Topics in Optical Spintronics
When and where:Wednesdays 4-6 pm, 2 EVANS
Format: One 2-hr lecture/seminar session per week (student participation strongly encouraged), bi-weekly homework assignments
Instructor: Professor Dmitry Budker
- Office: 273 Birge, Labs: 203/207, 217, 219, 221, 230, 241, 245, 249 Birge
- e-mail: budker AT Berkeley.edu
- research group web page
Professor's Office hour: by appointment (send e-mail to setup), 273 Birge
Synopsis and goals of the course:
The course will explore modern ways of manipulating and probing spins with light. The main spin system that we will explore is the Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) color center in diamond, which has been a focus of much recent attention because of a combination of its unique properties, opening possibilities of exciting applications. One such application is measuring magnetic fields with an unprecedented combination of sensitivity and spatial resolution. At the extreme, measuring the state of a single nuclear spin by sensing its magnetic field has already been achieved! In this course, the students will learn the basics of laser spectroscopy of solids, the principles of optical magnetometry (not only with diamond, but also with "warm" atoms and ultracold gases), and many general aspects of the physics of spins (spintronics). As a culmination of the course, we will discuss how optical magnetometers are used in a new kind of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy that does not require any magnets.
Required text: none
Recommended texts:
- Optical Properties of Solids by M. Fox
- Atomic Physics by D. Budker, D. F. Kimball and D. Demille
- Optically Polarized Atoms by M. Auzinsh, D. Budker, and S. M. Rochester
- Single-photon Devices and Applications by C. Santori, D. Fattal, and Y. Yamamoto
- Molecular Quantum Mechanics by P. Atkins and R. Friedman (Chapter 5: Group Theory)
Grading policy: the grade will be based on the homework, participation, and oral presentation in class
Invaluable resource: questions on organizational aspects of the course may be directed to Ms. Claudia Trujillo of Physics Student Services
Newsflash!
Find out about the most recent Nobel Prizes in Physics!
Lecture Notes, Electronic Tutorials
- Physics H190 Spring 2011 Selected Lecture Notes are now on bspace
Assorted Physics-Related Links, Web Resources
- Budker group web tutorials
- Physics137A: Quantum Mechanics
- Physics124: Introductory Nuclear Physics
- Physics 250: Selected hot, cool, and ultracold topics in modern atomic physics
- Web Elements Periodic Table
- Nuclear Science Division, LBNL
- Particle Data Group (PDG)
- Radioactivity and radiation protection (from PDG) (pdf)
- Some links that may help you with mathematics
Homework
- Homework set #1, due Feb. 02
- Homework set #2, due Feb. 16
- Homework set #3, due March 02
Oral-presentation topics
- Single-photon sources based on NV-diamond by Pauli Kehayias
- Raman-excited spin coherences in NV centers in diamond by Maria Simanovskaia
- Application of Fluorescent Nanodiamonds to Biological Imaging by Joseph Magliocco
- Diamonds in particle detectors by Thibaut Mueller
- Color centers in SiC by Daniel Maser
- Strain studies in diamond NV centers by Lucas Zipp
- Quantum information and the NV centers in diamond by Zlatko Minev and Nate Earnest
- Spin readout with superconducting circuits by Natania Antler
- Quantum Hall Effect by Hsinzon Tsai and Raymond Co
- NMR with singlet states
- Spintronics and graphene
- Quasicrystals with five-fold symmetry
- Raman spectra of pure diamond (first- and second-order)
- Suggest your own
Acknowledgment and Disclaimer: This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).