11,531 research outputs found
Critical point for the strong field magnetoresistance of a normal conductor/perfect insulator/perfect conductor composite with a random columnar microstructure
A recently developed self-consistent effective medium approximation, for
composites with a columnar microstructure, is applied to such a
three-constituent mixture of isotropic normal conductor, perfect insulator, and
perfect conductor, where a strong magnetic field {\bf B} is present in the
plane perpendicular to the columnar axis. When the insulating and perfectly
conducting constituents do not percolate in that plane, the
microstructure-induced in-plane magnetoresistance is found to saturate for
large {\bf B}, if the volume fraction of the perfect conductor is greater
than that of the perfect insulator . By contrast, if , that
magnetoresistance keeps increasing as without ever saturating. This
abrupt change in the macroscopic response, which occurs when , is a
critical point, with the associated critical exponents and scaling behavior
that are characteristic of such points. The physical reasons for the singular
behavior of the macroscopic response are discussed. A new type of percolation
process is apparently involved in this phenomenon.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Negative Magnetoresistance Produced by Hall Fluctuations in a Ferromagnetic Domain Structure
We present a model for a negative magnetoresistance (MR) that would develop
in a material with many ferromagnetic domains even if the individual domains
have no magnetoresistance and even if there is no boundary resistance. The
negative MR is due to a classical current-distortion effect arising from
spatial variations in the Hall conductivity, combined with a change in domain
structure due to an applied magnetic field. The negative MR can exceed 1000% if
the product of the carrier relaxation time and the internal magnetic field due
to spontaneous magnetization is sufficiently large.Comment: 3 pages, submitted to Appl. Phys. Let
Effective Hamiltonians for some highly frustrated magnets
In prior work, the authors developed a method of degenerate perturbation
theory about the Ising limit to derive an effective Hamiltonian describing
quantum fluctuations in a half-polarized magnetization plateau on the
pyrochlore lattice. Here, we extend this formulation to an arbitrary lattice of
corner sharing simplexes of sites, at a fraction of the
saturation magnetization, with . We present explicit effective
Hamiltonians for the examples of the checkerboard, kagome, and pyrochlore
lattices. The consequent ground states in these cases for are also
discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures,. Conference proceedings for Highly Frustrated
Magnetism 200
Magnetoresistance of Three-Constituent Composites: Percolation Near a Critical Line
Scaling theory, duality symmetry, and numerical simulations of a random
network model are used to study the magnetoresistance of a
metal/insulator/perfect conductor composite with a disordered columnar
microstructure. The phase diagram is found to have a critical line which
separates regions of saturating and non-saturating magnetoresistance. The
percolation problem which describes this line is a generalization of
anisotropic percolation. We locate the percolation threshold and determine the
t = s = 1.30 +- 0.02, nu = 4/3 +- 0.02, which are the same as in
two-constituent 2D isotropic percolation. We also determine the exponents which
characterize the critical dependence on magnetic field, and confirm numerically
that nu is independent of anisotropy. We propose and test a complete scaling
description of the magnetoresistance in the vicinity of the critical line.Comment: Substantially revised version; description of behavior in finite
magnetic fields added. 7 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PR
Bulk metals with helical surface states
In the flurry of experiments looking for topological insulator materials, it
has been recently discovered that some bulk metals very close to topological
insulator electronic states, support the same topological surface states that
are the defining characteristic of the topological insulator. First observed in
spin-polarized ARPES in Sb (D. Hsieh et al. Science 323, 919 (2009)), the
helical surface states in the metallic systems appear to be robust to at least
mild disorder. We present here a theoretical investigation of the nature of
these "helical metals" - bulk metals with helical surface states. We explore
how the surface and bulk states can mix, in both clean and disordered systems.
Using the Fano model, we discover that in a clean system, the helical surface
states are \emph{not} simply absorbed by hybridization with a non-topological
parasitic metallic band. Instead, they are pushed away from overlapping in
momentum and energy with the bulk states, leaving behind a finite-lifetime
surface resonance in the bulk energy band. Furthermore, the hybridization may
lead in some cases to multiplied surface state bands, in all cases retaining
the helical characteristic. Weak disorder leads to very similar effects -
surface states are pushed away from the energy bandwidth of the bulk, leaving
behind a finite-lifetime surface resonance in place of the original surface
states
Comment on "Optical Response of Strongly Coupled Nanopraticles in Dimer Arrays" (Phys. Rev. B 71(4), 045404, 2005)
I have re-calculated the extinction spectra of aggregates of two silver
nanospheres shown in Figs.~2 and 3 of Ref.~8. I have used the approximate
method of images according to Ref.~8 and an exact numerical technique. I have
found that the three sets of data (those I have obtained by the method of
images, the numerical results, and the results published in Ref.~8) do not
coincide. In this Comment, I discuss the reasons for these discrepancies and
the general applicability of the method of images to the quasi-static
electromagnetic problem of two interacting nanospheres.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
New Method to Calculate Electrical Forces Acting on a Sphere in an Electrorheological Fluid
We describe a method to calculate the electrical force acting on a sphere in
a suspension of dielectric spheres in a host with a different dielectric
constant, under the assumption that a spatially uniform electric field is
applied. The method uses a spectral representation for the total electrostatic
energy of the composite. The force is expressed as a certain gradient of this
energy, which can be expressed in a closed analytic form rather than evaluated
as a numerical derivative. The method is applicable even when both the spheres
and the host have frequency-dependent dielectric functions and nonzero
conductivities, provided the system is in the quasistatic regime. In principle,
it includes all multipolar contributions to the force, and it can be used to
calculate multi-body as well as pairwise forces. We also present several
numerical examples, including host fluids with finite conductivities. The force
between spheres approaches the dipole-dipole limit, as expected, at large
separations, but departs drastically from that limit when the spheres are
nearly in contact. The force may also change sign as a function of frequency
when the host is a slightly conducting fluid.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for Publication in Physical Review
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