Preferential adsorption of high density lipoprotein (HDL) in blood plasma/polymer interaction

A few studies on the adsorption of plasma proteins to polymeric surfaces show that major plasma proteins: albumin (Alb), fibrinogen (Fb) and immunoglobulin (IgG) are adsorbed in much smaller quantities from plasma than from protein solutions (1,2). Present results show that this difference in adsorption is due to the preferential adsorption of high density lipoprotein from plasma onto the material surfaces studied (PVC and PS)

Generalization of Gutzwiller Approximation

We derive expressions required in generalizing the Gutzwiller approximation to models comprising arbitrarily degenerate localized orbitals.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, to appear in J.Phys.Soc.Jpn. vol.6

Spin-independent origin of the strongly enhanced effective mass in a dilute 2D electron system

We have accurately measured the effective mass in a dilute two-dimensional electron system in silicon by analyzing temperature dependence of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in the low-temperature limit. A sharp increase of the effective mass with decreasing electron density has been observed. Using tilted magnetic fields, we have found that the enhanced effective mass is independent of the degree of spin polarization, which points to a spin-independent origin of the mass enhancement and is in contradiction with existing theories

Very large magnetoresistance in lateral ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As wires with nanoconstrictions

We have fabricated (Ga,Mn)As nanostructures in which domain walls can be pinned by sub-10 nm constrictions. Controlled by shape anisotropy, we can switch the regions on either side of the constriction to either parallel or antiparallel magnetization. All samples exhibit a positive magnetoresistance, consistent with domain-wall trapping. For metallic samples we find a magnetoresistance up to 8%, which can be understood from spin accumulation. In samples where, due to depletion at the constriction, a tunnel barrier is formed, we observe a magnetoresistance of up to 2000 %.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submited to Phys. Rev. Let

Phase diagrams of correlated electrons: systematic corrections to the mean field theory

Perturbative corrections to the mean field theory for particle-hole instabilities of interacting electron systems are computed within a scheme which is equivalent to the recently developed variational approach to the Kohn-Luttinger superconductivity. This enables an unbiased comparison of particle-particle and particle-hole instabilities within the same approximation scheme. A spin-rotation invariant formulation for the particle-hole instabilities in the triplet channel is developed. The method is applied to the phase diagram of the t-t' Hubbard model on the square lattice. At the Van Hove density, antiferromagnetic and d-wave Pomeranchuk phases are found to be stable close to half filling. However, the latter phase is confined to an extremely narrow interval of densities and away from the singular filling, d-wave superconducting instability dominates

Excitons in T-shaped quantum wires

We calculate energies, oscillator strengths for radiative recombination, and two-particle wave functions for the ground state exciton and around 100 excited states in a T-shaped quantum wire. We include the single-particle potential and the Coulomb interaction between the electron and hole on an equal footing, and perform exact diagonalisation of the two-particle problem within a finite basis set. We calculate spectra for all of the experimentally studied cases of T-shaped wires including symmetric and asymmetric GaAs/Al$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As and In$_{y}$Ga$_{1-y}$As/Al$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As structures. We study in detail the shape of the wave functions to gain insight into the nature of the various states for selected symmetric and asymmetric wires in which laser emission has been experimentally observed. We also calculate the binding energy of the ground state exciton and the confinement energy of the 1D quantum-wire-exciton state with respect to the 2D quantum-well exciton for a wide range of structures, varying the well width and the Al molar fraction $x$. We find that the largest binding energy of any wire constructed to date is 16.5 meV. We also notice that in asymmetric structures, the confinement energy is enhanced with respect to the symmetric forms with comparable parameters but the binding energy of the exciton is then lower than in the symmetric structures. For GaAs/Al$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As wires we obtain an upper limit for the binding energy of around 25 meV in a 10 {\AA} wide GaAs/AlAs structure which suggests that other materials must be explored in order to achieve room temperature applications. There are some indications that In$_{y}$Ga$_{1-y}$As/Al$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As might be a good candidate.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, uses RevTeX and psfig, submitted to Physical Review

Circuit theory for crossed Andreev reflection and nonlocal conductance

Nonlocal currents, in devices where two normal metal terminals are contacted to a superconductor, are determined using the circuit theory of mesoscopic superconductivity. We calculate the conductance associated with crossed Andreev reflection and electron transfer between the two normal metal terminals, in addition to the conductance from direct Andreev reflection and quasiparticle tunneling. Dephasing and proximity effect are taken into account.Comment: Included in special issue Spin Physics of Superconducting heterostructures of Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processin

Hidden Quantum Critical Point in a Ferromagnetic Superconductor

We consider a coexistence phase of both Ferromagnetism and superconductivity and solve the self-consistent mean-field equations at zero temperature. The superconducting gap is shown to vanish at the Stoner point whereas the magnetization doesn't. This indicates that the para-Ferro quantum critical point becomes a hidden critical point. The effective mass in such a phase gets enhanced whereas the spin wave stiffness is reduced as compared to the pure FM phase. The spin wave stiffness remains finite even at the para-Ferro quantum critical point.Comment: 4 pages, Phys. Rev. B (Rapid) accepte

A WZW model based on a non-semi-simple group

We present a conformal field theory which desribes a homogeneous four dimensional Lorentz-signature space-time. The model is an ungauged WZW model based on a central extension of the Poincar\'e algebra. The central charge of this theory is exactly four, just like four dimensional Minkowski space. The model can be interpreted as a four dimensional monochromatic plane wave. As there are three commuting isometries, other interesting geometries are expected to emerge via $O(3,3)$ duality.Comment: 8 pages, phyzzx, IASSNS-HEP-93/61 Texable versio