Multiphoton path entanglement by nonlocal bunching

Multiphoton path entanglement is created without applying postselection, by manipulating the state of stimulated parametric down-conversion. A specific measurement on one of the two output spatial modes leads to the nonlocal bunching of the photons of the other mode, forming the desired multiphoton path entangled state. We present experimental results for the case of a heralded two-photon path entangled state and show how to extend this scheme to higher photon numbers.     

Measuring delta13C of atmospheric air with non-dispersive infrared spectroscopy

The potential use of non-dispersive infrared spectroscopy for measuring delta(13)C in air is demonstrated. This technique has already been successfully established for breath test analyses in medical diagnostics, where the CO(2) concentration ranges from 1 to 5 vol.% in the exhaled breath of vertebrates. For breath tests, the sensitivity and accuracy has been improved to reach a standard deviation of 0.2 per thousand (delta-value). Further adjustments were necessary to improve the sensitivity of the instrument at concentration levels typical of atmospheric air. The long-term stability is given by a standard deviation of 0.35 per thousand for CO(2) concentrations of about 400 ppm with signal averaging over 60 s.     

Atomic beam preparation for hydrogen maser operation with unpolarized atoms

The conventional atomic beam preparation technique for hydrogen maser operation consists of a six pole magnetic field focussing in combination with adiabatically changing magnetic fields in the transition region between focusser and maser cavity, which results in a state selected, polarized ensemble of hydrogen atoms. Hydrogen maser operation with state selected, but unpolarized atoms has the advantage to reduce considerably the sensitivity of hydrogen maser frequency on coherently excited, low frequency,Δm _F =±1 Zeeman transitions. The influence of the magnetic field pattern in the transition region on the energy level population probabilities for the focussed hydrogen beam has been analysed. Atomic beam preparation techniques using non-adiabatically changing magnetic field configurations in the transition region are described. The dependence of hydrogen maser oscillation on the energy level population within the atomic beam is theoretically investigated and the results are used for the analysis of the experimentally achieved atomic beam populations. It has been shown that a pulsed magnetic spin guidance field in the transition region, which switches between adiabatically changing magnetic field configurations and a sudden magnetic field reversal, results in an ensemble of hydrogen atoms with vanishing time averaged polarization, which does not deteriorate the conventionally achieved maser oscillation amplitude.     

Über den Einfluß der Anharmonizität auf die thermische Röntgenstreuung an Kristallen

The effect of vibrational anharmonicity on the thermal scattering of X-rays from crystals is calculated for temperatures above the Debye temperature. A revised method of interpreting the experimental data is suggested. The (temperature dependent) dispersion curves (frequency vs. wave-vector) for small wave-vectors are determined by the isothermal rather than the adiabatic elastic constants. A procedure is outlined to extrapolate from the (temperature dependent) scattering data the (temperature independent) dispersion curves which correspond to the harmonic approximation.     

Performance of Na0.44Mn1−xMxO2 (M = Ni,Mg; 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.44) as a cathode for rechargeable sodium ion batteries

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - The influence of partial substitution of manganese by nickel or magnesium in Na0.44MnO2on cathode performance in sodium ion batteries has been...     

A universal strong law of large numbers for conditional expectations via nearest neighbors

For k_n-nearest neighbor estimates of a regression Y on X (d-dimensional random vector X, integrable real random variable Y) based on observed independent copies of (X,Y), strong universal pointwise consistency is shown, i.e., strong consistency P_X-almost everywhere for general distribution of (X,Y). With tie-breaking by indices, this means validity of a universal strong law of large numbers for conditional expectations E(Y|X=x).     

First real-time measurement of the evolving 2H/1H ratio during water evaporation from plant leaves

We have studied the temporal behaviour of the deuterium isotope ratio of water vapour emerging from a freshly cut plant leaf placed in a dry nitrogen atmosphere. The leaf material was placed directly inside the sample gas cell of the stable isotope ratio infrared spectrometer. At the reduced pressure (～40 mbar) inside the cell, the appearance of water evaporating from the leaf is easily probed by the spectrometer, as well as the evolving isotope ratios, with a precision of about 1 ‰. The demonstration experiment we describe measures the ²H/¹H isotope ratio only, but the experiment can be easily extended to include the ¹⁸O/¹⁶O and ¹⁷O/¹⁶O isotope ratios. Plant leaf water isotope ratios provide important information towards quantification of the different components in the ecosystem water and carbon dioxide exchange.