1,132 research outputs found
Young people and social capital: an exploration.
Drawing on a critical realist approach and especially Derek Layder’s ‘Domain Theory’ (Layder 1997; 2006) this thesis explores the richness and complexity of young people’s social capital. The study used a mixed methods design which incorporated sequential and concurrent data collection and analysis comprising 16 in-depth interviews, 17 discussion groups and a survey questionnaire (n=500). Twenty one organisations participated in this study, accessed through youth groups, the youth justice system, one school and one college from the Midlands area, in the 13-19 age range. The total sample using all research methods was 574 young people.
Young people’s maintenance and enhancement of social capital is seen as a process which has to be negotiated in a continuous interaction between self, situated activity, social settings and contexts. Within this, critical creative agency, a positive outlook on life and being able to make the leap of trust become agentic mediating factors which help young people to navigate life situations and take the necessary risks to develop a more dynamic social capital.
The study challenges some common discourses on diversity, especially those referring to bonding and bridging social capital (Putnam 2000). Contexts of privilege but also of gender and ethnicity are important mechanisms that have a strong impact on the access to social capital resources and points towards the resiliency young people are able to build.
Policy and practice need to build on the situated activity of young people and not erode it. Enhancing young people’s existing social capital is achieved by building on their existing resourcefulness, strengthening their existing support networks, opening up new horizons and creating access to new resources within a strength perspective. Institutions need to enhance resiliency and positive risk taking, nurture trusting relationships with significant others and enhance young people’s outlook on life
Non-Volatile Memory Characteristics of Submicrometre Hall Structures Fabricated in Epitaxial Ferromagnetic MnAl Films on GaAs
Hall-effect structures with submicrometre linewidths (<0.3pm) have been fabricated in ferromagnetic thin films of Mn[sub 0.60]Al[sub 0.40] which are epitaxially grown on a GaAs substrate. The MnAl thin films exhibit a perpendicular remanent magnetisation and an extraordinary Hall effect with square hysteretic behaviour. The presence of two distinct stable readout states demonstrates the potential of using ultrasmall ferromagnetic volumes for electrically addressable, nonvolatile storage of digital information
The extraordinary Hall effect in coherent epitaxial tau (Mn,Ni)Al thin films on GaAs
Ultrathin coherent epitaxial films of ferromagnetic tau(Mn,Ni)0.60Al0.40 have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs substrates. X-ray scattering and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy measurements confirm that the c axis of the tetragonal tau unit cell is aligned normal to the (001) GaAs substrate. Measurements of the extraordinary Hall effect (EHE) show that the films are perpendicularly magnetized, exhibiting EHE resistivities saturating in the range of 3.3-7.1 muOMEGA-cm at room temperature. These values of EHE resistivity correspond to signals as large as +7 and -7 mV for the two magnetic states of the film with a measurement current of 1 mA. Switching between the two magnetic states is found to occur at distinct field values that depend on the previously applied maximum field. These observations suggest that the films are magnetically uniform. As such, tau(Mn,Ni)Al films may be an excellent medium for high-density storage of binary information
Epitaxial-tau(Mn,Ni)Al/(Al,Ga)As heterostructures: Magnetic and magneto-optic properties
Ferromagnetic Perpendicularly magnetized epitaxial thin films of tau (Mn,Ni)AI have been successfully grown on AlAs/GaAs heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy. We have investigated the polar Kerr rotation and magnetization of tau MnAl and (Mn,Ni) Al as a function of Mn and Ni concentration. The largest polar Kerr rotation and remnant magnetization were obtained for Mn0.5Al0.5 thin films with values of 0.16-degrees and 224 emu/cm3, respectively. We observed that the Kerr rotation and magnetization remained constant with Ni additions up to about 12 at. % and subsequently decreased with further Ni additions. We discuss these results and one possible method of enhancing the Kerr rotation
Andreev reflection at high magnetic fields: Evidence for electron and hole transport in edge states
We have studied magnetotransport in arrays of niobium filled grooves in an
InAs/AlGaSb heterostructure. The critical field of up to 2.6 T permits to enter
the quantum Hall regime. In the superconducting state, we observe strong
magnetoresistance oscillations, whose amplitude exceeds the Shubnikov-de Haas
oscillations by a factor of about two, when normalized to the background.
Additionally, we find that above a geometry-dependent magnetic field value the
sample in the superconducting state has a higher longitudinal resistance than
in the normal state. Both observations can be explained with edge channels
populated with electrons and Andreev reflected holes.Comment: accepted for Phys Rev Lett, some changes to tex
Role of semicore states in the electronic structure of group-III nitrides: An exact exchange study
The bandstructure of the zinc-blende phase of AlN, GaN, InN is calculated
employing the exact-exchange (EXX) Kohn-Sham density-functional theory and a
pseudopotential plane-wave approach. The cation semicore d electrons are
treated both as valence and as core states. The EXX bandgaps of AlN and GaN
(obtained with the Ga 3d electrons included as core states) are in excellent
agreement with previous EXX results, GW calculations and experiment. Inclusion
of the semicore d electrons as valence states leads to a large reduction in the
EXX bandgaps of GaN and InN. Contrary to common belief, the removal of the
self-interaction, by the EXX approach, does not account for the large
disagreement for the position of the semicore d electrons between the LDA
results and experiment.Comment: 10 pages including 3 figures; related publications can be found at
http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/th.htm
Voltage controlled spin injection in a (Ga,Mn)As/(Al,Ga)As Zener diode
The spin polarization of the electron current in a
p-(Ga,Mn)As-n-(Al,Ga)As-Zener tunnel diode, which is embedded in a
light-emitting diode, has been studied theoretically. A series of
self-consistent simulations determines the charge distribution, the band
bending, and the current-voltage characteristics for the entire structure. An
empirical tight-binding model, together with the Landauer- Buttiker theory of
coherent transport has been developed to study the current spin polarization.
This dual approach allows to explain the experimentally observed high magnitude
and strong bias dependence of the current spin polarization.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. B Rapid Communication
Commensurability effects in Andreev antidot billiards
An Andreev billiard was realized in an array of niobium filled antidots in a
high-mobility InAs/AlGaSb heterostructure. Below the critical temperature T_C
of the Nb dots we observe a strong reduction of the resistance around B=0 and a
suppression of the commensurability peaks, which are usually found in antidot
lattices. Both effects can be explained in a classical Kubo approach by
considering the trajectories of charge carriers in the semiconductor, when
Andreev reflection at the semiconductor-superconductor interface is included.
For perfect Andreev reflection, we expect a complete suppression of the
commensurability features, even though motion at finite B is chaotic.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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