13,427 research outputs found
Chasing 'Slow Light'
A critical review of experimental studies of the so-called 'slow light'
arising due to anomalously high steepness of the refractive index dispersion
under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency or coherent
population oscillations is presented. It is shown that a considerable amount of
experimental evidence for observation of the 'slow light' is not related to the
low group velocity of light and can be easily interpreted in terms of a
standard model of interaction of light with a saturable absorber.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, to be published in June issue of Phisics:
Uspekhi under the title "Notes on Slow Light
An Interesting Class of Operators with unusual Schatten-von Neumann behavior
We consider the class of integral operators Q_\f on of the form
(Q_\f f)(x)=\int_0^\be\f (\max\{x,y\})f(y)dy. We discuss necessary and
sufficient conditions on to insure that is bounded, compact,
or in the Schatten-von Neumann class \bS_p, . We also give
necessary and sufficient conditions for to be a finite rank
operator. However, there is a kind of cut-off at , and for membership in
\bS_{p}, , the situation is more complicated. Although we give
various necessary conditions and sufficient conditions relating to
Q_{\phi}\in\bS_{p} in that range, we do not have necessary and sufficient
conditions. In the most important case , we have a necessary condition and
a sufficient condition, using and modulus of continuity,
respectively, with a rather small gap in between. A second cut-off occurs at
: if \f is sufficiently smooth and decays reasonably fast, then \qf
belongs to the weak Schatten-von Neumann class \wS{1/2}, but never to
\bS_{1/2} unless \f=0.
We also obtain results for related families of operators acting on
and .
We further study operations acting on bounded linear operators on
related to the class of operators Q_\f. In particular we
study Schur multipliers given by functions of the form and
we study properties of the averaging projection (Hilbert-Schmidt projection)
onto the operators of the form Q_\f.Comment: 87 page
Structural distortion and the spin liquid state in Tb2Ti2O7
It is shown that a k=0, A_{2u} distortion of the terbium tetrahedral network
in Tb2Ti2O7 accounts for the apparent isolation of single tetrahedra as seen in
neutron scattering studies. Single tetrahedron collective spin states, rather
than individual spins, account for the main features of the spin liquid state,
namely, fluctuating local moments and the absence of long range order. Singlet
and doublet collective spin ground states are considered. An effective
interaction between tetrahedra on the fcc lattice is derived and found to be
weak and anisotropic.Comment: 5 page
High Bandwidth Atomic Magnetometery with Continuous Quantum Non-demolition Measurements
We describe an experimental study of spin-projection noise in a high
sensitivity alkali-metal magnetometer. We demonstrate a four-fold improvement
in the measurement bandwidth of the magnetometer using continuous quantum
non-demolition (QND) measurements. Operating in the scalar mode with a
measurement volume of 2 cm^3 we achieve magnetic field sensitivity of 22
fT/Hz^(1/2) and a bandwidth of 1.9 kHz with a spin polarization of only 1%. Our
experimental arrangement is naturally back-action evading and can be used to
realize sub-fT sensitivity with a highly polarized spin-squeezed atomic vapor.Comment: 4 page
Performance of the modified Becke-Johnson potential
Very recently, in the 2011 version of the Wien2K code, the long standing
shortcome of the codes based on Density Functional Theory, namely, its
impossibility to account for the experimental band gap value of semiconductors,
was overcome. The novelty is the introduction of a new exchange and correlation
potential, the modified Becke-Johnson potential (mBJLDA). In this paper, we
report our detailed analysis of this recent work. We calculated using this
code, the band structure of forty one semiconductors and found an important
improvement in the overall agreement with experiment as Tran and Blaha [{\em
Phys. Rev. Lett.} 102, 226401 (2009)] did before for a more reduced set of
semiconductors. We find, nevertheless, within this enhanced set, that the
deviation from the experimental gap value can reach even much more than 20%, in
some cases. Furthermore, since there is no exchange and correlation energy term
from which the mBJLDA potential can be deduced, a direct optimization procedure
to get the lattice parameter in a consistent way is not possible as in the
usual theory. These authors suggest that a LDA or a GGA optimization procedure
is used previous to a band structure calculation and the resulting lattice
parameter introduced into the 2011 code. This choice is important since small
percentage differences in the lattice parameter can give rise to quite higher
percentage deviations from experiment in the predicted band gap value.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 5 Table
Detection of radio frequency magnetic fields using nonlinear magneto-optical rotation
We describe a room-temperature alkali-metal atomic magnetometer for detection
of small, high frequency magnetic fields. The magnetometer operates by
detecting optical rotation due to the precession of an aligned ground state in
the presence of a small oscillating magnetic field. The resonance frequency of
the magnetometer can be adjusted to any desired value by tuning the bias
magnetic field. We demonstrate a sensitivity of in a 3.5 cm diameter, paraffin coated cell. Based
on detection at the photon shot-noise limit, we project a sensitivity of
.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Optical measurements of spin noise as a high resolution spectroscopic tool
The intrinsic fluctuations of electron spins in semiconductors and atomic
vapors generate a small, randomly-varying "spin noise" that can be detected by
sensitive optical methods such as Faraday rotation. Recent studies have
demonstrated that the frequency, linewidth, and lineshape of this spin noise
directly reveals dynamical spin properties such as dephasing times, relaxation
mechanisms and g-factors without perturbing the spins away from equilibrium.
Here we demonstrate that spin noise measurements using wavelength-tunable probe
light forms the basis of a powerful and novel spectroscopic tool to provide
unique information that is fundamentally inaccessible via conventional linear
optics. In particular, the wavelength dependence of the detected spin noise
power can reveal homogeneous linewidths buried within inhomogeneously-broadened
optical spectra, and can resolve overlapping optical transitions belonging to
different spin systems. These new possibilities are explored both theoretically
and via experiments on spin systems in opposite limits of inhomogeneous
broadening (alkali atom vapors and semiconductor quantum dots).Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Noise spectroscopy and interlayer phase-coherence in bilayer quantum Hall systems
Bilayer quantum Hall systems develop strong interlayer phase-coherence when
the distance between layers is comparable to the typical distance between
electrons within a layer. The phase-coherent state has until now been
investigated primarily via transport measurements. We argue here that
interlayer current and charge-imbalance noise studies in these systems will be
able to address some of the key experimental questions. We show that the
characteristic frequency of current-noise is that of the zero wavevector
collective mode, which is sensitive to the degree of order in the system. Local
electric potential noise measured in a plane above the bilayer system on the
other hand is sensitive to finite-wavevector collective modes and hence to the
soft-magnetoroton picture of the order-disorder phase transition.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
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