3,892 research outputs found
Performance of silicon solar cell assemblies
Solar cell assembly current-voltage characteristics, thermal-optical properties, and power performance were determined. Solar cell cover glass thermal radiation, optical properties, confidence limits, and temperature intensity effects on maximum power were discussed
Quantum gears: a simple mechanical system in the quantum regime
Abstract. The quantum mechanics of a simple mechanical system is considered. A group of gears can serve as a model for several different systems such as an artifically constructed nanomechanical device or a group of ring molecules. It is shown that the classical motion of the gears in which the angular velocities are locked together does not correspond to
Energy and Charged Particle Flow in 10.8 A GeV/c Au+Au Collisions
Experimental results and a detailed analysis are presented of the transverse
energy and charged particle azimuthal distributions measured by the E877
collaboration for different centralities of Au+Au collisions at a beam momentum
of 10.8 A GeV/c. The anisotropy of these distributions is studied with respect
to the reaction plane reconstructed on an event-by-event basis using the
transverse energy distribution measured by calorimeters. Results are corrected
for the reaction plane resolution. For semicentral events we observe directed
flow signals of up to ten percent. We observe a stronger anisotropy for slow
charged particles. For both the charged particle and transverse energy
distributions we observe a small but non zero elliptic anisotropy with the
major axis pointing into the reaction plane. Combining the information on
transverse energy and charged particle flow we obtain information on the flow
of nucleons and pions. The data are compared to event generators and the need
to introduce a mean field or nucleon-nucleon potential is discussed.Comment: RevTex, 25 pages, 13 figures included as one Postscript file,
submitted to Phys. Rev.
Hbt Analysis of Anisotropic Transverse Flow
The effects of anisotropic transverse collective flow on the HBT correlation
function is studied. There exist three different physics contributions related
to flow which affect the correlation function: anisotropic source shape,
anisotropic space-momentum correlations in pion emission, and the effects
related to the HBT measurement of the size of a moving source in different
reference frames. Resolution of these contributions experimentally can lead to
a detailed understanding of both collective flow in nucleus-nucleus collisions
and the HBT technique itself. A method is presented which permits the
derivation of model independent relations between the radius of a source
measured in a frame in which it is moving and in its rest frame.Comment: latex, 16 pages, 1 figur
Quantum Effects in the Mechanical Properties of Suspended Nanomechanical Systems
We explore the quantum aspects of an elastic bar supported at both ends and
subject to compression. If strain rather than stress is held fixed, the system
remains stable beyond the buckling instability, supporting two potential
minima. The classical equilibrium transverse displacement is analogous to a
Ginsburg-Landau order parameter, with strain playing the role of temperature.
We calculate the quantum fluctuations about the classical value as a function
of strain. Excitation energies and quantum fluctuation amplitudes are compared
for silicon beams and carbon nanotubes.Comment: RevTeX4. 5 pages, 3 eps figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letter
Electromechanical instability in suspended carbon nanotubes
We have theoretically investigated electromechanical properties of freely
suspended carbon nanotubes when a current is injected into the tubes using a
scanning tunneling microscope. We show that a shuttle-like electromechanical
instability can occur if the bias voltage exceeds a dissipation-dependent
threshold value. An instability results in large amplitude vibrations of the
carbon nanotube bending mode, which modify the current-voltage characteristics
of the system
Mesoscopic Electron and Phonon Transport through a Curved Wire
There is great interest in the development of novel nanomachines that use
charge, spin, or energy transport, to enable new sensors with unprecedented
measurement capabilities. Electrical and thermal transport in these mesoscopic
systems typically involves wave propagation through a nanoscale geometry such
as a quantum wire. In this paper we present a general theoretical technique to
describe wave propagation through a curved wire of uniform cross-section and
lying in a plane, but of otherwise arbitrary shape. The method consists of (i)
introducing a local orthogonal coordinate system, the arclength and two locally
perpendicular coordinate axes, dictated by the shape of the wire; (ii)
rewriting the wave equation of interest in this system; (iii) identifying an
effective scattering potential caused by the local curvature; and (iv), solving
the associated Lippmann-Schwinger equation for the scattering matrix. We carry
out this procedure in detail for the scalar Helmholtz equation with both
hard-wall and stress-free boundary conditions, appropriate for the mesoscopic
transport of electrons and (scalar) phonons. A novel aspect of the phonon case
is that the reflection probability always vanishes in the long-wavelength
limit, allowing a simple perturbative (Born approximation) treatment at low
energies. Our results show that, in contrast to charge transport, curvature
only barely suppresses thermal transport, even for sharply bent wires, at least
within the two-dimensional scalar phonon model considered. Applications to
experiments are also discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, RevTe
Nonlinear response of a driven vibrating nanobeam in the quantum regime
We analytically investigate the nonlinear response of a damped doubly clamped
nanomechanical beam under static longitudinal compression which is excited to
transverse vibrations. Starting from a continuous elasticity model for the
beam, we consider the dynamics of the beam close to the Euler buckling
instability. There, the fundamental transverse mode dominates and a quantum
mechanical time-dependent effective single particle Hamiltonian for its
amplitude can be derived. In addition, we include the influence of a
dissipative Ohmic or super-Ohmic environment. In the rotating frame, a
Markovian master equation is derived which includes also the effect of the
time-dependent driving in a non-trivial way. The quasienergies of the pure
system show multiple avoided level crossings corresponding to multiphonon
transitions in the resonator. Around the resonances, the master equation is
solved analytically using Van Vleck perturbation theory. Their lineshapes are
calculated resulting in simple expressions. We find the general solution for
the multiple multiphonon resonances and, most interestingly, a bath-induced
transition from a resonant to an antiresonant behavior of the nonlinear
response.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, submitted to NJ
- …