Energetics of the thermoelastic effect in solids

The dependence of the temperature on the external adiabatic deformation is determined for a one-dimensional model of a solid — chains of atoms with an anharmonic interaction. The resulting dependences of the average kinetic and potential components of the internal energy on this deformation are compared with a model of adiabatic loading of a single oscillator. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 1548–1551 (August 1998)     

Nonequilibrium spin states and tunnel paramagnetic centers in copper oxide CuO

It is shown that the formation of tunnel paramagnetic centers — triplet spin centers with a strongly different adiabatic potential in different spin states — can form in copper oxides based on CuO clusters. The results of measurements of the magnetization and magnetostriction of CuO single crystals are reported. They attest to the presence of nonequilibrium spin states and confirm the results obtained in the model of tunnel paramagnetic centers. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 474–482 (March 1997)     

Structural transformations of the cumulene form of amorphous carbyne at high pressure

Structural transformations of the cumulene form of amorphous carbyne which are induced by heating at high pressure (7.7 GPa) are investigated. These can be described by the sequence amorphous phase — crystal — amorphous phase — disordered graphite. Raman scattering shows that predominately the chain structure of carbyne remains at the first three stages. It was found that the intermediate crystalline phase is an unknown modification of carbon whose structure is identified as cubic (a=3.145 Å). A mechanism of structural transformations in carbyne that involves the formation of new covalent bonds between chains is discussed. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 66, No. 4, 237–242 (25 August 1997)     

Formation of a bistructure of a solid in a computer experiment

Molecular-dynamics was used to investigate the structural changes occurring in a three-dimensional solid when the solid is transferred from an amorphous into a crystalline state. Crystal cells of a new type — pentadecahedrons with five square lateral faces and ten regular triangular faces at the vertices of a cell — were found for the first time in a computer experiment. It is shown that a bistructure consisting of crystal cells of different types, including cells with five-fold symmetry axes, are stable in the solid. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 1919–1924 (October 1998)     

Quantum cryptography based on homodyne detection (vacuum-state cryptosystem)

A new protocol is proposed for quantum cryptography. The protocol is based on the use of a set of measurements which make it possible to reconstruct completely the density matrix — the information carrier — of a physical system. Such a protocol can be implemented by means of homodyne detection (well known in quantum optics) of an electromagnetic field. An example is given of a quantum cryptosystem in which the vacuum state of the photon field is used as one of two information states. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 66, No. 1, 64–68 (10 July 1997)     

Raman spectroscopy of resonance exciton tunneling in GaAs/AlAs superlattices in electric fields

Optical-resonance-Raman scattering by acoustic phonons is used to study the effect of an electric field on the state of excitons in GaAs/AlAs superlattices. When the energy of the exciting photon coincides with the energy of an exciton bound to Wannier-Stark states of a heavy hole and electron with Δn=0,±1, the acoustic Raman scattering is enhanced. Oscillations in the intensity of the Raman spectrum in the electric field are explained by resonance delocalization of the exciton ground state as it interacts with Wannier-Stark states of neighboring quantum wells or with Wannier-Stark states of a higher electron miniband. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 827–829 (May 1998)     

Quantum decoherence from adiabatic entanglement with external one or a few degrees of freedom

Based on the Born-Oppenhemer approximation, the concept of adiabatic quantum entanglement is introduced to account for quantum decoherence of a quantum system due to its interaction with a large system of one or a few degrees of freedom. In the adiabatic limit, it is shown that the wave function of the total system formed by the quantum system plus the large system can be factorized as an entangled state with correlation between adiabatic quantum states and quasi-classical motion configurations of the large system. In association with a novel viewpoint about quantum measurement, which has been directly verified by most recent experiments [e.g., S. Durr et al., Nature 33, 359 (1998)], it is shown that the adiabatic entanglement is indeed responsible for the quantum decoherence and thus can be regarded as a “clean” quantum measurement when the large system behaves as a classical object. By taking the large system respectively to be a macroscopically distinguishable spatial variable, a high spin system and a harmonic oscillator with a coherent initial state, three illustrations are presented with their explicit solutions in this paper. Received 26 February 2000 and Received in final form 14 July 2000     

Self-localized carrier states in disordered ferroelectrics

A theory of self-localized states of free carriers near polarization fluctuations (fluctuons) in disordered ferroelectrics is developed. Calculations are carried out for the model disordered ferroelectric K_{1− x} Li_xTaO₃ (x≪0.05). The basic characteristics of the fluctuon — the energy and radius of the fluctuon state — are calculated as functions of the impurity dipole concentration and temperature. The theory predicts the appearence of stable fluctuon states in both the mixed ferroelectric-dipole-glass phase (a dipole glass is the electric analog of a spin glass) and the dipole-glass state of disordered ferroelectrics. The possible role of fluctuons in kinetic phenomena such as conductivity in these substances is discussed. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 5, 425–429 (10 March 1997) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

Self-organization of the critical state in a two-dimensional multijunction SQUID under closed boundary conditions

A model of a closed system with self-organization is presented. This is a simplified model of a multijunction SQUID in an ac magnetic field. In our closed system, a self-organized critical state is realized on account of the fact that current dumping, which gives rise to self-organization in open systems, is replaced here by a fundamentally different mechanism — annihilation of the currents. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 69, No. 2, 119–125 (25 January 1999)     

Temperature dependence of the electronic specific heat of superconductors with quantum defects

The electronic specific heat of metals with quantum defects in the superconducting state is examined. The role of the electron-polaron effect, as well as that of the level population factor of two-level states, is analyzed in an adiabatic approach. The cases of intermediate and strong coupling are discussed. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 413–418 (March 1998)     

Adiabatic conversion of ultracold atoms to A<Subscript>3</Subscript>B-type tetrameric molecules

We investigate the conversion of ultracold bosonic atoms to heteronuclear tetramer A₃B by an Efimov resonance-assisted stimulated Raman adiabatic passage scheme. In view of recent experiments involving heteronuclear Efimov trimers KKRb and KRbRb [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 043201 (2009)], the intermediate state populated by heteronuclear trimer A₂B in the conversion process is considered. The atom-molecule dark state solution for a system with a population imbalance is derived analytically, and the role played by the imbalance in the conversion is studied. In addition, the effects of the external field parameters (including photoassociated pulse intensity, width, magnetic coupling strength and its detuning) on the conversion are discussed via the concept of adiabatic fidelity.     

Possibility of the appearance of spin autowaves in a model of a ferromagnet with nonuniform dissipation

A model of a ferromagnet with nonuniform dissipation is introduced for the Landau-Lifshitz equations. It is shown that in this model a ferromagnet can be regarded as an oscillating active medium where the formation of autowave structures — spin autowaves, pacemakers, and spiral waves — is possible. Their wave characteristics, expressed in terms of the parameters of the medium, are found for a special case. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 513–515 (March 1997)     

Interaction of polarons in two and three dimensions

Two-dimensional and three-dimensional bipolarons of large radius, symmetrized with respect to the coordinate parts of the two-center wave functions, are investigated in the adiabatic approximation with allowance for dynamic interelectronic correlations. The adiabatic potential lines are plotted. It is shown that the quasimolecular configuration appearing in the Hartree-Fock approximation is unstable in both the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional cases. The ground state is a one-center configuration. Estimates are given for the binding energy and the heat of dissociation of a bipolaron. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 441–443 (March 1997)     

Extremely slow intramolecular vibrational redistribution: Direct observation by time-resolved raman spectroscopy in trifluoropropyne

We have studied the dynamics of intramolecular vibrational redistribution (IVR) from the initially excited mode v₁ ≈ 3330 cm⁻¹ (acetylene-type H-C bond) in H-C≡C-CF₃ molecules in the gaseous phase by means of anti-Stokes spontaneous Raman scattering. The time constant of this process is estimated as 2.3 ns—this is the slowest IVR time reported so far for the room-temperature gases. It is suggested that so long IVR time with respect to the other propyne derivatives can be explained by a larger defect, in this case, of the Fermi resonance of v₁ with v₂ + 2v₇—the most probable doorway state leading to IVR from v₁ to the bath of all vibrational-rotational states with the close energies. In addition, it is shown that the observed dynamics is in agreement with a theoretical model assuming strong vibrational-rotational mixing.     

On an adiabatic invariant in the thermodynamics of solids

A thermodynamic invariant in the form of the ratio of a vibrational frequency in an anharmonic solid to the temperature in adiabatic processes is derived. The adiabatic invariance established is used to derive in a simple manner an expression for the temperature change due to elastic adiabatic loading of solids (Kelvin's equation). Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 41, 134–136 (January 1999)     

Antipolarization effect in quantum wells in a strong external alternating field

It is shown that when a strong ac electric field acts on an electron in a double quantum well, the dipole moment is an almost periodic function of the dc voltage applied to the structure. An antipolarization effect — the structure is polarized in a direction opposite to the external field — appears during one half of the period. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 70, No. 6, 386–391 (25 September 1999)     

On the optimal void fraction in the thermodynamics of a simple liquid

The free energy of a crystal containing a given void fraction is derived in terms of the truncated interparticle Lennard-Jones potential. The free energy is minimized over the void fraction at constant pressure and temperature. It is shown that for all pressures the optimal void fraction remains less than 1% as the temperature is raised. However, at some temperature it grows suddenly and reaches values of the order of the percolation level for voids in a crystal, ∼0.125. At this point, the crystal transitions to the liquid state takes place. The derived dependence of the transition temperature on the pressure—the melting curve—is in good agreement with experimental data on the melting of solidified inert gases. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 116, 1375–1385 (October 1999)     

Chaotic Rabi vacuum oscillations in cavity quantum electrodynamics

It is shown in numerical simulations with two-level atoms moving through a single-mode high-Q cavity that spontaneous emission of a new type — chaotic Rabi vacuum oscillations — arises in the strong atom-field coupling regime. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 11, 801–806 (10 June 1997)     

Experimental observation of cyclotron superradiance

Intense (several hundreds of kilowatts) subnanosecond coherent microwave radiation — cyclotron superradiance of an electron swarm moving in a uniform magnetic field — was recorded. The maximum power of the radiation was observed under group synchronization conditions, when the translational velocity of the swarm is equal to the group velocity of the waves in the waveguide channel. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 63, No. 5, 322–325 (10 March 1996)