5,914 research outputs found
Large capacitance enhancement and negative compressibility of two-dimensional electronic systems at LaAlO/SrTiO interfaces
Novel electronic systems forming at oxide interfaces comprise a class of new
materials with a wide array of potential applications. A high mobility electron
system forms at the LaAlO/SrTiO interface and, strikingly, both
superconducts and displays indications of hysteretic magnetoresistance. An
essential step for device applications is establishing the ability to vary the
electronic conductivity of the electron system by means of a gate. We have
fabricated metallic top gates above a conductive interface to vary the electron
density at the interface. By monitoring capacitance and electric field
penetration, we are able to tune the charge carrier density and establish that
we can completely deplete the metallic interface with small voltages. Moreover,
at low carrier densities, the capacitance is significantly enhanced beyond the
geometric capacitance for the structure. In the same low density region, the
metallic interface overscreens an external electric field. We attribute these
observations to a negative compressibility of the electronic system at the
interface. Similar phenomena have been observed previously in semiconducting
two-dimensional electronic systems. The observed compressibility result is
consistent with the interface containing a system of mobile electrons in two
dimensions.Comment: 4 figures in main text; 4 figures in the supplemen
Transition from quantum Hall to compressible states in the second Landau level: new light on the =5/2 enigma
Quantum Hall states at filling fraction =5/2 are examined by numerical
diagonalization. Spin-polarized and -unpolarized states of systems with electrons are studied, neglecting effects of Landau level mixing. We find
that the ground state is spin polarized. It is incompressible and has a large
overlap with paired states like the Pfaffian. For a given sample, the energy
gap is about 11 times smaller than at =1/3. Evidence is presented of phase
transitions to compressible states, driven by the interaction strength at short
distance. A reinterpretation of experiments is suggested.Comment: This paper has already appeared in PRL, but has not been on the we
Improved forecasts for the baryon acoustic oscillations and cosmological distance scale
We present the cosmological distance errors achievable using the baryon
acoustic oscillations as a standard ruler. We begin from a Fisher matrix
formalism that is upgraded from Seo & Eisenstein (2003). We isolate the
information from the baryonic peaks by excluding distance information from
other less robust sources. Meanwhile we accommodate the Lagrangian displacement
distribution into the Fisher matrix calculation to reflect the gradual loss of
information in scale and in time due to nonlinear growth, nonlinear bias, and
nonlinear redshift distortions. We then show that we can contract the
multi-dimensional Fisher matrix calculations into a 2-dimensional or even
1-dimensional formalism with physically motivated approximations. We present
the resulting fitting formula for the cosmological distance errors from galaxy
redshift surveys as a function of survey parameters and nonlinearity, which
saves us going through the 12-dimensional Fisher matrix calculations. Finally,
we show excellent agreement between the distance error estimates from the
revised Fisher matrix and the precision on the distance scale recovered from
N-body simulations.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, 21 pages, LaTe
Improving Cosmological Distance Measurements by Reconstruction of the Baryon Acoustic Peak
The baryon acoustic oscillations are a promising route to the precision
measure of the cosmological distance scale and hence the measurement of the
time evolution of dark energy. We show that the non-linear degradation of the
acoustic signature in the correlations of low-redshift galaxies is a
correctable process. By suitable reconstruction of the linear density field,
one can sharpen the acoustic peak in the correlation function or, equivalently,
restore the higher harmonics of the oscillations in the power spectrum. With
this, one can achieve better measurements of the acoustic scale for a given
survey volume. Reconstruction is particularly effective at low redshift, where
the non-linearities are worse but where the dark energy density is highest. At
z=0.3, we find that one can reduce the sample variance error bar on the
acoustic scale by at least a factor of 2 and in principle by nearly a factor of
4. We discuss the significant implications our results have for the design of
galaxy surveys aimed at measuring the distance scale through the acoustic peak.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journa
The Spectral Types of White Dwarfs in Messier 4
We present the spectra of 24 white dwarfs in the direction of the globular
cluster Messier 4 obtained with the Keck/LRIS and Gemini/GMOS spectrographs.
Determining the spectral types of the stars in this sample, we find 24 type DA
and 0 type DB (i.e., atmospheres dominated by hydrogen and helium
respectively). Assuming the ratio of DA/DB observed in the field with effective
temperature between 15,000 - 25,000 K, i.e., 4.2:1, holds for the cluster
environment, the chance of finding no DBs in our sample due simply to
statistical fluctuations is only 6 X 10^(-3). The spectral types of the ~100
white dwarfs previously identified in open clusters indicate that DB formation
is strongly suppressed in that environment. Furthermore, all the ~10 white
dwarfs previously identified in other globular clusters are exclusively type
DA. In the context of these two facts, this finding suggests that DB formation
is suppressed in the cluster environment in general. Though no satisfactory
explanation for this phenomenon exists, we discuss several possibilities.Comment: Accepted for Publication in Astrophys. J. 11 pages including 4
figures and 2 tables (journal format
Anisotropic States of Two-Dimensional Electron Systems in High Landau Levels: Effect of an In-Plane Magnetic Field
We report the observation of an acute sensitivity of the anisotropic
longitudinal resistivity of two-dimensional electron systems in half-filled
high Landau levels to the magnitude and orientation of an in-plane magnetic
field. In the third and higher Landau levels, at filling fractions nu=9/2,
11/2, etc., the in-plane field can lead to a striking interchange of the "hard"
and "easy" transport directions. In the second Landau level the normally
isotropic resistivity and the weak nu=5/2 quantized Hall state are destroyed by
a large in-plane field and the transport becomes highly anisotropic.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, minor errors correcte
Quantum Hall Phase Diagram of Second Landau-level Half-filled Bilayers: Abelian versus Non-Abelian States
The quantum Hall phase diagram of the half-filled bilayer system in the
second Landau level is studied as a function of tunneling and layer separation
using exact diagonalization. We make the striking prediction that bilayer
structures would manifest two distinct branches of incompressible fractional
quantum Hall effect (FQHE) corresponding to the Abelian 331 state (at moderate
to low tunneling and large layer separation) and the non-Abelian Pfaffian state
(at large tunneling and small layer separation). The observation of these two
FQHE branches and the quantum phase transition between them will be compelling
evidence supporting the existence of the non-Abelian Pfaffian state in the
second Landau level.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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