64,114 research outputs found
Heating source localization in a reduced time
Inverse three-dimensional heat conduction problems devoted to heating source localization are ill posed. Identification can be performed using an iterative regularization method based on the conjugate gradient algorithm. Such a method is usually implemented off-line, taking into account observations (temperature measurements, for example). However, in a practical context, if the source has to be located as fast as possible (e.g., for diagnosis), the observation horizon has to be reduced. To this end, several configurations are detailed and effects of noisy observations are investigated
Dephasing of Electrons in Mesoscopic Metal Wires
We have extracted the phase coherence time of electronic
quasiparticles from the low field magnetoresistance of weakly disordered wires
made of silver, copper and gold. In samples fabricated using our purest silver
and gold sources, increases as when the temperature
is reduced, as predicted by the theory of electron-electron interactions in
diffusive wires. In contrast, samples made of a silver source material of
lesser purity or of copper exhibit an apparent saturation of
starting between 0.1 and 1 K down to our base temperature of 40 mK. By
implanting manganese impurities in silver wires, we show that even a minute
concentration of magnetic impurities having a small Kondo temperature can lead
to a quasi saturation of over a broad temperature range, while
the resistance increase expected from the Kondo effect remains hidden by a
large background. We also measured the conductance of Aharonov-Bohm rings
fabricated using a very pure copper source and found that the amplitude of the
conductance oscillations increases strongly with magnetic field. This set
of experiments suggests that the frequently observed ``saturation'' of
in weakly disordered metallic thin films can be attributed to
spin-flip scattering from extremely dilute magnetic impurities, at a level
undetectable by other means.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, to be published in Physical Review
Enhanced sequential carrier capture into individual quantum dots and quantum posts controlled by surface acoustic waves
Individual self-assembled Quantum Dots and Quantum Posts are studied under
the influence of a surface acoustic wave. In optical experiments we observe an
acoustically induced switching of the occupancy of the nanostructures along
with an overall increase of the emission intensity. For Quantum Posts,
switching occurs continuously from predominantely charged excitons (dissimilar
number of electrons and holes) to neutral excitons (same number of electrons
and holes) and is independent on whether the surface acoustic wave amplitude is
increased or decreased. For quantum dots, switching is non-monotonic and shows
a pronounced hysteresis on the amplitude sweep direction. Moreover, emission of
positively charged and neutral excitons is observed at high surface acoustic
wave amplitudes. These findings are explained by carrier trapping and
localization in the thin and disordered two-dimensional wetting layer on top of
which Quantum Dots nucleate. This limitation can be overcome for Quantum Posts
where acoustically induced charge transport is highly efficient in a wide
lateral Matrix-Quantum Well.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Testing Wavefunction Collapse Models using Parametric Heating of a Trapped Nanosphere
We propose a mechanism for testing the theory of collapse models such as
continuous spontaneous localization (CSL) by examining the parametric heating
rate of a trapped nanosphere. The random localizations of the centre-of-mass
for a given particle predicted by the CSL model can be understood as a
stochastic force embodying a source of heating for the nanosphere. We show that
by utilising a Paul trap to levitate the particle and optical cooling, it is
possible to reduce environmental decoherence to such a level that CSL dominates
the dynamics and contributes the main source of heating. We show that this
approach allows measurements to be made on the timescale of seconds, and that
the free parameter which characterises the model ought to
be testable to values as low as Hz.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Making tracks: electronic excitation roles in forming swift heavy ion tracks
Swift heavy ions cause material modification along their tracks, changes primarily due to their very dense electronic excitation. The available data for threshold stopping powers indicate two main classes of materials. Group I, with threshold stopping powers above about 10 keV nm(-1), includes some metals, crystalline semiconductors and a few insulators. Group II, with lower thresholds, comprises many insulators, amorphous materials and high T-c oxide superconductors. We show that the systematic differences in behaviour result from different coupling of the dense excited electrons, holes and excitons to atomic (ionic) motions, and the consequent lattice relaxation. The coupling strength of excitons and charge carriers with the lattice is crucial. For group II, the mechanism appears to be the self- trapped exciton model of Itoh and Stoneham ( 1998 Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. B 146 362): the local structural changes occur roughly when the exciton concentration exceeds the number of lattice sites. In materials of group I, excitons are not self- trapped and structural change requires excitation of a substantial fraction of bonding electrons, which induces spontaneous lattice expansion within a few hundred femtoseconds, as recently observed by laser- induced time- resolved x- ray diffraction of semiconductors. Our analysis addresses a number of experimental results, such as track morphology, the efficiency of track registration and the ratios of the threshold stopping power of various materials
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