Internal motions of a quasiparticle governing its ultrafast nonlinear response

A charged particle modifies the structure of the surrounding medium: examples include a proton in ice, an ion in a DNA molecule, an electron at an interface, or an electron in an organic or inorganic crystal. In turn, the medium acts back on the particle. In a polar or ionic solid, a free electron distorts the crystal lattice, displacing the atoms from their equilibrium positions. The electron, when considered together with its surrounding lattice distortion, is a single quasiparticle, known as the Fr?hlich polaron. The basic properties of polarons and their drift motion in a weak electric field are well known. However, their nonlinear high-field properties--relevant for transport on nanometre length and ultrashort timescales--are not understood. Here we show that a high electric field in the terahertz range drives the polaron in a GaAs crystal into a highly nonlinear regime where, in addition to the drift motion, the electron is impulsively moved away from the centre of the surrounding lattice distortion. In this way, coherent lattice vibrations (phonons) and concomitant drift velocity oscillations are induced that persist for several hundred femtoseconds. They modulate the optical response at infrared frequencies between absorption and stimulated emission. Such quantum coherent processes directly affect high-frequency transport in nanostructures and may be exploited in novel terahertz-driven optical modulators and switches.     

Quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator in a gas of ultracold atoms.

For a system at a temperature of absolute zero, all thermal fluctuations are frozen out, while quantum fluctuations prevail. These microscopic quantum fluctuations can induce a macroscopic phase transition in the ground state of a many-body system when the relative strength of two competing energy terms is varied across a critical value. Here we observe such a quantum phase transition in a Bose-Einstein condensate with repulsive interactions, held in a three-dimensional optical lattice potential. As the potential depth of the lattice is increased, a transition is observed from a superfluid to a Mott insulator phase. In the superfluid phase, each atom is spread out over the entire lattice, with long-range phase coherence. But in the insulating phase, exact numbers of atoms are localized at individual lattice sites, with no phase coherence across the lattice; this phase is characterized by a gap in the excitation spectrum. We can induce reversible changes between the two ground states of the system.     

电场引起磷脂膜相变的一个两态模型

此文应用两态模型对磷脂分子膜在电场作用下的相变行为进行了讨论，认为电场的作用有助于膜的相变。     

太赫兹场作用下的GaAs双量子阱的光吸收分析

用密度矩阵理论分析了在超快脉冲及太赫兹场作用下GaAs量子阱和双量子阱的光吸收谱.分析表明：在直流和太赫兹场作用下,由于量子约束斯塔克效应,光吸收谱呈现出多个激子吸收峰.改变太赫兹的强度和频率,吸收谱出现恶歇分裂,并产生边带,这些分裂主要来源于太赫兹作用下激子的非线性效应.     

有机共轭聚合物材料中的齐纳隧穿

基于扩展的SSH模型,采用非绝热动力学方法,研究高电场下一维有机共轭聚合物的电性质.发现在足够高的电场下,价带中的电子可以穿过带隙进入导带,即有机聚合物中的齐纳隧穿现象.伴随电子的带间隧穿,带隙消失,发生从绝缘体(半导体)到金属的相变(I-M 相变),晶格结构同时发生重大变化.     

Attosecond control of electronic processes by intense light fields

The amplitude and frequency of laser light can be routinely measured and controlled on a femtosecond (10(-15) s) timescale. However, in pulses comprising just a few wave cycles, the amplitude envelope and carrier frequency are not sufficient to characterize and control laser radiation, because evolution of the light field is also influenced by a shift of the carrier wave with respect to the pulse peak. This so-called carrier-envelope phase has been predicted and observed to affect strong-field phenomena, but random shot-to-shot shifts have prevented the reproducible guiding of atomic processes using the electric field of light. Here we report the generation of intense, few-cycle laser pulses with a stable carrier envelope phase that permit the triggering and steering of microscopic motion with an ultimate precision limited only by quantum mechanical uncertainty. Using these reproducible light waveforms, we create light-induced atomic currents in ionized matter; the motion of the electronic wave packets can be controlled on timescales shorter than 250 attoseconds (250 x 10(-18) s). This enables us to control the attosecond temporal structure of coherent soft X-ray emission produced by the atomic currents--these X-ray photons provide a sensitive and intuitive tool for determining the carrier-envelope phase.     

理想导体与超导抗磁性

通过对理想导体和超导体的电学性质、磁学性质的比较研究，从宏观和微观角度讨论了理想导体的电磁学性质与超导体电磁学性质的差别，对理想导体的存在性给出了证明：指出，理想导体在电学性质上与超导体没有任何差别，在临界状态以下存在着能隙，在临界点发生的是二级相变，存在着比热跃变：理想导体在磁学性质上与超导体的磁学性质是相同的，理想导体的抗磁性与超导体抗磁性起源于同一物理原因-载流子的高速定向运动产生很强的磁场，从而将外磁场排出体外，磁场的产生遵循毕-萨定律和法拉第电磁感应定律，不存在磁通“冻结”的问题（第二类超导体的混合态问题与此有本质的差别，自然应当别论），磁通“冻结”的说法是没有理论根据的，它反映了人类对超导电性认识的偏差；作为存在物，理想导体就是超导体，人们设想的理想导体磁性质，更接近于第二类超导体的混合态，但是在本质上是有差别的；作为理想的“理想导体”是不存在的；剔除理想导体的概念，将会极大地促进超导电性理论的深入研究。促进凝聚态物理理论和实践的发展．     

磁体中的力场的再认识

在真空中．磁场力是用Lorentz力的定律来定义的。但在实体介质中，场通常是用Maxwell方程来定义的。在实验观测中，所接触的场均为力场。如果认为宏观电磁场是微观电磁场的统计平均．则可证明这种微观场的统计平均值即宏观场将依赖于微观偶极子的性质。     

不同子格随机横场作用下混合伊辛自旋系统的磁学性质

在有效场理论框架内,对简立方晶格中不同子格随机横场作用下混合自旋系统,推导系统的磁化表达式,重点研究一些相变特性,给出了系统的相图,得到了一些有意义的结论.     

For progress in natural science: Materials international investigations of structural phase transformation and THz properties across metal–insulator transition in VO_2/Al_2O_3 epitaxial films

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) epitaxial thin films on (0001)-oriented Al2O3 substrates were prepared using radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering techniques. To study the metal-insulator-transition (MIT) mechanism and extend the applications of VO2 epitaxial films at terahertz (THz) band, temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction (XRD) and THz time domain spectroscopy of the VO2 epitaxial films were performed. Both the lattice constants and THz transmission exhibited a similar and sharp transition that was similar to that observed for the electrical resistance. Consequently, the MIT of the VO2/Al2O3 epitaxial films should be co-triggered by the structural phase transition and electronic transition. Moreover, the very large resistance change (on the order of ~103) and THz response (with a transmission modulation ratio of ~87%) in the VO2/Al2O3 epitaxial heterostructures are promising for electrical switch and electro-optical device applications.     

Superconducting quantum bits

Superconducting circuits are macroscopic in size but have generic quantum properties such as quantized energy levels, superposition of states, and entanglement, all of which are more commonly associated with atoms. Superconducting quantum bits (qubits) form the key component of these circuits. Their quantum state is manipulated by using electromagnetic pulses to control the magnetic flux, the electric charge or the phase difference across a Josephson junction (a device with nonlinear inductance and no energy dissipation). As such, superconducting qubits are not only of considerable fundamental interest but also might ultimately form the primitive building blocks of quantum computers.     

Absolute-phase phenomena in photoionization with few-cycle laser pulses.

Currently, the shortest laser pulses that can be generated in the visible spectrum consist of fewer than two optical cycles (measured at the full-width at half-maximum of the pulse's envelope). The time variation of the electric field in such a pulse depends on the phase of the carrier frequency with respect to the envelope-the absolute phase. Because intense laser-matter interactions generally depend on the electric field of the pulse, the absolute phase is important for a number of nonlinear processes. But clear evidence of absolute-phase effects has yet to be detected experimentally, largely because of the difficulty of stabilizing the absolute phase in powerful laser pulses. Here we use a technique that does not require phase stabilization to demonstrate experimentally the influence of the absolute phase of a short laser pulse on the emission of photoelectrons. Atoms are ionized by a short laser pulse, and the photoelectrons are recorded with two opposing detectors in a plane perpendicular to the laser beam. We detect an anticorrelation in the shot-to-shot analysis of the electron yield.     

等离激元微腔中的量子阱太赫兹光吸收

利用Zubarev’s格林函数方法研究了强太赫兹电场作用下微腔中的双量子阱激子光吸收特性.将腔场和太赫兹场处理为光子,根据哈密顿量得到运动方程.研究考虑了失谐、太赫兹场耦合常数以及电子数的衰减率.研究发现,在强太赫兹场作用时,光谱呈现丰富的非线性效应,如出现复制峰和Autler-Townes分裂.该研究为微腔-量子阱系统量子光学响应提供了一个简单、方便的全量子理论处理方法.     

氧化物超导体超导电性及性质的一种解释

考虑到晶体结构与电子能带结构,在 Hubbard 单带模型中引入电子与激子的互作用项,对有些氧化物超导体的反铁磁绝缘体—金属(超导)转变现象(M—I 转变),氧化物超导体的高 Tc 原因及二维特性进行了解释.     

Collective bulk carrier delocalization driven by electrostatic surface charge accumulation

In the classic transistor, the number of electric charge carriers--and thus the electrical conductivity--is precisely controlled by external voltage, providing electrical switching capability. This simple but powerful feature is essential for information processing technology, and also provides a platform for fundamental physics research. As the number of charges essentially determines the electronic phase of a condensed-matter system, transistor operation enables reversible and isothermal changes in the system's state, as successfully demonstrated in electric-field-induced ferromagnetism and superconductivity. However, this effect of the electric field is limited to a channel thickness of nanometres or less, owing to the presence of Thomas-Fermi screening. Here we show that this conventional picture does not apply to a class of materials characterized by inherent collective interactions between electrons and the crystal lattice. We prepared metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistors based on vanadium dioxide--a strongly correlated material with a thermally driven, first-order metal-insulator transition well above room temperature--and found that electrostatic charging at a surface drives all the previously localized charge carriers in the bulk material into motion, leading to the emergence of a three-dimensional metallic ground state. This non-local switching of the electronic state is achieved by applying a voltage of only about one volt. In a voltage-sweep measurement, the first-order nature of the metal-insulator transition provides a non-volatile memory effect, which is operable at room temperature. Our results demonstrate a conceptually new field-effect device, extending the concept of electric-field control to macroscopic phase control.     

Ultrafast terahertz probes of transient conducting and insulating phases in an electron-hole gas

Many-body systems in nature exhibit complexity and self-organization arising from seemingly simple laws. For example, the long-range Coulomb interaction between electrical charges has a simple form, yet is responsible for a plethora of bound states in matter, ranging from the hydrogen atom to complex biochemical structures. Semiconductors form an ideal laboratory for studying many-body interactions of electronic quasiparticles among themselves and with lattice vibrations and light. Oppositely charged electron and hole quasiparticles can coexist in an ionized but correlated plasma, or form bound hydrogen-like pairs called excitons. The pathways between such states, however, remain elusive in near-visible optical experiments that detect a subset of excitons with vanishing centre-of-mass momenta. In contrast, transitions between internal exciton levels, which occur in the far-infrared at terahertz (1012 s(-1)) frequencies, are independent of this restriction, suggesting their use as a probe of electron-hole pair dynamics. Here we employ an ultrafast terahertz probe to investigate directly the dynamical interplay of optically-generated excitons and unbound electron-hole pairs in GaAs quantum wells. Our observations reveal an unexpected quasi-instantaneous excitonic enhancement, the formation of insulating excitons on a 100-ps timescale, and the conditions under which excitonic populations prevail.     

原子核的多重碎裂

以发射大量中等质量碎块为主要特征的多重碎裂是中能重离子碰撞的主要反应道之一。中能核—核碰撞将很大的相对运动动能转化为核物质的内部激发能和压缩能，形成热密核。在热密核膨胀和冷却过程中；出现很大的密度涨落，出现汽———液共存状态，形成了碎块。这些初始核碎块在库仑力作用下彼此分开，经退激发演化成有多个碎块的末态     

哈密顿正则方程与稳恒电流电路

用完整系哈密顿正则方程研究了稳恒电路中的能量转换问题,认为在多种保守力作用的体系中研究质点的能态问题,必须将研究对象分别与其有一种保守力作用的物体划分在一个系统内,以构成不同的系统;计算研究对象在一个系统中的能量,必须将其他系统对研究对象作用的保守力视为广义力,考察广义力对研究对象做功的结果,分析研究对象在该系统中的能态变化,即哈密顿正则方程仅适用于一种保守力场中研究对象能态的研究。分析了外电场对晶格势场的作用,认为电流的磁场力和霍尔电场力是稳恒电路中的广义力,霍尔电势是载流子在晶格势场中电势能的增量,因此,在通电时,载流子在晶格势场中的电势能增加,能态升高。同时分析了载流子对比热贡献的物理机制和超导二级相变的发生机理,认为载流子将吸收的热量转变成其在晶格势场中的本征能量而能态升高;在二级相变点附近,比热跃变说明价电子在晶格势场中的电势能发生了跃变,价电子在晶格势场中的受力发生了跃变。同时给出了本征能态的物理意义说明,本征能态是指价电子在晶格势场中的电势能与动能相对应的能态,不同的价电子在实空间中的不同位置只要处于同样的能态,则其在晶格势场中的电势能和动能有相同的数值。