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Biomedical subjects

Marlan O Scully

Publications and source records attributed to Marlan O Scully.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Condensation of N interacting bosons: a hybrid approach to condensate fluctuations.

We present a new method of calculating the distribution function and fluctuations for a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of N interacting atoms. The present formulation combines our previous master equation and canonical ensemble quasiparticle techniques. It is applicable both for ideal and interacting Bogoliubov BEC and yields remarkable accuracy at all temperatures. For the interacting gas of 200 bosons in a box we plot the temperature dependence of the first four central moments of the condensate particle number and compare the results with the ideal gas. For the interacting mesoscopic BEC, as with the ideal gas, we find a smooth transition for the condensate particle number as we pass through the critical temperature.

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PubMed2006

Sensitive femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy discrimination between dipicolinic acid and dinicotinic acid.

We demonstrate that femtosecond ultraviolet and visible coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy provides the sensitivity and specificity needed to distinguish between two similar molecules of pyridinedicarboxylic acid. The Fourier transforms of the temporal measurements provide the energy difference between the ground state vibrational modes. Quantum chemical calculations provide theoretical predictions that agree well with the measurements. The present technique allows us to distinguish 10 cm(-1) frequency shifts by using pulses ten times broader than the shifts.

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PubMed2006

Electromagnetically induced coherent backscattering.

We demonstrate a strong coherent backward wave oscillation using forward propagating fields only. This is achieved by applying laser fields to an ultradispersive medium with proper chosen detunings to excite a molecular vibrational coherence that corresponds to a backward propagating wave. The physics then has much in common with the propagation of ultraslow light. Applications to coherent scattering and remote sensing are discussed.

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PubMed2006

Time-bandwidth problem in room temperature slow light.

For many applications of slow or stopped light, the delay-time-bandwidth product is a fundamental issue. So far, however, slow-light demonstrations do not show a large delay-time-bandwidth product, especially in room temperature solids. Here we demonstrate that the use of artificial inhomogeneous broadening has the potential to solve this problem. A proof-of-principle experiment is done using slow light produced by two-beam coupling in a photorefractive crystal Ce:BaTiO3 where Bragg selection is used to provide the artificial inhomogeneity. Examples of how to generalize this concept for use with other room temperature slow-light solids are also given.

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PubMed2006

Directed spontaneous emission from an extended ensemble of N atoms: timing is everything.

A collection of static atoms is fixed in a crystal at a low temperature and prepared by a pulse of incident radiation of wave vector . The atoms are well described by an entangled Dicke-like state, in which each atom carries a characteristic phase factor exp(ik0.r(j)), where is the atomic position in the crystal. It is shown that a single photon absorbed by the N atoms will be followed by spontaneous emission in the same direction. Furthermore, phase matched emission is found when one photon is absorbed by N atoms followed by two-photon down-conversion.

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PubMed2005

Visible and UV coherent Raman spectroscopy of dipicolinic acid.

We use time-resolved coherent Raman spectroscopy to obtain molecule-specific signals from dipicolinic acid (DPA), which is a marker molecule for bacterial spores. We use femtosecond laser pulses in both visible and UV spectral regions and compare experimental results with theoretical predictions. By exciting vibrational coherence on more than one mode simultaneously, we observe a quantum beat signal that can be used to extract the parameters of molecular motion in DPA. The signal is enhanced when an UV probe pulse is used, because its frequency is near-resonant to the first excited electronic state of the molecule. The capability for unambiguous identification of DPA molecules will lead to a technique for real-time detection of spores.

Biomarkers↗
PubMed2005

Simple and surprisingly accurate approach to the chemical bond obtained from dimensional scaling.

We present a new dimensional scaling transformation of the Schrödinger equation for the two electron bond. This yields, for the first time, a good description of the bond via D scaling. There also emerges, in the large-D limit, an intuitively appealing semiclassical picture, akin to a molecular model proposed by Bohr in 1913. In this limit, the electrons are confined to specific orbits in the scaled space, yet the uncertainty principle is maintained. A first-order perturbation correction, proportional to 1/D, substantially improves the agreement with the exact ground state potential energy curve. The present treatment is very simple mathematically, yet provides a strikingly accurate description of the potential curves for the lowest singlet, triplet, and excited states of H2. We find the modified D-scaling method also gives good results for other molecules. It can be combined advantageously with Hartree-Fock and other conventional methods.

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PubMed2005

Bohr's 1913 molecular model revisited.

It is generally believed that the old quantum theory, as presented by Niels Bohr in 1913, fails when applied to few electron systems, such as the H(2) molecule. Here, we find previously undescribed solutions within the Bohr theory that describe the potential energy curve for the lowest singlet and triplet states of H(2) about as well as the early wave mechanical treatment of Heitler and London. We also develop an interpolation scheme that substantially improves the agreement with the exact ground-state potential curve of H(2) and provides a good description of more complicated molecules such as LiH, Li(2), BeH, and He(2).

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PubMed2005

Correlated spontaneous emission laser as an entanglement amplifier.

We consider a two-photon correlated emission laser as a source of an entangled radiation with a large number of photons in each mode. The system consists of three-level atomic schemes inside a doubly resonant cavity. We study the dynamics of this system in the presence of cavity losses, concluding that the creation of entangled states with photon numbers up to tens of thousands seems achievable.

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PubMed2004

Inducing disallowed two-atom transitions with temporally entangled photons.

Two uncoupled two-level atoms cannot be jointly excited by classical light under general circumstances, due to destructive interference of excitation pathways in two-photon absorption. However, with temporally entangled light, two-atom excitation is shown possible. Photons arising from three-level cascade decay are intrinsically ordered in time of emission. This field correlation induces a joint resonance in the two-atom excitation probability via suppression of one of the time-ordered excitation pathways. The relative gain in two-photon absorption increases with the time-frequency entanglement.

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PubMed2003

Enhancing acceleration radiation from ground-state atoms via cavity quantum electrodynamics.

When ground-state atoms are accelerated through a high Q microwave cavity, radiation is produced with an intensity which can exceed the intensity of Unruh acceleration radiation in free space by many orders of magnitude. The reason is a strong nonadiabatic effect at cavity boundaries and its interplay with the standard Unruh effect. The cavity field at steady state is still described by a thermal density matrix under most conditions. However, under some conditions gain is possible, and when the atoms are injected in a regular fashion, squeezed radiation can be produced.

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PubMed2003

Numerical experiments on free-electron lasers without inversion.

The inversionless free-electron laser having a drift region consisting of two magnets is analyzed. Performing numerical simulations of electron motion inside wigglers and the drift region, we have shown that this system has a positive mean gain over the entire energy distribution of the electron beam. We study the influence of emittance and the spread of electron energies on the gain.

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PubMed2003

Extracting work from a single heat bath via vanishing quantum coherence.

We present here a quantum Carnot engine in which the atoms in the heat bath are given a small bit of quantum coherence. The induced quantum coherence becomes vanishingly small in the high-temperature limit at which we operate and the heat bath is essentially thermal. However, the phase phi, associated with the atomic coherence, provides a new control parameter that can be varied to increase the temperature of the radiation field and to extract work from a single heat bath. The deep physics behind the second law of thermodynamics is not violated; nevertheless, the quantum Carnot engine has certain features that are not possible in a classical engine.

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PubMed2002

Influence of boundary conditions on statistical properties of ideal Bose-Einstein condensates.

We investigate the probability distribution that governs the number of ground-state particles in a partially condensed ideal Bose gas confined to a cubic volume within the canonical ensemble. Imposing either periodic or Dirichlet boundary conditions, we derive asymptotic expressions for all its cumulants. Whereas the condensation temperature becomes independent of the boundary conditions in the large-system limit, as implied by Weyl's theorem, the fluctuation of the number of condensate particles and all higher cumulants remain sensitive to the boundary conditions even in that limit. The implications of these findings for weakly interacting Bose gases are briefly discussed.

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PubMed2002

Quantum afterburner: improving the efficiency of an ideal heat engine.

By using a laser and maser in tandem, it is possible to obtain laser action in the hot exhaust gases of a heat engine. Such a "quantum afterburner" involves the internal quantum states of the working molecules as well as the techniques of cavity quantum electrodynamics and is therefore in the domain of quantum thermodynamics. It is shown that Otto cycle engine performance can be improved beyond that of the "ideal" Otto heat engine. Furthermore, the present work demonstrates a new kind of lasing without initial inversion.

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