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Physics

Cavity with Iron Nuclei Slows Down X Rays

Robin Kaiser

Published May 18, 2015• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Group velocity control is demonstrated for x-ray photons of 14.4 keV energy via a direct measurement of the temporal delay imposed on spectrally narrow x-ray pulses.Subluminal light propagation is achieved by inducing a steep positive linear dispersion in the optical response of 57 Fe Mössbauer nuclei embedded in a thin film planar x-ray cavity.The direct detection of the temporal pulse delay is enabled by generating frequency-tunable spectrally narrow x-ray pulses from broadband pulsed synchrotron radiation.Our theoretical model is in good agreement with the experimental data.

DOI
10.1103/physics.8.47

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Group velocity control is demonstrated for x-ray photons of 14.4 keV energy via a direct measurement of the temporal delay imposed on spectrally narrow x-ray pulses.Subluminal light propagation is achieved by inducing a steep positive linear dispersion in the optical response of 57 Fe Mössbauer nuclei embedded in a thin film planar x-ray cavity.The direct detection of the temporal pulse delay is enabled by generating frequency-tunable spectrally narrow x-ray pulses from broadband pulsed synchrotron radiation.Our theoretical model is in good agreement with the experimental data.
Group velocity control is demonstrated for x-ray photons of 14.4 keV energy via a direct measurement of the temporal delay imposed on spectrally narrow x-ray pulses. Subluminal light propagation is achieved by inducing a steep positive linear dispersion in the optical response of 57Fe Mössbauer nuclei embedded in a thin film planar x-ray cavity. The direct detection of the temporal pulse delay is enabled by generating frequency-tunable spectrally narrow x-ray pulses from broadband pulsed synchrotron radiation. Our theoretical model is in good agreement with the experimental data.
A control mechanism for stopping x-ray pulses in resonant nuclear media is investigated theoretically. We show that narrow-band x-ray pulses can be mapped and stored as nuclear coherence in a thin-film planar x-ray cavity with an embedded ^{57}Fe nuclear layer. The pulse is nearly resonant to the 14.4 keV Mössbauer transition in the ^{57}Fe nuclei. The role of the control field is played here by a hyperfine magnetic field which induces interference effects reminiscent of electromagnetically induced transparency. We show that, by switching off the control magnetic field, a narrow-band x-ray pulse can be completely stored in the cavity for approximately 100 ns. Additional manipulation of the external magnetic field can lead to both group velocity and phase control of the pulse in the x-ray cavity sample.
Abstract Recently, an observation of acoustically induced transparency (AIT) of a stainless-steel foil for resonant 14.4-keV photons from a radioactive 57Co Mössbauer source due to collective uniform oscillations of atomic nuclei was reported [Phys Rev Lett 124,163602, 2020]. In this paper, we propose to use the steep resonant dispersion of the absorber within the AIT spectral window to dramatically reduce a propagation velocity of γ-ray and x-ray photons. In particular, we show that a significant fraction (more than 40%) of a 97-ns γ-ray single-photon wave packet from a 57Co radioactive source can be slowed down up to 3 m/s and delayed by 144 ns in a 57Fe-enriched stainless-steel foil at room temperature. We also show that a similarly significant slowing down up to 24 m/s and a delay by 42 ns can be achieved for more than 70% of the 100-ns 14.4-keV x-ray single-photon pulse from a synchrotron Mössbauer source available at European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) and Spring-8 facility. The propagation velocity can be widely controlled by changing the absorber vibration frequency. Achieving the propagation velocity on the order of 1–50 m/s would set a record in the hard x-ray range, comparable to what was obtained in the optical range.
In this thesis thin-film cavities with embedded Mössbauer nuclei probed by near-resonant x-ray light are studied from a quantum optical perspective. A theoretical framework is developed and compact expressions for the observables are derived for the linear excitation regime, which is encountered in current experiments. Even advanced cavity layouts can be modeled in excellent agreement with the results of previous experiments and semi-classical approaches. In the absence of magnetic hyperfine splitting, the spectral response of the system is found to be formed by tunable Fano profiles. An experimental implementation of this line shape control allows to extract spectroscopic signatures with high precision and to reconstruct the phase of the nuclear transition in good agreement with the theoretical predictions. The alignment of medium magnetization and polarization control of the x-rays enable to engineer advanced quantum optical level schemes, in which vacuum induced coherence effects are predicted and successfully demonstrated in an experiment. Furthermore, it is shown that group velocity control for x-ray pulses can be achieved in the cavity. A scheme for its observation is proposed and then employed to experimentally confirm sub-luminal x-ray propagation. Finally, non-linear effects, which could become accessible with future light sources, are explored and a non-linear line shape control mechanism is discussed.
Waveguides offer a means to controllably couple atomic ensembles to the electromagnetic field therein. Here, we demonstrate x-ray propagation in planar thin-film waveguides coupled to Mössbauer nuclei under collective resonant excitation by short pulses of synchrotron radiation. We record x-ray photons that have been emitted into resonant modes of the waveguide. Depending on the geometry and mode of excitation, two fundamentally different signatures of the collective emission are observed, for which we present a unifying theoretical model. Our results form a new platform for waveguide quantum electrodynamics in the hard x-ray regime with the potential to provide a coherent narrow band source of x-rays on the nanometer scale.
Abstract Mössbauer nuclei with quadrupole-split levels provide a versatile platform for exploring coherent x-ray light-matter interactions. We theoretically study ensembles of 57 Fe nuclei embedded in thin-film x-ray cavities, explicitly accounting for different orientations of the electric field gradient. By mapping isotropic electric field gradient distributions to an effective equal-weight two-transition model, we derive analytical expressions for the time-dependent reflectivity and reveal the emergence of cavity-mediated quantum beats. The oscillation frequency and temporal profile of these beats can be tuned via the cavity-induced coherent coupling, offering a flexible approach to control collective nuclear dynamics and manipulate nuclear coherence in the x-ray regime.