资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Interactions between light and an ensemble of strontium atoms in an optical cavity can serve as a testbed for studying dynamical phase transitions, which are currently not well understood.

Interactions between atoms and light in optical cavities provide a means of investigating collective (many-body) quantum physics in controlled environments. Such ensembles of atoms in cavities have been proposed for studying collective quantum spin models, where the atomic internal levels mimic a spin degree of freedom and interact through long-range interactions tunable by changing the cavity parameters(1-4). Non-classical steady-state phases arising from the interplay between atom-light interactions and dissipation of light from the cavity have previously been investigated(5-11). These systems also offer the opportunity to study dynamical phases of matter that are precluded from existence at equilibrium but can be stabilized by driving a system out of equilibrium(12-16), as demonstrated by recent experiments(17-22). These phases can also display universal behaviours akin to standard equilibrium phase transitions(8,23,24). Here, we use an ensemble of about a million strontium-88 atoms in an optical cavity to simulate a collective Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model(25,26), an iconic model in quantum magnetism, and report the observation of distinct dynamical phases of matter in this system. Our system allows us to probe the dependence of dynamical phase transitions on system size, initial state and other parameters. These observations can be linked to similar dynamical phases in related systems, including the Josephson effect in superfluid helium(27), or coupled atomic(28) and solid-state polariton(29) condensates. The system itself offers potential for generation of metrologically useful entangled states in optical transitions, which could permit quantum enhancement in state-of-the-art atomic clocks(30,31).

High-pressure diamond anvil cell experiments reveal that compression strengthening of nanocrystalline nickel increases as its grain sizes decrease to 3 nanometres, owing to dislocation hardening and suppression of grain boundary plasticity.

The Hall-Petch relationship, according to which the strength of a metal increases as the grain size decreases, has been reported to break down at a critical grain size of around 10 to 15 nanometres(1,2). As the grain size decreases beyond this point, the dominant mechanism of deformation switches from a dislocation-mediated process to grain boundary sliding, leading to material softening. In one previous approach, stabilization of grain boundaries through relaxation and molybdenum segregation was used to prevent this softening effect in nickel-molybdenum alloys with grain sizes below 10 nanometres(3). Here we track in situ the yield stress and deformation texturing of pure nickel samples of various average grain sizes using a diamond anvil cell coupled with radial X-ray diffraction. Our high-pressure experiments reveal continuous strengthening in samples with grain sizes from 200 nanometres down to 3 nanometres, with the strengthening enhanced (rather than reduced) at grain sizes smaller than 20 nanometres. We achieve a yield strength of approximately 4.2 gigapascals in our 3-nanometre-grain-size samples, ten times stronger than that of a commercial nickel material. A maximum flow stress of 10.2 gigapascals is obtained in nickel of grain size 3 nanometres for the pressure range studied here. We see similar patterns of compression strengthening in gold and palladium samples down to the smallest grain sizes. Simulations and transmission electron microscopy reveal that the high strength observed in nickel of grain size 3 nanometres is caused by the superposition of strengthening mechanisms: both partial and full dislocation hardening plus suppression of grain boundary plasticity. These insights contribute to the ongoing search for ultrastrong metals via materials engineering.