Energy distribution curves of ultrafast laser-induced field emission and their implications for electron dynamics

Energy distribution curves of laser-induced electron pulses from a tungsten tip have been measured as a function of tip voltage and laser power. Electron emission via tunneling through and/or excitation over the surface barrier from photoexcited nonequilibrium electron distributions are clearly observed. The spectral shapes largely vary with the emission processes and are strongly affected by electron dynamics. Simulations successfully reproduce the spectra, thus allowing direct insight into the involved electron dynamics and revealing the temporal tunability of electron emission via the two experimental parameters. These results should be useful to optimize the pulse characteristics for many applications based on ultrafast laser-induced electron emission.     

Single-pass high-harmonic generation at 20.8 MHz repetition rate

We report on single-pass high-harmonic generation (HHG) with amplified driving laser pulses at a repetition rate of 20.8?MHz. An Yb:YAG Innoslab amplifier system provides 35?fs pulses with 20?W average power at 1030?nm after external pulse compression. Following tight focusing into a xenon gas jet, we observe the generation of high-harmonic radiation of up to the seventeenth order. Our results show that state-of-the-art amplifier systems have become a promising alternative to cavity-assisted HHG for applications that require high repetition rates, such as frequency comb spectroscopy in the extreme UV.     

Slow-light enhanced correlated photon pair generation in a silicon photonic crystal waveguide

We report the generation of correlated photon pairs in the telecom C-band at room temperature from a dispersion-engineered silicon photonic crystal waveguide. The spontaneous four-wave mixing process producing the photon pairs is enhanced by slow-light propagation enabling an active device length of less than 100?μm. With a coincidence to accidental ratio of 12.8 at a pair generation rate of 0.006 per pulse, this ultracompact photon pair source paves the way toward scalable quantum information processing realized on-chip.     

Response properties at the dynamic water/dichloroethane liquid–liquid interface

ABSTRACT

We present a novel approach for calculating the static dielectric permittivity profile of a liquid–liquid interface (LLI) from molecular dynamics simulations. To obtain well-defined features, comparable to those observed at solid–liquid interfaces, we find it essential to reference to the instantaneous liquid–liquid interface rather than the more commonly used average Gibbs interface. We provide a coarse-grained approach for the practical definition of the instantaneous interface and present numerical results for the prototypical water/1,2-dichloroethane system. These results show that the parallel components of the dielectric permittivity tensor can be accurately extracted. In contrast, the perpendicular component does not converge to the correct bulk value at large distances from the LLI, highlighting a flaw in the regularly applied coarse-graining procedure.     

Directed paths with random phases

Directed Feynman paths in 1 + 1 dimensions that acquire random phases are examined numerically and analytically. This problem is relevant for the behavior of the conductance in two-dimensional amorphous insulators in the variable-range-hopping regime. Large-scale numerical simulations were performed on a model with short-range correlations. For the scaling of the transverse fluctuations ( t^ν), we obtain ν = 0.68 ± 0.025; and for the r.m.s free-energy fluctuations ( t^ω), we obtain ω = 0.335 ± 0.01. Up to 100 000 random samples were used for times as large as 2000. These results seem to exclude a recent conjecture that ν = 3/4 and ω = 1/2. Two versions of a model with long-range correlations are solved and shown to yield ν = 1/2; a physical explanation is given.     

Nuclear quantum effects in liquid water from path-integral simulations using an ab initio force-matching approach

We have applied path integral simulations, in combination with new ab initio based water potentials, to investigate nuclear quantum effects in liquid water. Because direct ab initio path integral simulations are computationally expensive, a flexible water model is parameterised by force-matching to density functional theory-based molecular dynamics simulations. Static and dynamic properties of liquid water at ambient conditions are presented and the role of nuclear quantum effects, exchange-correlation functionals and dispersion corrections are discussed in regards to reproducing the experimental properties of liquid water.     

Multi-photon vibrational resonances,with modulation effects,using HeXe,NeAr and NeXe as models

Model calculations are presented for the multi-photon vibrational spectra for the bound states of the (non-rotating) rare gas dimers HeXe, NeAr and NeXe. The results are used to discuss some of the features of electric dipole spectra that can occur due to the presence of non-zero diagonal dipole matrix elements and/or near-degenerate energy levels. These include multi-photon resonance profiles with oscillatory fringe patterns localized around the main resonance peaks and the possibility of shifts of resonance positions to low frequency relative to the weak field limit.     

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the co-pyrolysis of catechol and 1,3-butadiene

In order to better understand the reactions responsible for the formation and growth of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from solid fuels, we have performed pyrolysis experiments in an isothermal laminar-flow reactor (at temperatures of 600-1000 °C and a fixed residence time of 0.3 s) with catechol, a model fuel representative of the aromatic moieties in coal and biomass fuels; 1,3-butadiene, a major product of biomass pyrolysis; and with catechol and 1,3-butadiene together (in a catechol-to-1,3-butadiene molar ratio of 0.83). No PAH of ?3 rings are produced at temperatures <700 °C, but PAH production becomes significant at temperatures ?800 °C. Analysis of the higher-temperature reaction products by high-pressure liquid chromatography with diode-array ultraviolet-visible absorbance detection has led to the identification of over 100 PAH (ranging in size to 10 fused aromatic rings) - 47 of which have never before been reported as products of any phenol-type fuel. Quantification of the product yields shows that a much higher percentage of fed carbon is converted to PAH in the catechol-only pyrolysis experiments than in the 1,3-butadiene-only pyrolysis experiments - a result attributable to catechol’s relatively labile O-H bond and capacity for generating oxygen-containing radicals, which accelerate both fuel conversion and the pyrolysis reactions leading to 1- and 2-ring aromatics and PAH. When the two fuels are co-pyrolyzed, the percentage of the total fed carbon converting to PAH is more than two times higher than the amount calculated for the hypothetical case of the two fuels together behaving as a linear combination of the two fuels individually. This elevated production of PAH from the co-pyrolysis experiments reflects not only the reaction-accelerating role of the oxygen-containing radicals but also the efficacy, as growth agents, of the C₂ - and especially the C₄ - species abundantly present in the catechol/1,3-butadiene co-pyrolysis environment.     

Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations for the LPCTrap setup

The LPCTrap setup at GANIL is fully operational since 2006. The first breakthrough was the detection of 100000 coincidences between the $ \beta$ particles and the recoil ions from the decay of ⁶He⁺ produced by the SPIRAL source. After preparation, the decaying nuclei are confined in a transparent Paul trap which is surrounded by a $ \beta$ -telescope made of a double-sided silicon strip detector followed by a scintillator, and by a micro-channel plate position-sensitive detector to record in coincidence the $ \beta$ particles and the recoil ions. Simulations of this system are needed in order to study possible systematic effects and extract with high accuracy the $ \beta$ - $ \nu$ angular-correlation coefficient. A code based on Geant4 is well suited for this purpose. In this contribution the results from the simulations compared with those from the experiment will be presented and discussed.