Publications (32)
Photoinduced suppression of the ferroelectric instability in PbTe
M. P. Jiang, M. Trigo, S. Fahy +18
The interactions between electrons and phonons drive a large array of technologically relevant material properties including ferroelectricity, thermoelectricity, and phase-change b…
Exciton condensates in semiconductor quantum wells emit coherent light
J. Fernandez-Rossier, C. Tejedor, R. Merlin
We show that a quasi-two dimensional condensate of optically active excitons emits coherent light even in the absence of population inversion. This allows an unambiguous and clear…
An Exactly Solvable Model of an Avalanche-Type Measuring Device: Macroscopic Distinctiveness and Wavefunction Collapse
R. Merlin
A quantum many-body model is presented with features similar to those of certain particle detectors. The energy spectrum contains a single metastable 'ready'-state and macroscopica…
Possible observation of parametrically amplified coherent phasons in K0.3MoO3 using time-resolved extreme-ultraviolet ARPES
H. Y. Liu, I. Gierz, J. C. Petersen +13
We use time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (tr-ARPES) in the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) to measure the time- and momentum-dependent electronic structure of photo-exc…
Terahertz Spectrometer of Wavelength Dimensions Based on Extraordinary Transmission
Meredith Henstridge, J. Zhou, L. Jay Guo +1
Subwavelength-slotted parallel plate waveguides exhibit a localized electromagnetic resonance bound to the slits at a frequency slightly below the transverse electric cutoff [R. Me…
Supersonic strain front driven by a dense electron-hole plasma
M. F. DeCamp, D. A. Reis, A. Cavalieri +11
We study coherent strain in (001) Ge generated by an ultrafast laser-initiated high density electron-hole plasma. The resultant coherent pulse is probed by time-resolved x-ray diff…
Magnetophononics and the Chiral Phonon Misnomer
R. Merlin
The direct, ultrafast excitation of polar phonons with electromagnetic radiation is a potent strategy for controlling the properties of a wide range of materials, particularly in t…
An effective magnetic field from optically driven phonons
T. F. Nova, A. Cartella, A. Cantaluppi +6
Light fields at THz and mid-infrared frequencies allow for the direct excitation of collective modes in condensed matter, which can be driven to large amplitudes. For example, exci…
Imaging with an Almost Perfect Lens
R. Merlin
The problem of imaging for a nearly-perfect lens, namely, a slab of a left-handed material with refractive index n = -(1-sigma)^1/2 is solved analytically for |sigma| << 1. The ele…
All Optical Implementation of Multi-Spin Entanglement in a Semiconductor Quantum Well
J. Bao, A. V. Bragas, J. K. Furdyna +1
We use ultrafast optical pulses and coherent techniques to create spin entangled states of non-interacting electrons bound to donors (at least three) and at least two Mn2+ ions in…
Ultrafast Dynamic Control of Spin and Charge Density Oscillations in a GaAs Quantum Well
J. M. Bao, L. N. Pfeiffer, K. W. West +1
We use subpicosecond laser pulses to generate and monitor in real time collective oscillations of electrons in a modulation-doped GaAs quantum well. The observed frequencies match…
Generation and remote detection of THz sound using semiconductor superlattices
M. Trigo, T. A. Eckhause, J. K. Wahlstrand +3
The authors introduce a novel approach to study the propagation of high frequency acoustic phonons in which the generation and detection involves two spatially separated superlatti…
Ultrafast optical generation of coherent phonons in CdTe1-xSex quantum dots
A. V. Bragas, C. Aku-Leh, S. Costantino +3
We report on the impulsive generation of coherent optical phonons in CdTe0.68Se0.32 nanocrystallites embedded in a glass matrix. Pump probe experiments using femtosecond laser puls…
A Heuristic Approach to the Quantum Measurement Problem: How to Distinguish Particle Detectors from Ordinary Objects
R. Merlin
Elementary particle detectors fall broadly into only two classes: phase-transformation devices, such as the bubble chamber, and charge-transfer devices like the Geiger-Mueller tube…
Control of spin dynamics with laser pulses: Generation of entangled states of donor-bound electrons in a Cd1-xMnxTe quantum well
J. M. Bao, A. V. Bragas, J. K. Furdyna +1
A quantum-mechanical many-particle system may exhibit non-local behavior in that measurements performed on one of the particles can affect a second one that is far apart. These so-…
Exciton Beats in GaAs Quantum Wells: Bosonic Representation and Collective Effects
J. Fernandez-Rossier, C. Tejedor, R. Merlin
We discuss light-heavy hole beats observed in transient optical experiments in GaAs quantum wells in terms of a free-boson coherent state model. This approach is compared with desc…
Magnon squeezing in an antiferromagnet: reducing the spin noise below the standard quantum limit
J. Zhao, A. V. Bragas, D. J. Lockwood +1
At absolute zero temperature, thermal noise vanishes when a physical system is in its ground state, but quantum noise remains as a fundamental limit to the accuracy of experimental…
Probing impulsive strain propagation with x-ray pulses
D. A. Reis, M. F. DeCamp, P. H. Bucksbaum +10
Pump-probe time-resolved x-ray diffraction of allowed and nearly forbidden reflections in InSb is used to follow the propagation of a coherent acoustic pulse generated by ultrafast…
Light-Induced Magnetic Precession in (Ga,Mn)As Slabs: Hybrid Standing-Wave Damon-Eshbach Modes
D. M. Wang, Y. H. Ren, X. Liu +3
Coherent oscillations associated with spin precessions were observed in ultrafast optical experiments on ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As films. Using a complete theoretical description of…
Surface vibrational modes of the topological insulator BiSe observed by Raman spectroscopy
H. -H. Kung, M. Salehi, I. Boulares +10
We present polarization resolved Raman scattering study of surface vibration modes in the topological insulator BiSe single crystal and thick films. Besides the four Raman…
Comment on "Perfect imaging with positive refraction in three dimensions"
R. Merlin
Leonhard and Philbin [Phys. Rev. A 81, 011804(R) (2010)] have recently constructed a mathematical proof that the Maxwell's fish-eye lens provides perfect imaging of electromagnetic…
Phonon-assisted oscillatory exciton dynamics in monolayer MoSe2
Colin M. Chow, Hongyi Yu, Aaron M. Jones +6
In monolayer semiconductor transition metal dichalcogenides, the exciton-phonon interaction is expected to strongly affect the photocarrier dynamics. Here, we report on an unusual…
Photo-induced plasmon-phonon coupling in PbTe
M. P. Jiang, M. Trigo, S. Fahy +19
We report the observation of photo-induced plasmon-phonon coupled modes in the group IV-VI semiconductor PbTe using Fourier-transform inelastic X-ray scattering at the Linac Cohere…
Observation of Surface-Avoiding Waves: A New Class of Extended States in Periodic Media
M. Trigo, T. A. Eckhause, M. Reason +2
Coherent time-domain optical experiments on GaAs-AlAs superlattices reveal the exis-tence of an unusually long-lived acoustic mode at ~ 0.6 THz, which couples weakly to the environ…
Cherenkov radiation emitted by ultrafast laser pulses and the generation of coherent polaritons
J. K. Wahlstrand, R. Merlin
We report on the generation of coherent phonon polaritons in ZnTe, GaP and LiTaO using ultrafast optical pulses. These polaritons are coupled modes consisting of mostly far-i…
Unraveling the Effect of Circularly Polarized Light on Reciprocal Media: Breaking Time Reversal Symmetry with Non-Maxwellian Magnetic-esque Fields
R. Merlin
Optical rectification of intense, circularly polarized light penetrating a material generates a static magnetic field aligned with the light's direction and proportional to its int…
Phonon Bloch Oscillations
R. Merlin
The classical motion of a one-dimensional chain of atoms coupled through a specific force function that depends on position shows features very similar to the Wannier-Stark problem…
Perturbed Periodic Lattices: Sharp Crossover Between Effective-Mass-Like States and Wannier-Stark-Like Ladders
R. Merlin
The concept of Wannier-Stark ladders, describing the equally spaced spectrum of a tightly-bound particle in a constant electric field, is generalized to account for arbitrary slowl…
Orthogonality Catastrophes in Quantum Electrodynamics
R. Merlin
The insertion of a small polarizable particle in an arbitrarily large optical cavity significantly alters the quantum-mechanical state of the electromagnetic field in that the phot…
Intensity correlation speckles as a technique for removing Doppler broadening
R. Merlin, N. Green, I. Szapudi +1
A method involving intensity correlation measurements is described, which allows for the complete removal of Doppler broadening in the emission of electromagnetic radiation from fa…
Long-lived optical phonons in ZnO studied with impulsive stimulated Raman scattering
C. Aku-Leh, J. Zhao, R. Merlin +2
The anharmonic properties of the low-frequency E2 phonon in ZnO were measured using impulsive stimulated Raman scattering. At 5 K, the frequency and lifetime are (2.9787 +/- 0.0002…
Near-Field Focusing Plates and Their Design
A. Grbic, R. Merlin
This paper describes the design of near-field focusing plates, which are grating-like structures that can focus electromagnetic radiation to spots or lines of arbitrarily small sub…