Thermal expansion of CaFe2As2: effect of cobalt doping and post-growth thermal treatment

We report thermal expansion measurements on Ca(Fe_(1-x)Co_x)_2As_2 single crystals with different thermal treatment, with samples chosen to represent four different ground states observed in this family. For all samples thermal expansion is anisotropic with different signs of the in-plane and c-axis thermal expansion coefficients in the high temperature, tetragonal phase. The features in thermal expansion associated with the phase transitions are of opposite signs as well, pointing to a different response of transition temperatures to the in-plane and the c-axis stress. These features, and consequently the inferred pressure derivatives, are very large, clearly and substantially exceeding those in the Ba(Fe_(1-x)Co_x)_2As_2 family. For all transitions the c-axis response is dominant

Scaling Properties of Weak Chaos in Nonlinear Disordered Lattices

The Discrete Nonlinear Schroedinger Equation with a random potential in one dimension is studied as a dynamical system. It is characterized by the length, the strength of the random potential and by the field density that determines the effect of nonlinearity. The probability of the system to be regular is established numerically and found to be a scaling function. This property is used to calculate the asymptotic properties of the system in regimes beyond our computational power.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Shock wave loading and spallation of copper bicrystals with asymmetric Σ3〈110〉tilt grain boundaries

We investigate the effect of asymmetric grain boundaries (GBs) on the shock response of Cu bicrystals with molecular dynamics simulations. We choose a representative Σ3〈110〉tilt GB type, (110)_1/(114)_2, and a grain size of about 15 nm. The shock loading directions lie on the GB plane and are along [001] and [221] for the two constituent crystals. The bicrystal is characterized in terms of local structure, shear strain, displacement, stress and temperature during shock compression, and subsequent release and tension. The shock response of the bicrystal manifests pronounced deviation from planar loading as well as strong stress and strain concentrations, due to GBs and the strong anisotropy in elasticity and plasticity. We explore incipient to full spallation. Voids nucleate either at GBs or on GB-initiated shear planes, and the spall damage also depends on grain orientation

Boron isotope effect in single crystals of ErNi2_2B2_2C superconductor

The influence of local moment magnetism on the boron isotope effect of T$_c$ was studied on single crystals of ErNi$_2$B$_2$C. Values of the partial isotope effect exponent of $\alpha_B$=0.10$\pm$0.02 and $\alpha_B$=0.10$\pm$0.04 were obtained based on two different criteria applied to extract $T_c$. No significant change in the partial isotope effect exponent compared to the ones obtained for LuNi$_2$B$_2$C was observed. Based on this result we conclude that pair-breaking due to the Er local magnetic moment appears to have no detectable influence on boron isotope effect of T$_c$.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Anomalous quantum confined Stark effects in stacked InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots

Vertically stacked and coupled InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots (SADs) are predicted to exhibit a strong non-parabolic dependence of the interband transition energy on the electric field, which is not encountered in single SAD structures nor in other types of quantum structures. Our study based on an eight-band strain-dependent ${\bf k}\cdot{\bf p}$ Hamiltonian indicates that this anomalous quantum confined Stark effect is caused by the three-dimensional strain field distribution which influences drastically the hole states in the stacked SAD structures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Observation of Terahertz Radiation via the Two-Color Laser Scheme with Uncommon Frequency Ratios

In the widely-studied two-color laser scheme for terahertz (THz) radiation from a gas, the frequency ratio of the two lasers is usually fixed at $\omega_2/\omega_1=$1:2. We investigate THz generation with uncommon frequency ratios. Our experiments show, for the first time, efficient THz generation with new ratios of $\omega_2/\omega_1=$1:4 and 2:3. We observe that the THz polarization can be adjusted by rotating the longer-wavelength laser polarization and the polarization adjustment becomes inefficient by rotating the other laser polarization; the THz energy shows similar scaling laws with different frequency ratios. These observations are inconsistent with multi-wave mixing theory, but support the gas-ionization model. This study pushes the development of the two-color scheme and provides a new dimension to explore the long-standing problem of the THz generation mechanism.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Molecular orbital calculations of two-electron states for P donor solid-state spin qubits

We theoretically study the Hilbert space structure of two neighbouring P donor electrons in silicon-based quantum computer architectures. To use electron spins as qubits, a crucial condition is the isolation of the electron spins from their environment, including the electronic orbital degrees of freedom. We provide detailed electronic structure calculations of both the single donor electron wave function and the two-electron pair wave function. We adopted a molecular orbital method for the two-electron problem, forming a basis with the calculated single donor electron orbitals. Our two-electron basis contains many singlet and triplet orbital excited states, in addition to the two simple ground state singlet and triplet orbitals usually used in the Heitler-London approximation to describe the two-electron donor pair wave function. We determined the excitation spectrum of the two-donor system, and study its dependence on strain, lattice position and inter donor separation. This allows us to determine how isolated the ground state singlet and triplet orbitals are from the rest of the excited state Hilbert space. In addition to calculating the energy spectrum, we are also able to evaluate the exchange coupling between the two donor electrons, and the double occupancy probability that both electrons will reside on the same P donor. These two quantities are very important for logical operations in solid-state quantum computing devices, as a large exchange coupling achieves faster gating times, whilst the magnitude of the double occupancy probability can affect the error rate.Comment: 15 pages (2-column