An information-theoretic link between spacetime symmetries and quantum linearity

A nonlinear generalisation of Schrodinger’s equation is obtained using information-theoretic arguments. The nonlinearities are controlled by an intrinsic length scale and involve derivatives to all orders thus making the equation mildly nonlocal. The nonlinear equation is homogeneous, separable, conserves probability, but is not invariant under spacetime symmetries. Spacetime symmetries are recovered when a dimensionless parameter is tuned to vanish, whereby linearity is simultaneously established and the length scale becomes hidden. It is thus suggested that if, in the search for a more basic foundation for Nature’s Laws, an inference principle is given precedence over symmetry requirements, then the symmetries of spacetime and the linearity of quantum theory might both be emergent properties that are intrinsically linked. Supporting arguments are provided for this point of view and some testable phenomenological consequences are highlighted. The generalised Klien-Gordon and Dirac equations are also studied, leading to the suggestion that nonlinear quantum dynamics with intrinsically broken spacetime symmetries might be relevant to understanding the problem of neutrino mass (lessness) and oscillations: among other observations, this approach hints at the existence of a hidden discrete family symmetry in the Standard Model of particle physics.     

Acoustic behaviour of high pressure air-filled porous media

This paper deals with the acoustic behaviour of porous media when the saturating fluid is high pressured. These observations are performed by ultrasonic transmission through a porous sample with variations of the static pressure of the saturating fluid. Previous works have experimentally demonstrated that a high frequency asymptotic equivalent fluid model allows to model the behaviour of such media for low pressure (between 0.2 and 6 bars). In this paper, in order to characterize high damping materials, measurements are performed for higher static pressure (up to 18 bars). It is shown that the behaviour of transmission coefficient and speed with pressure follows Biot’s theory. Moreover, measurements are dependant on temperature variations. Temperature variations have been accounted for in this study, but this does not explain entirely the high sensitivity of the transmission coefficient with static pressure. It remains that the mechanical properties of the porous medium vary strongly with the thermodynamic variables.     

Nonlinear processes in media with an acoustic hysteresis and the problems of dynamic interaction between piles and earth foundation

Evolution of a pulsed disturbance in a nonlinear medium whose properties irreversibly vary in the course of wave propagation is studied. Equations describing the propagation process are obtained. It is demonstrated that the waveform distortion and the dynamics of the field and energy characteristics of a signal noticeably differ from those observed in conventional nonlinear media. New nonlinear equations describing a pulse in a medium with relaxation of its nonlinear properties are derived. A finite “delay time” for irreversible processes is introduced in the defining equation. The shape of a pulse reflected from the boundary between an ordinary medium and a nonlinear hereditary medium is calculated. It is demonstrated that, in the case of a fixed relation between the peak pressure in the incident pulse and the ratio of linear impedances of the two media, a total transmission of the trailing edge of the pulse into the compressed medium occurs. Possible applications of the results to topical construction problems are discussed.     

Optical bistability in one-dimensional photonic band gap structures with coupled nonlinear defects

Using the transfer matrix method, we study the transmission property of one-dimensional photonic band gap structure with two coupled nonlinear defects separated by a linear middle layer and find that such composite structure exhibits a bistability that’s strongly dependent of the linear middle layer. The switching threshold values can be greatly reduced just by choosing the proper parameters of the linear middle layer.     

Crystallization of amorphous SiC and superhardness effect in TiN/SiC nanomultilayers

TiN/SiC nanomultilayers with various constituent layer thicknesses were prepared by magnetron sputtering using TiN and SiC ceramic targets. X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectrometer, high-resolution transmission electron microscope, atomic force microscope and nanoindenter were employed to study the growth, microstructure and mechanical properties of these films. Experimental results revealed that amorphous SiC, which is more favorable under normal sputtering conditions, was forced to crystallize and grew epitaxially with TiN layers at thicknesses of less than 0.8 nm. The resultant films were found to form strong columnar structures, accompanied with a remarkable hardness increment. Maximal nanoindentation hardness as high as 60.6 GPa was achieved when SiC thickness was ∼0.6 nm. A further increase of SiC thickness caused the formation of amorphous SiC, which blocked the epitaxial growth of the multilayers, resulting in the decline of film's hardness. Additionally, investigations on multilayers different in TiN layer thicknesses showed that they are insensitive in both microstructure and hardness to the fluctuation of TiN layer thickness. The formation of epitaxially grown structure between crystalline SiC and TiN layers was found to be responsible for the obtained superhardness in multilayers.     

Simulation of THz emission from laser interaction with plasmas

One-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) program is used to simulate the generation of high power terahertz (THz) emission from the interaction of an ultrashort intense laser pulse with underdense plasma. The spectra of THz radiation are discussed under different laser intensity, pulse width, incident angle and density scale length. High-amplitude electron plasma wave driven by a laser wakefield can produce powerful THz emission through linear mode conversion under certain conditions. With incident laser intensity of 10¹⁸ W/cm², the generated emission is computed to be of the order of several MV/cm field and tens of MW level power. The corresponding energy conversion efficiency is several ten thousandths, which is higher then the efficiency of other THz source and suitable for the studies of THz nonlinear physics.     

Modulational instability in the cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation through the variational approach

The dynamics of nonlinear pulse propagation in an average dispersion-managed soliton system is governed by a constant coefficient nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation. For a special set of parameters the constant coefficient NLS equation is completely integrable. The same constant coefficient NLS equation is also applicable to optical fiber systems with phase modulation or pulse compression. We also investigate MI arising in the cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation for ultrashort pulse propagation. Within this framework, we derive ordinary differential equations (ODE’s) for the time evolution of the amplitude and phase of modulation perturbations. Analyzing the ensuing ODE’s, we derive the classical modulational instability criterion and identify it numerically. We show that the quintic nonlinearity can be essential for the stability of solutions. The evolutions of modulational instability are numerically investigated and the effects of the quintic nonlinearity on the evolutions are examined. Numerical simulations demonstrate the validity of the analytical predictions.     

Wavefront study in a Gaussian beam passed through a nonlinear optical medium

We present a numerical model to study the wavefront of a Gaussian laser beam propagated through a nonlinear Kerr media. The model is based on the Gaussian decomposition method. The interaction between a laser beam and a self-focusing or self-defocusing media is discussed from the viewpoint of wavefront distortion. The method is useful for simulation of the wavefront of the beam next to the sample. We also compare our results with those obtained from z-scan method. There is a quite good agreement between data from z-scan method and our results.     

Effect of sample shape on nonlinear magnetization dynamics under an external magnetic field

Effect of sample shape on the nonlinear collective dynamics of magnetic moments in the presence of oscillating and constant external magnetic fields is studied using the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert (LLG) approach. The uniformly magnetized sample is considered to be an ellipsoidal axially symmetric particle described by demagnetization factors and uniaxial crystallographic anisotropy formed some angle with an applied field direction. It is investigated as to how the change in particle shape affects its nonlinear magnetization dynamics. To produce a regular study, all results are presented in the form of bifurcation diagrams for all sufficient dynamics regimes of the considered system. In this paper, we show that the sample's (particle's) shape and its orientation with respect to the external field (system configuration) determine the character of magnetization dynamics: deterministic behavior and appearance of chaotic states. A simple change in the system's configuration or in the shapes of its parts can transfer it from chaotic to periodic or even static regime and back. Moreover, the effect of magnetization precession stall and magnetic moments alignment parallel or antiparallel to the external oscillating field is revealed and the way of control of such “polarized” states is found. Our results suggest that varying the particle's shape and fields’ geometry may provide a useful way of magnetization dynamics control in complex magnetic systems.     

Propagation of four-petal Gaussian beams in strongly nonlocal nonlinear media

The propagation of four-petal Gaussian beams in strongly nonlocal nonlinear media has been studied. The analytical solution and the analytical second-order moment beam width are obtained. For the off-waist incident and the waist incident cases, the intensity pattern evolves periodically during propagation in strongly nonlocal nonlinear media. Under the off-waist incident condition, the second-order moment beam width varies periodically during propagation, whatever the input power is. But under the waist incident condition, there exists a critical power. When the input power equals the critical power, the second-order moment beam width remains invariant, otherwise the second-order moment beam width varies periodically. Numerical simulations based on the nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equation are carried out for comparison with the theoretical predictions. The results show that the numerical simulations are in good agreement with the analytical results in the case of strong nonlocality.     

Studies on optical, mechanical and transport properties of NLO active l-alanine formate single crystal grown by modified Sankaranarayanan-Ramasamy (SR) method

Bulk single crystals of l-alanine formate of 10 mm diameter and 50 mm length have been grown with an aid of modified Sankaranarayanan-Ramasamy (SR) uniaxial crystal growth method within a period of ten days. The optical properties of the grown crystal were calculated from UV transmission spectral analysis. The second harmonic generation efficiency of the grown crystal was confirmed by Kurtz powder test. In order to determine the mechanical strength of the crystal, Vicker’s microhardness test was carried along the growth plane (0 0 1). Dielectric studies reveal that both dielectric constant and dielectric loss decreases with increase in frequency. Photoconductivity study confirms the negative photoconducting nature of the crystal.     

In situ observation of photo-bleaching in human single living cell excited by a NIR femtosecond laser

The photo-bleaching of single living cells excited by femtosecond laser irradiation was observed in situ to study the nonlinear interaction between ultrafast laser pulses and living human breast MDA-MB-231 cells. We conducted a systematic study of the energy dependence of plasma-mediated photo-disruption of fluorescently labeled subcellular structures in the nucleus of living cells using near-infrared (NIR) femtosecond laser pulses through a numerical aperture objective lens (0.75 NA). The behavior of photo-bleached living cells with fluorescently labeled nuclei was observed for 18 h after femtosecond laser irradiation under a fluorescence microscope. The photo-bleaching of single living cells without cell disruption occurred at between 470 and 630 nJ. To study the photo-disruption of subcellular organelles in single living cells using the nonlinear absorption excited by a NIR femtosecond laser pulse, the process of photo-bleaching without photo-disruption provides key information for clarifying the nonlinear interaction between NIR ultrashort, high-intensity laser light and transparent fluorescently labeled living cells.     

Analytical solution for the field in photonic structures containing cubic nonlinearity

In this work, we consider the exact solution of the stationary cubic nonlinear equation in a semi-infinite nonlinear medium in contact with a one-dimensional photonic crystal. Two kinds of analytical solutions are found for an arbitrary magnitude of the nonlinearity: a standing-wave-like one containing the inverse elliptic function Eli(?∣m), and a one-wave-type solution for transmitted TE-polarized waves. An approximate two-wave solution is proposed to describe the field propagation through the nonlinear film covering the photonic crystal. It is shown that the problem of a mixed linear-nonlinear structure may be reduced to a transcendental kernel equation determining the field inside the nonlinear part of the medium. The light reflection from a Si/SiO₂ layered structure in contact with an optically nonlinear medium is calculated. The angular-frequency photonic band diagram and power dependency are investigated. Local interface waveguide modes are considered.     

Light hadron spectra in the constituent quark model with the Kobayashi-Kondo-Maskawa-’t Hooft effective UA (1) symmetry breaking interaction

We make a critical comparison of several versions of instanton-induced interactions present in the literature, all based on ITEP group’s extension to three colours and flavours of ’t Hooft’s effective lagrangian, with the predictions of the phenomenological Kobayashi-Kondo-Maskawa (KKM) chiral quark lagrangian. We analyze the effects of all versions of the effective U_A (1) symmetry breaking interactions on light hadron spectra in the non-relativistic constituent quark model. We show that the KKMT force, when used as a residual hyperfine interaction reproduces the correct ordering of pseudoscalar and vector mesons even without explicitly taking chiral symmetry into account. Moreover, the nucleon spectra are also correctly reproduced, only the Roper resonance remains too high, albeit lower than usual, at 1660 MeV. The latter’s lower than expected mass is not due to a small excitation energy, as in the Glozman-Riska (GR) model, but to a combination of colour, flavour, and spatial wave function properties that enhance the relevant matrix elements. The KKMT interaction explicitly depends on flavour and spin of the quarks, but unlike the GR flavour-spin one it has a firm footing in QCD. In the process we provide several technical advances, in particular we show the first explicit derivation of the three-body Fierz transformation and apply it to the KKM interaction. We also discuss the ambiguities associated with the colour degree of freedom.     

A hybrid method for the parallel computation of Green’s functions

Quantum transport models for nanodevices using the non-equilibrium Green’s function method require the repeated calculation of the block tridiagonal part of the Green’s and lesser Green’s function matrices. This problem is related to the calculation of the inverse of a sparse matrix. Because of the large number of times this calculation needs to be performed, this is computationally very expensive even on supercomputers. The classical approach is based on recurrence formulas which cannot be efficiently parallelized. This practically prevents the solution of large problems with hundreds of thousands of atoms. We propose new recurrences for a general class of sparse matrices to calculate Green’s and lesser Green’s function matrices which extend formulas derived by Takahashi and others. We show that these recurrences may lead to a dramatically reduced computational cost because they only require computing a small number of entries of the inverse matrix. Then, we propose a parallelization strategy for block tridiagonal matrices which involves a combination of Schur complement calculations and cyclic reduction. It achieves good scalability even on problems of modest size.     

Nonlinear optical properties of Au/ZnO nanoparticle arrays

The triangular-shaped Au/ZnO nanoparticle arrays were fabricated on fused quartz substrate using nanosphere lithography. The structural characterization of the Au/ZnO nanoparticle arrays was investigated by atomic force microscopy. The absorption peak due to the surface plasmon resonance of Au particles at the wavelength of about 570 nm was observed. The nonlinear optical properties of the nanoparticle arrays were measured using the z-scan method at a wavelength of 532 nm with pulse duration of 10 ns. The real and imaginary part of third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility, Re χ⁽³⁾ and Im χ⁽³⁾, were determined to be 1.15 × 10⁻⁶ and −5.36 × 10⁻⁷ esu, respectively. The results show that the Au/ZnO nanoparticle arrays have great potential for future optical devices.     

Widely tunable femtosecond fiber optical parametric oscillator

The phase-matching condition in a fiber is discussed. A balance among the different orders of fiber dispersion can be found to achieve a widely tuning modulation instability gain for pumping around the normal dispersion regime. Three coupled nonlinear wave equations are used to simulate the femtosecond fiber optical parametric oscillator. The numerical results show that, through appropriate choice of dispersion, femtosecond pulses with a 180-nm tunable range can be generated when pump wavelength near a fiber’s zero-dispersion wavelength is tuned only 7 nm. Further tuning is limited by the walk-off between the pump and the signal pulses.     

Comparison of media properties between hard/soft stacked composite and capping layer perpendicular recording media

The effect of soft layer thickness (t_Soft) of CoTaZr–SiO₂ and low Pt-containing CoCrPtO layers on media properties in hard/soft (H/S) stacked media is compared to media properties in conventional capping layer (CL) media. Coercivity and coercivity squareness in H/S stacked media continuously decrease with increasing t_Soft, while they increase in CL media. H/S stacked media with CoTaZr–SiO₂ layers having higher saturation magnetization and in-plane magnetic anisotropy constant exhibit stronger demagnetization effect. Compared to CL media, H/S stacked media with CoCrPtO soft layers improve signal-to-noise ratio and magnetic write width. However, the use of a relatively soft layer deteriorates adjacent track erasure and does not improve media writeability due to compensation effect between softer and harder layers to be used. These phenomena can be understood as undesirable side effects of a soft layer: higher demagnetization field and larger lattice mismatch.     

In situ measurement of the surface stress evolution during magnetron sputter-deposition of Ag thin film

We measured the evolution of in situ surface stress of Ag thin film during the magnetron sputter deposition. The measurement of force per width of Ag thin film showed that both the surface state and surface stress of Ag layer can be controlled through the variation of the deposition conditions such as the deposition temperature and rate. At room temperature, the force per width curve of Ag film deposited to 1 Å/s showed a typical curve consisting of three stages of surface stress. A brief presence of initial compressive stage and broad tensile maximum resulting in a compressive state had a tendency to disappear with increasing the deposition temperature. Meanwhile, a development of final compressive stage was more at higher temperature. Similar effect was observed but less obvious on increasing the deposition rate.