Particle-like Properties Research Articles

Quantum erasure in the near-field

The phenomenon of quantum erasure has shed light on the nature of wave-particle duality and quantum complementarity. A number of quantum erasers have been realized using the far-field diffraction of photons from a Young double-slit apparatus. By marking the path of a photon using an additional degree of freedom, the usual Young interference pattern is destroyed. An appropriate measurement of the system marking the photon’s path allows one to recover the interference pattern. Here quantum erasure is considered in the context of near-field diffraction. To observe interference in the near-field requires the use of two periodic wave functions, so that the usual ‘which way’ marker then becomes a ‘which-wave function’ marker. We determine the propagation distances for which quantum erasure, or more generally the observation of interference between the two periodic wave functions, can be observed. The meaning of wave and particle-like properties in this scenario is discussed. These results could lead to quantum eraser experiments with material particles, for which interference effects are more readily observed in the near-field rather than the far-field.

Inducing skyrmions in ultrathin Fe films by hydrogen exposure

Magnetic skyrmions are localized nanometer-sized spin configurations with particle-like properties, which are envisioned to be used as bits in next-generation information technology. An essential step toward future skyrmion-based applications is to engineer key magnetic parameters for developing and stabilizing individual magnetic skyrmions. Here we demonstrate the tuning of the non-collinear magnetic state of an Fe double layer on an Ir(111) substrate by loading the sample with atomic hydrogen. By using spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy, we discover that the hydrogenated system supports the formation of skyrmions in external magnetic fields, while the pristine Fe double layer does not. Based on ab initio calculations, we attribute this effect to the tuning of the Heisenberg exchange and the Dzyaloshinsky–Moriya interactions due to hydrogenation. In addition to interface engineering, hydrogenation of thin magnetic films offers a unique pathway to design and optimize the skyrmionic states in low-dimensional magnetic materials.

Overview and advances in skyrmionics

Microelectronic technologies have been developing rapidly in the past half-century following the famous Moore's Law. However, this tendency is beginning to break down due to the thermal effects induced by the leakage current and data traffic. Spintronics sheds light on eliminating this bottleneck by using the spin degree of electron, which attracts great attention from both the academia and industry. The magnetic skyrmion is a particle-like spin texture with topological protection, envisioned as an energy efficient spintronic information carrier due to its nanoscale size, ultra-low driven energy, and high thermal stability. Recent research progress shows that the nucleation, transportation, and detection of skyrmion in room temperature, which affirm its potential application in electronics, lead to a new research field called skyrmionics. In this review article, we first introduce the fundamental concepts and recent progress of magnetic skyrmions, from both the theoretical and experimental point of view. Different types of magnetic skyrmions have different properties due to their physical dynamics. We only focus on the skyrmions stabilized by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in the ultra-thin film structures as their small size, high mobility and room temperature stability can provide the perspectives for electronic devices. The skyrmions have already been extensively investigated from both the theoretical and experimental aspects in recent years. Micromagnetic simulation is the main approach to theoretically studying the dynamics of skyrmions and their applications. Most of the innovative skyrmionic devices have first been demonstrated by this method. Experimentally, skyrmions can be measured by various methods, such as the neutron scattering, Lorentz transmission electron microscopy, scanning X-ray transmission microscopy, polar magneto-optical Kerr effect microscope, etc. In the third part of this paper, we present four basic functions of skyrmionic devices ranging from nucleation, motion, detection, to manipulation. The nucleation of skyrmions, corresponding to the information writing in skyrmionic devices, has been widely investigated. A skyrmion can be nucleated by conversion from domain wall pairs, local spin injection, local heating, and spin waves. Then, we focus on the current induced skyrmion motion and compare the two different torques:the spin transfer torque and the spin orbit torque. To read the data, it is necessary to detect skyrmions electrically. One way is to measure the topological Hall effect in a Hall bar. More commonly, skyrmions can be detected through magnetoresistance effects, i.e., giant magnetoresistance/anisotropic magnetoresistance, tunnel magnetore sistance, and non-collinear magnetoresistance, in a junction geometry. For manipulation, it is mainly demonstrated by the voltage controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA). Finally we discuss several representative skyrmionic nano-devices in memory, logic, and neuromorphic applications. The magnetic tunnel junction and the racetrack are two common designs for skyrmionic memory devices. The former can store multiple values in one bit, and the latter can realize fast and efficient data transmission. To control the skyrmionic data in these memories, the VCMA effect is one of the promising approaches, which is used in several designs. For the skyrmionic logic devices, they can be divided into two main types:the transistor and the logic gate. However, until now, these ideas are only demonstrated in simulation, and more efforts in experiment are needed. Besides, novel devices such as artificial synapses and neurons can be realized more naturally by skyrmion due to its particle-like property. In summary, skyrmionics is promising in several aspects, including performance improvement, emerging function and architecture design, and bio-inspired computing. Remarkable progress has been made in the past few years, however the device integration, the materials, and the data transmission still restrict its application. We hope this overview article may present a clear picture about skyrmionics and receive more attention, thus promoting its fast research and development in the future.

Homodyne-like detection scheme based on photon-number-resolving detectors

Homodyne detection is the most effective detection scheme employed in quantum optics to characterize quantum states. It is based on mixing at a beam splitter the signal to be measured with a coherent state, called the “local oscillator,” and on evaluating the difference of the photocurrents of two photodiodes measuring the outputs of the beam splitter. If the local oscillator is much more intense than the field to be measured, the homodyne signal is proportional to the signal-field quadratures. If the local oscillator is less intense, the photodiodes can be replaced with photon-number-resolving detectors, which have a smaller dynamics but can measure the light statistics. The resulting new homodyne-like detector acquires a hybrid nature, being it capable of yielding information on both the particle-like (statistics) and wave-like (phase) properties of light signals. The scheme has been tested in the measurement of the quadratures of coherent states, bracket states and phase-averaged coherent states at different intensities of the local oscillator.

Reorientations, relaxations, metastabilities, and multidomains of skyrmion lattices

Magnetic skyrmions are nano-sized topologically protected spin textures with particle-like properties. They can form lattices perpendicular to the magnetic field and the orientation of these skyrmion lattices with respect to the crystallographic lattice is governed by spin-orbit coupling. By performing small angle neutron scattering measurements, we investigate the coupling between the crystallographic and skyrmion lattices in both Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$ and the archetype chiral magnet MnSi. The results reveal that the orientation of the skyrmion lattice is primarily determined by the magnetic field direction with respect to the crystallographic lattice. In addition, it is also influenced by the magnetic history of the sample which can induce metastable lattices. Kinetic measurements show that these metastable skyrmion lattices may or may not relax to their equilibrium positions under macroscopic relaxation times. Furthermore, multidomain lattices may form when two or more equivalent crystallographic directions are favored by spin-orbit coupling and oriented perpendicular to the magnetic field.

Control of morphology and formation of highly geometrically confined magnetic skyrmions

The ability to controllably manipulate magnetic skyrmions, small magnetic whirls with particle-like properties, in nanostructured elements is a prerequisite for incorporating them into spintronic devices. Here, we use state-of-the-art electron holographic imaging to directly visualize the morphology and nucleation of magnetic skyrmions in a wedge-shaped FeGe nanostripe that has a width in the range of 45–150 nm. We find that geometrically-confined skyrmions are able to adopt a wide range of sizes and ellipticities in a nanostripe that are absent in both thin films and bulk materials and can be created from a helical magnetic state with a distorted edge twist in a simple and efficient manner. We perform a theoretical analysis based on a three-dimensional general model of isotropic chiral magnets to confirm our experimental results. The flexibility and ease of formation of geometrically confined magnetic skyrmions may help to optimize the design of skyrmion-based memory devices.

Tunneling dynamics between atomic bright solitons

We investigate tunneling behavior between two bright solitons in a Bose-Einstein condensate with attractive contact interactions between atoms. The explicit tunneling properties including tunneling particles and oscillation period are described analytically, which indicates that the periodic tunneling form is a nonlinear Josephson type oscillation. The results suggest that the breathing behavior of solitons comes from the tunneling mechanism in an effective double-well potential, which is quite different from the modulational instability mechanism for Akhmediev breather and K-M breather. Furthermore, we obtain a phase diagram for two soliton interaction which admits tunneling property, particle-like property, interference property, and a resonant interaction case. The explicit conditions for them are clarified based on the defined critical distance $d_c$ and spatial interference period $D$.

Quantum Interference: How To Measure the Wavelength of a Particle

The concept of wave–particle duality in quantum theory is difficult to grasp because it attributes particle-like properties to classical waves and wave-like properties to classical particles. There seems to be an inconsistency involved with the notion that particle-like or wave-like attributes depend on how you look at an entity. The concept comes into more clear focus with the precise language of mathematics and with an experiment or demonstration of quantum interference that involves the scattering of photons by a single slit. After describing a photon as a quon, a quantum-sized entity, a precise description of the interference of quantum probability amplitudes allows determination of the photon wavelength by classical measurements of laboratory observations.

Quantum information theory of the Bell-state quantum eraser

Quantum systems can display particle- or wave-like properties, depending on the type of measurement that is performed on them. The Bell-state quantum eraser is an experiment that brings the duality to the forefront, as a single measurement can retroactively be made to measure particle-like or wave-like properties (or anything in between). Here we develop a unitary information-theoretic description of this (and several related) quantum measurement situations that sheds light on the trade-off between the quantum and classical features of the measurement. In particular, we show that both the coherence of the quantum state and the classical information obtained from it can be described using quantum-information-theoretic tools only, and that those two measures satisfy an equality on account of the chain rule for entropies. The coherence information and the which-path information have simple interpretations in terms of state preparation and state determination, and suggest ways to account for the relationship between the classical and the quantum world.

Information gain versus interference in Bohr’s principle of complementarity

We study the wave and particle nature in a symmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer from the viewpoint of quantum information theory. By introducing either the von Neumann or Zurek's model of quantum measurement, we find that the classical correlation can be used to quantify the particle nature since its monotonicity is similar to the path distinguishability. The environment in Zurek's model induces the emergence of the optimal measuring basis, and reduces the classical and quantum correlation comparing to the von Neumann's model. A way is presented analytically to calculate the quantum correlation of a two-qubit separable state other than X-type.

Impact of Casimir-Polder interaction on Poisson-spot diffraction at a dielectric sphere

Diffraction of matter-waves is an important demonstration of the fact that objects in nature possess a mixture of particle-like and wave-like properties. Unlike in the case of light diffraction, matter-waves are subject to a vacuum-mediated interaction with diffraction obstacles. Here we present a detailed account of this effect through the calculation of the attractive Casimir-Polder potential between a dielectric sphere and an atomic beam. Furthermore, we use our calculated potential to make predictions about the diffraction patterns to be observed in an ongoing experiment where a beam of indium atoms is diffracted around a silicon dioxide sphere. The result is an amplification of the on-axis bright feature which is the matter-wave analogue of the well-known `Poisson spot' from optics. Our treatment confirms that the diffraction patterns resulting from our complete account of the sphere Casimir-Polder potential are indistinguishable from those found via a large-sphere non-retarded approximation in the discussed experiments, establishing the latter as an adequate model.

The energy fluctuation in the Einstein model of lattice vibration

The temperature variation of the fluctuation in energy in the Einstein model of lattice vibration is calculated. They display particle-like and wave-like properties. The particle–wave duality changes gradually as a function of temperature. With increasing temperature, the dominant contribution to the fluctuation in energy changes at crossover temperature from particle-like to wave-like properties. The crossover point is found to be = 1.443, where is Boltzmann’s constant, h is Planck’s constant and is the frequency of the Einstein model. A detailed comparison of the fluctuation in energy is made between the Einstein model and a two-level system (the so-called Schottky model). This study is developed within the framework of classical quantum theory; nevertheless the obtained results are fairly instructive.

Transmission time and resonant tunneling through barriers using localized quantum density soliton waves

In this paper, the interaction and transmission time of quantum density solitons waves [B. M. Mirza, Mod. Phys. Lett. B 28 (2014) 1450200]1 passing through finite barrier potentials is investigated. Using the conservation of energy and of quantum density, it is first demonstrated that the soliton waves possess the important particle-like properties, including localization by a finite de Broglie wavelength and constant uniform motion in free space. The passage of quantum density solitons through barriers of finite energies is then shown to lead to the phenomena of resonant tunneling and, in Josephson-like configurations, to the quantization of magnetic flux. A precise general measure for barrier tunneling time is derived which is found to give a new interpretation of the quantum indeterminacy principles. The quantum density soliton theory is applied to coherent microstructures observed in NbSe 3-like systems, where it is shown to lead to the sawtooth current phenomena and nano-scale transversal times.

Topological excitations in a kagome magnet.

Chirality--that is, left or right handedness--is present in many scientific areas, and particularly in condensed matter physics. Inversion symmetry breaking relates chirality with skyrmions, which are protected field configurations with particle-like and topological properties. Here we show that a kagome magnet, with Heisenberg and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, causes non-trivial topological and chiral magnetic properties. We also find that under special circumstances, skyrmions emerge as excitations, having stability even at room temperature. Chiral magnonic edge states of a kagome magnet offer, in addition, a promising way to create, control and manipulate skyrmions. This has potential for applications in spintronics, that is, for information storage or as logic devices. Collisions between these particle-like excitations are found to be elastic at very low temperature in the skyrmion-skyrmion channel, albeit without mass-conservation. Skyrmion-antiskyrmion collisions are found to be more complex, where annihilation and creation of these objects have a distinct non-local nature.

Fair sampling perspective on an apparent violation of duality.

In the event in which a quantum mechanical particle can pass from an initial state to a final state along two possible paths, the duality principle states that "the simultaneous observation of wave and particle behavior is prohibited" [Scully MO, Englert B-G, Walther H (1991) Nature 351:111-116]. Whereas wave behavior is associated with the observation of interference fringes, particle behavior generally corresponds to the acquisition of which-path information by means of coupling the paths to a measuring device or part of their environment. In this paper, we show how the consequences of duality change when allowing for biased sampling, that is, postselected measurements on specific degrees of freedom of the environment of the two-path state. Our work gives insight into a possible mechanism for obtaining simultaneous high which-path information and high-visibility fringes in a single experiment. Further, our results introduce previously unidentified avenues for experimental tests of duality.

Semirelativity and kink solitons

It is hard to observe relativistic effects in everyday life. However, table experiments using a mechanical transmission line for solitons may be an efficient and simple way to show effects such as Lorentz contraction in a classroom. A kink soliton is a deformation of a lattice of several dozen or more pendulums placed on a wire and connected by a spring, or, exactly, a group of pendulums having angles of rotation from 0 to 2π. Kink solitons are localized waves that propagate along one space direction with undeformed shape and some particle-like properties. In this paper I will focus on the semirelativistic properties of mechanical kink solitons. The critical velocity of these solitons is not the speed of light, but the speed of linear waves in that certain transmission line. This feature enables everybody to observe phenomena such as length contraction or the relativistic mass–energy relation in a table experiment. Simultaneously, phenomena such as particle–antiparticle interaction can be studied experimentally.

The phenomenon of self-trapping of a strongly nonlinear wave

Self means here an effect of a wave on itself. Several self-action phenomena are known in nonlinear wave physics. Among them are self-focusing of beams, self-compression of light pulses, self-channeling, self-reflection (or self-splitting) waves with shock fronts, self-induced transparency, and self-modulation. These phenomena are known for weakly nonlinear waves of different physical origin. Our presentation at ASA meeting in Montreal [POMA 19, 045080 (2013)] was devoted to strongly nonlinear waves having no transition to the linear limit at infinitesimally small amplitudes. Such waves can demonstrate particle-like properties. Self-trapping consists of the arrest of wave propagation and in the formation of a localized state. In particular, the model generalizing the Heisenberg' ordinary differential equation to spatially distributed systems predicts periodic oscillations but no traveling waves. Different models for strongly nonlinear waves will be considered and some unusual phenomena will be discussed. Preliminary results were published in Ac. Phys. 59, 584 (2013) and Physics-Uspekhi (Adv. Phys. Sci.) 183, 683 (2013). [This work was supported by the Megagrant No.11.G34.31.066 (Russia) and the KK Foundation (Sweden).]

ChemInform Abstract: Niels Bohr (1885—1962): On the Wing of a Butterfly, Johann J. Balmer (1825—1898)

AbstractReview: 27 refs.

Niels Bohr (1885–1962): On the Wing of a Butterfly, Johann J. Balmer (1825–1898)

AbstractBy the year 1913, a number of revolutionary events had begun to transform the landscape of physics. In 1900, Max Planck (1858–1947) had proposed that energy radiated in quanta or packets. The announcement of the photoelectric effect in 1905 by an unassuming Swiss patent worker by the name of Albert Einstein (1879–1955) clearly implicated that light energy, or the photon, later coined by Gilbert N. Lewis (1875–1946) in 1926, was also quantized and showed unprecedented particle‐like properties. More startling was the discovery by Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) who demonstrated that the atom consisted of a hard positive center surrounded by electrons. Niels Bohr (1885–1962), then a young postgraduate, was deeply involved in understanding the structure of the atom. He needed physical or experimental evidence to substantiate his intuitive ideas. Ironically, that evidence had already been published in the year of his birth by Johann J. Balmer (1825–1898), a Swiss mathematics teacher at a secondary school for girls.

Resonance, multiple diffusion and critical tunneling for Gaussian lasers

We present a detailed study of the gaussian laser propagation through a dielectric system composed by two right angle prisms. We investigate the transition between the spatial coherence limit, which exhibits wave-like properties and for which the resonance phenomenon can be seen, and the decoherence limit, which exhibits particle-like properties and for which the multiple diffusion occurs. We also analyze the tunneling at critical angles. In our numerical analysis, we shall use BK7 and Fused Silica prisms and a gaussian He-Ne laser with a wavelength of 632.8 nm and beam waists of 2 mm and 200 micron.