152 research outputs found
Visibility diagrams and experimental stripe structure in the quantum Hall effect
We analyze various properties of the visibility diagrams that can be used in
the context of modular symmetries and confront them to some recent experimental
developments in the Quantum Hall Effect. We show that a suitable physical
interpretation of the visibility diagrams which permits one to describe
successfully the observed architecture of the Quantum Hall states gives rise
naturally to a stripe structure reproducing some of the experimental features
that have been observed in the study of the quantum fluctuations of the Hall
conductance. Furthermore, we exhibit new properties of the visibility diagrams
stemming from the structure of subgroups of the full modular group.Comment: 8 pages in plain TeX, 7 figures in a single postscript fil
Charge Pumping in Carbon Nanotubes
We demonstrate charge pumping in semiconducting carbon nanotubes by a
traveling potential wave. From the observation of pumping in the nanotube
insulating state we deduce that transport occurs by packets of charge being
carried along by the wave. By tuning the potential of a side gate, transport of
either electron or hole packets can be realized. Prospects for the realization
of nanotube based single-electron pumps are discussed
Current carrying capacity of carbon nanotubes
The current carrying capacity of ballistic electrons in carbon nanotubes that
are coupled to ideal contacts is analyzed. At small applied voltages, where
electrons are injected only into crossing subbands, the differential
conductance is . At applied voltages larger than
( is the energy level spacing of first non crossing subbands),
electrons are injected into non crossing subbands. The contribution of these
electrons to current is determined by the competing processes of Bragg
reflection and Zener type inter subband tunneling. In small diameter nanotubes,
Bragg reflection dominates, and the maximum differential conductance is
comparable to . Inter subband Zener tunneling can be non negligible as
the nanotube diameter increases because is inversely
proportional to the diameter. As a result, with increasing nanotube diameter,
the differential conductance becomes larger than , though not
comparable to the large number of subbands into which electrons are injected
from the contacts. These results may be relevant to recent experiments in large
diameter multi-wall nanotubes that observed conductances larger than .Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Spectroscopy, Interactions and Level Splittings in Au Nanoparticles
We have measured the electronic energy spectra of nm-scale Au particles using
a new tunneling spectroscopy configuration. The particle diameters ranged from
5nm to 9nm, and at low energies the spectrum is discrete, as expected by the
electron-in-a-box model. The density of tunneling resonances increases rapidly
with energy, and at higher energies the resonances overlap forming broad
resonances. Near the Thouless energy, the broad resonances merge into a
continuum. The tunneling resonances display Zeeman splitting in a magnetic
field. Surprisingly, the g-factors (~0.3) of energy levels in Au nano-particles
are much smaller than the g-factor (2.1) in bulk gold
Two-terminal conductance fluctuations in the integer quantum Hall regime
Motivated by recent experiments on the conductance fluctuations in mesoscopic
integr quantum Hall systems, we consider a model in which the Coulomb
interactions are incorporated into the picture of edge-state transport through
a single saddle-point. The occupancies of `classical' localised states in the
two-dimensional electron system change due to the interactions between
electrons when the gate voltage on top of the device is varied. The
electrostatic potential between the localised states and the saddle-point
causes fluctuations of the saddle-point potential and thus fluctuations of the
transmission probability of edge states. This simple model is studied
numerically and compared with the observation.Comment: 6 pages with 3 figures. To be published in Physical Review
Coherent Single Charge Transport in Molecular-Scale Silicon Nanowire Transistors
We report low-temperature electrical transport studies of molecule-scale
silicon nanowires. Individual nanowires exhibit well-defined Coulomb blockade
oscillations characteristic of charge addition to a single nanostructure with
length scales up to at least 400 nm. Further studies demonstrate coherent
charge transport through discrete single particle quantum levels extending the
whole device, and show that the ground state spin configuration follows the
Lieb-Mattis theorem. In addition, depletion of the nanowires suggests that
phase coherent single-dot characteristics are accessible in a regime where
correlations are strong.Comment: 4 pages and 4 figure
Techno-economic assessment of SEWGS technology when applied to integrated steel-plant for CO2 emission mitigation
Mitigation of CO2 emissions in the industrial sector is one of the main climate challenges for the coming decades. This work, carried out within the STEPWISE H2020 project, performs a preliminary techno-economic assessment of the Sorption Enhanced Water Gas Shift (SEWGS) technology when integrated into the iron and steel plant to mitigate CO2 emissions. The SEWGS separates the CO2 from the iron and steel off-gases with residual energy content (i.e. Blast Furnace Gas, Basic Oxygen Furnace Gas and Coke Oven Gas) and the produced H2 is sent to the power generation section to produce the electricity required by the steel plant, while the CO2 is compressed and transported for storage. Detailed mass and energy balances are performed together with a SEWGS cost estimation to assess the energy penalty and additional costs related to CO2 capture. Results demonstrates the potential of SEWGS to capture over 80 % of CO2 in the off-gases, which results in entire plant CO2 emission reduction of 40 % with a Specific Energy Consumptions for CO2 Avoided (SPECCA) around 1.9 MJ/kgCO2. SEWGS outperforms a commercial amine scrubbing technology which has a SPECCA of 2.5 MJ/kgCO2 and only 20 % of CO2 avoided. The cost of CO2 avoided calculated on the basis of a fully integrated steel plant is around 33 €/tCO2 compared to 38 €/tCO2 of the amine technology
Phase transitions on the surface of a carbon nanotube
A suspended carbon nanotube can act as a nanoscale resonator with remarkable
electromechanical properties and the ability to detect adsorption on its
surface at the level of single atoms. Understanding adsorption on nanotubes and
other graphitic materials is key to many sensing and storage applications. Here
we show that nanotube resonators offer a powerful new means of investigating
fundamental aspects of adsorption on carbon, including the collective behaviour
of adsorbed matter and its coupling to the substrate electrons. By monitoring
the vibrational resonance frequency in the presence of noble gases, we observe
the formation of monolayers on the cylindrical surface and phase transitions
within these monolayers, and simultaneous modification of the electrical
conductance. The monolayer observations also demonstrate the possibility of
studying the fundamental behaviour of matter in cylindrical geometry.Comment: Unpublished; 7 pages with 4 figures plus 3 pages of supplementary
materia
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