146 research outputs found
Oxygen vacancies in strained SrTiO thin films: formation enthalpy and manipulation
We report the enthalpy of oxygen vacancy formation in thin films of
electron-doped SrTiO, under different degrees of epitaxial stress. We
demonstrate that both compressive and tensile strain decrease this energy at a
very similar rate, and promote the formation of stable doubly ionized oxygen
vacancies. Moreover, we also show that unintentional cationic vacancies
introduced under typical growth conditions, produce a characteristic rotation
pattern of TiO octahedra. The local concentration of oxygen vacancies can
be modulated by an electric field with an AFM tip, changing not only the local
electrical potential, but also producing a non-volatile mechanical response
whose sign (up/down) can be reversed by the electric field.Comment: Physical Review B (accepted for publication
Electron degeneracy and intrinsic magnetic properties of epitaxial Nb:SrTiO thin-films controlled by defects
We report thermoelectric power experiments in e-doped thin films of SrTiO
(STO) which demonstrate that the electronic band degeneracy can be lifted
through defect management during growth. We show that even small amounts of
cationic vacancies, combined with epitaxial stress, produce a homogeneous
tetragonal distortion of the films, resulting in a Kondo-like resistance upturn
at low temperature, large anisotropic magnetoresistance, and non-linear Hall
effect. Ab-initio calculations confirm a different occupation of each band
depending on the degree of tetragonal distortion. The phenomenology reported in
this paper for tetragonally distorted e-doped STO thin films, is similarto that
observed in LaAlO/STO interfaces and magnetic STO quantum wells.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Nonmonotonic Evolution of the Blocking Temperature in Dispersions of Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles
We use a Monte Carlo approach to simulate the influence of the dipolar
interaction on assemblies of monodisperse superparamagnetic
nanoparticles. We have identified a critical
concentration c*, that marks the transition between two different regimes in
the evolution of the blocking temperature () with interparticle
interactions. At low concentrations (c < c*) magnetic particles behave as an
ideal non-interacting system with a constant . At concentrations c > c*
the dipolar energy enhances the anisotropic energy barrier and
increases with increasing c, so that a larger temperature is required to reach
the superparamagnetic state. The fitting of our results with classical particle
models and experiments supports the existence of two differentiated regimes.
Our data could help to understand apparently contradictory results from the
literature.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Thermoelectric properties of heavy-element doped CrN
CrN was doped with Mo and W to study the effect of heavy elements alloying on its thermoelectric properties. An spontaneous phase segregation into Mo- and W-rich regions was observed even at the lowest concentrations probed at this work (≃1%). In the particular case of W, this segregation creates nanoinclusions into the Cr1–xWxN matrix, which results in a substantial reduction of the thermal conductivity in the whole temperature range compared to undoped CrN. In addition, an increased hybridization of N:2p and 4d/5d orbitals with respect to Cr:3d decreases the electrical resistivity in lightly doped samples. This improves substantially the thermoelectric figure of merit with respect to the undoped compound, providing a pathway for further improvement of the thermoelectric performance of CrNS
The lemniscal–cuneate recurrent excitation is suppressed by strychnine and enhanced by GABAA antagonists in the anaesthetized cat
[Abstract] In the somatosensory system, cuneolemniscal (CL) cells fire high frequency doublets of spikes facilitating the transmission of sensory information to diencephalic target cells. We studied how lemniscal feedback affects ascending transmission of cutaneous neurons of the middle cuneate nucleus. Electrical stimulation of the contralateral medial lemniscus and of the skin at sites evoking responses with minimal threshold induced recurrent activation of CL cells at a latency of 1–3.5 ms. The lemniscal feedback activation was suppressed by increasing the stimulating intensity at the same sites, suggesting recurrent-mediated lateral inhibition. The glycine antagonist strychnine blocked the recurrent excitatory responses while GABAA antagonists uncovered those obscured by stronger stimulation. CL cells sharing a common receptive field (RF) potentiate one another by recurrent activation and disinhibition, the disinhibition being produced by serial interactions between glycinergic and GABAergic interneurons. Conversely, CL cells with different RFs inhibit each other through recurrent GABA-mediated inhibition. The lemniscal feedback would thus enhance the surround antagonism of a centre response by increasing the spatial resolution and the transmission of weak signals.Consejo Interinstitucional de Ciencia y TecnologÃa; PM99-002
Intracuneate mechanisms underlying primary afferent cutaneous processing in anaesthetized cats
[Abstract] The cutaneous primary afferents from the upper trunk and forelimbs reach the medial cuneate nucleus in their way towards the cerebral cortex. The aim of this work was twofold: (i) to study the mechanisms used by the primary afferents to relay cutaneous information to cuneate cuneolemniscal (CL) and noncuneolemniscal (nCL) cells, and (ii) to determine the intracuneate mechanisms leading to the elaboration of the output signal by CL cells. Extracellular recordings combined with microiontophoresis demonstrated that the primary afferent cutaneous information is communicated to CL and nCL cells through AMPA, NMDA and kainate receptors. These receptors were sequentially activated: AMPA receptors participated mainly during the initial phase of the response, whereas kainate- and NMDA-mediated activity predominated during a later phase. The involvement of NMDA receptors was confirmed by in vivo intracellular recordings. The cutaneous-evoked activation of CL cells was decreased by GABA and increased by glycine acting at a strychnine-sensitive site, indicating that glycine indirectly affects CL cells. Two subgroups of nCL cells were distinguished based on their sensitivity to iontophoretic ejection of glycine and strychnine. Overall, the results support a model whereby the primary afferent cutaneous input induces a centre-surround antagonism in the cuneate nucleus by activating (via AMPA, NMDA and kainate receptors) and disinhibiting (via serial glycinergic–GABAergic interactions) a population of CL cells with overlapped receptive fields that at the same time inhibit (via GABAergic cells) other neighbouring CL cells with different receptive fields.Ministerio de Ciencia y TecnologÃa; BFI 2003-0194
Reduction of thermal conductivity in ferroelectric SrTiO3 thin films
Bulk SrTiO3 is a quantum paraelectric in which an antiferrodistortive distortion below approximate to 105 K and quantum fluctuations at low temperature preclude the stabilization of a long-range ferroelectric state. However, biaxial mechanical stress, impurity doping, and Sr nonstoichiometry, among other mechanisms, are able to stabilize a ferroelectric or relaxor ferroelectric state at room temperature, which develops into a longer-range ferroelectric state below 250 K. In this paper, we show that epitaxial SrTiO3 thin films grown under tensile strain on DyScO3 exhibit a large reduction of thermal conductivity, approximate to 60% of at room temperature, with respect to identical strain-free or compressed films. The thermal conductivity shows a further reduction below 250 K, a temperature concurrent with the peak in the dielectric constant [J. H. Haeni et al., Nature (London) 430, 758 (2004)]. These results suggest that strain gradients in the relaxor and ferroelectric phase of SrTiO3 are very effective phonon scatterers, limiting the thermal transport in this material
Determination of parathion in biological fluids by means of direct Solid Phase Microextraction.
A new and simple procedure for the determination
of parathion in human whole blood and urine using
direct immersion (DI) solid-phase microextraction (SPME)
and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is
presented. This technique was developed using only
100 ìL of sample, and ethion was used as internal standard
(IS). A 65-ìm Carbowax/divinylbenzene (CW/DVB)
SPME fibre was selected for sampling, and the main
parameters affecting the SPME process such as extraction
temperature, adsorption and desorption time, salt addition,
agitation and pH effect were optimized to enhance the
sensitivity of the method. This optimization was also
performed to allow the qualitative determination of parathion’s
main metabolite, paraoxon, in blood. The limits
of detection and quantitation for parathion were 3 and
10 ng/mL for urine and 25 and 50 ng/mL for blood,
respectively. For paraoxon, the limit of detection was
50 ng/mL in blood. The method showed linearity between
the LOQ and 50 ìg/mL for both matrices, with correlation
coefficients ranging from 0.9954 to 0.9999. Precision and
accuracy were in conformity with the criteria normally
accepted in bioanalytical method validation. The mean
absolute recoveries were 35.1% for urine and 6.7% for
blood. Other parameters such as dilution of sample and
stability were also validated. Its simplicity and the fact that
only 100 ìL of sample is required to accomplish the analysis make this method useful in forensic toxicology laboratories
to determine this compound in intoxications, and it can be
considered an alternative to other methods normally used for
the determination of this compound in biological media
Phase Competition in Ln0.5a0.5mno3 Perovskites
Single crystals of the systems Pr0.5(Ca1-xSrx)0.5MnO3,
(Pr1-yYy)0.5(Ca1-xSrx)0.5MnO3, and Sm0.5Sr0.5MnO3 were grown to provide a
series of samples with fixed ratio Mn(III)/Mn(IV)=1 having geometric tolerance
factors that span the transition from localized to itinerant electronic
behavior of the MnO3 array. A unique ferromagnetic phase appears at the
critical tolerance factor tc= 0.975 that separates charge ordering and
localized-electron behavior for t<tc from itinerant or molecular-orbital
behavior for t>tc. This ferromagnetic phase, which has to be distinguished from
the ferromagnetic metallic phase stabilized at tolerance factors t>tc,
separates two distinguishable Type-CE antiferromagnetic phases that are
metamagnetic. Measurements of the transport properties under hydrostatic
pressure were carried out on a compositions t a little below tc in order to
compare the effects of chemical vs. hydrostatic pressure on the phases that
compete with one another near t=tc.Comment: 10 pages. To be publised in Phys. Rev.
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