Photoinduced spin polarization and microwave technology

We report here on studies of optically pumped active microwave media based on various fullerene derivatives, with an emphasis on the use of these materials in microwave electronics. We have investigated a class of optically excited paramagnetic materials that demonstrate activity in the X-band as candidate materials. We found that a particular fullerene derivative, Phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), produced the largest electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) emission signal compared to other organic compounds that have been suggested for use as microwave active materials. We also studied the effects of concentration, temperature, solvent etc. on the activity of the material. In these experiments, EPR studies using a commercial spectrometer were followed up by measurements of an RF signal reflected from a resonator loaded with the PCBM-based material. The activity was directly demonstrated through the change in the quality factor and RF coupling between the resonator and waveguide feed.At the inception of these experiments the primary interest was the development of a microwave PASER. The PASER (particle acceleration by stimulated emission of radiation [1]) is a novel acceleration concept that is based on the direct energy transfer from an active medium to a charged particle beam. While the previous work on the PASER has emphasized operations at infrared or visible wavelengths, operating in the microwave regime has significant advantages in terms of the less stringent quality requirements placed on the electron beam provided an appropriate microwave active medium can be found. This paper is focused on our investigation of the possibility of a PASER operating in the microwave frequency regime [2] using active paramagnetic materials. While a high level of gain for PCBM was demonstrated compared to other candidate materials, dielectric losses and quenching effects were found to negatively impact its performance for PASER applications. We present results on development and bench testing for these new fullerene-based materials along with some conceptual designs for microwave PASERs. Other possible applications for active paramagnetic materials are suggested including low noise microwave amplifiers and tunable RF absorbers.