Inertial and dimensional effects on the instability of a thin film

We consider here the effects of inertia on the instability of a flat liquid film under the effects of capillary and intermolecular forces (van der Waals interaction). Firstly, we perform the linear stability analysis within the long wave approximation, which shows that the inclusion of inertia does not produce new regions of instability other than the one previously known from the usual lubrication case. The wavelength, $\lambda_m$, corresponding to he maximum growth, $\omega_m$, and the critical (marginal) wavelength do not change at all. The most affected feature of the instability under an increase of the Laplace number is the noticeable decrease of the growth rates of the unstable modes. In order to put in evidence the effects of the bidimensional aspects of the flow (neglected in the long wave approximation), we also calculate the dispersion relation of the instability from the linearized version of the complete Navier-Stokes (N-S) equation. Unlike the long wave approximation, the bidimensional model shows that $\lambda_m$ can vary significantly with inertia when the aspect ratio of the film is not sufficiently small. We also perform numerical simulations of the nonlinear N-S equations and analyze to which extent the linear predictions can be applied depending on both the amount of inertia involved and the aspect ratio of the film

Drops with non-circular footprints

In this paper we study the morphology of drops formed on partially wetting substrates, whose footprint is not circular. This type of drops is a consequence of the breakup processes occurring in thin films when anisotropic contact line motions take place. The anisotropy is basically due to hysteresis effects of the contact angle since some parts of the contact line are wetting, while others are dewetting. Here, we obtain a peculiar drop shape from the rupture of a long liquid filament sitting on a solid substrate, and analyze its shape and contact angles by means of goniometric and refractive techniques. We also find a non--trivial steady state solution for the drop shape within the long wave approximation (lubrication theory), and compare most of its features with experimental data. This solution is presented both in Cartesian and polar coordinates, whose constants must be determined by a certain group of measured parameters. Besides, we obtain the dynamics of the drop generation from numerical simulations of the full Navier--Stokes equation, where we emulate the hysteretic effects with an appropriate spatial distribution of the static contact angle over the substrate

DNA/Histone Ratio in Different Regions of Polytene Chromosomes in the Embryo Suspensor Cells of Phaseolus Coccineus

SUMMARYThe DNA/histone ratio was calculated through Feulgen/fast green absorption in different regions of polytene chromosomes in Phaseolus coccineus embryo suspensor cells. A great variability of ratios, related with the structural characteristics of DNA in the different regions, has been found. This seems to indicate that complexes of histone with DNA may depend on changes in DNA metabolic activity. In one and the same cell, and even in one and the same chromosome, different chromosome segments have different DNA/histone ratios.These findings are discussed in relation to some characteristics of polytene chromosomes in Phaseolus suspensor cells

Electron dynamics in intentionally disordered semiconductor superlattices

We study the dynamical behavior of disordered quantum-well-based semiconductor superlattices where the disorder is intentional and short-range correlated. We show that, whereas the transmission time of a particle grows exponentially with the number of wells in an usual disordered superlattice for any value of the incident particle energy, for specific values of the incident energy this time increases linearly when correlated disorder is included. As expected, those values of the energy coincide with a narrow subband of extended states predicted by the static calculations of Dom\'{\i}nguez-Adame {\em et al.} [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 51}, 14 ,359 (1994)]; such states are seen in our dynamical results to exhibit a ballistic regime, very close to the WKB approximation of a perfect superlattice. Fourier transform of the output signal for an incident Gaussian wave packet reveals a dramatic filtering of the original signal, which makes us confident that devices based on this property may be designed and used for nanotechnological applications. This is more so in view of the possibility of controllingthe outp ut band using a dc electric field, which we also discuss. In the conclusion we summarize our results and present an outlook for future developments arising from this work.Comment: 10 pagex, RevTex, 13 Postscript figures. Physical Review B (in press

Electric-field control of domain wall nucleation and pinning in a metallic ferromagnet

The electric (E) field control of magnetic properties opens the prospects of an alternative to magnetic field or electric current activation to control magnetization. Multilayers with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) have proven to be particularly sensitive to the influence of an E-field due to the interfacial origin of their anisotropy. In these systems, E-field effects have been recently applied to assist magnetization switching and control domain wall (DW) velocity. Here we report on two new applications of the E-field in a similar material : controlling DW nucleation and stopping DW propagation at the edge of the electrode

Two-Dimensional Electron Gas in InGaAs/InAlAs Quantum Wells

We designed and performed low temperature DC transport characterization studies on two-dimensional electron gases confined in lattice-matched In$_{0.53}$Ga$_{0.47}$As/In$_{0.52}$Al$_{0.48}$As quantum wells grown by molecular beam epitaxy on InP substrates. The nearly constant mobility for samples with the setback distance larger than 50nm and the similarity between the quantum and transport life-time suggest that the main scattering mechanism is due to short range scattering, such as alloy scattering, with a scattering rate of 2.2 ps$^{-1}$. We also obtain the Fermi level at the In$_{0.53}$Ga$_{0.47}$As/In$_{0.52}$Al$_{0.48}$As surface to be 0.36eV above the conduction band, when fitting our experimental densities with a Poisson-Schr\"odinger model.Comment: Accepted in Applied Physics Letter

The nature of domain walls in ultrathin ferromagnets revealed by scanning nanomagnetometry

The recent observation of current-induced domain wall (DW) motion with large velocity in ultrathin magnetic wires has opened new opportunities for spintronic devices. However, there is still no consensus on the underlying mechanisms of DW motion. Key to this debate is the DW structure, which can be of Bloch or N\'eel type, and dramatically affects the efficiency of the different proposed mechanisms. To date, most experiments aiming to address this question have relied on deducing the DW structure and chirality from its motion under additional in-plane applied fields, which is indirect and involves strong assumptions on its dynamics. Here we introduce a general method enabling direct, in situ, determination of the DW structure in ultrathin ferromagnets. It relies on local measurements of the stray field distribution above the DW using a scanning nanomagnetometer based on the Nitrogen-Vacancy defect in diamond. We first apply the method to a Ta/Co40Fe40B20(1 nm)/MgO magnetic wire and find clear signature of pure Bloch DWs. In contrast, we observe left-handed N\'eel DWs in a Pt/Co(0.6 nm)/AlOx wire, providing direct evidence for the presence of a sizable Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) at the Pt/Co interface. This method offers a new path for exploring interfacial DMI in ultrathin ferromagnets and elucidating the physics of DW motion under current.Comment: Main text and Supplementary Information, 33 pages and 12 figure