A unipolar electromagnetic pulse is a pulse with nonzero value of the static component of the Fourier spectrum of its real electric field (and not its envelope). We show how to efficiently generate unipolar pulses through propagation of an initially nonunipolar pulse in a nonlinear optical medium. One of the major results is the demonstration that the static component can only be generated in equal portions between the forward- and backward-traveling waves in the presence of nonlinear backscattering in a nonlinear medium.

A pump-probe scheme for preparing and monitoring electron-nuclear motion in a dissociative coherent electron-nuclear wave packet is explored from numerical solutions of a non-Born-Oppenheimer time-dependent Schrödinger equation. A mid-ir intense few-cycle probe pulse is used to generate molecular high-order-harmonic generation (MHOHG) from a coherent superposition of two or more dissociative coherent electronic-nuclear wave packets, prepared by a femtosecond uv pump pulse. Varying the time delay between the intense ir probe pulse and the uv pump pulse by a few hundreds of attoseconds, the MHOHG signal intensity is shown to vary by orders of magnitude, thus showing the high sensitivity to electron-nuclear dynamics in coherent electron-nuclear wave packets. We relate this high sensitivity of MHOHG spectra to opposing electron velocities (fluxes) in the electron wave packets of the recombining (recolliding) ionized electron and of the bound electron in the initial coherent superposition of two electronic states.

We obtain a lower bound on the sum of two orthogonal spin component variances in a plane. This gives a planar uncertainty relation which holds even when the Heisenberg relation is not useful. We investigate the asymptotic, large-$J$ limit and derive the properties of the planar quantum squeezed states that saturate this uncertainty relation. These states extend the concept of spin squeezing to any two conjugate spin directions. We show that planar quantum squeezing can be achieved experimentally as the ground state of a Bose-Einstein condensate in two coupled potential wells with a critical attractive interaction. These states reduce interferometric phase noise at all phase angles simultaneously. This is useful for one-shot interferometric phase measurements where the measured phase is completely unknown. Our results can also be used to derive entanglement criteria for multiple spins $J$ at separated sites, with applications in quantum information.

We present a general active feedback cooling scheme for massive electromechanical quartz resonators. We cool down two kinds of macrosized quartz tuning forks and find several characteristic constants for this massive quartz-resonator feedback cooling, in good agreement with theoretical calculations. When combined with conventional cryogenic techniques and low-noise devices, one may reach the quantum sensitivity for macroscopic sensors. This may be useful for high sensitivity measurements and for quantum information studies.

We observe and analyze $d$-wave resonant scattering of bosons in tightly confining harmonic waveguides. It is shown that the $d$-wave resonance emerges in the quasi-1D regime as an imprint of a 3D $d$-wave shape resonance. A scaling relation for the position of the $d$-wave resonance is provided. By changing the trap frequency, ultracold scattering can be continuously tuned from $s$-wave to $d$-wave resonant behavior. The effect can be utilized for the realization of ultracold atomic gases interacting via higher partial waves and opens a possibility for studying strongly correlated atomic systems beyond $s$-wave physics.

We study the generation of weak-light spatial vector solitons in a cold tripod-type atomic system. The condition of generating spatial vector solitons is discussed by analyzing the linear and nonlinear properties of the system. Due to the balance between the enhanced self-phase and cross-phase modulation of the Kerr nonlinearity and the diffraction effect, two orthogonal polarization components of the weak-light probe field can form various spatial vector solitons in the atomic system, such as bright-bright vector solitons and dark-dark vector solitons. We also demonstrate the possibility of generating Manakov spatial vector solitons in this atomic system.

We prove that, for arbitrary three-dimensional transformation-based invisibility cloaking of an object above a ground plane or of isolated objects, there are practical constraints that increase with the object size. In particular, we show that the cloak thickness must scale proportionally to the thickness of the object being cloaked, assuming bounded refractive indices, and that absorption discrepancies and other imperfections must scale inversely with the object thickness. For isolated objects, we also show that bounded refractive indices imply a lower bound on the effective cross section.

We develop the quantum theory of an open-cavity laser assuming that only two modes compete for gain. We show that the modes interact to build up a composite mode that becomes the lasing mode when pumping exceeds a threshold. This composite mode exhibits all the features of a typical laser mode, whereas its precise behavior depends explicitly on the openness of the cavity. We approach the problem by using the density-matrix formalism and derive the master equation for the light field. Our results are of particular interest in the context of random laser systems.

The photoionization of Ne and Ar has been studied in the region between the ${}^2$$P_{3/2}$ and ${}^2$$P_{1/2}$ thresholds using a velocity-map imaging (VMI) spectrometer. The VMI technique provides a two-dimensional overview of the ionization cross section versus photon energy and emission angle. In these regions the neutral Rydberg states converging to the ${}^2$$P_{1/2}$ ion state affect both the ionization cross section and the asymmetry parameter of the photoelectron angular distribution, which both display Fano line shapes. The results are compared with relativistic multichannel quantum-defect calculations.

We study the nonlinear dynamics of wave packets in honeycomb lattices and show that, in quasi-one-dimensional configurations, the waves propagating in the lattice can be separated into left-moving and right-moving waves, and any wave packet composed of only left (or only right) movers does not change its intensity structure in spite of the nonlinear evolution of its phase. We show that the propagation of a general wave packet can be described, within a good approximation, as a superposition of left- and right-moving self-similar (nonlinear) wave packets. Finally, we find that Klein tunneling is not suppressed by nonlinearity.

We discuss the partitioning of the Hilbert space of a quantum system induced by the interaction with another system at thermal equilibrium, showing that the higher the temperature the more effective is the formation of Zeno subspaces. We show that our analysis keeps its validity even in the case of interaction with a bosonic reservoir, provided appropriate limitations of the relevant bandwidth.

We propose a scheme for entangling two photons via the quantum Zeno effect, which describes the inhibition of quantum evolution by frequent measurements and is based on the difference between summing amplitudes and probabilities. For a given error probability $P_{\mathrm{error}}$, our scheme requires that the one-photon loss rate ${\xi }_{1\gamma }$ and the two-photon absorption rate ${\xi }_{2\gamma }$ in some medium satisfy ${\xi }_{1\gamma }/{\xi }_{2\gamma }=2P_{\mathrm{error}}^2/{\pi }^2$, which is significantly improved compared to previous approaches. Again based on the quantum Zeno effect, as well as coherent excitations, we present a possibility to fulfill this requirement in an otherwise linear optics setup.

The Casimir-Lifshitz interaction emerging from the relative movement of layers in stratified dielectric media (e.g., nonuniformly moving fluids) is considered. It is shown that such movement may result in a repulsive Casimir-Lifshitz force exerted on the layers, with the simplest possible structure consisting of three adjacent layers of the same dielectric medium at zero temperature, where the middle one is stationary and the other two are sliding along a direction parallel to the interfaces of the layers.

Transition frequencies of cold molecules must be accurately evaluated to test the variance in the proton-to-electron mass ratio. Measuring the $X{}^2\Sigma (v,N)=(0,0)\to (1,0)$ transition frequency of optically trapped ${}^{174}$Yb${}^6$Li molecules is a promising method for achieving this goal. The Stark shifts induced by trap and probe (for the Raman transition) lasers are eliminated by choosing appropriate frequencies (magic frequencies) during the construction of the optical lattice. In the far-off resonance region, the Stark shift is found to be less than 10${}^{-16}$ even when the laser frequencies are detuned from the magic frequencies by $\sim$1 MHz.

Supersonic-jet luminescence spectroscopy was applied to study vibronic transitions in icosahedral N${}_2$ and Ar-N${}_2$ clusters having from 100 to 400 particles per cluster. In the case of mixed Ar-N${}_2$ clusters, the $w{}^1{\Delta }_u^{}\to X{}^1{\Sigma }_g^{+}$ transitions were observed to occur in single N${}_2$ molecules in an Ar environment, in very much the same way as in Ar-N${}_2$ bulk samples. In N${}_2$ clusters, however, a band series was detected which, to our knowledge, was never observed earlier. In the spectra of Ar-N${}_2$ clusters, this series coexisted with the “bulk” $w{}^1{\Delta }_u^{}\to X{}^1{\Sigma }_g^{+}$ transitions. Our analysis demonstrated that the series should be assigned to emission of van der Waals (N${}_2$)${}_2$ dimers from inside clusters. Earlier, such dimers were only observed in molecular beams and gaseous nitrogen; this paper reports their observation in the solid phase of nitrogen. Our results can be of interest from the viewpoint of producing polymeric nitrogen since (N${}_2$)${}_2$ dimers can be considered to be a starting species for its synthesis.

With the classical ensemble model, we investigate the manifestations of the Coulomb tail of electron-electron interaction in nonsequential double ionization by comparing the results from the short-range electron-electron interaction with those from the Coulombic electron-electron interaction. At the intensity below the recollision threshold, the two-electron momentum distributions in the direction parallel to the laser polarization show an anticorrelated behavior for the Coulombic electron-electron interaction while a correlated behavior for the short-range interaction, which indicates the responsibility of the Coulomb tail of the electron-electron interaction for the experimentally observed anticorrelated emission [Y. Liu, S. Tschuch, A. Rudenko, M. Durr, M. Siegel, U. Morgner, R. Moshammer, and J. Ullrich, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 053001 (2008)]. In the transverse direction, for the Coulombic electron-electron interaction, the two electrons exhibit no effect of repulsion at an intensity below the recollision threshold while a strong repulsion effect at an intensity above the threshold, which becomes weaker as the laser intensity further increases. Back analysis shows that the role of the Coulomb tail of electron-electron interaction leads asymmetric energy sharing (AES) to be prevalent at recollision. This AES results in the two electrons leaving the ion at different times or with different initial momenta, which is responsible for the anticorrelated behavior in the parallel direction and the intensity-dependent repulsion effect in the transverse direction.

The rovibrational dynamics of an extended ladder stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) system through permanent dipole moment transitions is investigated theoretically using the time-dependent quantum-wave-packet method for the ground electronic state of the HF molecule. The calculated results show that nearly 100$\%$ of the population can be transferred to the target state through (1+2), (1+3), and (2+2) STIRAP schemes. By choosing a suitable excitation pathway, the effects of the background states on the final population of the target state can be removed. For the multiphoton STIRAP process, the one-photon overtone pump scheme is more efficient than the two-photon pump scheme in controlling the population transfer to the target state.

Using near-exact numerical simulations, we study the propagation of an impurity through a one-dimensional Bose lattice gas for varying bosonic interaction strengths and filling factors at zero temperature. The impurity is coupled to the Bose gas and confined to a separate tilted lattice. The precise nature of the transport of the impurity is specific to the excitation spectrum of the Bose gas, which allows one to measure properties of the Bose gas nondestructively, in principle, by observing the impurity; here we focus on the spatial and momentum distributions of the impurity as well as its reduced density matrix. For instance, we show it is possible to determine whether the Bose gas is commensurately filled as well as the bandwidth and gap in its excitation spectrum. Moreover, we show that the impurity acts as a witness to the crossover of its environment from the weakly to the strongly interacting regime, i.e., from a superfluid to a Mott insulator or Tonks-Girardeau lattice gas, and the effects on the impurity in both of these strongly interacting regimes are clearly distinguishable. Finally, we find that the spatial coherence of the impurity is related to its propagation through the Bose gas.

We formulate a nonrelativistic Hamiltonian in order to describe the interaction between a moving dielectric membrane and radiation pressure. Such a Hamiltonian is derived without making use of the single-mode adiabatic approximation, and linear approximation and hence, it enables us to incorporate multimode effects in cavity optomechanics. By performing a second quantization, we show how a set of generalized Fock states can be constructed to represent quantum states of the membrane and cavity field. In addition, we discuss examples showing how photon scattering among different cavity modes would modify the interaction strengths and the mechanical frequency of the membrane.

Photonic crystals are extremely sensitive to structural disorder even to the point of completely losing their functionalities. While, on one side, this can be detrimental for applications in traditional optical devices, on the other side, it gives also rise to very interesting new physics and maybe even new applications. We propose a route to introduce disorder in photonic crystals in a controlled way by creating a certain percentage of vacancies in the lattice. We show how the method works and what type of materials can be obtained this way. Also, we use this system to probe the role of disorder on the resulting transport properties from various points of view, including measurements of the transport and scattering mean free path and the diffusion constant.