Universität Stuttgart
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Item Open Access Investigating superconductivity by tunneling spectroscopy using oxide heterostructures(2017) Fillis-Tsirakis, Evangelos; Mannhart, Jochen (Prof. Dr.)Item Open Access Nonlinear optical microspectroscopy with few-cycle laser pulses(2017) Wan, Hui; Wrachtrup, Jörg (Prof. Dr.)Nonlinear optical (NLO) microscopy is a powerful tool in physics, chemistry, and material science it probes intrinsic optical properties of the sample without the need of labeling. In order to investigate the ultrafast processes in nonlinear materials with high spatial resolution, we need to combine both ultrashort pulses and techniques focusing them to the diffraction limit. Previously, few-cycle laser pulses have often been tightly focused using conventional microscope objectives. However, the propagation of an ultrashort pulse in optical materials, particularly in the glass of a high numerical aperture (N.A.) microscope objective, results in spatial and temporal distortions of the pulse electric field, which can severely affect its quality in the focus. By purely passive group delay dispersion (GDD) and third-order dispersion (TOD) management, in this thesis, we experimentally demonstrate in-focus diffraction-limited and bandwidth-limited few-cycle pulses by using high N.A. objectives. Based on these achievements, the performance of a novel few-cycle NLO microscope for both second-harmonic generation (SHG) imaging and microspectroscopy in the frequency- and time-domains was characterized. The inverse linear dependence of SHG intensity on the in-focus pulse duration was demonstrated down to 7.1 fs for the first time. The application of shorter in-focus pulses for the enhancement of SHG image contrast was successfully demonstrated on a single collagen (type-I) fibril as a biological model system for studying protein assemblies under physiological conditions. Beyond imaging, a collagen fibril has been found to act as a purely non-resonant χ(2) soft matter under the present excitation conditions, and its ratio of forward- to epi-detected SHG intensities allowed for the estimation of the fibril thickness, which corresponds well with atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. The ultrafast dephasing of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in the metallic nanoparticles, that only occurs on a time scale of a few femtoseconds, has gained a lot of attraction in the field of nanoplasmonics. This thesis is the first systematic experimental demonstration of time-resolving ultrashort plasmon dephasing in single gold nanoparticles by using interferometric SHG spectroscopy with in-focus 7.3 fs excitation pulses in combination with linear scattering spectroscopy performed on the same nanoparticle. For nanorods, nanodisks, and nanorectangles, strong plasmon resonance enhanced SHG is observed, where the SHG intensity strongly depends on the spectral overlap between the LSPR band and the excitation laser spectrum. For single nanorods and nanorectangles, the polarization dependence of the SHG intensity was found to follow second-order dipole scattering, and the effect of size and shape on the LSPR properties was directly observed in the time-domain. Good agreement between experimental and simulated values of dephasing times and resonance wavelengths is obtained, which confirms that a common driven damped harmonic oscillator model for the LSPR in the nanoparticle can qualitatively explain both the linear scattering spectra in the frequency-domain and the SHG response in the time-domain. Resonance bands in linear transmission and scattering spectra have also been observed for nanoholes with sizes smaller than the wavelength of the incident light in a metal film, which are assigned to LSPR modes of the electric field distribution around the nanohole with qualitatively similar resonance properties as a nanoparticle. The polarization-resolved nonlinear optical properties of the single nanoholes with different shapes and symmetries were also reported. The objective of this thesis has been systematic SHG studies of the size effect in the LSPR of single nanoholes in metal films and of their ultrafast dephasing dynamics. Although, enhancement of both the forward- and epi-detected SHG emissions from single rectangular nanoholes are observed,however,no ultrafast dephasing dynamics of LSPRs in rectangular nanoholes could be time-resolved with our in-focus 7.3 fs excitation laser pulses, which indicates that contributions from LSPR enhanced SHG to the detected SHG signal are negligible. More work needs to be done in order to overcome the current experimental limitations. However, in this thesis, the polarization dependence of the forward- and epi-detected SHG intensity from the single rectangular nanohole was found to follow that of a second-order dipole pattern. While the SHG dipole pattern observed for rectangular nanoparticles is oriented parallel to its long-axis, the SHG dipole pattern of its complementary rectangular nanohole is oriented perpendicular to its long-axis. This observation represents the first experimental demonstration of Babinet’s principle in second-order nonlinear scattering of a single rectangular nanohole in a gold film.Item Open Access Exploring the growth of refractory metal and sapphire films by thermal laser epitaxy(2024) Majer, Lena N.; Mannhart, Jochen (Prof. Dr.)Item Open Access Self-organized structures and excitations in dipolar quantum fluids(2024) Hertkorn, Jens; Pfau, Tilman (Prof. Dr.)Quantum many-body phenomena at a macroscopic scale, such as superfluidity and superconductivity, are rooted in the interplay between microscopic particles, governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. Exploring how this interplay leads to quantum behavior at a large scale allows us to gain a deeper understanding of nature and to discover new quantum phases. An elusive quantum phase in which the frictionless flow of superfluids and the crystal structure of solids coexists - the supersolid - was recently realized with quantum droplets in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates. In this thesis we investigate self-organized structures, their formation mechanism, and excitations in dipolar quantum fluids created from such Bose-Einstein condensates. We show that the supersolid formation mechanism is driven by density fluctuations due to low-energy roton excitations, leading to a crystal structure of quantum droplets that are immersed in a superfluid background. These roton excitations split into a Goldstone mode and a Higgs amplitude mode, associated to the broken translational symmetry in the supersolid. We investigate the symmetry breaking of dipolar quantum fluids in a range of confinement geometries and establish a comprehensive description of elementary excitations across the superfluid to supersolid droplet phase transition. The droplets are stabilized by an interplay between interactions and the presence of quantum fluctuations. We show how this interplay can be used to find regimes where droplets are immersed in a high superfluid background, allowing for frictionless flow throughout the crystal. Moreover we show that towards higher densities beyond the quantum droplet phase, this interplay leads to several new self-organized structures in the phase diagram of dipolar quantum fluids. We theoretically predict new supersolid honeycomb, amorphous labyrinth, and other phases in oblate dipolar quantum fluids. Finally, we present a new experimental setup for the exploration of self-organized phases in dipolar quantum fluids and which also lays the foundation for the implementation of a quantum gas microscope. The results of this thesis present a complete framework for understanding and creating exotic phases in dipolar quantum fluids. The versatile structure formation, governed by a competition of controllable interactions and the presence of quantum fluctuations, positions dipolar quantum fluids as a model system for exploring self-organized equilibrium in weakly-interacting quantum many-body systems.Item Open Access Nanoscale magnetic resonance spectroscopy with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond(2021) Paone, Domenico; Wrachtrup, Jörg (Prof. Dr.)Stickstoff-Fehlstellen (NV-Zentren) in Diamant bilden interessante Quantensysteme, welche für Quanten-Sensing Protokolle genutzt werden können. In der vorliegenden Arbeit, werden NV-Zentren genutzt, um einzelne Molekülsysteme auszulesen und supraleitende Proben lokal zu charakterisieren. Zusätzlich werden Methoden entwickelt, um die Spineigenschaften der NV-Zentren zu optimieren, welche dann Einfluss auf das Sensorikverhalten des Systems haben.Item Open Access Long-term stability of capped and buffered palladium-nickel thin films and nanostructures for plasmonic hydrogen sensing applications(2013) Strohfeldt, Nikolai; Tittl, Andreas; Giessen, HaraldOne of the main challenges in optical hydrogen sensing is the stability of the sensor material. We found and studied an optimized material combination for fast and reliable optical palladium-based hydrogen sensing devices. It consists of a palladium-nickel alloy that is buffered by calcium fluoride and capped with a very thin layer of platinum. Our system shows response times below 10 s and almost no short-term aging effects. Furthermore, we successfully incorporated this optimized material system into plasmonic nanostructures, laying the foundation for a stable and sensitive hydrogen detector.Item Open Access Finite-temperature interplay of structural stability, chemical complexity, and elastic properties of bcc multicomponent alloys from ab initio trained machine-learning potentials(2021) Gubaev, Konstantin; Ikeda, Yuji; Tasnádi, Ferenc; Neugebauer, Jörg; Shapeev, Alexander V.; Grabowski, Blazej; Körmann, FritzAn active learning approach to train machine-learning interatomic potentials (moment tensor potentials) for multicomponent alloys to ab initio data is presented. Employing this approach, the disordered body-centered cubic (bcc) TiZrHfTax system with varying Ta concentration is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. Our results show a strong interplay between elastic properties and the structural ω phase stability, strongly affecting the mechanical properties. Based on these insights we systematically screen composition space for regimes where elastic constants show little or no temperature dependence (elinvar effect).Item Open Access Spin-orbit coupled states arising in the half-filled t2g shell(2023) Schönleber, MarcoStrongly correlated and spin-orbit coupled t2g systems have been extensively investigated. By coupling orbital and spin angular momentum into one quantity, spin-orbit coupling (SOC) tends to reduce orbital degeneracy, e.g. for the widely studied case of one hole in the t2g shell. However, the opposite has to be expected at half filling. Without spin-orbit coupling, all orbitals are half filled, no orbital degree of freedom is left and coupling to the lattice can be expected to be small. At dominant spin-orbit coupling, in contrast, one of the j=3/2 states is empty and the system couples to the lattice. We investigate this issue. One finding is that the low-energy manifold evolves smoothly from the four S=3/2 states in the absence of SOC to the four j=3/2 states with dominant SOC. These four states are always separated from other states by a robust gap. We then discuss a relevant superexchange mechanism to assess the interplay between spin-orbit coupling and coupling to the lattice.Item Open Access Quantum fluctuations in one-dimensional supersolids(2023) Bühler, Chris; Ilg, Tobias; Büchler, Hans PeterItem Open Access From Hermitian to non-Hermitian topological phases of matter(2019) Rui, Wenbin; Metzner, Walter (Prof. Dr.)The focus of this thesis lies on extending the theory of topological phases of matter from the Hermitian to the non-Hermitian regime. This includes not only the extension of conventional concepts such as topological invariants and topological boundary states in the theory of Hermitian topological phases, but also the exploration and characterization of entirely new topological phases unique to non-Hermitian systems.