Excitation mechanisms in CW He-Hg lasers

The collision processes responsible for populating and de-populating upper and lower levels of the cw He-Hg ion laser are investigated using flowing afterglow techniques. It is shown that the superior performance of the laser at 6150 Å compared to that at 7945 Å is not due to a difference in excitation mechanism — both are excited by charge transfer from He⁺ — but instead reflects a greater effectiveness of second kind collisions of electrons in depopulating the 7p²P_{$\text{1}\text{2}$} upper level of the 7945 Å transition. The charge transfer, excitation rate constants for several Hg II levels are compared, and values for the rate constant for the electron collision de-excitation process are deduced.     

Polariton condensation with localized excitons and propagating photons

We estimate the condensation temperature for microcavity polaritons, allowing for their internal structure. We consider polaritons formed from localized excitons in a planar microcavity, using a generalized Dicke model. At low densities, we find a condensation temperature T(c) proportional, rho, as expected for a gas of structureless polaritons. However, as T(c) becomes of the order of the Rabi splitting, the structure of the polaritons becomes relevant, and the condensation temperature is that of a BCS-like mean-field theory. We also calculate the excitation spectrum, which is related to observable quantities such as the luminescence and absorption spectra.     

Collective density-wave excitations in two-leg Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 ladders

Raman measurements in the 1.5-20 cm(-1) energy range were performed on single crystals of Sr14-xCaxCu24O41. A quasielastic scattering peak (QEP) which softens with cooling is observed only in the polarization parallel to the ladder direction for samples with x=0, 8, and 12. The QEP is a Raman fingerprint of pinned collective density wave excitations screened by uncondensed carriers in the ladder structures. Our results suggest that transport in metallic samples, which is similar to transport in underdoped high-T(c) cuprates, is driven by a collective electronic response.