1,129 research outputs found
A solar water heater for remote communities
The RADG has been developing a solar water heater suitable for use in remote areas. The original inspiration for this project was to provide hot water for remote Aboriginal communities. It was felt that a regular and plentiful supply of hot water would encourage showering and laundering and hence improve personal hygiene.
Electric, fuel burning and solar water heaters are currently used in some communities. Solar water heaters are attractive for remote areas because they stand alone i.e. they require no external fuel source. Wood has traditionally been used as a fuel by Aboriginal people, but in permanent communities the demand on this resource may have a large impact on the environment. Solar water heaters can help to reduce this demand
Single-photon exchange interaction in a semiconductor microcavity
We consider the effective coupling of localized spins in a semiconductor
quantum dot embedded in a microcavity. The lowest cavity mode and the quantum
dot exciton are coupled and close in energy, forming a polariton. The fermions
forming the exciton interact with localized spins via exchange. Exact
diagonalization of a Hamiltonian in which photons, spins and excitons are
treated quantum mechanically shows that {\it a single polariton} induces a
sizable indirect exchange interaction between otherwise independent spins. The
origin, symmetry properties and the intensity of that interaction depend both
on the dot-cavity coupling and detuning. In the case of a (Cd,Mn)Te quantum
dot, Mn-Mn ferromagnetic coupling mediated by a single photon survives above 1
K whereas the exciton mediated coupling survives at 15 K.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Non-Linear Effects in Resonant Tunneling; Bistabilities and Self-Sustained Oscillating Currents
We study non-linear phenomena in double barrier heterostructures. Systems in
3D under the effect of an external magnetic field along the current and 1D
systems are analyzed. Non-linearities are reflected in the I-V characteristic
curve as bistabilities, instabilities and time dependent oscillations of the
currents. The nature of the non-linear behavior depends upon the parameters
that define the system.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Superlattices and
Microstructure
Inelastic Quantum Transport and Peierls-like Mechanism in Carbon Nanotubes
We report on a theoretical study of inelastic quantum transport in
carbon nanotubes. By using a many-body description of the electron-phonon
interaction in Fock space, a novel mechanism involving optical phonon emission
(absorption) is shown to induce an unprecedented energy gap opening at half the
phonon energy, , above (below) the charge neutrality point.
This mechanism, which is prevented by Pauli blocking at low bias voltages, is
activated at bias voltages in the order of .Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Polarized currents and spatial separation of Kondo state: NRG study of spin-orbital effect in a double QD
A double quantum dot device, connected to two channels that only see each
other through interdot Coulomb repulsion, is analyzed using the numerical
renormalization group technique. By using a two-impurity Anderson model, and
parameter values obtained from experiment [S. Amasha {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev.
Lett. {\bf 110}, 046604 (2013)], it is shown that, by applying a moderate
magnetic field, and adjusting the gate potential of each quantum dot, opposing
spin polarizations are created in each channel. Furthermore, through a well
defined change in the gate potentials, the polarizations can be reversed. This
polarization effect is clearly associated to a spin-orbital Kondo state having
a Kondo peak that originates from spatially separated parts of the device. This
fact opens the exciting possibility of experimentally probing the internal
structure of an SU(2) Kondo state.Comment: 4+ pages; 4 figures; supplemental material (1 page, 2 figures
Switching the sign of photon induced exchange interactions in semiconductor microcavities with finite quality factors
We investigate coupling of localized spins in a semiconductor quantum dot
embedded in a microcavity with a finite quality factor. The lowest cavity mode
and the quantum dot exciton are coupled forming a polariton, whereas excitons
interact with localized spins via exchange. The finite quality of the cavity Q
is incorporated in the model Hamiltonian by adding an imaginary part to the
photon frequency. The Hamiltonian, which treats photons, spins and excitons
quantum mechanically, is solved exactly. Results for a single polariton clearly
demonstrate the existence of a resonance, sharper as the temperature decreases,
that shows up as an abrupt change between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic
indirect anisotropic exchange interaction between localized spins. The origin
of this spin-switching finite-quality-factor effect is discussed in detail
remarking on its dependence on model parameters, i.e., light-matter coupling,
exchange interaction between impurities, detuning and quality factor. For
parameters corresponding to the case of a (Cd,Mn)Te quantum dot, the resonance
shows up for Q around 70 and detuning around 10 meV. In addition, we show that,
for such a quantum dot, and the best cavities actually available (quality
factors better than 200) the exchange interaction is scarcely affected.Comment: 7 figures, submitted to PR
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