857 research outputs found
Observation of the onset of strong scattering on high frequency acoustic phonons in densified silica glass
The linewidth of longitudinal acoustic waves in densified silica glass is
obtained by inelastic x-ray scattering. It increases with a high power alpha of
the frequency up to a crossover where the waves experience strong scattering.
We find that \alpha is at least 4, and probably larger. Resonance and
hybridization of acoustic waves with the boson-peak modes seems to be a more
likely explanation for these findings than Rayleigh scattering from disorder.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Letter
Universal behavior of internal friction in glasses below T : anharmonicity vs relaxation
Comparison of the internal friction at hypersonic frequencies between a few K
and the glass transition temperature Tg for various glasses brings out general
features. At low temperature, internal friction is only weakly dependent on the
material. At high temperature but still below Tg the internal friction for
strong glasses shows a T-independent plateau in a very wide domain of
temperature; in contrast, for fragile glass, a nearly linear variation of
internal friction with T is observed. Anharmonicity appears dominant over
thermally activated relaxational processes at high temperature.Comment: accepted in Physical Review
Scaling the Temperature-dependent Boson Peak of Vitreous Silica with the high-frequency Bulk Modulus derived from Brillouin Scattering Data
The position and strength of the boson peak in silica glass vary considerably
with temperature . Such variations cannot be explained solely with changes
in the Debye energy. New Brillouin scattering measurements are presented which
allow determining the -dependence of unrelaxed acoustic velocities. Using a
velocity based on the bulk modulus, scaling exponents are found which agree
with the soft-potential model. The unrelaxed bulk modulus thus appears to be a
good measure for the structural evolution of silica with and to set the
energy scale for the soft potentials.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter
The Boson Peak and its Relation with Acoustic Attenuation in Glasses
Experimental results on the density of states and on the acoustic modes of
glasses in the THz region are compared to the predictions of two categories of
models. A recent one, solely based on an elastic instability, does not account
for most observations. Good agreement without adjustable parameters is obtained
with models including the existence of non-acoustic vibrational modes at THz
frequency, providing in many cases a comprehensive picture for a range of glass
anomalies.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Physical Review Letters in pres
Charge migration engineered by localisation: electron-nuclear dynamics in polyenes and glycine
We demonstrate that charge migration can be ‘engineered’ in arbitrary molecular systems if a single localised orbital – that diabatically follows nuclear displacements – is ionised. Specifically, we describe the use of natural bonding orbitals in Complete Active Space Configuration Interaction (CASCI) calculations to form cationic states with localised charge, providing consistently well-defined initial conditions across a zero point energy vibrational ensemble of molecular geometries. In Ehrenfest dynamics simulations following localised ionisation of -electrons in model polyenes (hexatriene and decapentaene) and -electrons in glycine, oscillatory charge migration can be observed for several femtoseconds before dephasing. Including nuclear motion leads to slower dephasing compared to fixed-geometry electron-only dynamics results. For future work, we discuss the possibility of designing laser pulses that would lead to charge migration that is experimentally observable, based on the proposed diabatic orbital approach
Small Angle Scattering by Fractal Aggregates: A Numerical Investigation of the Crossover Between the Fractal Regime and the Porod Regime
Fractal aggregates are built on a computer using off-lattice cluster-cluster
aggregation models. The aggregates are made of spherical particles of different
sizes distributed according to a Gaussian-like distribution characterised by a
mean and a standard deviation . The wave vector dependent
scattered intensity is computed in order to study the influence of the
particle polydispersity on the crossover between the fractal regime and the
Porod regime. It is shown that, given , the location of the
crossover decreases as increases. The dependence of on
can be understood from the evolution of the shape of the center-to-center
interparticle-distance distribution function.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages + 6 postscript figures, compressed using "uufiles",
published in Phys. Rev. B 50, 1305 (1994
Anharmonic vs. relaxational sound damping in glasses: II. Vitreous silica
The temperature dependence of the frequency dispersion in the sound velocity
and damping of vitreous silica is reanalyzed. Thermally activated relaxation
accounts for the sound attenuation observed above 10 K at sonic and ultrasonic
frequencies. Its extrapolation to the hypersonic regime reveals that the
anharmonic coupling to the thermal bath becomes important in
Brillouin-scattering measurements. At 35 GHz and room temperature, the damping
due to this anharmonicity is found to be nearly twice that produced by
thermally activated relaxation. The analysis also reveals a sizeable velocity
increase with temperature which is not related with sound dispersion. This
suggests that silica experiences a gradual structural change that already
starts well below room temperature.Comment: 13 pages with 8 figure
Fluctuating Bond Aggregation: a Model for Chemical Gel Formation
The Diffusion-Limited Cluster-Cluster Aggregation (DLCA) model is modified by
including cluster deformations using the {\it bond fluctuation} algorithm. From
3 computer simulations, it is shown that, below a given threshold value
of the volumic fraction , the realization of all intra-aggregate
bonding possibilities prevents the formation of a gelling network. For ,
the sol-gel transition occurs at a time which, in contrast to DLCA,
doesnot diverge with the box size. Several results are reported including small
angle scattering curves and possible applications are discussed.Comment: RevTex, 9 pages + 3 postscript figures appended using "uufiles". To
appear in Phys. Rev. Let
A sulfur-rich pi-electron acceptor derived from 5,5 '-bithiazolidinylidene: charge-transfer complex vs. charge-transfer salt
International audienceNovel pi-electron acceptors are still highly desirable for the formation of conducting salts or as n-dopable semiconductors. We describe here two synthetic approaches to substitute a dicyanovinylidene group, C=C(CN)(2) to a thioketone (C=S) in the recently described DEBTTT acceptor where DEBTTT stands for (E)-3,3'-diethyl-5,5'-bithiazolidinylidene-2,4,2',4'-tetrathione. These electron withdrawing groups enhance the electron accepting ability as demonstrated through electrochemical investigations, without hindering the formation of short intra-and intermolecular S center dot center dot center dot S contacts in the solid state. Association of this acceptor 1 with tetramethyltetrathiafulvalene (TMTTF) and decamethylferrocene (Fe(Cp*)(2)) afforded 1 : 1 adducts which were analyzed by single crystal X-ray diffraction. Combined with vibrational and magnetic properties, it appears that [TMTTF][1] behaves as a neutral charge-transfer complex while [Fe(Cp*)(2)][1] is an ionic salt. The concentration of the spin density on the exocyclic sulfur atoms in 1(-center dot) favors the setting of direct anti-ferromagnetic interactions in [Fe(Cp*)(2)][1
Universal Behaviour of the Superfluid Fraction and Tc of He-3 in 99.5% Open Aerogel
We have investigated the superfluid transition of He-3 in a 99.5% porosity
silica aerogel. This very dilute sample shows behaviour intermediary between
bulk He-3 and He-3 confined to the denser aerogels previously studied. We
present data on both the superfluid transition temperature and the superfluid
density and compare our results with previous measurements. Finally, we show
that the suppression of the superfluid transition temperature and suppression
of the superfluid density of He-3 in aerogel follow a universal relation for a
range of aerogel samples.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; 1 new figure, minor change
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