Stern Gerlach interferometry with metastable argon atoms: an immaterial mask modulating the profile of a supersonic beam

A new Stern Gerlach interferometer operating with a nozzle beam of metastable argon atoms Ar^* (3p⁵ 4s, ³ P ₂) is described. The selection of incoming (polarisation) and outgoing (analysis) Zeeman sublevels is achieved by use of laser induced transitions at two wavelengths, 811.5 nm (closed J = 2 → J = 3 transition) and 801.5 nm (open J = 2 → J = 2 transition). Linear superpositions of Zeeman sublevels, just beyond the polariser and just before the analyser, are prepared by means of two zones where Majorana transitions take place. In between, a controlled magnetic field configuration (the phase object) is produced within a triple μ-metal shielding. Standard interference patterns are obtained by scanning the field and detecting the atoms by secondary electron emission from a Faraday cup. When a static radial magnetic gradient is used, the beam profile is modulated by interference. The transverse pattern, which can be translated at will by adding a homogeneous field, is observed for the first time using a multi-channel electron multiplier followed by a phosphor screen and a CCD camera. The results satisfactorily agree with all theoretical predictions. Received 27 June 2002 / Received in final form 20 September 2002 Published online 4 February 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: perales@lpl.univ-paris13.fr RID="b" ID="b"UMR 7538 du CNRS     

Mid-infrared laser-induced grating experiments of C2H4 and NH3 from 0.1–2 MPa and 300–800 K

Laser-induced thermal gratings (LITG) were generated in mixtures of ethylene and ammonia in nitrogen using mid-infrared laser radiation from a grating-tuned, low-pressure, pulsed (5 ms pulse width) CO₂ laser, and read out with a continuous wave Nd:YLF laser. The LITG signal intensity was measured as a function of pressure (0.1–2 MPa) and temperature (300–800 K, at 0.1 and 1 MPa) by tuning the laser to the accidental coincidences of the 10P(14) and 10R(6) emission lines with molecular absorption transitions of C₂H₄ and NH₃, respectively. Comparisons are made with theoretical predictions for the grating efficiency from a simple thermalization model. A theoretical comparison of the temporal LITG signal response for three excitation pulse shapes – a delta function, a realistic pulse, and a square wave is presented. Furthermore, it is shown that for NH₃, most of the decrease of the LITG signal intensity with increasing temperature is due to the corresponding decrease in fractional molecular absorption of the pump beam radiation. The diagnostic capabilities of the mid-infrared LITG experiment is demonstrated for spatially resolved ethylene measurements with long laser pulses in a premixed stoichiometric CH₄–air flame at atmospheric pressure. Received: 17 March 2000 / Revised version: 23 March 2000 / Published online: 13 September 2000     

Planarity and stability of shock driven directly by the ninth laser beam from “Shenguang-II" laser facility

Using the ninth laser beam (converted to 2ω) of “Shenguang-II” laser facility and the beam smoothing technology of lens-array [Appl. Opt. 25, 377 (1986); Phys. Plasmas. 9, 3201 (1995)], a shock wave with 700 μm (the root-mean-square of shock breakout time (RMS) RMS ≈ 6.32 ps) flat top was created. An Al-Al four-step target was designed to do research on shock wave stability in an Al target. And the shock stability experiment with the Al-Al four-step target indicated that the shock wave steadily propagated in the Al target of thickness of about 20–45 μm under the power density of ~ 1.0×10¹⁴ W/cm².     

Atom interferometry measurement of the electric polarizability of lithium

Using an atom interferometer, we have measured the static electric polarizability of ⁷Li α=(24.33 ±0.16)×10^-30 m³ = 164.2±1.1 atomic units with a 0.66% uncertainty. Our experiment, which is similar to an experiment done on sodium in 1995 by Pritchard and co-workers, consists in applying an electric field on one of the two interfering beams and measuring the resulting phase-shift. With respect to Pritchard's experiment, we have made several improvements which are described in detail in this paper: the capacitor design is such that the electric field can be calculated analytically; the phase sensitivity of our interferometer is substantially better, near 16 mrad/ ; finally our interferometer is species selective so that impurities present in our atomic beam (other alkali atoms or lithium dimers) do not perturb our measurement. The extreme sensitivity of atom interferometry is well illustrated by our experiment: our measurement amounts to measuring a slight increase Δv of the atom velocity v when it enters the electric field region and our present sensitivity is sufficient to detect a variation Δv/v ≈6 ×10^-13.     

Sub-Doppler fluorescence on the atomic <Emphasis Type="Italic">D</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript> line of a submicron rubidium-vapor layer

An extremely thin cell (ETC) with the thickness of a Rb atomic vapor layer in the range of 100–300 nm was fabricated. It is demonstrated that a simple laser-diode technique with a single resonant light beam is sufficient to observe separately all of the atomic hyperfine transitions of the D ₂ line of Rb (780 nm) and also allows us to measure the relative transition probabilities of the hyperfine transitions. The onset of collisional self-broadening of the hyperfine transitions as the number density of atoms increases was studied. The detrimental role of the atoms with slow longitudinal velocity in the sub-Doppler response of the Rb ETC is demonstrated by studies in which the cell is tilted from normal incidence of the laser beam. It is also shown that using an ETC allows us to resolve in a moderate external magnetic field the Zeeman splitting of the hyperfine transitions of the ⁸⁷Rb D ₁ transition F _g=1F _e=1,2. Received: 19 February 2003 / Revised version: 4 April 2003 / Published online: 2 June 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +374/32-31172, E-mail: david@ipr.sci.am     

Fine structure in the α-decay of radium isotopes with mass numbers 209-212

Radium isotopes with mass numbers from 209 to 212 have been produced by heavy-ion fusion reactions ²⁰⁴Pb( ¹²C, xn) ^216-Ra. Radioactive decay properties were investigated by means of α- and α-γ-spectroscopy after in-flight separation of the evaporation residues from the projectile beam by the velocity filter SHIP and implantation into a 16-strip position-sensitive Si detector. For the even-even nuclei ^210,212Ra we identified α transitions into the first-excited 2⁺-state of the daughter nuclei ^206,208Rn. Weak α transitions into excited levels of the odd-A daughter nuclei ^205,207Rn were also observed. Received: 19 August 2002 / Accepted: 6 November 2002 / Published online: 18 February 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: f.p.hessberger@gsi.de Communicated by D. Guerreau     

Amplification of atomic L-R asymmetries by stimulated emission: experimental demonstration of sensitivity enhancement valuable for parity violation measurements

While all Atomic Parity Violation experiments on highly forbidden transitions in a Stark field have used the detection of fluorescence signals, our group is engaged in an experiment on the cesium transition that uses a pump-probe scheme. The role of the probe beam is to detect the 7S state by stimulated emission. The detected Left-Right asymmetry () appears directly on the transmitted probe beam and the technique relies on differential-mode atomic polarimetry. We present here experimental results which illustrate two essential features of this approach. First, is amplified when the optical thickness for the probe beam is increased, hence it is an increasing function of the Stark field. Secondly, the experimental sensitivity to is simultaneously increase d, as demonstrated by our measurements of the signal-to-noise ratio. We emphasize also the advantage of choosing a probe transition that involves a “dark” state: the amplification is preserved at high levels of the probe intensity because saturation effects are greatly reduced. Received: 8 october 1997 / Accepted: 21 November 1997     

Prospects for precision measurements of atomic helium using direct frequency comb spectroscopy

We analyze several possibilities for precisely measuring electronic transitions in atomic helium by the direct use of phase-stabilized femtosecond frequency combs. Because the comb is self-calibrating and can be shifted into the ultraviolet spectral region via harmonic generation, it offers the prospect of greatly improved accuracy for UV and far-UV transitions. To take advantage of this accuracy an ultracold helium sample is needed. For measurements of the triplet spectrum a magneto-optical trap (MOT) can be used to cool and trap metastable 2³S state atoms. We analyze schemes for measuring the two-photon 2³S →4³S interval, and for resonant two-photon excitation to high Rydberg states, 2³S →3³P →n³S, D. We also analyze experiments on the singlet-state spectrum. To accomplish this we propose schemes for producing and trapping ultracold helium in the 1¹S or 2¹S state via intercombination transitions. A particularly intriguing scenario is the possibility of measuring the 1¹S →2¹S transition with extremely high accuracy by use of two-photon excitation in a magic wavelength trap that operates identically for both states. We predict a “triple magic wavelength” at 412 nm that could facilitate numerous experiments on trapped helium atoms, because here the polarizabilities of the 1¹S, 2¹S and 2³S states are all similar, small, and positive.     

Rydberg transitions for positron-hydrogen collisions

e⁺ + H(ns) ↦e⁺ + H(n^′s) transitions for arbitrary n and n^′ have been studied using the distorted-wave formalism in the momentum space [Ghoshal and Mandal, Phys. Rev. A 72, 032714 (2005)]. The distorted-wave scattering amplitudes have been written in a simple closed analytical form. A detailed study has been made on differential and total cross sections in the energy range 20–300 eV. Resonance-like behaviour of the differential cross section has been observed in the the region of lower scattering angles for high Rydberg transitions. To the best of our knowledge the distorted-wave results for differential and total cross sections for such arbitrary transitions are reported for the first time in the literature.     

Measurement of the beam asymmetry Σ in πeta; production off the proton with the CBELSA/TAPS experiment?

In photoproduction experiments, a large number of final states yielding various resonance contributions are accessible. To extract resonance parameters via partial-wave analysis not only the measurement of differential cross-sections is necessary, but also the determination of polarization observables. At the electron accelerator ELSA (Bonn) the coherent bremsstrahlung method was used to generate a linearly polarized photon beam. Using the CBELSA/TAPS detector setup, the beam asymmetry Σ in the reaction γp → pπ⁰η was determined as a function of various masses and angles for photon energies between 970MeV and 1650MeV.     

Angular studies of the magnetoresistance in the density wave state of the quasi-two-dimensional purple bronze KMo<Subscript>6</Subscript>O<Subscript>17</Subscript>

The purple molybdenum bronze KMo₆O₁₇ is a quasi-two-dimensional compound which shows a Peierls transition towards a commensurate metallic charge density wave (CDW) state. High magnetic field measurements have revealed several transitions at low temperature and have provided an unusual phase diagram “temperature-magnetic field”. Angular studies of the interlayer magnetoresistance are now reported. The results suggest that the orbital coupling of the magnetic field to the CDW is the most likely mechanism for the field induced transitions. The angular dependence of the magnetoresistance is discussed on the basis of a warped quasi-cylindrical Fermi surface and provides information on the geometry of the Fermi surface in the low temperature density wave state.     

Depopulation of the Jπ = 9- isomer in 180Ta to the Jπ = 1+ ground state by Coulomb excitation

In-beam Coulomb excitation of the exotic odd-odd nucleus ¹⁸⁰Ta has been studied by using a ¹³⁶Xe beam and a setup consisting of five EUROBALL CLUSTER detectors and the Darmstadt-Heidelberg Crystal Ball array. Spectroscopic information on the extremely rare ¹⁸⁰Ta is obtained from the comparison between an enriched (3.6±0.3% ¹⁸⁰Ta) and a natural tantalum target. Possible evidence for a depopulation from the long-lived high-spin J ^π = 9^- isomer to the short-lived J ^π = 1⁺ ground state is searched for by different methods. The decay of low-K bandheads, which are nanosecond isomers, towards the ground-state band can be demonstrated in delayed spectroscopy. A γγ coincidence analysis provides indications of K = 5 in-band transitions. Finally, when the Crystal Ball is used as an energy and γ multiplicity filter, signals of decay into the K = 0 band are observed. Received: 23 January 2001 / Accepted: 8 February 2001     

Optimization of the wave front of high order harmonics

We present a full optimization of the high harmonics wave front owing to the use of a soft X-ray Hartmann sensor. The sensor was calibrated using a high harmonic source with an accuracy of λ/50 root-mean-square (rms) with λ around 30 nm. We observed a high harmonic wave front of λ/7 rms, which is two times the diffraction-limit, astigmatism being the dominant aberration for every condition of generation. By clipping slightly the unfocused high harmonic beam, it is possible to produce a diffraction-limited beam containing approximately 90% of the incident energy.     

The quark condensate in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions

We compute the modification of the quark condensate <ˉq q> in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions and estimate the 4-volume, where the quark condensate is small (<ˉqq>/<ˉqq>⁰≤ 0.1–0.3) using hadron phase-space distributions obtained with the quark-gluon string model. As a function of the beam energy the 4-volume rises sharply at a beam energy E^lab/A ≃ (2–5) GeV, remains roughly constant up to beam energies ≃ 20 GeV and rises at higher energies. At low energies the reduction of the condensate is mainly due to baryons, while at higher energies the rise of the 4-volume is due to the abundant mesons produced. Based on our results we expect that moderate beam energies on the order of 10 GeV per nucleon are favourable for studying the restoration of chiral symmetry in a baryon-rich environment in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Received: 4 December 1997 / Revised version: 31 July 1998     

Acoustic scattering of a high-order Bessel beam by an elastic sphere

The exact analytical solution for the scattering of a generalized (or “hollow”) acoustic Bessel beam in water by an elastic sphere centered on the beam is presented. The far-field acoustic scattering field is expressed as a partial wave series involving the scattering angle relative to the beam axis and the half-conical angle of the wave vector components of the generalized Bessel beam. The sphere is assumed to have isotropic elastic material properties so that the nth partial wave amplitude for plane wave scattering is proportional to a known partial-wave coefficient. The transverse acoustic scattering field is investigated versus the dimensionless parameter ka(k is the wave vector, a radius of the sphere) as well as the polar angle θ for a specific dimensionless frequency and half-cone angle β. For higher-order generalized beams, the acoustic scattering vanishes in the backward (θ = π) and forward (θ = 0) directions along the beam axis. Moreover it is possible to suppress the excitation of certain resonances of an elastic sphere by appropriate selection of the generalized Bessel beam parameters.     

Evolution of shapes in 59Cu

High-spin states in ⁵⁹Cu were populated using the fusion-evaporation reaction ²⁸Si + ⁴⁰Ca at a beam energy of 122 MeV. The Gammasphere Ge-detector array in conjunction with the 4π charged-particle detector array Microball allowed for the detection of γ-rays in coincidence with evaporated light particles. The resulting extensive high-spin decay scheme of ⁵⁹Cu is presented, which comprises more than 320 γ-ray transitions connecting about 150 excited states. Their spins and parities have been assigned via directional correlations of γ-rays emitted from oriented states. Average quadrupole moments of rotational bands have been determined from the analysis of residual Doppler shifts. Shell model calculations in the fp shell are invoked to study some of the low-spin states, while the experimental characteristics of the rotational bands are analyzed in the configuration-dependent cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky (CNS) approach. Received: 15 February 2002 / Accepted: 23 April 2002     

Feasibility of high power refractory metal-foil targets for EURISOL

EURISOL foil-targets have to withstand a primary proton beam of 1 GeV kinetic energy and up to 100 μA beam current. These foil targets will be based on previous high-power target concepts, i.e. the RIST target [J.R.J. Bennett et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. Phys. Res. B 126, 117 (1997)] or high power targets used at TRIUMF [P. Bricault et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. Phys. Res. B 204, 319 (2003), M. Dombsky et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. Phys. Res. B 204, 191 (2003)]. A single target unit is capable of dissipating up to 25 kW, hence, several target units can be merged together by individual transfer lines to one common ion source. The single target units will be irradiated by a proton beam in a time sharing mode to distribute the primary proton beam current to the individual target units. In this feasibility study the necessary properties of high-power foil targets are discussed and the requirements to design a foil target according to the proton beam parameters [CITE] for the future EURISOL facility are given.     

Measurement of the beam asymmetry in η photoproduction off the proton

The beam asymmetry, Σ , was measured at ELSA in the reaction p → ηp using linearly polarised tagged photon beams, produced by coherent bremsstrahlung off a diamond. The crystal was oriented to provide polarised photons in the energy range E _γ = 800 to 1400MeV with the maximum polarisation of P _γ = 49 % obtained at 1305MeV. Both dominant decay modes of the η into two photons and 3π⁰ were used to extract the beam asymmetry from the azimuthal modulation of the cross-section. The measurements cover the angular range Θ_cm ≃ 50 -150 degrees. Large asymmetries up to 80% are observed, in agreement with a previous measurement. The eta-MAID model and the Bonn-Gatchina partial wave analysis describe the measurements, but the required partial waves differ significantly.     

Phase transitions in “small” systems

Traditionally, phase transitions are defined in the thermodynamic limit only. We discuss how phase transitions of first order (with phase separation and surface tension), continuous transitions and (multi)-critical points can be seen and classified for small systems. “Small” systems are systems where the linear dimension is of the characteristic range of the interaction between the particles; i.e. also astrophysical systems are “small” in this sense. Boltzmann defines the entropy as the logarithm of the area of the surface in the mechanical N-body phase space at total energy E. The topology of S(E,N) or more precisely, of the curvature determinant allows the classification of phase transitions without taking the thermodynamic limit. Micro-canonical thermo-statistics and phase transitions will be discussed here for a system coupled by short range forces in another situation where entropy is not extensive. The first calculation of the entire entropy surface S(E,N) for the diluted Potts model (ordinary (q=3)-Potts model plus vacancies) on a square lattice is shown. The regions in {E,N} where D>0 correspond to pure phases, ordered resp. disordered, and D<0 represent transitions of first order with phase separation and “surface tension”. These regions are bordered by a line with D=0. A line of continuous transitions starts at the critical point of the ordinary (q=3)-Potts model and runs down to a branching point P_m. Along this line vanishes in the direction of the eigenvector of D with the largest eigen-value . It characterizes a maximum of the largest eigenvalue . This corresponds to a critical line where the transition is continuous and the surface tension disappears. Here the neighboring phases are indistinguishable. The region where two or more lines with D=0 cross is the region of the (multi)-critical point. The micro-canonical ensemble allows to put these phenomena entirely on the level of mechanics. Received 18 October 1999 and received in final form 17 November 1999     

Open-path trace gas detection of ammonia based on cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy

A compact open-path optical ammonia detector is developed. A tunable external-cavity diode laser operating at 1.5 μm is used to probe absorptions of ammonia via the cavity-enhanced absorption (CEA) technique. The detector is tested in a climate chamber. The sensitivity and linearity of this system are studied for ammonia and water at atmospheric pressure. A cluster of closely spaced rovibrational overtone and combination band transitions, observed as one broad absorption feature, is used for the detection of ammonia. On these molecular transitions a detection limit of 100 ppb (1 s) is determined. The ammonia measurements are calibrated independently with a chemiluminescence monitor. Compared to other optical open-path detection methods in the 1–2 μm region, the present result shows an improved sensitivity for contactless ammonia detection by over one order of magnitude. Using the same set-up, a detection limit of 100 ppm (1 s) is determined for the detection of water at atmospheric pressure. Received: 19 January 2000 / Revised version: 6 March 2000 / Published online: 7 June 2000