No Arabic abstract
A quantum-mechanical formulation of energy transfer between closely spaced surfaces is given. Coupling between the two surfaces arises from the atomic dipole-dipole interaction involving transverse-photon exchange. The exchange of photons at resonance enhances the radiation transfer. The interaction between two surfaces, separated by a gap, is found to be dependent upon geometric, material, frequency, dipole, and temperature factors, along with a radiation-tunneling factor for the evanescent waves. The derived geometric term has a gap-spacing (distance) dependence that varies inversely as the second power for bulk samples to the inverse fourth power for the quantum well - quantum well case. Expressions for the net power transfer, in the near-field regime, from hot to cold surface for this case is given and evaluated for representative materials.
A quantum-mechanical formulation of energy transfer between closely-spaced surfaces is given. Coupling between the two surfaces arises from the atomic dipole-dipole interaction involving transverse-photon exchange. The exchange of photons at resonance greatly enhances the radiation transfer. The spacing (distance) dependence is derived for the quantum well - quantum well situation. The interaction between two planar quantum wells, separated by a gap is found to be proportional to the 4th power of the wavelength-to-gapwidth ratio and to the radiation tunneling factor for the evanescent waves. Expressions for the net power transfer, in the near-field regime, from hot to cold surface for this case is given and evaluated for representative materials. Computational modeling of selected, but realizable, emitter and detector structures and materials shows the benefits of both near-field and resonance coupling (e.g., with 0.1 micron gaps).
Variations in the electrostatic surface potential between the proof mass and electrode housing in the space-based gravitational wave mission LISA is one of the largest contributors of noise at frequencies below a few mHz. Torsion balances provide an ideal testbed for investigating these effects in conditions emulative of LISA. Our apparatus consists of a Au coated Cu plate brought near a Au coated Si plate pendulum suspended from a thin W wire. We have measured a white noise level of $30, uVhz$ above approximately 0.1, mHz, rising at lower frequencies, for the surface potential variations between these two closely spaced metals.
In the theory of radiative heat exchanges between two closely-spaced bodies introduced by Polder and van Hove, no interplay between the heat carriers inside the materials and the photons crossing the separation gap is assumed. Here we release this constraint by developing a general theory to describe the conduction-radiation coupling between two solids of arbitrary size separated by a subwavelength separation gap. We show that, as a result of the temperature profile induced by the coupling with conduction, the radiative heat flux exchanged between two parallel slabs at nanometric distances can be several orders of magnitude smaller than the one predicted by the conventional theory. These results could have important implications in the fields of nanoscale thermal management, near-field solid-state cooling and nanoscale energy conversion.
Anisotropic plasmon coupling in closely-spaced chains of Ag nanoparticles was visualized using the electron energy loss spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscope. For dimers as the simplest chain, mapping the plasmon excitations with nanometers spatial resolution and 0.27 eV energy resolution intuitively identified two coupling plasmons. The in-phase mode redshifted from the ultraviolet region as the inter-particle spacing was reduced, reaching the visible range at 2.7 eV. Calculations based on the discrete dipole approximation confirmed its optical activeness, where the longitudinal direction was constructed as the path for light transportation. Two coupling paths were then observed in an inflexed 4-particle chain.
Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is a well-known phenomenon due in part to its applicability to quantum devices such as quantum memories and quantum gates. EIT is commonly modeled with a three-level lambda system due to the simplicity of the calculations. However, this simplified model does not capture all the physics of EIT experiments with real atoms. We present a theoretical study of the effect of two closely-spaced excited states on EIT and off-resonance Raman transitions. We find that the coherent interaction of the fields with two excited states whose separation is smaller than their Doppler broadened linewidth can enhance the EIT transmission and broaden the width of the EIT peak. However, a shift of the two-photon resonance frequency for systems with transitions of unequal dipole strengths leads to a reduction of the maximum transparency that can be achieved when Doppler broadening is taken into account even under ideal conditions of no decoherence. As a result, complete transparency cannot be achieved in a vapor cell. Only when the separation between the two excited states is of the order of the Doppler width or larger can complete transparency be recovered. In addition, we show that off-resonance Raman absorption is enhanced and its resonance frequency is shifted. Finally, we present experimental EIT measurements on the D1 line of $^{85}$Rb that agree with the theoretical predictions when the interaction of the fields with the four levels is taken into account.