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# Recombination of three ultracold fermionic atoms

## Abstract

Three-body recombination of identical, spin-polarized fermionic atoms in the ultracold limit is investigated. The mechanisms for recombination are described in terms of the “scattering volume” $`V_p`$ in the framework of the adiabatic hyperspherical representation. We have calculated numerically the recombination rate $`K_3`$ as a function of $`V_p`$ and have found that $`K_3`$ scales as $`|V_p|^{8/3}`$ for small $`|V_p|`$. A comparison with experimental data is also presented.

Recently, the quantum degenerate regime was attained in ultracold gases of fermionic atoms such as $`{}_{}{}^{40}\mathrm{K}`$ DeMarco  and $`{}_{}{}^{6}\mathrm{Li}`$ OHara ; Truscott . Part of the motivation for these experiments is to observe a pairing of fermions, leading to a superfluid state. One important factor limiting the achievable density in these degenerate Fermi gases (DFG’s) of trapped atoms is the loss of atoms through three-body recombination. Such losses occur when three atoms scatter to form a molecular bound state and a third atom — $`\mathrm{K}+\mathrm{K}+\mathrm{K}\mathrm{K}_2+\mathrm{K}`$, for instance. The kinetic energy of the final state particles causes them to escape from the trapping potential.

While ultracold three-body recombination of identical, spin-polarized bosons has been theoretically studied because of its importance for Bose-Einstein condensates, recombination of identical fermions has not yet been considered. For bosons, Fedichev et al. Fedichev  predicted that the recombination rate $`K_3`$ grows with the two-body $`s`$-wave scattering length $`a_s`$, namely $`K_3a_s^4`$, for $`a_s>0`$. This scaling was later confirmed by Nielsen and Macek Nielsen  who also pointed out that it should hold for negative $`a_s`$. The $`a_s^4`$ scaling law for both signs of $`a_s`$ was indeed obtained by Esry et al. Esry , Bedaque et al. Bedaque , and Braaten and Hammer Braaten .

In the case of fermions, however, the Pauli exclusion principle prohibits $`s`$-wave scattering of atoms in identical spin states, thus leaving only $`p`$-wave collisions. The relevant low-energy scattering parameter in this case is the two-body $`p`$-wave “scattering volume” defined as

$$V_p=\underset{k0}{lim}\frac{\mathrm{tan}\delta _p(k)}{k^3},$$
(1)
where $`\delta _p(k)`$ is the $`p`$-wave scattering phase shift and $`k`$ is the wave number. The scattering volume $`V_p`$ is related to the $`p`$-wave scattering length $`a_p`$ (see, for instance, Ref. Bohn ) by $`V_p=a_p^3`$. We choose $`V_p`$, rather than $`a_p`$, as the parameter to characterize the three-body recombination of fermions since an artificial nonanalyticity is introduced into $`a_p`$ when taking the cube root of the quantity in the right-hand side of Eq. (1).

Even though recombination of identical fermions is suppressed at ultracold temperatures by the Pauli principle, it does not vanish. In fact, it has been shown that the rate is proportional to $`E^2`$ at low collision energies ThresholdPaper . While this rate remains negligible under typical experimental conditions, it can become substantial near a Feshbach resonance. The $`E^2`$ threshold law no longer applies, and the recombination rate tends to the limit imposed by unitarity — often comparable to or larger than the rates for boson systems. Feshbach resonances are, of course, extremely useful tools for the experimentalist, so understanding the behavior near such a resonance is crucial. So far, such resonances have been observed, for example, in systems of $`{}_{}{}^{40}\mathrm{K}`$ Loftus  and $`{}_{}{}^{6}\mathrm{Li}`$ OHara . This resonant tuning was also observed for other alkali species in BEC experiments Inouye .

This Letter treats the three-body recombination of identical, spin-polarized fermions in the ultracold limit. We examine the recombination rate $`K_3`$ as a function of the scattering volume $`V_p`$ by numerically solving the three-body scattering problem. First of all, since the atoms are spin polarized and thus in a completely symmetric spin state, the spatial wave function must be completely antisymmetric in order to satisfy the Pauli principle. This fact, combined with the generalization of Wigner’s threshold law to $`K_3`$, shows that the $`J^\mathrm{\Pi }=1^+`$ symmetry dominates at threshold, where $`J`$ is the total orbital angular momentum and $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ is the parity of the system. It follows that the recombination rate depends on the collision energy $`E`$ as $`E^2`$ near threshold ThresholdPaper . (The same analysis applied to the boson case yields the familiar result that the recombination rate is constant at threshold due to the $`0^+`$ symmetry.) Therefore, we consider only the $`1^+`$ case. Dimensional analysis, together with this $`E^2`$ law, suggests a $`|V_p|^{8/3}`$ scaling of the recombination rate $`K_3`$ as opposed to the $`a_s^4`$ scaling for bosons.

The interaction potential used is a sum of triplet two-body potentials, i.e. $`V=v(r_{12})+v(r_{23})+v(r_{31})`$. This choice is appropriate for fully spin-polarized atoms that collide in a quartet electronic state. For simplicity, we model the two-body potential as either

$$v(r_{ij})=D\mathrm{sech}^2\left(\frac{r_{ij}}{r_0}\right)$$
(2)
or

$$v(r_{ij})=\frac{D}{1+\left(\frac{r_{ij}}{r_0}\right)^6}.$$
(3)
The former potential has proven convenient in recombination calculations while the latter has a more physical van der Waal’s tail with $`C_6=r_0^6D`$. Ideally, the results will not depend on the particular potential used in the ultracold limit. The parameter $`r_0`$ controls the range of the potential. The coefficient $`D`$, representing the potential depth, is treated as an adjustable parameter that permits us to control the scattering volume $`V_p`$, thus mimicking the tuning ability of an external magnetic field. This coefficient also economizes the calculations substantially since it allows us to reduce the number of two-body bound states without sacrificing the ultracold physics.

The two-body $`p`$-wave scattering volume $`V_p`$ behaves much like the $`s`$-wave scattering length as a function of the parameter $`D`$, displaying a tangent-like structure. As $`D`$ becomes more negative and the potential becomes more attractive, the scattering volume passes through a pole and changes sign each time the potential becomes deep enough to support one additional $`p`$-wave bound state. For simplicity, we consider the parameter range for which there exists only one two-body bound state.

The details of the theoretical methods we employ are more completely discussed in Ref. Suno , so only a brief outline is given here. We use the adiabatic hyperspherical representation with modified Smith-Whitten hyperspherical coordinates. Simply put, hyperspherical coordinates transform the six relative Cartesian coordinates in the center of mass frame to a set with a single length coordinate, the hyperradius $`R`$, and five hyperangles. The hyperradius can thus be thought of as characterizing the overall size of the three-body system. These coordinates also allow us to easily impose the correct permutation symmetry on the wave functions. Solution of the adiabatic equation yields adiabatic hyperspherical potential curves and channel functions. The coupled hyperradial equations are then solved using an $`R`$-matrix propagation method.

The adiabatic hyperspherical representation reduces the collision of the three atoms to dynamics on a set of coupled hyperradial adiabatic potentials. These potentials bear a strong resemblance to standard molecular Born-Oppenheimer potentials (see Fig. 1) and can be interpreted in much the same way. The lowest potential curve in the figure, for instance, correlates to a bound molecule and a free atom far away. Because the atoms are identical fermions, the molecule has unit angular momentum and the potential has a centrifugal barrier. Further, because we consider only the $`1^+`$ symmetry due to its dominance at threshold, the free atom must also be in a $`p`$-wave relative to the center of mass of the molecule. All of the other curves in Fig. 1 correlate to three free atoms. In fact, there are an infinite number of potential curves associated with three-body continuum channels and approach the three-body breakup threshold $`U=0`$ asymptotically.

Three-body recombination can be seen as a transition from one three-body continuum channel to the recombination channel, driven by nonadiabatic coupling. Qualitatively, the adiabatic potentials shown in Fig. 1 display analogous behavior, as functions of $`V_p`$, as the adiabatic potentials for bosons show as functions of $`a_s`$ EsryJPB ; Esry  For both systems, the entrance channel goes from being strongly repulsive for positive $`V_p`$ and $`a_s`$ to having an attractive well behind a potential barrier for negative values. The entrance channel for the fermions is generally more repulsive, however, than the addition of a simple $`J`$=1 centrifugal potential term to the boson curves would give due to permutation symmetry considerations ThresholdPaper . The recombination channels are also very similar, although it should be noted that there is no Efimov effect efim70  for fermions in the limit $`|V_p|\mathrm{}`$. Efimov physics plays a key role in the interpretation of the ultracold recombination of bosons Esry .

The primary difference between fermion and boson systems lies in the nonadiabatic coupling. While it is still similar for negative $`V_p`$ and $`a_s`$, for positive values the similarities end. Where the coupling strength for bosons shows a definite peak whose position increases linearly in $`a_s`$, the coupling strength for fermions remains peaked at small $`R`$ with a slowly decaying shoulder whose extent grows in proportion to $`V_p^{1/3}`$. For negative values of $`V_p`$, we thus expect that the fermion recombination rate can show resonant enhancement due to three-body shape resonances just as for bosons, but we do not expect an infinite series of such resonances since this was a consequence of the Efimov effect. We have not, however, seen evidence of such resonances as $`V_p\mathrm{}`$ in our calculations.

To calculate the three-body recombination rate, we solve the hyperradial equations Suno  for potentials like those shown in Fig. 1. The numerical hyperradial wave functions are matched to the appropriate Bessel functions based upon the known form of the long-range potentials Suno . The $`S`$-matrix is obtained and the generalized cross section for three-body recombination is calculated:

$$\sigma =\frac{192(2J+1)\pi ^2}{k^5}\underset{f,\lambda }{}|S_{f,\lambda }|^2=\frac{576\pi ^2}{k^5}\underset{f,\lambda }{}|S_{f,\lambda }|^2.$$
(4)
Here, $`k=\sqrt{2\mu E/\mathrm{}^2}`$ is the hyperspherical wave number in the incident three-body continuum channel, and the indices $`\lambda `$ and $`f`$ label initial three-body continuum and final recombination channels, respectively. As it turns out, the numerical prefactor in Eq. (4) — which is determined by permutation symmetry — is the same as for three identical bosons Esry  (recall that we are considering the $`J^\pi =1^+`$ symmetry). The event rate constant per atomic triad is then defined simply as $`K_3=\frac{\mathrm{}k}{\mu }\sigma `$. This quantity is related to the atom-loss rate constant $`L_3`$ by $`L_3=3K_3/6`$ Esry .

Because the rate depends strongly on the collision energy in the ultracold regime, it must be thermally averaged in order to compare with experimental data. Following Ref. BurkeThesis , we have derived the thermally averaged recombination rate constant to be

$`K_3(T)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{K_3(E)E^2e^{E/k_BT}𝑑E}{E^2e^{E/k_BT}𝑑E}}`$ (5)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{(k_BT)^3}}{\displaystyle K_3(E)E^2e^{E/k_BT}𝑑E}.`$
We show in Fig. 2 $`K_3`$ as a function of $`V_p`$ for a temperature of 2 $`\mu `$K. Specifically, Fig. 2 shows $`(K_3/r_0^4)^{3/8}`$ versus $`V_p/r_0^3`$.

We plot $`K_3^{3/8}`$ to best reveal whether the predicted $`|V_p|^{8/3}`$ scaling actually holds for the calculated rate; the factors of $`r_0`$ were included based on general arguments of length scale invariance of the Schrödinger equation. Because the two-body potentials in Eqs. (2)–(3) depend only on the combination $`r_{ij}/r_0`$, $`r_0`$ can be defined to be the new length scale for both the two-body and three-body systems. This new length scale implies multiplying energies and temperatures by $`r_0^2`$, lengths by $`r_0^1`$, and the rate by $`r_0^4`$. The energy parameter $`D`$ in our model — which controls $`V_p`$ — is independent of the length scale, and so its scaled counterpart, $`r_0^2D`$, can be used to control $`V_p/r_0^3`$. Having calculated the rate as a function of $`V_p`$ and energy for a fixed $`r_0`$, we can thus obtain the rate for any other value of $`r_0`$ by means of the above scaling. The key is that at a fixed laboratory collision energy (or temperature), changing $`r_0`$ effectively changes the range of the two-body potential, and the new rate corresponds to the rate at the scaled energy $`r_0^2E`$. One has to be careful, of course, to track the simultaneous change in the scaled $`V_p`$.

The solid lines in the figure show the thermally averaged rates $`K_3(T)`$, while the dashed lines show the energy-dependent rates $`K_3(E)`$. The symbols for the sech2 potential, Eq. (2), are omitted for clarity since the rate was obtained on a relatively dense set of $`V_p`$ values. The diamonds denote the rates resulting from the second potential, Eq. (3). The rates from the two potentials — which are qualitatively very different — show reasonable quantitative agreement, especially for the more experimentally relevant thermally averaged rate. The poorest agreement occurs at small $`|V_p|`$ where the rates are also small. If, however, the rate curve for either potential with a different value of $`r_0`$ and the same lab energy $`E`$ were plotted here, it would look systematically different, although qualitatively similar. This apparent dependence on the two-body potential would seem to argue against a “universal” curve as was found for bosons Esry ; Nielsen ; Bedaque ; Braaten . Based on the above length scaling arguments, though, it is clear that the scaled rate curves — at the same scaled energy — are what should be compared between different potentials and would thus come closest to a universal curve.

Figure 2 shows that the $`|V_p|^{8/3}`$ scaling does indeed hold quite well for $`|V_p|/r_0^3`$ less than roughly 2500 for $`K_3(E)`$, but for $`K_3(T)`$ it only holds over the region $`|V_p|/r_0^3`$ below approximately 800. Since this scaling is based on the threshold behavior of the rate, it is not surprising that it breaks down sooner for the thermally averaged rate given that the averaging procedure includes rates from higher energies. The fact that the scaling breaks down for $`K_3(E)`$ is an indication that the fixed collision energy is no longer in the threshold regime.

For large positive scattering volumes $`V_p`$, the collision energy eventually becomes large compared to the dimer binding energy, and $`K_3`$ increases more slowly than the $`|V_p|^{8/3}`$ scaling law. Recalling that for negative $`V_p`$ there is a barrier in the initial adiabatic hyperspherical potential, the breakdown in the scaling law comes when the barrier sinks below the collision energy at large negative $`V_p`$. The fact that the recombination rate increases more rapidly than the scaling law with increasing $`|V_p|`$ simply reflects the more ready tunneling through the barrier. The rate continues to increase until it reaches the limit imposed by unitarity, namely (in SI units)

$$K_3^{\mathrm{max}}=\frac{\mathrm{}}{\mu }\frac{576\pi ^2}{k^4}=\frac{\mathrm{}^5}{m^3}\frac{144\sqrt{3}\pi ^2}{E^2}.$$
(6)
This value is obtained from Eq. (4) by assuming that the recombination predominantly comes from the lowest continuum channel with unit probability. We expect that this limit will be reached when $`|V_p|`$ becomes large enough that the barrier in the three-body entrance channel is lower than the collision energy. For the conditions of Fig. 2, this value of $`V_p`$ is well off the scale of the plot.

Interestingly, the inset of Fig. 2 shows a small peak in the rate located at about $`V_p/r_0^3=60`$, i.e. at B=200.8 G. This peak is a constructive interference between two indistinguishable pathways — a Stückelberg oscillation. This peak disappears and reappears as a function of collision energy since the phase difference between the two pathways depends on the energy.

In Fig. 3, we compare our calculations with experimental measurements of the recombination rate of three $`{}_{}{}^{40}\mathrm{K}`$ atoms all in the $`|9/2,7/2`$ spin state near a $`p`$-wave two-body Feshbach resonance. The theoretical rates are calculated at $`T=2.5\mu `$K, while the experimental temperature varies between 2 and 3 $`\mu `$K. The figure shows the rates as functions of the magnetic field strength $`B`$. The Feshbach resonance lies at $`B_0=198.5`$ G; $`V_p`$ is positive for $`B`$ below the resonance and negative for $`B`$ above. Treating $`r_0`$ as a fitting parameter, we obtain the solid line shown in the figure. The agreement on the rise of the resonance ($`V_p>`$0) is better than on the fall ($`V_p<`$0). The disagreement away from the resonance is likely due to the breakdown of the experimental assumption of purely three-body loss in determining the rate coefficient. Near the resonance, however, our theoretical rates between one and two orders of magnitude lower. In fact, for all values of $`r_0`$, the theoretical values lie below the experimental ones. This discrepancy is not surprising given that we included only a single partial wave ($`1^+`$) in our calculation. While this symmetry controls the limiting behavior at threshold, it is not necessarily dominant near the resonant peak. In fact, limited explorations have demonstrated that other $`J^\pi `$ can be comparable to $`1^+`$ at the resonance peak. The contributions from these higher partial waves accumulate quickly since thermal averaging, from Eq. (5), gives an extra factor of roughly $`(J+2)!`$.

In summary, we have investigated ultracold three-body recombination of identical spin-polarized fermions and have numerically calculated the recombination rate as a function of the scattering volume. This is the first such study that we are aware of, and much remains to be understood about these fermion systems. Moreover, with some slight modifications to our numerical method, it is possible to treat systems with only two identical particles. Three-body recombination of such systems plays an important role in experiments on mixed-spin state Fermi gases and mixed Bose-Fermi gases.

This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation and the Research Corporation. We thank C. Ticknor and J. Bohn for sharing their two-body theoretical scattering data. We also thank C. Regal and D. Jin for sharing their experimental recombination rates.


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# The Interesting Dynamics of the 55 Cancri System

## 1. Introduction

Tidal evolution leading to capture into resonance has been invoked to explain the many commensurabilites in our solar system (e.g. Goldreich 1965), but the problem of breaking resonance due to tidal effects is less well-studied. The presence of even a small amount of dissipation can alter the dynamical evolution of the system. In this case, the dissipation causes the resonance to accelerate the circularization of the inner planet compared to what would happen in isolation.

The resonant interaction between the planets in the 55 Cancri system imply that fully self-consistent fits are necessary to obtain the orbital elements of the system. The 3:1 resonance covers a narrow range of semi-major axes, so determining the location of the system within the resonance will require accurate fits, which requires additional data. Direct integrations of the orbital elements given by one fully self-consistent fit (Laughlin 2002) indicate that the resonant angles are circulating and the system in not in resonance.

To study the long term dynamics of the system, we use the classical disturbing function together with Lagrange’s planetary equations to lowest order in eccentricity (e.g. Murray & Dermott 1999). We numerically integrate these equations using a variable time step Bulirsch-Stoer integrator.

We consider tidal evolution in the regime where energy is dissipated and angular momentum is conserved. The eccentricity damping rate is given by $`\dot{e}=e/\tau _e`$ and $`\tau _e=GMme^2Q/anE_0`$ where $`G`$ is the gravitational constant, $`M`$ is the mass of the star, $`m`$ is the mass of the inner planet, $`Q`$ parameterized tidal energy dissipation, $`a`$ is the planet’s semi-major axis, $`n`$ is the planet’s mean motion, and $`E_0`$ is the maximum amount of energy stored in the tidal deformation of the planet. The planet’s eccentricity e-folding time in isolation is given by $`\tau _e`$.

## 2. Restricted three body problem

In order to develop an understanding of the problem, we study a simplified case: the circular restricted three body problem where the inner planet is massless and the outer planet is $`1M_J`$. The resonant libration timescale is $`100`$ orbits of the outer planet, the secular evolution time is $`3500`$ orbits. We assume that tidal dissipation occurs only in the inner planet. The tidal evolution timescale is typically much longer than the dynamical and secular timescales, so we choose a small value for Q. This does not change the character of the dynamics as long as the tidal timescale remains long compared to other timescales.

As tides remove energy the outer planet supplies the inner planet with enough energy to maintain the commensurability, but an adiabatic invariant demands that the resonant angle’s libration amplitude increase as the eccentricity decreases, eventually breaking the resonance. The energy flow is arranged by forcing the resonant angle librate to about a mean value slightly displaced from its equilibrium value of $`\pi `$. The flow of angular momentum between the planets is determined by the same resonant angle and this results in faster circularization of the inner planet’s orbit compared to the situation where the inner planet is isolated. In the case of the 3:1 resonance, the inner planet circularizes five times faster in the presence of an outer companion.

## 3. Breaking the resonance

The resonant angle’s libration amplitude can be written as

$$\mathrm{\Delta }a_i=4a_i\sqrt{Cm_oa_i/3Ma_o}e_i^{j/2}\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi /4)$$
(1)
where the subscripts $`i,o`$ refer to the inner and outer planets, $`m`$ is the mass of a planet, $`M`$ is the mass of the star, $`j`$ is the order of the resonance, $`\varphi `$ is the resonant angle, $`C`$ is a constant determined by the resonance under consideration, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }a`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$ refer to the full width of the libration. As energy is removed, the only one of these factors to change is the inner planets eccentricity which determines that the resonant angle will begin to circulate when:

$$e_{break}=e_{init}(\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _{init}/4))^{2/j}$$
(2)
where the subscript $`init`$ refers to the values when tidal dissipation became important. Once the resonance is broken the inner planet evolves to a circular orbit only under the influence of tides, where the final semi-major axis is $`a_{final}=a_{res}(1e_{break}^2)`$ and $`a_{res}`$ is that corresponding to the exact commensurability. The final period ratio of the two planets gives a constraint on how deep the two planets were in resonance when tidal effects became important.

Knowing the eccentricity decay timescale as augmented by the dynamics of the resonance allows us to write the time required to break the resonance after tidal effects become important as:

$$\tau _{break}=2(1+2j)\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi /4))/j$$
(3)
## 4. Conclusions

We used the classical disturbing function together with Lagrange’s planetary equations accurate to lowest order in eccentricity to study resonance breaking through tidal dissipation. It is possible to derive analytic expressions for the inner planet’s eccentricity when the resonance is broken and the time required to break the resonance (equations 2, 3). These expressions are in good agreement with the secular theory (figure 3)

This is applicable to the 55 Cancri system because the inner planet is near the regime where tidal effects are starting to play a role and current fits to the radial velocity curve give orbital elements where the planets are not in the resonance. We argue that the two planets became trapped in resonance while farther from the star and then broke the resonance when tidal dissipation began to play a role in the inner planet’s evolution.

## References

Goldreich, P. 1965, MNRAS, 130, 159

Laughlin, G. 2002, Personal Communication

Marcy, G. W., Butler, R. P., Fischer, D. A., Laughlin, G., Vogt, S. S., Henry, G. W., & Pourbaix, D. 2002, Submitted to ApJ

Murray, C. & Dermott, S. 1999, Solar System Dynamics, Cambridge University Press


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# Role of density imbalance in an interacting bilayer hole system

## Abstract

We study interacting GaAs hole bilayers in the limit of zero interlayer tunneling. When the layers have equal density, we observe a phase coherent bilayer quantum Hall state at total filling factor $`\nu =1`$, flanked by a reentrant insulating phase at nearby fillings which suggests the formation of a pinned, bilayer Wigner crystal. As we transfer charge from one layer to another, the phase coherent quantum Hall state becomes stronger evincing its robustness against charge imbalance, but the insulating phase disappears, suggesting that its stability requires the commensurability of the two layers.

When two layers of electrons are brought into close proximity so that interlayer interaction is strong, new physical phenomena, with no counterpart in the single layer case, can occur. Examples include unique collective quantum Hall states (QHSs) at even-denominator fractional fillings $`\nu =1/2`$ and $`3/2`$ suen-eisen , and at $`\nu =1`$ murphy ; lay ; moon ; spielman ; kellogg2002  ($`\nu `$ is the total filling factor of the bilayer system). These states are stabilized by a combination of interlayer and intralayer Coulomb interaction. The bilayer $`\nu =1`$ QHS is a particularly interesting state as it possesses unique, spontaneous, interlayer phase coherence: even in the limit of zero tunneling, the electrons spread between both layers coherently. The state exhibits unusual properties such as Josephson-like interlayer tunneling spielman  as well as quantized Hall drag kellogg2002 .

Here we report magnetotransport experiments on interacting bilayer holes, confined to two GaAs quantum wells with essentially no interlayer tunneling, with an emphasis on the properties of the system as the layer densities are made unequal (imbalanced). The results of our study are highlighted in Fig. 1 where the longitudinal resistivity ($`\rho _{xx}`$) vs. perpendicular magnetic field ($`B`$) traces are shown. When the densities in the two layers are equal (balanced), we observe a QHS at $`\nu =1`$, flanked by an insulating phase (IP) reentrant around this QHS and extending to filling factors as large as $`\nu 1.1`$ \[Fig. 1(a)\]. As we transfer charge from one layer to another while maintaining the total density constant, the IP at $`\nu 1.1`$ is destroyed but, surprisingly, the $`\nu =1`$ QHS becomes stronger \[Fig. 1(b)\]. The weakening of the IP with charge transfer indicates that this phase is stabilized by a delicate balance of interlayer and intralayer Coulomb interaction, and suggests a pinned, bilayer Wigner crystal. The strengthening of the $`\nu =1`$ QHS with increasing charge transfer, on the other hand, demonstrates the robustness of its phase coherence against charge imbalance.

Figure 1(c) reveals yet another intriguing feature of transport coefficients in an imbalanced, interacting bilayer system: $`\rho _{xx}`$ exhibits pronounced hysteresis at lower magnetic fields near $`\nu =2`$, close to field values where either the majority or the minority layer are expected to be at (layer) filing factor 1. The hysteresis signals a first-order quantum phase transition and is likely caused by an instability associated with the layer index degree of freedom (pseudospin). We have included the hysteretic data of Fig. 1(c) for completeness; we will defer a discussion of this remarkable phenomenon to a future publication. Here we focus on two main findings of our work, namely, the robustness of the phase coherent $`\nu =1`$ QHS in imbalanced bilyers and the IP that is reentrant around it.

We studied Si-modulation doped GaAs double-layer hole systems grown on GaAs (311)A substrates. We measured six samples from four different wafers, all displaying consistent results; here we concentrate on data taken in three samples, from three different wafers. In these samples, the holes are confined to two GaAs quantum wells which have a width of 150$`\AA `$ each and are separated by either a 110$`\AA `$ (samples A and C) or 75$`\AA `$ (sample B) wide AlAs barrier; sample C has typically a larger hole density. We used patterned L-shape Hall bars aligned along the \[01$`\overline{1}`$\] and \[$`\overline{2}`$33\] crystal directions. The hole systems grown on GaAs (311)A substrates, including bilayer systems used in this study, exhibit a mobility anisotropy stemming from an anisotropic surface morphology, with the mobility being lower for current parallel to \[01$`\overline{1}`$\]. Here we present data measured with current along \[01$`\overline{1}`$\]; data taken with current parallel to \[$`\overline{2}`$33\] are very similar. In all measurements the ohmic contacts are connected to both layers. Metallic top and bottom gates were added to control the densities in the layers. We determined the layer densities from a careful examination of the positions (in $`B`$) of the QHSs and the Hall coefficient, and from the observation of a small step in the capacitance between the bilayer and the top gate as the top layer is depleted. The measurements were performed down to a temperature of $`T=30`$mK, and using standard low-frequency lock-in techniques.

In Fig. 1(a) we show $`\rho _{xx}`$ vs. $`B`$ traces for sample A, taken at different temperatures; the total hole density is $`p_{tot}=4.9\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2 and the two layers have equal densities. Similar data are shown in Fig. 2 for sample B at $`p_{tot}=3.9\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2. The $`T=30mK`$ data show a strong minimum in $`\rho _{xx}`$ at total filling factor $`\nu =1`$, as well as a developing plateau in the Hall resistance (Fig. 2). Owing to the thick AlAs barriers, and the rather large hole effective mass ($`m^{}=0.38m_0`$, $`m_0`$ is the free electron mass) interlayer tunneling is virtually zero tunneling , implying that the observed $`\nu =1`$ QHS is stabilized solely by interlayer coherence moon . The ratio between the interaction energy of carriers in different layers and in the same layer is quantified by $`d/l_B`$, where $`d`$ is the interlayer distance and $`l_B=\sqrt{\mathrm{}/eB}`$ is the magnetic length at $`\nu =1`$. For the cases examined in Figs. 1(a) and 2, this ratio is 1.45 and 1.12, respectively; these are close to $`d/l_B`$ for which the coherent $`\nu =1`$ QHS was observed in earlier studies of GaAs electron murphy ; spielman  and hole hyndman  bilayers. Also consistent with previous results are our data (not shown), taken on sample C, at densities of $`p_{tot}9.15\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2 ($`d/l_B1.98`$), which show no sign of a $`\nu =1`$ QHS.

We now focus on the first major finding of our Letter, namely, the behavior of the $`\nu =1`$ QHS as a function of charge imbalance between the layers. In Fig. 1(b) we show $`\rho _{xx}`$ traces for sample A, all taken at $`p_{tot}=4.9\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2 note2 , but with different densities in each layer. We define the charge transfer from one layer to another as $`\mathrm{\Delta }p=(p_Bp_T)/2`$, where $`p_B`$ and $`p_T`$ are respectively the densities of bottom and top layers. The data of Fig. 1(b) reveal qualitatively that the $`\nu =1`$ QHS is weakest when the layers have equal densities and quickly becomes stronger as $`\mathrm{\Delta }p`$ increases, i.e., when the bilayer system is imbalanced. We further note that, while the results of Fig. 1(b) were taken by increasing $`p_B`$ and reducing $`p_T`$, we obtain a similar set of traces by transferring charge from the bottom layer to the top one.

To quantify the trend observed in Fig. 1(b), we have determined the energy gap ($`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Delta }`$) of the $`\nu =1`$ QHS from $`\rho _{xx}`$ activation measurements for both samples A and B at $`p_{tot}=4.9\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2, corresponding to $`d/l_B`$ equal to 1.45 and 1.25, respectively. We obtain the energy gap by fitting an exponential dependence $`\rho _{xx}\mathrm{exp}(^1\mathrm{\Delta }/2k_BT)`$ to the $`\nu =1`$ resistivity vs. temperature data ($`k_B`$ is Boltzmann’s constant). We note that for sample A at $`\mathrm{\Delta }p=0`$, a determination of the energy gap at $`\nu =1`$ is impeded by the IP developing at $`\nu 1.1`$. For this point only (shown in Fig. 3 as an open symbol) we have determined a pseudogap energy pseudogap . The measured $`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ presented in Fig. 3, quantitatively confirm the conclusion drawn qualitatively from the data shown in Fig. 1(b): $`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is minimum at $`\mathrm{\Delta }p=0`$ and increases when $`|\mathrm{\Delta }p|`$ is increased note1 .

Our observation of a $`\nu =1`$ QHS in balanced bilayer hole systems with a $`d/l_B`$ ratio of 1.45 or smaller is consistent with previous reports for bilayer electron murphy ; spielman  and hole hyndman  systems. At such small layer separations, the strong interlayer interaction leads to a $`\nu =1`$ QHS with spontaneous phase coherence meaning that the charged carriers are spread between both layers coherently, even in the limit of zero interlayer tunneling. Our observation of a $`\nu =1`$ QHS in an imbalanced bilayer carrier system in the limit of zero tunneling, on the other hand, is new. As we discuss below, it further confirms the phase coherent nature of the $`\nu =1`$ QHS and demonstrates the robustness of this remarkable state against charge imbalance.

Previous measurements of the $`\nu =1`$ QHS in imbalanced bilayers have focused on electron systems with rather strong tunneling; e.g., the tunneling energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ was $`6.8`$ K in Ref. sawada98 , and $`15`$ K in Ref. dolgopolov99 . For balanced states, the measured $`\nu =1`$ QHS energy gaps measured in both of these studies were of the order of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$. In Ref. sawada98 , an increase of $`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ with increasing charge imbalance was reported, consistent with the expected increase in the subband separation energy. In our hole bilayers, on the other hand, $`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is determined by interaction and the resulting phase coherence, and not by the subband separation. This is obvious for $`\mathrm{\Delta }p=0`$, where our estimated subband separation, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}1\mu `$K tunneling , is orders of magnitude smaller than the measured $`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (which is, e.g., about 1K for sample B). For finite $`\mathrm{\Delta }p`$, the subband separation in our samples, in which interlayer tunneling is negligible, is essentially equal to the energy separation between the lowest Landau levels of the two layers, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{LLL}=(2m^{}/\pi \mathrm{}^2)|\mathrm{\Delta }p|`$. Note that this subband separation is independent of the layer separation and therefore the same for all three samples. In Fig. 3, we have indicated $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{LLL}`$ by dotted lines. An examination of the data of Fig. 3 clearly shows that the energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{LLL}`$ is not what is leading to the stability of the $`\nu =1`$ QHS is our samples. Indeed, at a given $`\mathrm{\Delta }p`$, the energy gap at $`\nu =1`$ varies from zero when $`d/l_B`$ is large (sample C with $`d/l_B1.98`$, in which no $`\nu =1`$ QHS is observed in the range of imbalance studied here), to several K for sample B, where $`d/l_B=1.25`$ (Fig. 3). What determines the strength of the $`\nu =1`$ QHS in therefore not the single-particle $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{LLL}`$ but rather the interaction and the ensuing phase coherence.

In analogy with the real spin, the additional degree of freedom of the electrons in bilayer systems is commonly described by a pseudospin: if the electron is in the top (bottom) layer, then the pseudospin is pointing up (down) along the $`z`$-axis, which is defined by the growth direction. The stability of the phase coherent $`\nu =1`$ QHS against charge imbalance can be understood in a Hartree-Fock mean-field theory joglekar , where it is assumed that the pseudospin points in the same direction for all electrons in the lowest Landau level. The favored direction will be a result of the competition between the bias between the layers, which tends to align the pseudospins along the $`z`$-axis, and the capacitive energy cost, i.e., the Coulomb repulsion between the layers, which forces the pseudospin to lie in the $`x`$-$`y`$ plane (i.e. the plane of the 2D system). Moreover, thanks to the exchange interaction, all pseudospins prefer to be aligned. As a compromise, the pseudospin will lie in the $`x`$-$`z`$ plane with the $`z`$-component increasing as the bilayer is further imbalanced. It should be noted however, that according to reference joglekar  it is also found that the gap of the $`\nu =1`$ QHS is independent of the charge imbalance, in contrast to the results of our measurements. Experimentally, we find that the gaps show an approximately quadratic dependence on $`\mathrm{\Delta }p`$ for small $`\mathrm{\Delta }p`$. In sample B, we also observe a ”kink” in the dependence of the gap on $`\mathrm{\Delta }p`$ around $`|\mathrm{\Delta }p|=5\times 10^9`$ cm-2; we do not know the origin of this kink.

We now come to another important finding of our study, namely the IPs observed near $`\nu =1`$. Data of Figs. 1(a) and 2 reveal an IP, reentrant around the $`\nu =1`$ QHS, which extends to fillings as large as $`\nu 1.1`$. Remarkably, a charge transfer of only a few percent from one layer to another is sufficient to destroy this IP. This conclusion is drawn from the $`T`$-dependence of $`\rho _{xx}`$ at $`\nu 1.1`$, an example of which is shown in Fig. 4 for sample B at $`p_{tot}=4.9\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2. It is appealing to interpret the IP as a pinned, bilayer Wigner crystal (WC) state. In previous studies of various low-disorder, two-dimensional carrier systems, similar IPs, reentrant around fractional QHSs at low Landau level fillings have been reported shayegan . Based on a variety of measurements and calculations, such IPs are believed to be signatures of pinned WC states, although so far there has been no definitive proof.

In the present case, it may appear surprising that a WC state occurs at such high filling factors. However, this interpretation is consistent with earlier experimental and theoretical studies shayegan , which suggest that, in interacting bilayer systems a WC state with commensurate layer lattices can be stabilized at filling factors higher than in the single-layer case. For example, while a single-layer GaAs electron system displays a reentrant IP (interpreted as a pinned WC) near $`\nu =1/5`$, an interacting GaAs bilayer electron system exhibits a similar IP around $`\nu =1/2`$ hari . Experimental studies have also revealed that single-layer, dilute, GaAs hole systems exhibit an IP near $`\nu =1/3`$, a higher filling factor than the corresponding single-layer GaAs electrons ($`\nu =1/5`$); this is also consistent with the WC picture: thanks to the Landau level mixing facilitated by the larger hole effective mass, the WC state is favored at higher fillings shayegan . Based on these observations, the formation of a WC state reentrant around $`\nu =1`$ in a bilayer 2D hole system with strong interlayer interaction appears plausible.

The data of Fig. 4 reveal an intriguing feature. When the bilayer system is balanced, $`\rho _{xx}`$ monotonically increases with decreasing $`T`$. For sufficiently large imbalance ($`\mathrm{\Delta }p=7.1\times 10^9`$ cm-2), the decrease of $`\rho _{xx}`$ with decreasing $`T`$ is also monotonic. When only slightly imbalanced, however, $`\rho _{xx}`$ at $`\nu 1.1`$ initially increases as $`T`$ is lowered but then at the lowest temperatures it decreases tmax . This non-monotonic $`T`$-dependence is unusual and may be caused by a competition between the WC state and the nearby phase-coherent $`\nu =1`$ QHS. Indeed for $`\mathrm{\Delta }p=7.1\times 10^9`$ cm-2, the $`\nu =1`$ QHS is quite strong and, at the lowest temperatures, exhibits a $`\rho _{xx}`$ minimum that extends to $`\nu 1.1`$. This may account for the very strong $`T`$-dependence of the $`\nu 1.1`$ $`\rho _{xx}`$ minimum at $`\mathrm{\Delta }p=7.1\times 10^9`$ cm-2 strongTdependence .

Our observations highlight the rich and subtle nature of many-body states that exist at nearby fillings in GaAs bilayer hole systems in the limit of zero tunneling but with small layer separation. When balanced, such systems show a phase-coherent $`\nu =1`$ QHS state, flanked by a reentrant IP, possibly a pinned bilayer WC state that is stabilized at such high fillings because of interlayer interaction. When the bilayer is imbalanced, the $`\nu =1`$ QHS state survives and even gets stronger, consistent with its phase-coherent origin. The IP, on the other hand, disappears, suggesting that its stability requires commensurability (of the WC lattices) in the two layers.

We thank A.H. MacDonald, F.D.M. Haldane and Y.P. Shkolnikov for fruitful discussions, and NSF and DOE for support.


text:
# 1WGA J1216.9+3743: Chandra Finds an Extremely Steep Ultraluminous X-ray Source

## 1 Introduction

X-ray observations of nearby galaxies have shown that their X-ray emission comes from different classes of sources: X-ray binaries, supernova remnants, hot interstellar medium in addition to possible background active galactic nuclei (AGNs; see e.g. Fabbiano 1989 for a review). Some of the point-like sources appear to radiate well in excess of the Eddington limit for a $`1M_{}`$ object, with inferred luminosities in the range $`10^{39}10^{40}`$ ergs s$`^1`$ . These objects are often referred to as ultra luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) or intermediate-luminosity X-ray objects (IXOs), inasmuch their luminosity is in between those of “normal” X-ray binaries and AGNs. Up to now about 90 ULXs have been detected in more than 50 galaxies (see Colbert & Ptak 2002 for a recent catalog). ULXs seem to be preferentially located in the outskirts of the host galaxy, although some are found in the central regions (e.g. IXO 95 in NGC 6949). As pointed out by Colbert & Ptak, starburst galaxies contain a comparatively large number of ULXs, but spirals seem not to be favoured hosts with respect to ellipticals. In a very recent paper, moreover, evidence was found for a ULX associated with a globular cluster in NGC 4565 (Wu et al. 2002). ULXs are often variable sources and their X-ray spectrum may be quite soft (e.g. Makishima et al. 2000). No certain optical counterpart has been found for these sources yet, implying an extreme X-ray–to-optical flux ratio. Very recently Pakull & Mironi (2002) reported the presence of emission nebulae at the position of some ULXs and suggested that they could actually be related to the episode which led to the ULX formation.

Thus far no generally accepted model has been presented to explain the huge energy output of ULXs. Assuming that the Eddington limit is not exceeded and emission is isotropic implies that ULXs are powered by accretion onto a $`50100M_{}`$ black hole. Present evolutionary scenarios do not preclude such a possibility and the fact that these are rare sources may be compatible with the mean number of ULX per galaxy being only 1-2 (Colbert & Ptak 2002). Alternatively ULXs may be interpreted as conventional black hole binaries ($`M_{BH}10M_{}`$) with modest beaming coming from a collimated X-ray emission ($`b0.1`$, King et al. 2001) or to a relativistically beamed emission. In this picture the Galactic analogues of ULXs should be the microquasars, such as GRS 1915+105 and GRO 1655-40.

This paper presents a multi-wavelength study of a new ULX, 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743, found in NGC 4244. This source is one of the 16 peculiar ROSAT PSPC sources selected for their extremely high X-ray-to-optical flux ratio (Cagnoni et al. 2002). 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 is a bright ($`F_{(0.12.4\mathrm{keV})}>10^{13}`$ erg cm-2 s-1) WGACAT (White, Giommi & Angelini 1994) source with blank fields, i.e. no optical counterparts on the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey to O=21.5. The extreme $`f_X/f_V`$ ratio that follows is incompatible with all major and common classes of extragalactic sources, including normal quasars, AGNs, normal galaxies and nearby clusters of galaxies (Maccacaro et al. 1988). Possibilities for the nature of these ‘blanks’ (Cagnoni et al. 2002) include: (a) Quasar-2s, i.e. high luminosity, high redshift heavily obscured quasars, the bright analogs of Seyfert 2s; (b) Low Mass Seyfert-2s, AGNs powered by a low-mass obscured black hole (i.e. obscured Narrow Line Sy 1); (c) AGNs with no big blue bump, e.g. low radiative efficiency flows; (d) Isolated Neutron Stars (e.g. Treves et al. 2000); (e) $`\gamma `$-ray burst X-ray afterglows or fast variable/ transient sources; (f) failed clusters, in which a large overdensity of matter has collapsed but has not formed galaxies (Tucker, Tananbaum & Remillard 1995); (g) high redshift clusters of galaxies and, most relevant to this paper, (h) ULXs in nearby galaxies.

Using X-ray archival data (ROSAT and Chandra) and the information obtained from optical and IR follow-ups, we present strong evidence that 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 is indeed a ULX in NGC 4244, a B=-18.4 (Olling 1996) edge-on spiral galaxy (Hubble type Scd) at a distance of $`3.6`$ Mpc (Fry et al. 1999).

We present the X-ray, optical and IR observations in § 2 and discuss the results in § 3.
Errors in the paper represent 90% confidence levels, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

## 2 Observations

### 2.1 ROSAT

1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3347 was serendipitously observed by ROSAT PSPC in November 1991 and the results of this observation are reported in Cagnoni et al. (2002); we summarize here the main findings. During the 9 ks PSPC observation (600179n00) a total of 135 net photons were collected between 0.07 and 2.4 keV. We extracted a spectrum and fitted it with both an absorbed power-law and an absorbed blackbody model. Despite the scanty statistics and the large error bars both fits agree on the extreme softness of 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 emission ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }=4.90_{1.74}^{+5.10}`$ for the power-law and $`kT200`$ eV for the blackbody models respectively) and on the presence of absorption a factor of 10-30 in excess of the Galactic value in this direction ($`N_{H\mathrm{Gal}}=1.69\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2; $`N_H4.5`$ and $`1.5`$ $`\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 for the power-law and blackbody models, respectively). The source absorbed flux in the $`0.52.0`$ keV band is $`1.2\times 10^{13}`$ erg cm-2 s-1, which corresponds to an absorbed luminosity of $`2\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1 and to an unabsorbed luminosity of $`10^{39}`$ erg s-1 for both the power-law and black body models at NGC 4244 distance. ROSAT PSPC lightcurve is consistent with the source being constant during the observation (65% probability).

1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 region was observed by the HRI instrument on board ROSAT in June 1996 for $`8.5`$ ks, but the source was not detected, consistently with the extrapolation in the HRI band of the best-fit absorbed power-law. The $`3\sigma `$ upper limit on the count rate in a 24′′ circle is 0.0023 counts s-1.

### 2.2 Chandra

1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3347 was serendipitously observed by Chandra ACIS-S on May 20 2000 during a $`50`$ ks observation of the nearby galaxy NGC 4244. 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 is 6 kpc off NGC 4244 center and is detected as a point-like source on ACIS-S S2 front illuminated chip with a total of 1948 counts between 0.3 and 10 keV with peak position at $`\alpha =12^\mathrm{h}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}16}^\mathrm{m}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}56.927}^\mathrm{s}`$, $`\delta =+37^{}43^{}35.89^{\prime \prime }`$ (J2000).

We reprocessed Chandra archival data using the CXC analysis package CIAO 2.2.1 (Elvis et al., in prep.) and CALDB 2.9. The source position determination was improved by using the new geometry parameter file added to CALDB 2.9 and by removing the pixel randomization of $`\pm 0.5`$ pixels introduced by the standard Chandra pipeline processing (e.g. Garcia et al. 2001). We corrected the data for bad pixels and checked for high particle background times during the observation. The observation is not affected by any significant background flare. 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 average count rate during this observation is $`(3.92\pm 0.98)\times 10^2`$ photons s-1 between 0.3 and 10 keV for a total of 1948 counts in the $`49`$ ks of net exposure. In a conservative test to confirm whether any background flare might affect our results, we have excluded the time intervals with background count rate a factor 1.2 larger or smaller than the mean value during the observation111Note that all the points lie within a factor 1.3, as suggested by CIAO 2.2.1 Science Threads (http://asc.harvard.edu/ciao/threads/acisbackground/). This would bring to an useful exposure time of 42 ks and to 1653 net photons (0.3-10 keV) for 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 . A detailed comparison shows that the count rate, spectrum and lightcurves are fully consistent with those extracted from the total observation222E.g. the 42 ks spectrum fitted with an absorbed power law model gives values perfectly in agreement with those reported in Table 1 $`N_H=4.46_{0.47}^{+0.51}\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=4.91_{0.25}^{+0.28}`$, normalization=$`3.37_{0.44}^{+0.54}\times 10^4`$ photons cm-2 s-1 keV-1 and reduced $`\chi ^2=1.32`$ for 39 degrees of freedom (d.o.f.). Errors represent here 1$`\sigma `$ confidence..

We extracted a spectrum for the source using a circle with radius $`17.5^{\prime \prime }`$ (35 pixels) and a local background in an annular region with radii of 20′′ and 50′′ (40 and 100 pixels) respectively from which a circle of 15′′ centered on a nearby source was excluded. We binned the spectrum to have a minimum of 30 counts per bin and fitted it with SHERPA between 0.3 and 10.0 keV with an absorbed power-law model and an absorbed disk blackbody. Both models proved to be a poor representation of the data and the results are unchanged when the ACIS quantum efficiency degradation is taken into account. We tried with more complex models, such as an absorbed power-law $`+`$ disk blackbody, an absorbed power-law $`+`$ a Raymond-Smith thermal plasma and an absorbed broken power-law and they are all acceptable. The spectrum and the residuals to an absorbed power-law model are reported in Figure 1 and the results of all the fits are reported in Table 1. We also report in Table 1 the 0.5-10 keV absorbed fluxes and the 0.5-10 keV absorbed and unabsorbed luminosities of the source. It is clear from Table 1 that: (i) 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 spectrum is extremely soft ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }4.90_{0.36}^{+0.42}`$); (ii) simple models give an unacceptable fit to the data; (iii) all but the broken power-law model predict a high column density ($`17\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2) in 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 direction; (iv) 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 unabsorbed 0.5-10 keV luminosity is $`10^{39}`$ erg s-1 (for all but the broken power-law model, which could mimic the absorption with a flatter low energy slope and for the disk blackbody model, which is the statisticcally worst model).

We extracted lightcurves for the source and background between 0.3 and 10 keV using the same circular and annular regions used for the spectral analysis. The background subtracted lightcurve of 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 binned over 5000 s is shown in Figure 2 and the source displays a factor 1.5 variability. A fit with a constant model gives a $`0.5`$% probability for constant emission, indicating that 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 is variable on timescales $``$ 5000 s. We have confirmed the variability by an independent method using a Bayesian-block analysis to the unbinned data which has recently been developed for the Chandra Multi-wavelength Project (J. Drake, private communication; Kim et al. 2002, in preparation).

### 2.3 Optical and Infrared

We obtained deep IR imaging in the K-band (to $`K18`$) with NSFCAM at NASA/IRTF on January 2000 and deep R-band imaging (to $`R25`$) with MOSAIC at KPNO 4m in February 2001. We performed standard imaging reduction using IRAF version 2.11.3 and calculated accurate astrometric solutions for the data using the digital sky survey.

The Chandra error box (0.67′′ at 95% confidence level for $`1000`$ net photons at $`6^{}`$ off-axis, Kim et al. in preparation) contains only one object (at $`0.6^{\prime \prime }`$ from Chandra central position), which appears stellar on the R image (Figure 3). 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 counterpart lies in the optical extent of NGC 4244, at $`6`$ kpc from the galaxy center, and it is thus likely to be associated to the galaxy (we exclude a possible AGN in the background in § 3).

Since the night was not photometric we obtained an estimate of the source magnitude rescaling from the USNO catalog sources in the 17.0–20.0 R-magnitude range falling on the CCD. The estimated R-band magnitude is $`23.7\pm 0.5`$, while the source is not visible in the K-band image down to K$`18`$. The X-ray over R-band flux ratio, defined as in Hornschemeir et al. (2001), is $`170`$.

We searched for radio counterparts from the FIRST and the NVSS surveys but none were found within $`30^{\prime \prime }`$ of the Chandra position, setting an upper limit of $`1`$ mJy at 1.4 GHz.

## 3 Discussion

The properties of 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 indicate that it is an ULX in NGC 4244. The source absorbed flux in the 0.5–2.0 keV band derived from Chandra data ($`1.8\times 10^{13}`$ ergs cm-2 s$`^1`$) is consistent within the errors with that measured with ROSAT ($`1.2\times 10^{13}`$ ergs cm-2 s$`^1`$), so the source appears not to have significantly varied between the two observations ($`9`$ yrs). The unabsorbed luminosity of 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 at NGC 4244 distance is $`2\times 10^{39}`$ ergs s$`^1`$ for the absorbed power law model Note however, that the 50 ks Chandra observation provides evidence for variability on a much shorter timescale ($`5000`$ s). We also found that the spectral shape did not change from the ROSAT observation and, although no simple emission model gives a satisfactory fit, the X-ray continuum appears to be very soft and can be roughly described by a very steep absorbed power-law with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }5`$ but not with thermal emission. A complex spectral shape was also found for the stacked spectra obtained from the ULXs in the Antennea galaxies by Zezas et al. (2002a) (see their Figure 2): the spectrum presented here for 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 suggests that the complexity might not be the effect of the superposition of different types of ULX spectra, but it is intrinsic to each source.

Using the X-ray flux at 1 keV from the absorbed power-law fit, the R-band magnitude and the upper limit at 1.4 GHz we computed 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 broad band spectral indices according to the formula

$$\alpha _{x_1x_2}=\frac{\mathrm{log}(f(x_2)/f(x_1))}{\mathrm{log}(\lambda (x_1)/\lambda (x_2))}$$
(1)
We used the canonical 1 keV, V-band (5500 Å) and 5 GHz points, by extrapolating the R-band flux density to the V-band and the 1.4 GHz flux density to 5 GHz assuming a flat spectral shape, and we obtain $`\alpha _{RO}0.60`$, $`\alpha _{OX}=0.23`$ and $`\alpha _{RX}0.47`$. Such values place 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 out of the region occupied by AGNs in the $`\alpha _{RO}`$$`\alpha _{OX}`$ plane (e.g. Caccianiga et al. 1999) since not even the most extreme BL Lac objects can reach such values (e.g. Costamante & Ghisellini 2002). Taking absorption into account would make the situation even more extreme (e.g. an absorbing column of $`4\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 with Galactic dust to gas ratio would enhance the X-ray flux by a factor of $`10`$ and the optical flux of a factor $`6`$). We can thus exclude the possibility of 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 being a background AGN.

We can also exclude the possibility of 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 being a supernova remnant for the short timescale variability displayed in the Chandra observation and by the lack of a significant fading in the 9 years between the ROSAT and the Chandra observations.

Even if the best fit model for 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743, a convex absorbed broken power-law, is usually used to describe the synchrotron peak observed in beamed sources such as blazars, the sharp change in the power-law shape of 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1=0.22`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2=3.85`$) is difficult to reconcile with the smoothly curving blazar synchrotron peak (e.g. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1=2.1`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2=2.8`$ measured for Mrk 421 by Guainazzi et al. 1999).

1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 luminosity falls at the lower end of the ULX range. Some emission models implies $`L_X<10^{39}`$ ergs s$`^1`$ (see Table 1). In particular, the absorbed power-law plus Raymond-Smith model, and the absorbed broken power-law models, which have the lowest $`\chi ^2`$, give a luminosity of only few $`10^{38}`$ ergs s$`^1`$ . This would make 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 an ordinary X-ray binary in NGC 4244. However, optically thin bremsstrahlung emission is typical of extended sources, like clusters of galaxies, and we found no evidence for a diffuse nature of this source in Chandra data and the broken power-law model does not have a straightforward physical interpretation. The relatively low luminosity of 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 may still suggest that this source is an X-ray binary with a $`M10M_{}`$ black hole, of the Cyg X-1 type. The X-ray spectrum however strongly argues against this possibility, being much softer of those of Galactic black hole candidates (BHCs). BHCs spectra in the high state are thermal and soft, but peak around a few keV and extend up to $`10`$ keV.

The extreme softness of the X-ray spectrum makes this source rather peculiar among the ULXs. In fact, while very soft spectra have been already detected from other ULXs with ROSAT, successive observations over a wider energy range showed a harder component. An example of this behaviour is MS 0317.7$``$6647 which has been first associated with an isolated neutron star by Stocke et al. (1995) on the basis of its soft, thermal spectrum. The source was later identified with a ULX by Makishima et al. (2000) when ASCA data convincingly showed a hard tail ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }2`$), possibly associated with a multicolor disk blackbody. Before the advent of Chandra the ULXs seen by ROSAT and ASCA were consistent with emission from a multicolor disk blackbody (e.g. Makishima et al. 2000); Chandra is now discovering a new class of steep ULX (e.g. out of the 30 ULX of Zezas et al. 2002b, 9 have a steep spectrum). 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 is the source for which the best Chandra spectrum is available so far. In the study of the Antennae galaxies Zezas et al. (2002a) find steeper spectra for the least luminous ULX: 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 seem to fit in this picture, interpreted with the possible presence of undetected diffuse hot interstellar medium in the proximity of the source. Alternatively one could consider that the indication of a luminosity dependent spectral shape is due to different accretion properties. The steep ULXs could be the “galactic” analog of Narrow Line Seyfert galaxies (a steep version of the Seyfert galaxies) which are thought to be powered by a lower mass black hole accreting at a higher rate compared to “normal” Seyferts.

Follow-up optical observations allowed us to discover a possible counterpart of 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743 at $`0.6^{\prime \prime }`$ from Chandra position. The association is based only on the positional coincidence. The Chandra error box is quite small (95% confidence radius $`<1^{\prime \prime }`$, Kim et al. in preparation) and the background field is not very crowded (see Fig. 3), so the possibility of a chance alignment appears unlikely, albeit it can not be ruled out on the basis of present data. The optical counterpart has $`R23.7`$; if this source is a star in NGC 4244, it has to be a red star or its bolometric correction would imply a luminosity not compatible with even the most luminous stars known. The most likely possibility is that the suggested counterpart is a late type giant/supergiant, like a M5 II-III; for this spectral range the source luminosity, corrected for extinction, would be $`L7\times 10^{37}`$ ergs s$`^1`$ , about $`10^4L_{}`$. The R-K$`<5.7`$ derived from the IR non-detection is not stringent and it is satisfied by the red stars.

ULXs are one of the most interesting class of sources which are now being investigated by the X-ray satellites Chandra and XMM-Newton. We presented in this paper the best spectrum ($`2000`$ photons) available so far for a steep-spectrum ULX. Steep ULXs, like 1WGA J1216.9$`+`$3743, , appear to be related to the least luminous objects of the ULX class (e.g. Zezas et al. 2002a) and were essentially unknown before the launch of Chandra and XMM-Newton. Future investigations are needed to understand the emission mechanisms powering these sources and to confirm and explain a possible luminosity dependence of the spectral shape.

This work made use of the Digitized Sky Surveys produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under U.S. Government grant NAG W-2166 and of the US Naval Observatory catalog USNO-A1.0 manteined by the European Southern Observatory. I.C. thanks Luigi Foschini and Andreas Zezas for the useful scientific discussion. We are also grateful to the staffs of NASA-IRTF and FLWO. I.C. acknowledges a CNAA fellowship and A.C. the MIUR.


text:
# Terahertz magneto-spectroscopy of transient plasmas in semiconductors

## I INTRODUCTION

The advent of long-wavelength coherent sources, such as free-electron lasers (FELs),fel  parametric generators with difference frequency mixing,pg  terahertz (THz) antennas,THz  and quantum cascade lasersqcl  has brought an entirely new class of opportunities to study low-energy phenomena in solid state systems in the time domain and/or high-intensity regimes. In particular, far-infrared (FIR) / THz pulses can directly probe low-energy dynamics in bulk and quantum-confined semiconductors, e.g., cyclotron resonance (CR),nurmikko ; nicholas ; singh ; murdin ; kono ; mitchell internal transitions of shallow donorsseon ; cole  and excitons,cerne ; kono1 ; kent  phonons,planken ; planken1  and intersubband transitions.elsaesser ; elsaesser1 ; charlie ; phillips ; su  In addition, small photon energies enhance the ponderomotive potential energykent ; chin  while precluding interband absorption and sample damage, leading to the possibility of extreme nonlinear optical behavior in semiconductors.chin ; chin1

In this paper we describe results of our study of the THz properties of photogenerated transient plasmas in semiconductors using a synchronized short-pulse THz $``$ near-infrared (NIR) laser system with picosecond time resolution, both in the absence and presence of an external magnetic field. By simultaneously monitoring the temporal evolution of the transmission and reflection of a THz probe pulse after NIR excitation, we carried out a dynamical study of the Drude conductivity of transient plasmas. More specifically, we were able to directly determine the density and scattering lifetime of photocreated transient carriers as functions of time, i.e., $`n(t)`$ and $`\tau (t)`$.

Another unique aspect of this technique lies in the fact that intraband FIR/THz spectroscopy is independent of whether the states involved are interband-active or not, thus providing a rare opportunity to directly probe nonradiative (or ”dark”) states. Dynamics involving such states are not observable with conventional interband transient spectroscopies, e.g., time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. This unique ability makes it a powerful tool for providing insight into how optically created nonequilibrium electron-hole pairs lose their excess energies while relaxing toward the band edge through various scattering and thermalization processes before eventually recombining to luminesce.shah

In our previous work,kono ; mitchell  we described the first demonstration of picosecond time-resolved cyclotron resonance (TRCR) of photogenerated transient carriers by monitoring THz absorption as a function of magnetic field at fixed time delays between the NIR pump pulse and THz probe pulse. In the present paper, we systematically investigated carrier relaxation in InSb and GaAs at different NIR intensities and magnetic fields. Our calculations based on a Drude conductivity with $`n(t)`$ and $`\tau (t)`$ successfully reproduced the main observed features. By fitting the theoretical reflectivity versus time to the experimental curves, we found a linear dependence of the scattering rate, $`1/\tau `$, on the carrier density, $`n`$. This suggests that electron-electron scatteringridley  is the main factor in determining the carrier scattering lifetime inside the plasma in our density and time delay ranges. The application of a magnetic field in InSb resulted in dramatic modifications in plasma dynamics whereas GaAs did not show any strong magnetic field dependence up to 8 Tesla. This behavior of InSb can be attributed to the small effective masses of its carriers, which made the plasma, cyclotron, and photon energies all comparable, under our experimental conditions, and their subtle interplay led to the observed rich plasma dynamics. Our theoretical simulations are in good qualitative agreement with the observations, supporting this explanation.

## II EXPERIMENTAL METHODS

The NIR laser source was a Ti:Sapphire laser seeding a regenerative amplifier. The amplifier produced intense NIR ($`\lambda _{\mathrm{NIR}}`$ 800 nm) pulses with pulse duration of $``$ 200 fs and pulse energies as high as $``$ 1 mJ at variable repetition rates up to 1 kHz. The Stanford FELschwettman  produced pulses (in macropulses, as described below) with wavelengths continuously tunable in the midinfrared (MIR) (3$``$15 $`\mu `$m) and FIR/THz (15$``$80 $`\mu `$m) with pulse durations ranging from 0.6 to 2 pszudov  and pulse energies as high as $``$ 1 $`\mu `$J. In the present study, the FEL wavelength was mostly fixed to $`\lambda _{\mathrm{THz}}`$ = 42 $`\mu `$m (or $`\nu _{\mathrm{THz}}`$ = 7.1 $`\times `$ 1012 Hz or $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{THz}}`$ = 29.5 meV).

A schematic diagram of our experimental setup for the two-color spectroscopy experiments is illustrated in Fig. 1. The NIR output of the Ti:Sapphire system was directed through a computer controlled variable delay stage, after which it was spatially overlapped with the THz beam from the FEL using a Pellicle plate. The two beams were thus made collinear as they were focused onto the sample using a parabolic mirror. The NIR pulse excited nonequilibrium carriers across the band gap of the sample, which then absorbed a fraction of the incident THz probe pulse. The transmitted and reflected THz beams were then recollimated and directed to liquid 4He-cooled Ge:Ga photoconductive detectors. The THz output of the FEL was a pulse train of 10 Hz ”macropulses” 5 ms in duration. These macropulses each contained many ($``$ 60,000) $``$ 1 ps duration ”micropulses” separated by 84.6 ns, corresponding to a repetition rate of 11.8 MHz. The micropulse-to-micropulse energy fluctuations were factored out using a THz reference detector (not shown in Fig. 1) before the sample. The Ti:Sapphire oscillator was locked to the seventh harmonic of this repetition rate, i.e., 82.6 MHz. Our synchronization electronics allowed us to select a single NIR pulse per FEL macropulse. A combination of the optical delay stage and electronic delays in the synchronization allowed for selective delays from 0 to 84.6 ns with a picosecond resolution. With this arrangement, we were able to compare the intensities of the transmitted and reflected THz pulses before and after the NIR pump pulse. The amounts of photoinduced change in THz transmission and reflection were recorded as functions of time delay. We then defined photoinduced absorption as

$$\mathrm{\Delta }A=\frac{1RT}{1R}\frac{1R_0T_0}{1R_0}$$
(1)
where $`R`$ and $`T`$ are the reflectivity and transmissivity, respectively, which are functions of time delay, and $`R_0`$ and $`T_0`$ are their equilibrium values, i.e., before the arrival of the NIR pump pulse. For InSb, we determined, by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, that $`R_0`$ = 18% (cf. theoretical value of $`20`$ %) and $`T_0`$ = 9% for 42 $`\mu `$m radiation.

The InSb sample was undoped and had an electron density of 8.0 $`\times `$ 1013 cm-3 and a mobility of 8.3 $`\times `$ 105 cm2V-1s-1 at 78 K. The GaAs sample was semi-insulating, with excess arsenic. We wedged both samples by $`3^{}`$ to avoid multiple-reflection interference effects, and polished down to $`150`$ $`\mu `$m, still much thicker than the absorption depths of both InSb and GaAs at 800 nm. This has an impact on the carrier dynamics, as significant carrier diffusion into the sample occurs (as discussed below). The sample was placed inside a 9 T/1.5 K horizontal-bore split-coil magnet system (Oxford Instruments Spectromag 4000) with Sapphire cold windows and polypropylene room temperature windows. The sample was tilted 45 with respect to the magnetic field, $`B`$, which was parallel to both laser beams.

## III EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

### III.1 Power Dependence

Typical zero-magnetic-field data for GaAs (left: a-c) and InSb (right: d-f) are shown in Fig. 2. The transmission, reflection, and absorption of the THz probe beam are plotted against time delay. The wavelength of the THz probe was 42 $`\mu `$m ($`\nu _{\mathrm{THz}}`$ = 7.1 $`\times `$ 1012 Hz, $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{THz}}`$ = 29.5 meV) and the sample temperature was 1.5 K. Each panel shows multiple traces corresponding to different NIR intensities, with the maximum NIR fluence at the sample estimated to be $``$ 4 mJ/cm2. In both the GaAs and InSb samples, the photogenerated carriers cause an abrupt drop (rise) in the THz transmission (reflection) at timing zero. For example, at the maximum NIR intensity, the transmission drop is $`100`$% (complete transmission quenching) in GaAs and $``$ 70% in InSb. The photoinduced absorption curves shown in Figs. 2(c) and 2(f) were obtained from the measured transmission and reflection curves using Eqn. (1).

The subsequent recovery of these photoinduced abrupt changes depends critically on the relaxation properties of the sample under study. It is clear from Fig. 2 that there are significant differences between GaAs and InSb. In general, the GaAs sample shows smooth and monotonic temporal evolution throughout the entire time range presented here (0$``$800 ps), whereas the InSb sample shows much more complicated behavior, exhibiting dynamic changes within the first $``$ 400 ps. The decay of the transmission (or absorption) change in InSb is far from monotonic, clearly showing multiple componets at high NIR intensities. Its reflection dynamics are even more intriguing, exhibiting a sign change (positive to negative) at a certain time delay, which sensitively depends on the NIR pump intensity. As discussed in Section IV, we can explain these dramatic differences between the two systems in terms of the importance of Auger processes, well known non-radiative carrier recombination especially important in narrow gap semiconductors like InSb.ridley  The much shorter absorption depth of InSb as compared to GaAs also favors the importance of Auger recombination. The sensitivity to the total carrier density, not the density of the interband-active (or radiative) carriers alone, distinguishes the current spectroscopic technique from conventional transient spectroscopies based on interband transitions.

The value of photoinduced reflectivity change is not a simple function of time delay or NIR pump intensity. Both its magnitude and sign depend on these parameters in a complicated manner. This is true even for GaAs, for which the reflection curves look smooth and monotonic in Fig. 2(b). To illustrate this point, we plotted the photoinduced reflectivity as a function of NIR intensity for three different time delays in Fig. 3. Here the data were taken by varying the intensity of the NIR pump pulse while the time delay was kept constant. We can see that with increasing NIR intensity the THz reflectivity can either increase or decrease, depending on the value of time delay. Also, if the time delay is large enough, we see that the reflectivity initially decreases and then increases with the NIR intensity. As we will see, the sign of the photoindiuced reflectivity change is governed by the interplay between the plasma frequency, $`\omega _p`$ ($``$ $`\sqrt{n}`$), and the THz photon frequency, $`\omega _{\mathrm{THz}}`$.

### III.2 Magneto-Plasma Reflection

Since GaAs did not exhibit any magnetic field dependence in our accessible magnetic field range, here we concentrate on the data from InSb. Figures 4(a) and 4(b) show photoinduced reflectivity versus time delay for InSb at various fixed magnetic fields for high ($``$ 4 mJ/cm2) and low ($``$ 15 $`\mu `$J/cm2) excitations, respectively, at a temperature of 1.5 K. The data exhibit qualitatively different behavior under these different excitation conditions. All the traces in Fig. 4(a) show significant photoinduced enhancement in reflectivity immediately after photoexcitation. This is because the plasma energy of the photocreated carriers initially exceeds the photon energy of the THz probe (29.5 meV or 7.1 THz). The estimated initial carrier density in the high-excitation case is of the order of $``$ 1019 cm-3, which corresponds to a plasma energy of $``$ 250 meV (or 60 THz).

The low-excitation data at $`B`$ = 0 T, on the other hand, shows a reflectivity drop due to the created carriers, as shown in Fig. 4(b). However, this completely opposite behavior very quickly disappears as we increase the magnetic field from 0 to 1.5 T. A small peak emerges in reflectivity, which grows in intensity with increasing magnetic field, reaches a maximum at $``$ 3 T, stays roughly constant up to $``$ 5 T, and finally goes away at higher magnetic field. This very interesting behavior is explainable in terms of the tuning of the plasma energy by the magnetic field,palik  or the interplay between the plasma energy and the cyclotron energy, as discussed in more detail in Section IV.B.

## IV DISCUSSION

### IV.1 Plasma Dynamics

We developed a theory for the reflectivity of a transient plasma as a function of carrier density ($`n`$), scattering time ($`\tau `$), and magnetic field ($`B`$). After being created by the NIR laser beam, the carrier population decreases on a picosecond time scale. While there are a number of possible decay mechanisms, the dominant one, especially in narrow gap semiconductors at high densities (which is the case for InSb in this study), is known as Auger relaxation.ridley ; chazapis ; ciesla ; marchetti  In this non-radiative decay mechanism, an electron and a hole recombine and the resulting energy is transferred to a third carrier. In this decay mechanism, the carrier density decreases in a characteristic way:

$$\frac{dn}{dt}=C_2n^2,$$
(2)
where $`C_2`$ = 7.5 $`\times `$ 10-9 cm3/s is a reported Auger coefficient for InSb.chazapis  In our analyses we used a modified Auger coefficient $`C_2^{}`$ = $`\kappa C_2`$ in order to account for other decay processes, e.g., carrier diffusion and radiative recombination, which are not explicitly taken into account in our model. The density evolution $`n(t)`$ is then given by:

$$n(t)=\frac{1}{C_2t+1/n(0)},t0$$
(3)
where $`n(0)`$ denotes the initial density of photocreated electron-hole pairs.

The scattering rate $`\tau ^1`$ is taken to be a power law function of the carrier density $`n`$, with coefficient $`\alpha `$, exponent $`\beta `$, and a small fixed offset $`\tau _i0.1`$ ps used to account for density-independent scattering mechanisms:

$$\tau ^1(t)=\alpha n^\beta (t)+\tau _{i}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}.$$
(4)
The dielectric function of a semiconductor after ultrashort pulse excitation of a nonequilibrium plasma is given by:

$$ϵ_\omega =ϵ_{\mathrm{}}\left[1+ϵ_{ph}(\omega )\frac{\omega _p(t)^2}{\omega (\omega i/\tau (t))}\right].$$
(5)
Here $`ϵ_{\mathrm{}}`$ = 15.68 is the dielectric constant for InSb, $`\omega _p`$ = $`[4\pi n(t)e^2/m_eϵ_{\mathrm{}}]^{1/2}`$ is the plasma frequency ($`m_e`$ = 0.014$`m_0`$). The phonon contribution $`ϵ_{ph}`$ is calculated as:

$$ϵ_{ph}(\omega )=\frac{\omega _L^2\omega _T^2}{\omega _T^2\omega ^2+i\mathrm{\Gamma }\omega }$$
(6)
where $`\mathrm{}\omega _L`$ = 23.6 meV ($`\mathrm{}\omega _T`$ = 22.2 meV) is the energy of the longitudinal (transverse) optical phonon and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ = 0.35 meV. For a fixed THz photon energy $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{THz}}`$ = 29.5 meV (42 $`\mu `$m, 7.1 THz), $`ϵ_{ph}`$ $``$ $``$ 0.17 $``$ 0.005$`i`$ is the material parameter.

At 45 degrees incidence, the reflection coefficient $`r_\omega `$ can be calculated using a Fresnel formula:

$$r_\omega (t)=\frac{ϵ_\omega \mathrm{cos}(\pi /4)\sqrt{ϵ_\omega \mathrm{sin}^2(\pi /4)}}{ϵ_\omega \mathrm{cos}(\pi /4)+\sqrt{ϵ_\omega \mathrm{sin}^2(\pi /4)}}.$$
(7)
In Fig. 5, the reflectivity $`R`$ = $`r_\omega r_\omega ^{}`$ for $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{THz}}`$ = 29.5 meV ($`\nu _{\mathrm{THz}}`$ = 7.1 THz) is plotted as a function of scattering lifetime, $`\tau `$, and carrier density, $`n`$, obtained through Eqns. (5), (6), and (7), in the ranges of $`\tau `$ = $`10^{15}10^{11}`$ sec and $`n`$ = $`10^{15}10^{19}`$ cm-3.

The temporal evolution of the normalized photoinduced reflectivity due to transient plasmas is then computed as:

$$\frac{R(t)}{R_0}=1+\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }R(t)}{R_0}=\frac{r_\omega (t)r_\omega ^{}(t)}{r_\omega (\mathrm{})r_\omega ^{}(\mathrm{})},$$
(8)
which can be directly compared with experimental data. Here $`R_0`$ = $`r_\omega (\mathrm{})r_\omega ^{}(\mathrm{})0.198`$ is the reflectivity in equilibrium.

In Fig. 6 we present our experimental data (panel a) along with the fits (panel b) obtained using Eqn. (8). We used the initial rise of the reflectivity, i.e., $`\mathrm{\Delta }R(0)/R_0`$, to determine the initial carrier density, as well as the parameters $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ in Eqn. (4). The initial density of photocreated carriers $`n(0)`$ scales linearly with the pump intensity, as expected. We also found that most fits result in a value of $`\beta `$ very close to 1, suggesting the importance of electron-electron scattering.ridley  The resulting expression for the scattering rate is as follows: $`1/\tau `$ $``$ 2.1 $`\times `$ 10-4 $`n`$ \[cm-3\] + 1/$`\tau _i`$ \[cf. Eqn. (4)\]. Using this expression for all NIR intensities, we then performed the time-evolution fits assuming the Auger-like decay of the carrier population \[cf. Eqn. (3)\]. The multiplicative factor $`\kappa `$ showed a rather weak, but systematic, decrease from $`17`$ to $`7`$ with increasing NIR intensity. The excellent agreement seen in Fig. 6 makes us believe that the carrier diffusion must be completed in less than $``$ 10 ps under our experimental conditions and its neglect in our model is justified. In Fig. 7 we present the temporal evolution of the carrier density (a) and the scattering rate (b) calculated using Eqns. (3) and (4) using the parameters derived from the fits.

### IV.2 Magneto-plasma Dynamics

When an external magnetic field is applied, Eqn. (5) is modified, for CR active ($`+`$) and inactive ($``$) polarizations, respectively, into:

$$ϵ_{\omega ,\pm }=ϵ_{\mathrm{}}\left[1+ϵ_{ph}(\omega )\frac{\omega _p(t)^2}{\omega (\omega \pm \omega _ci/\tau (t))}\right],$$
(9)
where $`\omega _c=eB/m_ec`$ is the cyclotron frequency. Correspondingly, Eqn. (7) changes to:

$$r_{\omega ,\pm }=\frac{ϵ_{\omega ,\pm }\mathrm{cos}(\pi /4)\sqrt{ϵ_{\omega ,\pm }\mathrm{sin}^2(\pi /4)}}{ϵ_{\omega ,\pm }\mathrm{cos}(\pi /4)+\sqrt{ϵ_{\omega ,\pm }\mathrm{sin}^2(\pi /4)}}.$$
(10)
We then calculate the reflectivity, $`R`$, for a linearly-polarized THz beam with frequency $`\omega `$ by taking an average between the CR active and inactive circular polarization states:

$$R=\frac{r_{\omega ,+}r_{\omega ,+}^{}+r_{\omega ,}r_{\omega ,}^{}}{2}$$
(11)
This is plotted in Fig. 8 for a THz beam with $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ = 29.5 meV as a function of $`\omega _p`$ and $`\omega _c`$. Here the value of $`\omega \tau `$ is fixed at 10.7, and $`\mathrm{}\omega _L`$ = 23.6 meV, $`\mathrm{}\omega _T`$ = 22.2 meV, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ = 0.35 meV are used for Eqn. (6). Figure 8 can be used for qualitatively predicting THz magneto-reflection dynamics by treating the $`\omega _p`$ axis as the time delay (since $`\omega _p\sqrt{n(t)}`$) and the $`\omega _c`$ axis as the applied magnetic field (since $`\omega _cB`$). Most importantly, one can clearly see from this figure that the instantaneous value of reflectivity of a transient plasma can become larger or smaller than the equilibrium value in a complicated manner, depending on the instantaneous values of the carrier density and magnetic field.

The temporal evolution of the normalized photoinduced reflectivity for a linearly-polarized THz probe with frequency $`\omega `$ is calculated as:

$$\frac{R(t)}{R_0}=1+\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }R}{R_0}=\frac{r_{\omega ,+}(t)r_{\omega ,+}^{}(t)+r_{\omega ,}(t)r_{\omega ,}^{}(t)}{r_{\omega ,+}(\mathrm{})r_{\omega ,+}^{}(\mathrm{})+r_{\omega ,}(\mathrm{})r_{\omega ,}^{}(\mathrm{})},$$
(12)
which can now be compared with experimental data. Figure 9 illustrates (a) experimental and (b) theoretical magneto-plasma reflection dynamics. At zero magnetic field, the created plasma decreases the reflectivity. This behavior is due to the fact that the plasma energy of the created carriers is lower than the THz photon energy. When this is the case, an increased carrier density translates into a decreased refractive index, and hence, a decreased reflectivity. Even a small applied magnetic field can dramatically change this behavior. A small peak appears at zero delay, whose magnetude rapidly increases with increasing magnetic field up to $``$ 3 T, saturates, and gradually decreases. This intriguing behavior can be explained in terms of tuning of the plasma edge by $`B`$, i.e., the interplay between $`\omega _p`$ and $`\omega _c`$, and is successfully reproduced by our theoretical calculation \[Fig. 9(b)\].

## V SUMMARY

In summary, we performed picosecond two-color (NIR and THz) time-resolved spectroscopy on GaAs and InSb. We simultaneously monitored the dynamics of THz transmission and reflection while we varied the strength of the applied magnetic field and the time delay between the NIR and THz pulses. We found that the photoinduced reflectivity dynamics are drastically affected by the magnetic fields. These results demonstrate the power and usefulness of this FIR technique for investigating the dynamics of nonequilibrium carriers in semiconductors at very low energy scales.

## VI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge support from NSF DMR-0049024, DMR-0134058 (CAREER), DARPA MDA972-00-1-0034, AFOSR F49620-00-1-0349, the Japan Science and Technology Corporation PRESTO Program, and the NEDO International Joint Research Grant Program. We thank H. Alan Schwettman, Todd I. Smith, Richard L. Swent, Takuji Kimura, Eric Crosson, James Haydon, Jeffery Haydon, and George A. Marcus for their technical support during this work at the Stanford Picosecond Free Electron Laser Center and W. James Moore at the Naval Research Laboratory for providing us with the high-quality InSb sample.


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# BABAR LEVEL 1 DRIFT CHAMBER TRIGGER UPGRADE

## 1 Introduction

As PEP-II exceeds its original design luminosity, BaBar upgrades its Level 1 Drift Chamber Trigger (DCT) to reduce the rate of background Level 1 triggers. The Level 1 trigger system in BaBar receives information from the Drift Chamber, the Calorimeter, and Instrumented Flux Return. The Drift Chamber information sent to the DCT is used to generate segments in the Track Segment Finder (TSF). This technique uses the drift time in order to establish accurate position and time of the track segment. In addition a Look Up Table derived from data is used to calibrate the best segment pattern into its corresponding track position and time. Once the segments are generated they are sent to the Binary Link Track Module (BLT) and to the new Z-PT Discriminator (ZPD). The BLT is responsible to combine these segments into tracks providing the first track multiplicity count. The ZPD extracts the track Pt and z coordinate at the beam line. The processed data is sent to the GLobal Trigger. The GLT attempts to match the spatial and angular location of calorimeter towers and drift chamber tracks. This result in $`24`$ trigger lines which are sent to the Fast control to issue a L1 trigger.

## 2 The Z-PT Discriminator upgrade

The New Z-Pt-Discriminator boards (ZPD) replace the Pt Discriminator boards which only extracted the Pt of the tracks. The ZPD boards utilize the stereo hit information from the drift chamber to extract in addition the track z coordinate at the beam line. The ZPD boards select tracks based on their transverse momentum and their origin along the beam line, $`z_0`$, in order to reject beam pipe interactions far from the interaction point. The ZPD algorithm is composed of two main modules the Seed Track Finder and a $`z_0`$ Fitter. The first is a pattern recognition module which finds seed tracks with up to ten segments each, and the second module fits the seed tracks to a helix in order to determine their $`z_0`$. The resulting new trigger line can be based on any desired combination of $`z_0`$, PT and $`\mathrm{tan}\lambda `$ values. There are $`8`$ new VME boards, each one receives input at 1 Gbyte/sec. The 153-line internal signal mega-bus transmit data at 120 Mhz. The are six algorithm engines (XC2V4000 FPGAs) per ZPD board working in parallel.

## 3 ZPD performance

The new ZPD boards are designed to accommodate the upcoming BaBar demands for high luminosity. The ZPD reduces the rate of background Level 1 triggers by more than $`50\%`$ while preserving the high Level 1 trigger physics efficiency. A Monte Carlo simulation with higher background level was generated to test the performance of the ZPD. The results, as can be seen in fig 1 demonstrate that even up to $`6`$ times the current background level we can achieve about $`40\%`$ background suppression by rejecting events that lack at least one track with $`|z_0|<13\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}`$. In order to test the MC event efficiency using the ZPD algorithm. The event efficiency was tested on different MC samples including rare B decays. The denominator is simply all MC events passing at least one existing L1 trigger. Fig. 1 shows the event efficiency of the following rare $`B`$ decays samples, where one $`B`$ decayed generically while the other $`B`$ decayed to: $`B^0K_s^0\pi ^0`$, $`B^{}\tau \nu `$, $`B^0K_s^0\nu \overline{\nu }`$, $`B^0\pi ^0\pi ^0`$. The results are very encouraging given the current pure DCT triggers are ranging from 80–95% for these events.

The total trigger rate reduction due to an addition of a Z requirement $`|z_0|<15\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}`$ is $`30\%`$, and improves to $`38\%`$ for $`|z_0|<10\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}`$. However, it should be noted that the total trigger rate when the DCT lines are disabled is about $`40\%`$ which is an irreducible rate (in the current BaBar trigger configuration) since they are triggered by at least one EMT-only trigger lines, independent of DCT.

## 4 Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Department of Energy contract DE-AC03-76SF00515.