Coulomb blockade in two island systems with highly conductive junctions

We report measurements on single-electron pumps, consisting of two metallic islands formed by three tunnel junctions in series. We focus on the linear-response conductance as a function of gate voltage and temperature of three samples with varying system parameters. In all cases, strong quantum fluctuation phenomena are observed by a log(k_B T/(2 E_co)) reduction of the maximal conductance, where E_co measures the coupling strength between the islands. The samples display a rich phenomenology, culminating in a non-monotonic behavior of the maximal conductance as a function of temperature

Tunable reflection minima of nanostructured antireflective surfaces

Broadband antireflection schemes for silicon surfaces based on the moth-eye principle and comprising arrays of subwavelength-scale pillars are applicable to solar cells, photodetectors, and stealth technologies and can exhibit very low reflectances. We show that rigorous coupled wave analysis can be used to accurately model the intricate reflectance behavior of these surfaces and so can be used to explore the effects of variations in pillar height, period, and shape. Low reflectance regions are identified, the extent of which are determined by the shape of the pillars. The wavelengths over which these low reflectance regions operate can be shifted by altering the period of the array. Thus the subtle features of the reflectance spectrum of a moth-eye array can be tailored for optimum performance for the input spectrum of a specific application

Effect of combined addition of graphene oxide and citric acid on superconducting properties of MgB₂Effect of combined addition of graphene oxide and citric acid on superconducting properties of MgB₂

In the present work, polycrystalline samples with compositions MgB₂ + 3wt% GO + x wt% C₆H₈O₇ (x = 0, 5 and 10) have been synthesized to study the effect of combined addition of graphene oxide (GO) and citric acid (C₆H₈O₇) on superconducting properties of MgB₂. X-ray diffraction studies show the formation of hexagonal crystal structure of MgB₂ with space group P6/mmm in all synthesized samples. We observe that the addition of GO in the sample improves the grain connectivity and consequently enhances the critical current density significantly with no substantial change in Tc. However for this sample, there is no significant improvement in Hc2 and Hirr. With the combined addition of GO and citric acid, the JC(H), Hc2 and Hirr are observed to improve substantially as compared to the pristine MgB₂ and GO added MgB₂ samples. For example JC(10 K, 5 T) of sample x = 10 has improved by a factor of ∼15 as compared to pure MgB₂ sample and by a factor of ∼5.5 as compared to the x = 0 sample. Furthermore, Hc2(0) for x = 10 sample has enhanced by 13 T as compared to pure MgB₂ while it has increased by ∼10 T in comparison to x = 0 sample. Enhanced flux pinning has been observed with the combined addition of GO and citric acid

Assessing runoff generation in riparian wetlands : monitoring groundwater-surface water dynamics at the micro-catchment scale

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the European Research Council (ERC, project GA 335910 VeWa) for funding.Peer reviewedPostprin

Coagulation by Random Velocity Fields as a Kramers Problem

We analyse the motion of a system of particles suspended in a fluid which has a random velocity field. There are coagulating and non-coagulating phases. We show that the phase transition is related to a Kramers problem, and use this to determine the phase diagram, as a function of the dimensionless inertia of the particles, epsilon, and a measure of the relative intensities of potential and solenoidal components of the velocity field, Gamma. We find that the phase line is described by a function which is non-analytic at epsilon=0, and which is related to escape over a barrier in the Kramers problem. We discuss the physical realisations of this phase transition.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Charge ordering and magneto-polarons in Na0.82_{0.82}CoO2_2

Using spectral ellipsometry, we have measured the dielectric function of a Na$_{0.82(2)}$CoO$_2$ crystal that exhibits bulk antiferromagnetism with T$_{N}$=19.8 K. We identify two prominent transitions as a function of temperature. The first one at 280 K involves marked changes of the electronic and the lattice response that are indicative of charge ordering in the CoO$_{2}$ layers. The second transition coincides with T$_{N}$=19.8 K and reveals a sizeable spin-charge coupling. The data are discussed in terms of charge ordering and formation of magneto-polarons due to a charge-induced spin-state transition of adjacent Co$^{3+}$ ions