6,876 research outputs found
-Electron Ferromagnetism in Metal Free Carbon Probed by Soft X-Ray Dichroism
Elemental carbon represents a fundamental building block of matter and the
possibility of ferromagnetic order in carbon attracted widespread attention.
However, the origin of magnetic order in such a light element is only poorly
understood and has puzzled researchers. We present a spectromicroscopy study at
room temperature of proton irradiated metal free carbon using the elemental and
chemical specificity of x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). We
demonstrate that the magnetic order in the investigated system originates only
from the carbon -electron system.Comment: 10 pages 3 color figure
The role of hydrogen in room-temperature ferromagnetism at graphite surfaces
We present a x-ray dichroism study of graphite surfaces that addresses the
origin and magnitude of ferromagnetism in metal-free carbon. We find that, in
addition to carbon states, also hydrogen-mediated electronic states
exhibit a net spin polarization with significant magnetic remanence at room
temperature. The observed magnetism is restricted to the top 10 nm of
the irradiated sample where the actual magnetization reaches emu/g
at room temperature. We prove that the ferromagnetism found in metal-free
untreated graphite is intrinsic and has a similar origin as the one found in
proton bombarded graphite.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, submitted to New Journal of Physic
Homeostatic structural plasticity increases the efficiency of small-world networks
In networks with small-world topology, which are characterized by a high clustering coefficient and a short characteristic path length, information can be transmitted efficiently and at relatively low costs. The brain is composed of small-world networks, and evolution may have optimized brain connectivity for efficient information processing. Despite many studies on the impact of topology on information processing in neuronal networks, little is known about the development of network topology and the emergence of efficient small-world networks. We investigated how a simple growth process that favors short-range connections over long-range connections in combination with a synapse formation rule that generates homeostasis in post-synaptic firing rates shapes neuronal network topology. Interestingly, we found that small-world networks benefited from homeostasis by an increase in efficiency, defined as the averaged inverse of the shortest paths through the network. Efficiency particularly increased as small-world networks approached the desired level of electrical activity. Ultimately, homeostatic small-world networks became almost as efficient as random networks. The increase in efficiency was caused by the emergent property of the homeostatic growth process that neurons started forming more long-range connections, albeit at a low rate, when their electrical activity was close to the homeostatic set-point. Although global network topology continued to change when neuronal activities were around the homeostatic equilibrium, the small-world property of the network was maintained over the entire course of development. Our results may help understand how complex systems such as the brain could set up an efficient network topology in a self-organizing manner. Insights from our work may also lead to novel techniques for constructing large-scale neuronal networks by self-organization
Experimental Evidence for Two-Dimensional Magnetic Order in Proton Bombarded Graphite
We have prepared magnetic graphite samples bombarded by protons at low
temperatures and low fluences to attenuate the large thermal annealing produced
during irradiation. An overall optimization of sample handling allowed us to
find Curie temperatures K at the used fluences. The
magnetization versus temperature shows unequivocally a linear dependence, which
can be interpreted as due to excitations of spin waves in a two dimensional
Heisenberg model with a weak uniaxial anisotropy.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Ab-initio study of the relation between electric polarization and electric field gradients in ferroelectrics
The hyperfine interaction between the quadrupole moment of atomic nuclei and
the electric field gradient (EFG) provides information on the electronic charge
distribution close to a given atomic site. In ferroelectric materials, the loss
of inversion symmetry of the electronic charge distribution is necessary for
the appearance of the electric polarization. We present first-principles
density functional theory calculations of ferroelectrics such as BaTiO3, KNbO3,
PbTiO3 and other oxides with perovskite structures, by focusing on both EFG
tensors and polarization. We analyze the EFG tensor properties such as
orientation and correlation between components and their link with electric
polarization. This work supports previous studies of ferroelectric materials
where a relation between EFG tensors and polarization was observed, which may
be exploited to study ferroelectric order when standard techniques to measure
polarization are not easily applied.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables, corrected typos, as published in Phys.
Rev.
Proton-induced magnetic order in carbon: SQUID measurements
In this work we have studied systematically the changes in the magnetic
behavior of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) samples after proton
irradiation in the MeV energy range. Superconducting quantum interferometer
device (SQUID) results obtained from samples with thousands of localized spots
of micrometer size as well on samples irradiated with a broad beam confirm
previously reported results. Both, the para- and ferromagnetic contributions
depend strongly on the irradiation details. The results indicate that the
magnetic moment at saturation of spots of micrometer size is of the order of
emu.Comment: Invited contribution at ICACS2006 to be published in Nucl. Instr. and
Meth. B. 8 pages and 6 figure
Toward accurate CO_2 and CH_4 observations from GOSAT
The column-average dry air mole fractions of atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane (X_(CO_2) and X_(CH_4)) are inferred from observations of backscattered sunlight conducted by the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT). Comparing the first year of GOSAT retrievals over land with colocated ground-based observations of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON), we find an average difference (bias) of â0.05% and â0.30% for X_(CO_2) and X_(CH_4) with a station-to-station variability (standard deviation of the bias) of 0.37% and 0.26% among the 6 considered TCCON sites. The root-mean square deviation of the bias-corrected satellite retrievals from colocated TCCON observations amounts to 2.8 ppm for X_(CO_2) and 0.015 ppm for X_(CH_4). Without any data averaging, the GOSAT records reproduce general source/sink patterns such as the seasonal cycle of X_(CO_2) suggesting the use of the satellite retrievals for constraining surface fluxes
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In vivo articular cartilage deformation: noninvasive quantification of intratissue strain during joint contact in the human knee
The in vivo measurement of articular cartilage deformation is essential to understand how mechanical forces distribute throughout the healthy tissue and change over time in the pathologic joint. Displacements or strain may serve as a functional imaging biomarker for healthy, diseased, and repaired tissues, but unfortunately intratissue cartilage deformation in vivo is largely unknown. Here, we directly quantified for the first time deformation patterns through the thickness of tibiofemoral articular cartilage in healthy human volunteers. Magnetic resonance imaging acquisitions were synchronized with physiologically relevant compressive loading and used to visualize and measure regional displacement and strain of tibiofemoral articular cartilage in a sagittal plane. We found that compression (of 1/2 body weight) applied at the foot produced a sliding, rigid-body displacement at the tibiofemoral cartilage interface, that loading generated subject- and gender-specific and regionally complex patterns of intratissue strains, and that dominant cartilage strains (approaching 12%) were in shear. Maximum principle and shear strain measures in the tibia were correlated with body mass index. Our MRI-based approach may accelerate the development of regenerative therapies for diseased or damaged cartilage, which is currently limited by the lack of reliable in vivo methods for noninvasive assessment of functional changes following treatment
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