Magnetic phase control by an electric field

The quest for higher data density in information storage is motivating investigations into approaches for manipulating magnetization by means other than magnetic fields. This is evidenced by the recent boom in magnetoelectronics and 'spintronics', where phenomena such as carrier effects in magnetic semiconductors and high-correlation effects in colossal magnetoresistive compounds are studied for their device potential. The linear magnetoelectric effect-the induction of polarization by a magnetic field and of magnetization by an electric field-provides another route for linking magnetic and electric properties. It was recently discovered that composite materials and magnetic ferroelectrics exhibit magnetoelectric effects that exceed previously known effects by orders of magnitude, with the potential to trigger magnetic or electric phase transitions. Here we report a system whose magnetic phase can be controlled by an external electric field: ferromagnetic ordering in hexagonal HoMnO3 is reversibly switched on and off by the applied field via magnetoelectric interactions. We monitor this process using magneto-optical techniques and reveal its microscopic origin by neutron and X-ray diffraction. From our results, we identify basic requirements for other candidate materials to exhibit magnetoelectric phase control.     

四齿席夫碱类光学探针用于检测铀和含磷酸基团生物分子的研究进展

席夫碱具有易制备、检测金属离子灵敏度高和选择性好等特点,长期以来受到人们的广泛关注。近年来四齿席夫碱类光学探针在医学、催化、分析化学、超分子化学、功能材料及配位化学等领域得到广泛应用。本文结合实时热点,阐述了四齿席夫碱类光学探针利用其特有的NN或NO型空腔与铀酰离子配位,实现对实际样品中铀酰离子的定性分析和定量检测,并成功应用于含磷酸基团生物分子的识别与检测。最后展望并探讨了四齿席夫碱类光学探针的研究发展方向。     

受非线性作用的微观粒子的运动特性及其非线性量子力学理论(Ⅰ)

与线性场的情况相比，微观粒子在非线性作用下的运动特性和本性发生很大变化，这说明在线性作用和非线性场中微观粒子的性质是明显不同的．这启示我们必须建立微观粒子在非线性体系或非线性场中运动规律的新理论．为此研究了与线性量子力学描写的微观量子效应迥然不同的宏观量子效应与非线性作用下的孤立子运动的紧密关系．结合现代孤立子理论和超导与超流理论，首先提出了非线性量子力学的基本原理及在此基础上建立了系统、完整的非线性量子力学理论体系，以及由此理论得出的一些新结论．最后还论证这个理论的正确性和自洽性，理论的运用范围及它的重大意义．     

Femtosecond time-delay X-ray holography

Extremely intense and ultrafast X-ray pulses from free-electron lasers offer unique opportunities to study fundamental aspects of complex transient phenomena in materials. Ultrafast time-resolved methods usually require highly synchronized pulses to initiate a transition and then probe it after a precisely defined time delay. In the X-ray regime, these methods are challenging because they require complex optical systems and diagnostics. Here we propose and apply a simple holographic measurement scheme, inspired by Newton's 'dusty mirror' experiment, to monitor the X-ray-induced explosion of microscopic objects. The sample is placed near an X-ray mirror; after the pulse traverses the sample, triggering the reaction, it is reflected back onto the sample by the mirror to probe this reaction. The delay is encoded in the resulting diffraction pattern to an accuracy of one femtosecond, and the structural change is holographically recorded with high resolution. We apply the technique to monitor the dynamics of polystyrene spheres in intense free-electron-laser pulses, and observe an explosion occurring well after the initial pulse. Our results support the notion that X-ray flash imaging can be used to achieve high resolution, beyond radiation damage limits for biological samples. With upcoming ultrafast X-ray sources we will be able to explore the three-dimensional dynamics of materials at the timescale of atomic motion.     

Microfluidic sorting in an optical lattice

The response of a microscopic dielectric object to an applied light field can profoundly affect its kinetic motion. A classic example of this is an optical trap, which can hold a particle in a tightly focused light beam. Optical fields can also be used to arrange, guide or deflect particles in appropriate light-field geometries. Here we demonstrate an optical sorter for microscopic particles that exploits the interaction of particles-biological or otherwise-with an extended, interlinked, dynamically reconfigurable, three-dimensional optical lattice. The strength of this interaction with the lattice sites depends on the optical polarizability of the particles, giving tunable selection criteria. We demonstrate both sorting by size (of protein microcapsule drug delivery agents) and sorting by refractive index (of other colloidal particle streams). The sorting efficiency of this method approaches 100%, with values of 96% or more observed even for concentrated solutions with throughputs exceeding those reported for fluorescence-activated cell sorting. This powerful, non-invasive technique is suited to sorting and fractionation within integrated ('lab-on-a-chip') microfluidic systems, and can be applied in colloidal, molecular and biological research.     

光波干涉采样示波器

光频梳技术是本世纪初随着飞秒激光技术、非线性光学的飞速发展应运而起的一项重要的精密频率测量技术.它跨越了射频和光频电磁波谱之间长期存在的技术鸿沟,通过频率和相位的相干关系将二者巧妙的衔接,在时间频率标准、精密光谱计量以及基础物理学常数的高精度测量等领域具有举足轻重的应用价值.正因为The-odor W.H?nsch(本文第一作者)和John L.Hall以光频梳技术为代表的激光精密测量技术领域的杰出贡献,二人同Roy J.Glauber(光相干量子理论的贡献)共同分享了2005年诺贝尔物理学奖.从光频梳的基本原理出发,解释了光频梳技术基本概念,稳定工作的光频梳以及作为高精密的频率测量技术,光频梳主要的应用领域等.同时回顾了作者研发光频梳技术的初衷,即用于研究氢原子的精密光谱,验证量子电动力学理论,提高里德堡常数和质子电荷半径等物理学基本常数体系的测量精度.介绍了通过双光频梳实现高精密的光谱直接测量技术,包括该技术的原理以及在气体分子精密光谱测量方面的应用,举例说明了基于双光频梳的光谱直接测量技术在频率分辨率和灵敏度方面相对于传统光频梳表现出来的显著优势.实验验证了单光子水平的光频梳光谱测量可行性,指出其在极紫外或甚至在软x射线这些产生少量光子的应用领域的应用前景.最后介绍了微小区域实现厘米级尺寸的光学腔的脉冲激光的激发、片上稳定的双光频梳实现等微型光频梳和片上光谱系统集成等关键技术和解决方案,并分析了片上光频梳光谱测量系统的发展和应用前景.     

Thermal radiation scanning tunnelling microscopy

In standard near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM), a subwavelength probe acts as an optical 'stethoscope' to map the near field produced at the sample surface by external illumination. This technique has been applied using visible, infrared, terahertz and gigahertz radiation to illuminate the sample, providing a resolution well beyond the diffraction limit. NSOM is well suited to study surface waves such as surface plasmons or surface-phonon polaritons. Using an aperture NSOM with visible laser illumination, a near-field interference pattern around a corral structure has been observed, whose features were similar to the scanning tunnelling microscope image of the electronic waves in a quantum corral. Here we describe an infrared NSOM that operates without any external illumination: it is a near-field analogue of a night-vision camera, making use of the thermal infrared evanescent fields emitted by the surface, and behaves as an optical scanning tunnelling microscope. We therefore term this instrument a 'thermal radiation scanning tunnelling microscope' (TRSTM). We show the first TRSTM images of thermally excited surface plasmons, and demonstrate spatial coherence effects in near-field thermal emission.     

Demonstration of temporal cloaking

Recent research has uncovered a remarkable ability to manipulate and control electromagnetic fields to produce effects such as perfect imaging and spatial cloaking. To achieve spatial cloaking, the index of refraction is manipulated to flow light from a probe around an object in such a way that a 'hole' in space is created, and the object remains hidden. Alternatively, it may be desirable to cloak the occurrence of an event over a finite time period, and the idea of temporal cloaking has been proposed in which the dispersion of the material is manipulated in time, producing a 'time hole' in the probe beam to hide the occurrence of the event from the observer. This approach is based on accelerating the front part of a probe light beam and slowing down its rear part to create a well controlled temporal gap--inside which an event occurs--such that the probe beam is not modified in any way by the event. The probe beam is then restored to its original form by the reverse manipulation of the dispersion. Here we present an experimental demonstration of temporal cloaking in an optical fibre-based system by applying concepts from the space-time duality between diffraction and dispersive broadening. We characterize the performance of our temporal cloak by detecting the spectral modification of a probe beam due to an optical interaction and show that the amplitude of the event (at the picosecond timescale) is reduced by more than an order of magnitude when the cloak is turned on. These results are a significant step towards the development of full spatio-temporal cloaking.     

Spontaneous skyrmion ground states in magnetic metals

Since the 1950s, Heisenberg and others have addressed the problem of how to explain the appearance of countable particles in continuous fields. Stable localized field configurations were searched for an ingredient for a general field theory of elementary particles, but the majority of nonlinear field models were unable to predict them. As an exception, Skyrme succeeded in describing nuclear particles as localized states, so-called 'skyrmions'. Skyrmions are a characteristic of nonlinear continuum models ranging from microscopic to cosmological scales. Skyrmionic states have been found under non-equilibrium conditions, or when stabilized by external fields or the proliferation of topological defects. Examples are Turing patterns in classical liquids, spin textures in quantum Hall magnets, or the blue phases in liquid crystals. However, it has generally been assumed that skyrmions cannot form spontaneous ground states, such as ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic order, in magnetic materials. Here, we show theoretically that this assumption is wrong and that skyrmion textures may form spontaneously in condensed-matter systems with chiral interactions without the assistance of external fields or the proliferation of defects. We show this within a phenomenological continuum model based on a few material-specific parameters that can be determined experimentally. Our model has a condition not considered before: we allow for softened amplitude variations of the magnetization, characteristic of, for instance, metallic magnets. Our model implies that spontaneous skyrmion lattice ground states may exist generally in a large number of materials, notably at surfaces and in thin films, as well as in bulk compounds, where a lack of space inversion symmetry leads to chiral interactions.     

单光束光镊光阱力分析

在几何光学近似下,利用光线追踪法分析了激光微束对微粒的作用力,数值计算中考虑了激光微束的具体结构对光阱力的影响.分析表明:相对折射率和激光束腰对光阱力有重要影响,激光波长和微粒大小对光阱力也有一定影响.     

EDXRF中几何探测光路分析及其优化设计

能量色散X射线荧光分析因其分析速度快、准确度高、分析过程简单等优势已经广泛的应用到医疗、考古等诸多领域。探测光路的最优化设计可以减小仪器散射本底,降低检出限,提高仪器的分辨率及探测效率,增强特征X射线的全能峰的峰背比,改善仪器的工作性能。应用自制的一款低检出限、高分辨率的能量色散X射线荧光分析仪,通过对纯元素Cu特征X射线探测完成了光谱仪几何光路最优化设计。实验结果表明,X射线管与样品的夹角、样品与探测器的夹角均为45°,X射线管到样品、样品到探测器的距离均为10mm时,特征X射线的峰背比最佳。同时将Al-Pb准直加装在光路中进行本底测量,散射本底以及仪器的检出限大大降低,提高了仪器的分辨率及探测效率,为痕量和微量元素的分析提供了优化的光路解决方案。     

堆积粉尘本构方程及其应用

利用实验测得的与流场有关的特征参数值和相关理论，确定粉尘的本构方程，基于该方程，利用激波极曲线理论，可得到该流场特征参数随激波速度变化的关系曲线，对该流场进行数值模拟，可描述波后的流场结构，理论计算和实验结果较为一致。     

Optical pulsations from the anomalous X-ray pulsar 4U0142+61

Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) differ from ordinary radio pulsars in that their X-ray luminosity is orders of magnitude greater than their rate of rotational energy loss, and so they require an additional energy source. One possibility is that AXPs are highly magnetized neuron stars or 'magnetars' having surface magnetic fields greater than 10(14) G. This would make them similar to the soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs), but alternative models that do not require extreme magnetic fields also exist. An optical counterpart to the AXP 4U0142+61 was recently discovered, consistent with emission from a magnetar, but also from a magnetized hot white dwarf, or an accreting isolated neutron star. Here we report the detection of optical pulsations from 4U0142+61. The pulsed fraction of optical light (27 per cent) is five to ten times greater than that of soft X-rays, from which we conclude that 4U0142+61 is a magnetar. Although this establishes a direct relationship between AXPs and the soft gamma-ray repeaters, the evolutionary connection between AXPs, SGRs and radio pulsars remains controversial.     

Discovery of radio emission from the brown dwarf LP944-20

Brown dwarfs are not massive enough to sustain thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen at their centres, but are distinguished from gas-giant planets by their ability to burn deuterium. Brown dwarfs older than approximately 10 Myr are expected to possess short-lived magnetic fields and to emit radio and X-rays only very weakly from their coronae. An X-ray flare was recently detected on the brown dwarf LP944-20, whereas previous searches for optical activity (and one X-ray search) yielded negative results. Here we report the discovery of quiescent and flaring radio emission from LP944-20, with luminosities several orders of magnitude larger than predicted by the empirical relation between the X-ray and radio luminosities that has been found for many types of stars. Interpreting the radio data within the context of synchrotron emission, we show that LP944-20 has an unusually weak magnetic field in comparison to active M-dwarf stars, which might explain the previous null optical and X-ray results, as well as the strength of the radio emissions compared to those at X-ray wavelengths.     

固浸透镜技术的研究与最新进展

固浸透镜技术自1990年提出以来,不断地发展趋于成熟。现主要介绍固浸透镜技术的基本原理和近年来固浸透镜技术在各个领域的研究成果以及最新的进展情况。总结了该技术在近场光学存储、半导体纳米结构研究、固浸显微镜等领域内的应用。未来固浸透镜技术具有极好的应用前景。     

Flares from a candidate Galactic magnetar suggest a missing link to dim isolated neutron stars

Magnetars are young neutron stars with very strong magnetic fields of the order of 10(14)-10(15) G. They are detected in our Galaxy either as soft gamma-ray repeaters or anomalous X-ray pulsars. Soft gamma-ray repeaters are a rare type of gamma-ray transient sources that are occasionally detected as bursters in the high-energy sky. No optical counterpart to the gamma-ray flares or the quiescent source has yet been identified. Here we report multi-wavelength observations of a puzzling source, SWIFT J195509+261406. We detected more than 40 flaring episodes in the optical band over a time span of three days, and a faint infrared flare 11 days later, after which the source returned to quiescence. Our radio observations confirm a Galactic nature and establish a lower distance limit of approximately 3.7 kpc. We suggest that SWIFT J195509+261406 could be an isolated magnetar whose bursting activity has been detected at optical wavelengths, and for which the long-term X-ray emission is short-lived. In this case, a new manifestation of magnetar activity has been recorded and we can consider SWIFT J195509+261406 to be a link between the 'persistent' soft gamma-ray repeaters/anomalous X-ray pulsars and dim isolated neutron stars.     

络合水热法合成介孔SnO2简

二氧化锡（SnO2）作为一种n型宽禁带半导体氧化物材料,广泛用于有机物催化、固态电子器件和锂离子电池电极材料领域。介孔SnO2具有较大的比表面积和纳米级有序孔道,与周围介质之间存在更强的相互作用力,可提高其在气敏传感器、催化反应中的应用效率。本文以SnCl4·5H2O为锡源,P123为模板剂,采用络合水热法合成了具有金红石结构的介孔二氧化锡,并考察了pH值、表面活性剂和添加剂等因素对介孔结构形成的影响;采用X射线衍射、透射电镜、荧光光谱等手段综合分析了产物的结构、形貌、成分及光学性质。结果表明所制备的介孔SnO2具有蠕虫状孔结构,表面积大,孔径集中分布在2～8 nm。合成的样品具有良好的光学性能,在光学材料领域具有应用前景。     

Nonlinear optics in the extreme ultraviolet

Nonlinear responses to an optical field are universal in nature but have been difficult to observe in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and soft X-ray regions owing to a lack of coherent intense light sources. High harmonic generation is a well-known nonlinear optical phenomenon and is now drawing much attention in attosecond pulse generation. For the application of high harmonics to nonlinear optics in the XUV and soft X-ray regime, optical pulses should have both large pulse energy and short pulse duration to achieve a high optical electric field. Here we show the generation of intense isolated pulses from a single harmonic (photon energy 27.9 eV) by using a sub-10-femtosecond blue laser pulse, producing a large dipole moment at the relatively low (ninth) harmonic order nonadiabatically. The XUV pulses with pulse durations of 950 attoseconds and 1.3 femtoseconds were characterized by an autocorrelation technique, based on two-photon above-threshold ionization of helium atoms. Because of the small cross-section for above-threshold ionization, such an autocorrelation measurement of XUV pulses with photon energy larger than the ionization energy of helium has not hitherto been demonstrated. The technique can be extended to the characterization of higher harmonics at shorter wavelengths.     

WC在WC/50CrMo钢复合材料中的溶解行为

本文研究了WC在WC/50CrMo钢复合材料中的溶解行为。用电子探针及扫描电镜进行了相成分的定量和定性分析;用x射线衍射仪进行了物相分析;用光学显微镜和透射电镜观察了复合材料的显微组织。结果证明,WC/50CrMo钢复合材料在烧结和热处理过程中,WC与钢基体会发生相互溶解引起钢基体的化学成分变化,对复合材料的热处理、组织结构及性能的影响。     

Optical nano-imaging of gate-tunable graphene plasmons

The ability to manipulate optical fields and the energy flow of light is central to modern information and communication technologies, as well as quantum information processing schemes. However, because photons do not possess charge, a way of controlling them efficiently by electrical means has so far proved elusive. A promising way to achieve electric control of light could be through plasmon polaritons—coupled excitations of photons and charge carriers—in graphene. In this two-dimensional sheet of carbon atoms, it is expected that plasmon polaritons and their associated optical fields can readily be tuned electrically by varying the graphene carrier density. Although evidence of optical graphene plasmon resonances has recently been obtained spectroscopically, no experiments so far have directly resolved propagating plasmons in real space. Here we launch and detect propagating optical plasmons in tapered graphene nanostructures using near-field scattering microscopy with infrared excitation light. We provide real-space images of plasmon fields, and find that the extracted plasmon wavelength is very short—more than 40 times smaller than the wavelength of illumination. We exploit this strong optical field confinement to turn a graphene nanostructure into a tunable resonant plasmonic cavity with extremely small mode volume. The cavity resonance is controlled in situ by gating the graphene, and in particular, complete switching on and off of the plasmon modes is demonstrated, thus paving the way towards graphene-based optical transistors. This successful alliance between nanoelectronics and nano-optics enables the development of active subwavelength-scale optics and a plethora of nano-optoelectronic devices and functionalities, such as tunable metamaterials, nanoscale optical processing, and strongly enhanced light–matter interactions for quantum devices and biosensing applications.