Application of Electron-Shelving Detection via 423 nm Transition in Calcium-Beam Optical Frequency Standard

A new scheme of small compact optical frequency standard based on thermal calcium beam with application of 423 nm shelving detection and sharp-angle velocity selection detection is proposed. Combining these presented techniques, we conclude that a small compact optical frequency standard based on thermal calcium beam will outperform the commercial caesium-beam microwave dock, like the 5071 Cs clock （from Hp to Agilent, now Symmetricom company）, both in accuracy and stability.     

Intra-cavity spectroscopy with diode lasers

A multi-mode diode laser with an external cavity is studied experimentally and theoretically for its application to intra-cavity spectroscopy. One facet of a typical Ga_0.89Al_0.11As laser diode was antireflection-coated by deposition of HfO₂ such that 10^–3 residual reflectivity was left over. This diode was placed in an external optical cavity. The emission spectrum of this diode laser is highly sensitive to any frequency-dependent loss in the cavity, and the detectivity of such a loss grows with the pump rate. Even close to threshold, the absorption at 780 nm of Rb atoms with a density of 5×10¹⁰ cm^–3 has been detected. An adequate model for diode lasers based on rate equations and including frequency-dependent gain saturation is developed and applied to the calculations of output spectra. The sensitivity of these spectra to intra-cavity absorption is determined by the overall cavity loss — which is rather high — and the fraction of spontaneous emission in the total emission, in contrast with dye lasers where it is limited by nonlinear mode coupling. Various criteria for the sensitivity are suggested. The smallest detectable absorption with a perfectly antireflection-coated laser is 10^–6 cm^–1. Improvement of the characteristics of the laser diode would increase the sensitivity.     

Performance of a prototype microwave frequency standard based on laser-detected,trapped171Yb+ ions

A microwave frequency standard based on buffer gas-cooled¹⁷¹Yb⁺ ions confined in a linear Paul trap has been demonstrated in prototype form. The standard exhibits a fractional frequency instability characterised by an Allan deviation of (_y() = 2.9 × 10^–13–1/2 for < 2 × 10⁴ s. Factors affecting the stability of the standard have been systematically investigated.     

Isotonic and isobaric dependencies of nuclear charge radii for rare-earth nuclei

Isotonic and isobaric dependencies of nuclear charge radii in the region between Z=54 and Z=70 are obtained from the analysis of isotope shift data r² and muonic and electron scattering data on r². They are compared with the predictions of the droplet model and the Hartree-Fock calculations. The isobaric dependencies of r² have proven to be especially sensitive to the choice of an effective nucleon-nucleon interaction.     

Noise correlations in shear flows

We consider the effects of a shear on velocity fluctuations in a flow. The shear gives rise to a transient amplification that not only influences the amplitude of perturbations but also their time correlations. We show that, in the presence of white noise, time correlations of transversal velocity components are exponential and that correlations of the longitudinal components are exponential with an algebraic prefactor. Cross correlations between transversal and downstream components are strongly asymmetric and provide a clear indication of non-normal amplification. We suggest experimental tests of our predictions. Received 26 February 2002 / Received in final form 11 March 2003 Published online 20 June 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: bruno.eckhardt@physik.uni-marburg.de RID="b" ID="b"Also at: Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, India     

The symmetry energy in nuclei and in nuclear matter

We discuss to what extent information on ground-state properties of finite nuclei (energies and radii) can be used to obtain constraints on the symmetry energy in nuclear matter and its dependence on the density. The starting point is a generalized Weizs?cker formula for ground-state energies. In particular, effects from the Wigner energy and shell structure on the symmetry energy are investigated. Strong correlations in the parameter space prevent a clear isolation of the surface contribution. Use of neutron skin information improves the situation. The result of the analysis appears consistent with a rather soft density dependence of the symmetry energy in nuclear matter.     

Microlaser with Ramsey Separated Fields Cavity

In a novel microlaser configuration with Ramsey separated-field cavity, we investigate a two-level atomic beam interacting with a single-mode high-Q Ramsey cavity, which is composed by two separated resonators. By using the well-known Ramsey cavity, one can recover the characters of microlaser even with a high flux atomic beam.     

Study of W-Exchange Mode D0 → ФK0

We calculate the branching ratio of rare decay D^0→ФK using the perturbative QCD factorization approach based on kT factorization. Our result shows this branching ratio is （8.7 ± 1.4） x 10^-3, which is consistent with experimental data. We hope that the CLEO-C and BES-Ⅲ can measure it more accurately, which will help us to understand QCD dynamics and D meson weak decays.     

Fusion Reaction of ^16O＋^14N and Its Implication for the Production of ^26Al in Explosive Oxygen Burning

We suggest that the fusion reaction ^16O＋^14N may be a new way to produce ^26Al in interstellar medium. Adopting different mixing modes, we investigate the impact on the production of ^26Al in explosive oxygen burning and find that the result is extremely sensitive to mixing mechanisms. In some cases, we obtain an encouraging result, for example, the greatest final abundance of ^26Al reaches 7.779×10^-6, which means that the explosive oxygen burning may be a new origin of ^26 Al.     

Melting behaviours of nickel nanorods

We report the synthesis and measurement of an ultra-precise and extremely stable optical frequency in the telecommunications window around 1543 nm. Using a fibre-based femtosecond frequency comb we have phase-stabilised a fibre laser at 194 THz to an optical frequency standard at 344 THz, thus transferring the properties of the optical frequency standard to another spectral region. Relative to the optical frequency standard, the synthesised frequency at 194 THz is determined to within 1 mHz and its fractional frequency instability is measured to be less than 2×10^-15 at 1 s, reaching 5× 10^-18 after 8000 s. We also measured the synthesised frequency against a caesium fountain clock: here the frequency comparison itself contributes less than 4 mHz (2×10^-17) to the uncertainty. Our results confirm the suitability of fibre based frequency comb technology for precision measurements and frequency synthesis, and enable long-distance comparison of optical clocks by using optical fibres to transmit the frequency information.