1,523 research outputs found

    The icephobic performance of alkyl-grafted aluminum surfaces

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    This work analyzes the anti-icing performance of flat aluminum surfaces coated with widely used alkyl-group based layers of octadecyltrimethoxysilane, fluorinated alkylsilane and stearic acid as they are subjected to repeated icing/deicing cycles. The wetting properties of the samples upon long-term immersion in water are also evaluated. The results demonstrate that smooth aluminum surfaces grafted with alkyl groups are prone to gradual degradation of their hydrophobic and icephobic properties, which is caused by interactions and reactions with both ice and liquid water. This implies that alkyl-group based monolayers on aluminum surfaces are not likely to be durable icephobic coatings unless their durability in contact with ice and/or water is significantly improved

    Silicon DAQ based on FPDP and RACEway

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    Shuttling of Spin Polarized Electrons in Molecular Transistors

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    Shuttling of electrons in single-molecule transistors with magnetic leads in the presence of an external magnetic field is considered theoretically. For a current of partially spin-polarized electrons a shuttle instability is predicted to occur for a finite interval of external magnetic field strengths. The lower critical magnetic field is determined by the degree of spin polarization and it vanishes as the spin polarization approaches 100%. The feasibility of detecting magnetic shuttling in a C60C_{60}-based molecular transistor with magnetic (Ni) electrodes is discussed [A.~N.~Pasupathy et al., Science 306, 86 (2004)].Comment: Submitted to a special issue of "Synthetic Metals" to appear in March 201

    Superconductive pumping of nanomechanical vibrations

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    We demonstrate that a supercurrent can pump energy from a battery that provides a voltage bias into nanomechanical vibrations. Using a device containing a nanowire Josephson weak link as an example we show that a nonlinear coupling between the supercurrent and a static external magnetic field leads to a Lorentz force that excites bending vibrations of the wire at resonance conditions. We also demonstrate the possibility to achieve more than one regime of stationary nonlinear vibrations and how to detect them via the associated dc Josephson currents and we discuss possible applications of such a multistable nanoelectromechanical dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

    Mechanically Induced Thermal Breakdown in Magnetic Shuttle Structures

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    A theory of a thermally induced single-electron "shuttling" instability in a magnetic nanomechanical device subject to an external magnetic field is presented in the Coulomb blockade regime of electron transport. The model magnetic shuttle device considered comprises a movable metallic grain suspended between two magnetic leads, which are kept at different temperatures and assumed to be fully spin polarized with antiparallel magnetizations. For a given temperature difference shuttling is found to occur for a region of external magnetic fields between a lower and an upper critical field strength, which separate the shuttling regime from normal small-amplitude "vibronic" regimes. We find that (i) the upper critical magnetic field saturates to a constant value in the high temperature limit and that the shuttle instability domain expands with a decrease of the temperature, (ii) the lower critical magnetic field depends not only on the temperature independent phenomenological friction coefficient used in the model but also on intrinsic friction (which vanishes in the high temperature limit) caused by magnetic exchange forces and electron tunneling between the quantum dot and the leads. The feasibility of using thermally driven magnetic shuttle systems to harvest thermal breakdown phenomena is discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

    Single-electron shuttle based on electron spin

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    A nanoelectromechanical device based on magnetic exchange forces and electron spin flips induced by a weak external magnetic field is suggested. It is shown that this device can operate as a new type of single-electron "shuttle" in the Coulomb blockade regime of electron transport

    Joule Heating and Current-Induced Instabilities in Magnetic Nanocontacts

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    We consider the electrical current through a magnetic point contact in the limit of a strong inelastic scattering of electrons. In this limit local Joule heating of the contact region plays a decisive role in determining the transport properties of the point contact. We show that if an applied constant bias voltage exceeds a critical value, the stationary state of the system is unstable, and that periodic, non-harmonic oscillations in time of both the electrical current through the contact and the local temperature in the contact region develop spontaneously. Our estimations show that the necessary experimental conditions for observing such oscillations with characteristic frequencies in the range 108÷10910^8 \div 10^9 Hz can easily be met. We also show a possibility to manipulate upon the magnetization direction of a magnetic grain coupled through a point contact to a bulk ferromagnetic by exciting the above-mentioned thermal-electric oscillations.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Physical Review

    Magnetopolaronic effects in electron transport through a single-level vibrating quantum dot

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    Magneto-polaronic effects are considered in electron transport through a single-level vibrating quantum dot subjected to a transverse (to the current flow) magnetic field. It is shown that the effects are most pronounced in the regime of sequential electron tunneling, where a polaronic blockade of the current at low temperatures and an anomalous temperature dependence of the magnetoconductance are predicted. In contrast, for resonant tunneling of polarons the peak conductance is not affected by the magnetic field.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

    Structure and properties of biodegradable PLLA/ZnO composite membrane produced via electrospinning

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    These days, composite materials based on polymers and inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) are widely used in optoelectronics and biomedicine. In this work, composite membranes of polylactic acid and ZnO NPs containing 5–40 wt.% of the latter NPs were produced by means of electrospinning. For the first time, polymer material loaded with up to 40 wt.% of ZnO NPs (produced via laser ablation in air and having non-modified surface) was used to prepare fiber-based composite membranes. The morphology, phase composition, mechanical, spectral and antibacterial properties of the membranes were tested by a set of analytical techniques including SEM, XRD, FTIR, UV-vis, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Antibacterial activity of the materials was evaluated following standard procedures (ISO 20743:2013) and using S. aureus and E. coli bacteria. It is shown that incorporation of 5–10 wt.% of NPs led to improved mechanical properties of the composite membranes, while further increase of ZnO content up to 20 wt.% and above resulted in their noticeable deterioration. At the same time, the antibacterial properties of ZnO-rich membranes were more pronounced, which is explained by a larger number of surface-exposed ZnO NPs, in addition to those embedded into the bulk of fiber material
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