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It is usually assumed that the memory of any thermo-mechanical protocol applied to a glass can be erased by heating the material in the supercooled liquid. While this is true for thermally treated amorphous solids, we show that hydrostatic compression can irreversibly modify the atomic motion, thermodynamic state and structure of a prototypical metallic glass-former, in a way which depends on the degree of ergodicity reached by the material during compression. While enhanced kinetic and thermodynamic stability can be obtained by quenching the dense liquid, high-pressure annealing in the glass leads to thermal rejuvenation and complex structural rearrangements at the level of the short and medium range order. When heated above their glass transition temperature, these compressed glasses do not convert into the pristine supercooled liquid but rather transform into different systems, challenging the generally accepted idea of an equilibrium recovery controlled solely by the microscopic $\alpha$-relaxation process.

Impurity $Fe^{3+}$ ion electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy using multiple dielectric modes in a $SrTiO_3$ dielectric resonator has been performed with a tuneable DC magnetic field of up to $1.6~T$. The $Ti^{4+}(d^0)$ ion is substituted by $Fe^{3+}$ ion forming $FeO_6$ octahedral complex with an iron-oxygen-vacancy $(Fe^{3+}-V_O)$. In such a metal-ligand complex, a giant g-factor of $g_{\scriptscriptstyle\parallel F} = 5.51$ was observed in the ferroelectric phase at $20~mK$. The the change of $Fe^{3+}$ ion center-symmetry in the $FeO_6$ complex as a soft-mode characteristics of ferroelectric phase transition and the influences of iron-oxygen-vacancy $(Fe^{3+}-V_O)$, interactively sensitive to asymmetry in the octahedral rotational parameter $\Phi$ in $SrTi0_3$.

Densified silica can be obtained by different pressure and temperature paths and for different stress conditions, hydrostatic or including shear. The density is usually the macroscopic parameter used to characterize the different compressed silica samples. The aim of our present study is to compare structural modifications for silica glass, densified from several routes. For this, densified silica glasses are prepared from cold and high temperature (up to 1020 $^\circ$C) compressions. The different densified glasses obtained in our study are characterized by micro-Raman spectroscopy. Intertetrahedral angles from the main band relative to the bending mode decreases and their values are larger for densified samples from high temperature compression than those samples from cold compression. The relative amount of 3-membered rings deduced from the D2 line area increases as a function of density for cold compression. The temperature increase during the compression process induces a decrease of the 3 fold ring population. Moreover, 3 fold rings are more deformed and stressed for densified samples at room temperature at the expense of those densified at high temperature. Temperature plays a main role in the reorganization structure during the densification and leads to obtaining a more relaxed structure with lower stresses than glasses densified from cold compression. The role of hydrostatic or non-hydrostatic applied stresses on the glass structure is discussed. From the Sen and Thorpe central force model, intertetrahedral angle average value and their distribution are estimated.

The ferroelectric phase transition temperature of a single crystal $SrTiO_3$ cylindrical puck inserted into a cylindrical copper cavity has been measured around $51~K$ using quasi $TE_{m,1,1}$ and quasi $TM_{m,1,1}$ electromagnetic modes. The observed results of such dielectric spectroscopy may be explained by implementing a quasiharmonic approximation of phonons in the incipient ferroelectric crystal $SrTiO_3$ lattice. The resonant modes act as very sensitive probe by implementing measurements of $Q$-factor, transmission or frequency shift when cooling down to low temperatures around a few Kelvin. The resonator dielectric losses reveals different crystal unit structure states and ferroelectric phase transition in continuous cooling. The ferroelectric phase transition initiates a spontaneous polarization $(P_s)$ forming a double-well potential in each crystal unit causing a two-level systems, which creates extra loss and changes the transmission characteristics and Q-factors of the modes. This process is able to describe resonator properties over a broad range of frequency. Landau's theory of correlation length supports the reported observations as the implication of phonon wave vector $q_c=0$ of central ion in crystal unit symmetry regarding soft-mode., Comment: Typos fixed

The Y2SiO5 (YSO) crystal is a dielectric material with biaxial anisotropy with known values of refractive index at optical frequencies. It is a well-known rare-earth (RE) host material for optical research and more recently has shown promising performance for quantum-engineered devices. In this paper, we report the first microwave characterization of the real permittivity tensor of a bulk YSO sample, as well as an investigation of the temperature dependence of the tensor components from 296 K down to 6 K. Estimated uncertainties were below 0.26%, limited by the precision of machining the cylindrical dielectric. Also, the electrical Q-factors of a few electromagnetic modes were recorded as a way to provide some information about the crystal losses over the temperature range. To solve the tensor components necessary for a biaxial crystal, we developed the multi-mode technique, which uses simultaneous measurement of low order Whispering Gallery Modes. Knowledge of the permittivity tensor offers important data, essential for the design of technologies involving YSO, such as microwave coupling to electron and hyperfine transitions in RE doped samples at low temperatures., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

We report strong coupling between an ensemble of N impurity (P1) centres in diamond and microwave photons using a unique double post re-entrant cavity. The cavity is designed so that the magnetic component of the cavity field is spatially separated from the electric component and focused into the small volume in which the diamond sample is mounted. The novelty of the structure simultaneously allows high magnetic filling factor (38.4\%) and low frequencies necessary to interact, at low magnetic field, with transitions in diamond such as those in NV$^{-}$ and P1 centres. Coupling strength (or normal-mode splitting) of 51.42 MHz, was achieved with P1 centres at 6.18 GHz and 220 mT in a centimetre-scale cavity, with a corresponding cooperativity factor of 4.7. This technique offers an alternative way, with some significant advantages, to couple 3D cavities to transitions in diamond and achieve the strong coupling necessary for applications to quantum information processing.

This work demonstrates strong coupling regime between an Erbium ion spin ensemble and microwave Hybrid Cavity-Whispering Gallery Modes in a Yttrium Aluminium Garnet dielectric crystal. Coupling strengths of $220$~MHz and mode quality factors in excess of $10^6$ are demonstrated. Moreover, the magnetic response of high-Q modes demonstrates behaviour which is unusual for paramagnetic systems. This behaviour includes hysteresis and memory effects. Such qualitative change of the system's magnetic field response is interpreted as a phase transition of Rare Earth ion impurities. This phenomenon is similar to the phenomenon of dilute ferromagnetism in semiconductors. The clear temperature dependence of the phenomenon is demonstrated.

The development of a new era of quantum devices requires an understanding of how paramagnetic dopants or impurity spins behave in crystal hosts. Here, we describe a new spectroscopic technique which uses traditional Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) combined with the measurement of a large population of electromagnetic Whispering Gallery (WG) modes. This allows the characterization of the physical parameters of paramagnetic impurity ions in the crystal at low temperatures. We present measurements of two ultra-high purity sapphires cooled to 20 mK in temperature, and determine the concentration of Fe3+ ions and their frequency sensitivity to a DC magnetic field. Our method is different to ESR in that it is possible to track the resonant frequency of the ion from zero applied magnetic field to any arbitrary value, allowing excellent measurement precision. This high precision reveals anisotropic behaviour of the Zeeman splitting, which has not been previously reported. In both crystals, each Zeeman component demonstrates a different g-factor., Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures

Dielectric resonators are key components for many microwave and millimetre wave applications, including high-Q filters and frequency-determining elements for precision frequency synthesis. These often depend on the quality of the dielectric material. The commonly used material for building the best cryogenic microwave oscillators is sapphire. However sapphire is becoming a limiting factor for higher frequencies design. It is then important to find new candidates that can fulfil the requirements for millimetre wave low noise oscillators at room and cryogenic temperatures. These clocks are used as a reference in many fields, like modern telecommunication systems, radio astronomy (VLBI), and precision measurements at the quantum limit. High-resolution measurements were made of the temperature-dependence of the electromagnetic properties of a polycrystalline diamond disk at temperatures between 35 K and 330 K at microwave to sub-millimetre wave frequencies. The cryogenic measurements were made using a TE01{\delta} dielectric mode resonator placed inside a vacuum chamber connected to a single-stage pulse-tube cryocooler. The high frequency characterization was performed at room temperature using a combination of a quasi-optical two-lens transmission setup, a Fabry-Perot cavity and a whispering gallery mode resonator excited with waveguides. Our CVD diamond sample exhibits a decreasing loss tangent with increasing frequencies. We compare the results with well known crystals. This comparison makes clear that polycrystalline diamond could be an important material to generate stable frequencies at millimetre waves., Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, journal article

Resonance modes in single crystal sapphire ($\alpha$-Al$_2$O$_3$) exhibit extremely high electrical and mechanical Q-factors ($\approx 10^9$ at 4K), which are important characteristics for electromechanical experiments at the quantum limit. We report the first cooldown of a bulk sapphire sample below superfluid liquid helium temperature (1.6K) to as low as 25mK. The electromagnetic properties were characterised at microwave frequencies, and we report the first observation of electromagnetically induced thermal bistability in whispering gallery modes due to the material $T^3$ dependence on thermal conductivity and the ultra-low dielectric loss tangent. We identify "magic temperatures" between 80 to 2100 mK, the lowest ever measured, at which the onset of bistability is suppressed and the frequency-temperature dependence is annulled. These phenomena at low temperatures make sapphire suitable for quantum metrology and ultra-stable clock applications, including the possible realization of the first quantum limited sapphire clock., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

Whispering Gallery modes in bulk cylindrical Gallium Arsenide and Gallium Phosphide samples have been examined both in darkness and under white light at cryogenics temperatures < 50 K. In both cases persistent photoconductivity was observed after initially exposing semiconductors to white light from a halogen lamp. Photoconductance decay time constants for GaP and GaAs were determined to be 0.900 +/- 0.081 ns and 1.098 +/- 0.063 ns, respectively, using this method., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures

Whispering Gallery modes in bulk cylindrical Gallium Arsenide and Gallium Phosphide samples have been examined both in darkness and under white light at 50 K. In both samples we observed change in permittivity under light and dark conditions. This results from a change in the polarization state of the semiconductor, which is consistent with a free electron-hole creation/recombination process. The permittivity of the semiconductor is modified by free photocarriers in the surface layers of the sample which is the region sampled by Whispering Gallery modes., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

The high pressure phase diagram of CsC8 graphite intercalated compound has been investigated at ambient temperature up to 32 GPa. Combining X-ray and neutron diffraction, Raman and X- ray absorption spectroscopies, we report for the first time that CsC8, when pressurized, undergoes phase transitions around 2.0, 4.8 and 8 GPa. Possible candidate lattice structures and the transition mechanism involved are proposed. We show that the observed transitions involve the structural re- arrangement in the Cs sub-network while the distance between the graphitic layers is continuously reduced at least up to 8.9 GPa. Around 8 GPa, important modifications of signatures of the electronic structure measured by Raman and X-ray absorption spectroscopies evidence the onset of a new transition.