Ultrathin films of ferroelectric solid solutions under residual depolarizing field

A first-principles-derived approach is developed to study the effects of uncompensated depolarizing electric fields on the properties of Pb(Zr,Ti)O$_3$ ultrathin films for different mechanical boundary conditions. A rich variety of ferroelectric phases and polarization patterns is found, depending on the interplay between strain and amount of screening of surface charges. Examples include triclinic phases, monoclinic states with in-plane and/or out-of-plane components of the polarization, homogeneous and inhomogeneous tetragonal states, as well as, peculiar laminar nanodomains.Comment: REVTeX, 7 pages, 2 figures, fig 2 in colo

Interfacial dynamics in transport-limited dissolution

Various model problems of ``transport-limited dissolution'' in two dimensions are analyzed using time-dependent conformal maps. For diffusion-limited dissolution (reverse Laplacian growth), several exact solutions are discussed for the smoothing of corrugated surfaces, including the continuous analogs of ``internal diffusion-limited aggregation'' and ``diffusion-limited erosion''. A class of non-Laplacian, transport-limited dissolution processes are also considered, which raise the general question of when and where a finite solid will disappear. In a case of dissolution by advection-diffusion, a tilted ellipse maintains its shape during collapse, as its center of mass drifts obliquely away from the background fluid flow, but other initial shapes have more complicated dynamics.Comment: 5 pages, 4 fig

Domain evolution of BaTiO3 ultrathin films under electric field: a first-principles study

A first-principles-derived method is used to study the morphology and electric-field-induced evolution of stripe nanodomains in (001) BaTiO3 (BTO) ultrathin films, and to compare them with those in (001) Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) ultrathin films. The BaTiO3 systems exhibit 180o periodic stripe domains at null electric field, as in PZT ultrathin films. However, the stripes alternate along [1-10] in BTO systems versus [010] in PZT systems, and no in-plane surface dipoles occur in BTO ultrathin films (unlike in PZT materials). Moreover, the evolution of the 180o stripe domains in the BaTiO3 systems, when applying and increasing an electric field along [001], involves four regions: Region I for which the magnitude of the down dipoles (i.e., those that are antiparallel to the electric field) is reduced, while the domain walls do not move; Region II in which some local down dipoles adjacent to domain walls switch their direction, resulting in zigzagged domain walls - with the overall stripe periodicity being unchanged; Region III in which nanobubbles are created, then contract along [110] and finally collapse; and Region IV which is associated with a single monodomain. Such evolution differs from that of PZT ultrathin films for which neither Region I nor zigzagged domain walls exist, and for which the bubbles contract along [100]. Discussion about such differences is provided.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 27 references, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Phase diagram of Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 solid solutions from first principles

A first-principles-derived scheme, that incorporates ferroelectric and antiferrodistortive degrees of freedom, is developed to study finite-temperature properties of PbZr1-xTixO3 solid solutions near its morphotropic phase boundary. The use of this numerical technique (i) resolves controversies about the monoclinic ground-state for some Ti compositions, (ii) leads to the discovery of an overlooked phase, and (iii) yields three multiphase points, that are each associated with four phases. Additional neutron diffraction measurements strongly support some of these predictions.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

On guarantee optimization under conditions of integral constraints on control actions and nonterminal quality index

A linear-convex problem of dynamical guarantee optimization under conditions of unknown disturbances and with positional quality index that estimates a set of deviations of the motion of the controlled system at given instants of time from given target points is considered. Control actions are bounded by both geometrical and integral constraints. Disturbance actions are only geometrically bounded. A procedure for approximate computing of the optimal guaranteed result and of the corresponding optimal closed-loop control law is elaborated. The method is based on recurrent constructions of upper convex hulls of auxiliary program functions. Results of numerical experiments on model examples are given. © 2015, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

КРИТЕРИИ ЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ СЕТИ ОБСЛУЖИВАНИЯ

The author proposes an algorithm of a logical network called to manage technical state of the railway cars within a range of a railway. The algorithm is based on a multi-objective optimization method. The proposed procedure makes it possible to enlarge organization resources of repair works and to increase the efficiency of rolling stock.Предложен алгоритм работы  логической сети для оперативного  управления техническим состоянием  вагонов на полигоне железной  дороги. В основу алгоритма  положен метод многокритериальной  оптимизации. Обоснованный  автором порядок действий позволяет  повысить организационный  ресурс ремонтных предприятий  и эффективность использования  подвижного состава

Gravitational oscillations of a liquid column

We report gravity oscillations of a liquid column partially immersed in a bath of liquid. We stress in particular some peculiarities of this system, namely (i) the fact that the mass of this oscillator constantly changes with time; (ii) the singular character of the beginning of the rise, for which the mass of the oscillator is zero; (iii) the sources of dissipation in this system, which is found to be dominated at low viscosity by the entrance (or exit) effects, leading to a long-range damping of the oscillations. We conclude with some qualitative description of a second-order phenomenon, namely the eruption of a jet at the beginning of the rise.Comment: 22 pages, pdf. Submitted to Physics of Fluid

On Calculating the Value of a Differential Game in the Class of Counter Strategies

For a linear dynamic system with control and disturbance, a feedback control problem is considered, in which the Euclidean norm of a set of deviations of the system’s motion from given targets at given times is optimized. The problem is formalized into a differential game in “strategy-counterstrategy” classes. A game value computing procedure, which reduces the problem to a recursive construction of upper convex hulls of auxiliary functions, is justified. Results of numerical simulations are presented.This work was supported by Complex Program of Fundamental Research UrO RAN (project 15-16-1-13)

Forced Imbibition - a Tool for Determining Laplace Pressure, Drag Force and Slip Length in Capillary Filling Experiments

When a very thin capillary is inserted into a liquid, the liquid is sucked into it: this imbibition process is controlled by a balance of capillary and drag forces, which are hard to quantify experimentally, in particularly considering flow on the nanoscale. By computer experiments using a generic coarse-grained model, it is shown that an analysis of imbibition forced by a controllable external pressure quantifies relevant physical parameter such as the Laplace pressure, Darcy's permeability, effective pore radius, effective viscosity, dynamic contact angle and slip length of the fluid flowing into the pore. In determining all these parameters independently, the consistency of our analysis of such forced imbibition processes is demonstrated.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure