153 research outputs found
Critical voltage of a mesoscopic superconductor
We study the role of the quasiparticle distribution function f on the
properties of a superconducting nanowire. We employ a numerical calculation
based upon the Usadel equation. Going beyond linear response, we find a
non-thermal distribution for f caused by an applied bias voltage. We
demonstrate that the even part of f (the energy mode f_L) drives a first order
transition from the superconducting state to the normal state irrespective of
the current
Sensitivity of the spherical gravitational wave detector MiniGRAIL operating at 5 K
We present the performances and the strain sensitivity of the first spherical
gravitational wave detector equipped with a capacitive transducer and read out
by a low noise two-stage SQUID amplifier and operated at a temperature of 5 K.
We characterized the detector performance in terms of thermal and electrical
noise in the system output sygnal. We measured a peak strain sensitivity of
at 2942.9 Hz. A strain sensitivity of better than
has been obtained over a bandwidth of 30 Hz. We expect
an improvement of more than one order of magnitude when the detector will
operate at 50 mK. Our results represent the first step towards the development
of an ultracryogenic omnidirectional detector sensitive to gravitational
radiation in the 3kHz range.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Evanescent states and nonequilibrium in driven superconducting nanowires
We study the nonlinear response of current transport in a superconducting diffusive nanowire between normal reservoirs. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally the existence of two different superconducting states appearing when the wire is driven out of equilibrium by an applied bias, called the global and bimodal superconducting states. The different states are identified by using two-probe measurements of the wire, and measurements of the local density of states with tunneling probes. The analysis is performed within the framework of the quasiclassical kinetic equations for diffusive superconductors.Peer reviewe
Measurement of the spatial extent of inverse proximity in a Py/Nb/Py superconducting trilayer using low-energy muon-spin rotation
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the EPSRC (Grant No. EP/J01060X).Muon-spin rotation has been used to observe directly the spatial variation of the magnetic flux density near the ferromagnetic-superconducting interface in a permalloy-niobium trilayer. Above the superconducting transition temperature Tc the profile of the induced magnetic flux density within the niobium layer has been determined. Below Tc there is a significant reduction of the induced flux density, predominantly near the ferromagnetic-superconducting interfaces. We are uniquely able to determine the magnitude and spatial variation of this reduction in induced magnetization due to the presence of the Cooper pairs, yielding the magnitude and length scale associated with this phenomenon. Both are inconsistent with a simple Meissner screening and indicate the existence of another mechanism, the influence of which is localized within the vicinity of the ferromagnetic interface.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
MiniGRAIL progress report 2004
The MiniGRAIL detector was improved. The sphere was replaced by a slightly larger one, having a diameter of 68 cm (instead of 65 cm), reducing the resonant frequency by about 200 Hz to around 2.9 kHz. The last four masses of the attenuation system were machined to increase their resonant frequency and improve the attenuation around the resonant frequency of the sphere. In the new sphere, six holes were machined on the TIGA positions for easy mounting of the transducers. During the last cryogenic run, two capacitive transducers and a calibrator were mounted on the sphere. The first transducer was coupled to a double-stage SQUID amplifier having a commercial quantum design SQUID as a first stage and a DROS as a second stage. The second transducer was read by a single-stage quantum design SQUID. During the cryogenic run, the sphere was cooled down to 4 K. The two-stage SQUID had a flux noise of about 1.6 μ0 Hz−1/2. The detector was calibrated and the sensitivity curve of MiniGRAIL was determined
Vortex trapping and expulsion in thin-film YBCO strips
A scanning SQUID microscope was used to image vortex trapping as a function
of the magnetic induction during cooling in thin-film YBCO strips for strip
widths W from 2 to 50 um. We found that vortices were excluded from the strips
when the induction Ba was below a critical induction Bc. We present a simple
model for the vortex exclusion process which takes into account the vortex -
antivortex pair production energy as well as the vortex Meissner and
self-energies. This model predicts that the real density n of trapped vortices
is given by n=(Ba-BK)/Phi0 with BK = 1.65Phi0/W^2 and Phi0 = h/2e the
superconducting flux quantum. This prediction is in good agreement with our
experiments on YBCO, as well as with previous experiments on thin-film strips
of niobium. We also report on the positions of the trapped vortices. We found
that at low densities the vortices were trapped in a single row near the
centers of the strips, with the relative intervortex spacing distribution width
decreasing as the vortex density increased, a sign of longitudinal ordering.
The critical induction for two rows forming in the 35 um wide strip was (2.89 +
1.91-0.93)Bc, consistent with a numerical prediction
Parallel Evaluation of Multi-join Queries
A number of execution strategies for parallel evaluation of multi-join queries have been proposed in the literature. In this paper we give a comparative performance evaluation of four execution strategies by implementing all of them on the same parallel database system, PRISMA/DB. Experiments have been done up to 80 processors. These strategies, coming from the literature, are named: Sequential Parallel, Synchronous Execution, Segmented Right-Deep, and Full Parallel. Based on the experiments clear guidelines are given when to use which strategy.
This is an extended abstract; the full paper appeared in Proc. ACM SIGMOD'94, Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 24–27, 199
Reversible spin storage in metal oxide—fullerene heterojunctions
We show that hybrid MnOx/C60 heterojunctions can be used to design a storage device for spin-polarized charge: a spin capacitor. Hybridization at the carbon-metal oxide interface leads to spin-polarized charge trapping after an applied voltage or photocurrent. Strong electronic structure changes, including a 1-eV energy shift and spin polarization in the C60 lowest unoccupied molecular orbital, are then revealed by x-ray absorption spectroscopy, in agreement with density functional theory simulations. Muon spin spectroscopy measurements give further independent evidence of local spin ordering and magnetic moments optically/electronically stored at the heterojunctions. These spin-polarized states dissipate when shorting the electrodes. The spin storage decay time is controlled by magnetic ordering at the interface, leading to coherence times of seconds to hours even at room temperature
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