Fluctuations of the atomic positions are at the core of a large class of unusual material properties ranging from quantum para-electricity to high temperature superconductivity. Their measurement in solids is the subject of an intense scientific debate focused on seeking a methodology capable of establishing a direct link between the variance of the atomic displacements and experimentally measurable observables. Here we address this issue by means of non-equilibrium optical experiments performed in shot-noise limited regime. The variance of the time dependent atomic positions and momenta is directly mapped into the quantum fluctuations of the photon number of the scattered probing light. A fully quantum description of the non-linear interaction between photonic and phononic fields is benchmarked by unveiling the squeezing of thermal phonons in $\alpha$-quartz.
Titolo: | Photon number statistics uncover the fluctuations in non-equilibrium lattice dynamics |
Autori: | |
Data di pubblicazione: | 2015 |
Rivista: | |
Abstract: | Fluctuations of the atomic positions are at the core of a large class of unusual material properties ranging from quantum para-electricity to high temperature superconductivity. Their measurement in solids is the subject of an intense scientific debate focused on seeking a methodology capable of establishing a direct link between the variance of the atomic displacements and experimentally measurable observables. Here we address this issue by means of non-equilibrium optical experiments performed in shot-noise limited regime. The variance of the time dependent atomic positions and momenta is directly mapped into the quantum fluctuations of the photon number of the scattered probing light. A fully quantum description of the non-linear interaction between photonic and phononic fields is benchmarked by unveiling the squeezing of thermal phonons in $\alpha$-quartz. |
Handle: | http://hdl.handle.net/11368/2861180 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10249 |
URL: | http://www.nature.com/ncomms/index.html |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 1.1 Articolo in Rivista |
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