Electric-field multiplexing/demultiplexing of volume holograms in photorefractive media

We propose a new method of volume hologram multiplexing/demultiplexing in noncentrosymmetric media. Volume holograms may be multiplexed by tuning the material parameters of the recording medium (such as refractive index or lattice parameters) while keeping the external parameters (wavelength and angles) fixed. For example, an external dc electric field alters the index of refraction through the electro-optic effect, effectively changing the recording and reconstruction wavelengths in the storage medium. Then the storage of holograms at different fields, hence different indices of refraction, is closely related to wavelength multiplexing. We demonstrate this concept in a preliminary experiment by electrically multiplexing two volume holograms in a strontium barium niobate crystal

Anomalous enhancement of spin Hall conductivity in superconductor/normal metal junction

We propose a spin Hall device to induce a large spin Hall effect in a superconductor/normal metal (SN) junction. The side jump and skew scattering mechanisms are both taken into account to calculate the extrinsic spin Hall conductivity in the normal metal. We find that both contributions are anomalously enhanced when the voltage between the superconductor and the normal metal approaches to the superconducting gap. This enhancement is attributed to the resonant increase of the density of states in the normal metal at the Fermi level. Our results demonstrate a novel way to control and amplify the spin Hall conductivity by applying an external dc electric field, suggesting that a SN junction has a potential application for a spintronic device with a large spin Hall effect.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, To be published as a Rapid Communication in Physical Review

Electric field excitation suppression in cold atoms

In this article, the atom excitation suppression is studied in two ways. The first way of exploring the excitation suppression is by an external DC electric field. The second way is to study the excitation suppression caused by electric field generated by free charges, which are created by ionizing atoms. This suppression is called Coulomb blockade. Here the Coulomb forces are created by ions through ionizing atoms by a UV laser. The theory shows that the interaction, which causes the suppression, is primarily caused by charge-dipole interactions. Here the charge is the ion, and the dipole is an atom. In this experiment, we use $^{85}$Rb atoms. The valence electron and the ion core are the two poles of an electric dipole. The interaction potential energy between the ion and the atom is proportional to $\frac{1}{R^2}$, and the frequency shift caused by this interaction is proportional to $\frac{1}{R^4}$, where $R$ is the distance between the ion and the dipole considered. This research can be used for quantum information storage, remote control, creating hot plasmas using cold atoms, as well as electronic devices.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure