73 research outputs found
First-Order Insulator-to-Metal Mott Transition in the Paramagnetic 3D System GaTa4Se8
The nature of the Mott transition in the absence of any symmetry braking
remains a matter of debate. We study the correlation-driven insulator-to-metal
transition in the prototypical 3D Mott system GaTa4Se8, as a function of
temperature and applied pressure. We report novel experiments on single
crystals, which demonstrate that the transition is of first order and follows
from the coexistence of two states, one insulating and one metallic, that we
toggle with a small bias current. We provide support for our findings by
contrasting the experimental data with calculations that combine local density
approximation with dynamical mean-field theory, which are in very good
agreement.Comment: 5 pages and 4 figures. Supplemental material: 2 pages, 2 figure
Localization, Coulomb interactions and electrical heating in single-wall carbon nanotubes/polymer composites
Low field and high field transport properties of carbon nanotubes/polymer
composites are investigated for different tube fractions. Above the percolation
threshold f_c=0.33%, transport is due to hopping of localized charge carriers
with a localization length xi=10-30 nm. Coulomb interactions associated with a
soft gap Delta_CG=2.5 meV are present at low temperature close to f_c. We argue
that it originates from the Coulomb charging energy effect which is partly
screened by adjacent bundles. The high field conductivity is described within
an electrical heating scheme. All the results suggest that using composites
close to the percolation threshold may be a way to access intrinsic properties
of the nanotubes by experiments at a macroscopic scale.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Ultrafast filling of an electronic pseudogap in an incommensurate crystal
We investigate the quasiperiodic crystal (LaS)1.196(VS2) by angle and time
resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The dispersion of electronic states is in
qualitative agreement with band structure calculated for the VS2 slab without
the incommensurate distortion. Nonetheless, the spectra display a temperature
dependent pseudogap instead of quasiparticles crossing. The sudden
photoexcitation at 50 K induces a partial filling of the electronic pseudogap
within less than 80 fs. The electronic energy flows into the lattice modes on a
comparable timescale. We attribute this surprisingly short timescale to a very
strong electron-phonon coupling to the incommensurate distortion. This result
sheds light on the electronic localization arising in aperiodic structures and
quasicrystals
Electric Pulse Induced Resistive Switching, Electronic Phase Separation, and Possible Superconductivity in a Mott insulator
Metal-insulator transitions (MIT) belong to a class of fascinating physical
phenomena, which includes superconductivity, and colossal magnetoresistance
(CMR), that are associated with drastic modifications of electrical resistance.
In transition metal compounds, MIT are often related to the presence of strong
electronic correlations that drive the system into a Mott insulator state. In
these systems the MIT is usually tuned by electron doping or by applying an
external pressure. However, it was noted recently that a Mott insulator should
also be sensitive to other external perturbations such as an electric field. We
report here the first experimental evidence of a non-volatile
electric-pulse-induced insulator-to-metal transition and possible
superconductivity in the Mott insulator GaTa4Se8. Our Scanning Tunneling
Microscopy experiments show that this unconventional response of the system to
short electric pulses arises from a nanometer scale Electronic Phase Separation
(EPS) generated in the bulk material.Comment: Highlight in Advanced Functional Materials 18, 1-4 (2008) doi :
10.1002/adfm.20080055
Watching the birth of a charge density wave order: diffraction study on nanometer-and picosecond-scales
Femtosecond time-resolved X-ray diffraction is used to study a photo-induced
phase transition between two charge density wave (CDW) states in 1T-TaS,
namely the nearly commensurate (NC) and the incommensurate (I) CDW states.
Structural modulations associated with the NC-CDW order are found to disappear
within 400 fs. The photo-induced I-CDW phase then develops through a
nucleation/growth process which ends 100 ps after laser excitation. We
demonstrate that the newly formed I-CDW phase is fragmented into several
nanometric domains that are growing through a coarsening process. The
coarsening dynamics is found to follow the universal Lifshitz-Allen-Cahn growth
law, which describes the ordering kinetics in systems exhibiting a
non-conservative order parameter.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
New Trends in Beverage Packaging Systems: A Review
New trends in beverage packaging are focusing on the structure modification of packaging materials and the development of new active and/or intelligent systems, which can interact with the product or its environment, improving the conservation of beverages, such as wine, juice or beer, customer acceptability, and food security. In this paper, the main nutritional and organoleptic degradation processes of beverages, such as oxidative degradation or changes in the aromatic profiles, which influence their color and volatile composition are summarized. Finally, the description of the current situation of beverage packaging materials and new possible, emerging strategies to overcome some of the pending issues are discussed
A soluble and highly functional polyaniline-carbon nanotube composite
A completely soluble polyaniline-multi-wall carbon nanotube (CNT–PANI) composite with drastically enhanced conductivity, improved thermal stability, and luminescent behaviour, has been synthesized. The presence of straight multi-wall carbon nanotubes during the polymerization of aniline induces the formation of a more planar conformation of polyaniline which acts as coating layer for the carbon nanotubes and leads to favourable interaction between the constituents. The polyaniline-coated multi-wall carbon nanotubes align into bundles and form a three-dimensional network in the overall composite. A highly functional carbon nanotube composite completely soluble in n-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) exhibiting all the favourable processing and transformation possibilities of PANI has been obtained. These findings have important consequences for practical technological applications, especially for the development of opto-electronic devices.Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (MCyT) under project NANOSIN (MAT2002-04540-C0-04) is gratefully acknowledged.Peer reviewe
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