The degree of contact between a system and the external environment can alter dramatically its proclivity to quantum mechanical modes of relaxation. We show that controlling the thermal coupling of cubic centimeter-sized crystals of the Ising magnet
$LiHo_xY_{1-x}F_4$ to a heat bath can be used to tune the system between a glassy state dominated by thermal excitations over energy barriers and a state with the hallmarks of a quantum spin liquid. Application of a magnetic field transverse to the Ising axis introduces both random magnetic fields and quantum fluctuations, which can retard and speed the annealing process, respectively, thereby providing a mechanism for continuous tuning between the destination states. The non-linear response of the system explicitly demonstrates quantum interference between internal and external relaxation pathways.
We demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that a nanoscale hollow channel placed centrally in the solid glass core of a photonic crystal fiber strongly enhances the cylindrical birefringence (the modal index difference between radially and azim
uthally polarized modes). Furthermore, it causes a large split in group velocity and group velocity dispersion. We show analytically that all three parameters can be varied over a wide range by tuning the diameters of the nanobore and the core.
