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At least 73 records · Page 4

On the self-interference in electron scattering: Copenhagen, Bohmian and geometrical interpretations of quantum mechanics

Self-interference embodies the essence of the particle-wave formulation of quantum mechanics (QM). According to the Copenhagen interpretation of QM, self-interference by a double-slit requires a large transverse coherence of the incident wavepacket such that it covers the separation between the slits. Bohmian dynamics provides a first step in the separation of the particle-wave character of matter by introducing deterministic trajectories guided by a pilot wave that follows the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. In this work, I present a new description of the phenomenon of self-interference using the geometrical formulation of QM introduced in Tavernelli (2016). In particular, this formalism removes the need for the concept of wavefunction collapse in the interpretation of the act of measurement i.e., the emergence of the classical world. The three QM formulations (Schrödinger, Bohmian, and geometrical) are applied to the description of the scattering of a free electron by a hydrogen atom and a double-slit. The corresponding interpretations of self-interference are compared and discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A solution for 40 K interference from K internal to the human body, in an underground high sensitivity whole body counter at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Carlsbad, NM, USA

The objective of the present work is to find a solution for the interference arising from 1461 keV photons emitted by 40 K in natural K internal to the human body in the detection of 241 Am and 210 Pb activities at the level of 37 mBq (1 pCi). The response of a broad energy Ge (BEGe) reference crystal to 1461 keV photons was simulated using GEANT4 code. Simulations were performed for a point source without and with shielding, as well as for a Bottle Manikin Absorption (BOMAB) phantom in the shielded whole-body counting chamber (WBC). The WBC facility is located underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Carlsbad, NM, USA. The simulation results were discussed with regards to the interference in detecting the 241 Am and 210 Pb at the level of 37 mBq (1 pCi). The specific conclusion is that the interference counts from 40 K activity at the natural levels present in the human body in typical clinical settings were found to be greater than the 210 Pb and 241 Am signal counts from 37 mBq (1 pCi), when a 38.1 mm diameter, 25.4 mm thick BEGe reference crystal was used. Our solution for minimizing the interference to the desired precision at the specified levels was found by sacrificing the broad energy response of the counting system.

40K gamma-ray interference↗

Amplification of interference color by using liquid crystal for protein detection

Micrometer-sized, periodic protein lines printed on a solid surface cause interference color which is invisible to the naked eye. However, the interference color can be amplified by using a thin layer of liquid crystal (LC) covered on the surface to form a phase diffraction grating. Strong interference color can thus be observed under ambient light. By using the LC-amplified interference color, we demonstrate naked-eye detection of a model protein—immunoglobulin G (IgG). Limit of detection can reach 20 μg/ml of IgG without using any instrumentation. This detection method is potentially useful for the development of low-cost and portable biosensors.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Quantum interference in an electron-hole graphene ring system

Quantum interference is observed in a graphene ring system via the Aharonov Bohm effect. As graphene is a gapless semiconductor, this geometry allows to study the unique situation of quantum interference between electrons and holes in addition to the unipolar quantum interference. The period and amplitude of the observed Aharonov-Bohm oscillations are independent of the sign of the applied gate voltage showing the equivalence between unipolar and dipolar interference.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Analytical estimation of emission zone mean position and width in organic light-emitting diodes from emission pattern image-source interference fringes

We present an analytical method for evaluating the first and second moments of the effective exciton spatial distribution in organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) from measured emission patterns. Specifically, the suggested algorithm estimates the emission zone mean position and width, respectively, from two distinct features of the pattern produced by interference between the emission sources and their images (induced by the reflective cathode): the angles in which interference extrema are observed, and the prominence of interference fringes. The relations between these parameters are derived rigorously for a general OLED structure, indicating that extrema angles are related to the mean position of the radiating excitons via Bragg's condition, and the spatial broadening is related to the attenuation of the image-source interference prominence due to an averaging effect. The method is applied successfully both on simulated emission patterns and on experimental data, exhibiting a very good agreement with the results obtained by numerical techniques. We investigate the method performance in detail, showing that it is capable of producing accurate estimations for a wide range of source-cathode separation distances, provided that the measured spectral interval is large enough; guidelines for achieving reliable evaluations are deduced from these results as well. As opposed to numerical fitting tools employed to perform similar tasks to date, our approximate method explicitly utilizes physical intuition and requires far less computational effort (no fitting is involved). Hence, applications that do not require highly resolved estimations, e.g., preliminary design and production-line verification, can benefit substantially from the analytical algorithm, when applicable. This introduces a novel set of efficient tools for OLED engineering, highly important in the view of the crucial role the exciton distribution plays in determining the device performance.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Renormalization screening and collision-induced quantum interference in dense plasmas

The influence of renormalization screening and collision-induced quantum interference in electron-electron collisions is investigated in partially ionized dense hydrogen plasmas. The effective interaction potential with the total spin-states of the collision system is considered to obtain the differential electron-electron scattering cross section. The results show that the renormalization plasma screening effect suppresses the electron-electron scattering cross section, including the quantum interference effect, especially, except for the forward and backward scattering directions. It is also shown that the renormalization plasma screening effect on the scattering cross section decreases with increasing collision energy. However, the renormalization screening effect is found to be important for the forward directions in the scattering cross section neglecting the quantum interference effect. The variations of the renormalization screening and collision-induced quantum interference effects are also discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Communication: Finding destructive interference features in molecular transport junctions

Associating molecular structure with quantum interference features in electrode-molecule-electrode transport junctions has been difficult because existing guidelines for understanding interferences only apply to conjugated hydrocarbons. Herein we use linear algebra and the Landauer-Büttiker theory for electron transport to derive a general rule for predicting the existence and locations of interference features. Our analysis illustrates that interferences can be directly determined from the molecular Hamiltonian and the molecule–electrode couplings, and we demonstrate its utility with several examples.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Dissipative time-dependent quantum transport theory: Quantum interference and phonon induced decoherence dynamics

A time-dependent inelastic electron transport theory for strong electron-phonon interaction is established via the equations of motion method combined with the small polaron transformation. In this work, the dissipation via electron-phonon coupling is taken into account in the strong coupling regime, which validates the small polaron transformation. The corresponding equations of motion are developed, which are used to study the quantum interference effect and phonon-induced decoherence dynamics in molecular junctions. Numerical studies show clearly quantum interference effect of the transport electrons through two quasi-degenerate states with different couplings to the leads. We also found that the quantum interference can be suppressed by the electron-phonon interaction where the phase coherence is destroyed by phonon scattering. This indicates the importance of electron-phonon interaction in systems with prominent quantum interference effect.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A simplified method for generating periodic nanostructures by interference lithography without the use of an anti-reflection coating

Interference lithography has proven to be a useful technique for generating periodic sub-diffraction limited nanostructures. Interference lithography can be implemented by exposing a photoresist polymer to laser light using a two-beam arrangement or more simply a one beam configuration based on a Lloyd's Mirror Interferometer. For typical photoresist layers, an anti-reflection coating must be deposited on the substrate to prevent adverse reflections from cancelling the holographic pattern of the interfering beams. For silicon substrates, such coatings are typically multilayered and complex in composition. By thinning the photoresist layer to a thickness well below the quarter wavelength of the exposing beam, we demonstrate that interference gratings can be generated without an anti-reflection coating on the substrate. We used ammonium dichromate doped polyvinyl alcohol as the positive photoresist because it provides excellent pinhole free layers down to thicknesses of 40 nm, and can be cross-linked by a low-cost single mode 457 nm laser, and can be etched in water. Gratings with a period of 320 nm and depth of 4 nm were realized, as well as a variety of morphologies depending on the photoresist thickness. This simplified interference lithography technique promises to be useful for generating periodic nanostructures with high fidelity and minimal substrate treatments.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Exciton interference revealed by energy dependent exciton transfer rate for ring-structured molecular systems

The quantum interference is an intrinsic phenomenon in quantum physics for photon and massive quantum particles. In principle, the quantum interference may also occur with quasi-particles, such as the exciton. In this study, we show how the exciton quantum interference can be significant in aggregates through theoretical simulations with hierarchical equations of motion. The systems under investigation are generalized donor-bridge-acceptor model aggregates with the donor consisting of six homogeneous sites assuming the nearest neighbor coupling. For the models with single-path bridge, the exciton transfer time only shows a weak excitation energy dependence. But models with double-path bridge have a new short transfer time scale and the excitation energy dependence of the exciton transfer time assumes clear peak structure which is detectable with today’s nonlinear spectroscopy. This abnormality is attributed to the exciton quantum interference and the condition for a clear observation in experiment is also explored.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

An exact factorization perspective on quantum interferences in nonadiabatic dynamics

Nonadiabatic quantum interferences emerge whenever nuclear wavefunctions in different electronic states meet and interact in a nonadiabatic region. In this work, we analyze how nonadiabatic quantum interferences translate in the context of the exact factorization of the molecular wavefunction. In particular, we focus our attention on the shape of the time-dependent potential energy surface—the exact surface on which the nuclear dynamics takes place. We use a one-dimensional exactly solvable model to reproduce different conditions for quantum interferences, whose characteristic features already appear in one-dimension. The time-dependent potential energy surface develops complex features when strong interferences are present, in clear contrast to the observed behavior in simple nonadiabatic crossing cases. Nevertheless, independent classical trajectories propagated on the exact time-dependent potential energy surface reasonably conserve a distribution in configuration space that mimics one of the exact nuclear probability densities.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Longitudinal correlation properties of an optical field with broad angular and frequency spectra and their manifestation in interference microscopy

The results of theoretical and experimental studies of the longitudinal correlation properties of an optical field with broad angular and frequency spectra and manifestations of these properties in interference microscopy are presented. The joint and competitive influence of the angular and frequency spectra of the object-probing field on the longitudinal resolution and on the amplitude of the interference microscope signals from the interfaces between the media inside a multilayer object is demonstrated. The method of compensating the so-called defocusing effect that arises in the interference microscopy using objectives with a large numerical aperture is experimentally demonstrated, which consists in using as a light source in the interference microscope an illuminating interferometer with a frequency-broadband light source. This method of compensation may be used as the basis of simultaneous determination of geometric thickness and refractive index of media forming a multilayer object. (optical fields)

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Interference of biphotons upon parametric down-conversion in the field of biharmonic pumping

We report theoretical investigation of interference of biphotons emitted upon type-II collinear parametric down-conversion in the case of biharmonic pumping. Interference occurs when an optical or electronic shutter is used as an amplitude modulator in the experimental scheme. The phase of the interference is shown to depend on the time interval between the instant the shutter is opened and the instant corresponding to the maximum pump intensity. The main parameter affecting the visibility of the interference pattern is a time interval during which the shutter is open. (nonlinear optical phenomena)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Statistical characteristics of laser interference and its effect on IR optoelectronic observation systems

We consider statistical characteristics of laser interference recorded in the focal region of an IR optoelectronic observation system under field and out-of-field illumination by laser radiation. The applicability of the analytical description of experimental histograms of the laser interference signal distribution at the photodetector array output using the probability density approximations in the form of gamma distribution and the Gaussian function is substantiated. It is shown that the specific form of these functions is determined both by the mean value (mathematical expectation) of the interference signal and by the characteristic parameter M, which depends on the statistical properties of the laser interference. (laser applications and other issues in quantum electronics)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Ultra-Wideband Communications: Interference Challenges and Solutions

The idea of ultra-wideband (UWB) communications for short ranges (up to a few tens of meters) has been around for nearly three decades. However, despite significant efforts by the industry, UWB deployment has not yet reached its predicted potential. This article, thus, seeks to rectify this situation by providing a practical examination of UWB interference conditions. Through a spectrum survey of today's wireless environments, we explore the interference that UWB devices may face from a perspective of outage probability in both high- and low-rate configurations. We find that by suppressing interference, the outage probability can be reduced by one or more orders of magnitude. In the non-line-of-sight channels, in particular, we find that both interference suppression and bandwidth expansion are required to support the minimum data rates suggested in the IEEE802.15.4 series of standards. Here, we connect these findings to a recently proposed UWB signaling method based on filter banks and show this method fulfills the above requirements for implementing effective UWB systems.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Demystifying asynchronous I/O Interference in HPC applications

With increasing complexity of HPC workflows, data management services need to perform expensive I/O operations asynchronously in the background, aiming to overlap the I/O with the application runtime. However, this may cause interference due to competition for resources: CPU, memory/network bandwidth. The advent of multi-core architectures has exacerbated this problem, as many I/O operations are issued concurrently, thereby competing not only with the application but also among themselves. Furthermore, the interference patterns can dynamically change as a response to variations in application behavior and I/O subsystems (e.g. multiple users sharing a parallel file system). Without a thorough understanding, I/O operations may perform suboptimally, potentially even worse than in the blocking case. To fill this gap, here we investigate the causes and consequences of interference due to asynchronous I/O on HPC systems. Specifically, we focus on multi-core CPUs and memory bandwidth, isolating the interference due to each resource. Then, we perform an in-depth study to explain the interplay and contention in a variety of resource sharing scenarios such as varying priority and number of background I/O threads and different I/O strategies: sendfile, read/write, mmap/write underlining trade-offs. The insights from this study are important both to enable guided optimizations of existing background I/O, as well as to open new opportunities to design advanced asynchronous I/O strategies.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Laser-Interference Surface Preparation for Enhanced Coating Adhesion and Adhesive Joining of Multi-Materials (Final Project Report)

This report investigates a laser-interference surface treatment as a non-contact, i.e., without major solid/liquid medium application or abrasion, and non-chemical surface preparation method for aerospace coating systems. It was proposed to use the laser-interference technique to structure surfaces of Al and/or Ti, creating "rough" surfaces with pre-engineered series of ridges and valleys at submicron scale. The science goal of this study was to develop an understanding of the surface microstructure, topology, and physical mechanisms that would improve adhesion and corrosion protection of Al2024-T3. Microstructure analysis indicates that the laser-interference structuring (LIS) was found to reduce the formation of CuMn-rich precipitates in Al 2024-T3 over a 500-800 nm depth from top surface. The X-cut and cross-hatch coating adhesion ratings indicate that the LIS specimens meet the performance requirements in the coating adhesion specifications by having a higher or identical ranking to those specimens prepared with current state-of-the-art chemical conversion or sulfuric acid anodizing. After the ASTM B117 corrosion exposure, it was found that the laser processed specimens exhibited only few blisters. It was found that the corrosion damage was minimized at a laser rastering speed of 4 mm/s, for which only 33% of specimens developed very minor corrosion damage. The ASTM D1654 creepage ratings, used to evaluate corrosion damage along the scribe lines, were found to be at least nine for all coated panels. These results indicate that the laser-interference technique with the additional acetone wiping has the potential to be further developed as a minor chemical surface preparation technique for chromate-containing epoxy primers coatings.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Spectrum Interference from Commercial devices in 6 & 7/8 GHz

FCC repurposed spectrum in the 6 GHz band allocated to DOE for commercial use of Wi-Fi 6E/7 in 2020.The 2024 National Spectrum Strategy (NSS) implementation plan is now considering 7/8 GHz band as well for co-existence of commercial devices with federal incumbents such as DOE. This poster summarizes INL’s work on a scientific study on the potential harmful interference caused by the commercial devices in real-world scenarios. It includes research in INL for the following projects funded by DOE: 1) DOE-CIO: Spectrum security for advanced wireless technologies; 2) DOE-OE: 7 GHz Spectrum interference study; 3) DOE-CESER: Harmful interference in 6 GHz from commercial Wi-Fi 6E/7 devices on utility links in the energy sector; 4) DOE/NTIA for NSS Implementation plan: Interference study in 7/8 GHz bands identified in the NSS. 5) NSF: Spectrum Innovation Initiative- National Radio Dynamic Zones (SII-NRDZ).

6 GHz↗