137 research outputs found
Statistics of the Charging Spectrum of a Two-Dimensional Coulomb Glass Island
The fluctuations of capacitance of a two-dimensional island are studied in
the regime of low electron concentration and strong disorder, when electrons
can be considered classical particles. The universal capacitance distribution
is found, with the dispersion being of the order of the average. This
distribution is shown to be closely related to the shape of the Coulomb gap in
the one-electron density of states of the island. Behavior of the the
capacitance fluctuations near the metal - insulator transition is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, LaTex, 4 Postscript figures are included Discussion of the
situation with screening by metallic gate is adde
Coulomb gap in a model with finite charge transfer energy
The Coulomb gap in a donor-acceptor model with finite charge transfer energy
describing the electronic system on the dielectric side of the
metal-insulator transition is investigated by means of computer simulations on
two- and three-dimensional finite samples with a random distribution of equal
amounts of donor and acceptor sites. Rigorous relations reflecting the symmetry
of the model presented with respect to the exchange of donors and acceptors are
derived. In the immediate neighborhood of the Fermi energy the the
density of one-electron excitations is determined solely by
finite size effects and further away from is described by
an asymmetric power law with a non-universal exponent, depending on the
parameter .Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Levy statistics and anomalous transport in quantum-dot arrays
A novel model of transport is proposed to explain power law current
transients and memory phenomena observed in partially ordered arrays of
semiconducting nanocrystals. The model describes electron transport by a
stationary Levy process of transmission events and thereby requires no time
dependence of system properties. The waiting time distribution with a
characteristic long tail gives rise to a nonstationary response in the presence
of a voltage pulse. We report on noise measurements that agree well with the
predicted non-Poissonian fluctuations in current, and discuss possible
mechanisms leading to this behavior.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
Problems of Development and Application of Metal Matrix Composite Powders for Additive Technologies
The paper considers the problem of structure formation in composites with carbide phase and a metal binder under self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) of powder mixtures. The relation between metal binder content and their structure and wear resistance of coatings was studied. It has been shown that dispersion of the carbide phase and volume content of metal binder in the composite powders structure could be regulated purposefully for all of studied composites. It was found that the structure of surfaced coating was fully inherited of composite powders. Modification or coarsening of the structure at the expense of recrystallization or coagulation carbide phase during deposition and sputtering does not occur
Electronic correlation effects and the Coulomb gap at finite temperature
We have investigated the effect of the long-range Coulomb interaction on the
one-particle excitation spectrum of n-type Germanium, using tunneling
spectroscopy on mechanically controllable break junctions. The tunnel
conductance was measured as a function of energy and temperature. At low
temperatures, the spectra reveal a minimum at zero bias voltage due to the
Coulomb gap. In the temperature range above 1 K the Coulomb gap is filled by
thermal excitations. This behavior is reflected in the temperature dependence
of the variable-range hopping resitivity measured on the same samples: Up to a
few degrees Kelvin the Efros-Shkovskii ln law is obeyed,
whereas at higher temperatures deviations from this law are observed,
indicating a cross-over to Mott's ln law. The mechanism of
this cross-over is different from that considered previously in the literature.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
Complex lithium ion dynamics in simulated LiPO3 glass studied by means of multi-time correlation functions
Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to study the lithium jumps in
LiPO3 glass. In particular, we calculate higher-order correlation functions
that probe the positions of single lithium ions at several times. Three-time
correlation functions show that the non-exponential relaxation of the lithium
ions results from both correlated back-and-forth jumps and the existence of
dynamical heterogeneities, i.e., the presence of a broad distribution of jump
rates. A quantitative analysis yields that the contribution of the dynamical
heterogeneities to the non-exponential depopulation of the lithium sites
increases upon cooling. Further, correlated back-and-forth jumps between
neighboring sites are observed for the fast ions of the distribution, but not
for the slow ions and, hence, the back-jump probability depends on the
dynamical state. Four-time correlation functions indicate that an exchange
between fast and slow ions takes place on the timescale of the jumps
themselves, i.e., the dynamical heterogeneities are short-lived. Hence, sites
featuring fast and slow lithium dynamics, respectively, are intimately mixed.
In addition, a backward correlation beyond the first neighbor shell for highly
mobile ions and the presence of long-range dynamical heterogeneities suggest
that fast ion migration occurs along preferential pathways in the glassy
matrix. In the melt, we find no evidence for correlated back-and-forth motions
and dynamical heterogeneities on the length scale of the next-neighbor
distance.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figure
Phonon-induced dephasing of localized optical excitations
The dynamics of strongly localized optical excitations in semiconductors is studied including electron-phonon interaction. The coupled microscopic equations of motion for the interband polarization and the carrier distribution functions contain coherent and incoherent contributions. While the coherent part is solved through direct numerical integration, the incoherent one is treated by means of a generalized Monte Carlo simulation. The approach is illustrated for a simple model system. The temperature and excitation energy dependence of the optical dephasing rate is analyzed and the results are compared to those of alternative approaches
Single-particle excitations under coexisting electron correlation and disorder: a numerical study of the Anderson-Hubbard model
Interplay of electron correlation and randomness is studied by using the
Anderson-Hubbard model within the Hartree-Fock approximation. Under the
coexistence of short-range interaction and diagonal disorder, we obtain the
ground-state phase diagram in three dimensions, which includes an
antiferromagnetic insulator, an antiferromagnetic metal, a paramagnetic
insulator (Anderson-localized insulator) and a paramagnetic metal. Although
only the short-range interaction is present in this model, we find
unconventional soft gaps in the insulating phases irrespective of electron
filling, spatial dimensions and long-range order, where the single-particle
density of states (DOS) vanishes with a power-law scaling in one dimension (1D)
or even faster in two dimensions (2D) and three dimensions (3D) toward the
Fermi energy. We call it soft Hubbard gap. Moreover, exact-diagonalization
results in 1D support the formation of the soft Hubbard gap beyond the
mean-field level. The formation of the soft Hubbard gap cannot be attributed to
a conventional theory by Efros and Shklovskii (ES) owing the emergence of soft
gaps to the long-range Coulomb interaction. Indeed, based on a picture of
multivalley energy landscape, we propose a phenomenological scaling theory,
which predicts a scaling of the DOS in perfect agreement with the numerical
results. We further discuss a correction of the scaling of the DOS by the
long-range part of the Coulomb interaction, which modifies the scaling of Efros
and Shklovskii. Furthermore, explicit formulae for the temperature dependence
of the DC resistivity via variable-range hopping under the influence of the
soft gaps are derived. Finally, we compare the present theory with experimental
results of SrRu_{1-x}Ti_xO_3.Comment: 22 pages, 19 figure
Chitosan-Graft-Branched Polyethylenimine Copolymers: Influence of Degree of Grafting on Transfection Behavior
BACKGROUND: Successful non-viral gene delivery currently requires compromises to achieve useful transfection levels while minimizing toxicity. Despite high molecular weight (MW) branched polyethylenimine (bPEI) is considered the gold standard polymeric transfectant, it suffers from high cytotoxicity. Inversely, its low MW counterpart is less toxic and effective in transfection. Moreover, chitosan is a highly biocompatible and biodegradable polymer but characterized by very low transfection efficiency. In this scenario, a straightforward approach widely exploited to develop effective transfectants relies on the synthesis of chitosan-graft-low MW bPEIs (Chi-g-bPEI(x)) but, despite the vast amount of work that has been done in developing promising polymeric assemblies, the possible influence of the degree of grafting on the overall behavior of copolymers for gene delivery has been largely overlooked. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: With the aim of providing a comprehensive evaluation of the pivotal role of the degree of grafting in modulating the overall transfection effectiveness of copolymeric vectors, we have synthesized seven Chi-g-bPEI(x) derivatives with a variable amount of bPEI grafts (minimum: 0.6%; maximum: 8.8%). Along the Chi-g-bPEI(x) series, the higher the degree of grafting, the greater the ζ-potential and the cytotoxicity of the resulting polyplexes. Most important, in all cell lines tested the intermediate degree of grafting of 2.7% conferred low cytotoxicity and higher transfection efficiency compared to other Chi-g-bPEI(x) copolymers. We emphasize that, in transfection experiments carried out in primary articular chondrocytes, Chi-g-bPEI(2.7%) was as effective as and less cytotoxic than the gold standard 25 kDa bPEI. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This work underlines for the first time the pivotal role of the degree of grafting in modulating the overall transfection effectiveness of Chi-g-bPEI(x) copolymers. Crucially, we have demonstrated that, along the copolymer series, the fine tuning of the degree of grafting directly affected the overall charge of polyplexes and, altogether, had a direct effect on cytotoxicity
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