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# On the X-ray Image of The Crab Nebula: Comparison with Chandra Observations

## 1 Introduction

A standard picture of the Crab Nebula was given by Kennel and Coroniti (KC; 1984). According to their picture, a super-fast magnetohydrodynamic wind, which is generated by the central pulsar, terminates at a shock, with the nebula identified as a postshock flow shining in synchrotron radiation. The central cavity of the nebula is occupied by the unseen wind. The shock is supposed to occur at the standing inner wisp.

The KC model is very successful explaining the synchrotron luminosity, spectrum and frequency-dependent size of the nebula. An important conclusion of the KC model is that the energy of the wind is conveyed mostly by kinetic energy in the bulk motion of the plasma. Because the energy flux is in the form of an electromagnetic field at the base of the wind, this means that the efficiency of the wind acceleration is extremely high; KC found it to be 99.7%.

The principal parameters of the pulsar wind are (1) its luminosity $`L_w`$, (2) the Lorentz factor $`\gamma _w`$ of the bulk flow and (3) the ratio $`\sigma `$ of the electromagnetic energy flux to the kinetic energy flux, which is referred to as the magnetization parameter. $`L_w`$ is essentially the spin-down luminosity $`5\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1. The remaining two parameters, $`\gamma _w`$ and $`\sigma `$, together with the nebula pressure $`P_N`$, or equivalently the equipartition field $`B_{eq}=\sqrt{4\pi P_N}`$, determine the overall synchrotron spectrum. Conversely, the synchrotron spectrum tells us about the parameters. Given the synchrotron luminosity of $`2\times 10^{37}`$erg s-1, the nebula size of $`1`$ pc, and the peak and turn-off synchrotron spectrum energies of 2 eV and $`10^8`$ eV, respectively, one finds $`\gamma _w=3.3\times 10^6`$, $`\sigma =3.8\times 10^3`$, and $`B_{eq}=0.38`$ mG. This result can be obtained even with an order-of-magnitude estimate (Shibata, Kawai and Tamura 1998). More rigorous fitting of the observed spectrum of the whole nebula gave similar values (e.g., KC, Atoyan and Aharonian 1996). The field strength has been confirmed by observations of inverse Compton emission in the TeV band (Weekes et al. 1989; Hillas et al. 1998). Thus, the dominance of the kinetic energy of the wind seems very firm.

From a theoretical point of view, however, the smallness of $`\sigma `$, or in other words dominance of the kinetic energy, is a mystery. No wind theory has been able to explain how such a high efficiency of acceleration is achieved.

Chandra observation clearly shows a disk-jet structure and moving wisps with seeds of $`0.45c`$ (Mori 2002), where $`c`$ is the speed of light. Because the KC model is spherically symmetric and steady, it may seem insufficient to understand the highly structured and dynamical nature seen by Chandra. However, the basic idea that a kinetic dominant wind shocks and shines seems still firm and convincing. One may assume that the equatorial wind has different parameters than the polar wind. Such a latitude dependence of the wind parameters may suffice to explain the apparent disk-jet structure although how such a latitude dependence is made is not known.

In this paper, we suggest that high spatial resolution of Chandra affords a chance to examine the assumptions which were made in the KC model but have yet to be checked. Among the assumptions, the ideal-MHD condition (no dissipation) and toroidal field approximation are of particular importance. If these assumptions are not adequate, the past conclusion of small $`\sigma `$ may need to be reconsidered.

We model the nebula in 3-dimensions based on the KC picture and reproduce an image, which can be compared with the Chandra observation (Mori 2002) is made. We shall show that a considerable change to the KC picture is required to reproduce the Chandra image. In this paper, we suggest that disordered magnetic field in the nebula is needed . Some process which converts magnetic energy into thermal and kinetic energy, such as magnetic reconnection, may take place in the nebula. In a subsequent paper, spatially-resolved X-ray spectra will be described and compared with Chandra results.

## 2 A 3D Model

We postulate that the nebula flow obeys the KC steady solution and do not solve the dynamics. The properties of the KC flow are summarized as follows. If $`\sigma `$ is much less than unity as was suggested, the speed of the flow is $`(1/3)c`$ just after the shock and decreases rapidly with distance from the pulsar $`R`$ as $`VR^2`$; because the flow is subsonic, the pressure and density $`n`$ are roughly uniform as for adiabatic expansion such that the mass conservation, $`nR^2V`$const.(implying a decrease of the flow velocity). Due to deceleration, the magnetic field accumulates and is amplified according to the frozen-in condition, $`Br`$. Once the magnetic field grows as large as the equipartition field, the magnetic pressure becomes important in the flow dynamics. As a result, the flow speed saturates. This takes place where the nebula is brightest (at $`(3\sqrt{\sigma })^1`$ shock radii). The smaller $`\sigma `$, the larger and brighter the nebula. The smallness of $`\sigma `$ is then required to explain the luminosity and the extent of the nebula. The indicated flow speed is small if $`\sigma `$ is small: $`V/c3\sigma `$. It is notable here that the above flow dynamics depends on the assumption of the ideal-MHD condition.

The KC model is spherically symmetric and obviously inadequate to account for the observed morphology. We therefore restricted ourselves to an equatorial region of the KC spherical model with half width of $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{eq}10^{}`$ and cut the intermediate latitude regions out, such that the disk may be reproduced in an image (see Fig. 1). Although we assume a polar flow by leaving the polar region with a semi-opening angle of $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{pol}10^{}`$ for reproduction of the jet image, this is just in an artist’s spirit, and we do not provide any analysis of the polar jets in this paper.

Our kinematic scheme to reproduce images of the nebula is made so that different types of the flow dynamics can be applied in the future; i.e., for a given velocity field, we trace a fluid element and associated particle distribution function according to the Lagrangian view of fluid.

Given the radial velocity field $`V(t,R)`$ as a function of time and radial distance from the pulsar, the position of the fluid element, the toroidal magnetic field, and the proper density are respectively obtained from

$`{\displaystyle \frac{DR}{Dt}}`$ $`=`$ $`V,`$ (1)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{D}{Dt}}\left(\mathrm{ln}B\right)`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{V}{R}}+{\displaystyle \frac{V}{R}}\right),`$ (2)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{D}{Dt}}\left(\mathrm{ln}n\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{D}{Dt}}\left(\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Gamma }\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{2V}{R}}+{\displaystyle \frac{V}{R}}\right),`$ (3)
where $`t`$ is the observer’s time and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=(1V^2/c^2)^{1/2}`$ is the Lorentz factor of the flow. We use the KC solution, which is given analytically, for the velocity field. Although the KC solution does not include synchrotron losses, its effect on $`V`$ is supposed to be small because synchrotron losses are about 10% of the kinetic energy of the flow.

For the energy distribution of the particles, we again invoke the KC picture: a power law distribution is built up immediately after the shock, and the shock-accelerated particles simply lose their energy in the postshock flow by adiabatic and synchrotron losses. We trace the energy $`ϵ`$ (normalized by $`mc^2`$) of each particle in a fluid frame by

$$\frac{D}{Dt^{}}\left(\mathrm{ln}ϵ\right)=\frac{1}{3}\frac{D}{Dt^{}}\left(\mathrm{ln}n\right)+\frac{1}{ϵ}\left(\frac{dϵ}{dt^{}}\right)_{\mathrm{loss}},$$
(4)
where

$$\left(\frac{dϵ}{dt^{}}\right)_{\mathrm{loss}}=\frac{4}{3}\sigma _\mathrm{T}cϵ^2U_{\mathrm{mag}},$$
(5)
and the magnetic energy density, $`U_{\mathrm{mag}}=B^2/8\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }^2`$, is measured in the proper frame, and $`\sigma _\mathrm{T}`$ is the Thomson cross section. The proper time $`t^{}`$ is related to $`t`$ by $`Dt/Dt^{}=\mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

The distribution function is defined by

$$dn=f(t,R;ϵ,\theta )\mathrm{sin}\theta d\theta d\phi dϵ,$$
(6)
where $`\theta `$ is the pitch angle with respect to the local field and $`\phi `$ is the azimuth. Note that the distribution function is defined in the flow proper frame. We assume that the postshock distribution follows a power law with index $`p`$ ($`1`$) in between the minimum energy $`ϵ_{\mathrm{min}}`$ and the maximum energy $`ϵ_{\mathrm{max}}`$, and it is isotropic such that

$$f_\mathrm{i}(ϵ_\mathrm{i})=\frac{K}{4\pi }n_\mathrm{i}ϵ_\mathrm{i}^p,$$
(7)
where the suffix ‘i’ indicates ‘injection’ at the postshock region, and the normalization is given by

$$K=\{\begin{array}{cc}\frac{(p1)ϵ_{\mathrm{min}}^{(p1)}}{1(ϵ_{\mathrm{min}}/ϵ_{\mathrm{max}})^{p1}}& p1\\ \frac{1}{\mathrm{ln}\left(ϵ_{\mathrm{max}}/ϵ_{\mathrm{min}}\right)}& p=1\end{array}$$
(8)
and $`n_\mathrm{i}=f_\mathrm{i}(ϵ)\mathrm{sin}\theta d\theta d\phi dϵ`$ gives the postshock proper density. $`ϵ_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is assumed to be a maximum attainable value, $`eB_2R_\mathrm{s}/mc^2`$, where $`R_\mathrm{s}`$ is the shock distance from the pulsar, and $`B_2`$ is the postshock field. $`ϵ_{\mathrm{min}}`$ is determined so that the pressure calculated from $`f_\mathrm{i}`$ satisfies the shock jump condition.

We solve (4) numerically for a sample of particles in a given fluid element, and thereby we obtain $`ϵ`$ as a function of $`ϵ_\mathrm{i}`$ and $`t`$. Then we calculate distribution functions from

$$f(ϵ(R))=\frac{n}{n_\mathrm{i}}f_\mathrm{i}(ϵ_\mathrm{i})\frac{dϵ_\mathrm{i}}{dϵ}.$$
(9)
For steady state models, integration for a single fluid element gives distribution functions in the whole nebula.

It is obvious that the above kinematic scheme can be easily generalized for non-steady and non-radial flow, which can be obtained by numerical MHD simulations.

## 3 Reproduction of the Nebula Image

### 3.1 Synchrotron Specific Emissivity

Once the evolution equations (1)-(4) are solved, and the distribution function is obtained by (9), it is straight forward to get volume emissivity, which is integrated to give a nebula image.

Since the nebula flow is relativistic, a Lorentz transformation is applied between the flow proper frame and the observer’s frame (or rather the pulsar frame, in which the pulsar is at rest). Let us denote the 4-vector of a synchrotron photon by ($`\omega /c`$, $`𝒌`$) in the observer’s frame and ($`\omega ^{}/c`$, $`𝒌^{}`$) in the proper frame. If the ideal-MHD condition $`𝑬+𝑽\times 𝑩/c=0`$ holds in the nebula flow, the transformation of the electromagnetic field is simpler:

$`𝑬^{}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (10)
$`𝑩_{}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`𝑩_{}=(𝑽𝑩)𝑽/V^2,`$ (11)
$`𝑩_{}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`𝑩_{}/\mathrm{\Gamma }=(𝑩𝑩_{})/\mathrm{\Gamma },`$ (12)
where the primes indicate the quantities in the flow frame and $``$ and $``$ are based on the directed of the flow velocity $`𝑽`$. There is no electric field in the plasma flow frame.

The spectral power of a relativistic particle with pitch angle $`\theta `$ (the angle of the particle motion to the local magnetic field in the proper frame) is

$$𝒫_{\mathrm{s1}}(\omega ^{},ϵ,\theta )=2\sigma _\mathrm{T}cU_{\mathrm{mag}}ϵ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta 𝒮(\omega ^{};\omega _\mathrm{c}).$$
(13)
For the monochromatic approximation, we use $`𝒮(\omega ^{};\omega _\mathrm{c})=\delta (\omega ^{}\omega _\mathrm{c})`$, and for the relativistic approximation,

$$𝒮(\omega ^{};\omega _\mathrm{c})=\frac{9\sqrt{3}}{8\pi \omega _\mathrm{c}}F\left(\frac{\omega ^{}}{\omega _\mathrm{c}}\right)$$
(14)
where $`F(x)=x{\displaystyle _x^{\mathrm{}}}K_{\frac{5}{3}}(\xi )𝑑\xi `$, and

$$\omega _\mathrm{c}=\frac{3e|𝑩^{}|ϵ^2\mathrm{sin}\theta }{2mc}$$
(15)
is the critical frequency. The synchrotron power of a single particle is strongly beamed within a width of $`ϵ^1`$. Therefore, the emission into a frequency interval $`d\omega ^{}`$ and in a solid angle $`d\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ directed toward the observer is given by

$$j_\omega ^{}(\theta )d\omega ^{}d\mathrm{\Omega }^{}=_0^{\mathrm{}}𝒫_{\mathrm{s1}}(\omega ^{},\theta ,ϵ)f(ϵ,\theta )𝑑ϵ𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }^{}𝑑\omega ^{},$$
(16)
where $`\theta `$ is given by $`\mathrm{cos}\theta =𝒏^{}𝑩^{}/|𝑩^{}|`$, and $`𝒏^{}`$ is the unit vector directing to the observer in the proper frame. Below, $`𝒏`$ indicates the observer’s direction in the observer’s frame.

For the link between the proper frame and the observer’s frame, we include the Doppler effects,

$$\omega =\frac{\omega ^{}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1\beta \mu )}and\mu =\frac{\mu ^{}+\beta }{1+\beta \mu ^{}},$$
(17)
where $`\mu =𝒏\widehat{𝑽}`$ and $`\mu ^{}=𝒏^{}\widehat{𝑽}`$. The unit vector of the flow direction is denoted by $`\widehat{𝑽}`$. The transformation between the received power $`dP_r`$ and the emitted power $`dP^{}`$ (Rybicki & Lightman 1979) is given by

$$\frac{dP_r}{d\mathrm{\Omega }d\omega }=\mathrm{\Gamma }^3(1+\beta \mu ^{})^3\frac{dP^{}}{d\mathrm{\Omega }^{}d\omega ^{}}=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }^3(1\beta \mu )^3}\frac{dP^{}}{d\mathrm{\Omega }^{}d\omega ^{}}$$
(18)
where the Doppler effect (17) has been taken into account. Finally the Lorentz contraction is $`dN=\mathrm{\Gamma }f(ϵ,\theta )d\mathrm{\Omega }^{}dϵ`$, where $`N`$ is the number density in the observer’s frame. Thus the emissivity in the observer’s frame becomes

$$j_\omega (𝒏)=C𝒫_{\mathrm{s1}}(\omega ^{},\theta ,ϵ)f(ϵ,\theta )𝑑ϵ,$$
(19)
where

$$C=\mathrm{\Gamma }^4(1+\beta \mu ^{})^3=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(1\beta \mu )^3}.$$
(20)
### 3.2 Viewing Angle

In order to specify the viewing angle of the observer, we relate the ‘observer’s coordinate’ $`𝑿=`$ ($`X`$, $`Y`$, $`Z`$), where $`+X`$ directed toward the observer and $`+Z`$ directed toward north on the sky, to the ‘nebula coordinate’ $`𝒙=`$ ($`x`$, $`y`$, $`z`$), where the $`z`$-axis coincides with the symmetry axis of the nebula which is believed to be the rotation axis of the pulsar. We use 48 and 28 as the position angle and the inclination angle of the symmetry axis, respectively.

An image of the nebula is obtained by

$$I_\omega (Y,Z)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}j_\omega (X,Y,Z,𝒏)𝑑X.$$
(21)
### 3.3 Summary of the procedure

For a given observation frequency, the integration (21) is done numerically for each ‘pixel’ at ($`Y`$, $`Z`$). The integrand is calculated as follows:

1. Given $`𝑿=(X,Y,Z)`$ and $`\omega `$,
2. transformation from the observer’s coordinates to the nebula coordinates is done; for the position, $`(X,Y,Z)(x,y,z)`$, and also for the componets of the observer’s direction, $`𝒏=(1,0,0)𝒏=(n_x,n_y,n_z)`$.
3. The flow velocity $`𝑽(R)`$ and the magnetic field $`𝑩(R)`$ at the point are obtained by using the KC solution. Note that the velocity and the magnetic field are respectively radial and azimuthal in the ’nebula coordinate’.
4. The observation frequency, the direction and the local magnetic field are transformed into those in the flow frame: $`\omega \omega ^{}`$, $`𝒏𝒏^{}`$, $`𝑩𝑩^{}`$.
5. The pitch angle of the particles directed toward the observer is obtained.
6. Regarding the distribution function at ($`x`$, $`y`$, $`z`$), the emissivity in the flow frame is calculated (we use the monochromatic approximation).
7. Finally, the emissivity is converted to the volume emissivity $`j_\omega (𝒏)`$ at ($`X`$, $`Y`$, $`Z`$) in the observer’s frame by multiplying by the Doppler factor $`C`$.

## 4 Results

One may expect a ring-like structure in the reproduced image, such as observed with Chandra (see the top panel of Fig. 2), since we have assumed that the flow is restricted within a disk. The expected radius of the ring will be $`1/3\sqrt{\sigma }`$ (about 6 shock radii for $`\sigma =0.003`$), at which point the nebula brightens due to the amplified magnetic field. However, what we have is not a ring-like but is rather a ’lip-shaped’ image shown in the bottom panel of Fig. 2. At the north-east and south-west corners of the expected ellipse (ring), the pitch angles of the particles directed toward us are small, and therefore the surface brightness is reduced. This effect combined with the central cavity yields an image which is ’lip-shaped’. The smallness of pitch angle actually has two effects. One is that the single-particle emissivity is proportional to $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta `$, which is small. The other is due to number of contributing particles. For a given observation frequency, the energy of the particles radiating at the frequency is higher for smaller pitch angles, so that the number of particles contributing to the frequency is smaller because of the negative slope of the distribution function.

Another important point to consider is the intensity ratio between the front and back sides of the ring. We obtain a value of 1.3, but observed value is $`5`$ (Pelling et al. 1987, Willingale et al., 2001). The weak contrast is caused by deceleration of the nebula flow (i.e. the smallness of $`\sigma `$). Mori et al. (2003) suggest that the ratio is about 3 with Chandra. This value is still incompatible with the KC picture. As long as the intensity contrast is attributed to Doppler boosting, such a weak contrast is unavoidable in the frame work of the KC model.

How surface brightness changes with distance from the shock depends on $`\sigma `$. Mori (2002) also measured the surface brightness along the semi-major axis of the torus, from which Doppler boosting should not affect the brightness. This result (bottom panel of Fig. 3) is compared with the present model (top panel of Fig. 3), for which we provide curves of varying $`\sigma `$. The present model does not reproduce the first peak in the observation, which corresponds to the inner ring. However, it is notable that the brightness distribution of the inner ring is similar to that for the $`\sigma =0.1`$ model. The location of synchrotron burn off is reproduced by the $`\sigma =0.01`$ model. Finally, we point out that the surface brightness decreases much faster with distance in the observation than in the model.

As indicated by the ’lip-shaped’ image, the absolute value of the surface brightness is much less than observed along the semi-major axis. Because the reproduced image includes only the disk component, to which we restricted ourselves (rather than assuming the spherical KC model), the X-ray luminosity of the reproduced image is also smaller than the observation. For the image in Fig. 2, we use parameters given by KC: $`L_w=5\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1, $`R_s=3\times 10^{17}`$ cm, $`\gamma _w=3\times 10^6`$, and $`p=3`$. In this case, we have $`\nu L_\nu 10^{36}`$ erg sec-1 at 1 keV.

## 5 Discussion

Applying the KC model, we reconstruct an X-ray image which is found to be inconsistent with the Chandra image. Owing to a pure toroidal field and uniform pitch angle distribution, the reproduced image is not ring-like but ’lip-shaped’. Furthermore, the surface brightness contrast between the front and back sides of the ring is much less than the observed. The weak contrast is simply due to the smallness of $`\sigma `$, by which the postshock flow slows down quickly after the shock. The assumptions of the toroidal field and the smallness of $`\sigma `$ are thus found to be incompatible with the observation.

If we assume isotropic emission in the proper frame such as is expected in a turbulent field, then the ring-like structure is reproduced as shown in Fig. 4. As would be expected, we find that such a turbulent component must be at least comparable to the mean toroidal field in order to reproduce the ring image. Although an another solution can be to adopt a contrived pitch angle distribution, we think this is unlikely. The image in Fig. 4 is produced in the following way: (1) assume the magnetic field is random so that the emissivity is isotropic in the proper frame; (2) set the flow velocity to be 0.2$`c`$ by hand, ignoring the flow dynamics; (3) let the distribution function and the field strength follow the KC model. Thus, the random field and the fast flow are essential to reproduce the image.

With this practice, we suggest that the nebula field is far from pure toroidal, but rather is disordered. Such a disordered field can be produced by magnetic reconnection or some instability of the toroidal flux tubes. If there is dissipation of the magnetic field, the flow dynamics is importantly changed, as is the flow speed. Even if the value of $`\sigma `$, which is defined in the wind, is not small, dissipation in the nebula flow causes deceleration and brightening. In this sence, $`\sigma `$ is effectively small so that the luminosity of the nebula will be explained as the KC model. But, such a simple heating may not always be good for explaining the surface brightness contrast because of the deceleration. Recently, Komissarov & Lyubarsky (2003) provide an MHD simulation for the Crab Nebula, suggesting a complicated flow pattern and a high speed flow such that the brightness contrast can be reproduced. Three dimensional motions associated with magnetic energy conversion in the nebula will considerably change the picture of the nebula. Numerical simulations for the nebular flow is of particluar importance in the future study. As noted, the present image-production scheme will be easily extended to combine with such mumerical results.

A model explaining the Chandra observation may be constructed if we assume a larger $`\sigma `$ and a subsequent magnetic energy conversion into heat and plasma kinetic energy, such as magnetic reconnection, in the nebula flow. Suppose $`\sigma `$ is rather large, then the postshock flow must be faster. The inner ring is formed at the shock. The brightness distribution will be similar to that of $`\sigma =0.1`$ in Fig. 3. As the flow proceeds outward, the magnetic energy conversion takes place (accelerating and heating the flow). This causes the second brightening. Subsequently, the synchrotron burn-off provides the outer boundary of the torus. The Doppler effect will cause a higher brightness contrast. We note that the smallness of $`\sigma `$ is not obvious if non-ideal-MHD is introduced in the nebula flow.

The above hypothesis explains the disk formation. Obliqueness of the pulsar causes a series of current sheets with an interval of the light cylinder radius ($`10^8`$cm) in the equatorial region. If the current sheets dissipate in the nebula, the synchrotron emission brightening is restricted in the equatorial region, where reconnection takes place. The appearance of pulsar nebulae should depend on obliqueness of individual pulsars. High obliqueness results in a thick disk and a high efficiency of synchrotron luminosity, while near-alignment causes a faint nebulae.

The possibility of a dissipative process in the nebula may be examined more rigorously with spatially-resolved spectra, for which we will compare the model and the observation in a subsequent paper.

## Acknowledgments

The authors thank F. E. Bauer for careful review of the manuscript. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (C), 15540227. K. M. is supported by the JSPS postdoctoral fellowship for research abroad.


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# Production of Ultracold, Polar RbCs∗ Molecules via Photoassociation

## Abstract

We have produced ultracold, polar RbCs molecules via photoassociation in a laser-cooled mixture of Rb and Cs atoms. Using a model of the RbCs molecular interaction which reproduces the observed rovibrational structure, we infer decay rates in our experiments into deeply bound X$`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$ ground state RbCs vibrational levels as high as 5$`\times 10^5`$ s-1 per level. Population in such deeply bound levels could be efficiently transferred to the vibrational ground state using a single stimulated Raman transition, opening the possibility to create large samples of stable, ultracold polar molecules.

Ultracold polar molecules, due to their strong, long-range, anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions, may provide access to qualitatively new regimes previously inaccessible to ultracold atomic and molecular systems. For example, they might be used as the qubits of a scalable quantum computer Qcomp . New types of highly-correlated many-body quantum states could become accessible such as BCS-like superfluids BCS , supersolid and checkerboard states dipolar , or “electronic” liquid crystal phases LCD . Ultracold chemical reactions between polar molecules have been discussed coldchem , and might be controlled using electric fields linking . Finally, the sensitivity of current molecule-based searches for violations of fundamental symmetries EDM  might be increased to unprecedented levels.

Cold, trapped polar molecules have so far only been produced using either buffer-gas cooling buffer  or Stark-slowing stark , at temperatures of $``$10-100 mK buffer ; stark . This is much higher than the $``$1-100 $`\mu `$K accessible with atoms, and attempts to bridge this gap with evaporative cooling may run afoul of predicted molecular Feshbach resonances molfesh  or inelastic losses molinel .

Another approach is to extend well-known techniques for producing ultracold (non-polar) homonuclear diatomic molecules in binary collisions of ultracold atoms, either through photoassociation Cs2 ; K2 ; Rb2 ; heinzen ; Na2 , or Feshbach resonance chu ; feshBEC . In these methods, the translational and rotational temperatures of the molecules are limited only by the initial atomic sample, possibly providing access all the way to the quantum-degenerate regime heinzen ; feshBEC . An important limitation, however, is that the molecules are typically formed in weakly bound vibrational levels near dissociation, which may have vanishing electric dipole moments jul03 , and are unstable with respect to inelastic collisions heinzen ; molfesh ; molinel ; therefore, a method for transferring them to the vibrational ground state is desirable K2 .

Several authors have discussed the extension of these methods to the formation of (heteronuclear) polar molecules in collisions between different atomic species wangstwa ; ions ; Li6Li7 ; dipsup . In recent experiments NaCs+ and RbCs+ ions formed in the presence of near-resonant light have indeed been observed in small numbers ions ; however, these observations did not permit an analysis of their formation mechanism, nor demonstrate a method for producing neutral, ultracold polar molecules.

In this Letter, we describe the production of electronically excited, polar RbCs molecules via photoassociation in an ultracold ($`T100\mu `$K) mixture of 85Rb and 133Cs atoms. We have observed their electronic, vibrational, rotational, and hyperfine structure, as well as the large DC Stark effect characteristic of a polar molecule. Analysis of our data allows us to infer spontaneous decay rates to deeply bound vibrational levels of the RbCs X$`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$ electronic ground state of up to $`5\times 10^5`$ s-1 per level. Our calculations show that molecules in such levels could be transferred to the vibrational ground state of RbCs with a single, stimulated Raman transition.

Photoassociation (PA), illustrated in Fig. 1, occurs when two colliding ground state atoms absorb a photon and are promoted to a weakly bound, electronically excited molecular level molsum ; bohnPA . As indicated in Fig. 1(b), the levels accessed in heteronuclear PA are of much shorter range than their homonuclear counterparts; this arises from the fact that at long range, in their first excited state, two identical atoms interact via the resonant-dipole interaction (with potential $`V(R)R^3`$), whereas two atoms of different species interact only via much shorter-ranged van der Waals forces ($`V(R)R^6`$) wangstwa ; marsad . In the latter case, for a given excited-state binding energy, the Franck-Condon factor (FCF) characterizing the overlap between the initial free-atom ground state and the excited molecular bound state is significantly smaller, requiring a higher PA intensity. However, the FCF for decay to deeply bound vibrational levels of the ground X$`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$ state is also larger, as we discuss below.

Our observations are made in a dual-species magneto-optical trap (MOT) epaps . We excite colliding atoms into RbCs rovibrational levels at a variable detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ below the lowest lying excited asymptote, correlating to Rb 5S1/2+Cs 6P1/2 (this is the most favorable choice for our purposes since these levels do not predissociate prediss ). After a pair is excited, it decays either to a ground-state RbCs molecule, or back to energetic free Rb and Cs atoms which typically escape from the two traps. The signature of RbCs formation is then a resonant steady-state depletion of both the Rb and Cs traps induced by the PA laser. For optimal sensitivity, we maximize the PA-induced loss rate (proportional to the product of the Rb and Cs densities integrated over the PA beam profile) while minimizing other intrinsic losses that compete with it to determine the steady-state trap populations. For this purpose, we use forced dark-spot MOTs darkspot ; radcol  to increase the Rb and Cs densities by factors of 9 and 4 (relative to “bright” MOTs), respectively, while reducing their intrinsic losses due to light-assisted inelastic collisions radcol . These losses are further reduced in the Rb trap by significantly decreasing the trapping laser intensity.

The peak density $`n`$, atom number $`N`$, and spatial overlap of the two atomic clouds were optimized using two-color absorptive imaging from two orthogonal directions. Typical values were: $`N_{Rb}=4\times 10^8`$, $`n_{Rb}=7\times 10^{11}`$ cm-3, and $`N_{Cs}=3\times 10^8`$, $`n_{Cs}=3\times 10^{11}`$ cm-3. Independent measurements of $`N_{Rb,Cs}`$ using resonance fluorescence confirmed these values to within $``$30%. Temperatures of $`T_{Rb}=55\mu `$K and $`T_{Cs}=140\mu `$K were measured using time-of-flight absorption imaging csint .

The Ti:sapphire PA laser produced 600 mW of power around 895 nm; its frequency was monitored using both a wavemeter and an optical spectrum analyzer, providing absolute (relative) accuracy of 150 MHz (5 MHz). To increase the PA intensity, the laser light was modematched into a build-up cavity (finesse $`60`$) placed around the vacuum chamber; its $`e^2`$ mode radius at the atom traps of 380 $`\mu `$m (the typical size of the MOT clouds was 750 $`\mu `$m) resulted in PA intensities up to $`4\times 10^7`$ W/m2 epaps .

In order to detect PA-induced loss, the fluorescence rate of each MOT was monitored with a photodiode, as the frequency of the PA laser was scanned. An example of the observed signals is shown in Fig. 2, where the features common to both Rb and Cs traces can be identified as RbCs states. From the depletion of the Rb trap (up to 70%) we estimate resonant heteronuclear PA rates as large as $`1.5\times 10^8`$ s-1, close to the expected maximum rate for our parameters determined by probability conservation in a binary scattering process (the so-called “unitarity limit”) bohnPA ; epaps . The loss rates are indeed observed to saturate as a function of intensity, at values typically $`>10^6`$ W/m2, significantly higher than in homonuclear experiments molsum ; Li6Li7 . These values are also consistent with our estimates based on a WKB approximation for the ground-state wavefunction at short range epaps ; wangstwa ; bohnPA .

We have observed RbCs levels over the range $`\mathrm{\Delta }10100`$ cm-1 epaps , and we find vibrational progressions corresponding to the expected $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0^+,0^{},1`$, and $`2`$ potentials dissociating to both the 6P1/2 and 6P3/2 limits, as shown in Fig 1(b). The $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0^\pm `$ levels have no hyperfine splitting in leading order, and are thus identified by their clean rotational structure \[Fig 2(a)\]. The $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1,2`$ features display a complex hyperfine-rotational structure, \[Fig. 2(b)\], the analysis of which is in progress.

We have also demonstrated the polar nature of the observed RbCs states by applying electric fields \[Fig 3\]. The observed Stark effect agrees in form with that expected for a polar, diatomic rigid rotor, as illustrated by the fit in Fig 3. From this fit we extract an electric dipole moment for this level of $`\mu _e=1.3\pm 0.1`$ Debye.

We have analyzed our observations of the $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0^\pm `$ levels by fitting them to a model of the RbCs potentials, based on ab initio calculations RbCspot  and previous spectroscopic data tom ; epaps . A thorough discussion of this analysis will be presented elsewhere. Fig. 4 shows a comparison between the observed $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0^\pm `$ levels, and the best fit from our model. In the $`0^{}`$ case \[Fig. 4(a)\], two distinct vibrational series are evident, with spacings on the order of 3 cm-1 and 15 cm-1. These are associated with the two different $`0^{}`$ potentials dissociating to the 6P1/2 and 6P3/2 atomic limits \[see Fig. 1(b)\]. The latter are bound by more than 550 cm-1, and have outer turning points as small as 9Å at our detunings; consequently, these features would be difficult to see without our high PA intensity, as their free-bound FCFs are relatively small. Also evident in the figure is a coupling between these two vibrational series, causing a perturbation in the rotational constant when a near-degeneracy occurs. For the $`0^+`$ levels \[Fig. 4(b)\], the coupling is so much stronger that almost no trace remains of the “unperturbed” vibrational structure, and all levels have a strongly mixed character, as illustrated by the wavefunction in the inset. This type of coupling has been discussed theoretically molsum , and was previously observed in $`0_u^+`$ levels of Cs$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ Cs2 , though it is a much weaker effect in that system. As a final note, the values we extract from our analysis for the long-range dispersion coefficient $`C_6`$ of the RbCs A$`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0}^{+}`$, b$`{}_{}{}^{3}\mathrm{\Pi }_{0}^{}`$, and (2)$`{}_{}{}^{3}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0}^{+}`$ states \[see Fig. 1(a)\] all agree with ab initio calculations marsad  to within a few percent C6 ; epaps .

Using our model of the RbCs potentials, we can make quantitative estimates of the rate at which ground-state molecules are formed via spontaneous decay in our experiments. For example, taking our observed PA rate of $`1.5\times 10^8`$ s-1 on the $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0^+`$, $`J=1`$ resonance at $`\mathrm{\Delta }=55.63`$ cm-1, we predict that X$`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$ state molecules will be formed in vibrational levels near $`v=62`$, bound by almost 1300 cm-1, at a rate of $`5\times 10^5`$ s-1 per level stim . In contrast to the homonuclear case, extremely deeply bound molecules are formed at large rates via decay at a spatially coincident inner vibrational turning point of the ground and excited levels omega1 . This arises from the shorter-range character of the asymptotic potential as well as the strong $`0^+`$ channel coupling discussed above, which together can produce a large probability density at the inner turning point of the A$`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$ excited state potential. The resulting deeply bound ground state molecules in $`J=0,2`$ rovibrational levels could be easily transferred with high efficiency to $`v=0,J=0`$ using a single two-photon Raman transition; for example, we calculate that the two FCFs for such a transition, via an intermediate state at $`\mathrm{\Delta }3900`$ cm-1, are both $`10^2`$. These transitions could easily be saturated using standard pulsed lasers.

In summary, we have demonstrated photoassociation into polar RbCs molecular levels in a laser-cooled, dense mixture of 85Rb and 133Cs atoms, at large rates up to $`1.5\times 10^8`$ s-1. Analysis of our spectra indicates molecule formation rates via spontaneous decay into deeply bound rovibrational levels of the ground X$`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$ state as high as $`5\times 10^5`$ s-1 per level, due to the inherently short-range character of the RbCs levels we excite. We plan to detect these ground state molecules using resonance-enhanced two-photon ionization Cs2 ; K2 ; Rb2 ; Na2  and to trap them in an optical dipole trap. A two-photon Raman transition from one of the well-populated levels to the rovibrational ground state should allow us to produce a large sample of stable, ultracold polar molecules.

We thank O. Dulieu for information on Cs$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ potentials, and M. Pichler and W. Stwalley for the use of the former’s Ph.D. thesis. We acknowledge support from NSF grant EIA-0081332, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. T.B. acknowledges funding from the U.S. Office of Naval Research.


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# References and links

## 1 Introduction

Optical datacom as employed for the high-speed interconnection of electronic sub-systems has rapidly gained importance over the past years. Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) emitting in the $`850`$ nm wavelength regime and simple step-index fibers or graded-index fibers are preferred key components for low-cost link solutions . Whereas, due to strong inter-modal dispersion, the use of the former fiber type is limited to link lengths of some meters at Gbit/s data rates, fabrication of the latter requires supreme control over the refractive index profile, especially in optimized $`50\mu \mathrm{m}`$ core diameter fibers enabling up to $`300\mathrm{m}`$ serial transmission of $`10\mathrm{Gbit}/\mathrm{s}`$ signals. Since optical interconnect requirements move toward higher speed over shorter distances, the availability of an easily manufacturable, yet high-speed capable fiber medium would be very beneficial. In this paper, we report on the properties of a new type of multi-mode photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with relatively simple waveguide geometry and demonstrate $`850`$ nm data transmission at $`10\mathrm{Gbit}/\mathrm{s}`$ over a length of $`L=100\mathrm{m}`$. For a recent review of photonic crystal fibers we refer to Ref.  and references therein.

## 2 Fiber design

The design of the new multi-mode photonic crystal fiber is illustrated in the insets of Fig. 1 which show optical micrographs of the fiber cross-sections. The fibers are made from a single material (light regions), and they comprise a solid, pure silica core suspended in air (dark regions) by narrow silica bridges of width $`b`$.

There is a large degree of freedom in engineering the optical properties and still get fiber designs of practical interest from a fabrication point of view. The properties may be tailored by adjusting parameters such as the size and shape of the core, the dimensions and number of silica bridges, or the fiber material. The numerical aperture (NA) of this type of PCF is essentially determined by the width of the silica bridges relative to the wavelength $`\lambda `$ as numerically demonstrated in Fig. 1. Here, we focus on two fibers with $`33\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and $`50\mu \mathrm{m}`$ core diameter and bridge widths of $`b=4.8\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and $`7.0\mu \mathrm{m}`$, respectively, yielding NAs of around $`0.07`$ and $`0.05`$ at a wavelength of 850 nm.

Despite the zero-index step between the core and the bridges, the fiber is capable of guiding light with good confinement to the multi-mode core. This is illustrated by the near-field intensity distributions for both the $`33\mu \mathrm{m}`$ core PCF (Fig. 6) as well as the $`50\mu \mathrm{m}`$ core PCF (the inset in Fig. 7).

We find that the fibers can be cleaved and spliced with commercially available equipment and typically, the fibers have an attenuation of the order $`50`$ dB/km at 850 nm for typical bending radii such as 16 cm.

## 3 Transmission experiments

Assuming worst-case conditions , we estimate from the above NA-values a bit rate-length product of around $`350\mathrm{MBit}/\mathrm{s}\times \mathrm{km}`$ for the $`50\mu \mathrm{m}`$ fiber, whereas the $`33\mu \mathrm{m}`$ sample should have around $`180\mathrm{MBit}/\mathrm{s}\times \mathrm{km}`$. In what follows we examine the transmission properties of such PCFs with a length of $`L=100\mathrm{m}`$.

### 3.1 Small-signal transfer function and DMD

In order to get a first indication of the fibers’ expected transmission bandwidths, we have determined the small-signal frequency responses with a scalar network analyzer. As optical source, standard 850 nm GaAs based VCSELs have been employed. The $`12\mu \mathrm{m}`$ active diameter, oxide-confined devices show transverse multi-mode emission with a root mean square spectral width of less than $`0.4\mathrm{nm}`$ even under modulation. The lasing threshold current amounts to $`1.8\mathrm{mA}`$ and the bias current for the small-signal as well as data transmission experiments was chosen as $`9\mathrm{mA}`$, where the 3-dB bandwidth is $`8.6\mathrm{GHz}`$. At the receiving end, a multi-mode fiber pigtailed InGaAs pin-photo-receiver with above $`8\mathrm{GHz}`$ bandwidth was used.

Panel (A) of Fig. 2 depicts the relative responses of both PCF samples. The $`33`$ and $`50\mu \mathrm{m}`$ core PCFs show a bit rate-length product of $`B_T\times L500\mathrm{Mbit}/\mathrm{s}\times \mathrm{km}`$ and $`1000\mathrm{Mbit}/\mathrm{s}\times \mathrm{km}`$, respectively. These figures are significantly larger than expected from the corresponding NAs. In the next section we extend the NA estimations and show simulations of the modal time delays for the two PCFs.

In order to get quantitative insight into the modal delay properties, we have determined the PCFs differential mode delay (DMD) characteristics, see Panel (B) of Fig. 2. Here, a $`5\mu `$m core diameter single-mode fiber is scanned over the PCF input at a distance of about $`10\mu `$m in accordance with the IEC pre-standard 60793-1-49, Sect. 3.3. The impulse response at the output end is recorded for each offset position using an optical sampling oscilloscope with a fiber input compatible to $`62.5\mu `$m core diameter multi-mode fibers. A gain-switched 850 nm single-mode VCSEL delivering pulses with less than 40 ps full width at half maximum is employed for this purpose . Panel (B) illustrates some of the results. It is seen that the output pulses of the 50 $`\mu `$m fiber are rather narrow and virtually independent of the offset position. On the other hand, those of the $`33\mu \mathrm{m}`$ sample show larger variability and are up to twice as broad, which well supports the above observations. Figure 3 shows two-dimensional color-coded representations of the full data.

### 3.2 Digital data transmission

Data transmission experiments have been carried out under non-return-to-zero $`2^71`$ word length pseudo-random bit sequence modulation using the aforementioned multi-mode VCSEL driven with $`0.9\mathrm{V}`$ peak-to-peak voltage. Figure 4 summarizes obtained bit error rate (BER) curves. With the smaller core diameter fiber, up to $`5\mathrm{Gbit}/\mathrm{s}`$ could be transmitted without indication of a BER floor. The power penalty versus back-to-back (BTB) operation is about 3 dB at a BER of $`10^{12}`$. On the other hand, the $`50\mu \mathrm{m}`$ fiber even enables $`10\mathrm{Gbit}/\mathrm{s}`$ transmission over $`L=100\mathrm{m}`$ length with only $`2.9\mathrm{dB}`$ power penalty. The observed increase in data rate is in full agreement with the small-signal and DMD measurement results.

## 4 Simulations

We use a plane-wave method  to calculate the propagation constant $`\beta _m=n_m\omega /c`$ of the $`m`$th eigenmode where $`n_m`$ is the effective index, $`\omega `$ the angular frequency, and $`c`$ the vacuum velocity of light. For the refractive index profile we use optical micrographs transformed to one-bit format representing the two-component composite air-silica structure and for the refractive index we use a Sellmeier expression for $`n(\omega )`$ in silica and $`n=1`$ in air. The simulation of Maxwell’s equations for a given $`\omega `$ provides us with sets of propagation constants $`\{\beta _m\}`$ and eigenfields $`\{𝑬_m\}`$ where $`m=1,2,3,\mathrm{}M`$ with $`M`$ as the number of guided eigenmodes. We determine $`M`$ from the experimentally measured $`\mathrm{NA}`$ which we transform to an effective cladding index $`n_{\mathrm{cl}}`$. The number of guided eigenmodes $`M`$ then follows from the requirement that $`n_M>n_{\mathrm{cl}}n_{M+1}`$.

The delay-times (or group-delays) are given by $`\tau _m=L\beta _m/\omega `$ (we calculate the group velocity by the approach described in Ref. ). The variation with $`m`$ usually sets the limit on the bit rate and in that case the bit rate-length product is given by

$$B_T\times LL/\mathrm{\Delta }T,\mathrm{\Delta }T2\sqrt{<\{\delta ^2\tau _m\}>},\delta \tau _m=\tau _m<\{\tau _m\}>,$$
(1)
Here, we use the second moment calculated from the full statistics to characterize the width $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ of the distribution $`P(\tau _m)`$. For the estimate of the bit-rate the eigenmodes are thus weighted equally corresponding to an assumption of uniform launch and attenuation. In literature one often finds the estimate $`\mathrm{\Delta }T\mathrm{max}\{\tau _m\}\mathrm{min}\{\tau _m\}`$  and in the ray-optical picture $`\mathrm{max}\{\tau _m\}`$ can be expressed in terms of the $`\mathrm{NA}`$ in analogy to our estimations in section 3 based on the $`\mathrm{NA}`$. However, for a sufficiently low number of guided modes the beginning break-down of geometrical optics calls for estimates based on the full statistics.

Figure 5 shows results at $`\lambda =850\mathrm{nm}`$ for the $`33\mu \mathrm{m}`$ core PCF (see upper left inset in Fig. 1). Experimentally, this fiber is found to have an $`\mathrm{NA}0.07`$ and the corresponding effective cladding index is indicated by the dashed line in panel (A). For the given core size this results in $`M=36`$ eigenmodes that are guided. Panel (B) shows the results for the time-delays with the filled curve showing the distribution $`P(\tau _m)`$ (the projection of the data onto the $`y`$-axis) calculated from a superposition of Gaussians with a width given by the mean level spacing $`(\tau _M\tau _1)/(M1)`$. We have $`\mathrm{\Delta }T0.00087\times L/c`$ corresponding to $`B_T\times L344\mathrm{MBit}/\mathrm{s}\times \mathrm{km}`$ which as expected is somewhat larger than the NA-estimate. The experimentally observed value is approximately $`50\%`$ larger. It is wellknown that both non-uniform loss and attenuation as well as inter-modal diffusion tends to narrow the spread in time-delays. The DMD plots in Fig. 3 supports the presence of inter-modal diffusion and its dominance over both the excitation conditions as well as variations in modal attenuation. It is thus likely that the enhanced bit-rate length product originates from inter-modal diffusion. One could speculate that stress could modify the index-profile in the silica core and that this in turn could modify the time-delay distribution similarly to the situation in graded-index profiles. However, as we shall see such a hypothesis is not supported by near-field studies.

The electric field $`𝑬`$ is constructed by a linear combination of the eigenfields. For a not too narrow linewidth of the light source we may neglect cross-terms in $`|𝑬|^2`$ and for uniform launch and attenuation we thus expect to measure an intensity distribution proportional to the average eigenfield intensity, i.e., $`|𝑬|^2M^1_m^M|𝑬_m|^2`$. The same will be the case for arbitrary launch and strong inter-modal diffusion. Figure 6 shows the eigenfield intensities with spatial patterns characteristic for a close-to-hexagonal symmetry. The average eigenfield intensity in Panel (B) compares well to the experimentally measured near-field intensity in Panel (C). Together with the DMD measurements this correspondence agrees well with a picture of inter-modal diffusion which tends to populate the modes uniformly.

The eigenmodes fall into different groups with different degeneracies (these degeneracies are slightly lifted due to a weakly broken symmetry in the real fiber) as evident from both the effective index in panel (A) of Fig. 5 as well as the intensity plots (click panel (A) in Fig. 6). The first two eigenmodes ($`m=1,2`$) are the doubly degenerate fundamental mode corresponding to the two polarization states of the fundamental mode in standard fibers and from a practical point of view they can be considered polarization states though the “$`x`$-polarization” in principle has a very small $`y`$-component and vice versa.

For the $`50\mu \mathrm{m}`$ PCF (see lower right inset of Fig. 1) with $`\mathrm{NA}0.05`$ we have carried out the same analysis of the effective index and found that $`M=20`$ eigenmodes are guided. Since $`M`$ increases with both increasing $`\mathrm{NA}`$ and core size, $`M`$ can be low even for a large core as long as the $`\mathrm{NA}`$ is not too high. Figure 7 shows results for the time-delay which as expected has a more narrow distribution compared to the results for the PCF with the $`33\mu \mathrm{m}`$ core, see panel (B) of Fig. 5. The width $`\mathrm{\Delta }T0.00054\times L/c`$ corresponds to $`B_T\times L559\mathrm{MBit}/\mathrm{s}\times \mathrm{km}`$. The experimental value is larger by more than $`70\%`$ which is attributed to inter-modal diffusion.

## 5 Conclusions

For the first time, quasi error-free transmission of 10 Gbit/s digital data signals over a multi-mode photonic crystal fiber with 50 $`\mu `$m core diameter and as much as 100 m length has been demonstrated. With some optimizations concerning design and fabrication, these PCFs show good prospects as an alternative to graded-index fibers in optical datacom environments. Comparing to numerical simulations indicates that the high bit-rate may be partly supported by inter-modal diffusion.


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# Chapter 1 Processing of the Signals from the Surface Detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory

## Chapter 1 Processing of the Signals from the Surface Detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory

### Abstract

The detectors of the surface array of the Pierre Auger Observatory are water Cherenkov tanks. The signals from each tank are read out using three photomultipliers. The energy of the primary particle is inferred from signal densities and requires good linearity of the PMTs and a large dynamic range. The absolute time of arrival of the shower front at each tank is obtained from the Global Positioning System (GPS) with a resolution of about 10 ns, ensuring an accurate primary angular reconstruction. Additionally, it is intended to use the rise time and shape of the signals to constrain the nature of the primary particle: this sets further requirements on the signal processing. In this paper, the main features of the signal processing associated with the surface detector will be presented and its performance will be discussed in the context of the extraction of shower parameters.

### 1. Introduction

The Cherenkov light from the water tanks of the Pierre Auger Observatory is read out by three large photomultipliers (PMTs). The 9” XP1805 Photonis PMTs have been chosen for the production array. PMTs are equipped with a resistive base having two outputs: anode and amplified last dynode. The charge ratio between the two outputs is 32. This allows a large dynamic range, extending from few photoelectrons (pe) to about $`10^5`$ pe. The high voltage (HV) is provided locally by a custom made ETL low power consumption (max 0.5 W) module. The nominal operating gain of the PMTs is 2x$`10^5`$ and can be extended to $`10^6`$. The base, together with the HV module, is protected against humidity by silicone potting.

The signals from anode and dynode are filtered with a 5 pole anti-aliasing Bessel filter with a cut-off at 20 MHz, and digitized at 40 MHz using 10 bit Flash Analog-Digital converters (FADC). The total dynamic range is 15 bits with an overlap of 5 bits between the anode and dynode outputs. Each detector station has a digital trigger circuitry implemented with Altera ACEX100 Programmable Logical Devices (PLD), an IBM 403 PowerPC micro-controller and memory for data storage. The time information is obtained from the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system. The station electronics, except for the FE board, is implemented on a single board, called the Unified Board (UB). The FE board is plugged in the UB with a connector. The ensemble of electronics is packed in an aluminum enclosure. The electronics is mounted on top of the hatch cover of one of the PMTs and protected against rain and dust by an aluminum dome. In addition, each station has a Light Emitting Diode (LED) monitoring systems with two LEDs (L-7113NBC with dominant wavelength of 445 nm) placed on a window on top of the liner, in the middle of the tank. The ensemble of electronics is powered by solar energy limited to 10 W by detector station. A more detailed description of the Surface Detector electronics can be found in .

The Surface Detector ”Engineering Array” (EA) consisting of 32 water tanks has been in operation since June 2001 and the next phase, pre-production, consisting of 100 tanks with production PMTs and electronics is currently being deployed. The performance of the surface detector electronics has been demonstrated by simulations, by analysis of the EA data and by additional studies performed in various test tanks. In the following, this performance will be discussed in the context of extraction of shower parameters.

### 2.  Dynamic range and linearity

The energy of the primary particle is inferred using the signal densities from a range of distances, including those from close (below 1000 m) to the shower core. Based on simulations, the maximum peak current at the photocathode that should be considered is about 250 nA. To have a linear PMT response up to this value, a low operating gain, 2x$`10^5`$, is required yielding a maximum current of about 50 mA for the anode. The calibration is based on the measurement of the background muon spectrum. The maximum of the muon charge spectrum is located at the lower part of the dynamic range (dynode output). To infer the absolute calibration for the whole dynamic range a very good linearity is required for the PMTs and the electronics.

The performance of the PMTs and of their bases has been studied by using the Orsay test tank. This tank is similar to the Auger tanks and has identical LED system . The linearity of a PMT can be estimated by varying the light intensity of the two LEDs (A and B) and plotting the ratio of the measured charges: (f(A+B)-f(A)-f(B))/f(A+B). The PMTs linearity is better than about 2% up to 60 mA anode current. The specifications for the PMTs were set to better than 5% linearity up to 50 mA and are confirmed in systematic tests performed for all PMTs by the Auger collaboration. The LED monitoring system implemented in each tank can be used to recheck the linearity of the PMTs and electronics.

### 3. Event timing

A common time base is established for different detector stations by using the GPS system. Each tank is equipped with a commercial GPS receiver (Motorola OnCore UT) providing a one pulse per second output and software corrections. This signal is used to synchronize a 100 MHz clock which is recorded at the time of each trigger. The intrinsic resolution of the system is about 8 ns requiring a good precision for the station location. An accuracy of one meter is obtained for the tank position by using the differential method. The time resolution has been studied in the EA by comparing the time signals from two tanks, Carmen and Miranda, separated by 11 m. A Gaussian distribution with a 17 ns width was obtained. This resolution combines the dispersion due to arrival angles (15 ns) and the timing resolution of each tank and confirms the expected intrinsic time dispersion of about 8 ns.

To perform an angle reconstruction, the starting points of the FADC traces need to be determined. This can be done with a resolution of about 7 ns due to the 25 ns FADC bins. Therefore, a total time resolution of 10 ns (sigma) is achieved. This time resolution is sufficient to obtain a good angular resolution, better than one degree, for the incoming primaries.

### 4.  Signal shaping

The discrimination of the primary composition can be inferred from the ground observables related to the age of the shower, hadronic heavy primaries yielding showers with larger muon content and earlier development. Several estimators for the primary identification are currently being studied: the muon counting in the FADC traces, the analysis of the overall shape of the traces and the curvature of the shower front. The typical rise time for a muon signal is about 15 ns and decay time of the order of 80 ns. The electromagnetic signals far from the shower core are small, of the order of a few photoelectrons. It is important that the shaping of the signal preserves the characteristic rise times but is also sufficient not to lose the small electromagnetic component of the trace in the sampling.

Figure 1 compares a simulated tank signal to a simulated processed signal including filter and digitization effects. Two, nearly vertical muons can be seen at around 2000 ns at the photocathode. After the filtering and digitization the amplitude of each muon peak is at around 30 channels in the dynode output. The signals after 2000 ns are at the level of one or two photoelectrons and correspond to electromagnetic component only. These signals can be found with an amplitude of around 2-4 channels in the FADC trace. The integrated ratio electromagnetic over total signal is preserved in the signal processing. In the case of the example of Fig.1, even in the late part of the signal where the electromagnetic component is small (after 2500 ns or 100 time bins) less than 10 % is lost in the signal processing. Therefore, systematic errors due to electronics in the primary identification are estimated to be negligible.

### 5. Conclusions

The performance of the surface detector electronics has been analyzed in the context of the extraction of shower parameters. The combination of two output signals, anode and last, amplified dynode, covers a large dynamic range (15 bits). This allows measurement of shower densities close to the core to extract the primary energy as well as to detect background muons and electromagnetic particles leaving only weak signals in the tank. The PMTs are linear up to anode currents larger than 50 mA which allows to infer accurately the calibration from the background muons for the whole dynamic range. An excellent time resolution, 10 ns, is obtained allowing an accurate angle reconstruction. Finally, the shaping and digitizing electronics preserve the weak electromagnetic signals far from shower core allowing to extract primary composition from the trace analysis.

1. Suomijärvi T., Pierre Auger Collaboration,
27th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Contributed papers vol. 1, session HE contents, 2001, 756, Copernicus Gesellschaft, 27. International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC, Hamburg, 07-15/08/2001 and references therein.

2. Szadkowski Z. et al. Contribution to this conference.

3. Aynutdinov V. M. et al. Contribution to this conference.


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# A Simple Model for Magnetization Ratios in Doped Nanocrystals

## I Introduction

Transition metal doping is now possible for a variety of nanocrystalline semiconductor materials, e.g., CdS,Counio et al. (1998); Feltin et al. (1999) CdSe,Mikulec et al. (2000); Hanif et al. (2002), ZnSe,Norris et al. (2001) and ZnS.Yang et al. (2003); Tsuji et al. (2003) In bulk dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMS), Heisenberg coupling of magnetic dopants, such as Mn, occurs via anion-mediated superexchange,Spalek et al. (1986); Furdyna (1988) but it is not completely understood how this is modulated by finite nanocrystal (NC) size effects.Feltin et al. (1999)

In a recent experiment, Tsuji et al. synthesized Mn-doped ZnS NCs and determined the ratio between the magnetization at a finite field and the expected magnetization for the given number of dopants per NC, defined as $`M_{5T}/M_{sat}`$.Tsuji et al. (2003) The initially prepared NCs (designated “as prepared”) had a 1.2% Mn dopant concentration, an average of 4.3 Mn dopants per NC (mostly on the surface), and $`M_{5T}/M_{sat}=91\%`$. Washing the sample with acid removed the surface atoms, yielding a sample (designated “HCl-washed”) with a 0.10% Mn concentration, an average of 0.3-0.5 Mn dopants per NC (presumably on the interior), and $`M_{5T}/M_{sat}=77\%`$. The effect of antiferromagnetic coupling of the Mn ions is to reduce the magnetization ratio. However, the “as prepared” NCs, with their higher dopant concentration (and hence increased chance of exchange interaction between dopants), show a higher $`M_{5T}/M_{sat}`$ than the “HCl-washed” samples, with their order of magnitude lower dopant concentration. Tsuji et al. posit that Mn ions on the surface do not interact magnetically. However, in this paper we show that even with uniform Heisenberg exchange constants for surface and interior atoms, taking into account the nonhomogeneous distribution of dopant atoms within the NC alone is sufficient to explain the magnetization results.

## II Model

The experiments of Tsuji et al. are conducted with 3 nm diameter ZnS NCs.Tsuji et al. (2003) Using the zinc-blende model of Lippens and Lanoo, this corresponds to a 729 atom NC, with alternating “shells” of anion and cation atoms, summarized in Table 1.Lippens and Lanoo (1989) Assuming random incorporation of dopant atoms during the growth process, the distribution of dopant atoms within the crystals obeys a binomial law as noted by Counio et al.,Counio et al. (1998) where the probability, $`p(N_d)`$, that a NC contains $`N_d`$ dopant atoms, is given by

$$p(N_d)=\left(\begin{array}{c}n_{sites}\\ N_d\end{array}\right)x^{N_d}\left(1x\right)^{n_{sites}N_d}$$
(1)
where

$$\left(\begin{array}{c}n\\ m\end{array}\right)$$
(2)
is a binomial coefficient, $`x`$ is the mean dopant concentration, and $`n_{sites}`$ is the number of cation sites into which the dopant atom may substitute itself. This is easily generalized to consider separate “inner” and “outer” volumes within the NC, consisting of $`n_{inner}`$ and $`n_{outer}`$ sites and having dopant concentrations $`x_{inner}`$ and $`x_{outer}`$, respectively. This is illustrated schematically in Figure 1.

The magnetization ratio, $`M_{5T}/M_{sat}`$ (using the notation of Tsuji et al.), is related to the observed susceptibility, $`\chi _{obs}`$ and that expected of $`N`$ independent dopants of susceptibility $`\chi _1`$, and can be broken down into contributions of various dopant cluster geometries,Smart (1963); Kreitman et al. (1966) by the expression

$`\left(M_{5T}/M_{sat}\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\chi _{obs}\mu _0B}{N_d\chi _1\mu _0B}}`$ (3)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}P_iX_i`$ (4)
where $`i`$ runs over the possible cluster types, $`P_i`$ is the probability of occurence of a given cluster of dopant atoms, and $`X_i=\chi _i/\chi _1`$ is the normalized susceptibility of cluster-type $`i`$, as calculated by Kreitman et al.Kreitman et al. (1966) $`X_i`$ is a function of temperature ($`T=5\mathrm{K}`$ in the experiment) and the nearest-neighbor Heisenberg exchange constant, which we take to be $`J/k_b10\mathrm{K}`$ for Mn in bulk ZnS.Shapira et al. (1984) With (anion-mediated) nearest-neighbor interactions, one obtains from a statistical mechanical treatment of the spin configurations as a function of $`k_bT/J`$ the normalized cluster suceptibilities for all clusters up to three atoms as: $`X_{single}=1.0`$ (by definition), $`X_{pair}=0.0`$, $`X_{opentriangle}=1.0`$, and $`X_{closedtriangle}=0.1`$.Kreitman et al. (1966) A more detailed description is given in the Appendix. The values of the $`X_i`$ are essentially constant for $`5\mathrm{K}J/k_b50\mathrm{K}`$, so our results are independent of the exact value of $`J`$.

For the bulk case, the probabilities of occurence for the various clusters have been derived by Behringer.Behringer (1958) For nanocrystalline systems, this is unsatisfactory, due to the finite size and shape effects on the probability of forming various clusters; recently, Suyver et al. have performed numerical simulations and derived analytic results for the probability of dopant pairs in spherical NCs assuming homogeneous doping.Suyver et al. (2003) Less than 1% of Mn atoms are part of three-dopant clusters for the concentrations in our calculations, so the pair-only truncation would make a minor contribution to the magnetization ratio. However, we have included them in our calculations, as the determination is not particularly difficult. More important is the possibility of an inhomogeneous distribution of dopant atoms within the NC, illustrated schematically in Figure 1. We performed numerical simulations, in which Eq.(1) was used to determine a number of dopant atoms to be randomly placed within a given set of cation shells. $`P_i`$ was evaluated by counting all the types of (anion-mediated) nearest-neighbor clusters in a statistical sampling of $`10^6`$ dopant configurations. Then Eq.(3) was used to determine the magnetization ratio for the ensemble of doped NCs.

## III Results

Using the model of a 729 atom, 3.0 nm ZnS NC, we varied the local dopant concentration, keeping the concentration over the total NC equivalent to the magnetically determined concentration, $`\overline{x}_{curie}`$, from experiment. The shells are explicitly described in Table 1, and the results are shown in Table 2. The higher average number of dopant atoms, $`\overline{N_d}`$, in our calculations reflects the fact that our model NC is slightly larger than that assumed by Tsuji et al.; otherwise we would expect $`\overline{x}_{curie}`$ to underestimate the number of dopants by a few percent.Shapira et al. (1984)

We initially performed calculations in which the dopant atoms were uniformly distributed over all 420 cation sites; this results in a higher magnetization ratio for the low-concentration samples than for the high-concentration samples, contradicting the experimental results. However, we understand the acid washing procedure as removing any dopant atoms on the outermost shell of the NC. The $`x_{NC}`$ reported for the “HCl-washed” experimental samples corresponds to the number of dopant atoms in the interior divided by the total number of cation sites, $`n_{total}`$, in the NC (including the surface cation sites). But in the “HCl-washed” case, the remaining dopants are not in the outermost shell, but are constrained to be in the $`n_{inner}`$; we can determine $`x_{inner}`$ using the relation $`x_{NC}n_{total}=x_{inner}n_{inner}`$. Similar stoichiometric reasoning allows us to calculate $`x_{outer}`$. The calculations in Table 2 show the results of constraining the inner sites to consist of the one, two, three, and four cation shells, both with and without doping into the exterior (fifth) cation shell. For cases with an outer shell and higher $`x_{NC}`$ (modelling the “as prepared” experimental samples), $`x_{outer}>x_{inner}`$ reduces the probability of pairing between surface and interior dopant atoms, increasing $`M_{5T}/M_{sat}`$ as compared to the uniformly distributed case. However, the magnetization ratio for these high $`x_{NC}`$ samples is relatively insensitive to any restriction of the sites available for the interior dopant atoms, since the number of dopant atoms in this exterior shell is much higher than the number of dopant atoms in the interior, and to a first approximation is similar to the result obtaining by having all the dopant atoms on the exterior (since $`x_{outer}n_{outer}x_{inner}n_{inner}`$).

Constraining the interior dopant atoms to reside within some locally concentrated sphere (for the purpose of our model, concentric with the NC), is qualitatively sufficient to achieve the proper effect of reducing the magnetization ratio for the washed samples with respect to the unwashed samples (as seen by comparing the respective rows of the “With Exterior Shell” and “Without Exterior Shell” calculations in Table 2). In particular, constraining the interior dopant atoms to reside on the innermost cation shell nearly reproduces the experimental magnetization ratio results for both the “as prepared” (93.4% theory, 91% experiment) and the “HCl-washed” (80.1% theory, 77% experiment), despite the simplicity of the model.

## IV Conclusion

The inhomogeneous dopant distribution model reproduces the magnetization behavior observed by Tsuji et al.without assuming different magnetic interactions for surface and interior dopant atoms. As noted in Section II, at the experimental temperature of $`5\mathrm{K}`$, Heisenberg exchange constants in the range of $`5\mathrm{K}J/k_b50\mathrm{K}`$ are indistinguishable.Kreitman et al. (1966) Further study on the effects of dopant geometry and NC size on $`J`$ may rely on electronic structure calculations, such as the recently developed ZILSH method of O’Brien and Davidson.O’Brien and Davidson (2003)

Our results suggests that dopant atoms in the interior of the NC are localized. It has been noted previously that $`\mathrm{Mn}_\mathrm{x}\mathrm{Cd}_{1\mathrm{x}}\mathrm{Se}`$ NCs appear to effectively zone-refine out the dopant atoms, since the energetic barrier to rearranging the lattice is not as insurmountable as in a bulk crystal.Mikulec et al. (2000) This suggest that there may exist a region near the center of the NC in which the energetic barrier is high enough to prevent migration of dopant atoms to the surface, surrounded by a region in which dopants migrate to the surface during synthesis and processing, as shown schematically in Figure 1. This may be further investigated by molecular dynamics simulations.

## V Acknowledgements

J.S. thanks the National Defense Science and Engineering Grant (NDSEG) program and U.S. Army Research Office Contract/Grant No. FDDAAD19-01-1-0612 for financial support. K.B.W. thanks the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science for financial support. This work was also supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research under Grant No. FDN00014-01-1-0826.

## VI Appendix

Below is a brief summary of the cluster susceptibility model, following Kreitman et al.Kreitman et al. (1966) and SmartSmart (1963). The Heisenberg Hamiltonian for nearest-neighbor interactions is

$$\widehat{H}=2J\underset{nn(i,j)}{}𝐒_i𝐒_j+g\mu _BH_0\underset{i}{}S_i^z,$$
(5)
where $`J`$ is the exchange constant, $`nn(i,j)`$ indicates that only nearest-neighbor $`i`$ and $`j`$ pairs are included, $`𝐒_i`$ is the spin-vector for site $`i`$, $`g`$ is the $`g`$-factor, $`\mu _B`$ is the Bohr magneton, $`H_0`$ is the applied field, and $`S_i^z`$ is the $`z`$ component of the spin on site $`i`$. There are three types of nearest-neighbor clusters containing three atoms or less: pairs ($`D`$), closed triangles ($`E`$) and open triangles ($`N`$). The eigenenergies of Eq.(5) for these configuratations are respectively,

$`E_D`$ $`=`$ $`J[j(j+1)2S(S+1)]+g\mu _BH_0M`$ (7)
$`0j2S,|M|j`$
$`E_E`$ $`=`$ $`J[j(j+1)2S(S+1)]+g\mu _BH_0M`$ (9)
$`0k2S,|kS|jk+S,|M|j`$
$`E_N`$ $`=`$ $`J[j(j+1)k(k+1)S(S+1)]+g\mu _BH_0M`$ (11)
$`0k2S,|kS|jk+S,|M|j,`$
using the standard notation of spin angular momentum. For $`n\{D,E,N\}`$, the free energy, $`F`$, is given by,

$$\beta F=\mathrm{ln}\underset{n}{}e^{\beta E_n}$$
(12)
where $`\beta =1/k_BT`$, $`k_B`$ is the Boltzmann constant and $`T`$ is the temperature. The susceptibility, $`\chi `$, is given by

$`\chi `$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{^2F}{H_0^2}}\right)|_{H_0=0}`$ (13)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{H_0}}{\displaystyle \frac{g\mu _B_n\left(_iS_i^z\right)^2e^{\beta E_n}}{_ne^{\beta E_n}}}|_{H_0=0}`$ (14)
$`=`$ $`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\beta (g\mu _B)^2_n\left(_iS_i^z\right)^2e^{\beta E_n}}{_ne^{\beta E_n}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{g\mu _B_n\left(_iS_i^z\right)^2e^{\beta E_n}}{_ne^{\beta E_n}}}\right)^2\right]_{H_0=0}`$ (15)
$`=`$ $`\beta (g\mu _B)^2\left[({\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}S_i^z)^2{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}S_i^z^2\right]_{H_0=0}.`$ (16)
The susceptibility of a set of noninteracting ($`J=0`$) spins, $`\chi _S`$, is simply,

$$\chi _S=\frac{1}{3}\beta (g\mu _B)^2S(S+1).$$
(18)
We can then use this to definte a normalized susceptibility $`X=\chi /\chi _S`$, and likewise normalized susceptibilities of each cluster type $`i`$, as $`X_i=\chi _i/\chi _S`$, used in Eq.(3).