Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Polarization of light”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Achieving a large transverse emittance ratio in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider: Beam experiments, analytical estimates, and implications for the Electron-Ion Collider

The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), to be built at Brookhaven National Laboratory, will collide a polarized high-energy electron beam with polarized proton and light ion beams in the center-of-mass energy range of 20–140 GeV, achieving a maximum peak luminosity of up to 1 × 10 34 cm − 2 s − 1 for the proton and electron collisions. To achieve such a high luminosity, the EIC will employ small, flat beams at the interaction point, which requires a transverse emittance ratio of about 11:1. Since 2017, we have carried out a series of beam experiments to test the feasibility of achieving such a large emittance ratio in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Thanks to the existing stochastic cooling and decoupling feedback system in RHIC, we successfully demonstrated a large transverse emittance ratio of 11:1 with gold ion beams in 2023. In this article, we will present more details and data analysis for these experiments, along with analytical estimates and numerical multiparticle simulations, and provide an outlook for future EIC coupling compensation. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Observation of broken inversion and chiral symmetries in the pseudogap phase in single- and double-layer bismuth-based cuprates

We deduce the symmetry of the pseudogap phase in the single- and double-layer bismuth-based cuprate superconductors, where charge and pseudogap order onset concurrently, by measuring and analyzing their circular and linear photogalvanic responses, which are related linearly to the chirality and inversion breaking, respectively, of the order parameter. After separating out the trivial contribution arising from the surface where inversion symmetry is already broken, we show that both responses start below the pseudogap temperature T* and grow below it to a sizable magnitude, revealing the broken symmetries in the bulk of the crystal. Through a detailed analysis of the dependence of the signals on the angle of incidence, the polarization of the light, and the orientation of the crystal, we are able to discover that the point group symmetry below T* is limited to mm2 or mm21– groups. Here, taking into account formation of domains and previous measurements, our results narrow down the possible symmetries of the microscopic origin of the phase transition(s) at T*, which leads to the conclusion that while charge order may affect the observed symmetry it is not the main cause of the pseudogap order parameter.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

High phase resolution: Probing interactions in complex interfaces with sum frequency generation

An often-quoted statement attributed to Wolfgang Pauli is that God made the bulk, but the surface was invented by the devil. Although humorous, the statement really reflects frustration in developing a detailed picture of a surface. In the last several decades, that frustration has begun to abate with numerous techniques providing clues to interactions and reactions at surfaces. Often these techniques require considerable prior knowledge. Complex mixtures on irregular or soft surfaces—complex interfaces—thus represent the last frontier. Two optical techniques: sum frequency generation (SFG) and second harmonic generation (SHG) are beginning to lift the veil on complex interfaces. Of these techniques, SFG with one excitation in the infrared has the potential to provide exquisite molecular- and moiety-specific vibrational data. This Perspective is intended both to aid newcomers in gaining traction in this field and to demonstrate the impact of high-phase resolution. It starts with a basic description of light-induced surface polarization that is at the heart of SFG. The sum frequency is generated when the input fields are sufficiently intense that the interaction is nonlinear. This nonlinearity represents a challenge for disentangling data to reveal the molecular-level picture. Three, high-phase-resolution methods that reveal interactions at the surface are described.

Biophysics↗
DOE OSTI2026

Impedance and wakefield studies of the EIC RCS 591 MHz five-cell cavity

The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) is a next-generation accelerator complex designed to enable high-luminosity collisions between highly polarized electrons and light ions (e.g., He-3). A central component of its Electron Injection System (EIS) is the Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS), which accelerates a single 28 nC electron bunch from 750 MeV to 5, 10, or 18 GeV using an array of 591 MHz five-cell superconducting RF (SRF) cavities—eight at the current design stage. To ensure stable acceleration of high-charge bunches, we conducted detailed impedance and wakefield studies of the SRF cavity structure using both frequency- and time-domain methods. Wakefield solvers (ECHO3D, ECHO1D, CST), eigenmode analysis, and multi-particle tracking with ELEGANT were employed to evaluate longitudinal and transverse impedance effects and to determine instability thresholds. These studies provide critical input for the cavity design and operating parameters required to preserve beam quality and stability in the RCS.

Accelerator Physics↗
DOE OSTI2021

EIC Yellow Report

he Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) is a new, innovative, large-scale particle accelerator conceived by U.S. nuclear physicists over two decades and planned for construction at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York by the U.S. Department of Energy in the 2020s. The EIC will study protons, neutrons and atomic nuclei with the most powerful electron microscope ever built, in terms of its unique versatility of resolving power and intensity. The resolution and intensity is achieved by colliding high-energy electrons with high-energy protons or (a range of different) ion beams. The EIC provides the capability of colliding beams of polarized electrons with polarized beams of light ions, and this all at high intensity. The EIC was established as the highest priority for new construction in the 2015 US Nuclear Physics Long Range Plan, was favorably endorsed by a committee established by the National Academy of Sciences in 2018 to assess the science case. In December 2019, the EIC was granted Critical Design Zero by the US Department of Energy, which launched the EIC as an official project of the US government

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Complete polarization of electronic spins in OLEDs

At low temperatures and high magnetic fields, electron and hole spins in an organic light-emitting diode become polarized so that recombination preferentially forms molecular triplet excited-state species. For low device currents, magnetoelectroluminescence perfectly follows Boltzmann activation, implying a virtually complete polarization outcome. As the current increases, the magnetoelectroluminescence effect is reduced because spin polarization is suppressed by the reduction in carrier residence time within the device. Under these conditions, an additional field-dependent process affecting the spin-dependent recombination emerges, possibly related to the build-up of triplet excitons and their interaction with free charge carriers. Suppression of the EL alone does not prove electronic spin polarization. We therefore probe changes in the spin statistics of recombination directly in a dual singlet-triplet emitting material, which shows a concomitant rise in phosphorescence intensity as fluorescence is suppressed. Finite spin-orbit coupling in these materials gives rise to a microscopic distribution in effective g-factors of electrons and holes, Δg, i.e., a distribution in Larmor frequencies. This Δg effect in the pair, which mixes singlet and triplet, further suppresses singlet-exciton formation at high fields in addition to thermal spin polarization of the individual carriers.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Polarized tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy at liquid He temperature in ultrahigh vacuum using an off-axis parabolic mirror

Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) combines inelastic light scattering well below the diffraction limit down to the nanometer range and scanning probe microscopy and, possibly, spectroscopy. In this way, topographic and spectroscopic as well as single- and two-particle information may simultaneously be collected. While single molecules can now be studied successfully, bulk solids are still not meaningfully accessible. It is the purpose of the work presented here to outline approaches toward this objective. We describe a home-built, liquid helium cooled, ultrahigh vacuum TERS. The setup is based on a scanning tunneling microscope and, as an innovation, an off-axis parabolic mirror having a high numerical aperture of ~0.85 and a large working distance. The system is equipped with a fast load-lock chamber, a chamber for the in situ preparation of tips, substrates, and samples, and a TERS chamber. Base pressure and temperature in the TERS chamber were ~3 × 10 –11 mbar and 15 K, respectively. Polarization dependent tip-enhanced Raman spectra of the vibration modes of carbon nanotubes were successfully acquired at cryogenic temperature. The new features described here including very low pressure and temperature and the external access to the light polarizations, thus the selection rules, may pave the way toward the investigation of bulk and surface materials.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Methods for Determining the Infrared Complex Refractive Indices n (λ) and k (λ) from Organic Solid Powders: Comparison of a Sucrose Single Crystal and a Pressed Pellet

There exists a need to measure optical constants n and k for many materials, especially organic solids in the infrared spectral region, but at present, there are only two established methods for making such measurements: single-angle (SA) reflectance and infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry (IRSE). The former derives the n/k vectors via measurement of the change in the amplitude of light reflected from the sample and then uses the Kramers–Kronig transform, while the latter measures the change in polarization of the reflected light from the sample to derive n/k. Here we make a direct comparison between the n/k vectors derived from SA measurements of a sucrose single crystal and the n/k values obtained after the crystal had been crushed, ground to powder, and pressed into a pellet form. The pellet was measured not only by SA but also via the IRSE method, and we found that pressing specular-quality pellets was critical, especially for the SA data. The n/k values of this typical organic molecule all agree to within 0.04 root-mean-square error, confirming that a pressed pellet can be used instead of a crystal to derive the intrinsic n/k vectors. In conclusion, this result is important for the many organic materials that, unlike sugar, do not have centimeter-sized crystals readily available.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Optically controlled single-valley exciton doublet states with tunable internal spin structures and spin magnetization generation

Manipulating quantum states through light–matter interactions has been actively pursued in two-dimensional materials research. Significant progress has been made toward the optical control of the valley degrees of freedom in semiconducting monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides, based on doubly degenerate excitons from their two distinct valleys in reciprocal space. Here, we introduce a type of optically controllable doubly degenerate exciton states that come from a single valley, dubbed as single-valley exciton doublet (SVXD) states. They are unique in that their constituent holes originate from the same valence band, making possible the direct optical control of the spin structure of the excited constituent electrons. Combining ab initio GW plus Bethe–Salpeter equation ( GW -BSE) calculations and a theoretical analysis method, we demonstrate such SVXD in substrate-supported monolayer bismuthene—which has been successfully grown using molecular beam epitaxy. In each of the two distinct valleys in the Brillouin zone, strong spin–orbit coupling and C 3 v symmetry lead to a pair of degenerate 1s exciton states (the SVXD states) with opposite spin configurations. Any coherent linear combinations of the SVXD in a single valley can be excited by light with a specific polarization, enabling full manipulation of their internal spin configurations. In particular, a controllable net spin magnetization can be generated through light excitation. Our findings open routes to control quantum degrees of freedom, paving the way for applications in spintronics and quantum information science.

2D materials↗
DOE OSTI2025

Amplitude Analysis of ωπ0 Photoproduction at GlueX

spectrum of light mesons produced from a linearly polarized photon beam. The production and decays of a light meson resonance X such as γp → Xp′ →ωπ0p′ can be modeled with polarized vector-pseudoscalar ampli- tudes, which can describe the contribution of individual amplitudes to the total measured intensity. The status of mass-independent fits to the ωπ0 mass spectrum over a wide range of mass and momentum transfer−twill be presented, with an emphasis on interactions with the b1(1235) meson. We will also present in parallel an analysis of moments of the angular dis- tributions for the same process, as a means of verifying the stability of the amplitude-based results. These results will help to improve the broader knowledge of light meson states and how they are produced.

Scheuer, Kevin [College of William and Mary, Willi↗
DOE OSTI2023

Light-quark connected intermediate-window contributions to the muon 𝑔 − 2 hadronic vacuum polarization from lattice QCD

We present a lattice-QCD calculation of the light-quark connected contribution to window observables associated with the leading-order hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, $a^{HVP,LO}_μ$. We employ the MILC Collaboration’s isospin-symmetric QCD gauge-field ensembles, which contain four flavors of dynamical highly improved staggered quarks with four lattice spacings between $a ≈ 0.06-0.15$ fm and close-to-physical quark masses. We consider several effective-field-theory-based schemes for finite volume and other lattice corrections and combine the results via Bayesian model averaging to obtain robust estimates of the associated systematic uncertainties. After unblinding, our final results for the intermediate and "W2" windows are $a^{U,W}_μ$(conn) = 206.6(1.0) x 10 -10 and $a^{U,W2}_μ$ (conn) = 100.7(3.2) x 10 -10 , respectively

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Layer Number Dependence of Chirality and Spin Polarized Lifetime in Chiral 2D Halide Perovskites

Chiral metal halide perovskite semiconductors (CMHS) are fascinating semiconductors with unique chiroptical properties and spin-polarized charge transport. Achieving long spin lifetimes and high carrier mobility concurrently is essential to realize the true potential of CMHS in manipulating charge, spin, and light. While conventional monolayer n = 1 CMHS possess appreciable anisotropy factors of circular dichroism (g CD ) and photoluminescence (g lum ), imparting chirality to quasi-2D CMHS (n > 1) with enhanced carrier mobilities is underexplored. Herein, we systematically investigate the layer number (n-value) dependence and emergent trade-offs in chiroptical properties, spin-relaxation times, and carrier mobilities in chiral quasi-2D (R/S-MPEA) 2 MA n-1 Pb n I 3n+1 single crystals and thin films (R/S-MPEA: R/S-β-methylphenylethylammonium; MA: methylammonium; n = 1–3). Films with n = 2 exhibited the highest g CD of 8 × 10 –3 , an order of magnitude larger than their n = 1 and n = 3 counterparts. On the other hand, n = 3 films demonstrated enhanced spin lifetimes up to 15 ps along with increased carrier mobility up to 11.6 cm 2 V –1 s –1 . As a result, photodiode-type photodetectors based on n = 3 CMHS reveal high specific detectivity and superior discrimination of circularly polarized light, outperforming n = 1 and 2. These findings highlight the potential of quasi-2D CMHS as tunable, high-performance platforms with longer spin lifetime and diffusion length, enabling new functionalities.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Understanding and Manipulating Helical Nanofilaments in Binary Systems with Achiral Dopants

Here, in this paper, we report the relationship between helical pitch of the helical nanofilament (HNF) phase formed by bent-core molecule NOBOW and the concentration of achiral dopants 5CB and octane, using linearly polarized resonant soft X-ray scattering (RSoXS). Utilizing theory-based simulation, which fits well with the experiments, the molecular helices in the filament were probed and the superstructure of helical 5CB directed by groove of HNFs was observed. Quantitative pitch determination with RSoXS reveals that helical pitch variation is related to 5CB concentration with no temperature dependence. Doping rodlike immiscible 5CB led to a pitch shortening of up to 30%, which was attributed to a change in interfacial tension. By shedding light not only on phase behavior of binary systems but also enabling control over pitch length, our work may benefit various applications of HNF-containing binary systems, including optical rotation devices, circularly polarized light emitters, and chirality transfer agents.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

System and method for liquid crystal display system incorporating wire grid polarizers for large scale and large volume stereolithography

The present disclosure relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) system. The system in one example has a light source for generating unpolarized light, and an LCD screen arranged in a path of transmittance of the unpolarized light. First and second wire grid polarizers are arranged adjacent to the LCD screen and each have a plurality of nano-scale wires, with the first and second wire grid polarizers have differing polarizations. A pitch of each of the nano-scale wires is no larger than one-third a wavelength of the unpolarized light from the light source. The wire grid polarizers create, in connection with operation of the LCD screen, a 2D light mask suitable for initiating the polymerization of an optically curable material.

Duoss, Eric B.↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Simons Observatory: Cryogenic half wave plate rotation mechanism for the small aperture telescopes

We present the requirements, design, and evaluation of the cryogenic continuously rotating half-wave plate (CHWP) for the Simons Observatory (SO). SO is a cosmic microwave background polarization experiment at Parque Astronómico de Atacama in northern Chile that covers a wide range of angular scales using both small (Ø0.42 m) and large (Ø6 m) aperture telescopes. In particular, the small aperture telescopes (SATs) focus on large angular scales for primordial B-mode polarization. To this end, the SATs employ a CHWP to modulate the polarization of the incident light at 8 Hz, suppressing atmospheric 1/f noise and mitigating systematic uncertainties that would otherwise arise due to the differential response of detectors sensitive to orthogonal polarizations. The CHWP consists of a 505 mm diameter achromatic sapphire HWP and a cryogenic rotation mechanism, both of which are cooled down to ~50 K to reduce detector thermal loading. Under normal operation, the HWP is suspended by a superconducting magnetic bearing and rotates with a constant 2 Hz frequency, controlled by an electromagnetic synchronous motor. We find that the number of superconductors and the number of magnets that make up the superconducting magnetic bearing are important design parameters, especially for the rotation mechanism’s vibration performance. The rotation angle is detected through an angular encoder with a noise level of 0.07 μrad √ $\overline{s}$. During a cooldown process, the rotor is held in place by a grip-and-release mechanism that serves as both an alignment device and a thermal path. In this paper, we provide an overview of the SO SAT CHWP: its requirements, hardware design, and laboratory performance.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Measurement of spin-polarized photoemission from wurtzite and zinc blende gallium nitride photocathodes

Spin-polarized photoemission from wurtzite and zinc blende gallium nitride (GaN) photocathodes has been observed and measured. The p-doped GaN photocathodes were epitaxially grown and activated to negative electron affinity with a cesium monolayer deposited on their surfaces. A field-retarding Mott polarimeter was used to measure the spin polarization of electrons photoemitted from the top of the valence band. A spectral scan with a tunable optical parametric amplifier constructed to provide low-bandwidth light revealed peak spin polarizations of 17% and 29% in the wurtzite and zinc blende photocathodes, respectively. Zinc blende GaN results are analyzed with a spin polarization model accounting for experimental parameters used in the measurements, while possible mechanisms influencing the obtained spin polarization values of wurtzite GaN are discussed.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Polarized 𝐽/𝜓 production in semi-inclusive DIS at large 𝑄 2 : Comparing quark fragmentation and photon-gluon fusion

We compare the relative importance of different mechanisms for polarized 𝐽/𝜓 production in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering processes at large 𝑄 2 . The transverse momentum dependent (TMD) factorization framework and nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics are used to study the leading contributions from light quark fragmentation to polarized 𝐽/𝜓, and compared to direct production via photon-gluon fusion, which can proceed through color-singlet as well as color-octet mechanisms. We identify kinematic regimes where light quark fragmentation dominates, allowing for the extraction of the 3 𝑆$^{[8]}_{1}$ matrix element, as well as regimes where photon gluon fusion dominates, suggesting that the gluon TMD parton distribution function can be probed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗