thermal lensing and higher optical efficiency. The success of the Input Optics
design fosters confidence for its ability to perform well in Advanced LIGO
Phase Effects in the Diffraction of Light: Beyond the Grating Equation
Diffraction gratings affect the absolute phase of light in a way that is not obvious from the usual derivation of optical paths using the grating equation. For example, consider light which encounters first one and then the second of two parallel gratings. If one grating is moved parallel to its surface, the phase of the light diffracted from the grating pair is shifted by 2Ï€ each time the grating is moved by one grating constant, even though the geometric path length is not altered by the motion. This additional phase shift must be included when incorporating diffraction gratings in interferometers
Dark-bright magneto-exciton mixing induced by Coulomb interaction in strained quantum wells
Coupled magneto-exciton states between allowed (`bright') and forbidden
(`dark') transitions are found in absorption spectra of strained
InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells with increasing magnetic field up to
30 T. We found large (~ 10 meV) energy splittings in the mixed states. The
observed anticrossing behavior is independent of polarization, and sensitive
only to the parity of the quantum confined states. Detailed experimental and
theoretical investigations indicate that the excitonic Coulomb interaction
rather than valence band complexity is responsible for the splittings. In
addition, we determine the spin composition of the mixed states.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Giant Superfluorescent Bursts from a Semiconductor Magnetoplasma
Currently, considerable resurgent interest exists in the concept of
superradiance (SR), i.e., accelerated relaxation of excited dipoles due to
cooperative spontaneous emission, first proposed by Dicke in 1954. Recent
authors have discussed SR in diverse contexts, including cavity quantum
electrodynamics, quantum phase transitions, and plasmonics. At the heart of
these various experiments lies the coherent coupling of constituent particles
to each other via their radiation field that cooperatively governs the dynamics
of the whole system. In the most exciting form of SR, called superfluorescence
(SF), macroscopic coherence spontaneously builds up out of an initially
incoherent ensemble of excited dipoles and then decays abruptly. Here, we
demonstrate the emergence of this photon-mediated, cooperative, many-body state
in a very unlikely system: an ultradense electron-hole plasma in a
semiconductor. We observe intense, delayed pulses, or bursts, of coherent
radiation from highly photo-excited semiconductor quantum wells with a
concomitant sudden decrease in population from total inversion to zero. Unlike
previously reported SF in atomic and molecular systems that occur on nanosecond
time scales, these intense SF bursts have picosecond pulse-widths and are
delayed in time by tens of picoseconds with respect to the excitation pulse.
They appear only at sufficiently high excitation powers and magnetic fields and
sufficiently low temperatures - where various interactions causing decoherence
are suppressed. We present theoretical simulations based on the relaxation and
recombination dynamics of ultrahigh-density electron-hole pairs in a quantizing
magnetic field, which successfully capture the salient features of the
experimental observations.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure
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