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At least 19 records

Faraday rotators of terbium oxyhydroxide

Terbium-based Faraday rotators, optical isolators incorporating the Faraday rotators, and methods for forming the Faraday rotators are described. Formation methods include hydrothermal growth methods for forming monolithic single crystals of TbO(OH) as Faraday rotator materials. TbO(OH) can also be used as a starting material in a hydrothermal growth method to form monolithic single crystals of Tb x Yb 2-x O 3 , in which x is between about 0.05 and about 1 or terbium aluminum garnet TAG for use as a Faraday rotator in an optical isolator.

Kolis, Joseph William↗

Revision of Faraday rotation measure constraints on the primordial magnetic field using the IllustrisTNG simulation

ABSTRACT Previously derived Faraday rotation constraints on the volume-filling intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF) have used analytical models that made a range of simplifying assumptions about magnetic field evolution in the intergalactic medium and did not consider the effect of baryonic feedback on large-scale structures. In this work, we revise existing Faraday rotation constraints on the IGMF using a numerical model of the intergalactic medium from the IllustrisTNG cosmological simulation that includes a sophisticated model of the baryonic feedback. We use the IllustrisTNG model to calculate the rotation measure and compare the resulting mean and median of the absolute value of the rotation measure with data from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). The numerical model of the intergalactic medium includes a full magnetohydrodynamic model of the compressed primordial magnetic field as well as a model of the regions where the magnetic field is not primordial, but is rather produced by the process of baryonic feedback. Separating these two types of regions, we are able to assess the influence of the primordial magnetic field on the Faraday rotation signal. We find that by correcting for regions of compressed primordial field and accounting for the fact that part of the intergalactic medium is occupied by magnetic fields spread by baryonic feedback processes rather than by the primordial field relaxes the Faraday rotation bound by a factor of ≃3. This results in B0 < 1.8 × 10−9 G for large correlation length IGMFs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Faraday rotation study of plasma bubbles in GeV wakefield accelerators

We visualize plasma bubbles driven by 0.67 PW laser pulses in a plasma of density ne≈5×1017cm−3 by imaging Faraday rotation patterns imprinted on linearly polarized probe pulses of wavelength λpr=1.05 μm and duration τpr=2 or 1 ps that cross the bubble's path at right angles. When the bubble captures and accelerates tens to hundreds of pC of electron charges, we observe two parallel streaks of length cτpr straddling the drive pulse propagation axis, separated by ∼45 μm, in which probe polarization rotates by 0.3° to more than 5° in opposite directions. Accompanying simulations show that they result from Faraday rotation within portions of dense bubble side walls that are pervaded by the azimuthal magnetic field of accelerating electrons during the probe transit across the bubble. Analysis of the width of the streaks shows that quasi-monoenergetic high-energy electrons and trailing lower energy electrons inside the bubble contribute distinguishable portions of the observed signals, and relativistic flow of sheath electrons suppresses Faraday rotation from the rear of the bubble. The results demonstrate favorable scaling of Faraday rotation diagnostics to 40× lower plasma density than previously demonstrated.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Theoretical investigations on Kerr and Faraday rotations in topological multi-Weyl Semimetals

Motivated by the recent proposal of giant Kerr rotation in WSMs, we investigate the Kerr and Faraday rotations in time-reversal broken multi-Weyl semimetals (mWSMs) in the absence of an external magnetic field. Using the framework of Kubo response theory, we find that both the longitudinal and transverse components of the optical conductivity in mWSMs are modified by the topological charge ( n n ). Engendered by the optical Hall conductivity, we show in the thin film limit that, while the giant Kerr rotation and corresponding ellipticity are independent of n n , the Faraday rotation and its ellipticity angle scale as n n and n^2 n 2 , respectively. In contrast, the polarization rotation in semi-infinite mWSMs is dominated by the axion field showing n n dependence. In particular, the magnitude of Kerr (Faraday) angle decreases (increases) with increasing n n in Faraday geometry, whereas in Voigt geometry, it depicts different n n -dependencies in different frequency regimes. The obtained results on the behavior of polarization rotations in mWSMs could be used in experiments as a probe to distinguish single, double, and triple WSMs, as well as discriminate the surfaces of mWSMs with and without hosting Fermi arcs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Faraday Rotation Measurements in High-Energy-Density Plasmas Using Shaped Laser Beams

Magnetic fields play an important role in plasma dynamics, yet it is a quantity difficult to measure accurately with physical probes, whose presence disturbs the very field they measure. The Faraday rotation of a polarized beam of light provides a mechanism to measure the magnetic field without disturbing the dynamics, and has been used with great success in astrophysics and high energy density plasma science, where physical probes cannot be used. Furthermore, the rotation is typically small, which degrades the accuracy of the measurement. Since polarization cannot be measured directly, detectors rely on a polarizer to measure a small change in beam intensity instead. In this work, we show how beam shaping can improve Faraday rotation measurements using an optical derivative setup. Since the rotation measurement is now strictly proportional to the beam shape and intensity, the system allows to improve the measurement accuracy simply by increasing the laser beam power.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Characterization of a multi-kW, large-aperture gas-cooled Faraday rotator

We characterize a large-aperture gas-cooled Faraday rotator (FR) designed to mitigate stress-induced depolarization in high-energy, high-power laser systems. The rotator, based on ceramic TGG, was tested using a 150 mW probe beam at 1047 nm and a pump beam at 1070 nm. Compensating for the birefringence induced by the surrogate depolarization plate at 3.3 kW of effective pump power, the rotator reduces the spatially in-homogeneous depolarized light containing linear, circular, and elliptical polarization states to nearly linear with approximately 0.8% (or −21 dB) of residual depolarized energy. The FR demonstrated effective depolarization compensation across its 58×58 mm 2 aperture.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Gas cooled faraday rotator and method

To enable several orders of magnitude increases in average power and energy handling capability of Faraday rotators, the technology utilizes high speed gas cooling to efficiently remove thermal loading from the Faraday optic faces while minimizing the thermal wavefront and thermal birefringence by creating a longitudinal thermal gradient. A recirculating gas cooling manifold accelerates the gas over the surface of the slab to create a turbulent flow condition which maximizes the surface cooling rate. The technology further provides a spatially uniform thermal profile on the Faraday slabs.

Bayramian, Andrew J.↗

Kinetic study of reaction C 2 H 5 + HO 2 in a photolysis reactor with time-resolved Faraday rotation spectroscopy

The rate constant and branching ratios of ethyl reaction with hydroperoxyl radical, C 2 H 5 + HO 2 (1), a key radical-radical reaction for intermediate temperature combustion chemistry, were measured in situ for the first time in a photolysis Herriott cell by using mid-IR Faraday rotation spectroscopy (FRS) and UV-IR direct absorption spectroscopy (DAS). The microsecond time-resolved diagnostic technique in this work enabled the direct rate measurements of the target reaction at 40 and 80 mbar and reduced the experimental uncertainty considerably. C 2 H 5 and HO 2 radicals were generated by the photolysis of (COCl) 2 /C 2 H 5 I/CH 3 OH/O 2 /He mixture at 266 nm. By direct measurements of the transient profiles of C 2 H 5 , HO 2 and OH concentrations, the overall rate constant for this reaction at 297 K was determined as k 1 (40 mbar) = (3.8 ± 0.8) × 10 –11 cm 3 molecule –1 s –1 and k 1 (80 mbar) = (4.1 ± 1.0) × 10 –11 cm 3 molecule –1 s –1 . As a result, the direct observation of hydroxyl radical (OH) indicated that OH formation channel was the major channel with a branching ratio of 0.8 ± 0.1.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The contribution of magnetized galactic outflows to extragalactic Faraday rotation

ABSTRACT Galactic outflows driven by star formation and active galactic nuclei blow bubbles into their local environments, causing galactic magnetic fields to be carried into intergalactic space. We explore the redshift-dependent effect of these magnetized bubbles on the Faraday rotation measure (RM) of extragalactic radio sources. Using the IllustrisTNG cosmological simulations, we separate the contribution from magnetic bubbles from that of the volume-filling magnetic component expected to be due to the seed field originating in the early universe. We use this separation to extract the redshift dependence of each component and to compare IllustrisTNG model predictions with observation measurements of the NRAO VLA sky survey (NVSS). We find that magnetized bubbles provide a sizeable contribution to the extragalactic RM, with redshift-independent 〈|RM|〉 ≃ 13 rad/m2 for sources at redshifts z ≥ 2. This is close to the mean residual RM of 16 rad/m2 found from NVSS data in this redshift range. Using the IllustrisTNG simulations, we also evaluate a simple model for the contribution to residual RM from individual host galaxies and show that this contribution is negligible at high-redshift. While the contribution from magnetic bubbles in the IllustrisTNG model is currently compatible with observational measurements of residual RM, the next-generation RM sky surveys, which will be free from the wrapping uncertainty, have larger statistics and better sensitivity should be able to observe predicted flat contribution from magnetic bubbles at large redshifts. This should allow to experimentally probe magnetic bubbles and check models of galaxy feedback in cosmological simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

THz-range Faraday rotation in the Weyl semimetal candidate Co 2 TiGe

The Co 2 family of ferromagnetic Heusler alloys has attracted interest due to their fully spin-polarized nature, making them ideal for applications in spintronic devices. More recently, the existence of room temperature time-reversal-breaking Weyl nodes near the Fermi level was predicted and confirmed in these systems. As a result of the presence of these Weyl nodes, these systems possess a non-zero momentum space Berry curvature that can dramatically influence transport properties such as the anomalous Hall effect. One of these candidate compounds is Co 2 TiGe. Recently, high-quality molecular beam epitaxy-grown thin films of Co 2 TiGe have become available. In this work, we present a THz-range measurement of MBE-grown Co 2 TiGe films. We measure the THz-range Faraday rotation, which can be understood as a measure of the anomalous Hall effect. We supplement this work with electronic band-structure calculations showing that the principal contribution to the anomalous Hall effect in this material stems from the Berry curvature of the material. Overall, our work shows that this class of Heusler materials shows promise for Weyl semimetal based spintronics.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

High-magnification Faraday rotation imaging and analysis of X-pinch implosion dynamics

An X-pinch load driven by an intense current pulse (>100 kA in ~100 ns) can result in the formation of a small radius, runaway compressional micro-pinch. A micro-pinch is characterized by a hot (>1 keV), current-driven (>100 kA), high-density plasma column (near solid density) with a small neck diameter (1–10 µm), a short axial extent (<1 mm), and a short duration (≲1 ns). With material pressures often well into the multi-Mbar regime, a micro-pinch plasma often radiates an intense, sub-ns burst of sub-keV to multi-keV x rays. A low-density coronal plasma immediately surrounding the dense plasma neck could potentially shunt current away from the neck and thus reduce the magnetic drive pressure applied to the neck. Here, to study the current distribution in the coronal plasma, a Faraday rotation imaging diagnostic (1064 nm) capable of producing simultaneous high-magnification polarimetric and interferometric images has been developed for the MAIZE facility at the University of Michigan. Designed with a variable magnification (1–10×), this diagnostic achieves a spatial resolution of ~35 µm, which is useful for resolving the ~100-μm-scale coronal plasma immediately surrounding the dense core. This system has now been used on a reduced-output MAIZE (100–200 kA, 150 ns) to assess the radial distribution of drive current immediately surrounding the dense micro-pinch neck. The total current enclosed was found to increase as a function of radius, r, from a value of ≈ 50 ± 25 kA at r ≈ 140 µm (at the edge of the dense neck) to a maximal value of ≈150 ± 75 kA for r ≥ 225 µm. This corresponds to a peak magnetic drive pressure of ≈75 ± 50 kbar at r ≈ 225 µm. The limitations of these measurements are discussed in the paper.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

High-Magnification Faraday Rotation Imaging and Analysis of X-pinch Implosion Dynamics

An X-pinch load driven by an intense current pulse (>100 kA in ~100 ns) can result in the formation of a small radius, runaway compressional micro-pinch. A micro-pinch is characterized by a hot (>1 keV), current-driven (>100 kA), high-density plasma column (near solid density) with a small neck diameter (1–10 μm), a short axial extent (<1 mm), and a short duration (.1 ns). With material pressures often well into the multi-Mbar regime, a micro-pinch plasma often radiates an intense, sub-ns burst of sub-keV to multi-keV x-rays. A low-density coronal plasma immediately surrounding the dense plasma neck could potentially shunt current away from the neck and thus reduce the magnetic drive pressure applied to the neck. To study the current distribution in the coronal plasma throughout the implosion process, a Faraday rotation imaging diagnostic (1064 nm) capable of producing simultaneous high-magnification polarimetric and interferometric images has been developed for the 1-MA, 100-ns MAIZE facility at the University of Michigan. Designed with a variable magnification (1–10&times;), this diagnostic achieves a spatial resolution of approximately 35 μm, which is useful for resolving the ~100-μm-scale coronal plasma region immediately surrounding the dense core. Combined with the corresponding interferogram, which provides the radial density distribution in the low-density coronal plasma, the measured rotation can be used to diagnose the delivery of the driver current, and thus the magnetic drive pressure, to the micro-pinch plasma as it approaches minimal radius. Using this technique on MAIZE, we have measured

Dowhan, G. V.↗

Rotating Alfvén waves in rotating plasmas

Angular momentum coupling between a rotating magnetized plasma and torsional Alfvén waves carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) is examined. It is demonstrated not only that rotation is the source of Fresnel–Faraday rotation – or orbital Faraday rotation effects – for OAM-carrying Alfvén waves, but also that angular momentum from an OAM-carrying Alfvén wave can be transferred to a rotating plasma through the inverse process. For the direct process, the transverse structure angular rotation frequency is derived by considering the dispersion relation for modes with opposite OAM content. For the inverse process, the torque exerted on the plasma is derived as a function of wave and plasma parameters.

Physics↗

Electrodynamics of Thin Sheets of Twisted Material

We construct a minimal theory describing the optical activity of a thin sheet of a twisted material, the simplest example of which is twisted bilayer graphene. We introduce the notion of "twisted electrical conductivity", which parametrizes the parity-odd response of a thin film to a perpendicularly falling electromagnetic waves with wavelength larger than the thickness of the sheet. Here, we show that the low-frequency Faraday rotation angle has different behaviors in different phases. For an insulator, the Faraday angle behaves as ω 2 at low frequencies, with the coefficient being determined by the linear relationship between a component of the electric quadrupole moment and the external electric field. For superconductors, the Faraday rotation angle is constant when the frequency of the incoming EM waves is below the superconducting gap and is determined by the coefficient of the Lifshitz invariant in the Ginzburg-Landau functional describing the superconducting state. In the metallic state, we show that the twisted conductivity is proportional to the "magnetic helicity" (scalar product of the velocity and the magnetic moment) of the quasiparticle, averaged around the Fermi surface. The theory is general and is applicable to strongly correlated phases.

Son, Dam Thanh↗

Faraday effect in collisional magnetized plasmas

Faraday rotation is a valuable diagnostic tool for investigating laboratory and astrophysical plasmas, but it has almost exclusively been treated in the collisionless limit (despite the non-negligible role of Coulomb collisions in many laboratory plasmas). Here, we show that Faraday rotation can occur in collisional plasmas and that the usual effect is curiously altered by collisions. Namely, an initially linearly polarized light wave—propagating parallel to a uniform magnetic field—becomes elliptically polarized in the collisional plasma, and collisional absorption of the wave also occurs. Moreover, the ellipticity and rotation angle are quantifiably sensitive to the fidelity of the collisional transport coefficients. As we will demonstrate with particle-in-cell EPOCH simulations, these effects offer a stringent diagnostic tool for benchmarking multi-scale plasma simulation codes.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Kinetic studies of excited singlet oxygen atom O( 1 D) reactions with ethanol

In this work, themultichannel reaction of excited singlet oxygen atom with ethanol, O( 1 D) + C 2 H 5 OH (1), was studied in a photolysis flow reactor coupled with mid-infrared Faraday rotation spectroscopy (FRS) and UV-IR direct absorption spectroscopy (DAS) at 297 K with reactor pressures of 60, 120, and 150 Torr (bath He). The excited singlet oxygen atom was generated through the photolysis of O 3 at 266 nm. The photon flux and O( 1 D) concentrations were determined by in situ actinometry based on O 3 depletion. Temporal profiles of OH and H 2 O were monitored via DAS signals at ca. 3568.62 and 3568.29 cm –1 , while temporal profiles of HO 2 were measured via FRS signals at ca. 1396.90 cm –1 . The branching ratios of the target reaction (1) were determined by fitting temporal profiles to simulations from an in-house reaction mechanism. Two major reaction channels were identified as CH 3 CHOH + OH and CH 3 O + CH 2 OH, and their branching ratios were determined as 0.46 ± 0.12 and 0.42 ± 0.11, respectively. A specific HO 2 + RO 2 reaction between HO 2 and O 2 CH 2 CH 2 OH (β-RO 2 ) at the low-temperature range is estimated in this work as HO 2 + O 2 CH 2 CH 2 OH → products with a rate constant of 7 × 10 –12 cm 3 molecule –1 s –1 .

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The Global Magneto-ionic Medium Survey: A Faraday Depth Survey of the Northern Sky Covering 1280–1750 MHz

The Galactic interstellar medium hosts a significant magnetic field, which can be probed through the synchrotron emission produced from its interaction with relativistic electrons. Linearly polarized synchrotron emission is generated throughout the Galaxy and, at longer wavelengths, modified along nearly every path by Faraday rotation in the intervening magneto-ionic medium. Full characterization of the polarized emission requires wideband observations with many frequency channels. We have surveyed polarized radio emission from the Northern sky over the range 1280–1750 MHz, with channel width 236.8 kHz, using the John A. Galt Telescope (diameter 25.6 m) at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, as part of the Global Magneto-Ionic Medium Survey. The survey covered 72% of the sky, decl. −30° to +87° at all R.A. The intensity scale was absolutely calibrated, based on the flux density and spectral index of Cygnus A. Polarization angle was calibrated using the extended polarized emission of the Fan Region. Data are presented as brightness temperatures with angular resolution 40′. Sensitivity in Stokes Q and U is 45 mK rms in a 1.18 MHz band. We have applied rotation measure synthesis to the data to obtain a Faraday depth cube of resolution 150 rad m{sup −2} and sensitivity 3 mK rms of polarized intensity. Features in Faraday depth up to a width of 110 rad m{sup −2} are represented. The maximum detectable Faraday depth is ±2 × 10{sup 4} rad m{sup −2}. The survey data are available at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Enhanced tuneable rotatory power in a rotating plasma

We report that the gyrotropic properties of a rotating magnetized plasma are derived analytically. Mechanical rotation leads to a new cutoff for wave propagation along the magnetic field, and polarization rotation above this cutoff is the sum of the classical magneto-optical Faraday effect and the mechanico-optical polarization drag. Exploiting the very large effective group index near the cutoff, we expose here that polarization drag can be 10 4 larger than Faraday rotation at GHz frequency. The rotation leads to weak absorption while allowing direct frequency control, demonstrating the unique potential of rotating plasmas for nonreciprocal elements. The very large rotation frequency of a dense non-neutral plasma could enable unprecedented gyrotropy in the THz regime.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗