6,268 research outputs found
On the Photorefractive Gunn Effect
We present and numerically solve a model of the photorefractive Gunn effect.
We find that high field domains can be triggered by phase-locked interference
fringes, as it has been recently predicted on the basis of linear stability
considerations. Since the Gunn effect is intrinsically nonlinear, we find that
such considerations give at best order-of-magnitude estimations of the
parameters critical to the photorefractive Gunn effect. The response of the
system is much more complex including multiple wave shedding from the injecting
contact, wave suppression and chaos with spatial structure.Comment: Revtex, 8 pag., 4 fig. (jpg), submit to Physical Review
Ripples in a string coupled to Glauber spins
Each oscillator in a linear chain (a string) interacts with a local Ising
spin in contact with a thermal bath. These spins evolve according to Glauber
dynamics. Below a critical temperature, a rippled state in the string is
accompanied by a nonzero spin polarization. The system is shown to form ripples
in the string which, for slow spin relaxation, vibrates rapidly about
quasi-stationary states described as snapshots of a coarse-grained stroboscopic
map. For moderate observation times, ripples are observed irrespective of the
final thermodynamically stable state (rippled or not).Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Photo-excited semiconductor superlattices as constrained excitable media: Motion of dipole domains and current self-oscillations
A model for charge transport in undoped, photo-excited semiconductor
superlattices, which includes the dependence of the electron-hole recombination
on the electric field and on the photo-excitation intensity through the
field-dependent recombination coefficient, is proposed and analyzed. Under dc
voltage bias and high photo-excitation intensities, there appear self-sustained
oscillations of the current due to a repeated homogeneous nucleation of a
number of charge dipole waves inside the superlattice. In contrast to the case
of a constant recombination coefficient, nucleated dipole waves can split for a
field-dependent recombination coefficient in two oppositely moving dipoles. The
key for understanding these unusual properties is that these superlattices have
a unique static electric-field domain. At the same time, their dynamical
behavior is akin to the one of an extended excitable system: an appropriate
finite disturbance of the unique stable fixed point may cause a large excursion
in phase space before returning to the stable state and trigger pulses and wave
trains. The voltage bias constraint causes new waves to be nucleated when old
ones reach the contact.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Chaos in resonant-tunneling superlattices
Spatio-temporal chaos is predicted to occur in n-doped semiconductor
superlattices with sequential resonant tunneling as their main charge transport
mechanism. Under dc voltage bias, undamped time-dependent oscillations of the
current (due to the motion and recycling of electric field domain walls) have
been observed in recent experiments. Chaos is the result of forcing this
natural oscillation by means of an appropriate external microwave signal.Comment: 3 pages, LaTex, RevTex, 3 uuencoded figures (1.2M) are available upon
request from [email protected], to appear in Phys.Rev.
Maxwellian Neutron Spectrum generation and Stellar Cross-Section measurements: measurement of the 197Au(n,γ) MACS
Maxwellian-averaged cross-sections (MACS) are needed as an input for the models
of stellar s- and r-processes nucleosynthesis. MACS can be obtained from activation
measurements, irradiating a sample with the neutron field generated by the 7Li(p,n)7Be reaction
at 1912 keV proton energy. At this energy, the neutron energy spectrum is close (R2≤0.9) to a
Maxwellian one of kT=25 keV. However, it was shown that shaping the energy of the incident
proton beam is possible to generate a neutron field with an energy spectrum much closer to a
real Maxwellian (R2>0.995), therefore avoiding or minimizing corrections in the MACS
calculation. We show a preliminary result of an experiment performed at JRC-IRMM (Geel) to
confirm our method. We have measured the MACS30 (kT=30 keV) of the 197Au(n,γ) reaction,
at CNA (Seville). We obtained 612 mb, in good agreement with the latest measurements
Universality of the Gunn effect: self-sustained oscillations mediated by solitary waves
The Gunn effect consists of time-periodic oscillations of the current flowing
through an external purely resistive circuit mediated by solitary wave dynamics
of the electric field on an attached appropriate semiconductor. By means of a
new asymptotic analysis, it is argued that Gunn-like behavior occurs in
specific classes of model equations. As an illustration, an example related to
the constrained Cahn-Allen equation is analyzed.Comment: 4 pages,3 Post-Script figure
Photo-Organocatalytic Enantioselective Radical Cascade Enabled by Single-Electron Transfer Activation of Allenes
Allenes are commonly used in metal-mediated transformations, cycloaddition reactions, and radical processes. However, their activation by single-electron transfer (SET) is largely underexplored. Herein, we report a visible light-driven enantioselective organocatalytic process that uses the excited-state reactivity of chiral iminium ions to activate allenes by SET oxidation. The ensuing allene cation radicals participate in stereocontrolled cascade reactions to deliver chiral bicyclic scaffolds with good enantioselectivity and exquisite diastereoselectivity. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations support a mechanism that combines the peculiar chemistry of allene radical cations with polar reactivity. (Figure presented.)
Stationary states and phase diagram for a model of the Gunn effect under realistic boundary conditions
A general formulation of boundary conditions for semiconductor-metal contacts
follows from a phenomenological procedure sketched here. The resulting boundary
conditions, which incorporate only physically well-defined parameters, are used
to study the classical unipolar drift-diffusion model for the Gunn effect. The
analysis of its stationary solutions reveals the presence of bistability and
hysteresis for a certain range of contact parameters. Several types of Gunn
effect are predicted to occur in the model, when no stable stationary solution
exists, depending on the value of the parameters of the injecting contact
appearing in the boundary condition. In this way, the critical role played by
contacts in the Gunn effect is clearly stablished.Comment: 10 pages, 6 Post-Script figure
Current-voltage characteristic and stability in resonant-tunneling n-doped semiconductor superlattices
We review the occurrence of electric-field domains in doped superlattices
within a discrete drift model. A complete analysis of the construction and
stability of stationary field profiles having two domains is carried out. As a
consequence, we can provide a simple analytical estimation for the doping
density above which stable stable domains occur. This bound may be useful for
the design of superlattices exhibiting self-sustained current oscillations.
Furthermore we explain why stable domains occur in superlattices in contrast to
the usual Gunn diode.Comment: Tex file and 3 postscript figure
Pattern Competition in the Photorefractive Semiconductors
We analytically study the photorefractive Gunn effect in n-GaAs subjected to
two external laser beams which form a moving interference pattern (MIP) in the
semiconductor. When the intensity of the spatially independent part of the MIP,
denoted by , is small, the system has a periodic domain train (PDT),
consistent with the results of linear stability analysis. When is large,
the space-charge field induced by the MIP will compete with the PDT and result
in complex dynamics, including driven chaos via quasiperiodic route
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