Utilizing a top predator to prioritize site protection for biodiversity conservation.

Ongoing global change makes it ever more urgent to find creative solutions for biodiversity preservation, but prioritizing sites for protection can be challenging. One shortcut lies in mapping the habitat requirements of well-established biodiversity indicators, such as top predators, to identify high-biodiversity sites. Here, we planned site protection for biodiversity conservation by developing a multi-scale species distribution model (SDM) for the raptorial Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis; goshawk) breeding in an extensive megacity region of Japan.

Spatial adiabatic passage of massive quantum particles in an optical Lieb lattice.

Quantum interference lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. By utilizing destructive interference, it is possible to transfer a physical object between two states without populating an intermediate state which is necessary to connect the initial and final states. A famous application is a technique of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage, where atomic internal states can be transfered with high efficiency regardless of lossy intermediate states.

Short range biaxial strain relief mechanism within epitaxially grown BiFeO.

Lattice mismatch-induced biaxial strain effect on the crystal structure and growth mechanism is investigated for the BiFeO films grown on LaSrMnO/SrTiO and YAlO substrates. Nano-beam electron diffraction, structure factor calculation and x-ray reciprocal space mapping unambiguously confirm that the crystal structure within both of the BiFeO thin films is rhombohedral by showing the rhombohedral signature Bragg's reflections. Further investigation with atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals that while the ~1.

Tensile stress effect on epitaxial BiFeO thin film grown on KTaO.

Comprehensive crystal structural study is performed for BiFeO (BFO) film grown on KTaO (KTO) substrate using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). Nano-beam electron diffraction (NBED) combined with structure factor calculation and high resolution TEM images clearly reveal that the crystal structure within BFO thin film is rhombohedral BFO, i.e.

Interaction-Driven Shift and Distortion of a Flat Band in an Optical Lieb Lattice.

We report the momentum-resolved measurement of Bloch bands in an optical Lieb lattice for a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). A BEC in the lattice is transported to a desired quasimomentum by applying a constant force. The energy dispersion of the lowest band is obtained by integrating measured group velocities.

Elucidation of crystal and electronic structures within highly strained BiFeO by transmission electron microscopy and first-principles simulation.

Crystal and electronic structures of ~380 nm BiFeO film grown on LaAlO substrate are comprehensively studied using advanced transmission electron microscopy (TEM) technique combined with first-principles theory. Cross-sectional TEM images reveal the BiFeO film consists of two zones with different crystal structures. While zone II turns out to have rhombohedral BiFeO, the crystal structure of zone I matches none of BiFeO phases reported experimentally or predicted theoretically.

Feshbach-Resonance-Enhanced Coherent Atom-Molecule Conversion with Ultranarrow Photoassociation Resonance.

We reveal the existence of high-density Feshbach resonances in the collision between the ground and metastable states of ^{171}Yb and coherently produce the associated Feshbach molecules by photoassociation. The extremely small transition rate is overcome by the enhanced Franck-Condon factor of the weakly bound Feshbach molecule, allowing us to observe Rabi oscillations with long decay time between an atom pair and a molecule in an optical lattice. We also perform the precision measurement of the binding energies, which characterizes the observed resonances.

Coherent driving and freezing of bosonic matter wave in an optical Lieb lattice.

Although kinetic energy of a massive particle generally has quadratic dependence on its momentum, a flat, dispersionless energy band is realized in crystals with specific lattice structures. Such macroscopic degeneracy causes the emergence of localized eigenstates and has been a key concept in the context of itinerant ferromagnetism. We report the realization of a "Lieb lattice" configuration with an optical lattice, which has a flat energy band as the first excited state.