Search Results (46 total)

We study under which general conditions a pair of Dirac points in the electronic spectrum of a two-dimensional crystal may merge into a single one. The merging signals a topological transition between a semimetallic phase and a band insulator. We derive a universal Hamiltonian that describes the physical properties of the transition, which is controlled by a single parameter, and analyze the Landau-level spectrum in its vicinity. This merging may be observed in the organic salt α−(BEDT-TTF)₂I₃ or in an optical lattice of cold atoms simulating deformed graphene.

A doped graphene layer in the integer quantum-Hall regime reveals a highly unusual particle-hole excitation spectrum, which is calculated from the dynamical polarizability in the random-phase approximation. We find that the elementary neutral excitations in graphene in a magnetic field are unlike those of a standard two-dimensional electron gas: in addition to the upper-hybrid mode, the particle-hole spectrum is reorganized in linear magnetoplasmons that disperse roughly parallel to ω=v_Fq, instead of the usual horizontal (almost dispersionless) magnetoexcitons. These modes could be detected in an inelastic light-scattering experiment.

We discuss the strong spin segregation in a dilute trapped Fermi gas recently observed by Du et al. with an “anomalous” large time scale and amplitude. In a collisionless regime, the atoms oscillate rapidly in the trap and average the inhomogeneous external field in an energy dependent way, which controls their transverse spin precession frequency. During interactions between atoms with different spin directions, the identical spin rotation effect transfers atoms to the up or down spin state, depending on their motional energy. Since low energy atoms are closer to the center of the trap than high energy atoms, the final outcome is a strong correlation between spins and positions.

The interaction of a 3×10¹⁹  W/cm² laser pulse with a metallic wire has been investigated using proton radiography. The pulse is observed to drive the propagation of a highly transient field along the wire at the speed of light. Within a temporal window of 20 ps, the current driven by this field rises to its peak magnitude ∼10⁴  A before decaying to below measurable levels. Supported by particle-in-cell simulation results and simple theoretical reasoning, the transient field measured is interpreted as a charge-neutralizing disturbance propagated away from the interaction region as a result of the permanent loss of a small fraction of the laser-accelerated hot electron population to vacuum.

We report experiments demonstrating enhanced coupling efficiencies of high-contrast laser irradiation to nanofabricated conical targets. Peak temperatures near 200 eV are observed with modest laser energy (10 J), revealing similar hot-electron localization and material heating to reduced mass targets (RMTs), despite having a significantly larger mass. Collisional particle-in-cell simulations attribute the enhancement to self-generated resistive (∼10 MG) magnetic fields forming within the curvature of the cone wall, which confine energetic electrons to heat a reduced volume at the tip. This represents a different electron confinement mechanism (magnetic, as opposed to electrostatic sheath confinement in RMTs) controllable by target shape.

The characteristics of fast electrons laser accelerated from solids and expanding into a vacuum from the rear target surface have been measured via optical probe reflectometry. This allows access to the time- and space-resolved dynamics of the fast electron density and temperature and of the energy partition into bulk (cold) electrons. In particular, it is found that the density of the hot electrons on the target rear surface is bell shaped, and that their mean energy at the same location is radially homogeneous and decreases with the target thickness.

We investigate a generalized two-dimensional Weyl Hamiltonian, which may describe the low-energy properties of mechanically deformed graphene and of the organic compound α-(BEDT-TTF)₂I₃ [BEDT-TTF=bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene] under pressure. The associated dispersion has generically the form of tilted anisotropic Dirac cones. The tilt arises due to next-nearest-neighbor hopping when the Dirac points, where the valence band touches the conduction band, do not coincide with crystallographic high-symmetry points within the first Brillouin zone. Within a semiclassical treatment, we describe the formation of Landau levels in a strong magnetic field, the relativistic form of which is reminiscent of that of graphene, with a renormalized Fermi velocity due to the tilt of the Dirac cones. These relativistic Landau levels, experimentally accessible via spectroscopy or even a quantum-Hall-effect measurement, may be used as a direct experimental verification of Dirac cones in α-(BEDT-TTF)₂I₃.

We present measurements of the binding energies of ⁶Li p-wave Feshbach molecules formed in combinations of the |F=1/2,m_F=+1/2⟩ (|1⟩) and |F=1/2,m_F=−1/2⟩ (|2⟩) states. The binding energies scale linearly with magnetic field detuning for all three resonances. The relative molecular magnetic moments are found to be 113±7 μK/G, 111±6 μK/G, and 118±8 μK/G for the |1⟩-|1⟩, |1⟩-|2⟩, and |2⟩-|2⟩ resonances, respectively, in good agreement with theoretical predictions. Closed-channel amplitudes and the size of the p-wave molecules are obtained theoretically from full closed-coupled calculations.

We have investigated the absorption spectrum of multilayer graphene in high magnetic fields. The low-energy part of the spectrum of electrons in graphene is well described by the relativistic Dirac equation with a linear dispersion relation. However, at higher energies (>500  meV) a deviation from the ideal behavior of Dirac particles is observed. At an energy of 1.25 eV, the deviation from linearity is ≃40  meV. This result is in good agreement with the theoretical model, which includes trigonal warping of the Fermi surface and higher-order band corrections. Polarization-resolved measurements show no observable electron-hole asymmetry.

We describe a peculiar fine structure acquired by the in-plane optical phonon at the Γ point in graphene when it is brought into resonance with one of the inter-Landau-level transitions in this material. The effect is most pronounced when this lattice mode (associated with the G band in graphene Raman spectrum) is in resonance with inter-Landau-level transitions 0⇒+, 1 and -,1⇒0, at a magnetic field B₀≃30  T. It can be used to measure the strength of the electron-phonon coupling directly, and its filling-factor dependence can be used experimentally to detect circularly polarized lattice vibrations.

Proton beams laser accelerated from thin foils are studied for various plasma gradients on the foil rear surface. The beam maximum energy and spectral slope reduce with the gradient scale length, in good agreement with numerical simulations. The results also show that the j×B mechanism determines the temperature of the electrons driving the ion expansion. Future ion-driven fast ignition of fusion targets will use multikilojoule petawatt laser pulses, the leading part of which will induce target preheat. Estimates based on the data show that this modifies by less than 10% the ion beam parameters.

In recent experiments the transverse normalized rms emittance of laser-accelerated MeV ion beams was found to be <0.002  mm  mrad, which is at least 100 times smaller than the emittance of thermal ion sources used in accelerators [T. E. Cowan , Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 204801 (2004)]. We investigate the origin for the low emittance of laser-accelerated proton beams by studying several candidates for emittance-growth mechanisms. As our main tools, we use analytical models and one- and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations that have been modified to include binary collisions between particles. We find that the dominant source of emittance is filamentation of the laser-generated hot electron jets that drive the ion acceleration. Cold electron-ion collisions that occur before ions are accelerated contribute less than ten percent of the final emittance. Our results are in qualitative agreement with the experiment, for which we present a refined analysis relating emittance to temperature, a better representative of the fundamental beam physics.

We study the interaction of two localized impurities in a repulsive one-dimensional Fermi liquid via bosonization. In a previous paper [Phys. Rev. A 72, 023616 (2005)], it was shown that at distances much larger than the interparticle spacing the impurities interact through a Casimir-type force mediated by the zero-sound phonons of the underlying quantum liquid. Here we extend these results and show that the strength and sign of this Casimir interaction depend sensitively on the impurity separation. These oscillations in the Casimir interaction have the same period as Friedel oscillations. Their maxima correspond to tunneling resonances tuned by the impurity separation.

We present a general expression for the maximum ion energy observed in experiments with thin foils irradiated by high-intensity laser pulses. The analytical model is based on a radially confined surface charge set up by laser accelerated electrons on the target rear side. The only input parameters are the properties of the laser pulse and the target thickness. The predicted maximum ion energy and the optimal laser pulse duration are supported by dedicated experiments for a broad range of different ions.

We report on first measurements of the transverse characteristics of laser-produced energetic ion beams in direct comparison to results for laser accelerated proton beams. The experiments show the same low emittance for ion beams as already found for protons. Additionally, we demonstrate that the divergence is influenced by the charge over mass ratio of the accelerated species. From these observations we deduced scaling laws for the divergence of ions as well as the temporal evolution of the ion source size.

The acceleration of multi-MeV protons from the rear surface of thin solid foils irradiated by an intense (∼10¹⁸  W/cm²) and short (∼1.5  ps) laser pulse has been investigated using transverse proton probing. The structure of the electric field driving the expansion of the proton beam has been resolved with high spatial and temporal resolution. The main features of the experimental observations, namely, an initial intense sheath field and a late time field peaking at the beam front, are consistent with the results from particle-in-cell and fluid simulations of thin plasma expansion into a vacuum.

We study a one-dimensional (iso)spin 1/2 Bose gas with repulsive δ-function interaction by the Bethe Ansatz method and discuss the excitations above the polarized ground state. In addition to phonons the system features spin waves with a quadratic dispersion. We compute analytically and numerically the effective mass of the spin wave and show that the spin transport is greatly suppressed in the strong coupling regime, where the isospin-density (or “spin-charge”) separation is maximal. Using a hydrodynamic approach, we study spin excitations in a harmonically trapped system and discuss prospects for future studies of two-component ultracold atomic gases.

We discuss the effective interactions between two localized perturbations in one-dimensional quantum liquids. For noninteracting fermions, the interactions exhibit Friedel oscillations, giving rise to a Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida-type interaction familiar from impurity spins in metals. In the interacting case, at low energies, a Luttinger-liquid description applies. In the case of repulsive fermions, the Friedel oscillations of the interacting system are replaced, at long distances, by a universal Casimir-type interaction which depends only on the sound velocity and decays inversely with the separation. The Casimir-type interaction between localized perturbations embedded in a fermionic environment gives rise to a long-range coupling between quantum dots in ultracold Fermi gases, opening an alternative to couple qubits with neutral atoms. We also briefly discuss the case of bosonic quantum liquids in which the interaction between weak impurities turns out to be short ranged, decaying exponentially on the scale of the healing length.

We discuss the BCS-BEC crossover for one-dimensional spin-1∕2 fermions at zero temperature using the boson-fermion resonance model in one dimension. We show that in the limit of a broad resonance, this model is equivalent to an exactly solvable single-channel model, the so-called modified Gaudin-Yang model. We argue that the one-dimensional crossover may be realized either via the combination of a Feshbach resonance and a confinement-induced resonance or using direct photoassociation in a two-component Fermi gas with effectively one-dimensional dynamics. In both cases, the system may be driven from a BCS-like state through a molecular Tonks-Girardeau gas close to resonance to a weakly interacting Bose gas of dimers.

The comparative efficiency and beam characteristics of high-energy ions generated by high-intensity short-pulse lasers (∼1–6×10¹⁹  W/cm²) from both the front and rear surfaces of thin metal foils have been measured under identical conditions. Using direct beam measurements and nuclear activation techniques, we find that rear-surface acceleration produces higher energy particles with smaller divergence and a higher efficiency than front-surface acceleration. Our observations are well reproduced by realistic particle-in-cell simulations, and we predict optimal criteria for future applications.

We discuss an integrable model of interacting fermions in one dimension that allows a complete description of the crossover from a BCS- to a Bose-like superfluid. This model bridges the Gaudin-Yang model of attractive spin 1/2 fermions to the Lieb-Liniger model of repulsive bosons. Using a geometric resonance in the one-dimensional scattering length, the inverse coupling constant varies from -∞ to +∞ while the system evolves from a BCS-like state through a Tonks-Girardeau gas to a weakly interacting Bose gas of dimers. We study the ground state energy, the elementary density and spin excitations, and the correlation functions. An experimental realization with cold atoms of such a one-dimensional BCS-BEC crossover is proposed.

We demonstrate that the fusion algebra of conformal defects of a two-dimensional conformal field theory contains information about the internal symmetries of the theory and allows one to read off generalizations of Kramers-Wannier duality. We illustrate the general mechanism in the examples of the Ising model and the three-state Potts model.