Optical decoherence and persistent spectral hole burning in Tm:LiNbO3

We report studies of decoherence and spectral hole burning for the 794 nm optical transition of thulium-doped lithium niobate. In addition to transient spectral holes due to the ³H₄ and ³F₄ excited states of Tm³⁺, persistent spectral holes with lifetimes of up to minutes were observed when a magnetic field of a few hundred Gauss was applied. The observed anti-hole structure identified the hole burning mechanism as population storage in the ¹⁶⁹Tm nuclear hyperfine levels. In addition, the magnetic field was effective in suppressing spectral diffusion, increasing the phase memory lifetime from 11 μs at zero field to 23 μs in a field of 320 Gauss applied along the crystal’s c-axis. Coupling between Tm³⁺ and the ⁷Li and ⁹³Nb spins in the host lattice was also observed and a quadrupole shift of 22 kHz was measured for ⁷Li at 1.7 K. A Stark shift of 18 kHz cm/V was measured for the optical transition with the electric field applied parallel to the c-axis.     

Side-hole to anti-hole conversion in time-resolved spectral hole burning of ruby: Long-lived spectral holes due to ground state level population storage

We report time-resolved transient spectral hole burning of Verneuil-grown 20 ppm and ca. 0.6 ppm ruby (Al₂O₃:Cr³⁺) in zero field and low magnetic fields B∥c at 4 K. The hole-burning spectroscopy of the 20 ppm sample implies relatively rapid cross relaxation in the ⁴A₂ ground state on the ∼1 ms timescale both in zero field and in low magnetic fields, B∥c, up to 0.2 T. In the 0.6 ppm sample, side-hole to anti-hole conversion is observed both in zero field and in low magnetic fields. This conversion is caused by population storage in ⁴A₂ ground state levels. Spin-lattice relaxation, on the 200 ms timescale, is directly observed from the time dependence of the resonant hole and anti holes in B∥c, consistent with a very low cross-relaxation rate. However, in zero field cross relaxation in the ⁴A₂ ground state is still a significant relaxation mechanism for the 0.6 ppm sample resulting in hole decay in ∼50 ms.     

Decay of multilayer holes on SrTiO3(0 0 1)

We have studied the decay kinetics of nanoscale multilayer holes on SrTiO₃(0 0 1) surfaces, using variable temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. We have performed real time observation of the decay of multilayer holes with diameters of 10 nm order at 750 °C. We have found that the hole decays, filling layer by layer from the bottom while expanding the periphery of the hole. We have performed numerical simulations of hole decay based on a step flow model. The observed decay kinetics is found to be diffusion limited with local mass conservation.     

Experimental determination of ultra-sharp stray field distribution from a magnetic vortex core structure

The fine magnetic stray field from a vortex structure of micron-sized permalloy (Ni₈₀Fe₂₀) elements has been studied by high-resolution magnetic force microscopy. By systematically studying the width of the stray field gradient distribution at different tip-to-sample distances, we show that the half-width at half-maximum (HWHM) of the signal from vortex core can be as narrow as ∼21 nm at a closest tip-to-sample distance of 23 nm, even including the convolution effect of the finite size of the magnetic tip. a weak circular reverse component is found around the center of the magnetic vortex in the measured magnetic force microscope (MFM) signals, which can be attributed to the reverse magnetization around the vortex core. Successive micromagnetic and MFM imaging simulations show good agreements with our experimental results on the width of the stray field distribution.     

Effect of annealing treatment on soft magnetic properties of Fe-6.5 wt% Si wide ribbons

The 25 mm wide ribbons of Fe-6.5 wt% Si alloy have been developed by melt spinning technique, showing sufficient ductility and white silver appearance. Two magnetic transitions take place at 676 and 760 °C due to the formation of B2 ordered phase and A2 disordered paramagnetic phase, respectively. The saturation magnetization of the ribbon is 17.5 kG under the applied field of 12 kG. The as-cast ribbons consist of disordered A2 structure with a low volume of B2 phases while the annealed microstructure comprises a dispersion of B2 domains in the disordered A2 matrix. The alloy shows the enhancement of the soft magnetic properties with a reduction in coercivity from 150 A/m in the as-cast state to 45 A/m in the annealed condition at 850 °C.     

Magnetic properties of electroplated wires coated by ferrofluid

Low-frequency magnetic properties of ferromagnetic composite wires were studied with and without coating by ferrofluid. Non-magnetic CuBe wires of 0.1 mm diameter were electroplated with FeCoNi layer of 1 μm thickness. Magnetization curves were measured in the frequency range of 10 Hz–3 kHz. The composite CuBe/FeCoNi/ferrofluid material shows a hysteretic behaviour in a small field. The hysteresis loop of ferrofluid covered electroplated wire is not a simple sum of the ferrofluid “wire” plus non-covered wire signals. It indicates an interaction between magnetic wire and ferrofluid which can be revealed by low-frequency measurements. The combination “electroplated wire/ferrofluid” can be considered as a new type of composite magnetic material consisting of solid magnetic core coated by complementary liquid magnetic material. Low-frequency measurements in presence of ferrofluid can be a useful method to study magnetic properties of ferromagnets.     

Study on magnetization reversal of cobalt nanowire arrays by magnetic force microscopy

The magnetic properties of self-assembly cobalt nanowire arrays formed in anodic porous alumina template were investigated by nanosize imaging method and macroscopic magnetic measurement. We have successfully made a wire-by-wire observation of magnetization reversal of a cobalt nanowire array using magnetic force microscopy with a home-made FePt tip. The nanowires in this medium have uniaxial anisotropy with easy axis along the wire due to the large aspect ratio of the wires (30 nm in diameter and 300 nm in length). Considering the nanowires as single-domain structures, we can obtain the average DC demagnetization curve from nanosize images by calculating the number of wires in each magnetized direction, and the results agreed well with the DC demagnetization curve measured by macroscopic measurement. The magnetostatic field between wires was evaluated by a new nanosize imaging method. Macroscopic measurement shows that reversible magnetization occurs in this medium. Nanosize images of the remanent and saturated states prove that the reversible magnetization processes mainly take place inside individual wires and reversed wires induced by magnetostatic field just give a little contribution to the reversible magnetization.     

Magnetic anisotropy study of triangular-shaped Co nanostructures

Atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) have been used to measure the magnetic and geometrical characteristics of triangular-shaped Co structures of lateral size 730 nm and thickness 32 nm, prepared by nanosphere lithography (NSL). Evidence of in-plane six-fold magnetic anisotropy induced by the symmetry of the structure has been found. By means of XMCD measurements, performed at remanence after applying a pulsed field, a structure rotation angle-dependent oscillation of about 15% with a periodicity of 60° has been observed for both the orbital and spin moments. Furthermore, the system exhibits the angular hysteresis effect. The magnetic measurements performed by MFM show a reduction of the magnetic configurations to only two states, one quasi-single domain Y state and second, a combination of vortex and Y state.     

Morphology changes due to AC induced electromigration in Gd islands on W(1 1 0)

Gd islands were grown on W(1 1 0) surface by evaporating Gd on the substrate at room temperature and subsequent annealing. STM images reveal in many cases islands which have a deep hole inside them. The appearance of the hole is associated with the application of an AC field. No such holes appear when the sample is heated by a DC current. We show that this can be explained by the combined affect of the AC field and the barrier to diffusion introduced by steps that can create a nucleus for further growth of an island which includes a hole in the middle. This may be generalized to a technique of tailoring the size, shape and distances of islands by, for example, two orthogonal AC fields with a phase delay of 90° between them.     

Tunable negative index metamaterial using yttrium iron garnet

A magnetic field tunable, broadband, low-loss, negative refractive index metamaterial is fabricated using yttrium iron garnet (YIG) and a periodic array of copper wires. The tunability is demonstrated from 18 to 23 GHz under an applied magnetic field with a figure of merit of 4.2 GHz/kOe. The tuning bandwidth is measured to be 5 GHz compared to 0.9 GHz for fixed field. We measure a minimum insertion loss of 4 dB (or 5.7 dB/cm) at 22.3 GHz. The measured negative refractive index bandwidth is 0.9 GHz compared to 0.5 GHz calculated by the transfer function matrix theory and 1 GHz calculated by finite element simulation.     

Enhanced near field mediated nanohole fabrication on silicon substrate by femtosecond laser pulse

Investigation of the process of nanohole formation on silicon surface mediated with near electromagnetic field enhancement in vicinity of gold particles is described. Gold nanospheres with diameters of 40, 80 and 200 nm are used. Irradiation of the samples with laser pulse at fluences below the ablation threshold for native Si surface, results in a nanosized surface modification. The nanostructure formation is investigated for the fundamental (λ = 800 nm, 100 fs) and the second harmonic (λ = 400 nm, 250 fs) of the laser radiation generated by ultrashort Ti:sapphire laser system. The near electric field distribution is analyzed by an Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulation code. The properties of the produced morphological changes on the Si surface are found to depend strongly on the polarization and the wavelength of the laser irradiation. When the laser pulse is linearly polarized the produced nanohole shape is elongated in the E-direction of the polarization. The shape of the hole becomes symmetrical when the laser radiation is circularly polarized. The size of the ablated holes depends on the size of the gold particles, as the smallest holes are produced with the smallest particles. The variation of the laser fluence and the particle size gives possibility of fabricating structures with lateral dimensions ranging from 200 nm to below 40 nm. Explanation of the obtained results is given on the basis simulations of the near field properties using FDTD model and Mie's theory.     

X-ray microtomography of field-induced macro-structures in a ferrofluid

X-ray microtomography is used to visualize, in-situ, the three-dimensional nature of the magnetic field induced macro-structures (>1 μm) inside a bulk (∼1 mm diameter) magnetite-particle-mineral oil ferrofluid sample. Columnar structures of ∼10 μm diameter were seen under a 0.35 kG applied magnetic field, while labyrinth type structures ∼4 μm in width were seen at 0.55 kG. The structures have height/width aspect ratios >100. The results show that the magnetite volume fraction is not constant within the structures and on average is considerably less than a random sphere packing model.     

Magnetized electron-whistler holes

Coherent magnetic structures comprising a magnetic vortex and an electron hole have been shown to be created by a Weibel-type, anisotropy driven instability. These structures arise from the electric and magnetic trapping of resonant electrons in the growing fields of the instability. The results of two dimensional Vlasov simulations of the nonlinear development of the instability are compared with a novel analytical model of a stationary propagating phase space structure which includes the depletion of the trapped electrons corresponding to the electron holes.     

Optical decoherence times and spectral diffusion in an Er-doped optical fiber measured by two-pulse echoes, stimulated photon echoes, and spectral hole burning

Two-pulse and stimulated photon echoes and spectral hole burning were measured on the transition from the lowest component of the ⁴I_15/2 manifold to the lowest component of ⁴I_13/2 of Er³⁺ in a silicate optical fiber at 1.6 K. The two-pulse echo decays gave decoherence times as long as 230 ns for magnetic fields above 2 T. A large field dependent contribution to the homogeneous line width of >2 MHz was found and interpreted in terms of coupling to magnetic tunneling modes (TLS) in the glass. The stimulated echoes measured at 2 T showed spectral diffusion of 0.8 MHz/decade of time between 0.4 and 500 μs. Spectral diffusion in this high field region is attributed to coupling to elastic TLS modes which have a distribution of flip rates in glasses. Time-resolved spectral hole burning at very low field showed stronger spectral diffusion of 5.7 MHz/decade of time, attributed to coupling to magnetic spin-elastic TLS modes.     

Symmetric behavior of vortex states of superconducting networks in a magnetic field

We present magnetic field dependence of phase transition temperature and vortex configuration of superconducting networks based on theoretical study. The applied magnetic field is called “filling field” that is defined by applied magnetic flux (in unit of the flux quantum) per unit loop of the superconducting network. If a superconducting network is composed of very thin wires whose thicknesses are less than coherence length, the de Gennes–Alexander (dGA) theory is applicable. We have already shown that field dependences of transition temperature curves have symmetric behavior about the filling field of 1/2 by solving the dGA equation numerically in square lattices, honeycomb lattices, cubic lattices and those with randomly lack of wires networks. Many experimental studies also show the symmetric behavior. In this paper, we make an explicit theoretical explanation of symmetric behaviors of superconducting network respect to the applied field.     

Investigation of electrical transport in hydrogenated multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Highly disordered multiwalled carbon nanotubes of large outer diameter (∼60 nm) fabricated by means of chemical vapor deposition process inside porous alumina templates exhibit ferromagnetism when annealed in a H₂/Ar atmosphere. In the presence of an applied magnetic field, there is a transition from positive to negative magnetoresistance. The transition may be explained in terms of the Bright model for ordered and disordered carbon structures. Additionally, temperature dependent electrical transport experiments exhibit a zero-bias anomaly at low temperature.     

Fast domain wall dynamics in amorphous glass-coated microwires

Here we report on the domain wall dynamics in amorphous glass-coated FeCuNbSiB microwires measured in the temperature range from 77 up to 400 K. At low temperatures below 200 K, the domain wall velocity is proportional to the applied magnetic field. At temperatures above 200 K, two regions have been found: one with low domain wall mobility at low fields and another one with high domain wall mobility at high fields. The different regions of the domain wall dynamics are treated in terms of the change of the domain wall configuration from transversal to vortex one. Moreover, non-linear regime is shown at low fields at the temperature 373 K as a result of the domain wall interaction with the local defects.     

Magnetic anisotropy and anisotropic ballistic conductance of thin magnetic wires

The magnetocrystalline anisotropy of thin magnetic wires of iron and cobalt is quite different from the bulk phases. The spin moment of monatomic Fe wire may be as high as 3.4 μ_B, while the orbital moment as high as 0.5 μ_B. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (MAE) was calculated for wires up to 0.6 nm in diameter starting from monatomic wire and adding consecutive shells for thicker wires. I observe that Fe wires exhibit the change sign with the stress applied along the wire. It means that easy axis may change from the direction along the wire to perpendicular to the wire. We find that ballistic conductance of the wire depends on the direction of the applied magnetic field, i.e. shows anisotropic ballistic magnetoresistance. This effect occurs due to the symmetry dependence of the splitting of degenerate bands in the applied field which changes the number of bands crossing the Fermi level. We find that the ballistic conductance changes with applied stress. Even for thicker wires the ballistic conductance changes by factor 2 on moderate tensile stain in our 5×4 model wire. Thus, the ballistic conductance of magnetic wires changes in the applied field due to the magnetostriction. This effect can be observed as large anisotropic BMR in the experiment.     

Rectified vortex motion in an Nb film with a spacing-graded array of holes

Superconducting Nb thin films with a spacing-graded array of holes were prepared by electron beam lithography. Two films with different hole gradients were fabricated. The ac-driven vortices were investigated in Nb superconductors with a spacing-graded array of holes. The measurements revealed pronounced rectified voltage when the vortex lattice is driven by an ac injected current. The rectified voltage is mainly caused by the strength of the vortex–vortex interaction. The rectified motion of a vortex is affected by the pinning potential of the spacing-graded array and the applied magnetic field. The vortex–vortex interaction strength changes the effective pinning landscape of the vortices and an asymmetric potential is formed. Vortices depin easily from high concentration to low concentration of pinning sites. In both samples, the ac-driven vortices exhibit a variety of dynamical responses and the rectified voltage is tunable with the applied magnetic field.