Hannover 2016 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 42: Poster: Quantum Optics and Photonics III

Q 42.19: Poster

Wednesday, March 2, 2016, 16:30–19:00, Empore Lichthof

Logic operations with polarization-encoded x-rays processed by nuclear transitions — •Jonas Gunst, Christoph H. Keitel, and Adriana Pálffy — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg

Since the computational demands are expected to become increasingly complex over time, a basic goal of information science is to build storage and processing devices in their most compact form. In the case of photonic circuits, the size is fundamentally limited by the diffraction limit of the used photons (∼ 1µm for optical photons) which could be drastically reduced by going to shorter wavelengths like for instance x-rays. However, using polarization-encoded x-rays as information carriers requires control schemes performed on the single-photon level.

Here, we investigate theoretically how to manipulate the x-ray polarization by employing the resonant interaction with low-lying nuclear transitions (∼ keV). In the course of nuclear forward scattering on ensembles of Mössbauer ⁵⁷Fe nuclei, the collective response becomes sensitive to the incoming polarization state under the impact of an external magnetic field [1]. We show that it is possible to perform logical operations on polarization-encoded x-rays by applying a rotation of the magnetic field temporally synchronized with the nuclear excitation [2]. This x-ray processing scheme can be tested and quantified experimentally at present synchrotron radiation facilities.

[1] Yu. V. Shvyd’ko et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3232 (1999).

[2] J. Gunst et al., arXiv:1506.00517 (2015).