19,757 research outputs found
New mechanism for impurity-induced step bunching
Codeposition of impurities during the growth of a vicinal surface leads to an
impurity concentration gradient on the terraces, which induces corresponding
gradients in the mobility and the chemical potential of the adatoms. Here it is
shown that the two types of gradients have opposing effects on the stability of
the surface: Step bunching can be caused by impurities which either lower the
adatom mobility, or increase the adatom chemical potential. In particular,
impurities acting as random barriers (without affecting the adatom binding)
cause step bunching, while for impurities acting as random traps the
combination of the two effects reduces to a modification of the attachment
boundary conditions at the steps. In this case attachment to descending steps,
and thus step bunching, is favored if the impurities bind adatoms more weakly
than the substrate.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Substantial revisions and correction
Histogram comparison as a powerful tool for the search of new physics at LHC. Application to CMSSM
We propose a rigorous and effective way to compare experimental and
theoretical histograms, incorporating the different sources of statistical and
systematic uncertainties. This is a useful tool to extract as much information
as possible from the comparison between experimental data with theoretical
simulations, optimizing the chances of identifying New Physics at the LHC. We
illustrate this by showing how a search in the CMSSM parameter space, using
Bayesian techniques, can effectively find the correct values of the CMSSM
parameters by comparing histograms of events with multijets + missing
transverse momentum displayed in the effective-mass variable. The procedure is
in fact very efficient to identify the true supersymmetric model, in the case
supersymmetry is really there and accessible to the LHC
Collapse of the ESR fine structure throughout the coherent temperature of the Gd-doped Kondo Semiconductor
Experiments on the Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) in the filled
skutterudite (), at temperatures
where the host resistivity manifests a smooth insulator-metal crossover,
provides evidence of the underlying Kondo physics associated with this system.
At low temperatures (below ), behaves
as a Kondo-insulator with a relatively large hybridization gap, and the
ESR spectra displays a fine structure with lorentzian line shape,
typical of insulating media. The electronic gap is attributed to the large
hybridization present in the coherent regime of a Kondo lattice, when Ce
4f-electrons cooperate with band properties at half-filling. Mean-field
calculations suggest that the electron-phonon interaction is fundamental at
explaining the strong 4f-electron hybridization in this filled skutterudite.
The resulting electronic structure is strongly temperature dependent, and at
about the system undergoes an insulator-to-metal
transition induced by the withdrawal of 4f-electrons from the Fermi volume, the
system becoming metallic and non-magnetic. The ESR fine structure
coalesces into a single dysonian resonance, as in metals. Still, our
simulations suggest that exchange-narrowing via the usual Korringa mechanism,
alone, is not capable of describing the thermal behavior of the ESR spectra in
the entire temperature region ( - K). We propose that temperature
activated fluctuating-valence of the Ce ions is the missing ingredient that,
added to the usual exchange-narrowing mechanism, fully describes this unique
temperature dependence of the ESR fine structure observed in
.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure
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The role of consumption in material reduction opportunities: the impact of product lifetime in supplying the UK steel demand
Most of the products purchased in the UK are manufactured in other countries. As a result, worldwide greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions released to manufacture all products purchased in the UK are significantly higher than the UK territorial emissions. More than one half of global industrial emissions result from the use of steel, cement, paper, plastics, and aluminium. In this paper, the UK consumption of products that embody these five materials is estimated. For steel, which is the most widely used among these five materials, consumption and accumulation patterns are examined across four product categories. The impact of steel product lifetime extension is examined for the UK as one option for material demand reduction at the consumption stage of the supply chain. Different levels of steel product lifetimes are simulated for the UK in 2050 and their impacts are examined in terms of UK steel production, implicit steel imports, and global carbon dioxide emissions. Steel product lifetime extension promotes a reduction in the need for steel imports, by reducing the demand for new steel, which leads to lower carbon dioxide emissions required to supply the UK steel demand. The results demonstrate the criticality of a focus on the consumption stage, since any interventions made towards demand reduction of end-use goods leads to material reduction across the supply chain
Cage-size control of guest vibration and thermal conductivity in Sr8Ga16Si30-xGex
We present a systematic study of thermal conductivity, specific heat,
electrical resistivity, thermopower and x-ray diffraction measurements
performed on single-crystalline samples of the pseudoquaternary type-I
clathrate system Sr8Ga16Si30-xGex, in the full range of 0 < x < 30. All the
samples show metallic behavior with n-type majority carriers. However, the
thermal conductivity and specific heat strongly depend on x. Upon increasing x
from 0 to 30, the lattice parameter increases by 3%, from 10.446 to 10.726 A,
and the localized vibrational energies of the Sr guest ions in the
tetrakaidekahedron (dodecahedron) cages decrease from 59 (120) K to 35 (90) K.
Furthermore, the lattice thermal conductivity at low temperatures is largely
suppressed. In fact, a crystalline peak found at 15 K for x = 0 gradually
decreases and disappears for x > 20, evolving into the anomalous glass-like
behavior observed for x = 30. It is found that the increase of the free space
for the Sr guest motion directly correlates with a continuous transition from
on-center harmonic vibration to off-center anharmonic vibration, with
consequent increase in the coupling strength between the guest's low-energy
modes and the cage's acoustic phonon modes.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PR
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