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At least 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Photon number resolving detection with a single-photon detector and adaptive storage loop

Abstract Photon number resolving (PNR) measurements are beneficial or even necessary for many applications in quantum optics. Unfortunately, PNR detectors are usually large, slow, expensive, and difficult to operate. However, if the input signal is multiplexed, photon ‘click’ detectors, that lack an intrinsic PNR capability, can still be used to realize photon number resolution. Here, we investigate the operation of a single click detector, together with a storage line with tunable outcoupling. Using adaptive feedback to adjust the storage outcoupling rate, the dynamic range of the detector can in certain situations be extended by up to an order of magnitude relative to a purely passive setup. An adaptive approach can thus allow for photon number variance below the quantum shot noise limit under a wider range of conditions than using a passive multiplexing approach. This can enable applications in quantum enhanced metrology and quantum computing.

Sullivan, Nicholas M. (ORCID:0000000248447296)↗
DOE OSTI2015

The generation of 68 Gbps quantum random number by measuring laser phase fluctuations

The speed of a quantum random number generator is essential for practical applications, such as high-speed quantum key distribution systems. Here, we push the speed of a quantum random number generator to 68 Gbps by operating a laser around its threshold level. To achieve the rate, not only high-speed photodetector and high sampling rate are needed but also a very stable interferometer is required. A practical interferometer with active feedback instead of common temperature control is developed to meet the requirement of stability. Phase fluctuations of the laser are measured by the interferometer with a photodetector and then digitalized to raw random numbers with a rate of 80 Gbps. The min-entropy of the raw data is evaluated by modeling the system and is used to quantify the quantum randomness of the raw data. The bias of the raw data caused by other signals, such as classical and detection noises, can be removed by Toeplitz-matrix hashing randomness extraction. The final random numbers can pass through the standard randomness tests. Our demonstration shows that high-speed quantum random number generators are ready for practical usage.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Fluorescence and lasing in an electric-field-induced periodic structure of a cholesteric liquid crystal

Fluorescence and lasing in a structure with an electric-field-induced spatially periodic director modulation in the plane of a planar-oriented layer of a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) is experimentally investigated. The thickness of the CLC layer is chosen close to the natural pitch of the cholesteric helix, which corresponds to the second Grandjean zone. The electric-field-induced periodic field of the CLC director leads to spatial modulation of the refractive index and the appearance of optical properties typical of 1D photonic crystals, when light propagating in the plane of the CLC layer experiences Bragg reflection. In polarised light, the induced spatial modulation of the refractive index manifests itself in the form of banded domains oriented in the plane of the CLC layer perpendicular to the original (unperturbed electric field) direction of the director in the centre of the layer. For the electric field strengths that correspond to fundamentally different distributions of the field of a CLC director, the fluorescence spectra of the DCM laser dye are studied both for different geometries (including the waveguide regime) and for different levels of optical pumping. In the range of electrical voltages corresponding to the induction of a spatially periodic photonic structure, multimode lasing in the waveguide regime is detected. It is shown that the mode composition of lasing depends on the electric field, which affects the properties of the distributed feedback. (paper)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Adaptively controlled fast production of defect-free beryllium ion crystals using pulsed laser ablation

Trapped atomic ions find wide applications ranging from precision measurement to quantum information science and quantum computing. Beryllium ions are widely used due to the light mass and convenient atomic structure of beryllium; however, conventional ion loading from thermal ovens exerts undesirable gas loads for a prolonged duration. Here, we demonstrate a method to rapidly produce pure linear chains of beryllium ions with pulsed laser ablation, serving as a starting point for large-scale quantum information processing. Our method is fast compared to thermal ovens, reduces the gas load to only 10 -12 Torr (10 -10 Pa) level, yields a short recovery time of a few seconds, and also eliminates the need for a deep ultraviolet laser for photoionization. We also study the loading dynamics, which show non-Poissonian statistics in the presence of sympathetic cooling. In addition, we apply feedback control to obtain defect-free ion chains with desirable lengths.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2015

Surface-plasmon-enhanced lasing emission based on polymer distributed feedback laser

Optical losses associated with the metallic contacts necessary for charge injection are an obstacle to the development of electrically pumped organic lasers. In this work, we show that it is possible to overcome these losses by introducing surface plasmons (SPs) in a distributed feedback laser to enhance the lasing emission. We perform a detailed study of the SPs influence on the lasing emission. We experimentally show that enhanced lasing emission has been successfully achieved in the presence of a metal electrode. The laser emission is strongly dependent on the thickness of Ag layer. By optimizing the thickness of Ag layer, surface-plasmon-enhanced lasing emission has been achieved with much reduced thresholds and higher intensity. When the thickness of the Ag layer increases to 50 nm, the device exhibits ten-fold emission intensity and a fifth of excitation threshold comparing with Ag-free one. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) results show that large field intensity is built at the 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-i-propyl-6-(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl) -4H-pyran:/poly(9-vinylcarbazole)Ag interface, which could lead to a strong coupling between lasing and SPs, and consequently a much enhanced laser emission at the photon energy of around 2.02 eV (615 nm). Our FDTD simulations gave an explanation of the effects of the SPs on lasing operation in the periodic structures. The use of SPs would lead to a new class of highly efficient solid-state laser sources and provide a new path to achieve electrically pumped organic lasers.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

2019 Quantum Materials Young Investigators Workshop Report

The fourth edition of the workshop “Quantum Materials Young Investigators” was held June 6-7, 2019 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This workshop followed up on previous meetings that took place at ORNL starting in 2016. This important series of annual workshops, organized by Adam Aczel and Stuart Calder, ensures continuous engagement with the early career principal investigators (PIs) of the quantum materials neutron scattering community. Through a series of short scientific talks presented by the external PIs, members of the Neutron Scattering Division (NSD) learn about their scientific interests and needs. Presentations from ORNL staff members also help to inform the external PIs about the current state of ORNL’s quantum materials neutron scattering program. Topics covered include the current instrument suites, sample environment, data reduction, visualization, and analysis, and future neutron scattering and complementary capabilities. Feedback is solicited from the external PIs in all these key areas and communicated to NSD management in the form of a workshop report. This workshop series also helps to foster collaborations between NSD scientists and the research groups of the external PIs and plays an important role in attracting new neutron scattering users.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

A generalized Dolinar receiver with inconclusive results

We investigate the implementation of a measurement for binary optical coherent states that minimizes the error probability with a fixed rate of an inconclusive result. We find that the optimal measurement for binary optical coherent states with any probability of an inconclusive result can be implemented using only a beam splitter, a local coherent light source, a photon detector, and a feedback circuit, even though the measurement is generally not projective.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Stabilising falling liquid film flows using feedback control

Falling liquid films become unstable due to inertial effects when the fluid layer is sufficiently thick or the slope sufficiently steep. This free surface flow of a single fluid layer has industrial applications including coating and heat transfer, which benefit from smooth and wavy interfaces, respectively. Here, we discuss how the dynamics of the system are altered by feedback controls based on observations of the interface height, and supplied to the system via the perpendicular injection and suction of fluid through the wall. In this study, we model the system using both Benney and weighted-residual models that account for the fluid injection through the wall. We find that feedback using injection and suction is a remarkably effective control mechanism: the controls can be used to drive the system towards arbitrary steady states and travelling waves, and the qualitative effects are independent of the details of the flow modelling. Furthermore, we show that the system can still be successfully controlled when the feedback is applied via a set of localised actuators and only a small number of system observations are available, and that this is possible using both static (where the controls are based on only the most recent set of observations) and dynamic (where the controls are based on an approximation of the system which evolves over time) control schemes. This study thus provides a solid theoretical foundation for future experimental realisations of the active feedback control of falling liquid films.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2026

High-bandwidth frequency domain multiplexed readout of transition-edge sensors for neutrinoless double beta decay searches

The next-generation of cryogenic neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments require increasingly fast readout in order to improve background discrimination. These experiments, operated as cryogenic calorimeters at ∼ 10 mK, are usually read out by high-impedance neutron transmutation doped (NTD) thermistors, which provide good energy resolution, but are limited by ∼ 1 ms response times. Superconducting detectors, such as transition-edge sensors (TESs) with a time resolution of ∼ 100 μs, offer superior timing performance over NTD semiconductor bolometers. To make this technology viable for an application to a thousand or more channels, multiplexed readout is necessary in order to minimize the thermal load and radioactive contamination induced by the readout. Frequency-domain multiplexing readout (fMUX) for TESs, previously developed at Berkeley Lab and McGill University, is currently in use for mm-wave telescopes with detector sampling rates in the order of 100 Hz. We demonstrate a new readout system, based on the McGill/Berkeley digital fMux readout, to satisfy the higher bandwidth and noise requirements of the next generation of TES-instrumented cryogenic calorimeters. Each multiplexing readout module comprises 10 superconducting resonators in the 1–5 MHz range and a DC superconducting quantum interference device (DC-SQUID), interfaced to high-speed field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based electronics for digital signal processing and low-latency SQUID feedback. The new readout samples detectors at 156 kHz, three orders of magnitude faster than its cosmology-oriented predecessor, and demonstrates a stable feedback bandwidth of 3 kHz in a real TES-based system.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2018

External cavity type-I quantum well cascade diode lasers with a tuning range of 440 nm near 3 μm

A three-stage cascade GaSb-based diode laser heterostructure with an enhanced optical gain spectral bandwidth was designed and fabricated. The gain broadening was achieved by varying the thickness of the type-I quantum wells in different stages of the cascade active region from 10 to 14 nm. The structures were processed into bent ridge gain chips with virtually eliminated feedback from the anti-reflection-coated angled facet. In conclusion, the external cavity devices based on a novel gain chip design demonstrated a record wide tuning range from 2.79 to 3.23 μm in a Littrow cavity configuration at 20°C.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

2022 Quantum Materials Young Investigators Workshop Report

The fifth edition of the workshop “Quantum Materials Young Investigators” was held August 18-19, 2022 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This workshop followed up on previous meetings that took place at ORNL starting in 2016. This important series of annual workshops, organized by Adam Aczel and Stuart Calder, ensures continuous engagement with the early career principal investigators (PIs) of the quantum materials neutron scattering community. Through a series of short scientific talks presented by the external PIs, members of the Neutron Scattering Division (NSD) learn about their scientific interests and needs. Presentations from ORNL staff members also help to inform the external PIs about the current state of ORNL’s quantum materials neutron scattering program. Topics covered include neutron scattering instruments, sample environment, neutron polarization, data reduction, visualization, and analysis, and future neutron scattering and complementary capabilities. Feedback is solicited from the external PIs in some or all of these key areas and communicated to NSD management in the form of a workshop report. This workshop series also helps to foster collaborations between NSD scientists and the research groups of the external PIs and plays an important role in attracting new neutron scattering users.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Calculating the spontaneous magnetization and defining the Curie temperature using a positive-feedback model

A positive-feedback mean-field modification of the classical Brillouin magnetization theory provides an explanation of the apparent persistence of the spontaneous magnetization beyond the conventional Curie temperature—the little understood “tail” phenomenon that occurs in many ferromagnetic materials. The classical theory is unable to resolve this apparent anomaly. The modified theory incorporates the temperature-dependent quantum-scale hysteretic and mesoscopic domain-scale anhysteretic magnetization processes and includes the effects of demagnetizing and exchange fields. It is found that the thermal behavior of the reversible and irreversible segments of the hysteresis loops, as predicted by the theory, is a key to the presence or absence of the “tails.” The theory, which permits arbitrary values of the quantum spin number J, generally provides a quantitative agreement with the thermal variations of both the spontaneous magnetization and the shape of the hysteresis loop.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

On the numerical treatment of dissipative particle dynamics and related systems

We review and compare numerical methods that simultaneously control temperature while preserving the momentum, a family of particle simulation methods commonly used for the modelling of complex fluids and polymers. The class of methods considered includes dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) as well as extended stochastic-dynamics models incorporating a generalized pairwise thermostat scheme in which stochastic forces are eliminated and the coefficient of dissipation is treated as an additional auxiliary variable subject to a feedback (kinetic energy) control mechanism. In the latter case, we consider the addition of a coupling of the auxiliary variable, as in the Nosé–Hoover–Langevin (NHL) method, with stochastic dynamics to ensure ergodicity, and find that the convergence of ensemble averages is substantially improved. To this end, splitting methods are developed and studied in terms of their thermodynamic accuracy, two-point correlation functions, and convergence. In terms of computational efficiency as measured by the ratio of thermodynamic accuracy to CPU time, we report significant advantages in simulation for the pairwise NHL method compared to popular alternative schemes (up to an 80% improvement), without degradation of convergence rate. The momentum-conserving thermostat technique described here provides a consistent hydrodynamic model in the low-friction regime, but it will also be of use in both equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular simulation applications owing to its efficiency and simple numerical implementation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Radiation response of multi-quantum well solar cells: Electron-beam-induced current analysis

Solar cells utilizing multi-quantum well (MQW) structures are considered promising candidate materials for space applications. An open question is how well these structures can resist the impact of particle irradiation. The aim of this work is to provide feedback about the radiation response of In{sub 0.01}Ga{sub 0.99}As solar cells grown on Ge with MQWs incorporated within the i-region of the device. In particular, the local electronic transport properties of the MQW i-regions of solar cells subjected to electron and proton irradiation were evaluated experimentally using the electron beam induced current (EBIC) technique. The change in carrier collection distribution across the MQW i-region was analyzed using a 2D EBIC diffusion model in conjunction with numerical modeling of the electrical field distribution. Both experimental and simulated findings show carrier removal and type conversion from n- to p-type in MQW i-region at a displacement damage dose as low as ∼6.06–9.88 × 10{sup 9} MeV/g. This leads to a redistribution of the electric field and significant degradation in charge carrier collection.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS2005

Mid-IR interband cascade lasers

Efficient mid-IR interband cascade (IC) lasers are developed based on 111-V semiconductor materials to cover wavelength range from 2.7 to 5.6 (mu)m. These IC lasers reuse injected electrons in cascade stages for photon generation with high quantum efficiency to achieve high output powers. Also, IC lasers have low threshold current density with very efficient use of applied voltage, resulting in reduced power consumptions. Single-mode distributed feedback lasers have been made, and integrated into aircraft and balloon instrument which made measurements of CH4 and HCI. In this work, the characteristics of IC lasers and their recent development are reviewed.

mid - infrared↗
DOE OSTI2024

Reinforcement learning pulses for transmon qubit entangling gates

The utility of a quantum computer is highly dependent on the ability to reliably perform accurate quantum logic operations. For finding optimal control solutions, it is of particular interest to explore model-free approaches, since their quality is not constrained by the limited accuracy of theoretical models for the quantum processor—in contrast to many established gate implementation strategies. In this work, we utilize a continuous control reinforcement learning algorithm to design entangling two-qubit gates for superconducting qubits; specifically, our agent constructs cross-resonance and CNOT gates without any prior information about the physical system. Using a simulated environment of fixed-frequency fixed-coupling transmon qubits, we demonstrate the capability to generate novel pulse sequences that outperform the standard cross-resonance gates in both fidelity and gate duration, while maintaining a comparable susceptibility to stochastic unitary noise. We further showcase an augmentation in training and input information that allows our agent to adapt its pulse design abilities to drifting hardware characteristics, importantly, with little to no additional optimization. Our results exhibit clearly the advantages of unbiased adaptive-feedback learning-based optimization methods for transmon gate design.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2018

Efficient Quantum Measurement Engines

We propose quantum engines powered entirely by a position-resolving measurement performed on a quantum particle. These engines produce work by moving the quantum particle against a force. Unlike classical information-driven engines (e.g., Maxwell’s demon), the energy is not extracted from a thermal hot source but directly from the observation process via a partial wave-function collapse of the particle. We present results for the work done and the efficiency for different values of the engine parameters. Feedback is required for optimal performance. We find that unit efficiency can be approached when one measurement outcome prepares the initial state of the next engine cycle, while the other outcomes leave the original state nearly unchanged.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

5.5 W near-diffraction-limited power from resonant leaky-wave coupled phase-locked arrays of quantum cascade lasers

Five, 8.36 μm-emitting quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs) have been monolithically phase-locked in the in-phase array mode via resonant leaky-wave coupling. The structure is fabricated by etch and regrowth which provides large index steps (Δn = 0.10) between antiguided-array elements and interelement regions. Such high index contrast photonic-crystal (PC) lasers have more than an order of magnitude higher index contrast than PC-distributed feedback lasers previously used for coherent beam combining in QCLs. Absorption loss to metal layers inserted in the interelement regions provides a wide (∼1.0 μm) range in interelement width over which the resonant in-phase mode is strongly favored to lase. Room-temperature, in-phase-mode operation with ∼2.2 kA/cm{sup 2} threshold-current density is obtained from 105 μm-wide aperture devices. The far-field beam pattern has lobewidths 1.65× diffraction limit (D.L.) and 82% of the light in the main lobe, up to 1.8× threshold. Peak pulsed near-D.L. power of 5.5 W is obtained, with 4.5 W emitted in the main lobe. Means of how to increase the device internal efficiency are discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗