2,443 research outputs found
Superconducting d-wave junctions: The disappearance of the odd ac components
We study voltage-biased superconducting planar d-wave junctions for arbitrary
transmission and arbitrary orientation of the order parameters of the
superconductors. For a certain orientation of the superconductors the odd ac
components disappear, resulting in a doubling of the Josephson frequency. We
study the sensitivity of this disappearance to orientation and compare with
experiments on grain boundary junctions. We also discuss the possibility of a
current flow parallel to the junction.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Orbital magnetization and its effects in spin-chiral ferromagnetic Kagome lattice
Recently, Berry phase in the semiclassical dynamical of Bloch electrons has
been found to make a correction to the phase-space density of states and a
general multi-band formula for finite-temperature orbital magnetization has
been given [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{97}, 026603 (2006)], where the orbital
magnetization consists of two parts, i.e., the conventional part
and the Berry-phase correction part . Using this general
formula, we theoretically investigate the orbital magnetization and its effects
on thermoelectric transport and magnetic susceptibility properties of the
two-dimensional \textit{kagom\'{e}} lattice with spin anisotropies included.
The study in this paper is highly interesting by the occurrence of nonzero
Chern number in the lattice. The spin chirality parameter (see text)
results in profound effects on the orbital magnetization properties. It is
found that the two parts in orbital magnetization opposite each other. In
particular, we show that and yield the paramagnetic and
diamagnetic responses, respectively. It is further shown that the orbital
magnetization displays fully different behavior in the metallic and insulating
regions, which is due to the different roles and play in
these two regions. The anomalous Nernst conductivity is also calculated, which
displays a peak-valley structure as a function of the electron Fermi energy.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Ab initio calculation of the anomalous Hall conductivity by Wannier interpolation
The intrinsic anomalous Hall effect in ferromagnets depends on subtle
spin-orbit-induced effects in the electronic structure, and recent ab-initio
studies found that it was necessary to sample the Brillouin zone at millions of
k-points to converge the calculation. We present an efficient first-principles
approach for computing the anomalous Hall conductivity. We start out by
performing a conventional electronic-structure calculation including spin-orbit
coupling on a uniform and relatively coarse k-point mesh. From the resulting
Bloch states, maximally-localized Wannier functions are constructed which
reproduce the ab-initio states up to the Fermi level. The Hamiltonian and
position-operator matrix elements, needed to represent the energy bands and
Berry curvatures, are then set up between the Wannier orbitals. This completes
the first stage of the calculation, whereby the low-energy ab-initio problem is
transformed into an effective tight-binding form. The second stage only
involves Fourier transforms and unitary transformations of the small matrices
set up in the first stage. With these inexpensive operations, the quantities of
interest are interpolated onto a dense k-point mesh and used to evaluate the
anomalous Hall conductivity as a Brillouin zone integral. The present scheme,
which also avoids the cumbersome summation over all unoccupied states in the
Kubo formula, is applied to bcc Fe, giving excellent agreement with
conventional, less efficient first-principles calculations. Remarkably, we find
that more than 99% of the effect can be recovered by keeping a set of terms
depending only on the Hamiltonian matrix elements, not on matrix elements of
the position operator.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure
System for the measurement of ultra-low stray light levels
An apparatus is described for measuring the effectiveness of stray light suppression light shields and baffle arrangements used in optical space experiments and large space telescopes. The light shield and baffle arrangement and a telescope model are contained in a vacuum chamber. A source of short, high-powered light energy illuminates portions of the light shield and baffle arrangement and reflects a portion of same to a photomultiplier tube by virtue of multipath scattering. The resulting signal is transferred to time-channel electronics timed by the firing of the high energy light source allowing time discrimination of the signal thereby enabling the light scattered and suppressed by the model to be distinguished from the walls and holders around the apparatus
A precursor state to unconventional superconductivity in CeIrIn
We present sensitive measurements of the Hall effect and magnetoresistance in
CeIrIn down to temperatures of 50 mK and magnetic fields up to 15 T. The
presence of a low temperature coherent Kondo state is established. Deviations
from Kohler's rule and a quadratic temperature dependence of the cotangent of
the Hall angle are reminiscent of properties observed in the high temperature
superconducting cuprates. The most striking observation pertains to the
presence of a \textit{precursor} state--characterized by a change in the Hall
mobility--that appears to precede the superconductivity in this material, in
similarity to the pseudogap in the cuprate high superconductors.Comment: 4 figure
Nano granular metallic Fe - oxygen deficient TiO composite films: A room temperature, highly carrier polarized magnetic semiconductor
Nano granular metallic iron (Fe) and titanium dioxide (TiO) were
co-deposited on (100) lanthanum aluminate (LaAlO) substrates in a low
oxygen chamber pressure using a pulsed laser ablation deposition (PLD)
technique. The co-deposition of Fe and TiO resulted in 10 nm
metallic Fe spherical grains suspended within a TiO matrix. The
films show ferromagnetic behavior with a saturation magnetization of 3100 Gauss
at room temperature. Our estimate of the saturation magnetization based on the
size and distribution of the Fe spheres agreed well with the measured value.
The film composite structure was characterized as p-type magnetic semiconductor
at 300 K with a carrier density of the order of . The
hole carriers were excited at the interface between the nano granular Fe and
TiO matrix similar to holes excited in the metal/n-type
semiconductor interface commonly observed in Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS)
devices. From the large anomalous Hall effect directly observed in these films
it follows that the holes at the interface were strongly spin polarized.
Structure and magneto transport properties suggested that these PLD films have
potential nano spintronics applications.Comment: 6 pages in Latex including 8 figure
Flow Equations for N Point Functions and Bound States
We discuss the exact renormalization group or flow equation for the effective
action and its decomposition into one particle irreducible N point functions.
With the help of a truncated flow equation for the four point function we study
the bound state problem for scalar fields. A combination of analytic and
numerical methods is proposed, which is applied to the Wick-Cutkosky model and
a QCD-motivated interaction. We present results for the bound state masses and
the Bethe-Salpeter wave function. (Figs. 1-4 attached as separate uuencoded
post-script files.)Comment: 17 pages, HD-THEP-93-3
Towards a better understanding of the dynamic role of the distance language learner: learner perceptions of personality, motivation, roles, and approaches
This study investigated the experience of learners enrolled on an Open University (UK) French course, and included personality factors, motivation, and tutor and student roles. The data gathered via multiple elicitation methods gave useful insights into issues of special relevance to distance language education, in particular the lack of fit between an inherently social discipline such as language learning and the distance context, whose main characterizing feature is remoteness from others. Motivation was seen to play a crucial role in success, along with tutor feedback, and personal responsibility for learning. Increased confidence and self?regulation were beneficial outcomes of the process of learning at a distance, and numerous suggestions for learning approaches based on personal experience were offered for language learners new to distance learning. The study concluded that the task for distance practitioners is to build on the insights shown by learners themselves, in order to target support where it is most needed
ac Josephson effect in superconducting d-wave junctions
We study theoretically the ac Josephson effect in superconducting planar
d-wave junctions. The insulating barrier assumed to be present between the two
superconductors may have arbitrary strength. Many properties of this system
depend on the orientation of the d-wave superconductor: we calculate the ac
components of the Josephson current. In some arrangements there is substantial
negative differential conductance due to the presence of mid-gap states. We
study how robust these features are to finite temperature and also comment on
how the calculated current-voltage curves compare with experiments. For some
other configurations (for small barrier strength) we find zero-bias conductance
peaks due to multiple Andreev reflections through midgap states. Moreover, the
odd ac components are strongly suppressed and even absent in some arrangements.
This absence will lead to a doubling of the Josephson frequency. All these
features are due to the d-wave order parameter changing sign when rotated
. Recently, there have been several theoretical reports on parallel
current in the d-wave case for both the stationary Josephson junction and for
the normal metal-superconductor junction. Also in our case there may appear
current density parallel to the junction, and we present a few examples when
this takes place. Finally, we give a fairly complete account of the method used
and also discuss how numerical calculations should be performed in order to
produce current-voltage curves
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