Magnetic field compensation for field-cycling NMR Relaxometry in the ULF band

In setting up field-cycling experiments aimed to study physical phenomena in the low-field region, magnetic field contributions from external sources (earth’s field, environment, other magnets, etc.) become important. Indeed, a compensation of these contributions has successfully been used for the application of field-cycling methods to nuclear magnetic relaxation and double resonance experiments. This feature becomes relevant in samples where local fields are stronly averaged due to motional narrowing, on the ground that relaxation experiments can therefore be extended to lower fields. Compensation of external contributions is also crucial for the study of kinky processes related to internal local fields. In this article we outline NMR field-cycling experiments aimed to detect and quantify the external net magnetic field sensed by the spin-system. Both parallel and normal components with respect to the high-field Zeeman axis can be determined separately by using different experimental protocols.     

Laser cooling and magnetic trapping at several tesla

Laser cooling and magnetic trapping of (85)Rb atoms have been performed in extremely strong and tunable magnetic fields, extending these techniques to a new regime and setting the stage for a variety of cold atom and plasma experiments. Using a superconducting Ioffe-Pritchard trap and an optical molasses, 2.4 x 10(7) atoms were laser cooled to the Doppler limit and magnetically trapped at bias fields up to 2.9 T. At magnetic fields up to 6 T, 3 x 10(6) cold atoms were laser cooled in a pulsed loading scheme. These bias fields are well beyond an order of magnitude larger than those in previous experiments. Loading rates, molasses lifetimes, magnetic-trapping times, and temperatures were measured using photoionization and electron detection.     

Extreme-field physics in Penning traps

We present two Penning trap experiments concerned with different aspects of the physics of extreme electromagnetic fields, the ARTEMIS experiment designed for bound-electron magnetic moment measurements in the presence of the extremely strong fields close to the nucleus of highly charged ions, and the HILITE experiment, in which well-defined ion targets are to be subjected to high-intensity laser fields.     

Strong laser fields as a probe for fundamental physics

Upcoming high-intensity laser systems will be able to probe the quantum-induced nonlinear regime of electrodynamics. So far unobserved QED phenomena such as the discovery of a nonlinear response of the quantum vacuum to macroscopic electromagnetic fields can become accessible. In addition, such laser systems provide for a flexible tool for investigating fundamental physics. Primary goals consist in verifying so far unobserved QED phenomena. Moreover, strong-field experiments can search for new light but weakly interacting degrees of freedom and are thus complementary to accelerator-driven experiments. I review recent developments in this field, focusing on photon experiments in strong electromagnetic fields. The interaction of particle-physics candidates with photons and external fields can be parameterized by low-energy effective actions and typically predict characteristic optical signatures. I perform first estimates of the accessible new-physics parameter space of high-intensity laser facilities such as POLARIS and ELI.     

Bichromatic laser frequency stabilization with Doppler effect and polarization spectroscopy

The interaction between polychromatic fields and atoms is an important subject in quantum optics.Frequency locking for small frequency interval multi-field is usually required in some experiments.In this letter,we experimentally demonstrate a holistic scheme for bichromatic laser frequency stabilization.Compared with traditional saturation absorption methods and complicated frequency shift schemes,offset locking for bichromatic fields is simply achieved using polarization spectroscopy and Doppler effect.Frequency locking with a wide-range asymmetry of the detuning is also shown.Our scheme makes laser spectroscopy experiments with polychromatic fields more convenient.     

Excited atomic and molecular states in strong electromagnetic fields

Large changes in atomic and molecular structure can occur when strong static or oscillating electromagnetic fields are present. Such fields also can ionize atoms. Strong oscillating fields induced multiphoton transitions between bound states as well as to the continuum. What is known about these phenomena is reviewed, with emphasis on theories and experiments concerned with the field-sensitive excited and highly-excited states.     

Anomalous polymer sedimentation far from equilibrium

A single flexible polymer in strong sedimentation fields is investigated using hydrodynamic simulations and scaling arguments. For short chains and small fields compaction is observed. For elevated fields or long chains the chain stretches and the sedimentation coefficient decreases, in agreement with ultracentrifuge experiments on linear as well as circular DNA. For very large fields a tadpole forms consisting of a compact leading head and a trailing stretched tail.     

底部加热空气层自然对流的可视化实验研究

本文对底部加热的水平空气层的自然对流换热进行了可视化实验研究,采用实时全息干涉照相技术获得了温度场的激光干涉图及流场的烟可视化图象。实验结果表明,这种水平空气层自然对流换热是非稳态的,并且在空间上是三维的。     

Difference between special relativistic gravitational theory and general relativity: Weak field limit

In the case of weak fields, we compare the gravitational fields and the dynamical equation of a particle deduced from special relativistic gravitational theory with the corresponding results deduced from general relativity. Then both gravitational theories can be tested by experiments.     

Complex plasmas in external fields: the role of non-hamiltonian interactions

Dedicated experiments with strongly coupled complex plasmas in external electric fields were carried out under microgravity conditions using the PK-4 dc discharge setup. The focus was put on the comparative analysis of the formation of stringlike anisotropic structures due to reciprocal (hamiltonian) and nonreciprocal (non-hamiltonian) interactions between microparticles (induced by ac and dc fields, respectively). The experiments complemented by numerical simulations demonstrate that the responses of complex plasmas in these two regimes are drastically different. It is suggested that the observed difference is a manifestation of intrinsic thermodynamic openness of driven strongly coupled systems.     

Low field RYDMR: effects of orthogonal static and oscillating magnetic fields on radical recombination reactions

Reactions involving spin correlated radical pairs as intermediates are known to be sensitive to applied static and/or oscillating magnetic fields. In the reaction yield detected magnetic resonance (RYDMR) technique, an electromagnetic field in resonance with the electron Zeeman splitting produced by a strong static field is used to perturb the singlet ? triplet interconversion of the radical pair and so to affect the yield of geminate recombination. New experiments are described in which weak radiofrequency fields (? 300μT) in the frequency range 1–80 MHz are applied to radical ion pairs derived from pyrene and 1,3-dicyanobenzene, in the presence of a weak (? 3.0 mT) static magnetic field. Such experiments test the viability of RYDMR in low fields, provide insight into the crossover region between the zero-field and high field cases, and may give information on the distribution of radical pair lifetimes.     

Measuring E and B fields in laser-produced plasmas with monoenergetic proton radiography

Electromagnetic (E/B) fields generated by the interaction with plasmas of long-pulse, low-intensity laser beams relevant to inertial confinement fusion have been measured for the first time using novel monoenergetic proton radiography methods. High-resolution, time-gated radiography images of a plastic foil driven by a 10(14) W/cm(2) laser implied B fields of approximately 0.5 MG and E fields of approximately 1.5 x 10(8) V/m. Simulations of these experiments with LASNEX+LSP have been performed and are in overall (though not exact) agreement with the data both for field strengths and for spatial distributions; this is the first direct experimental test of the laser-generated B-field package in LASNEX. The experiments also demonstrated that laser phase plates substantially reduce medium-scale chaotic field structure.     

Sensitivity to local dipole fields in the CRAZED experiment: an approach to bright spot MRI

Local dipole fields such as those created by small iron-oxide particles are used to produce regions of low intensity (dark contrast) in many molecular magnetic resonance imaging applications. We have investigated, with computer simulations and experiments at 17.6 T, how the COSY revamped with asymmetric z-gradient echo detection (CRAZED) experiment that selects intermolecular double-quantum coherences can also be used to visualize such local dipole fields. Application of the coherence-selection gradient pulses parallel to the main magnetic field produced similar, dark contrast as conventional gradient echo imaging. Application of the gradient along the magic angle leads to total loss of signal intensity in homogeneous samples. In the presence of local dipole fields, the contrast was inverted and bright signals from the dipoles were observed over a very low background. Both simulations and experiments showed that the signal strongly decreased when a phase-cycle suppressing single-quantum coherences was employed. Therefore, we conclude that most of the signal comes from directly refocused magnetization or intermolecular single-quantum coherences. Finally, we demonstrate that bright contrast from local dipole fields can also be obtained, when the pair of coherence-selection gradient pulses is deliberately mismatched. Both methods allowed visualization of local dipole fields in phantoms in experimental times of about 3 min.     

Dynamic magnetoelastic coupling in Ni

Resonant longitudinal and transverse phonon excitation in polycrystalline nickel films is reported with parallel r.f. and d.c. magnetic fields applied in the film plane. A new contribution to the magnetoelastic Hamiltonian, which is linear in applied magnetic fields and strains, is proposed to explain the results of this and other experiments on Ni.     

Direct coupling of magnetic fields to tunneling systems in glasses

We report on investigations of spontaneous polarization echoes in the nonmagnetic multicomponent glass BaO-Al2O3-SiO2 in static magnetic fields. While the echo decay is only marginally influenced, the echo amplitude depends strongly on magnetic fields. It seems that the intrinsic magnetic moment of tunneling systems causes dephasing effects which are detected in our echo experiments. In addition we find a strong increase of the echo amplitude with magnetic fields. This result shows that the coupling of the tunneling systems to magnetic fields is surprisingly strong and cannot be understood on the basis of current theories.     

SPINAL modulated decoupling in high field double- and triple-resonance solid-state NMR experiments on stationary samples

Continuous wave irradiation has limited bandwidth for heteronuclear 1H decoupling at high fields and for 13C decoupling in 1H/13C/15N triple-resonance experiments. SPINAL-16 modulation is shown to improve the efficiency of 1H and 13C heteronuclear decoupling on single crystals of peptides and on magnetically aligned samples of membrane proteins in bicelles, which is of particular importance because aqueous samples of biomolecules are lossy at high fields, which limits the strengths of the RF fields that can be applied.     

Ab initio calculations of strain fields and failure patterns in silicon nitride intergranular glassy films

Theoretical experiments were performed on silicon nitride intergranular glassy film (IGF) models subjected to tensile loading using an accurate ab initio method. The results were used to investigate the strain fields within IGF models. The Green–Lagrange strain fields were calculated from the displacement gradients of the IGF models under various loads. Significant deviations from the first-order Cauchy–Born rule were observed for IGF models even under small load. The strain fields were also analysed to understand atomic-scale mechanisms that lead to intergranular and intragranular failures.     

An assessment of the safety of rapidly changing magnetic fields in the rabbit: Implications for NMR imaging

The effects of rapidly changing magnetic fields on the cardiac and respiratory functions of anaesthetised rabbits have been investigated. No changes were observed using pulsed fields with peak rates of change of 60 T/sec. The implications of these experiments for the safety of NMR imaging are discussed.     

The influence of magnetic fields on free neutron oscillations

The phenomenological two-state model usually used to describe the influence of external fields on neutron oscillations is illustrated and extended in order to take into account the vector character of magnetic fields. It is shown that, for sufficiently weak fields, the solution of the extended model can be reduced to the solution of three independent two-state models, one for each vector component. This result is useful for the calculation of antineutron losses in neutron oscillation experiments.Supported by the Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie under contract number 06 HD 983 I