Analog black holes and energy extraction by super-radiance from Bose Einstein condensates (BEC) with constant density.

This paper investigates the acoustic superradiance of the density and phase fluctuations from the single vortex state of a Bose-Einstein condensate, by employing full time-domain and asymptotic frequency domain numerical calculations. The draining bathtub model of an incompressible barotropic fluid is adopted to describe the vortex. The propagation of the axisymmetric density and phase fluctuations in the condensate are governed by the massless scalar Klein-Gordon wave equation, which establishes the rotating black-hole analogy. Hence, the amplified scattering of these fluctuations from the vortex comprise the superradiance effect. A particular coordinate transformation is applied to reveal the event horizon and the ergosphere termwise in the metric and the respective asymptotic spectral solutions. A comparative analysis of the time domain and asymptotic frequency domain results are given for a range of rotational speed of the vortex and the frequency of the impinging fluctuations. The agreement at low rotational speeds of the vortex is shown to be very good, which starts to deteriorate at higher rotational speeds due to increasing constraint violations of the time-domain calculations. We further demonstrate an asymptotic upper bound for the superradiance as a function of vortex rotational speed, provided that the vortex remains stable.

Silk-Based Aqueous Microcontact Printing.

Lithography, the transfer of patterns to a film or substrate, is the basis by which many modern technological devices and components are produced. However, established lithographic approaches generally use complex techniques, expensive equipment, and advanced materials. Here, we introduce a water-based microcontact printing method using silk that is simple, inexpensive, ecofriendly, and recyclable. Whereas the traditional microcontact printing technique facilitates only negative lithography, the synergetic interaction of the silk, water, and common chemicals in our technique enables both positive and negative patterning using a single stamp. Among diverse application possibilities, we exemplify a proof of concept of the method through optimizing its metal lift-off process and demonstrate the fabrication of electromagnetic metamaterial elements on both solid and flexible substrates. The results indicate that the method demonstrated herein is universally applicable to device production and technology development.

Directivity enhancement and deflection of the beam emitted from a photonic crystal waveguide via defect coupling.

We experimentally and numerically investigate the spatial distribution of the emission from a photonic crystal waveguide, coupled with defects, that are located at the output edge. Two defects that are located symmetrically enhance the directivity of the beam compared to that of a plain waveguide, as was reported in recently conducted theoretical work. We further demonstrate that a single defect deflects of the beam. By choosing the defect resonance that is close to the edge of the pass band of the waveguide, where the group velocity of the beam within the waveguide is slow, a significant amount of deflection can be achieved.

Experimental observation of left-handed transmission in a bilayer metamaterial under normal-to-plane propagation.

We demonstrate experimentally the double-negative (epsilon < 0, micro < 0) transmission band of a one-dimensional metamaterial structure under normal-to-plane propagation in the microwave regime. The structure consists of stacked bilayers of metal cutwire and wire pairs, which are separated by a thin dielectric layer. The existence of the negative index of refraction is inferred from the transmission and phase spectra obtained by using multilayer metamaterial samples. Another metamaterial structure incorporating non-magnetic (electrically shorted) cutwire pairs does not exhibit the corresponding transmission band, which supports the true left-handed behavior of the metamaterial.

Experimental observation of true left-handed transmission peaks in metamaterials.

We report true left-handed (LH) behavior in a composite metamaterial consisting of a periodically arranged split ring resonator (SRR) and wire structures. We demonstrate the magnetic resonance of the SRR structure by comparing the transmission spectra of SRRs with those of closed SRRs. We have confirmed experimentally that the effective plasma frequency of the LH material composed of SRRs and wires is lower than the plasma frequency of the wires. A well-defined LH transmission band with a peak value of -1.2 dB (-0.3 dB/cm) was obtained. The experimental results agree extremely well with the theoretical calculations.

Effect of disorder on magnetic resonance band gap of split-ring resonator structures.

We investigated the influence of periodicity, misalignment, and disorder on the magnetic resonance gap of split-ring resonators (SRRs) which are essential components of left handed-metamaterials (LHMs). The resonance of a single SRR which is induced by the split is experimentally demonstrated by comparing transmission spectra of SRR and closed ring resonator. Misaligning the SRR boards do not affect the magnetic resonance gap, while destroying the periodicity results in a narrower band gap. The disorder in SRR layers cause narrower left-handed pass band and decrease the transmission level of composite metamaterials (CMMs), which may significantly affect the performance of these LHMs.