Control of tetrahedral coordination and superconductivity in FeSe0.5Te0.5 thin films

We demonstrate a close relationship between superconductivity and the dimensions of the Fe-Se(Te) tetrahedron in FeSe0.5Te0.5. This is done by exploiting thin film epitaxy, which provides controlled biaxial stress, both compressive and tensile, to distort the tetrahedron. The Se/Te height within the tetrahedron is found to be of crucial importance to superconductivity, in agreement with the theoretical proposal that (pi,pi) spin fluctuations promote superconductivity in Fe superconductors

Predicting the ‘Unpredictable’ General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) in EU Tax Law

General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) is a type of rule designed to combat the tax-avoidance scenarios that in a legal form lawfully but aims to circumvent the legal consequences. GAAR is necessary for a tax system to address unexpected innovative tax avoidance scenarios. In the field of tax law, GAAR has been criticized for being too abstract and thus harmful to legal certainty. In the context of EU integration, the concept of GAAR has been developed and elaborated by Court of Justice of European Union as well as secondary laws, but there are quite a few different formulations. In the existing literature, it is established that, there are the subject test and the objective test cumulatively in the GAAR, which examines the taxpayers’ subjective intension and the objective economic reality. As to the relation between these two tests, scholars have established the theory that, the formulation and the context of the subjective test is actually influenced by the tax rule involved (that is, the purpose of the norm being circumvented). This paper will revisit GAARs in the EU tax law and present that, the theory of GAAR based on the purpose of the violated tax norm is indeed supported by latest case law of CJEU as well new Directives. Furthermore, the intention of the norm reconciles the subject test and the objective test. In this regard, the unpredictability of ‘GAAR’ actually has become more predictable

Antisymmetric magnetoresistance in magnetic multilayers with perpendicular anisotropy

While magnetoresistance (MR) has generally been found to be symmetric in applied field in non-magnetic or magnetic metals, we have observed antisymmetric MR in Co/Pt multilayers. Simultaneous domain imaging and transport measurements show that the antisymmetric MR is due to the appearance of domain walls that run perpendicular to both the magnetization and the current, a geometry existing only in materials with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. As a result, the extraordinary Hall effect (EHE) gives rise to circulating currents in the vicinity of the domain walls that contributes to the MR. The antisymmetric MR and EHE have been quantitatively accounted for by a theoretical model.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

Free-carrier relaxation and lattice heating in photoexcited bismuth thin films

We report ultrafast surface pump and interface probe experiments on photoexcited carrier transport across single crystal bismuth films on sapphire. The film thickness is sufficient to separate carrier dynamics from lattice heating and strain, allowing us to investigate the time-scales of momentum relaxation, heat transfer to the lattice and electron-hole recombination. The measured electron-hole ($e-h$) recombination time is 12--26 ps and ambipolar diffusivity is 18--40 cm$^{2}$/s for carrier excitation up to $\sim 10^{19} \text{cm}^{-3}$. By comparing the heating of the front and back sides of the film, we put lower limits on the rate of heat transfer to the lattice, and by observing the decay of the plasma at the back of the film, we estimate the timescale of electron-hole recombination. We interpret each of these timescales within a common framework of electron-phonon scattering and find qualitative agreement between the various relaxation times observed. We find that the carrier density is not determined by the $e-h$ plasma temperature after a few picoseconds. The diffusion and recombination become nonlinear with initial excitation $\gtrsim 10^{20} \text{cm}^{-3}$

A Tale of Two Narrow-Line Regions: Ionization, Kinematics, and Spectral Energy Distributions for a Local Pair of Merging Obscured Active Galaxies

We explore the gas ionization and kinematics, as well as the optical--IR spectral energy distributions for UGC 11185, a nearby pair of merging galaxies hosting obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs), also known as SDSS J181611.72+423941.6 and J181609.37+423923.0 (J1816NE and J1816SW, $z \approx 0.04$). Due to the wide separation between these interacting galaxies ($\sim 23$ kpc), observations of these objects provide a rare glimpse of the concurrent growth of supermassive black holes at an early merger stage. We use BPT line diagnostics to show that the full extent of the narrow line emission in both galaxies is photoionized by an AGN and confirm the existence of a 10-kpc-scale ionization cone in J1816NE, while in J1816SW the AGN narrow-line region is much more compact (1--2 kpc) and relatively undisturbed. Our observations also reveal the presence of ionized gas that nearly spans the entire distance between the galaxies which is likely in a merger-induced tidal stream. In addition, we carry out a spectral analysis of the X-ray emission using data from {\em XMM-Newton}. These galaxies represent a useful pair to explore how the [\ion{O}{3}] luminosity of an AGN is dependent on the size of the region used to explore the extended emission. Given the growing evidence for AGN "flickering" over short timescales, we speculate that the appearances and impact of these AGNs may change multiple times over the course of the galaxy merger, which is especially important given that these objects are likely the progenitors of the types of systems commonly classified as "dual AGNs."Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted by the Astrophysical Journa