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# Dense loops, supersymmetry, and Goldstone phases in two dimensions

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## Abstract

Loop models in two dimensions can be related to O($`N`$) models. The low-temperature dense-loops phase of such a model, or of its reformulation using a supergroup as symmetry, can have a Goldstone broken-symmetry phase for $`N<2`$. We argue that this phase is generic for $`2<N<2`$ when crossings of loops are allowed, and distinct from the model of non-crossing dense loops first studied by Nienhuis \[Phys. Rev. Lett.49, 1062 (1982)\]. Our arguments are supported by our numerical results, and by a lattice model solved exactly by Martins et al. \[Phys. Rev. Lett.81, 504 (1998)\].

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It has long been understood that theories of an $`N`$-component scalar field $`\varphi `$ with O($`N`$) symmetry in Euclidean space of dimension $`d`$ can be related to statistical-mechanics models in which configurations of loops are given Boltzmann weights depending on their lengths and intersection properties . In the $`N0`$ limit, unwanted closed loops vanish , and the usual self-avoiding walks (polymers) are related to the generic critical point in the O($`N0`$) theory. The $`N0`$ limit can be avoided by using a model with a Lie superalgebra as symmetry (“supersymmetry”) . Other values of $`N`$ are also of interest. In $`d=2`$, exact results based on lattice models  show that there also exists a massless low-temperature (low-$`T`$) regime of the model, for $`2<N2`$. The properties of this phase—in which, geometrically, the loops become dense—are well-understood using Coulomb gas techniques .

In this Letter, we revisit the low-$`T`$ phase of the O($`N2`$) models in $`d=2`$. The supersymmetry approach, which can be generalized to all integer $`N`$, makes it clear that for $`N<2`$ there should be a massless phase described by the Goldstone modes of the broken O($`N`$) or supersymmetry, with very simple scaling dimensions. We argue that the usual dense-loops phase , in which loops never intersect, is not this Goldstone phase (in contrast to earlier expectations ): in fact, it is not generic, and an arbitrarily-weak perturbation that allows loop intersections causes a cross-over to the generic Goldstone phase for $`2<N<2`$. We present numerical results that support our interpretation. There is also a soluble model that appears to be in the Goldstone phase .

The generic continuum O($`N`$)-invariant action $`S`$ for the scalar field $`\varphi `$ includes the interaction term $`\lambda (\varphi \varphi )^2`$ (by convention the Boltzmann weight is $`e^S`$). In terms of loops, this is the model introduced by de Gennes , in which the loops can cross, but for $`\lambda >0`$ these crossings are disfavored. It has a second-order transition for $`d>2`$, but for $`d=2`$, a transition occurs only for $`N2`$; for $`N>2`$, there is only the high-$`T`$ or massive unbroken-symmetry phase. (For $`N`$ not a positive integer, the theory is supposed to be defined by analytic continuation of its perturbation expansion. For $`N`$ integer, this can be made rigorous by the use of supersymmetry, as we describe below.) When $`2N2`$, the phase transition is second order, and the associated critical exponents have been conjectured by Nienhuis  and others . For $`N<2`$, the transition is expected to be first order.

The existence of the transition for $`N2`$ implies the existence of a low-$`T`$ phase. From the point of view of the generic O($`N`$) $`\varphi ^4`$ theory, at low $`T`$ the symmetry is broken to O($`N1`$) according to Landau theory, and the low-$`T`$ phase would be expected to be a Goldstone phase with massless excitations, described by a nonlinear sigma model with target manifold O($`N`$)/O($`N1`$) $`S^{N1}`$, a sphere. For $`N=2`$, the O(2) symmetry is not really broken, but there is a power-law phase with continuously-varying exponents, the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase . For $`N<2`$, use of the perturbative beta function in the $`S^{N1}`$ sigma model, defined by analytic continuation in $`N`$, implies that the coupling between the Goldstone modes in the sigma model becomes weak at large length scales , like Goldstone phases in higher $`d`$. This yields a low-$`T`$ phase with simple forms for the scaling dimensions. This is possible in $`d=2`$ for $`N<2`$ because the Mermin-Wagner theorem no longer applies when the continuous SO($`N`$) symmetry cannot be realized as unitary operations on a vector field. We discuss this theory more fully below, using supersymmetry.

In contrast, Refs.  defined a particular lattice model of strictly non-crossing loops. This was done by truncating the high-$`T`$ expansion of a lattice version of the $`\varphi ^4`$ theory as above , in order to simplify calculations of critical properties while hopefully remaining in the same universality class. The model has Boltzmann weight

$$e^S\underset{ij}{}\left(1+K\stackrel{}{S}_i\stackrel{}{S}_j\right),$$
(1)
where $`i`$, $`j`$ are vertices on the honeycomb graph, $`ij`$ denotes an edge of the graph, and the variables $`\stackrel{}{S}_i`$ are $`N`$-component fixed-length spins, $`\stackrel{}{S}_i^2=N`$. The partition function can be evaluated as $`Z=N^LK^E`$ where the sum is over graphs consisting of self-avoiding mutually-avoiding loops, $`L`$ is the number of loops, $`E`$ the number of edges they occupy, and $`K1/T`$. The critical $`K`$ for this model is known exactly, $`K_\mathrm{c}=\left(2+\sqrt{2N}\right)^{1/2}`$ for $`N2`$ . The transition is second-order for $`2N2`$ only, and the critical exponents at this critical point, which is known as dilute loops (or as self-avoiding walks for $`N0`$), are known by a variety of techniques . The low-$`T`$ region for each $`2<N<2`$ is attracted to a unique massless phase (that varies with $`N`$) for all $`K_\mathrm{c}<K<\mathrm{}`$. This phase has nontrivial scaling dimensions, which are again known . It has become known as dense loops (or as dense polymers for $`N0`$). In the limit $`N2`$, this phase coincides with the critical endpoint of the BKT phase (which appears in the $`N=2`$ model for $`KK_\mathrm{c}`$). For $`N<2`$, we expect that the dense-loops phase is massive.

Both the critical and dense-loops phases are believed to be universal as continuum phases, in the sense that they are independent of the choice of lattice used in defining them. Recent work  on the $`T=0`$ limits of certain lattice models identifies other massless phases of non-intersecting fully-packed loops, that depend on the lattice used. We are not concerned with these here, nor with the transition for $`N>2`$ in the region $`|K|>1/N`$, where the Boltzmann weight (1) can be negative .

From the critical exponents for dilute loops, it is natural to hope , that they are in the same universality class as the transition in the generic O($`N`$) $`\varphi ^4`$ theory. The idea is that any weak repulsion of the lines leads to a crossover to the infinitely-repulsive limit in which the loops never cross, so that the latter fixed point governs the transition for all $`\lambda >0`$. We know of no reason to doubt this. As a check, we can reintroduce intersections of the lines in the dilute critical theory. The graphs of the expansion of the generic O($`N`$) model that are not present in the truncated model would involve in particular crossings of the loops, or multiple occupancies of edges. In the continuum description, the most relevant (and most generic) of these is where two lines cross. This may be included as a perturbation of the dilute critical theory by adding to the action the integral of a multiple of the corresponding scalar operator, the so-called 4-leg operator, which has conformal weight  $`h_4=g(g1)^2/(4g)`$, where we parameterized $`N=2\mathrm{cos}\pi g`$, $`g[1,2]`$. We see that this operator is marginal at $`N=2`$ and irrelevant (i.e. $`h_4>1`$) for $`2N<2`$. This strongly suggests that allowing more general interactions or configurations of loops in the lattice model would not change the universality class, at least when the perturbations are small, and hence that the dilute critical point  is indeed generic.

The model of non-intersecting loops was obtained by truncating the high-$`T`$ expansion, and this would be expected not to change the behavior for sufficiently high $`T`$ (small $`K`$); apparently this remains true down to $`T=T_\mathrm{c}`$. However, this leaves open the possibility that the low-$`T`$ behavior of the models is different, which we will now examine. The dense-loops phase is described by a theory similar to that of the dilute case, with the same parameterization of $`N`$ and $`h_4`$ as above, but with $`g[0,1]`$. One sees that the 4-leg operator is now relevant in the whole region $`2<N<2`$. As $`N2`$, $`h_4\mathrm{}`$. Since the 4-leg perturbation is relevant in the low-$`T`$ phase, it is dangerously irrelevant in the critical theory.

It is thus clear that the dense-loops phase is non-generic from an O($`N`$)-model point of view. In $`d>2`$, de Gennes’ model appears generic, as the topological effect of strict non-intersection, present in $`d=2`$, is absent (though in $`d=3`$, there remains the topology of knots and linking instead). Even a model in $`d>2`$ of strict non-intersection, when reduced to $`d=2`$ by confining $`d2`$ dimensions to finite intervals, gives an effective model in which intersections still occur. There is also a symmetry interpretation for the non-genericity: the dense phase of strictly non-intersecting loops has a larger symmetry, U($`N`$) instead of O($`N`$), which is based on the possibility of consistently orienting all the loops in the partition sum . Though this symmetry may be broken by the boundary conditions, the massless dense-loops phase appears to be most easily understood in terms of a nonlinear sigma model with this larger symmetry . The 4-leg operator is a symmetry-breaking perturbation, that reduces the symmetry to the generic O($`N`$). It would be surprising if the large-length-scale effect of this relevant symmetry-breaking perturbation led back to the same higher-symmetry phase. We note that the importance of the self-crossings has been observed in the related context of Lorentz lattice gases .

We now argue that the flow induced by the 4-leg perturbation leads to the generic Goldstone phase of the $`\varphi ^4`$ theory, and begin by examining the structure of this phase, before giving numerical evidence that such a flow does in fact occur.

The loop (high-$`T`$) expansion of the O($`N`$) model can be reproduced by considering instead a model with OSp$`(m|2n)`$ symmetry, with $`N=m2n`$; in particular, each closed loop incurs a factor of $`N`$ . The model then makes complete sense even for $`N`$ non-positive, (but $`N`$ must be an integer). The phase diagram, beta functions, and scaling dimensions are the same for all $`m`$ at fixed $`N`$ (though multiplicities of operators may vanish for $`m`$ small ). The Goldstone phase should thus be described by a sigma model with target space OSp$`(m|2n)`$/OSp$`(m1|2n)S^{m1|2n}`$, a supersphere, and a single coupling constant $`g_\sigma `$ . The perturbative beta function is, to leading order, $`\beta dg_\sigma /d\mathrm{ln}L(N2)g_\sigma ^2`$, so for $`N<2`$, the model flows to weak coupling for $`g_\sigma 0`$ (which is the expected physical sign). Again, the Mermin-Wagner theorem does not apply here, and symmetry-breaking is allowed for $`N<2`$. The weak-coupling fixed point is a theory of free massless scalars, with $`m1`$ bosonic and $`2n`$ fermionic components, so is conformal with central charge $`c=m12n=N1`$, as it would be for $`S^{N1}`$. There will be logarithmic corrections due to the marginally-irrelevant coupling $`g_\sigma `$. We emphasize that in the sigma model, OSp$`(m|2n)`$ symmetry does not allow any other marginal or relevant couplings to be added to the action, so that this fixed point is robust, unlike the dense-loops theory above.

Explicitly, the target manifold can be parameterized by commuting coordinates $`x_i`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},m`$, and anticommuting coordinates $`\eta _j`$, $`j=1,\mathrm{},2n`$, subject to the constraint $`_{i=1}^mx_i^2+_{j=1}^n\eta _{2j1}\eta _{2j}=1`$. The action of the sigma model is

$$S=\frac{1}{g_\sigma }d^2r\left[\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}(_\mu x_i)^2+\underset{j=1}{\overset{n}{}}_\mu \eta _{2j1}_\mu \eta _{2j}\right].$$
(2)
The simplest example is $`m=n=1`$ ($`N=1`$), which corresponds to the $`S^{0|2}`$ supersphere. The constraint can be solved as $`x_1=1\frac{1}{2}\eta _1\eta _2`$. After elimination of $`x_1`$ and some rescaling, one finds

$$S=d^2r\left[_\mu \eta _1_\mu \eta _2\frac{g_\sigma }{2}\eta _1\eta _2_\mu \eta _1_\mu \eta _2\right].$$
(3)
At long wavelengths the coupling $`g_\sigma `$ renormalizes towards zero, and the theory becomes free symplectic fermions, with central charge $`c=2`$, as claimed. In general, for $`N<1`$, the partition function of the fixed-point theory vanishes, $`Z=0`$. Similar behavior is well-known in the dense-polymer ($`N=0`$) phase.

The supersymmetry analysis is valid for $`N`$ integer. For general $`N`$, we are forced again to interpolate formally. The availability of the supersymmetry results greatly strengthens our confidence in this procedure and in the existence of the Goldstone phase for all $`N<2`$.

Both at the dilute critical point and in the dense-loops phase, the central charge is $`c=16(g1)^2/g`$, in the parameterization above. For dense loops, $`g[0,1]`$, this coincides with $`c=N1`$ for $`N=1`$, $`2`$. The $`N=2`$ case is the BKT phase with $`c=1`$ throughout, and not of interest here. We claim that, for all $`2<N<2`$, the perturbed dense-loops phase flows to the Goldstone phase, which is a distinct massless phase even when it has the same $`c`$. For $`1<N<2`$, $`c`$ decreases during the flow, but for $`2<N<1`$ it increases. This latter behavior would not violate Zamolodchikov’s $`c`$-theorem, as the theories involved are non-unitary. In particular, the $`N=0`$ ($`c=2`$) dense-polymer theory should flow to a $`c=1`$ free theory. Note that for $`N=1`$ the partition function is $`Z=1`$ (after removing nonuniversal constants) in both the dense-loops and Goldstone phases, a consequence of $`c=0`$.

Some particularly interesting operators in loop models in general are the $`k`$-leg operators (also known as fuseaux or watermelon operators), insertions of which give the probability that $`k`$ lines terminate at the same point. In the general O($`N`$) point of view, the leading such operator would be represented by $`k`$ insertions of the field $`\varphi `$ at the same point (with no derivatives), and must necessarily be in a totally-symmetric rank-$`k`$ tensor representation of O($`N`$), which can be assumed to be traceless on all pairs of indices. For the OSp$`(m|2n)`$ formulation, this becomes a supersymmetric tensor, that vanishes when contracted using the same invariant bilinear form as in the constraint in the sigma model. It is useful to choose the index values of the set of tensors in a correlation function to occur in distinct pairs, to force the lines in the loop model to connect the positions of the operators in some specified way. This is possible if $`m`$ is sufficiently large, a typical situation in applications of supersymmetry.

At the dilute critical point and in the dense-loops phase, there are nontrivial scaling dimensions $`X_k`$ (or conformal weights $`h_k=X_k/2`$) for the $`k`$-leg operators, which are known exactly  (for example, $`h_4`$ was given earlier). (In these phases, the symmetric-tensor $`k`$-leg operators are in general degenerate with others , and in the dense-loops phase, we assume there is a singlet 4-leg operator, which we used as the perturbation above; it is the most relevant invariant scalar operator.) In the Goldstone phases, on the other hand, the symmetric tensors correspond to functions like spherical harmonics on the target space, and their scaling dimensions tend to zero as $`g_\sigma 0`$. Since the symmetry is broken for $`N<2`$, the precise form of each operator depends on which components are chosen. If the expectation of the field is $`x_1=1`$, all other $`x_i`$ and $`\eta _j=0`$, then any component of the $`k`$-leg operator can be rewritten in terms of the (rescaled, free) $`m1`$ $`x_i`$’s and the $`2n`$ $`\eta _j`$’s, and the correlation functions will contain various logarithmic factors depending on which components are chosen. It is clear that the scaling dimensions of the leading $`k`$-leg operators are all zero, and there will be subleading operators with integer conformal weights (the precise form of correlation functions may require more attention to the limit $`g_\sigma 0`$). When the dense-loops phase is perturbed by the 4-leg operator, it should be possible to see the effective scaling dimensions of the $`k`$-leg operators (say, in two-point functions) cross over to zero, for all $`k`$.

Numerical transfer matrix calculations were done on a square-lattice cylinder of circumference $`L`$. The edges of the lattice are packed with one line per edge; two lines can meet at each vertex in three ways, the weight being $`1`$ for a non-crossing and $`w`$ for a crossing. The natural O($`N`$)-invariant boundary condition for a periodic system is that the fields $`\varphi `$ are periodic, both for Bose and Fermi components. This implies that a loop that winds the periodic direction is given the same factor $`N`$ as a topologically trivial loop. In a conformally-invariant system, $`c`$ can be extracted from the scaling of the free energy per vertex, $`f(L)=f(\mathrm{})\pi c/(6L^2)`$. We therefore use this formula to extract the effective value of $`c`$ in a crossover, using $`f(L)`$ at pairs of values of $`L`$. Results for $`N=0`$ (see Fig. 1) show a clear trend away from $`c=2`$, and are consistent with a slow approach to $`c=1`$ for $`L\mathrm{}`$.

For the $`k`$-leg scaling dimensions, we use the lowest transfer matrix eigenvalues $`E_k`$ in each sector with $`k`$ lines propagating along the cylinder. From conformal invariance , we define effective values of $`X_k`$ at finite $`L`$ from $`E_kE_0=2\pi X_k/L`$; see Fig. 2 ($`k=2`$ is not included as, for $`N=0`$ in our model, $`E_2=E_0`$ for all $`L`$ and $`w`$). The results are consistent with $`X_k=0`$ in the fixed-point theory. In a situation with a marginally-irrelevant operator, one expects  corrections to scaling to be $`O(1/L\mathrm{ln}L)`$, which presumably explains the slow convergence.

A useful check of our analysis is obtained by modifying the boundary conditions, in a similar way as in Ref. . If we make the Fermi components of the $`\varphi `$ fields obey antiperiodic boundary conditions, this will give a non-contractible (winding) loop the usual weight $`w_\mathrm{e}=m2n=N`$ if its winding number is even, and $`w_\mathrm{o}=m+2n=N+4n`$ if it is odd. In the Goldstone phase, this will give the $`n`$ pairs of symplectic fermions the antiperiodic boundary condition, while leaving the bosonic scalar fields periodic. In the formula for $`f(L)`$, $`c`$ will be replaced by $`c24h_{\mathrm{tw}}`$, where $`h_{\mathrm{tw}}`$ is the lowest conformal weight in the sector with boundary conditions twisted as described. We expect $`c24h_{\mathrm{tw}}=m+n1`$, which can be understood as the contribution of the twist operator of weight $`h=1/8`$ for each symplectic fermion pair. Thus we expect

$$c24h_{\mathrm{tw}}=N1+3n=\frac{3w_o+w_e}{4}1,$$
(4)
for general $`N`$, $`n`$. This appears to be confirmed numerically for $`N=w_\mathrm{e}=0`$ and several values of $`w_\mathrm{o}`$ in Fig. 3. Notice how this differs from the usual loop gas behavior ($`w=0`$), where $`c24h_{\mathrm{tw}}=16\mathrm{arccos}^2(\frac{w_\mathrm{o}}{2})/(\pi ^2g)`$ .

For $`N<2`$, we believe that the dense-loops phase is massive, and hence flows to the generic Goldstone phase only when $`w`$ is greater than a positive critical value.

Finally, it is important that a version of the OSp$`(m|2n)`$-invariant model on the square lattice is integrable at $`w=(2N)/4`$ and can be solved by the Bethe ansatz . The model is massless for $`N<2`$, and there is strong evidence that the central charge is $`c=N1`$, and that the lowest scaling dimension, other than that of the identity operator, is zero; the authors conjecture that these are the exact values, but do not identify the phase with the Goldstone phase.

To conclude, we have argued that crossing of loops is a relevant perturbation in the dense-loops low-$`T`$ phase for $`2<N<2`$, and that the long-distance behavior is governed by the Goldstone phase instead, by analytical, numerical, and exact approaches.

This work was supported by the NSF under grant no. DMR-98-18259 (NR), and by the DOE (HS).


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# Spin battery operated by ferromagnetic resonance

## Abstract

Precessing ferromagnets are predicted to inject a spin current into adjacent conductors via Ohmic contacts, irrespective of a conductance mismatch with, for example, doped semiconductors. This opens the way to create a pure spin source (“spin battery”) by the ferromagnetic resonance. We estimate the spin current and spin bias for different material combinations.

The research field of magnetoelectronics or spinelectronics strives to utilize the spin degree of freedom for electronic applications. Wolf et al. (2001) Devices made from metallic layered systems displaying the giant Baibich et al. (1988) and tunnel magnetoresistance Miyazaki and Tezuka (1995) have been proven useful for read-head sensors and magnetic random-access memories. Integration of such devices with semiconductor electronics is desirable but difficult because a large resistivity mismatch between magnetic and normal materials is detrimental to spin injection.Schmidt et al. (2000) Spin injection into bulk semiconductors has been reported only in optical pump and probe experiments,Kikkawa and Awschalom (1999) and with high-resistance ferromagnetic injectors Fiederling et al. (1999) or Schottky/tunnel barriers.Monsma et al. (1998) In these cases, the injected spin-polarized carriers are hot and currents are small, however. Desirable are semiconductor devices with an efficient all-electrical cold-electron spin injection and detection via Ohmic contacts at the Fermi energy, just as has been realized by Jedema et al. for metallic devices.Jedema et al. (2001)

We introduce a concept for DC spin-current injection into arbitrary conductors through Ohmic contacts, which does not involve net charge currents. The spin source is a ferromagnetic reservoir at resonance with an rf field. Pure spin-current injection into low-density conductors should allow experimental studies of spintronic phenomena in mesoscopic, ballistic, and nanoscale systems, which up to now has been largely a playground of theoreticians like Datta and Das,Datta and Das (1990) whose spin transistor concept has stimulated much of the present interest in spintronics.

The combination of a ferromagnet at the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) in Ohmic contact with a conductor can be interpreted as a “spin battery”, with analogies and differences with charge batteries. For example, charge-current conservation dictates that a charge battery has two poles, plus and minus. A spin battery requires only one pole, since the spin current does not need to be conserved. Furthermore, the polarity is not a binary, but a three-dimensional vector. The important parameters of a charge battery are the maximum voltage in the absence of a load, as well as the maximum charge current, which can be drawn from it. In the following we present estimates for the analogous characteristics of the spin battery.

Central to our concept is a precessing ferromagnet, which acts as a source of spin angular momentum, when in contact with normal metals,Tserkovnyak et al. (2002) see Fig. 1.

This spin injection can be formulated in analogy with the adiabatic pumping of charge in mesoscopic systems. Brataas et al. (2000); Brouwer (1998) When the ferromagnet is thicker than the ferromagnetic coherence length (a few Ångstrøms in transition metals such as Co, Ni or Fe), the spin current emitted into the normal metal is determined by the mixing conductance Brataas et al. (2000) $`g_{}=_{nm}[\delta _{nm}r_{nm}^{}(r_{nm}^{})^{}]`$ in terms of the spin-dependent reflection amplitudes $`r_{nm}^{()}`$ between transverse modes $`m`$ and $`n`$ in the normal metal at the interface to the ferromagnet, where the latter is characterized by the magnetization direction $`𝐦`$. The mixing conductance governs the transport of spins that are noncollinear to the magnetization direction in the ferromagnet Brataas et al. (2000); Huertas-Hernando et al. (2000) and is also a material parameter proportional to the torque acting on the ferromagnet in the presence of a noncollinear spin accumulation in the normal metal.Tserkovnyak et al. (2002); Brataas et al. (2000); Xia et al. (2001a); Stiles and Zangwill (2002) For most systems (with the exception of, e.g., ferromagnetic insulators Huertas-Hernando et al. (2002)) the imaginary part of the mixing conductance can be disregarded due to the randomization of phases of spin-up and spin-down electrons in reciprocal space Xia et al. (2001a) and this is assumed in the following. The spin current emitted into the normal metal is then, simply, Tserkovnyak et al. (2002)

$$𝐈_s^{\text{source}}=\frac{\mathrm{}}{4\pi }g_{}𝐦\times \frac{d𝐦}{dt}.$$
(1)
In our notation, the spin current is measured in units of mechanical torque. Eq. (1) is a time-dependent correction to the Landauer-Büttiker formula for noncollinear ferromagnetic–normal-metal (F-N) hybrid systems.Brataas et al. (2000) A simple physical picture can be inferred from the following thought experiment.Siegmann  Suppose we have a F-N interface at equilibrium and switch the magnetization instantaneously. The mismatch of the spin-up and spin-down chemical potentials leads to large non-equilibrium spin currents on the length scale of the spin-diffusion length. A slower magnetization reversal naturally induces smaller spin currents. Eq. (1) represents the adiabatic limit of the spin currents pumped by a slow magnetization dynamics. When the spin current (1) is channeled off sufficiently rapidly, the corresponding loss of angular momentum increases the (Gilbert) damping of the magnetization dynamics.Tserkovnyak et al. (2002) Eq. (1) is the maximum spin current that can be drawn from the spin battery.

Next, we need the maximum spin bias obtained when the load vanishes. When the spin-flip relaxation rate is smaller than the spin-injection rate, a spin angular momentum $`𝐬`$ (in units of $`\mathrm{}`$) builds up in the normal metal. We can neglect spatical dependence within the ferromagnet when the film is sufficiently thin.nobody  Under these conditions, one finds that the component of the backflow spin current $`𝐈_s^{\text{back}}`$, from the normal metal to the ferromagnet, parallel to the instantenous magnetization direction $`𝐦`$ is cancelled by an opposite flow from the ferromagnet. The componenent of $`𝐈_s^{\text{back}}`$ perpendicular to $`𝐦`$ isBrataas et al. (2000)

$$𝐈_s^{\text{back}}=\frac{g_{}}{2\pi N}\left[𝐬𝐦\left(𝐦𝐬\right)\right],$$
(2)
where $`N`$ is the one-spin density of states. We note that the mixing conductance in Eqs. (1) and (2) ought to be renormalized in highly transparent junctions.Gerrit E. W. Bauer and Brataas (2002)

The relation between spin excess $`𝐬`$ and total spin current $`𝐈_s=𝐈_s^{\text{source}}𝐈_s^{\text{back}}`$ in a normal diffusive metal is governed by the spin-diffusion equation Johnson et al. (1988)

$$\frac{𝐬}{t}=D\frac{^2𝐬}{x^2}\frac{𝐬}{\tau _\text{s}},$$
(3)
where $`D`$ is the diffusion coefficient, in three (two) dimensions $`D=v_F^2\tau /6`$ ($`D=v_F^2\tau /4`$), and $`\tau `$, $`\tau _\text{s}`$ are the elastic and spin-flip relaxation times, respectively. We solve the diffusion equation with boundary conditions at $`x=0`$, where $`(DA\mathrm{})_x𝐬=𝐈_s`$ and at the end of the sample $`x=L`$, where the spin current vanishes, $`_x𝐬=0`$. $`A`$ is the cross section of the system.

The precession of the magnetization vector of a ferromagnet under a resonant rf electromagnetic field applied perpendicularly to a DC magnetic field Slichter (1990) can be used to drive the spin battery. The magnitude of the spin current $`𝐈_s^{\text{source}}`$ and spin bias $`\mathrm{\Delta }𝝁2𝐬_t/N`$ as a function of the applied field $`𝐇_0`$ follows from the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation $`\dot{𝐦}=\gamma ^{}𝐦\times 𝐇_0+\alpha 𝐦\times \dot{𝐦},`$ where $`\gamma ^{}`$ is the gyromagnetic ratio, $`\alpha 0.010.001`$ the Gilbert damping factor, and magnetic anisotropies have been disregarded for simplicity. The spin bias also has AC components. However, its frequency $`\omega `$ harmonics are strongly suppressed when $`l_\text{s}/(\omega \tau _\text{s})^{1/2}<L<l_\text{s}`$, which can be easily realized when $`\omega \tau _\text{s}>1`$, e.g., $`\tau _\text{s}>\omega ^110^{11}s/H_0[\text{T}]`$. $`l_\text{s}=\sqrt{D\tau _\text{s}}`$ is the spin-diffusion length in the normal metal. The dominant contribution to the spin bias is then constant in time and directed along $`𝐇_0`$. The magnitude of the time-averaged spin accumulation $`\mathrm{\Delta }𝝁2𝐬(t)_t/N`$ in the normal metal close to the F-N interface then reads:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\mu =\mathrm{}\omega _0\frac{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta }{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta +\eta },$$
(4)
where the precession cone angle between $`𝐇_0`$ and $`𝐦`$ is $`\theta `$, $`\eta =(\tau _\text{i}/\tau _\text{s})\mathrm{tanh}(L/l_\text{s})/(L/l_\text{s})`$ is a reduction factor, and we have introduced the spin-injection rate $`\tau _\text{i}^1=g_{}/(2\pi \mathrm{}NAL)`$. Large systems have a smaller injection rate since more states have to be filled.

The ratio of the injection and spin-flip relaxation times can be evaluated for a planar geometry. We consider a free-electron gas in contact with a metallic ferromagnet. The mixing conductance is $`g_{}=\kappa Ak_F^2/(4\pi )`$ ($`g_{}=\kappa Ak_F/\pi `$) for spin injection into three-(two-)dimensional systems. First-principles band-structure calculations show that for combinations like Co/Cu or Fe/Cr $`\kappa `$ remains close to unity.Xia et al. (2001a) The ratio between the injection and spin-flip relaxation times in three \[two\] dimensions can be calculated to be $`\tau _\text{i}/\tau _\text{s}=\sqrt{8/3}\kappa ^1\sqrt{ϵ}(L/l_\text{s})`$ \[$`\tau _\text{i}/\tau _\text{s}=2\kappa ^1\sqrt{ϵ}(L/l_\text{s})`$\]. $`ϵ=\tau /\tau _\text{s}`$ is the ratio of the elastic scattering rate and the spin-flip relaxation rate, which is usually much smaller than unity.

When the spin relaxation time is longer than the spin injection time and the precession cone angle is sufficiently large, $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta >\eta `$, the spin bias saturates at its maximum value $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu _0=\mathrm{}\omega _0`$. In this regime the spin accumulation does not depend on the material parameters. It should be feasible to realize the full spin bias when $`Ll_s`$ since $`\eta \sqrt{8/3}\kappa ^1\sqrt{ϵ}(L/l_s)`$, e.g. when $`L/l_s=0.1`$, $`\sqrt{8/3}\kappa ^1\sqrt{ϵ}=0.1`$ the precession cone angle should be larger than 6 degrees. For small precession cone angles $`\theta H_1/(\alpha H_0)`$, so for e.g. $`H_0=1.0`$ T, $`\alpha =10^3`$ this requires a $`H_1=0.1`$ mT rf field with a resulting spin bias of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu =0.1meV`$. For a smaller precession angle, e.g. $`\theta =0.6`$ degrees the spin-bias is smaller, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu =1\mu V`$, but still clearly measurable. Epitaxially grown clean samples with even longer spin-diffusion lengths and smaller spin-flip to non-spin flip relaxation ratios $`ϵ`$ will function as spin-batteries with smaller precession angles. The precession cone angle $`\theta `$ in FMR is typically small, but $`\theta >`$ 15 degrees can be achieved for a sufficiently intense rf field and a soft ferromagnet, e.g., permalloy.Heinrich  The maximum DC spin current source is $`|𝐈_s^{\text{source}}_t|\mathrm{}\omega _0\kappa Ak_F^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta /(4\pi )`$, e.g. for a precession cone angle of $`\theta =`$ 6 degrees the equivalent electrical spin current $`(e/\mathrm{})|𝐈_s^{\text{source}}_t|`$ is 0.1 nano Ampere per conducting channel $`Ak_F^2/(4\pi )`$. The total number of channels is a large number since the cross sections may be chosen very much larger than the Fermi wavelength thus ensuring that a large spin current may be drawn from the battery.

Ferromagnetic resonance dissipates energy proportional to the damping parameter $`\alpha `$ of the magnetization dynamics. The power loss $`dE/dt=\alpha \mathrm{}\omega _0^2N_s\mathrm{sin}^2\theta `$ is proportional to the volume of the ferromagnet through the number of spins in the ferromagnet in units of $`\mathrm{}`$, $`N_s`$. The power loss can be significant even for a thin film ferromagnet, e.g., for a 10 monolayer thick Fe film with $`\alpha 10^3`$, $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta 10^2`$, and $`\omega _010^{11}`$ s-1, the power loss per unit area is $`(1/A)dE/dt0.1`$ W/cm2. The temperature can be kept low by e.g. immersing the sample in superfluid helium. The heat transfer is then approximately $`8`$ W/cm2K for small temperature gradients and increases for larger temperature gradients,Skocpol (1974) which appears sufficient for the present purpose.

Schmidt et al. Schmidt et al. (2000) realized that efficient spin injection into semiconductors by Ohmic contacts is close to impossible with transition-metal ferromagnets since virtually all of the applied potential drops over the nonmagnetic part and is wasted for spin injection. The present mechanism does not rely on an applied bias and does not suffer from the conductance mismatch, because the smallness of the mixing conductance for a ferromagnet-semiconductor interface is compensated by the small spin current that is necessary to saturate the spin accumulation.

Possible undesirable spin precession and energy generation in the normal-metal parts of the system is of no concern for material combinations with different $`g`$-factors, as, e.g., Fe ($`g=2.1`$) and GaAs ($`g=0.4`$), or when the magnetic anisotropy modifies the resonance frequency with respect to electrons in the normal metal.

The optimal material combinations for a battery depend on the planned usage. From Eq. (1) it follows that the largest spin current can be achieved when the conductor is a normal metal, whereas any material combination appears suitable when the load is small, as long as the contact is Ohmic and the system is smaller than the spin-diffusion length.

Standard metals, like Al and Cu, are good candidate materials, since the spin-diffusion length is very long, $`l_\text{s}1\mu `$m at low temperatures, and remains quite long at room temperature.Jedema et al. (2001, 2002) Indirect indications of spin accumulation in Cu can be deduced from the absence of any enhancement of the Gilbert damping in FMR when in contact with thin ferromagnetic films.Mizukami et al. (2001a); Tserkovnyak et al. (2002)

Semiconductors have the advantage of a larger ratio of spin bias to Fermi energy. Let us first consider the case of GaAs. The spin-flip relaxation time in GaAs can be very long, $`\tau _\text{s}=10^7\text{s}`$ at $`n=5\times 10^{16}`$ cm3 carrier density.Kawakami et al. (2001) These favorable numbers are offset by the difficulty to form Ohmic contacts to GaAs, however. Large Schottky barrier exponentially suppress the interfaces mixing conductance parameter $`\kappa `$.

InAs has the advantage of a natural accumulation layer at the surface that avoids Schottky barriers when covered by high-density metals. However, the spin-orbit interaction in a narrow gap semiconductor like InAs is substantial, which reduces $`\tau _\text{s}`$. In asymmetric confinement structures, the spin-flip relaxation rate is governed by the Rashba type spin-orbit interaction, which vanishes in symmetrical quantum wells.Nitta et al. (1997) The remaining D’yakonov-Perel scattering rate is reduced in narrow quasi-one-dimensional channels of width $`d`$ due to waveguide diffusion modes by a factor of $`(L_s/d)^2`$, where $`L_s=v_F/|h(k_F)|`$ is the spin-precession length in terms of the spin-orbit coupling $`H_{so}=𝐡(𝐤)𝐬`$,Mal’shukov and Chao (2000) which makes InAs based systems an interesting material for a spin battery as well.

In Si, the spin-flip relaxation time is long, since spin-orbit interaction is weak. Furthermore, the possibility of heavy doping allows control of Schottky barriers. So, Si appears to be a good candidate for spin injection into semiconductors.

The spin bias can be detected noninvasively via tunnel junctions with an analyzing ferromagnet having a switchable magnetization direction. A voltage difference of $`p\mathrm{\Delta }\mu `$ is detected for parallel and anti-parallel configurations of the analyzing magnetization with respect to the spin accumulation in the normal metal, where $`p=(G_{}G_{})/(G_{}+G_{})`$ is the relative polarization of the tunnel conductances of the contact. The test magnetic layer need not be flipped. It is sufficient to reverse the direction of the DC static magnetic field. The spin current, on the other hand, can be measured via the drop of spin bias over a known resistive element.

Spin-pumping into the normal metal can also have consequences for the nuclei via the hyperfine interaction between electrons and nuclear spins.Kawakami et al. (2001) An initially unpolarized collection of nuclear spins can be oriented by a spin-polarized electron current, which transfers angular momentum by spin-flop scattering. A ferromagnetically ordered nuclear-spin system can lead to an OverhauserOverhauser (1953) field on the electron spin. This effect does not affect the spin bias $`\mathrm{\Delta }𝝁`$, but induces an equilibrium spin density in the normal metal $`𝐬^0`$ via the nuclear magnetic field, and can be exploited in experiments where the the total spin-density $`𝐬+𝐬_0`$ is an important parameter. The electron-nuclear interaction can be included by adding Overhauser (1953); Slichter (1990)

$$𝐈_s^{\text{nuc}}=\frac{\mathrm{}𝐬_n}{T_n}$$
(5)
to the electron spin dynamics so that $`𝐈𝐈_s^{\text{source}}𝐈_s^{\text{back}}+𝐈_s^{\text{nuc}}`$, where $`𝐬_n`$ is the nonequilibrium nuclear spin accumulation and $`T_n`$ is the electron-nuclear relaxation time. The nuclear spin dynamics is described by

$$\frac{d𝐬_n}{dt}=\frac{𝐬_n}{T_n^{}}+\frac{𝐬}{T_e},$$
(6)
where $`T_n^{}T_n`$ is the nuclear-spin relaxation time and $`T_e`$ is the nuclear-electron relaxation. In steady state, $`𝐬_n=(T_n^{}/T_n)(T_n/T_e)𝐬`$. In the experimentally relevant regime $`T_e^1\tau _i^1`$ the electron-nuclear interaction (5) has a negligible effect on the nonequilibrium spin accumulation $`𝐬`$ and thus Eq. (4) remains unchanged. $`T_n/T_e=8I(I+1)ϵ_Fn_N/(9k_BTn_e)`$ for small polarizations, where $`ϵ_F`$ is the Fermi energy of the electron gas, $`k_BT`$ is the thermal energy, $`n_N`$ is the nuclear density and $`n_e`$ is the one-spin electron density.Overhauser (1953) Using $`N=(3/2)n_e/ϵ_F`$ ($`N=n_e/ϵ_F`$ in two dimensions) and Eq. (4) the relative enhancement of the DC nuclear spin polarization is

$$𝐬_n=n_N\frac{T_n^{}}{T_n}\frac{2}{3}I(I+1)\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }𝝁}{k_BT}.$$
(7)
for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu k_BT`$. The nuclear-spin polarization increases with the spin bias and by lowering the temperature. The hyperpolarized nuclei, in turn, produce an effective nuclear field that polarizes the equilibrium properties of the electron gas $`𝐬^0`$. In bulk GaAs, the nuclear magnetic field is $`B_n=5.3`$ T when the nuclei are fully spin-polarized which should occur at sufficiently low temperatures.Paget (1977)

BergerBerger (1999) proposed to generate a DC voltage by the FMR, which bears similarities with our proposal. But Berger’s mechanism of spin injection, originating from the spin-flip scattering in the ferromagnet as induced by spin waves appears to be different from ours. We propose to achieve spin injection via the modulation of the interface scattering matrix by the coherent precession of the magnetization, which allows, for example, quantitative calculations for various materials.

In conclusion, we present the new concept of a spin battery, which is a source of spin, just as a conventional battery is a source of charge, and estimate its performance for different material combinations.

We are grateful to I. Appeli, B. Heinrich, A. D. Kent, D. Monsma, and H. C. Siegmann for stimulating discussions. This work was supported in part by the DARPA award No. MDA 972-01-1-0024, the NEDO International Joint Research Grant Program “Nano-magnetoelectronics”, FOM, the Schlumberger Foundation, and NSF Grant No. DMR 99-81283. G. E. W. B. acknowledges the hospitality of Dr. Y. Hirayama and his group at the NTT Basic Research Laboratories.


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# Vortex transport and voltage noise in disordered superconductors

## Abstract

We study, by means of three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations, the current-voltage (IV) characteristics and the voltage noise spectrum at low temperatures of driven magnetic flux lines interacting with randomly placed point or columnar defects, as well as with periodically arranged linear pinning centers. Near the depinning current $`J_c`$, the voltage noise spectrum $`S(\omega )`$ universally follows a $`1/\omega ^\alpha `$ power law. For currents $`J>J_c`$, distinct peaks appear in $`S(\omega )`$ which are considerably more pronounced for extended as compared to point defects, and reflect the spatial distribution of the correlated pinning centers.

journal: Phyica A

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The dynamics of flux lines in the mixed state of high-$`T_c`$ superconductors has been a topic of intense interest in the past few years . The area of research is motivated both by important technological questions and a quest of understanding complex non-equilibrium behavior of driven systems. Defects in the superconducting materials can either be localized (point pinning centers, such as oxygen vacancies) or extended. For example, artificial columnar pins are introduced via high-energy ion irradiation to pin the magnetic vortices in order to reduce energy loss due to dissipation when current is passed through the sample . The non-equilibrium dynamics of flux lines in the presence of defects generates non-trivial steady states which can be probed in experiments measuring, e.g., the current-voltage (IV) characteristics , the voltage noise power spectrum , or local flux density noise . Analytical studies of the vortex dynamics are usually limited to asymptotic regimes  when the current $`J`$ is either much smaller or much larger than the critical current $`J_c`$. The intermediate current regime has been investigated by numerical techniques such as Langevin molecular dynamics simulations  or Monte Carlo techniques . These numerical simulations are largely restricted to two dimensions , while very few three-dimensional studies have been reported . Here we present a fully three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation of vortex dynamics in the presence of both columnar and point defects. We focus on the effects of defect correlations in the voltage noise spectrum and the IV characteristics, some of which are inaccessible by two-dimensional simulations.

We study the simplest possible model where the flux lines are non-interacting. This may be viewed as a starting point towards a more realistic model that takes their mutual repulsion into account. At any rate, our present study should apply to a highly dilute vortex system. In spite of the simplistic non-interacting flux line model we find non-trivial signatures of broad-band noise (BBN)  at $`JJ_c`$ as well as pronounced peaks in the voltage noise spectrum in the presence of extended disorder when $`J>J_c`$. We would like to emphasize that our results may apply quite generally for the dynamics of extended objects, such as charge density waves , interfaces , and polymers , driven through a disordered medium. Hence we consider a single magnetic vortex in the London approximation as an elastic line with line tension energy $`E_L[𝐫(s)]=\frac{\epsilon }{2}_0^L𝑑s[\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(d𝐫_{}(s)/ds)^2+(dz(s)/ds)^2]`$, where $`𝐫(s)[𝐫_{}(s),z(s)]`$ describes the configuration of the flux line in three dimensions, and the crystalline axis $`𝐜`$ of the superconducting material (as well as the external magnetic field) is oriented parallel to $`\widehat{𝐳}`$ (in a sample of thickness $`L`$). This linear elastic form of energy holds good as long as $`|d𝐫_{}(z)/dz|<1/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ , where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ denotes the anisotropy ratio . The line stiffness is given by $`\epsilon \epsilon _0\mathrm{ln}(\lambda _{ab}/\xi _{ab})`$ , with $`\epsilon _0=(\varphi _0/4\pi \lambda _{ab})^2`$ ($`\varphi _0=hc/2e`$ is the magnetic flux quantum). $`\lambda _{ab}`$ and $`\xi _{ab}`$ denote the penetration depth and the superconducting coherence length respectively in the $`ab`$ plane. For high-$`T_c`$ materials, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }1`$ , giving the quadratic form of $`E_L[𝐫(s)]`$ a wider range of validity. In the presence of (point or columnar) defects the flux line is described by the free energy $`F_L(T)`$ defined through $`\mathrm{exp}[\beta F_L(T)L]=D[𝐫(s)]\mathrm{exp}\left[\beta E_L[𝐫(s)]\beta _0^L𝑑sV_p[𝐫(s)]\right]`$, where $`\beta =(k_BT)^1`$. We model the pinning potential as a sum of $`N_p`$ independent potential wells, $`V_p[𝐫(s)]=_{k=1}^{N_p}U\mathrm{\Theta }(r_p|𝐫(s)𝐫_k^{(p)}|)`$, where $`r_p`$ is the radius, $`\mathrm{\Theta }(x)`$ denotes the Heaviside step function, and the $`𝐫_k^{(p)}`$ indicate the location of the pinning sites.

In our Monte Carlo (MC) simulation each flux line is modeled by $`N=L/a_0`$ beads where the $`i`$th bead is located at $`𝐫_i(x_i,y_i,z_i)`$ and interacts with its nearest neighbors via a simple harmonic potential $`\frac{\epsilon }{2}_{j=i1,i+1}[\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(𝐫_i𝐫_j)^2+(|z_iz_j|a_0)^2]`$. The line is placed in a box of size $`L_x\times L_y\times L_z`$ with periodic boundary conditions in all directions. The columnar pins and spherical pins are respectively modeled by constant cylindrical or spherical potential wells of (uniform) strength $`U`$ and radius $`b_0`$. The cylindrical wells are oriented parallel to the c axis. We investigate the dynamics for three different distributions of defects, namely, (i) columnar pins distributed randomly or (ii) arranged in a square lattice in the $`xy`$ plane, and (iii) point pins distributed uniform randomly in the sample. When an external current $`𝐉=J\widehat{𝐲}`$ is applied it produces a Lorentz force $`𝐟_L=(1/c)\widehat{z}\times 𝐉=(J/c)\widehat{𝐱}`$, per unit length of the flux line. Since in the presence of weak currents $`𝐉`$ the flux line locally moves with an equilibrium dynamics one may incorporate the effect of the force in the MC by introducing an additional work term $`𝐟_L_0^L𝑑s𝐫(s)`$ in the energy $`E_L[𝐫(s)]`$ . At $`t=0`$ the flux line starts off from a straight line configuration parallel to the $`z`$ axis. We have checked that the results in the steady state are independent of the initial configurations. At each trial a randomly chosen point on the line is updated according to a Metropolis algorithm . The point can then move in a random direction a maximum distance of $`\mathrm{}<b_0/\sqrt{3}`$ to guarantee interaction with every defect. In the simulation the values $`z_i`$ are held fixed; we have checked  that results do not change qualitatively even if these positions $`z_i`$ are allowed to fluctuate.

The drift velocity of the flux line is proportional to the average velocity of the center of mass (CM) $`𝐯_{cm}=\overline{[𝐑_{cm}(\tau )𝐑_{cm}(0)]/\tau }`$, where $`𝐑_{cm}(\tau )𝐑_{cm}(0)`$ is the distance traversed by the CM in a time interval of $`\tau `$; $`\mathrm{}`$ and the overbar denote the average over Monte Carlo steps (MCS) in the steady state and over different realizations of disorder, respectively. The voltage drop measured in experiments is caused by the induced electric field $`𝐄=𝐁\times 𝐯_{cm}/c`$ . All length and energy scales are measured in units of $`b_0`$ and $`\epsilon _0`$, respectively. The average distance between the pins for a uniform random distribution or the lattice constant for the periodic array of columnar pins is taken as $`d=15b_0`$. The parameters $`\lambda _{ab}`$, $`\xi _{ab}`$, $`\epsilon `$, $`U`$, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are chosen to be $`56b_0`$, $`0.64b_0`$, $`4\epsilon _0`$, $`0.0075\epsilon _0`$, and $`16`$ respectively in the simulation; these numbers are consistent with the experimental data for high-$`T_c`$ materials . Since here we are interested in studying the effects of defect correlations in the dynamics, we restrict our simulation to temperatures $`T/T^{}<1`$, where $`T^{}=k_B^1\sqrt{\epsilon U}b_0`$ is the temperature above which entropic corrections due to thermal fluctuations become relevant for pinned flux lines . Therefore thermally induced bending and wandering of the flux lines are largely suppressed, and we can interpret our results in terms of low-temperature dynamics. In the simulation all the data have been collected in the the steady state where the system arrives at $`t>10^5`$ MCS and at $`t>10^6`$ MCS for columnar and point pins, respectively. The size of the system ranges from $`60\times 9\times 60`$ to $`2000\times 9\times 60`$ in the simulations, and the data are averaged over $`20`$ to $`50`$ realizations of disorder. The value of $`\tau `$ ranges from $`30`$ to $`500`$ MCS in the simulation.

The IV characteristics displayed in Fig. 1 were computed for random distributions of point and columnar pins, as well as for columnar defects arranged in a square lattice in the $`xy`$ plane at a temperature $`T=0.25\times 10^3<<T^{}`$.

The critical current $`J_c`$, which at zero temperature would indicate the location of a non-equilibrium depinning transition, is higher for the columnar pins compared point disorder because of the increased defect correlations. The value of $`J_c`$ is the same for both random and periodic extended defect distributions. The flux line remains localized at few defect sites for $`JJ_c`$ as thermal creep happens extremely rarely at $`T<<T^{}`$ in the simulations. For currents $`J>J_c`$, the line becomes depinned and we observe that for columnar defects the ensuing voltage is lower for the periodic distribution as compared to the random distribution. This phenomenon can be understood in the following way. Suppose the energy of a flux line inside a columnar pin (say pin 1) of length $`L`$ is $`U_1`$ and the energy of the flux line in the neighboring pin (pin 2, at a distance $`a`$ from pin 1) where it arrives after a time $`\mathrm{\Delta }t(12)`$ is $`U_2`$, then $`U_2U_1Lf_La`$, which is the effective energy barrier between $`1`$ and $`2`$ . The transit time is $`\mathrm{\Delta }t(12)\mathrm{exp}(\beta Lf_La)`$, and hence the mean velocity $`va\mathrm{exp}(\beta Lf_La)`$. Let us take a configuration where the three pins $`A`$, $`B`$ and $`C`$ are arranged in a straight line. The distance between $`A`$ and $`B`$ is $`d_{AB}=a+\delta `$ and the distance between $`B`$ and $`C`$ is $`d_{BC}=a\delta `$. Note $`\delta 0`$ and $`\delta =0`$ respectively for random and periodic distribution of the pins. Here the average velocity of hopping between neighboring pins is $`\frac{1}{2}[d_{AB}/\mathrm{\Delta }t(AB)+d_{BC}/\mathrm{\Delta }t(BC)]v[\mathrm{cosh}(\beta Lf_L\delta )+\delta \mathrm{sinh}(\beta Lf_L\delta )]>v`$. Therefore the average velocity of the flux line is less for a periodic defect arrangement as compared to a random distribution. For periodic arrangement of the pins the IV characteristic depends strongly on the orientation of J with respect to the lattice direction, for this determines the effective density of defects encountered by the moving vortex .

The velocity (voltage) noise is calculated by computing the velocity fluctuations about $`v_{cm}`$. We evaluate the power spectrum $`S(\omega )=\overline{\stackrel{~}{v}_x(\omega )\stackrel{~}{v}_x^{}(\omega )}`$, where $`v_x(\omega )`$ is the Fourier transform of the velocity fluctuation $`\stackrel{~}{v}_x=v_xv_x`$, with $`v_x(t)=[X_{cm}(t+\tau )X_{cm}(\tau )]/\tau `$. The data are averaged over $`50`$ realizations of disorder for random distributions of defects. At $`T=0`$ and for $`J<J_c`$, the flux line is bound to one or more pins depending on the type of defects present in the system, and $`v_{cm}=0`$. For temperatures close to $`T=0`$ the vortex is still trapped in the defect potential wells, and $`r_g^2=\frac{1}{N}_{i=1}^N(r_i\overline{r}_{})^2<<b_0^2`$, where $`\overline{r}_{}=\frac{1}{N}_{i=1}^Nr_i`$. Therefore the line hardly tunnels out of the pins and $`S(\omega )`$ yields a white (thermal) noise spectrum (Fig. 2 (a)). At higher temperatures, when $`r_gb_0`$, long length scale fluctuations can tunnel out of the defects and produce a nonlinear rise as $`\omega ^2`$ at small frequencies in $`S(\omega )`$ (Fig. 2(a)). This is because $`S(\omega )`$ is an even function, and $`S(\omega =0)0`$ (the equality is valid at $`T=0`$ and in the $`L\mathrm{}`$ limit). The non-white nonlinear part of $`S(\omega )`$ persists upto larger frequencies for columnar pins as compared to the point defects because of increased correlations induced in the motion of the flux line by the correlated disorder . At temperatures $`T>T^{}`$, $`r_g>>b_0`$ and the velocity fluctuations are dominated by thermal fluctuations; thus the high-frequency white-noise part of $`S(\omega )`$ increasingly dominates the spectrum (Fig. 2(a)).

At $`JJ_c`$, $`S(\omega )`$ shows a $`1/\omega ^\alpha `$ behavior (Fig. 2(b)), where $`\alpha \alpha _{MF}=2`$ for almost a decade for both point and columnar defects with deviations at small and large frequencies. This is to be interpreted as a remnant of the zero-temperature depinning transition, representing a non-equilibrium critical phenomenon . Its analysis through a functional renormalization group calculation gives $`\alpha =1.5`$ for point defects to one-loop order in three dimensions , with corresponding mean-field value $`\alpha _{MF}=2`$. Thus, while our data for lowest frequencies are affected by our finite system size, the $`\omega ^2`$ decay represents the finite-temperature mean-field like behavior to be expected off criticality. The effective exponent $`\alpha `$ then crosses over to smaller values, perhaps even its true critical value, at larger frequencies. In experiments , the broad-band noise (BBN) features show a $`\omega ^\alpha `$ decay with $`\alpha 2`$ which may similarly be a manifestation of the single-line depinning transition at a finite temperature.

For currents $`J>J_c`$, two distinct time scales appear in the dynamics — the residence time $`\tau _r`$ which is the duration of the vortices being trapped on the defects, and $`\tau _v`$, the time taken by the flux line to travel between the pins. In the regime where these time scales are well separated and $`\tau _r<\tau _v`$, we can expect $`\tau _v`$ to produce pronounced peaks in the velocity noise spectrum. In Fig. 3(a) we plot $`S(\omega )`$ at different driving currents for the periodic distribution of columnar pins which reveals there is a single peak corresponding to the frequency $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }v_{cm}/d1/\tau _v`$. Note that the width of the peak decreases as the external current $`𝐉`$ increases, which widens the separation between $`\tau _r`$ and $`\tau _v`$. In a random defect distribution (Fig. 3(b)) there would be a distribution of the time scale $`\tau _v`$ around the average value $`d/v_{cm}`$. Therefore there could be many secondary peaks present in the spectrum arising due to the distribution of $`\tau _v`$ in addition to the principle peak which corresponds to $`\tau _rd/v_{cm}`$. The secondary peaks would eventually diminish as the distribution of the time scales will narrow down at $`d/v_{cm}`$ with more number of averaging on the defect configurations. Unlike for correlated defects, the time scales $`\tau _r`$ and $`\tau _v`$ are not well separated for point pins. The plot in Fig. 3(c) reveals, as expected, that the peaks are considerably suppressed as compared to the situation for columnar defects (Fig. 3(b)). This difference in $`S(\omega )`$ between columnar and point pins which results due to the lack of spatial correlation in the $`z`$ direction for the point disorder can be observed only in a three-dimensional dynamical simulation. It is due to a generic difference between correlated and localized pinning potentials, and should survive even in the presence of interactions between the flux lines. The ensuing absence or presence of the narrow-band noise peaks in the voltage noise spectrum $`S(\omega )`$, and its specific features, can be utilized as a signature to identify and characterize the type of disorder present and responsible for flux pinning in experimental superconducting samples.

In conclusion we have investigated the three-dimensional dynamics of non-interacting flux lines in the presence of both point and correlated defects. We find the nature of the current-voltage characteristics to depend on the defect correlation and spatial distribution of the pinning centers. The voltage noise spectrum shows pronounced peaks in the case of correlated pins. The difference in the power spectrum at $`J>J_c`$ between columnar and point disorder can serve as a novel diagnostic tool to characterize the pinning centers in superconducting samples.

We would like to thank S. Bhattacharya, A. Maeda, B. Schmittmann, P. Sen, and R. K. P. Zia for valuable discussions. This research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (grant no. DMR 0075725) and the Jeffress Memorial Trust (grant no. J-594).


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# Scheme for Attophysics Experiments at a X-ray SASE FEL

## 1 Introduction

A general objective in the development of synchrotron radiation sources is to produce radiation that is brighter than that from existing sources, or to produce radiation that comes in shorter pulses. Significant progress in both of these directions has been reported recently by the TESLA collaboration. The results have been obtained at the TESLA Test Facility (TTF) at DESY , using radiation pulses of 100 nm wavelength with sub-100 femtosecond pulse duration and peak power of approximately one GW. Comparing to present day synchrotron radiation sources its spectral brightness is more than a 100 million times higher, the radiation has full transverse coherence and pulse duration is reduced from the 100 picoseconds down to 100 femtoseconds in time domain. These demonstrations have been made possible by the technique of Self Amplified Spontaneous Emission Free Electron Laser (SASE FEL). The generation of radiation in a linac driven SASE FEL has much a common with the generation of radiation in synchrotron source, the main difference in being the power dependence on number of electrons $`N`$. The radiation generated in synchrotron sources is based on the spontaneous radiation of many electrons uncorrelated in space and time. As a consequence, the radiation power scales linearly with the number of electrons in the bunch. In the SASE FEL technique in order to increase the power and coherence of radiation, one has to force the electrons to emit coherently by compressing them into volume small compared to the wavelength of radiation. With complete micro-bunching, all electrons radiate almost in phase. This leads to a radiation power proportional to $`N^2`$ and thus amplification of many orders of magnitude with respect to the spontaneous emission. TTF FEL shows that a laser for X-rays can be built on the basis of the SASE FEL principle. Technical design studies were presented for XFEL laboratory  which should provide X-rays at wavelengths down to 0.1 nm in pulses of 100 fs duration. Peak spectral brightness would exceed those of synchrotron sources by over ten orders of magnitude. Furthermore soft X-ray SASE FEL project with wavelengths down to 6 nm was started at DESY. Commissioning of this facility will start in the year 2003 .

The discussion in the scientific community over the past decade has produced many ideas for novel applications of the X-ray laser. Brilliance, coherence, and timing down to the femtosecond regime are the three properties which have the highest potential for new science to be explored with an XFEL. It is obvious that studies of time dependent phenomena can be tackled for the first time which relate the structural aspects with the transition states of those electrons which are responsible for the formation process of intra-molecular bonds, clusters, nanoparticles, liquids, solids and hot dense plasmas. Femtosecond-resolution experiments with X-rays can possibly show us directly how matter is formed out of atoms. In fact, X-ray pulse duration even shorter than femtosecond may be useful for many scientific applications. A first question that arises is: why do researchers want laser-like X-ray radiation sources with shorter pulse durations? The reason is that phenomena inside atoms occur on sub-femtosecond timescale. Generating single attosecond X-ray pulses is one of the biggest challenges in physics. The use of such a tool will enable us to trace processes inside atoms. If there is any place where we have a chance to test the main principles of quantum mechanics in the pure way, this is it.

Our studies have shown that the X-ray SASE FEL holds a great promise as a source of radiation for generating high power, single attosecond pulses. Two major developments have made this possible. It was shown recently that the statistical properties of the high-harmonic radiation from the SASE FEL, operating in linear regime, can be used for selection of radiation pulses with a single spike in time domain . In the case of X-ray FEL the duration of the spikes is in attosecond range. Selection of single-spike high-harmonic pulses can be achieved by using a special trigger in data acquisition system.

The second development was the invention of single-bunch multistage High Gain Harmonic Generation (HGHG) FEL scheme . In this technique the second harmonic in the $`n`$th stage becomes the fundamental in the $`(n+1)`$th stage. Each stage (except the first one) consists of radiator undulator, dispersion section (demodulator), FEL amplifier and end-stage dispersion section (modulator). The main difference with previous HGHG schemes  is that frequency multiplication is performed with a single electron bunch consecutively passing all HGHG stages. This is possible because the density modulation exiting each stage is relatively small. Hence, a small energy modulation is sufficient to create this microbunching in the dispersion section. In this case the growth of the energy spread due to HGHG process is much less than initial energy spread, and exponential growth rate in the main undulator is practically the same as without stage sequence. At chosen parameters for each stage the amplitude of the second harmonic of density modulation dominates significantly over the amplitude of shot noise harmonics, and the modulation of the beam density can be used as input signal for the next HGHG stage.

The combination of a single-bunch multistage HGHG scheme and a single-spike selection technique is very promising. Our concept of attosecond X-ray facility is based on generation of the 8th harmonic of SASE radiation in the single-bunch, multistage HGHG configuration. Single-spike phenomena occurs when electron bunch is passed through the sequence of four relatively short undulators. The first stage is a conventional ”long” wavelength (0.8 nm) SASE FEL operating in the high-gain linear regime. Figure 1 illustrates how the 0.1 nm wavelength range may be reached by successive multiplication in a stage sequence (0.8 nm $``$ 0.4 nm $``$ 0.2 nm $``$ 0.1 nm).

The final steps involved in obtaining a single-spike pulses of the 8th-harmonic radiation are as follows. The energy in the high-harmonic radiation pulse must be measured by means of a non-destructive method. After each shot, the signal from the energy detector is sent to a discriminator having a threshold $`E_{\mathrm{th}}2E_{(8)}`$, where $`E_{(8)}`$ is the mean energy of the 8th harmonic (averaged over the ensemble of pulses) After discrimination signal is used to give a trigger. A register is used to store information concerning the trigger and sample detector events. A schematic, illustrating these processes, is shown in Fig. 2.

The possibility of single-spike pulse selection is demonstrated in a simple example. With reference to Fig. 3 consider an intensity function $`I`$ in the SASE FEL radiation pulse at fundamental frequency versus time $`t`$. Subjecting it, for example, to a 8th harmonic transformation, we obtain the ”image” shown in Fig. 4. An important distinction should be made between the sample fundamental instantaneous intensity function $`I(t)`$ (see Fig. 3) and the transformed function $`[I(t)]^8`$ (see Fig. 4). Due to the nonlinear generation mechanism, the temporal structure of the 8th-harmonic radiation is similar to the fundamental, but with more fluctuations from spike to spike. The fact that the 8th harmonic intensity is a single spike implies that the fluctuation of the fundamental intensity about the mean is rather pronounced. How likely are we to observe a practically single bright spike in the intensity of the 8th harmonic radiation? Clearly, a necessary condition for this event is that the energy $`E_{(8)}`$ in the 8th-harmonic radiation pulse is larger than the average energy $`E_{(8)}`$. The results of numerical simulations for the case of the 8th-harmonic of the X-ray SASE FEL predict the probability of high-contrast single-spike pulses of about 1–10% only. For this method to be applicable, the electron pulse repetition rate should be larger than 100 pulses per second.

This paper describes the scheme for attophysics experiments that could be performed at the X-ray SASE FEL at TESLA. The superconducting linear accelerator is an ideal accelerator to drive an attosecond XFEL. The high repetition rate of the TESLA accelerator (52000 pulses per second) should be sufficient to obtain average kHz-level pulse repetition rate of single spikes. The development and test of attosecond X-ray FEL at TESLA is greatly facilitated by the fact that undulators with required parameters are being developed in the framework of SASE option of X-ray FEL at TESLA. Also, the length foreseen for installation of SASE undulators is sufficient to accommodate attosecond option.

## 2 Statistical properties of SASE FEL high-harmonic radiation

The principle of operation of the proposed scheme is essentially based on the statistical properties of the SASE FEL harmonic radiation. SASE radiation is a stochastic object and at a given time it is impossible to predict the amount of energy which flows to a detector. The initial modulation of the electron beam is defined by the shot noise and has a white spectrum. The high-gain FEL amplifier cuts and amplifies only a narrow frequency band of the initial spectrum $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega /\omega 1`$. In the time domain, the temporal structure of the fundamental harmonic radiation is chaotic with many random spikes, with a typical duration given by the inverse width of the spectrum envelope. Even without performing numerical simulations, we can describe some general properties of the fundamental harmonic of the radiation from the SASE FEL operating in the linear regime. Indeed, in this case we deal with Gaussian statistics. As a result, the probability distribution of the instantaneous radiation intensity $`I`$ should be the negative exponential probability density distribution: $`p(I)=I^1\mathrm{exp}(I/I)`$. Here one should realize clearly that the notion of instantaneous intensity refers to a certain moment in time, and that the analysis must be performed over an ensemble of pulses. Also, the energy in the radiation pulse $`E`$ should fluctuate in accordance with the gamma distribution :

$$p(E)=\frac{M^M}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(M)}\left(\frac{E}{E}\right)^{M1}\frac{1}{E}\mathrm{exp}\left(M\frac{E}{E}\right),$$

where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(M)`$ is the gamma function of argument $`M`$, and $`1/M=(EE)^2/E^2`$ is the normalized dispersion of the energy distribution. These properties are well known in statistical optics as properties of completely chaotic polarized radiation .

Let us turn to discussion of statistical properties of the high-harmonic radiation in a SASE FEL. It should be noted that the statistics of the high-harmonic radiation from the SASE FEL changes significantly with respect to the fundamental harmonic (e.g., with respect to Gaussian statistics). It is interesting in our case to be able to determine the probability density function of instantaneous intensity of SASE radiation after it has been subjected to nonlinear transformation. We know the probability density function $`p(I)=I^1\mathrm{exp}(I/I)`$ of the fundamental intensity $`I`$, and $`I`$ is subjected to a transformation $`z=(I)^n`$. The problem is then to find the probability density function $`p(z)`$. It can be readily shown that $`p(z)=(nI)^1z^{(1n)/n}\mathrm{exp}(z^{1/n}/I)`$. Using this distribution we get the expression for the mean value: $`z=n!I^n`$. Thus, the $`n`$th-harmonic radiation for the SASE FEL has an intensity level roughly $`n!`$ times larger than the corresponding steady-state case, but with more shot-to-shot fluctuations compared to the fundamental . Nontrivial behavior of the intensity of the high harmonic reflects the complicated nonlinear transformation of the fundamental harmonic statistics. One can see that Gaussian statistics is no longer valid.

Since amplification process starts from shot noise, properties of a single-spike selection should be dscribed in statistical terms. The statistics of concern are defined over an ensemble of radiation pulses. If we define the contrast $`C`$ as the ratio of number of photons in the main spike to the total number of photons in the pulse, we find that $`C`$ asymptotically approaches unity as the ratio $`E_{\mathrm{th}}/E_{(8)}`$ increases, where $`E_{\mathrm{th}}`$ is the threshold level of the 8th harmonic energy pulse discriminator. Clearly, the larger the threshold level of discriminator $`E_{\mathrm{th}}/E_{(8)}`$, the larger the number of shots per trigger pulse $`N_{\mathrm{sh}}`$. Note that the number of degrees of freedom $`M`$ of the fundamental radiation pulse is a parameter of the functions $`C=F(M,E_{\mathrm{th}}/E_{(8)}),`$ $`N_{\mathrm{sh}}=f(M,E_{\mathrm{th}}/E_{(8)})`$ as indeed we might have anticipated.

Our goal is to find the relationship between the level of the discriminator $`E_{\mathrm{th}}/E_{(8)}`$, contrast factor $`C`$, and number of shots per trigger pulse $`N_{\mathrm{sh}}`$. In addition, we wish to find effects of the number of modes $`M`$ on the single spike selection. To find an approximate, density function of integrated intensity we invoke a quasi-physical arguments as follows . As an approximation for fundamental harmonic, the smoothly fluctuating instantaneous intensity curve $`I(t)`$ may be replaced on the interval $`T`$ by a ”boxcar” function (see Fig. 5). The time interval is divided into $`M`$ equal length subintervals. Within each subinterval, the approximation to $`I(t)`$ is constant; at the end of each subinterval, the approximate waveform jumps to a new constant value, assumed statistically independent of all preceding and following values. The probability density function of the boxcar function within any one subinterval is taken to be the same as the probability density function of the instantaneous intensity at a single time instant $`t`$.

The integrated fundamental harmonic intensity is now approximated in terms of the area under the boxcar function:

$$E=I(t)dt\underset{i=1}{\overset{M}{}}I_i\mathrm{\Delta }t,$$

where $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is the width of one subinterval of the boxcar function and $`I_i`$ is the value of the boxcar function in the $`i`$th subinterval. By hypothesis, the probability density function of each $`I_i`$ is taken to be the same as the density function of the instantaneous intensity. Also by hypothesis, the various $`I_i`$ are assumed to be statistically independent.

This particular density function of the fundamental radiation energy per pulse (integrated intensity) is known as a gamma probability density function, and accordingly the random variable $`E`$ is said to be (approximately) a gamma variate. Continuing with the case of fundamental harmonic, one problem remains: the parameters of the density function must be chosen in such a way as to best match the approximate result to the true density function of $`E`$. The only two adjustable parameters available are $`I`$ and variance $`1/M`$. The most common approach taken is to choose the parameters such that mean and variance of the approximate density function are exactly equal to the true mean and variance of fundamental radiation energy $`E`$ .

It should be noted that, in a certain sense, our quasi-physical reasoning that led to the approximate distribution has broken down, for in general the parameter $`M`$ is not an integer, where as we implicitly assumed an integer number of subintervals in the boxcar function. In what follows we use the following assumption: $`M1`$. Such assumption does not reduce the practical applicability of the result obtained. It is obvious that this single-spike scheme has an advantage over usual SASE scheme only when the SASE radiation pulse is much longer than the single spike.

Our approximate model assumes that the smoothly fluctuating SASE intensity curve $`I(t)`$ can be replaced by a ”boxcar” function. Such a model allows us to express the radiation pulse after application of frequency multiplication as the sum of the $`M`$ therms, too. The integrated intensity of 8-th harmonic is now approximated in therms of the area under the boxcar functionals as follows:

$$E_{(8)}=[I(t)]^8dt\underset{i=1}{\overset{M}{}}[I_i]^8\mathrm{\Delta }t.$$

Note, that $`M`$ is the average number of degrees of freedom (or modes) in the fundamental radiation pulse.

In Figs. 6 and 7 one can see the basic characteristics of the single-spike pulse selection process. The dependence of the degree of the contrast $`C`$ on the value of the energy threshold $`E_{\mathrm{th}}/E_{(8)}`$ is presented in Fig. 6. It is seen that the contrast increases with an increase in the value of energy threshold, and it asymptotically approaches to unity. Simulations at different values of $`M`$ show that the degree of contrast does not differ significantly when the number of modes is within the limits $`50<M<200`$. Figure 7 shows plots of the number of shots per trigger pulse $`N_{\mathrm{sh}}`$ versus $`E_{\mathrm{th}}/E_{(8)}`$ for several values of the parameter $`M`$. From Fig. 7 it is quite clear that the dependence of $`N_{\mathrm{sh}}`$ on the number of modes $`M`$ is not strong within the interval $`M=50200`$ and can be ignored.

With the preceding results in hand, it should now be possible to estimate, for example, the repetition rate of the single-spike pulse. In the case of TESLA X-ray FEL, the number of modes in the fundamental radiation pulse at a wavelength of 0.8 nm is about $`M50100`$. Suppose that we wish to achieve a contrast of 90%. The discriminator threshold required to achieve this contrast is about $`E_{\mathrm{th}}/E_{(8)}2`$. If the number of modes is close to $`M100`$, plot in Fig. 7 shows that the number of shots per trigger pulse is about 10. Hence, the single-spike pulse repetition rate is still high (about a few thousands single-spike pulses per second). On the other hand, if the contrast of interest is 97% , the number of shots is about $`N_{\mathrm{sh}}100`$, and repetition rate of the single-spike pulse decreases up to a few hundreds per second.

A few additional comments are needed in closing this section. The results of numerical simulations presented above refer to the specific model which depends on one parameter $`M`$ only. This model has proven to be very fruitful, providing the possibility of performing fast numerical simulations of the main statistical characteristics of the high-harmonic radiation from the SASE FEL operating in the linear regime. There is no doubt that these results are useful for quick estimate and deeper understanding of the frequency multiplication process in a SASE FEL. The disadvantage of this approach is in neglecting the radiation spectral profile and electron bunch profile effects. As a result, the method described above is rather crude and may be modified in use. The full analysis of single-spike generation, including both of these effects, is a very expensive for computer run. Fortunately, in the particular case, namely of radiation originated from an electron bunch with rectangular profile, a much simplified analysis will suffice. An approach, which takes into account the spectral line shape effects, uses a well known analytical expression for steady-state spectral Green function of the FEL amplifier . We can decompose the input shot noise signal into Fourier harmonics. Since in the linear regime all the harmonics are amplified independently, we can use the results of steady-state theory for each harmonic and calculate the corresponding Fourier harmonics of the output radiation field. An expression for the electric field of the electromagnetic wave as a function of time $`t`$ can be obtained using the inverse Fourier transform. In the framework of this model it becomes possible to calculate the smooth sample functions $`I(t)`$ and $`[I(t)]^8`$.

To describe the single-spike selection, we should define the degree of contrast. A first question that arises is: what is the definition of the main spike? The question of when two closely spaced spikes are barely resolved is a complex one and lends itself to a variety of rather subjective answers. One possible definition can be made as follows. After analysis of smooth sample function $`[I(t)]^8`$ we find a time moment $`t_\mathrm{m}`$ when the intensity reaches its maximum value. Then we find the number of photons within the time interval $`(t_\mathrm{m}\tau _{\mathrm{coh}},t_\mathrm{m}+\tau _{\mathrm{coh}})`$, where $`\tau _{\mathrm{coh}}`$ is coherence time of the 8th harmonic radiation pulse. In fact, the ability to resolve two spikes depends fundamentally on the discriminator level associated with the selected 8th harmonic pulse, and for this reason for large ratio, $`E_{\mathrm{th}}/E_{(8)}`$, this problem does not exist at all. It can be demonstrated that all reasonable definitions for the degree of contrast are consistent in the region $`E_{\mathrm{th}}/E_{(8)}1`$.

While adding realism, the step from ”boxcar” function to smooth sample function drastically increases computer time. Nevertheless, one can learn much about accuracy of the ”boxcar” scheme by seeing how it reproduce ”exact” results of numerical simulations for several values of the discriminator threshold. Surprisingly, we can find that the results of the more general approach does not differ significantly with those of the far simpler analysis done previously.

## 3 Attosecond X-ray facility description

In this section we are going to discuss the application of the idea of the single-spike generation to a practical case, the XFEL at TESLA . An attosecond laser requires a broadband gain medium. What ultimately limits the pulse duration? Since the temporal and spectral characteristics of the field are related to each other through Fourier transforms, the bandwidth of XFEL $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega _{\mathrm{FEL}}`$ and pulse duration $`\tau _\mathrm{p}`$ cannot vary independently of each other. There is a minimum duration-bandwidth product: $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega _{\mathrm{FEL}}\tau _\mathrm{p}>2\pi `$. The larger the FEL bandwidth is, the shorter the minimal pulse duration than can be obtained. This simple physical consideration can lead directly to crude approximation for the minimum duration of the XFEL radiation pulses. We can expect that the width of the radiation spectrum at 0.1 nm wavelength should be of order of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega _{\mathrm{FEL}}/\omega 0.1\%`$ . Thus, the minimum duration should be $`\tau _\mathrm{p}300`$ as. To illustrate the later point, let us consider the details of X-ray SASE FEL radiation. The physical reason for this is as follows. A SASE radiation is a situation in which the radiation pulse consists of a large number of independent wavepackets (spikes) with a typical duration given by the inverse width of the spectrum envelope. Typical temporal structures of the radiation pulse from the X-ray SASE FEL is presented in Fig. 8. The chaotic nature of the output radiation is a consequence of the start-up from shot noise. This plot also indicates that the shortest XFEL pulse duration is approximately $`\tau _\mathrm{p}300`$ attoseconds.

The layout of the attosecond facility at TESLA is shown schematically in Fig. 9. Single-bunch HGHG scheme consists of three stages of frequency doubling and main undulator. It has been pointed out that for single-spike selection scheme to work, the chain of FEL amplifiers must operate in linear regime. An intrinsic advantage of the adopted HGHG scheme is the linear mode operation. The first stage of frequency doubling (0.8 nm $``$ 0.4 nm) consists of SASE FEL undulator and dispersion section for the beam density modulation. The scheme operates as follows. The first stage is a conventional FEL amplifier seeded by shot noise. Radiation power is exponentially amplified upon passing through the first undulator. The amplitude of energy modulation of the electron beam at the undulator exit is equal to $`\delta E0.6\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{in}}`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{in}}`$ is the initial local energy spread in the electron bunch. Calculations show that in this case the beam density modulation is not sufficient to drive the second stage. Required value of the beam bunching at the second harmonic of about 5% is achieved when the electron bunch passes through the dispersion section (the density modulation at the fundamental frequency is about 0.3). In this situation the amplitude of the second harmonic of the density modulation dominates significantly over the amplitude of shot noise harmonic (of about 0.03%), and it serves as input signal for the second stage.

Let us discuss the problem of optimization of the first SASE FEL. The function of the first SASE FEL is to prepare electron bunch with energy modulation at the 0.8 nm wavelength. The process of amplification of radiation in this undulator develops in the same way as in conventional SASE FEL: fluctuations of the electron beam current density serve as the input signal. To estimate the value of the input signal at fundamental harmonic related to single spike at the 8th harmonic, it is convenient to introduce the notion of an effective power of shot noise $`P_\mathrm{n}`$, which is usually used for numerical simulation of the SASE FEL (see, e.g., ). For the 0.8 nm SASE FEL the effective shot noise power is about $`p_\mathrm{n}1`$ kW. Calculation shows (see Fig. 10) that the fluctuation of the instantaneous power at fundamental harmonic related to single spike at the 8th harmonic is about 10 times larger than the mean value. This means that effective peak power of the ”seed” spike is about 10 kW. At the exit of the first undulator the most fraction of the electron beam has small energy modulation due to the FEL process except of the small (”seed” spike) region. Since the instantaneous radiation power in this region is about 10 times larger, only this small part of the electron bunch produces in dispersion section the input signal at the 0.4 nm for the 2nd HGHG stage, thus providing short pulse duration. Upon passing through the first FEL undulator, radiation is exponentially amplified. First FEL operates in a linear regime with a power gain $`G10^3`$. This value is much less than the power gain at saturation, $`G_{\mathrm{sat}}10^7`$. At such a choice of the power gain in the first undulator the energy modulation (in small ”seed” spike region) induced by the FEL process amounts to 1.5 MeV and is about two times less than the initial energy spread (about 2.5 MeV) in the beam. The amplitude of the first harmonic of the beam density modulation related to this energy modulation is about 2% only. Since this density modulation is of about 10 times smaller than required value, one should use dispersion section at the exit of the first stage.

The design configuration of the second stage is shown in Fig. 11. The stage consists of a short undulator (radiator), dispersion section (demodulator), high-gain FEL amplifier and end-stage dispersion section (modulator). Following the first stage the beam and seed radiation enter short undulator (radiator) which is resonant with the second harmonic of the seed radiation (0.4 nm). In the radiator the seed radiation at fundamental harmonic plays no role and is diffracted out of the electron beam. However, a new 0.4 nm radiation is generated by the density-modulated electron beam and rapidly reaches 10 MW-level peak power. After the radiator the electron beam is guided through a dispersion section (magnetic chicane). The trajectory of the electron beam in the chicane has the shape of an isosceles triangle with the base equal to $`L`$. The angle adjacent to the base, $`\theta `$, is considered to be small. The problem of suppressing the beam modulation induced in the first stage can be solved quite naturally due to the presence of the local energy spread in the electron beam. Parameters in our case are: $`\theta =1`$ mrad, $`L=8`$ m, compaction factor $`R_{56}=L\theta ^28\mu `$m, $`\sqrt{(\mathrm{\Delta }E)^2}R_{56}/E_0`$ 0.8 nm, $`\lambda `$ = 0.8 nm. This leads to the suppression of the electron beam modulation by a factor $`\mathrm{exp}(20)`$ (for Gaussian energy distribution). The demodulators needed for HGHG stages has to satisfy two additional requirements. First, the radiation pulse must overlap the electron bunch at the chicane exit, i.e. the electron beam extra path length must be much smaller comparing with the electron bunch length. Second, coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) effects should be avoided in order tp preserve transverse emittance. In the present design of HGHG scheme we have only about 4 $`\mu `$m extra path length for the electron beam, while the rms length of electron bunch is about 25 $`\mu `$m, thus delay effect is negligible. Calculation of the CSR effects shows that this should not be a serious limitation in our case.

Passing the chicane the demodulated electron beam and seed 0.4 nm radiation enter the FEL amplifier undulator. This undulator is long enough to reach 0.6 $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{in}}`$ energy modulation at the wavelength of 0.4 nm. Since the density modulation at 0.4 nm is of about 10 times smaller than required value, one should use dispersion section at the exit of the second stage. After passing second dispersion section, the energy modulation induced in the beam by amplification in the FEL amplifier transforms into the density modulation. The values of the second (0.4 nm) and the 4th (0.2 nm) harmonics of density modulation at the second stage exit are about 30% and 5%, respectively. These values are approximately the same as the amplitudes of the first and second harmonics at first stage exit.

Following the second stage the beam enters the third stage which is resonant with the 4th harmonic (0.2 nm). Like the second stage, the third stage also consists of the radiator, demodulator, FEL amplifier and modulator. Now 0.2 nm density modulation serves as a seed for this radiator. The dispersion section needed for third stage has only about 2 $`\mu `$m extra path length for the electron beam. In this case no problem of synchronization between radiation pulse and electron bunch occurs. The length of the FEL amplifier undulator is chosen in such a way that the energy modulation at the undulator exit has the value of $`\delta E\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{in}}`$. Required value of the beam bunching at the 8th harmonic (0.1 nm) of about 10% is achieved when the electron beam passes through dispersion section.

Finally, after the third stage the electron beam enters the main undulator system which is resonant to the 8th harmonic (0.1 nm). This undulator system consists of the radiator undulator, dispersion section and FEL amplifier which operates in a linear regime with a power gain of about $`G10^2`$. This value is much less than the power gain of 0.1 nm SASE FEL at saturation, $`G_{\mathrm{sat}}10^6`$. The attosecond XFEL will provide transversely coherent bandwidth limited single-spike pulses. Frequency multiplication can be an essential pulse shortening mechanism in a multistage HGHG scheme. Because of the nonlinearity of the conversion process, one expects the generation of double frequency pulse $`\sqrt{2}`$ times shorter than the pulse duration at the fundamental frequency (for Gaussian profile). Successive multiplication to the $`n`$th harmonic resulting in $`\sqrt{n}`$-fold compression of the $`n`$th harmonic pulse duration. In our case $`n=8`$, and numerical simulations show that we can obtain 600 attosecond pulses at the wavelength of 0.1 nm. The number of photons can exceed $`10^{10}`$ per pulse.

The small energy perturbation of the electron beam is one of the advantages of the adopted HGHG FEL design. In our scheme the energy modulation (i.e. correlated) energy spread induced in the $`n`$th stage, transforms to local (i.e. uncorrelated) energy spread in the $`(n+1)`$th stage. As a result, the dispersion of the electron energy distribution at the exit of the multistage scheme is calculated as the sum of induced dispersions. For instance, the total energy spread generated to the end of the first demodulator, can be estimated as

$$\sqrt{(\mathrm{\Delta }E)^2}\sqrt{(\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{in}})^2+0.5\times (\delta E)^2}1.01\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{in}}$$

for $`\delta E0.2\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{in}}`$. Such a small degradation of the energy spread almost does not lead to degradation of output radiation.

One can wonder why presenting calculation of the energy spread induced in the first stage we use the value $`\delta E0.2\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{in}}`$. It should be reemphasized that the function of the first SASE FEL is to prepare electron bunch with $`\delta E0.6\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{in}}`$ energy modulation at the 0.8 nm wavelength. Here we direct the attention of the reader to the fact that this level of the energy modulation takes place only at that part of the electron bunch, defined by the length of the ”seed” spike. Fluctuation of the instantaneous power at fundamental harmonic related to single spike at the 8th harmonic is about 10 times larger than mean value (see Fig. 10). This means that at the exit of the first undulator the most fraction of the electron beam has 3 times smaller energy modulation due to the FEL process except of the small (”seed” spike) region. The resulting radiation produced in the radiator of the second stage is shifted to the part of electron bunch with small induced energy spread. This shift is done by passing the electron beam through the first magnetic chicane (demodulator) so as to delay the electrons by a time equal to 12 fs. On the other hand, the single-spike pulse duration at 0.8 nm wavelength is about 2 fs only. A schematic diagram of the second harmonic generation is shown in Fig. 12 as well as the relative positions of the radiation and electrons before and after the bunch shift. This is to some degree surprising: best results were obtained in hybrid operation, using chicane as demodulator, and as magnetic delay. So, this is the important concept: we use a magnetic delay to position the 0.4 nm radiation at the ”fresh” part of the electron bunch. The radiation starts interacting with a new set of electrons, which have the small energy spread, since they did not participate in the previous interaction with ”seed” spike. Actually, this is the essence of the ”fresh bunch” techniques which was introduced in . The ability to shift the radiation to ”undisturbed” part of the electron bunch after each harmonic generation is important advantage of the proposed scheme. This advantage (hybrid operation) explains why we expect a total energy spread growth at the main (0.1 nm) undulator of about a few per cent only.

Let us to discuss some general aspects of noise influence on the attosecond facility operation. In  we performed a detailed study of process of amplification in the HGHG FEL schemes taking into account shot noise in the electron beam. It has been found that a general disadvantage of HGHG FEL schemes (as well as any frequency multiplication scheme) is strong noise degradation of the properties of output radiation with increasing harmonic number $`n`$. In the case of HGHG FEL this means that the effect of frequency multiplication by a factor of $`n`$ results in multiplication of the ratio of noise power to carrier $`(P_\mathrm{s}/P_\mathrm{n})`$ by a factor of $`n^2`$. An attractive feature of proposed HGHG scheme is that multiplication factor is equal to $`n=8`$ only. Here it is relevant to remember that amplification process in attosecond facility starts from shot noise and problem of noise in the first HGHG cascade does not exist at all. Considering the other contributions to the noise output, it is obvious that the condition $`(P_\mathrm{s}/P_\mathrm{n})1`$ will not be violated if when taking into account of the second and third stage contributions to the noise output. It is important to note that noise degradation discussed above takes place at that part of the electron bunch, defined by the length of the ”seed” single spike. Nevertheless, the problem of noise degradation is more complicated and there is another noise effect that can be important for ultra-short X-ray pulse generation. We must account to that shot noise in the main part of electron bunch can provide long pulse SASE radiation in the main undulator. This effect leads to degradation of contrast of output attosecond X-ray pulses. However, parameters of the third stage and main undulator can be optimized in such a way that this degradation of contrast is insignificant.

Now we would like to discuss in more detail a single-spike contrast preservation during amplification process in the main undulator. The long main undulator can emit a SASE radiation pulse with duration of about 200 times longer than the seed ultra-short pulse. In view of this, the preservation of degree of single-spike pulse contrast is clearly of critical importance to the operation and scientific utility of the attosecond X-ray facility. The criteria that led to the selection of the third cascade and main undulator parameters were established by first determining the minimum value of main undulator gain. The smaller the main undulator gain, the better the contrast of attosecond pulses and additionally the smaller the cost of undulator systems. For this reason, the best way to reduce the gain of main undulator is by generating maximum 8th harmonic in the spatial bunching at the third cascade exit. The optimum spatial bunching, keeping the linear mode operation, results in an amplitude of 8th harmonic of 10%. Optimized gain of the main undulator is equal to $`G10^2`$. Calculation shows that in this case the ratio of the SASE pulse energy and attosecond pulse energy at the main undulator exit reaches a value of about per cent only. Thus, we find that effects of SASE radiation in the main undulator are not important in our case.

For the TESLA XFEL project five SASE FELs are planned in total . Two undulators (SASE2, SASE3) have a fixed gap. On SASE1, SASE4, SASE5 undulators the magnet gap will be varied mechanically for wavelength tuning. The total length of undulator systems is 1700 m. This huge length, with as much as 281 segments, calls for standardization and an economic design, that is optimized for the production of large quantities. The total length of an undulator system is much longer than the optimum $`\beta `$-function. External strong focusing is therefore needed to keep the $`\beta `$-function within limits acceptable for the FEL process. The undulator system may be separated into undulator segments and strong focusing quadrupoles. The undulator system for an X-ray FEL is a long periodic array of undulator segments and intersections. Each cell consists of one undulator segment and the components in the intersections such as a phase shifter, correctors, a quadrupole, and beam position monitors. Table 1 summarizes the proposed design parameters for gap-tunable SASE4 and SASE5 undulators. We mention it here only for illustration. The HGHG scheme also requires the use of gap tuning. The great advantage of proposed design is that attosecond X-ray facility undulators are shortened versions of the SASE4 and SASE5 undulators. The proposal for the undulator systems for HGHG scheme is based exclusively on the standardized components. Only two different types of magnet structures are needed. The total magnetic length of SASE5-type structure for first and second HGHG stages is 80 m, and length of SASE4-type structure for the third stage and main undulator is 160 m. This length is taken as the net magnetic length of the undulator. The total length of undulator systems includes 20% contingency for field errors, misalignment, etc.

## Acknowledgments

We thank W. Brefeld, B. Faatz, J. Feldhaus, M. Körfer, J. Krzywinski, T. Möller, J. Pflüger, J. Rossbach, and S. Schreiber for many useful discussions. We thank J.R. Schneider and D. Trines for their interest in this work and support.