272 research outputs found
Quasiparticle-quasiparticle Scattering in High Tc Superconductors
The quasiparticle lifetime and the related transport relaxation times are the
fundamental quantities which must be known in order to obtain a description of
the transport properties of the high T_c superconductors. Studies of these
quantities have been undertaken previously for the d-wave, high T_c
superconductors for the case of temperature-independent elastic impurity
scattering. However, much less is known about the temperature-dependent
inelastic scattering. Here we give a detailed description of the
characteristics of the temperature-dependent quasiparticle-quasiparticle
scattering in d-wave superconductors, and find that this process gives a
natural explanation of the rapid variation with temperature of the electrical
transport relaxation rate.Comment: 4 page
High real-space resolution measurement of the local structure of Ga_1-xIn_xAs using x-ray diffraction
High real-space resolution atomic pair distribution functions (PDF)s from the
alloy series Ga_1-xIn_xAs have been obtained using high-energy x-ray
diffraction. The first peak in the PDF is resolved as a doublet due to the
presence of two nearest neighbor bond lengths, Ga-As and In-As, as previously
observed using XAFS. The widths of nearest, and higher, neighbor pairs are
analyzed by separating the strain broadening from the thermal motion. The
strain broadening is five times larger for distant atomic neighbors as compared
to nearest neighbors. The results are in agreement with model calculations.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Direct Observation and Anisotropy of the Contribution of Gap nodes in the Low Temperature Specific Heat of YBa_2Cu_3O_7
The specific heat due to line nodes in the superconducting gap of YBa2Cu3O7
has been obscured up to now by magnetic terms of extrinsic origin, even for
high quality crystals. We report the specific heat of a new single crystal
grown in a non-corrosive BaZrO3 crucible, for which paramagnetic terms are
reduced to less than one spin-1/2 center for 20'000 Cu atoms. The contribution
of line nodes shows up directly in the difference C(B,T) - C(0,T) at fixed
temperatures (T < 5 K) as a function of the magnetic field parallel to the
c-axis (B<=14 T). These data illustrate the smooth crossover from C propotional
to T^2 at low fields to C propotional to TB^1/2 at high fields, and provide new
values for gap parameters which are quantitatively consistent with tunneling
spectroscopy and thermal conductivity in the framework of dx^2-y^2 pairing
symmetry. Data for B along the nodal and antinodal directions in the ab-plane
are also provided. The in-plane anisotropy predicted in the clean limit is not
observed.Comment: 29 pages(using Revtex style), 14 postscript figures, submitted to
Phys. Rev. B Content of the file changed after replacin
Optimizing Pressure Screen Systems in Paper Recycling: Optimal System Layout, Component Selection and Operation
Around 60% of the paper worldwide is made from recovered paper. Especially adhesive contaminants, so called stickies, reduce paper quality. To remove stickies but at the same time keep as many valuable fibers as possible, multi-stage screening systems with several interconnected pressure screens are used. When planning such systems, suitable screens have to be selected and their interconnection as well as operational parameters have to be defined considering multiple conflicting objectives. In this contribution, we present a Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Program to optimize system layout, component selection and operation to find a suitable trade-off between output quality and yield
Letters of Comment
Letters from readers in The Mythic Circle #
Superconducting Gap and Strong In-Plane Anisotropy in Untwinned YBa2Cu3O7-d
With significantly improved sample quality and instrumental resolution, we
clearly identify in the (pi,0) ARPES spectra from YBa2Cu3O6.993, in the
superconducting state, the long-sought `peak-dip-hump' structure. This advance
allows us to investigate the large a-b anisotropy of the in-plane electronic
structure including, in particular, a 50% difference in the magnitude of the
superconducting gap that scales with the energy position of the hump feature.
This anisotropy, likely induced by the presence of the CuO chains, raises
serious questions about attempts to quantitatively explain the YBa2Cu3O7-d data
from various experiments using models based on a perfectly square lattice.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett., in press. Revtex, 4 pages, 4 postscript figures
embedded in the tex
Observation of out-of-phase bilayer plasmons in YBa_2Cu_3O_7-delta
The temperature dependence of the c-axis optical conductivity \sigma(\omega)
of optimally and overdoped YBa_2Cu_3O_x (x=6.93 and 7) is reported in the far-
(FIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) range. Below T_c we observe a transfer of spectral
weight from the FIR not only to the condensate at \omega = 0, but also to a new
peak in the MIR. This peak is naturally explained as a transverse out-of-phase
bilayer plasmon by a model for \sigma(\omega) which takes the layered crystal
structure into account. With decreasing doping the plasmon shifts to lower
frequencies and can be identified with the surprising and so far not understood
FIR feature reported in underdoped bilayer cuprates.Comment: 7 pages, 3 eps figures, Revtex, epsfi
Uncertainty in Signals of Large-Scale Climate Variations in Radiosonde and Satellite Upper-Air Temperature Datasets
There is no single reference dataset of long-term global upper-air temperature observations, although several
groups have developed datasets from radiosonde and satellite observations for climate-monitoring purposes. The
existence of multiple data products allows for exploration of the uncertainty in signals of climate variations and
change. This paper examines eight upper-air temperature datasets and quantifies the magnitude and uncertainty
of various climate signals, including stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) and tropospheric ENSO
signals, stratospheric warming following three major volcanic eruptions, the abrupt tropospheric warming of
1976–77, and multidecadal temperature trends. Uncertainty estimates are based both on the spread of signal
estimates from the different observational datasets and on the inherent statistical uncertainties of the signal in
any individual dataset.
The large spread among trend estimates suggests that using multiple datasets to characterize large-scale upperair
temperature trends gives a more complete characterization of their uncertainty than reliance on a single
dataset. For other climate signals, there is value in using more than one dataset, because signal strengths vary.
However, the purely statistical uncertainty of the signal in individual datasets is large enough to effectively
encompass the spread among datasets. This result supports the notion of an 11th climate-monitoring principle,
augmenting the 10 principles that have now been generally accepted (although not generally implemented) by
the climate community. This 11th principle calls for monitoring key climate variables with multiple, independent
observing systems for measuring the variable, and multiple, independent groups analyzing the data
Local structure study of In_xGa_(1-x)As semiconductor alloys using High Energy Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction
Nearest and higher neighbor distances as well as bond length distributions
(static and thermal) of the In_xGa_(1-x)As (0<x<1) semiconductor alloys have
been obtained from high real-space resolution atomic pair distribution
functions (PDFs). Using this structural information, we modeled the local
atomic displacements in In_xGa_(1-x)As alloys. From a supercell model based on
the Kirkwood potential, we obtained 3-D As and (In,Ga) ensemble averaged
probability distributions. This clearly shows that As atom displacements are
highly directional and can be represented as a combination of and
displacements. Examination of the Kirkwood model indicates that the standard
deviation (sigma) of the static disorder on the (In,Ga) sublattice is around
60% of the value on the As sublattice and the (In,Ga) atomic displacements are
much more isotropic than those on the As sublattice. The single crystal diffuse
scattering calculated from the Kirkwood model shows that atomic displacements
are most strongly correlated along directions.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figure
Quasiparticle thermal conductivity in the vortex state of high-T cuprates
We present the results of a microscopic calculation of the longitudinal
thermal conductivity, , of a d-wave superconductor in the mixed state.
Our results show an increase in the thermal conductivity with the applied field
at low temperatures, and a decrease followed by a nearly field independent
at higher temperatures, in qualitative agreement with the
experimental results. We discuss the relationship between the slope of the
superconducting gap and the plateau in .Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, very minor changes to text, published versio
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