Multi-band superconductivity and nanoscale inhomogeneity at oxide interfaces

The two-dimensional electron gas at the LaTiO3/SrTiO3 or LaAlO3/SrTiO3 oxide interfaces becomes superconducting when the carrier density is tuned by gating. The measured resistance and superfluid density reveal an inhomogeneous superconductivity resulting from percolation of filamentary structures of superconducting "puddles" with randomly distributed critical temperatures, embedded in a non-superconducting matrix. Following the evidence that superconductivity is related to the appearance of high-mobility carriers, we model intra-puddle superconductivity by a multi-band system within a weak coupling BCS scheme. The microscopic parameters, extracted by fitting the transport data with a percolative model, yield a consistent description of the dependence of the average intra-puddle critical temperature and superfluid density on the carrier density.Comment: 7 pages with 3 figures + supplemental material (4 pages and 5 figures

N=2 Quantum Field Theories and their BPS quivers

We explore the relationship between four-dimensional N = 2 quantum field theories and their associated BPS quivers. For a wide class of theories including super-Yang-Mills theories, Argyres- Douglas models, and theories defined by M5-branes on punctured Riemann surfaces, there exists a quiver which implicitly characterizes the field theory. We study various aspects of this correspondence including the quiver interpretation of flavor symmetries, gauging, decoupling limits, and field theory dualities. In general a given quiver describes only a patch of the moduli space of the field theory, and a key role is played by quantum mechanical dualities, encoded by quiver mutations, which relate distinct quivers valid in different patches. Analyzing the consistency conditions imposed on the spectrum by these dualities results in a powerful and novel mutation method for determining the BPS states. We apply our method to determine the BPS spectrum in a wide class of examples, including the strong coupling spectrum of super-Yang-Mills with an ADE gauge group and fundamental matter, and trinion theories defined by M5-branes on spheres with three punctures. \ua9 2014 International Press

Transport and Magnetic Properties of FexVse2 (x = 0 - 0.33)

We present our results of the effect of Fe intercalation on the structural, transport and magnetic properties of 1T-VSe2. Intercalation of iron, suppresses the 110K charge density wave (CDW) transition of the 1T-VSe2. For the higher concentration of iron, formation of a new kind of first order transition at 160K takes place, which go on stronger for the 33% Fe intercalation. Thermopower of the FexVSe2 compounds (x = 0 - 0.33), however do not show any anomaly around the transition. The intercalation of Fe does not trigger any magnetism in the weak paramagnetic 1T-VSe2, and Fe is the low spin state of Fe3+.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

Night-time oxidation of surfactants at the air–water interface: effects of chain length, head group and saturation

Reactions of the key atmospheric night-time oxidant NO3 with organic monolayers at the air–water interface are used as proxies for the ageing of organic-coated aqueous aerosols. The surfactant molecules chosen for this study are oleic acid (OA), palmitoleic acid (POA), methyl oleate (MO) and stearic acid (SA) to investigate the effects of chain length, head group and degree of unsaturation on the reaction kinetics and products formed. Fully and partially deuterated surfactants were studied using neutron reflectometry (NR) to determine the reaction kinetics of organic monolayers with NO3 at the air–water interface for the first time. Kinetic modelling allowed us to determine the rate coefficients for the oxidation of OA, POA and MO monolayers to be (2.8 ± 0.7) × 10−8 cm2 molecule−1 s−1, (2.4 ± 0.5) × 10−8 cm2 molecule−1 s−1 and (3.3 ± 0.6) × 10−8 cm2 molecule−1 s−1, respectively. The corresponding uptake coefficients were found to be (2.1 ± 0.5) × 10−3, (1.7 ± 0.3) × 10−3 and (2.1 ± 0.4) × 10−3. For the much slower NO3-initiated oxidation of the saturated surfactant SA we found a loss rate of (5 ± 1) × 10−12 cm2 molecule−1 s−1 which we consider to be an upper limit for the reactive loss, and estimated an uptake coefficient of (5 ± 1) × 10−7. Our investigations demonstrate that NO3 will contribute substantially to the processing of unsaturated surfactants at the air–water interface during night-time given its reactivity is ca. two orders of magnitude higher than that of O3. Furthermore, the relative contributions of NO3 and O3 to the oxidative losses vary massively between species that are closely related in structure: NO3 reacts ca. 400 times faster than O3 with the common model surfactant oleic acid, but only ca. 60 times faster with its methyl ester MO. It is therefore necessary to perform a case-by-case assessment of the relative contributions of the different degradation routes for any specific surfactant. The overall impact of NO3 on the fate of saturated surfactants is slightly less clear given the lack of prior kinetic data for comparison, but NO3 is likely to contribute significantly to the loss of saturated species and dominate their loss during night-time. The retention of the organic character at the air–water interface differs fundamentally between the different surfactant species: the fatty acids studied (OA and POA) form products with a yield of ∼ 20% that are stable at the interface while NO3-initiated oxidation of the methyl ester MO rapidly and effectively removes the organic character (≤ 3% surface-active products). The film-forming potential of reaction products in real aerosol is thus likely to depend on the relative proportions of saturated and unsaturated surfactants as well as the head group properties. Atmospheric lifetimes of unsaturated species are much longer than those determined with respect to their reactions at the air–water interface, so that they must be protected from oxidative attack e.g. by incorporation into a complex aerosol matrix or in mixed surface films with yet unexplored kinetic behaviour