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# ON NON HADRONIC ORIGIN OF HIGH ENERGY NEUTRINOS

## 1 Introduction

At present111Talk given at First NCTS Workshop on Astroparticle Physics, Kenting, Taiwan, 6-9 December, 2001., a main motivation for high energy neutrino astronomy ($`E_\nu 10^3`$ GeV) is that it may identify the role of hadronic interactions taking place in cosmos . The hadronic interactions mainly include the $`p\gamma `$ and $`pp`$ interactions. These interactions produce unstable hadrons that decay into neutrinos of all three flavors. There is a formation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonance in $`p\gamma `$ interactions, at center-of-mass energy, $`\sqrt{s}m_\mathrm{\Delta }`$, that mainly decay into electron and muon neutrinos . In an astrophysical site for these interactions, the protons are considered to be accelerated up to a certain maximum energy and then interact with the photons and other protons present in the vicinity of the source and those present in the interstellar medium. Our galaxy and the earth atmosphere are two examples of such astrophysical sites .

Currently, the detectors taking data in the context of high energy neutrinos are Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) at south pole  and the lake Baikal array in Russia . These detectors are primarily based on muon detection and are commonly referred to as high energy neutrino telescopes. The other high energy neutrino telescope under construction is the Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch (ANTARES) project . These high energy neutrino telescopes (envisage to) measure the showers and the charged leptons produced mainly in the deep-inelastic neutrino-nucleon and resonant (anti electron) neutrino-electron scatterings occurring near or inside the high energy neutrino telescopes . The later interaction can be used to calibrate the incident neutrino energy in future high energy neutrino telescopes. The Monopole, Astrophysics and Cosmic Ray Observatory (MACRO) in Gran Sasso laboratory, Italy has also recently reported its results for the high energy neutrino searches . Given the present upper bounds on the high energy neutrino flux from AMANDA (B 10) and Baikal detector, the role of semi and non hadronic interactions becomes relevant. We shall call the later interactions as purely electromagnetic ones. Examples of these include $`ep`$ and $`\gamma \gamma `$ interactions respectively.

Upper bound from the AMANDA detector rule out some of the high energy neutrino flux models based on hadronic interactions only. However, several variants of these models can still possibly be compatible with the high energy neutrino non observations. These include, for instance, the direct pion production off the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonance in $`p\gamma `$ interactions.

The absolute high energy neutrino flux originating from the non hadronic interactions, though expected to be small relative to that from hadronic interactions, can be a good scale for future large high energy neutrino telescopes such as IceCube. This will be a guaranteed level of the high energy neutrino flux should the conventional astrophysics explanation for observed high energy photon emission from extra galactic astrophysical sources such as AGNs is correct . Here, only electromagnetic interactions are taken into account for explaining the observations. Thus, the implicit assumption of proton acceleration can be avoided. The discussion that follows is also relevant in cases where the highest energy cosmic rays, considered to be mainly protons, may not originate from the GRBs which are the likely sources of high energy gamma rays .

This contribution is organized as follows. In Section 2, we briefly discuss some essentials of purely electromagnetic interactions possibly taking place in astrophysical and cosmological sites. In Section 3, we summarize the main points.

## 2 Purely electromagnetic interactions

The non hadronic interactions are defined to have $`e^\pm `$ and $`\gamma `$ in the initial state, rather than $`p`$ and $`\gamma `$. Therefore, the possible interactions that may generate high energy neutrinos include

$$\gamma \gamma \mu ^+\mu ^{},e\gamma \gamma ^{^{}}\nu _l\overline{\nu }_l,e^+e^{}\nu _l\overline{\nu }_l.$$

For comparison, note that for $`\sqrt{s}m_\mathrm{\Delta }`$, the cross sections for these interactions are typically $`\mu `$b. For $`\sqrt{s}m_{\pi ^\pm }`$, other channels such as $`e\gamma e\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ and $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ also become available for high energy neutrino generation. The non hadronic interactions also include the magnetic field induced interactions such as $`\gamma \gamma \nu _l\overline{\nu }_l`$, which will be briefly commented later in this Section.

A yet another possibility to generate high energy neutrinos in purely electromagnetic interactions is through the formation and decay of $`\eta `$ resonance into (charged) pions in $`\gamma \gamma `$ interactions ($`\gamma \gamma \eta \pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^0`$). Let us consider in some detail a simple implication of this purely electromagnetic interaction in the context of high energy photon propagation  and consequent high energy neutrino generation. The cross section for this interaction is given by

$$\sigma (\gamma \gamma \eta \pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^0,s)=\frac{5.2\mathrm{\Gamma }_\eta ^2}{(sm_\eta ^2)^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }_\eta ^2m_\eta ^2},$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\eta 1.18`$ KeV and $`m_\eta 547`$ MeV, so that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\eta /m_\eta 10^6`$. The peak cross section is $`\sigma ^{\mathrm{res}}(s=m_\eta ^2)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3}`$ mb. Let us remark that $`\sigma ^{\mathrm{res}}(s=m_\mathrm{\Delta }^2)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.5}`$ mb, however here $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{\Delta }/m_\mathrm{\Delta }10^3`$. The branching ratio  for the light unflavored $`\eta `$ meson to decay into $`\pi ^+`$, $`\pi ^{}`$ and $`\pi ^0`$ is $`23\%`$.

A useful quantity in the context of high energy photon propagation is the average interaction length defined by

$$l(E)^1=_{m_\eta ^2/4E}^{\mathrm{}}n_\mathrm{b}(ϵ)\text{d}ϵ_{+1}^1\left(\frac{1\mu }{2}\right)\sigma (s)\text{d}\mu ,$$
(2)
with $`s=2ϵE(1\mu )`$ and $`\mu =\mathrm{cos}\theta `$. The lower limit of integration for $`ϵ`$ corresponds to a head on collision so that $`\mu =1`$. Note that for a high energy photon with energy $`E`$ GeV, the background photon energy is $`ϵ`$ GeV to form the $`\eta `$ resonance. For definiteness, let us consider the interaction between high energy photons and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation which has the following number density

$$n_\mathrm{b}(ϵ)=\frac{1}{\pi ^2}\frac{ϵ^2}{\mathrm{exp}(ϵ/T_\mathrm{b}(0))1}.$$
(3)
Here $`T_\mathrm{b}(0)2.74`$ K. The other ubiquitous photon backgrounds include the infrared and ultraviolet radiation, considered to exist in the present universe, particularly after galaxy formation epoch. For simplicity, we ignore their effects as well as the effects of a possible magnetic field present in the cosmos.

The high energy photons are considered to originate from an astrophysical or cosmological site within the present horizon length $`cH^1(0)310^3`$ Mpc (where 1 pc $`310^{18}`$ cm), as we take $`H(0)65`$ km s-1 Mpc-1.

Substituting Eq. (1) and Eq. (3) into Eq. (2), the two integrations can be carried out easily under the narrow width assumption, such that for $`\sqrt{s}m_\eta `$, we obtain

$$l(E)\frac{8\pi E^2}{5.2\mathrm{\Gamma }_\eta m_\eta T}\left\{\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{\mathrm{exp}(m_\eta ^2/4ET)}{\mathrm{exp}(m_\eta ^2/4ET1)}\right)\right\}^1.$$
(4)
For $`4ETm_\eta ^2`$, i.e., $`E310^{11}`$ GeV, we note that $`l10^4\mathrm{Mpc}>cH^1(0)`$. A such single interaction give a total of 6 neutrinos. For comparison, we display in Fig. 1, the $`l_\eta l(\gamma \gamma \eta \pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^0)`$ along with the more familiar relevant $`l`$, namely for $`\gamma \gamma \mu ^+\mu ^{}`$. From the figure, we note that the Eq. (4) is a quite good approximation to obtain $`l`$ in resonance and that $`l_\eta l_{\mu ^+\mu ^{}}`$ for same $`E`$. In general, this observation may also have some relevance for high energy photon propagation in a dense photon background with relatively narrow background photon flux spectrum such as those arising in some astrophysical sites in the context of high energy neutrino generation.

In the limit $`4ETm_\eta ^2`$, we obtain

$$l(E)\frac{8\pi E^2}{5.2\mathrm{\Gamma }_\eta m_\eta T}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{m_\eta ^2}{4ET}\right),$$
(5)
whereas, in the opposite limit, namely when $`4ETm_\eta ^2`$, we obtain

$$l(E)\frac{8\pi E^2}{5.2\mathrm{\Gamma }m_\eta T}\left\{\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{4ET}{m_\eta ^2}\right)\right\}^1.$$
(6)
In the two limiting cases, $`l(E)cH_0^1`$. Let us further remark that although $`\sigma ^{\mathrm{res}}(s=m_\eta ^2)\sigma ^{\mathrm{res}}(s=m_\mathrm{\Delta }^2)`$, however $`l_\eta ^{\mathrm{res}}l_\mathrm{\Delta }^{\mathrm{res}}`$ because of rather narrow $`\eta `$ width.

In the presence of an external magnetic field, we note that the cross section for $`\gamma \gamma \nu \overline{\nu }`$ is significantly enhanced  with respect to its value in the vacuum. However, such an enhancement is still insufficient for this process to be presently relevant for high energy neutrino generation. For comparison with $`\gamma \gamma \mu ^+\mu ^{}`$, it is found that , for $`B=10^{12}`$ G, $`\sigma (\gamma \gamma \nu \overline{\nu })10^{49}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ for $`s\stackrel{>}{_{}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}m_\mu ^2`$. This cross section scales as $`B^2`$ for $`B<B_c410^{13}`$ G.

### 2.1 Astrophysical sites

Presently, there exists no model to estimate the high energy neutrino flux in purely electromagnetic interactions taking place in sources of highest energy gamma rays such as the AGNs and the GRBs. To make an order of magnitude estimate, we assume that the above astrophysical sites can accelerate electrons to energies greater than the observed gamma ray energies. As these electrons undergo inverse Compton scattering, the up-scattered high energy photons are produced. The scatterings of high energy photons over the ambient photon fields present in the vicinity of the AGNs or GRBs may lead to the $`\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ final state or three-pion final state through the $`\eta `$ resonance.

Phenomenologically speaking, the resulting (relative) high energy neutrino flux can be parameterized as $`\varphi _\nu ^{\gamma \gamma }(E_\nu )P\varphi _\nu ^{p\gamma }(E_\nu )`$, where the probability function $`P`$ depends on the ratio of high energy photon/electron flux associated with a specific astrophysical site to the corresponding high energy proton flux on the same site. The function $`P`$ certainly also depends on the ratio of neutrino production cross sections between two mechanisms. Finally it also depends on the magnetic field strength on the site, which are relevant for the acceleration of charged particles. A diffuse non hadronic high energy neutrino flux with a representative $`P`$ $`10^410^5`$ can in principle be measurable by future large high energy neutrino telescopes such as IceCube.

### 2.2 Cosmological sites

Topological defects formed in the early epochs may play some role in the latter epochs of the expanding universe. The cosmological and astrophysical aspects of topological defects are the density or metric perturbations that they may generate, particularly in the epoch of large scale structure formation in the expanding universe .

The associated particle physics aspect is the possible release of large amount of energy trapped inside these topological defects in the form of gauge bosons. These gauge bosons subsequently decay into known hadrons and leptons. Assuming that (some fraction of) the topological defects are formed in the early epochs of the expanding universe and thus contain a large amount of energy, it becomes possible to explain at least some features of the observed highest energy cosmic rays. For this scenario to work, the observed highest energy cosmic rays have to be dominantly the photons. In this (conventional) scenario, the high energy neutrino flux is generated from the decay of charged pions .

Here, we discuss a class of topological defects in which high energy neutrino flux generation was postulated to originate in the electromagnetic cascade rather than in charged-pion decays which result from the hadronizations of initial jets produced in the decays of GUT-scale heavy bosons . This class of sources for ultrahigh energy photons is assumed to be active before the galaxy formation epoch. This corresponds  to a red shift, $`z5`$. Thus, for $`z5`$, the effects of galactic magnetic field as well as the infrared and ultraviolet photon backgrounds can be neglected. Consequently, CMB photon flux is the only important photon background. A search for high energy neutrinos can provide some useful information about the existence of this class of topological defects in the expanding universe. At high red shift, the $`\gamma \gamma `$ interactions between the energetic and background photons can produce muons (and charged pions) whose decay generate high energy neutrinos. Note that, at high red shift, $`T_\mathrm{b}(z)=(1+z)T_\mathrm{b}(0)`$, whereas $`n_\mathrm{b}(z)=(1+z)^3n_\mathrm{b}(0)`$. For $`E>E_{\mathrm{th}}(z)`$, where $`E_{\mathrm{th}}=10^{11}\mathrm{GeV}/(1+z)`$, the $`\gamma \gamma _\mathrm{b}\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ is most relevant for high energy neutrino generation. The $`\lambda \lambda (\gamma \gamma _\mathrm{b}\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$) obtainable using Eq. (2) is less than the horizon length, $`cH(z)^1`$ for $`5<z<10`$. With an invariant mass just above the threshold, the purely electromagnetic interaction $`\gamma \gamma _\mathrm{b}\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ also has a shorter interaction length than the energy attenuation length in the electromagnetic cascade dictated by $`\gamma \gamma _\mathrm{b}e^+e^{}`$.

Under the assumption that muons decay before interacting, the high energy neutrino flux can be calculated as

$$\varphi _\nu ^{\gamma \gamma }(E_\nu )=_{z_{min}}^{z_{max}}_{E_\nu }^{E_{max}}\text{d}z\text{d}E\varphi _\gamma (z,E)f(z,E)\frac{\text{d}n_{\gamma \gamma \nu +X}}{\text{d}E_\nu }.$$
(7)
Here $`\varphi _\gamma (z,E)`$ parameterizes the high energy photon flux from the topological defect. Typically, it is normalized by assuming that the high energy photons produced by topological defects at the high red shift are dominantly responsible for the observed high energy photon flux and/or the observed highest energy cosmic rays. The function $`f(z,E)cH(z)^1/\lambda `$ gives the number of $`\gamma \gamma `$ interactions within the horizon length. The $`\mathrm{d}n/\mathrm{d}E\sigma ^1\mathrm{d}\sigma /\mathrm{d}E`$ is the neutrino-energy distribution in $`\gamma \gamma `$ interactions. The integration limits follow from the above discussion. The $`\varphi _\nu ^{\gamma \gamma }`$ peaks at $`E_\nu E_\mu /3E_{\mathrm{th}}/3(1+z)10^{11}\mathrm{GeV}/3(1+z)^210^8`$ GeV. The $`\eta `$ resonance formation can also contribute to $`\varphi _\nu ^{\gamma \gamma }`$. It is a possibility to produce high energy neutrinos through non hadronic interactions in a cosmological setting.

The electromagnetic cascade that generate high energy neutrinos from muon decays in $`\gamma \gamma `$ interactions contains roughly equal number of photons and electrons. In Ref , it was suggested that, for this class of topological defects that produce ultrahigh energy photons at the high $`z`$, the muon pair production (MPP) in $`e^{}\gamma e^{}\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ dominates over the triplet pair production (TPP) in $`e^{}\gamma e^{}e^+e^{}`$ for 5 m$`{}_{\mu }{}^{2}s`$ 20 m$`{}_{\mu }{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}`$ in the electromagnetic cascade, thus enabling the MPP process to be an efficient mechanism for generating high energy neutrinos at the high $`z`$. The electrons in the final state of the above processes are considered as originating from the electromagnetic cascade generated by the ultrahigh energy photons scattering over the CMB photons present at the high red shift. This conclusion was based upon the value of the ratio $`R`$ defined as $`R\sigma _{MPP}/\eta _{TPP}\sigma _{TPP}`$, where $`\eta _{TPP}`$ is the inelasticity for the TPP process. The $`\eta _{TPP}`$ is basically the average fraction of the incident energy carried by the final state positron. The original estimate of Ref.  gives $`R10^2`$, which favors the MPP process as the dominating high energy neutrino generating process. Namely, the electron energy attenuation length due to the TPP process is much longer than the interaction length of the MPP process because $`\sigma _{MPP}(0.11)`$ mb. However, by an explicit calculation , instead it was found that $`\sigma _{MPP}<1\mu `$b for $`s5`$ m$`{}_{\mu }{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}`$, thus yielding $`R<1`$. In particular,

$$\sigma _{MPP}(s)=\{\begin{array}{cc}410^3\mu \text{b}\hfill & \mathrm{for}s=4\text{m}_\mu ^2,\hfill \\ 110^1\mu \text{b}\hfill & \mathrm{for}s=20\text{m}_\mu ^2.\hfill \end{array}$$
(8)
Therefore, MPP can not be a dominating process for generating high energy neutrinos. We note that the equivalent photon approximation was used in this work to calculate the leading-order contribution to $`\sigma _{MPP}(s)`$.

In summary, in an electromagnetic cascade generated by ultrahigh energy photons scattering over the CMB photons at the high red shift, the $`\gamma \gamma \mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ can in principle produce high energy neutrinos, typically for $`5<z<10`$, through the muon decays. On the other hand, the process $`e\gamma e^{}\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ occurring as the next round of interactions in the same electromagnetic cascade can not produce the high energy neutrinos.

## 3 Conclusions

Possibilities of high energy neutrino generations in two of the non hadronic interactions, namely $`\gamma \gamma `$ and $`e\gamma `$ reactions are briefly discussed. In the first interaction, the formation and decay of the $`\eta `$ resonance in addition to the muon pair production may have some implications for high energy neutrino generation. Model dependent analysis is needed to further quantify the high energy neutrino generation in non hadronic interactions.

## Acknowledgments

HA thanks Physics Division of National Center for Theoretical Sciences for financial support. GLL is supported by the National Science Council of Taiwan under the grant number NSC90-2112-M009-023.


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# Randall-Sundrum Zero Mode as a Penrose Limit

## Appendix

Our conventions are as follows: In all $`D4`$ we use the “mostly minus” signature $`(+,,\mathrm{},)`$ and the orientation $`ϵ_{012\mathrm{}D1}=1`$. The Ricci tensor is defined as $`R_{MN}=R_{}^{K}{}_{MNK}{}^{}`$ and the Riemann curvature obeys $`(_N_M_M_N)T_K=R_{}^{L}{}_{KMN}{}^{}T_L`$ for an arbitrary vector field $`T_M`$.

## Acknowledgements

The research reported in this paper has been supported in part by the Turkish Academy of Sciences(TÜBA).


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# Radiation defects in silicon due to hadrons and leptons, their annealing and influence on detector performance

## 1 Introduction

The use of silicon detectors in high radiation environments, as to be expected in future high energy accelerators, poses severe problems due to changes in the properties of the material, and consequently influences the performances of detectors.

The incident particle, hadron or lepton, interacts with the electrons and with the nuclei of the semiconductor lattice. It losses its energy in several processes, which depend on the nature of the particle and on its energy. The effect of the interaction of the incident particle with the target atomic electrons is ionisation, and the characteristic quantity for this process is the energy loss or stopping power. The nuclear interaction between the incident particle and the lattice nuclei produces bulk defects and this phenomenon is studied in the present paper. As a result of this interaction, if the primary projectile is a particle, one or more light particles are formed, and usually one (or more) heavy recoil nuclei. This recoil nucleus has charge and mass numbers equal or lower than that of the medium. After this first interaction, the recoil nucleus or nuclei are displaced from the lattice positions into interstitials. Then, the primary knock-on nucleus, if its energy is large enough, can produce the displacement of a new nucleus, and the process continues as long as the energy of the colliding nucleus is higher than the threshold for atomic displacements. We denote these displacement defects, vacancies and interstitials, as primary defects, prior to any further rearrangement. In silicon these defects are essentially unstable and interact via migration, recombination, annihilation or produce other defects.

As a consequence of the degradation to radiation of the semiconductor material, an increase of the reverse current due the reduction of the minority carrier lifetime, a reduction of the charge collection efficiency and a modification of the effective doping, due to the generation of trapping centres, are observed in the detector characteristics. In this paper, for the first time, a phenomenological model was developed to explain quantitatively, without free parameters, the mechanisms of production of the primary defects during particle irradiation, the kinetics of their evolution toward stable defects and equilibrium and the influence of the defects on detector parameters. The effects of the incident particle type, of its kinetic energy and of the irradiation conditions on the concentration of defects are studied. Vacancy-interstitial annihilation, interstitial migration to sinks, vacancy - impurity complexes ($`VP`$, $`VO`$ and $`V_2O`$), and divacancy ($`V_2`$) formation are considered in different irradiation conditions, for different concentrations of impurities in the semiconductor material and at different temperatures near room temperature. The model can be extended directly to include the effects of other mechanisms related to these, or other impurities in silicon, and of their interaction with the vacancy and/or interstitial. The density of the reverse current in the detector after irradiation is estimated. Comparison with experimental published data of the time evolution of the concentration of defects is performed, as well as with measurements of the density of the leakage current. For different discrepancies, some explanations are suggested. A special application considered in the paper is the simulated case of the behaviour of silicon detectors operating in the pion field simulated for the future conditions at the new LHC (Large Hadron Collider) accelerator.

## 2 Production of primary defects

A point defect in a crystal is an entity that causes an interruption in the lattice periodicity. In this paper, the terminology and definitions in agreement with M. Lannoo and J. Bourgoin  are used in relation to defects.

The basic assumption of the present model is that vacancies and interstitials are produced in materials exposed to radiation in equal quantities, uniformly in the bulk of the sample. They are the primary radiation defects, being produced either by the incoming particle, or as a consequence of the subsequent collisions of the primary recoil in the lattice.

The concentration of the primary radiation induced defects per unit fluence (CPD) in the semiconductor material has been calculated using the explicit formula (see details, e.g. in references ):

$$CPD\left(E\right)=\frac{N_{Si}}{2E_{Si}}\underset{i}{}\left(\frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}\right)_{i,Si}L(E_{Ri})_{Si}d\mathrm{\Omega }=\frac{1}{N_A}\frac{N_{Si}A_{Si}}{2E_{Si}}NIEL\left(E\right)$$
(1)
where $`E`$ is the kinetic energy of the incident particle, $`N_{Si}`$ is the atomic density in silicon, $`A_{Si}`$ is the silicon atomic number, $`E_{Si}`$ \- the average threshold energy for displacements in the semiconductor, $`E_{Ri}`$ \- the recoil energy of the residual nucleus produced in interaction $`i`$, $`L(E_{Ri})`$ \- the Lindhard factor that describes the partition of the recoil energy between ionisation and displacements and $`(d\sigma /d\mathrm{\Omega })_i`$ \- the differential cross section of the interaction between the incident particle and the nucleus of the lattice for the process or mechanism $`i`$, responsible in defect production. $`N_A`$ is Avogadro’s number. The formula gives also the relation with the non ionising energy loss ($`NIEL`$). It is important to observe that there exists a proportionality between the $`CPD`$ and $`NIEL`$ only for monoelement materials.

For $`CPD`$ produced by pions, the pion - silicon interaction has been modelled  and the energy dependencies of the Lindhard factors have been calculated in the frame of analytical approximations for different recoils in Si .

The concentration of primary defects produced by protons, neutrons, electrons and photons have been obtained from the $`NIEL`$. The calculations of Summers and co-workers for proton and electron $`NIEL`$ in silicon from reference , the calculations of proton, electron and photon $`NIEL`$ of Van Ginneken  as well as those of Ougouang for neutrons  have been considered.

In Figure 1, the dependence of the $`CPD`$ on the particle kinetic energy is presented: for pions, our calculations from reference  have been used; for protons, in the energy range $`10^3÷1`$ MeV the calculations of Summers, in the range $`1÷200`$ MeV the average between those of Summers and of Van Ginneken, while in the range $`200÷10000`$ MeV, Van Ginneken’s. The curve for electrons uses, up to 1 MeV only the values from reference , in the range $`1÷200`$ MeV an average between the values from references  and , and after 200 MeV only from . The curves for photons and neutrons are calculated from Van Ginneken’s  and Ougouang’s  respectively.

The main source of errors in the calculated concentration of defects comes from the modelling of the particle - nucleus interaction and from the number and quality of the experimental data available for these processes. Due to the important weight of annealing processes, as well as to their very short time scale, CPD is not a measurable physical quantity.

In silicon, vacancies and interstitials are essentially unstable and interact via migration, recombination, annihilation or produce other defects.

## 3 The kinetics of radiation induced defects

In the frame of the model, equal concentrations of vacancies and interstitials are supposed to be produced by irradiation, in much greater concentrations than the corresponding thermal equilibrium values, characteristic to each temperature. Both the pre-existing defects and those produced by irradiation, as well as the impurities, are assumed to be randomly distributed in the solid. An important part of the vacancies and interstitials annihilate. The sample contains certain concentrations of impurities which can trap interstitials and vacancies respectively, and form stable defects.

In the present paper, vacancy-interstitial annihilation, interstitial migration to sinks, divacancy and vacancy impurity complex formation ($`VP`$, $`VO`$, $`V_2O`$), are considered. The mechanisms of formation of higher order defects involving vacancy and oxygen can be added, as well as the effects of other impurities, e.g. carbon.

This picture could be described in terms of chemical reactions by the kinetic scheme:

$$V+I_{\stackrel{}{K_1}}^\underset{}{G}\text{annihilation}$$
(2)
$$I\stackrel{K_2}{}\text{sinks}$$
(3)
$$V+P_{\stackrel{}{K_5}}^{\underset{}{K_5}}VP$$
(4)
$`VP`$ is the $`E`$ centre.

$$V+O_{\stackrel{}{K_3}}^{\underset{}{K_4}}VO$$
(5)
$`VO`$ is the $`A`$ centre.

$$V+V_{\stackrel{}{K_8}}^{\underset{}{K_7}}V_2$$
(6)
$$V+A_{\stackrel{}{K_{10}}}^{\underset{}{K_9}}V_2O$$
(7)
The bimolecular recombination law of interstitials and vacancies is supposed to be a valid approximation for the present discussion, because at the concentrations of vacancies of interest, only a small fraction of defects anneals by correlated annihilation if their distribution is random (see the discussion in reference ).

The multivacancy oxygen defects as, e.g. $`V_3O`$, $`V_2O_2`$, $`V_3O_2`$, $`V_3O_3`$, are not considered in the model.

The reaction constant $`K_1`$ (corresponding to vacancy - interstitial annihilation) is determined by the diffusion coefficient of the interstitial atom to a substitutional trap:

$$K_1=30\nu \mathrm{exp}\left(E_{i1}/k_BT\right)$$
(8)
where $`E_{i1}`$ is the activation energy of interstitial migration and $`\nu `$ the vibrational frequency. The reaction constant in process (2) is proportional to the sink concentration $`\alpha `$:

$$K_2=\alpha \nu \lambda ^2\mathrm{exp}\left(E_{i1}/k_BT\right)$$
(9)
with $`\lambda `$ the jump distance.

Lee and Corbett  argue that divacancies, vacancy-oxygen and divacancy-oxygen centres are equally probable below 350 oC; thus, $`K_3`$, $`K_5`$, $`K_7`$ and $`K_9`$, that describe the formation of vacancy - impurity complexes and of divacancies, are determined by the activation energy of vacancy migration, $`E_{i2}`$, and are given by:

$$K_3=K_5=K_7=K_9=30\nu \mathrm{exp}\left(E_{i2}/k_BT\right)$$
(10)
while $`K_4`$, $`K_6`$, $`K_8`$ and $`K_{10}`$ are related to the activation energies of dissociation of the $`A`$, $`E`$, $`V_2`$ and $`V_2O`$ centres respectively.

$$K_4=5\nu \mathrm{exp}\left(E_A/k_BT\right)$$
(11)
$$K_6=5\nu \mathrm{exp}\left(E_E/k_BT\right)$$
(12)
$$K_8=5\nu \mathrm{exp}\left(E_{V_2)}/k_BT\right)$$
(13)
$$K_{10}=5\nu \mathrm{exp}\left(E_{V_2O}/k_BT\right)$$
(14)
where $`E_A`$, $`E_E`$, $`E_{V_2}`$ and $`E_{V_2O}`$ are the dissociation energies of the $`A`$, $`E`$, $`V_2`$ and $`V_2O`$ complexes respectively.

$`G`$ is the generation rate of vacancy-interstitial pairs, and is given by the product of $`CPD`$ by the irradiation flux. Thermal generation is neglected, this approximation corresponding to high irradiation fluxes.

In the simplifying hypothesis of random distribution of $`CPD`$ for all particles, two different particles can produce the same generation rate for vacancy-interstitial pairs.

$$G=[\left(CPD\right)_{part.a}(E_1)]\mathrm{\Phi }_{part.a}(E_1)=[\left(CPD\right)_{part.b}(E_2)]\mathrm{\Phi }_{part.2(E_2)}$$
(15)
is fulfilled.

Here, $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the flux of particles ($`a`$) and ($`b`$) respectively, and $`E_1`$ and $`E_2`$ their corresponding kinetic energies. The system of coupled differential equations corresponding to the reaction scheme (2)-(7) cannot be solved analytically.

The following values of the parameters have been used: $`E_{i1}`$ = 0.4 eV, $`E_{i2}`$ = 0.8 eV, $`E_A`$ = 1.4 eV, $`E_B`$ = 1.1 eV, $`E_{V_2}`$ = 1.3 eV, $`E_{V_2}`$ = 1.6 eV, $`E_{V_2O}`$ = $`10^{13}`$ Hz, $`\lambda `$ = $`10^{15}`$ cm2, $`\alpha =10^{10}`$ cm-2.

Defect concentrations, as well as their time evolution, have been calculated solving numerically the system of coupled differential equations.

We would like to underline the specific importance of the irradiation and annealing history (initial material parameters, type of irradiation particles, energetic source spectra, flux, irradiation temperature, measurement temperature, temperature and time between irradiation and measurement) on defect evolution.

In Figures 2a $`÷`$ d, the formation and time evolution of the divacancy, vacancy-oxygen, divacancy-oxygen, and vacancy-phosphorous is modelled in silicon containing the initial concentrations of impurities: 1014 P/cm3 and 5x1016 O/cm3, and irradiated with pions with about 200 MeV kinetic energy (corresponding to the in their maximum of $`CPD`$ in the energetic distribution), at a total fluence of 1015 pions/cm2, in different irradiation conditions. The instantaneous irradiation process is an ideal case  where the total fluence is received by the material at time t = 0, and only the relaxation process is studied. This process supposes that the annealing effects are not present during irradiation. The second case considered is: the irradiation is performed in a single pulse for a time 2x104 seconds, followed by relaxation, and the third case is a continuum irradiation process with a generation rate of defects equal with 5x1010 pions/cm2/s. In these last two cases, annealing takes place during irradiation. During and after irradiation, the temperature is kept at 293K. As expected, after instantaneous irradiation the concentrations of defects are higher in respect with ”gradual” irradiation. A special attention must be paid to the formation of $`VO`$ and $`V_2O`$ centres, for which the same concentration is attained both in the case of continuous and instantaneous irradiation.

The effect of the decrease of temperature, from 293 to 273 K during irradiation and annealing, is presented in Figures 3a and b. The material contains the same phosphorous and oxygen concentrations as in the modelled case presented in Figure 2, and was irradiated with pions of 200 MeV kinetic energy, receiving continuously a fluence of $`10^{15}`$ pions/cm2 in ten years, in accord to the pions simulated radiation field at LHC .

The increase of temperature increases the rate of all defect formation. In the case of $`VO`$ and $`VP`$ a plateau in the time dependencies is attained. Only for $`VP`$ the plateau value is temperature sensitive.

The rate of generation of primary defects in silicon influences the concentrations of all stable defects. In Figures 4a $`÷`$ c, the time evolution of the concentrations of $`VO`$, $`VP`$, $`V_2`$ and $`V_2O`$ in silicon with 1014 P/cm3 and 5x1016 O/cm3, irradiated with pions of 200 MeV with the flux estimated for $`LHC`$, 10 and 100 times higher respectively, is presented. It can be observed that at the $`LHC`$ generation rate for $`CPD`$, after 3x107 seconds an equilibrium is established for the $`VP`$ complex: its rate of formation equals its rate of dissociation - Fig. 4a. This time is shorter for higher generation rate, as can be observed in Figures 4b and 4c. The value of the plateau concentration for the vacancy-oxygen complex is attained after around the same time as the plateau for the concentration, in conditions of the $`LHC`$ generation rate, and a shorter time, about 2x106 sec. for a rate hundred times higher than the $`LHC`$ one. For other defects, as divacancies and divacancy-oxygen, the processes to established the equilibrium are very slow.

The formation of divacancy-oxygen is delayed in respect to vacancy oxygen, and for long exposure times, the same value for the concentration is obtained.

The effect of oxygen in irradiated silicon has been a subject of intensive studies in remote past. In the last decade a lot of studies have been performed to investigate the influence of different impurities, especially oxygen and carbon, as possible ways to enhance the radiation hardness of silicon for detectors in the future generation of experiments in high energy physics - see, e.g. references . These impurities added to the silicon bulk modify the formation of electrically active defects, thus controlling the macroscopic device parameters. If silicon is enriched in oxygen, the capture of radiation-generated vacancies is favoured by the production of the pseudo-acceptor complex vacancy-oxygen. Interstitial oxygen acts as a sink of vacancies, thus reducing the probability of formation of the divacancy related complexes, associated with deeper levels inside the gap. For this purpose, in the model, the effects of the initial oxygen concentration in silicon was studied. In Figures 5 a, b, c, d the time dependencies of $`V_2`$, $`VO`$, $`V_2O`$ and $`VP`$ are presented, for silicon containing 1015, 1016, 1017, and 1018 atoms/cm3 initial oxygen concentrations.

One can observe that vacancy-oxygen formation in oxygen enriched silicon is favoured in respect to the generation of $`V_2`$, $`V_2O`$ and $`VP`$, confirming the considered hypothesis, so, for detector applications the leakage current is decreased. At high oxygen concentrations, the concentration of $`VO`$ centres saturates starting from low fluences.

A difficulty in the comparison of model predictions with experimental data is the insufficient information in published papers regarding the characterisation of silicon, and on the irradiation (flux, temperature during irradiation and measurement, irradiation time, time and temperature between irradiation and measurement) for most of the data.

For electron irradiation, our simulations are in agreement with the measurements presented in reference , where defect concentrations are presented as a function of the time after irradiation. In Figure 6, both measured and calculated dependencies of the $`VP`$ and $`V_2`$ concentrations are given. The irradiation was performed with 2.5 MeV electrons, up to a fluence of 1016 cm-2. A good agreement can be observed for the concentration of $`VP`$, see Figure 6a, while for the divacancy, Figure 6b, the experimental data attain a plateau faster, and at smaller values than the calculations. The relative values are imposed by the arbitrary units of experimental data.

A good agreement has also been obtained for hadron irradiation. For example, the sum of the calculated $`VP`$ and $`V_2`$ concentrations (8x1012 cm-3) induced in silicon by 5.67x1013 cm-2 1 MeV neutrons, are in accord with the experimental value of 11.2x1012 cm-3 reported in reference .

## 4 Correlation with detector parameters

It is well known that the dark current in a $`pn`$ junction is composed by three different terms: the diffusion current, caused by the diffusion of the minority charge carriers inside the depleted region; the generation current, created by the presence of lattice defects inside the bulk of the detector; and surface and perimetral currents, dependent on the environmental conditions of the surface and the perimeter of the diode. The appearance of the defects after irradiation corresponds therefore in an increase of the leakage current of the detector by its generational term.

Inside the depleted zone, $`n,p<<n_i`$ ($`n_i`$ is the intrinsic free carrier concentration), each defect with a bulk concentration $`N_T`$ causes a generation current per unit of volume of the form :

$$I=qU=q<v_t>n_t\frac{\sigma _n\sigma _pN_T}{\sigma _n\gamma _ne^{\left(E_tE_i\right)/k_BT}+\sigma _p\gamma _pe^{\left(E_iE_t\right)/k_BT}}$$
(16)
where $`\gamma _n`$ and $`gamma_p`$ are degeneration factors, $`\sigma _n`$ ($`\sigma _p`$) are the cross sections for majority (minority) carriers of the trap, $`E_i=(E_CE_V)/2`$ and $`<v_t>`$ is the average between electron and hole thermal velocities. In the case of $`E`$ and $`A`$ centres and $`V_2^{}`$ and $`V_2^()`$ defects, the current concentration can be expressed in the simple form:

$$I=qU=q<v_t>n_t\frac{\sigma _n}{\sigma _p}N_Te^{\left(E_tE_i\right)/k_BT}$$
(17)
The primary effect in the recombination process is the change the charge state of the defect. The different charge states of the same deep centre may have different barriers for migration or for reacting with other centres. Thus, carrier capture can either enhance or retard defect migration or particular defect reactions. As a characteristics for detectors (as diode junction), the defect kinetics is dependent to the reverse - bias voltage during the irradiation .

The comparison between theoretical and experimental generation current densities after irradiation shows a general accord between experiment and the model results for the lepton irradiation and large discrepancies for the hadron case.

There could be several reasons for the observed discrepancies.

The model hypothesis of defects distributed randomly in semiconductors exclude the possibility of cluster defects. For this case, other mechanisms of defect formation are necessary, which suppose different reaction rates and correlation between the constituent defects of the cluster.

In the Shockley-Read-Hall model used for the calculation of the reverse current, each defect has one level in the gap, and the defect levels are uncoupled, thus the current is simply the sum of the contributions of different defects. In fact, the defects could have more levels, and charge states, as is the case of the divacancy, and also could be coupled, as in the case of clusters. As shown in the literature , both cases can produces modifications of the generation rate.

Also the multivacancy oxygen defects as, e.g. $`V_3O`$, $`V_2O_2`$, $`V_3O_2`$, $`V_3O_3`$, are not considered in the model.

A model estimation of the time dependence of the leakage current, in conditions of continuous irradiations with pions of 200 MeV kinetic energy, in the conditions of the $`LHC`$  and at 293K is presented in Figure 7, for two concentrations of oxygen in silicon: 5x1016 cm-3 and 1016 cm-3 respectively. As underlined before, oxygen incorporation in silicon has beneficial effects, decreasing the reverse current. This conclusion is valid in the hypothesis of random distribution of defects inside the depleted zone of the p-n junction. These values are probably underestimated.

## 5 Summary

A phenomenological model that describes silicon degradation due to irradiation, the kinetics of defects toward equilibrium, and the influence on the reverse current of detectors was developed.

The production of primary defects (vacancies and interstitials) in the silicon bulk was considered in the frame of the Lindhard theory, and considering the peculiarities of the particle - silicon nuclei interaction.

The mechanisms of formation of stable defects and their evolution toward equilibrium was modelled, and the concentrations of defects were calculated solving numerically the system of coupled differential equations for these processes. Vacancy-interstitial annihilation, interstitial migration to sinks, vacancy-impurities complexes ($`VP`$, $`VO`$ and $`V_2O`$), and divacancy formation were considered in different irradiation conditions, for different concentrations of impurities in the initial semiconductor material and at different temperatures of irradiation. The calculated results suggest the importance of the conditions of irradiation, temperature and annealing history. The model supports the experimental studies performed to investigate the influence of oxygen in the enhancement of the radiation hardness of silicon for detectors. The $`VO`$ defects in oxygen enriched silicon is favoured in respect to the other stable defects, so, for detector applications it is expected that the leakage current decreases after irradiation. The second result in the model is that at high oxygen concentrations, this defect saturates starting from low fluences.

Most of the model calculations simulates some of the pion field estimated at the new LHC accelerator, where the silicon detector will operate under continuum generation and annealing.

The density of the reverse current in detectors after irradiation is estimated, compared with experimental available data and for discrepancies some explanations are suggested.

## 6 Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Professor Gh. Ciobanu from the Bucharest University for helpful discussions during the course of this work.


text:
# Engineering single atom and single photon sources from entangled atomic ensembles

## Abstract

We discuss the application of dipole blockade techniques for the preparation of single atom and single photon sources. A deterministic protocol is given for loading a single atom in an optical trap as well as ejecting a controlled number of atoms in a desired direction. A single photon source with an optically controlled beam-like emission pattern is described.

Quantum information science builds on the laws of quantum mechanics to transmit, store, and process information in new and powerful ways. Advances in this field rely on our ability to manipulate coherently isolated quantum objects while eliminating incoherent interactions with the surrounding environment. It was proposed several decades ago that the availability of single photon sources would enable secure transmission of information without risk of eavesdroppingref.bb84 . Single photon sources have been proposed and realized using a number of different approachesref.spsources , and demonstrated for information transmissionref.qibook . Another example of a physical embodiment of quantum information is provided by a single neutral atom, the internal states of which can be used to represent a quantum bit or “qubit”. Placing individual atoms on a lattice defined by optical beams and allowing them to interact is one of the approaches currently being explored for constructing a quantum computer ref.atomcomputer .

In this letter we describe some new approaches to engineering single atom and single photon sources for use in quantum information science. These ideas utilize the proposal of Lukin et al.ref.blockade2  for entanglement of mesoscopic atomic ensembles using a dipole-blockade mechanism that is mediated by dipole-dipole interactions of highly excited Rydberg atoms. Lukin et al. emphasized the application of mesoscopic many-atom qubits for quantum logic. Here we discuss how to combine many-atom entanglement with laser cooling and trapping techniques for loading a single atom into an optical trap, as well as creating single atom and single photon sources. We show that both atoms and photons can be extracted with well defined propagation directions.

Consider a collection of $`N`$ atoms at positions $`𝐫_j`$ each with non-degenerate ground states $`|a`$, $`|b`$, intermediate states $`|e`$ and highly excited Rydberg states $`|r`$ as shown in the inset of Fig. 1. We envision that the atoms have been laser cooled to $`\mu `$K temperatures, and confined to a volume of a few $`\mu \mathrm{m}^3`$ defined by an optical trap created by far off-resonance optical beams (FORT trap) using standard techniquesref.metcalfbook . Following the theory of Lukin, et al.ref.blockade2  we define the following collective atomic states: the ground state $`|g=_j|b_j=|b_1b_2\mathrm{}b_N,`$ the singly excited state $`|r_j=|b_1\mathrm{}r_j\mathrm{}b_N,`$ and the doubly excited state $`|r_jr_k=|b_1\mathrm{}r_j\mathrm{}.r_k\mathrm{}b_N.`$ The interaction Hamiltonian governing the coupling of levels $`|b`$ and $`|r`$ assuming zero atom-field detuning is taken to be $`\widehat{V}=\widehat{V}_d+\widehat{V}_{dd}`$ where $`2V_d/\mathrm{}=_j\mathrm{\Omega }_j|r_jg|+_{j,k>j}\mathrm{\Omega }_k|r_jr_kr_j|+\mathrm{H}.\mathrm{c}.`$ describes the electric-dipole atom-field coupling in the rotating wave approximation, and $`V_{dd}/\mathrm{}=_{j,k>j}\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}|r_jr_kr_jr_k|`$ describes the dipole-dipole interaction of two excited atoms. Here $`\mathrm{\Omega }_j=r_j|\widehat{d}|b_j(𝐫_j)/\mathrm{},`$ where $`\widehat{d}`$ is the dipole moment operator, and the position dependent optical field is $`E(𝐫_j)=((𝐫_j)/2)e^{ı\omega t}+c.c.`$ . The dipole-dipole shift in the case of dipole moments aligned parallel to the vector separating the atoms is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}=f(n)e^2a_0^2/|𝐫_j𝐫_k|^3`$ with $`e`$ the electronic charge and $`a_0`$ the Bohr radius. The numerical factor $`f(n)`$ can be found from a quantum defect theory calculation of the Rydberg Stark map. In the presence of a hybridizing dc field $`f(n)n^6`$ for a level with principal quantum number $`n`$ref.gallagherbook .

When $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}|\mathrm{\Omega }_j|`$ we can safely neglect triply excited states and higher. An arbitrary $`N`$ atom state vector can be written in this limit as $`|\psi (t)=c_g(t)|g+_j\stackrel{~}{c}_j(t)|r_j+_{j,k>j}\stackrel{~}{c}_{jk}(t)|r_jr_k`$. We can obtain analytical estimates of the dynamics by considering the atomic evolution due to a field that is pulsed on to excite a transition to a Rydberg state and has a spatially uniform intensity such that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_j=\mathrm{\Omega }e^{ı\varphi _j}.`$ We neglect the atomic motion during a pulse so that $`\varphi _j`$ is taken as constant. Incorporating the phases $`\varphi _j=𝐤𝐫_j`$ for a traveling wave with wavevector $`𝐤`$ into the amplitudes $`c_j=\stackrel{~}{c}_je^{ı\varphi _j}`$ and $`c_{jk}=\stackrel{~}{c}_{jk}e^{ı(\varphi _j+\varphi _k)},`$ assuming all coefficients $`c_j`$ equal, and adiabatically eliminating the doubly excited state, the normalized singly excited symmetric state can be written as

$$|s=\frac{1}{\sqrt{N}}\underset{j}{}e^{ı\varphi _j}|r_j$$
(1)
and has amplitude $`c_s=\sqrt{N}c_j.`$ The Schrödinger equation results in

$`\dot{c}_g`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{N}\mathrm{\Omega }^{}}{2}}c_s,`$ (2a)
$`\dot{c}_s`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{N}\mathrm{\Omega }}{2}}c_g+i{\displaystyle \frac{(N1)|\mathrm{\Omega }|^2}{2\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}_{dd}}}c_s,`$ (2b)
with $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}_{dd}=(N(N1)/2)\left[_{j,k>j}1/\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}\right]^1`$. Solving Eqs. (2) with the initial condition $`c_g(0)=1`$ (this is readily achieved with optical pumping techniques) we find $`|c_s(t)|^2=l^1\mathrm{sin}^2[\frac{\sqrt{Nl}|\mathrm{\Omega }|}{2}t]`$ with $`l=1+(N1)^2|\mathrm{\Omega }|^2/4N\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}_{dd}^2.`$ Thus at time $`t=\pi /(\sqrt{Nl}|\mathrm{\Omega }|)`$ we have rotated the ground state to the singly excited symmetric state $`|s`$ with probability $`P_{\mathrm{single}}=1/l`$ and since Eqs. (2) conserve probability $`|c_g(t)|^2=P_{\mathrm{zero}}=1P_{\mathrm{single}}.`$ The unwanted leakage into the doubly excited states at the end of the $`\pi `$ pulse is found by summing over the doubly excited probabilities resulting in

$$P_{\mathrm{double}}\underset{j,k>j}{}|c_{jk}|^2\frac{N1}{2l}\frac{|\mathrm{\Omega }|^2}{\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}_{dd}^2}.$$
(3)
We can estimate the fidelity of preparation of a singly excited state starting with $`N`$ trapped atoms using physical parameters of 87Rb as an example. Assume that the atoms are randomly distributed in a sphere of $`5\mu \mathrm{m}`$ diameter and that we are using the $`n=50`$ Rydberg levels. A quantum defect calculation shows that a pair of atoms with the maximum separation of $`5\mu \mathrm{m}`$ subject to a hybridizing dc field experience a dipole-dipole shift of $`\mathrm{\Delta }/2\pi 100`$ MHz. Using $`|\mathrm{\Omega }|/2\pi =1`$ MHz we see, as shown in Fig. 1, that the probability of creating a state with zero or two excitations grows linearly with $`N`$ (the average interatomic spacing and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}_{dd}`$ stay roughly constant as atoms are added) and remains less than $`3\times 10^5`$ for up to $`N=500`$ atoms.

After creating the singly excited state we apply a $`\pi `$ pulse at $`\omega ^{}`$ to transfer the single-atom excitation to the lower ground state $`|a`$. The collective atomic state after this pulse sequence is proportional to $`(1/\sqrt{N})_{j=1}^Ne^{ı\varphi _j}|b_1\mathrm{}a_j\mathrm{}.b_N`$, which has the same functional form as Eq. (1). It can be shown that corrections to the $`N`$ atom results due to spontaneous emission are $`O(N\gamma _R/\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}_{dd})`$ with $`\gamma _R`$ the Rydberg level spontaneous decay rate. The correction is negligible for experimental conditions of interest with up to several thousand atoms. It should be noted that it is essential for high fidelity preparation that the pulses be applied sequentially. Applying both $`\omega `$ and $`\omega ^{}`$ simultaneously leads to large amplitude multiply excited leakage from $`|b`$ to $`|a`$ due to multiphoton Raman processes.

One application of this many-atom entangled state is to load an array of optical traps with a single atom in each one for use as a quantum computerref.atomcomputer . In that application the dipole blockade mechanism can also be used between adjacent qubit sites to implement two-qubit logic gatesref.blockade1 . With $`N`$ atoms in a given lattice site we use the above procedure to prepare the state $`|a.`$ To eject the $`N1`$ atoms remaining in state $`|b`$ we apply a beam that causes strong mechanical forces on $`|b`$ but only weak forces on $`|a.`$ One possibility is to use a beam with a waist a few times larger than the FORT beam waist $`w_{\mathrm{FORT}}`$ and with a frequency $`\omega _{\mathrm{eject}}`$ that is tuned to the red of $`\omega _{ea}`$ and to the blue of $`\omega _{eb}`$ as shown in Fig. 1. This gives repulsive gradient forces on $`|b`$ and attractive forces on $`|a`$ as shown numerically in Fig. 2. In the left hand plot we see that the combined potential from the FORT beam and the eject beam is strongly repulsive for $`|b,`$ but attractive with only a small shift in the position of the minimum for $`|a.`$ The net acceleration of atoms in state $`|b`$ due to the FORT and eject beams is positive causing motion to the right over the entire region occupied by the atom cloud. After a characteristic time $`t_1`$ determined by $`\frac{1}{2}at_1^2=w_{\mathrm{FORT}}`$ with $`a=F/m`$ the net acceleration, atoms in state $`|b`$ will be swept free of the FORT potential,leaving a single atom in state $`|a`$ behind. Using the parameters in Fig. 2 we get $`t_140\mu \mathrm{s}.`$ Note that since the indistinguishable atoms are actually in an entangled superposition state we cannot actually speak of 1 atom left behind in the trap and $`N1`$ ejected until a measurement or decoherence has caused projection of the wavefunction. Finally it should be emphasized that although several experiments have achieved single atom loading in optical traps, they have relied on stochastic loading into extremely small volumesref.1atomtrap . High fidelity single atom loading is essential for filling a large number of traps in a neutral atom quantum processorref.mott .

As suggested by Lukin et al.ref.blockade2  a deterministic beam of atoms can also be generated using the entangled ensemble. We use a protocol very similar to that described above for single atom loading but now start by optically pumping the trapped atoms to state $`|a.`$ A sequence of $`\pi `$ pulses on $`\omega ^{}`$ and $`\omega `$ will transfer a single excitation to $`|b`$ which can be ejected from the trap as described above. To obtain multiple atom pulses, each containing $`m`$ atoms, we first go through $`m`$ dipole blockade cycles to create an entangled state with $`m`$ units of excitation in $`|b`$ref.blockade2 . We then eject the $`m`$ atoms by applying $`\omega _{\mathrm{eject}},`$ recreate the $`m`$times excited state, eject the atoms, and so on. We can do this roughly $`N/m`$ times in a deterministic fashion before having to reload the FORT with atoms. Assuming single atom Rabi frequencies of 1 MHz the time it takes to create an $`m`$times excited state is roughly $`m/\sqrt{N}`$, since the effective Rabi frequencies scale as $`1/\sqrt{N}.`$ We see that for pulses with up to about a hundred atoms the repetition rate will be limited by the ejection time which we have estimated as $`t_140\mu \mathrm{s}.`$ While the parameters can be chosen for faster or slower operation, kHz atomic pulse rates are certainly accessible.

The direction of the ejected atoms will be determined by the positioning of the eject beam with respect to the FORT, which provides a means of scanning the ejected atoms. The transverse spread of the atomic beam will be determined by gradients in the eject beam, as well as fluctuations due to spontaneous emission. For the 1 GHz detuning used in the numerical example of Fig. 2 the number of photons scattered from atoms in $`|b`$ during a $`t_140\mu \mathrm{s}`$ eject pulse is $`n_{\mathrm{scat}}21.`$ (The corresponding number of photons scattered from atoms in $`|a`$ for which the detuning is -5.8 GHz is only about 0.6.) This results in an rms momentum transfer due to spontaneous emission that is about a tenth of the coherent impulse after an eject time $`t_1.`$ The emitted beam will therefore be well collimated. It is also feasible to move atoms a controlled distance using traveling dipole force fields as demonstrated recently in ref.meschededelivery . The flexibility of optical control of the beam direction opens the potential of many applications in areas that include optical lattice neutral atom quantum computers, atomic interferometers, precision low-level current sources, and also nanofabrication tasks at the single atom level.

We turn now to the creation of a phased array single photon source with a diffraction-limited emission pattern. When the optical fields propagate through the sample, atoms will be excited with position dependent relative phases as in Eq. (1). This results in an entangled state with a phase structure that mimics the phase of the exciting beam and can be used to create a single photon source with well defined directionality. While previous work has achieved single photon sources with a controlled emission direction by coupling to microcavitiesref.spdirectional  our approach results in a source emission pattern that is reconfigurable and is defined by the structure of the preparation optical fields. Referring to Fig. 3, fields at $`\omega _1`$ and $`\omega _2`$ with Rabi frequencies $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_2`$ drive a two-photon transition $`|a|e|r`$ to the Rydberg level $`|r`$ in an $`N`$-atom ensemble. The effective Rabi frequency for the two photon process acting on atom $`j`$ is $`|\mathrm{\Omega }|e^{i\varphi _1+i\varphi _2}=(|\mathrm{\Omega }_1|e^{i\varphi _1(𝐫_j)}|\mathrm{\Omega }_2|e^{i\varphi _2(𝐫_j)})/\mathrm{\Delta }_e,`$ where $`\varphi _1`$ and $`\varphi _2`$ are the phases of fields $`\omega _1,\omega _2`$ at the atomic position $`𝐫_j`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_e=\omega _1\omega _{ea}.`$ As long as $`P_{\mathrm{double}}`$ given by Eq. (3) is small only transitions to states with a single excited atom are energetically allowed and we have an effective dipole blockade. Under these conditions an ensemble of atoms in $`|a`$ subjected to a $`\pi `$-pulse applied on $`|a|r`$ produces the entangled symmetric superposition state $`|\psi =\frac{i}{\sqrt{N}}_je^{ı(\varphi _{1j}+\varphi _{2j})}|r_j.`$ The phases $`\varphi _{mj}=𝐤_m𝐫_j`$ are simply the phase of the $`m^{\mathrm{th}}`$ laser field ($`e^{ı(𝐤_m𝐫\omega _mt)})`$ at the position $`𝐫_j`$ of the $`j^{\mathrm{th}}`$ atom.

We now apply a $`\pi `$-pulse with $`\omega _3`$ tuned to the $`|r|e`$ single-photon transition. The wavefunction is then transformed into

$$|\psi =\frac{1}{\sqrt{N}}\underset{j}{}e^{ı(\varphi _{1j}+\varphi _{2j}\varphi _{3j})}|e_j.$$
(4)
This state will radiate into a variety of modes with all the atoms in state $`|a`$ and a single photon propagating in direction $`𝐤_\mathrm{𝟒}`$. The amplitude for emission into state $`|g,1_{𝐤_4}=|a_1\mathrm{}a_j\mathrm{}a_N,1_{𝐤_4}`$ is proportional to

$`g,1_{𝐤_4}|(𝐞_{𝐤_\mathrm{𝟒}}\widehat{𝐝})\widehat{a}_{𝐤_4}^{}e^{ı𝐤_4𝐫}|\psi ,0_{𝐤_4}`$ (5)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{g|𝐞_{𝐤_\mathrm{𝟒}}\widehat{𝐝}|e_je^{ı(𝐤_\mathrm{𝟒}𝐤_\mathrm{𝟏}𝐤_\mathrm{𝟐}+𝐤_\mathrm{𝟑})𝐫_j}}{\sqrt{N}}}`$
where $`𝐞_{𝐤_\mathrm{𝟒}}`$ is the polarization of the emitted photon and $`\widehat{a}_{𝐤_4}^{}`$ is the creation operator for a photon in mode $`𝐤_4`$. Assuming an isotropic angular distribution from the atomic matrix element gives for the angular distribution

$$P(𝐤_4)\frac{1}{N}\left|\underset{j}{}e^{i(𝐤_\mathrm{𝟒}𝐤_\mathrm{𝟏}𝐤_\mathrm{𝟐}+𝐤_\mathrm{𝟑})𝐫_𝐣}\right|^2.$$
(6)
Note that the emission is highly directional; in the direction $`𝐤_\mathrm{𝟒}=𝐤_\mathrm{𝟏}+𝐤_\mathrm{𝟐}𝐤_\mathrm{𝟑}`$ the phases are zero for each atom giving $`P(𝐤_4)=N`$ while for other directions the phase factors become random and $`P(𝐤_4)1`$. A calculation of the angular distribution, assuming an isotropic atomic matrix element, is shown in Fig. 3. The width of the central emission peak is determined by diffraction. For $`N=50`$ the numerical value for the FWHM agrees to better than 10% with the diffraction estimate of $`\lambda /D`$, where $`D`$ is the diameter of the phased atom cloud.

It is evident from Eq. (6) that the angular pattern of the emitted single photon beam bears a close analogy with four-wave mixing. If we arrange for $`𝐤_2=𝐤_1`$ the photon will be emitted in a phase conjugate mode with $`𝐤_4=𝐤_3.`$ For a single photon source it is more convenient to have the emitted photon angularly separated from the other beams as shown in Fig. 4. By setting the waist size of the $`𝐤_1,𝐤_2,𝐤_3`$ beams to be much larger than the size of the atomic distribution all atoms will to a good approximation be driven by the same optical intensities so that the accuracy of the preparation Rabi pulses will be high. The angular divergence of the emitted pulse will be determined by the size of the atomic cloud, as seen in Fig. 3.

Several factors can contribute to angular broadening of the emitted mode. The atomic motion during a $`3\mu `$s sequence of preparation pulses, accounting for the characteristic speed of $`30\mu `$K 87Rb atoms, is $`\mathrm{\Delta }x0.15\mu `$m, which is about $`1/5`$ of the emission wavelength. The contribution of this motional dephasing to broadening of the emission mode is a subject of current study. Imperfect dipole blockade leading to doubly excited states can also degrade the single photon fidelity. We note that this will be strongly suppressed by angular selection since the contribution to emission along $`𝐤_4`$ due to a doubly excited Rydberg state channel is proportional to $`(1/N)|_je^{ı(k_42(k_1+k_2)+k_3)}|^2`$ which is not phase matched along the direction $`\theta `$ selected in Fig. 4. Finally we note that by employing an excited level $`|e`$ that is not dipole coupled to the ground state it will be possible to create entangled two-photon pairs with similar beam-like emission properties.

This work is supported by the NSF and NASA. M. S. is an A. P. Sloan Foundation fellow.