Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie
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Proton–proton collisions at √s=7 TeV and heavy ion collisions at \(\sqrt{sNN}\)=2.76 TeV were produced by the LHC and recorded using the ATLAS experiment’s trigger system in 2010. The LHC is designed with a maximum bunch crossing rate of 40 MHz and the ATLAS trigger system is designed to record approximately 200 of these per second. The trigger system selects events by rapidly identifying signatures of muon, electron, photon, tau lepton, jet, and B meson candidates, as well as using global event signatures, such as missing transverse energy. An overview of the ATLAS trigger system, the evolution of the system during 2010 and the performance of the trigger system components and selections based on the 2010 collision data are shown. A brief outline of plans for the trigger system in 2011 is presented.
Using inelastic proton-proton interactions at s√=900 GeV and 7 TeV, recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC, measurements have been made of the correlations between forward and backward charged-particle multiplicities and, for the first time, between forward and backward charged-particle summed transverse momentum. In addition, jet-like structure in the events is studied by means of azimuthal distributions of charged particles relative to the charged particle with highest transverse momentum in a selected kinematic region of the event. The results are compared with predictions from tunes of the pythia and herwig++ Monte Carlo generators, which in most cases are found to provide a reasonable description of the data.
Radiationless energy transfer is at the core of diverse phenomena, such as light harvesting in photosynthesis\(^1\), energy-transfer-based microspectroscopies\(^2\), nanoscale quantum entanglement\(^3\) and photonic-mode hybridization\(^4\). Typically, the transfer is efficient only for separations that are much shorter than the diffraction limit. This hampers its application in optical communication and quantum information processing, which require spatially selective addressing. Here, we demonstrate highly efficient radiationless coherent energy transfer over a distance of twice the excitation wavelength by combining localized and delocalized\(^5\) plasmonic modes. Analogous to the Tavis-Cummings model, two whispering-gallery-mode antennas\(^6\) placed in the foci of an elliptical plasmonic cavity\(^7\) fabricated from single-crystal gold plates act as a pair of oscillators coupled to a common cavity mode. Time-resolved two-photon photoemission electron microscopy (TR 2P-PEEM) reveals an ultrafast long-range periodic energy transfer in accordance with the simulations. Our observations open perspectives for the optimization and tailoring of mesoscopic energy transfer and long-range quantum emitter coupling.
Recently a new state of matter was discovered in which the bulk insulating state in a material is accompanied by conducting surface or edge states. This new state of matter can be distinguished from a conventional insulator phase by the topological properties of its band structure which led to the name "topological insulators". Experimentally, topological insulator states are mostly found in systems characterized by a band inversion compared to conventional systems. In most topological insulator systems, this is caused by a combination of energetically close bands and spin orbit coupling. Such properties are found in systems with heavy elements like Hg and Bi. And indeed, the first experimental discovery of a topological insulator succeeded in HgTe quantum wells and later also in BiSb bulk systems.
Topological insulators are of large interest due to their unique properties: In 2-dimensional topological insulators one dimensional edge states form without the need of an external magnetic field (in contrast to the quantum Hall effect). These edge states feature a linear band dispersion, a so called Dirac dispersion. The quantum spin Hall states are helical edge states, which means they consist of counterpropagating oppositely spin polarized edge channels. They are therefore of great potential for spintronic applications as well as building blocks for new more exotic states like Majorana Fermions. 3-dimensional topological insulators feature 2-dimensional surface states with only one Dirac band (also called Dirac cone) on each surface and an interesting spin texture where spin and momentum are locked perpendicular to each other in the surface plane. This unique surface band structure is predicted to be able to host several exotic states like e.g. Majorana Fermions (in combination with superconductors) and magnetic monopole like excitations.
This PhD thesis will summarize the discovery of topological insulators and highlights the developments on their experimental observations. The work focuses on HgTe which is up to now the only topological insulator material where the expected properties are unambiguously demonstrated in transport experiments. In HgTe, the topological insulator properties arise from the inversion of the Gamma_6 and Gamma_8 bands. The band inversion in HgTe is due to a combination of a high spin orbit splitting in Te and large energy corrections (due to the mass-velocity term) to the energy levels in Hg. Bulk HgTe, however, is a semimetal, which means for the conversion into a topological insulator a band gap has to be opened. In two dimensions (HgTe quantum well structures) this is achieved via quantum confinement, which opens a band gap between the quantum well subbands. In three dimensions, strain is used to lift the degeneracy of the semimetallic Gamma_8 bands opening up a band gap.
The thesis is structured as follows:
- The first chapter of this thesis will give a brief overview on discoveries in the field of topological insulators. It focuses on works relevant to experimental results presented in the following chapters. This includes a short outline of the early predictions and a summary of important results concerning 2-dimensional topological insulators while the final section discusses observations concerning 3-dimensional topological insulators.
- The discovery of the quantum spin Hall effect in HgTe marked the first experimental observation of a topological insulator. Chapter 2 will focus on HgTe quantum wells and the quantum spin Hall effect.
Above a critical thickness, HgTe quantum wells are predicted to host the quantum spin Hall state, the signature of a 2-dimensional topological insulator. HgTe quantum wells exhibiting low carrier concentrations and at the same time high carrier mobilities are required to be able to measure the quantum spin Hall effect. The growth of such high quality HgTe quantum wells was one of the major goals for this work. Continuous optimization of the substrate preparation and growth conditions resulted in controlled carrier densities down to a few 10^10 cm^-2. At the same time, carrier mobilities exceeding 1 x 10^6 cm^2/Vs have been achieved, which provides mean free paths of several micrometers in the material. Thus the first experimental evidence for the existence of the quantum spin Hall edge states succeeded in transport experiments on microstructures: When the Fermi energy was located in the bulk band gap a residual quantized resistance of 2e^2/h was found. Further experiments focused on investigating the nature of transport in this regime. By non-local measurements the edge state character could be established. The measured non-local resistances corresponded well with predictions from the Landauer-Büttiker theory applied to transport in helical edge channels.
In a final set of experiments the spin polarization of the edge channels was investigated. Here, we could make use of the advantage that HgTe quantum well structures exhibit a large Rashba spin orbit splitting. In systems with a large Rashba spin orbit splitting a spin accumulation is expected to occur at the edge of the sample perpendicular to a current flow. This so-called spin Hall effect was then used as a spin injector and detector. Using split gate devices it was possible to bring spin Hall and quantum spin Hall state into direct contact, which enabled an all electrical detection of the spin polarization of the quantum spin Hall edge channels.
- HgTe as a 3-dimensional topological insulator will be presented in chapter 3. Straining the HgTe layer enables the observation of topological insulator behavior. It was found that strain can be easily implemented during growth by using CdTe substrates. CdTe has a slightly larger lattice constant than HgTe and therefore leads to tensile strain in the HgTe layer as long as the growth is pseudomorphic. Magnetotransport studies showed the emergence of quantum Hall transport with characteristic signatures of a Dirac type bandstructure. Thus, this result marks the first observation of the quantum Hall effect in the surface states of a 3-dimensional topological insulator.
Transport experiments on samples fitted with a top gate enabled the identification of contributions from individual surfaces. Furthermore, the surface state quantum Hall effect was found to be surprisingly stable, perturbations due to additional bulk transport could not be found, even at high carrier densities of the system.
- Chapters 4 - 6 serve as in depth overviews of selected works: Chapter 4 presents a detailed overview on the all electrical detection of the spin Hall effect in HgTe quantum wells. The detection of the spin polarization of the quantum spin Hall effect is shown in chapter 5 and chapter 6 gives a detailed overview on the quantum Hall effect originating from the topological surface state in strained bulk HgTe.
The investigations discussed in this thesis pioneered the experimental work on the transport properties of topological insulator systems. The understanding of the fundamental properties of topological insulators enables new experiments in which e.g. the inclusion of magnetic dopants or the interplay between topological insulator and superconductors can be investigated in detail.
This thesis presents the detailed development of the fabrication process and the first observations of artificial magnetic atoms from the II-VI diluted magnetic semiconductor alloy (Zn,Cd,Be,Mn)Se. In order to manufacture the vertical quantum dot device which exhibits artificial atom behavior a number of development steps are conducted. First, the II-VI heterostructure is adjusted for the linear transport regime. Second, state of the art vertical quantum dot fabrication techniques in the III-V material system are investigated regarding their portability to the II-VI heterostructure. And third, new approaches to the fabrication process are developed, taking into account the complexity of the heterostructure and its physical properties. Finally a multi-step fabrication process is presented, which is built up from electron beam and optical lithography, dry and wet etching and insulator deposition. This process allows for the processing of pillars with diameters down to 200 nm with an insulating dielectric and gate. Preliminary transport data on the fabricated vertical quantum dots are presendted confirming the magnetic nature of the resulting artificial atoms.
Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) ist ein innovatives tomographisches Bildgebungsverfahren, mit dem Tracerpartikel äußerst sensitiv und schnell mehrdimensional abgebildet werden können. Die Methode basiert auf der nichtlinearen Magnetisierungsantwort superparamagnetischer Eisenoxidnanopartikel (SPION) in einem Messpunkt, welcher ein Messvolumen rastert. In vorliegender Arbeit wurde das sog. Traveling Wave MPI (TWMPI) Verfahren eingesetzt, wodurch im Vergleich zu konventionellen MPI-Scannern ein größeres Field of View (FOV) und eine geringere Latenz bis zur Bildanzeige erreicht werden konnte. TWMPI weist einige für medizinische Zwecke vielversprechende Eigenschaften auf: Es liefert zwei- und dreidimensionale Bildrekonstruktionen in Echtzeit mit hoher zeitlicher und räumlicher Auflösung. Dabei ist die Bildgebung von Grund auf hintergrundfrei und erfordert keinerlei ionisierende Strahlung. Zudem ist die Technik äußerst sensitiv und kann SPION-Tracer noch in mikromolaren Konzentrationen detektieren.
Ziel dieser Arbeit war es daher zu untersuchen, inwiefern es mittels TWMPI möglich ist, künstliche Stenosen im Gefäßmodell visuell in Echtzeit darzustellen und quantitativ zu beurteilen sowie überdies eine perkutane transluminale Angioplastie (PTA) im Gefäßmodell unter TWMPI-Echtzeit-Bildgebung durchzuführen.
Alle Experimente wurden in einem speziell angefertigten TWMPI-Scanner durchgeführt (JMU Würzburg, Experimentelle Physik V (Biophysik), FOV: 65 x 29 x 29 mm³, Auflösung: ca. 1.5 - 2 mm). Die Lumen-Darstellungen erfolgten mittels des SPION-Tracers Ferucarbotran in einer Verdünnung von 1 : 50 (entspr. 10 mmol [Fe]/l). Das PTA-Instrumentarium wurde mit eigens hergestelltem ferucarbotranhaltigem Lack (100 mmol [Fe]/l) markiert. Für die verschiedenen Teilexperimente wurden den jeweiligen speziellen Anforderungen entsprechend mehrere Gefäßmodelle handgefertigt.
Für die visuelle Stenosequantifizierung wurden fünf starre Stenosephantome unterschiedlicher Stenosierung (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) aus Polyoxymethylen hergestellt (l: 40 mm, ID: 8 mm). Die Gefäßmodelle wurden mehrfach zentral im FOV platziert und das stenosierte Lumen mittels sog. Slice-Scanning Modus (SSM, Einzelaufnahme inkl. 10 Mittelungen: 200 ms, Bildfrequenz: 5 Bilder pro Sekunde, Latenz: ca. 100 ms) als zweidimensionale Quasi-Projektionen abgebildet. Diese Aufnahmen (n = 80, 16 je Phantom) wurden mit einer einheitlichen Grauskalierung versehen und anschließend entsprechend den NASCET-Kriterien visuell ausgewertet.
Alle achtzig Aufnahmen waren unabhängig vom Stenosegrad aufgrund einheitlicher Fensterung sowie konstanter Scannerparameter untereinander gut vergleichbar. Niedriggradige Stenosen konnten insgesamt genauer abgebildet werden als höhergradige, was sich neben der subjektiven Bildqualität auch in geringeren Standardabweichungen zeigte (0%: 3.70 % ± 2.71, 25%: 18.64 % ± 1.84, 50%: 52.82 % ± 3.66, 75%: 77.84 % ± 14.77, 100%: 100 % ± 0). Mit zunehmendem Stenosegrad kam es vermehrt zu geometrischen Verzerrungen im Zentrum, sodass bei den 75%-Stenosen eine breitere Streuung der Messwerte mit einer höheren Standardabweichung von 14.77% einherging. Leichte, randständige Artefakte konnten bei allen Datensätzen beobachtet werden.
Für die PTA wurden drei interaktive Gefäßmodelle aus Polyvinylchlorid (l: 100 mm, ID: 8 mm) mit zu- und abführendem Schlauchsystem entwickelt, welche mittels Kabelband von außen hochgradig eingeengt werden konnten. Analog zu einer konventionellen PTA mittels röntgenbasierter digitaler Subtraktionsangiographie (DSA), wurden alle erforderlichen Arbeitsschritte (Gefäßdarstellung, Drahtpassage, Ballonplatzierung, Angioplastie, Erfolgskontrolle) unter (TW)MPI-Echtzeit-Bildgebung (Framerate: 2 - 4 FPS, Latenz: ca. 100 ms) abgebildet bzw. durchgeführt.
Im Rahmen der PTA war eine Echtzeit-Visualisierung der Stenose im Gefäßmodell durch Tracer-Bolusgabe sowie die Führung des markierten Instrumentariums zum Zielort möglich. Die Markierung der Instrumente hielt der Beanspruchung während der Prozedur stand und ermöglichte eine genaue Platzierung des Ballonkatheters. Die Stenose konnte mittels Angioplastie-Ballons unter Echtzeit-Darstellung gesprengt werden und der Interventionserfolg im Anschluss durch erneute Visualisierung des Lumens validiert werden.
Insgesamt zeigt sich MPI somit als adäquate Bildgebungstechnik für die beiden in der Fragestellung bzw. Zielsetzung definierten experimentellen Anwendungen. Stenosen im Gefäßmodell konnten erfolgreich in Echtzeit visualisiert und bildmorphologisch nach NASCET-Kriterien quantifiziert werden. Ebenso war eine PTA im Gefäßmodell unter TWMPI-Echtzeit-Bildgebung machbar. Diese Ergebnisse unterstreichen das grundlegende Potenzial von MPI für medizinische Zwecke. Um zu den bereits etablierten Bildgebungsmethoden aufzuschließen, ist jedoch weitere Forschung im Bereich der Scanner-Hard- und -Software sowie bezüglich SPION-Tracern nötig.
In this work, we present a multimodal approach to three-dimensionally quantify and visualize fiber orientation and resin-rich areas in carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers manufactured by vacuum infusion. Three complementary image modalities were acquired by Talbot–Lau grating interferometer (TLGI) X-ray microcomputed tomography (XCT). Compared to absorption contrast (AC), TLGI-XCT provides enhanced contrast between polymer matrix and carbon fibers at lower spatial resolutions in the form of differential phase contrast (DPC) and dark-field contrast (DFC). Consequently, relatively thin layers of resin, effectively indiscernible from image noise in AC data, are distinguishable. In addition to the assessment of fiber orientation, the combination of DPC and DFC facilitates the quantification of resin-rich areas, e.g., in gaps between fiber layers or at binder yarn collimation sites. We found that resin-rich areas between fiber layers are predominantly developed in regions characterized by a pronounced curvature. In contrast, in-layer resin-rich areas are mainly caused by the collimation of fibers by binder yarn. Furthermore, void volume around two adjacent 90°-oriented fiber layers is increased by roughly 20% compared to a random distribution over the whole specimen.
The capabilities of a new approach towards the foundations of Statistical Mechanics are explored. The approach is genuine quantum in the sense that statistical behavior is a consequence of objective quantum uncertainties due to entanglement and uncertainty relations. No additional randomness is added by hand and no assumptions about a priori probabilities are made, instead measure concentration results are used to justify the methods of Statistical Physics. The approach explains the applicability of the microcanonical and canonical ensemble and the tendency to equilibrate in a natural way. This work contains a pedagogical review of the existing literature and some new results. The most important of which are: i) A measure theoretic justification for the microcanonical ensemble. ii) Bounds on the subsystem equilibration time. iii) A proof that a generic weak interaction causes decoherence in the energy eigenbasis. iv) A proof of a quantum H-Theorem. v) New estimates of the average effective dimension for initial product states and states from the mean energy ensemble. vi) A proof that time and ensemble averages of observables are typically close to each other. vii) A bound on the fluctuations of the purity of a system coupled to a bath.
One rarely finds practical guidelines for the implementation of complex optical setups. Here, we aim to provide technical details on the decision making of building and revising a custom sensor-based adaptive optics (AO) direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscope (dSTORM) to provide practical assistance in setting up or troubleshooting similar devices.
The foundation of this report is an instrument constructed as part of a master's thesis in 2021, which was built for deep tissue imaging. The setup is presented in the following way: (1) An optical and mechanical overview of the system at the beginning of this internship is given. (2) The optical components are described in detail in the order at which the light passes through, highlighting their working principle and implementation in the system. The optical component include (2A) a focus on even sample illumination, (2B) restoring telecentricity when working with commercial microscope bodies, (2C) the AO elements, namely the deformable mirror (DM) and the wavefront sensor, and their integration, and (2D) the separation of wavefront and image capture using fluorescent beads and a dichroic mirror. After addressing the limitations of the existing setup, modification options are derived. The modifications include the implementation of adjustment only light paths to improve system stability and revise the degrees of freedom of the components and changes in lens choices to meet the specifications of the AO components. Last, the capabilities of the modified setup are presented and discussed: (1) First, we enable epifluorescence imaging of bead samples through 180 µm unstained murine hippocampal tissue with wavefront error correction of ~ 90 %. Point spread function, wavefront shape and Zernike decomposition of bead samples are presented. (2) Second, we move from epifluorescent to dSTORM imaging of tubulin stained primary mouse hippocampal cells, which are imaged through up to 180 µm of unstained murine hippocampal tissue. We show that full width at half maximum (FWHM) of prominent features can be reduced in size by nearly a magnitude from uncorrected epiflourescence images to dSTORM images corrected by the adaptive optics. We present dSTORM localization count and FWHM of prominent features as as a function of imaging depth.