189 research outputs found
Sound attenuation in the superconducting amorphous alloy ZrTiCuNiBe
The superconducting energy gap and the parameter of the intensity of electron
scattering at two-level systems in amorphous ZrTiCuNiBe are determined from the
results of measurements of sound attenuation. The mechanism of adiabatic
renormalization of the amplitude of coherent tunneling is used for a
quantitative description of the peculiarities of sound absorption in the
vicinity of critical temperature.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, 2 Postscript figures corrected, submitted to Low
Temp. Phy
Ectoplasm & Superspace Integration Measure for 2D Supergravity with Four Spinorial Supercurrents
Building on a previous derivation of the local chiral projector for a two
dimensional superspace with eight real supercharges, we provide the complete
density projection formula required for locally supersymmetrical theories in
this context. The derivation of this result is shown to be very efficient using
techniques based on the Ectoplasmic construction of local measures in
superspace.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX; V2: minor changes, typos corrected, references
added; V3: version to appear in J. Phys. A: Math. Theor., some comments and
references added to address a referee reques
On 2D N=(4,4) superspace supergravity
We review some recent results obtained in studying superspace formulations of
2D N=(4,4) matter-coupled supergravity. For a superspace geometry described by
the minimal supergravity multiplet, we first describe how to reduce to
components the chiral integral by using ``ectoplasm'' superform techniques as
in arXiv:0907.5264 and then we review the bi-projective superspace formalism
introduced in arXiv:0911.2546. After that, we elaborate on the curved
bi-projective formalism providing a new result: the solution of the covariant
type-I twisted multiplet constraints in terms of a weight-(-1,-1) bi-projective
superfield.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, Contribution to the proceedings of the International
Workshop "Supersymmetries and Quantum Symmetries" (SQS'09), Dubna, July
29-August 3 200
Optical detection of single non-absorbing molecules using the surface plasmon of a gold nanorod
Current optical detection schemes for single molecules require light
absorption, either to produce fluorescence or direct absorption signals. This
severely limits the range of molecules that can be detected, because most
molecules are purely refractive. Metal nanoparticles or dielectric resonators
detect non-absorbing molecules by a resonance shift in response to a local
perturbation of the refractive index, but neither has reached single-protein
sensitivity. The most sensitive plasmon sensors to date detect single molecules
only when the plasmon shift is amplified by a highly polarizable label or by a
localized precipitation reaction on the particle's surface. Without
amplification, the sensitivity only allows for the statistical detection of
single molecules. Here we demonstrate plasmonic detection of single molecules
in realtime, without the need for labeling or amplification. We monitor the
plasmon resonance of a single gold nanorod with a sensitive photothermal assay
and achieve a ~ 700-fold increase in sensitivity compared to state-of-the-art
plasmon sensors. We find that the sensitivity of the sensor is intrinsically
limited due to spectral diffusion of the SPR. We believe this is the first
optical technique that detects single molecules purely by their refractive
index, without any need for photon absorption by the molecule. The small size,
bio-compatibility and straightforward surface chemistry of gold nanorods may
open the way to the selective and local detection of purely refractive proteins
in live cells
Properties of silicon dioxide layers with embedded metal nanocrystals produced by oxidation of Si:Me mixture
A two-dimensional layers of metal (Me) nanocrystals embedded in SiO2 were produced by pulsed laser deposition of uniformly mixed Si:Me film followed by its furnace oxidation and rapid thermal annealing. The kinetics of the film oxidation and the structural properties of the prepared samples were investigated by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, and transmission electron microscopy, respectively. The electrical properties of the selected SiO2:Me nanocomposite films were evaluated by measuring C-V and I-V characteristics on a metal-oxide-semiconductor stack. It is found that Me segregation induced by Si:Me mixture oxidation results in the formation of a high density of Me and silicide nanocrystals in thin film SiO2 matrix. Strong evidence of oxidation temperature as well as impurity type effect on the charge storage in crystalline Me-nanodot layer is demonstrated by the hysteresis behavior of the high-frequency C-V curves
Band-gap and sub-band-gap photoelectrochemical processes at nanocrystalline CdS grown on ZnO by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method
Cadmium sulfide nanoparticle (NP) deposition by the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method on the surface of mesoporous ZnO micro-platelets with a large specific surface area (110 ± 10 m2g− 1) results in the formation of ZnO/CdS heterostructures exhibiting a high incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (Y) not only within the region of CdS fundamental absorption (Ymax = 90%; 0.1 M Na2S + 0.1 M Na2SO3), but also in the sub-band-gap (SBG) range (Ymax = 25%). The onset potentials of SBG photoelectrochemical processes are more positive than the band-gap (BG) onset potential by up to 100 mV. A maximum incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency value for SBG processes is observed at larger amount of deposited CdS in comparison with the case of BG ones. The Urbach energy (EU) of CdS NPs determined from the photocurrent spectra reaches a maximal value on an early deposition stage (EU = 93 mV at SILAR cycle number N = 5), then lowers somewhat (EU = 73 mV at N = 10) and remains steady in the range of N from 20 to 300 (EU = 67 ± 1 mV). High efficiency of the photoelectrochemical SBG processes are interpreted in terms of light scattering in the ZnO/CdS heterostructures
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