arXiv subjects

Avinash Kumar

Publications and source records attributed to Avinash Kumar.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Optomechanical Self-Stability of Freestanding Photonic Metasurfaces

We develop an analytical framework for self-stabilizing optical manipulation of freestanding metasurfaces in three dimensions. Our framework reveals that the challenging problem of stabilization against translational and rotational perturbations in three dimensions is reduced to a simpler scattering analysis of the metasurface unit cell in two dimensions. We derive universal analytical stiffness coefficients applicable to arbitrary three-dimensional radial metasurfaces and radial beam intensity profiles. The analytical nature of our framework facilitates highly efficient discovery of optimal optomechanical metasurfaces. Such use of metasurfaces for mechanical stabilization enables macroscale and long-range control in collimated, but otherwise unfocused light beams, and could open up new avenues for manipulation beyond traditional optical tweezing and transport.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Anomalous heating in a colloidal system

We report anomalous heating in a colloidal system, the first observation of the inverse Mpemba effect, where an initially cold system heats up faster than an identical warm system coupled to the same thermal bath. For an overdamped, Brownian colloidal particle moving in a tilted double-well potential, we find a non-monotonic dependence of the heating times on the initial temperature of the system, as predicted by an eigenfunction expansion of the associated Fokker-Planck equation. By carefully tuning parameters, we also observe a "strong" version of anomalous heating, where a cold system heats up exponentially faster than systems prepared under slightly different conditions

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2021

The metastable Mpemba effect corresponds to a non-monotonic temperature dependence of extractable work

The Mpemba effect refers to systems whose thermal relaxation time is a non-monotonic function of the initial temperature. Thus, a system that is initially hot cools to a bath temperature more quickly than the same system, initially warm. In the special case where the system dynamics can be described by a double-well potential with metastable and stable states, dynamics occurs in two stages: a fast relaxation to local equilibrium followed by a slow equilibration of populations in each coarse-grained state. We have recently observed the Mpemba effect experimentally in such a setting, for a colloidal particle immersed in water. Here, we show that this metastable Mpemba effect arises from a non-monotonic temperature dependence of the maximum amount of work that can be extracted from the local-equilibrium state at the end of Stage 1.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Exponentially faster cooling in a colloidal system

As the temperature of a cooling object decreases as it relaxes to thermal equilibrium, it is intuitively assumed that a hot object should take longer to cool than a warm one. Yet, some 2,300 years ago, Aristotle observed that "to cool hot water quickly, begin by putting it in the sun". In the 1960s, this counterintuitive phenomenon was rediscovered as the statement that "hot water can freeze faster than cold water" and has become known as the Mpemba effect; it has since been the subject of much experimental investigation and some controversy. Although many specific mechanisms have been proposed, no general consensus exists as to the underlying cause. Here we demonstrate the Mpemba effect in a controlled setting - the thermal quench of a colloidal system immersed in water, which serves as a heat bath. Our results are reproducible and agree quantitatively with calculations based on a recently proposed theoretical framework. By carefully choosing parameters, we observe cooling that is exponentially faster than that observed using typical parameters, in accord with the recently predicted strong Mpemba effect. Our experiments outline the generic conditions needed to accelerate heat removal and relaxation to thermal equilibrium and support the idea that the Mpemba effect is not simply a scientific curiosity concerning how water freezes into ice - one of the many anomalous features of water - but rather the prototype for a wide range of anomalous relaxation phenomena of broad technological importance.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Low field transport calculations in 2-dimensional electron gas in $\mathrm{β\mbox{-}(Al_{x}Ga_{1-x})_{2}O_{3}/Ga_{2}O_{3}}$ heterostructures

$\mathrmβ$-Gallium oxide ($\mathrm{β\mbox{-}Ga_{2}O_{3}}$) is an emerging widebandgap semiconductor for potential application in power and RF electronics applications. Initial theoretical calculation on a 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in $\mathrm{β\mbox{-}(Al_{x}Ga_{1-x})_{2}O_{3}/Ga_{2}O_{3}}$ heterostructures show the promise for high speed transistors. However, the experimental results do not get close to the predicted mobility values. In this work, We perform more comprehensive calculations to study the low field 2DEG transport properties in the $\mathrm{β\mbox{-}(Al_{x}Ga_{1-x})_{2}O_{3}/Ga_{2}O_{3}}$ heterostructure. A self-consistent Poisson-Schrodinger simulation of heterostructure is used to obtain the subband energies and wavefunctions. The electronic structure, assuming confinement in a particular direction, and the phonon dispersion is calculated based on first principle methods under DFT and DFPT framework. Phonon confinement is not considered for the sake of simplicity. The different scattering mechanisms that are included in the calculation are phonon (polar and non-polar), remote impurity, alloy and interface-roughness. We include the full dynamic screening polar optical phonon screening. We report the temperature dependent low-field electron mobility.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2020

Far-field Excitation of Single Graphene Plasmon Cavities with Ultra-compressed Mode-volumes

Acoustic-graphene-plasmons (AGPs) are highly confined electromagnetic modes, carrying large momentum and low loss in the mid-infrared/Terahertz spectra. Owing to their ability to confine light to extremely small dimensions, they bear great potential for ultra-strong light-matter interactions in this long wavelength regime, where molecular fingerprints reside. However, until now AGPs have been restricted to micron-scale areas, reducing their confinement potential by several orders-of-magnitude. Here, by utilizing a new type of graphene-based magnetic-resonance, we realize single, nanometric-scale AGP cavities, reaching record-breaking mode-volume confinement factors of $\thicksim5\cdot10^{-10}$. This AGP cavity acts as a mid-infrared nanoantenna, which is efficiently excited from the far-field, and electrically tuneble over an ultra-broadband spectrum. Our approach provides a new platform for studying ultra-strong-coupling phenomena, such as chemical manipulation via vibrational-strong-coupling, and a path to efficient detectors and sensors, in this challenging spectral range.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Liquid-phase reinforced Metal matrix (LMM) composite with non-intuitive properties

Over the ages, efforts have been made to use composite design to reinforce metals and alloys in order to increase their strength and modulus. On the other hand, nature herself improves the strength, ductility, stiffness and toughness of materials by strengthening them with liquids having zero strength/modulus. Here, emulating nature, efforts have been made to develop a new class of tin based alloy/composite with liquid metal reinforcement (LMM). Based on thermodynamic calculations, a composition has been designed such that on melting and casting it forms a solid metal (tin solid solution) and the eutectic mixture remains in liquid form at room temperature. The composite structure named as LMM shows multifold improvement in hardness, strength, ductility, toughness and wear resistance as compared to conventional solder alloys. A Finite Element Method (FEM) based simulation shows strain distribution in the composite which results in the unique behavior. The LMM also shows a negative coefficient of thermal expansion which is further verified using in-situ microscopy and thermodynamic calculations.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2020

Supersonic rotation of a superfluid: a long-lived dynamical ring

We present the experimental realization of a long-lived superfluid flow of a quantum gas rotating in an anharmonic potential, sustained by its own angular momentum. The gas is set into motion by rotating an elliptical deformation of the trap. An evaporation selective in angular momentum yields an acceleration of rotation until the density vanishes at the trap center, resulting in a dynamical ring with 350 hbar angular momentum per particle. The density profile of the ring corresponds to the one of a quasi two-dimensional superfluid, with a linear velocity reaching Mach 18 and a rotation lasting more than a minute.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Some Insights on Synthesizing Optimal Linear Quadratic Controller Using Krotov's Sufficiency Conditions

This paper revisits the problem of optimal control law design for linear systems using the global optimal control framework introduced by Vadim Krotov. Krotov's approach is based on the idea of total decomposition of the original optimal control problem (OCP) with respect to time, by an $ad$ $hoc$ choice of the so-called Krotov's function or solving function, thereby providing sufficient conditions for the existence of global solution based on another optimization problem, which is completely equivalent to the original OCP. It is well known that the solution of this equivalent optimization problem is obtained using an iterative method. In this paper, we propose suitable Krotov's functions for linear quadratic OCP and subsequently, show that by imposing convexity condition on this equivalent optimization problem, there is no need to compute an iterative solution. We also give some key insights into the solution procedure of the linear quadratic OCP using the proposed methodology in contrast to the celebrated Calculus of Variations (CoV) and Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation based approach.

math.OC↗

arXiv2018

Residual Reinforcement Learning for Robot Control

Conventional feedback control methods can solve various types of robot control problems very efficiently by capturing the structure with explicit models, such as rigid body equations of motion. However, many control problems in modern manufacturing deal with contacts and friction, which are difficult to capture with first-order physical modeling. Hence, applying control design methodologies to these kinds of problems often results in brittle and inaccurate controllers, which have to be manually tuned for deployment. Reinforcement learning (RL) methods have been demonstrated to be capable of learning continuous robot controllers from interactions with the environment, even for problems that include friction and contacts. In this paper, we study how we can solve difficult control problems in the real world by decomposing them into a part that is solved efficiently by conventional feedback control methods, and the residual which is solved with RL. The final control policy is a superposition of both control signals. We demonstrate our approach by training an agent to successfully perform a real-world block assembly task involving contacts and unstable objects.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2018

Free Transverse Vibration Analysis of thin rectangular plates having arbitrarily varying non-homogeneity along two concurrent edge

In this paper, I presented the analysis and numerical results for free transverse vibration of thin rectangular plates having arbitrarily varying non-homogeneity with the in-plane coordinates along the two concurrent edges. For finding the general governing differential equation first used the Kirchhoff's plate theory by considering their assumptions. After finding the governing equation for the plate. For the non- homogeneity a linear variation for Young's modulus and density of the plate has been assumed. Finite difference method (FDM) has been used to obtain the eigen value problem for such model plate for two different boundary condition at the edge namely (i) CCCC fully clamped (ii) CSCS two opposites are clamped and other two are simply supported. By solving these eigen value problem using MATLAB, the lowest three eigen value have been reported as the first three natural frequencies for the three mode of vibration. The effect of various plate parameters such on the vibration characteristics has been analysed. Three dimensional mode shape has been plotted.

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2018

Nanoscale virtual potentials using optical tweezers

We combine optical tweezers with feedback to impose arbitrary potentials on a colloidal particle. The feedback trap detects a particle's position, calculates a force based on an imposed "virtual potential," and shifts the trap center to generate the desired force. We create virtual harmonic and double-well potentials to manipulate particles. The harmonic potentials can be chosen to be either weaker or stiffer than the underlying optical trap. Using this flexibility, we create an isotropic trap in three dimensions. Finally, we show that we can create a virtual double-well potential with fixed well separation and adjustable barrier height. These are accomplished at length scales down to 11 nm, a feat that is difficult or impossible to create with standard optical-tweezer techniques such as time sharing, dual beams, or spatial light modulators.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2018

Producing superfluid circulation states using phase imprinting

We propose a method to prepare states of given quantized circulation in annular Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) confined in a ring trap using the method of phase imprinting without relying on a two-photon angular momentum transfer. The desired phase profile is imprinted on the atomic wave function using a short light pulse with a tailored intensity pattern generated with a Spatial Light Modulator. We demonstrate the realization of 'helicoidal' intensity profiles suitable for this purpose. Due to the diffraction limit, the theoretical steplike intensity profile is not achievable in practice. We investigate the effect of imprinting an intensity profile smoothed by a finite optical resolution onto the annular BEC with a numerical simulation of the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation. This allows us to optimize the intensity pattern for a given target circulation to compensate for the limited resolution.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Dual-mode optical fiber-based tweezers for robust trapping and manipulation of absorbing particles in air

We develop an optical tweezers system using a single dual-mode optical fiber where mesoscopic absorbing particles can be trapped in three dimensions and manipulated employing photophoretic forces. We generate a superposition of fundamental and first order Hermite-Gaussian beam modes by the simple innovation of coupling a laser into a commercial optical fiber designed to be single mode for a wavelength higher than that of the laser. We achieve robust trapping of the absorbing particles for hours using both the pure fundamental and superposition mode beams and attain large manipulation velocities of ~5 mm/s in the axial direction and ~0.75 mm/s in the radial direction. We then demonstrate that the superposition mode is more effective in trapping and manipulation compared to the fundamental mode by around 80%, which may be increased several times by the use of a pure first order Hermite-Gaussian mode. The work has promising implications for trapping and spectroscopy of aerosols in air using simple optical fiber-based traps.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2016

Temperature induced decay of persistent currents in a superfluid ultracold gas

We study how temperature affects the lifetime of a quantized, persistent current state in a toroidal Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). When the temperature is increased, we find a decrease in the persistent current lifetime. Comparing our measured decay rates to simple models of thermal activation and quantum tunneling, we do not find agreement. We also measured the size of hysteresis loops size in our superfluid ring as a function of temperature, enabling us to extract the critical velocity. The measured critical velocity is found to depend strongly on temperature, approaching the zero temperature mean-field solution as the temperature is decreased. This indicates that an appropriate definition of critical velocity must incorporate the role of thermal fluctuations, something not explicitly contained in traditional theories.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

A Large-scale Analysis of the Marketplace Characteristics in Fiverr

Crowdsourcing platforms have become quite popular due to the increasing demand of human computation-based tasks. Though the crowdsourcing systems are primarily demand-driven like MTurk, supply-driven marketplaces are becoming increasingly popular. Fiverr is a fast growing supply-driven marketplace where the sellers post micro-tasks (gigs) and users purchase them for prices as low as $5. In this paper, we study the Fiverr platform as a unique marketplace and characterize the sellers, buyers and the interactions among them. We find that sellers are more appeasing in their interactions and try to woo their buyers into buying their gigs. There are many small tightly-knit communities existing in the seller-seller network who support each other. We also study Fiverr as a seller-driven marketplace in terms of sales, churn rates, competitiveness among various sub-categories etc. and observe that while there are certain similarities with common marketplaces there are also many differences.

cs.SI↗

arXiv2016

Simultaneous measurement of mass and rotation of trapped absorbing particles in air

We trap absorbing micro-particles in air by photophoretic forces generated using a single loosely focused Gaussian trapping beam. We measure a component of the radial Brownian motion of a trapped particle cluster and determine the power spectral density, mean squared displacement, and normalized position and velocity autocorrelation functions in order to characterize the photophoretic body force in a quantitative fashion for the first time. The trapped particles also undergo spontaneous rotation due to the action of this force. This is evident from the spectral density that displays clear peaks at the rotation and the particles' inertial resonance frequencies. We fit the spectral density to the well-known analytical function derived from the Langevin equation, measure the resonance and rotation frequencies and determine values for particle mass that we verify at different trapping laser powers with reasonable accuracy.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2016

Measurement of the binding energy of ultracold $^{87}$Rb$^{133}$Cs molecules using an offset-free optical frequency comb

We report the binding energy of $^{87}$Rb$^{133}$Cs molecules in their rovibrational ground state measured using an offset-free optical frequency comb based on difference frequency generation technology. We create molecules in the absolute ground state using stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) with a transfer efficiency of 88\%. By measuring the absolute frequencies of our STIRAP lasers, we find the energy-level difference from an initial weakly-bound Feshbach state to the rovibrational ground state with a resolution of 5 kHz over an energy-level difference of more than 114 THz; this lets us discern the hyperfine splitting of the ground state. Combined with theoretical models of the Feshbach state binding energies and ground-state hyperfine structure, we determine a zero-field binding energy of $h\times114\,268\,135\,237(5)(50)$ kHz. To our knowledge, this is the most accurate determination to date of the dissociation energy of a molecule.

physics.atom-ph↗