Effect of grain refinement on enhancing critical current density and upper critical field in undoped MgB2 ex-situ tapes

Ex-situ Powder-In-Tube MgB2 tapes prepared with ball-milled, undoped powders showed a strong enhancement of the irreversibility field H*, the upper critical field Hc2 and the critical current density Jc(H) together with the suppression of the anisotropy of all of these quantities. Jc reached 104 A/cm2 at 4.2 K and 10 T, with an irreversibility field of about 14 T at 4.2 K, and Hc2 of 9 T at 25 K, high values for not-doped MgB2. The enhanced Jc and H* values are associated with significant grain refinement produced by milling of the MgB2 powder, which enhances grain boundary pinning, although at the same time also reducing the connectivity from about 12% to 8%. Although enhanced pinning and diminished connectivity are in opposition, the overall influence of ball milling on Jc is positive because the increased density of grains with a size comparable with the mean free path produces strong electron scattering that substantially increases Hc2, especially Hc2 perpendicular to the Mg and B planes.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, submitted to J. Appl. Phy

Single spin-polarised Fermi surface in SrTiO3_3 thin films

The 2D electron gas (2DEG) formed at the surface of SrTiO$_3$(001) has attracted great interest because of its fascinating physical properties and potential as a novel electronic platform, but up to now has eluded a comprehensible way to tune its properties. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with and without spin detection we here show that the band filling can be controlled by growing thin SrTiO$_3$ films on Nb doped SrTiO$_3$(001) substrates. This results in a single spin-polarised 2D Fermi surface, which bears potential as platform for Majorana physics. Based on our results it can furthermore be concluded that the 2DEG does not extend more than 2 unit cells into the film and that its properties depend on the amount of SrO$_x$ at the surface and possibly the dielectric response of the system

Hyperfine interaction in a quantum dot: Non-Markovian electron spin dynamics

We have performed a systematic calculation for the non-Markovian dynamics of a localized electron spin interacting with an environment of nuclear spins via the Fermi contact hyperfine interaction. This work applies to an electron in the s -type orbital ground state of a quantum dot or bound to a donor impurity, and is valid for arbitrary polarization p of the nuclear spin system, and arbitrary nuclear spin I in high magnetic fields. In the limit of p=1 and I=1/2, the Born approximation of our perturbative theory recovers the exact electron spin dynamics. We have found the form of the generalized master equation (GME) for the longitudinal and transverse components of the electron spin to all orders in the electron spin--nuclear spin flip-flop terms. Our perturbative expansion is regular, unlike standard time-dependent perturbation theory, and can be carried-out to higher orders. We show this explicitly with a fourth-order calculation of the longitudinal spin dynamics. In zero magnetic field, the fraction of the electron spin that decays is bounded by the smallness parameter \delta=1/p^{2}N, where N is the number of nuclear spins within the extent of the electron wave function. However, the form of the decay can only be determined in a high magnetic field, much larger than the maximum Overhauser field. In general the electron spin shows rich dynamics, described by a sum of contributions with non-exponential decay, exponential decay, and undamped oscillations. There is an abrupt crossover in the electron spin asymptotics at a critical dimensionality and shape of the electron envelope wave function. We propose a scheme that could be used to measure the non-Markovian dynamics using a standard spin-echo technique, even when the fraction that undergoes non-Markovian dynamics is small.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure

Fabrication and superconducting properties of multifilamentary MgB2 conductors for AC purposes: twisted tapes and wires with very thin filaments

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Observation of Wannier-Stark localization at the surface of BaTiO3_3 films by photoemission

Observation of Bloch oscillations and Wannier-Stark localization of charge carriers is typically impossible in single-crystals, because an electric field higher than the breakdown voltage is required. In BaTiO$_3$ however, high intrinsic electric fields are present due to its ferroelectric properties. With angle-resolved photoemission we directly probe the Wannier-Stark localized surface states of the BaTiO$_3$ film-vacuum interface and show that this effect extends to thin SrTiO$_3$ overlayers. The electrons are found to be localized along the in-plane polarization direction of the BaTiO$_3$ film

Enhanced flux pinning in neutron irradiated MgB2

We study the effect of neutron irradiation on the critical current density Jc of isotopically pure polycrystalline Mg11B2 samples. For fluences in the range 1017-1018 cm-2, Jc is enhanced and its dependence on magnetic field is significantly improved: we demonstrate that, in this regime, point-like pinning centers are effectively introduced in the system proportionally to the neutron fluence. Instead, for larger fluences, a strong suppression of the critical temperature accompanied by a decrease of both the upper critical field Bc2 and Jc is found.Comment: 13 pages, 3 igure

Recent advances in searching c-Myc transcriptional cofactors during tumorigenesis

Background: The mechanism by which c-Myc exerts its oncogenic functions is not completely clear and different hypotheses are still under investigation. The knowledge of the capacity of c-Myc to bind exclusively E-box sequences determined the discrepancy between, on the one hand, genomic studies showing the binding of c-Myc to all active promoters and, on the other hand, the evidence that only 60% or less of the binding sites have E-box sequences. Main body: In this review, we provide support to the hypothesis that the cooperation of c-Myc with transcriptional cofactors mediates c-Myc-induced cellular functions. We produce evidence that recently identified cofactors are involved in c-Myc control of survival mechanisms of cancer cells. Conclusion: The identification of new c-Myc cofactors could favor the development of therapeutic strategies able to compensate the difficulty of targeting c-Myc