4,512 research outputs found
Two-step stabilization of orbital order and the dynamical frustration of spin in the model charge-transfer insulator KCuF3
We report a combined experimental and theoretical study of KCuF3, which
offers - because of this material's relatively simple lattice structure and
valence configuration (d9, i.e., one hole in the d-shell) - a particularly
clear view of the essential role of the orbital degree of freedom in governing
the dynamical coupling between the spin and lattice degrees of freedom. We
present Raman and x-ray scattering evidence that the phase behaviour of KCuF3
is dominated above the Neel temperature (T_N = 40 K) by coupled orbital/lattice
fluctuations that are likely associated with rotations of the CuF6 octahedra,
and we show that these orbital fluctuations are interrupted by a static
structural distortion that occurs just above T_N. A detailed model of the
orbital and magnetic phases of KCuF3 reveals that these orbital fluctuations -
and the related frustration of in-plane spin-order-are associated with the
presence of nearly degenerate low-energy spin-orbital states that are highly
susceptible to thermal fluctuations over a wide range of temperatures. A
striking implication of these results is that the ground state of KCuF3 at
ambient pressure lies near a quantum critical point associated with an
orbital/spin liquid phase that is obscured by emergent Neel ordering of the
spins; this exotic liquid phase might be accessible via pressure studies.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
GlobalSoilMap.net: a new digital soil map of the world.
Knowledge of the world soil resources is fragmented and dated. There is a need for accurate, up-to-date and spatially referenced soil information as frequently expressed by the modelling community, farmers and land users, and policy and decision makers. This need coincides with an enormous leap in technologies that allow for accurately collecting and predicting soil properties. We are working on a new digital soil map of the world using state-of-the-art and emerging technologies for soil mapping and predicting soil properties. Our aim is to map the global land surface in 5 years ? the resulting maps will depict the primary functional soil properties at a grid resolution of 90×90 m. They will be freely available, web-accessible and widely distributed and used.The maps will be produced by a global consortium with centres in each of the continents: NRCS for North America, Embrapa for Latin America, JRC for Europe, TSBF-CIAT for Africa, ISSAS for parts of Asia and CSIRO for Oceania. This new global soil map will be supplemented by interpretation and functionality options that aim to assist better decisions in a range of global issues like food production and hunger eradication, climate change, and environmental degradation. In November 2008, a grant of US$18 million was obtained from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to map most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and make the underlying data available. From this grant there are funds for coordinating efforts in the global consortium.bitstream/item/66584/1/GlobalSoilMap.net-A-New-Digital-Soil-Map-of-the-World-Guest-Article-MEA-Bulletin-Issue-No.pd
Effective electro-optical modulation with high extinction ratio by a graphene-silicon microring resonator
Graphene opens up for novel optoelectronic applications thanks to its high
carrier mobility, ultra-large absorption bandwidth, and extremely fast material
response. In particular, the opportunity to control optoelectronic properties
through tuning of Fermi level enables electro-optical modulation,
optical-optical switching, and other optoelectronics applications. However,
achieving a high modulation depth remains a challenge because of the modest
graphene-light interaction in the graphene-silicon devices, typically,
utilizing only a monolayer or few layers of graphene. Here, we comprehensively
study the interaction between graphene and a microring resonator, and its
influence on the optical modulation depth. We demonstrate graphene-silicon
microring devices showing a high modulation depth of 12.5 dB with a relatively
low bias voltage of 8.8 V. On-off electro-optical switching with an extinction
ratio of 3.8 dB is successfully demonstrated by applying a square-waveform with
a 4 V peak-to-peak voltage.Comment: 12 pages, including 7 figure
Chalcogenide Glass-on-Graphene Photonics
Two-dimensional (2-D) materials are of tremendous interest to integrated
photonics given their singular optical characteristics spanning light emission,
modulation, saturable absorption, and nonlinear optics. To harness their
optical properties, these atomically thin materials are usually attached onto
prefabricated devices via a transfer process. In this paper, we present a new
route for 2-D material integration with planar photonics. Central to this
approach is the use of chalcogenide glass, a multifunctional material which can
be directly deposited and patterned on a wide variety of 2-D materials and can
simultaneously function as the light guiding medium, a gate dielectric, and a
passivation layer for 2-D materials. Besides claiming improved fabrication
yield and throughput compared to the traditional transfer process, our
technique also enables unconventional multilayer device geometries optimally
designed for enhancing light-matter interactions in the 2-D layers.
Capitalizing on this facile integration method, we demonstrate a series of
high-performance glass-on-graphene devices including ultra-broadband on-chip
polarizers, energy-efficient thermo-optic switches, as well as graphene-based
mid-infrared (mid-IR) waveguide-integrated photodetectors and modulators
JUNO Conceptual Design Report
The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is proposed to determine
the neutrino mass hierarchy using an underground liquid scintillator detector.
It is located 53 km away from both Yangjiang and Taishan Nuclear Power Plants
in Guangdong, China. The experimental hall, spanning more than 50 meters, is
under a granite mountain of over 700 m overburden. Within six years of running,
the detection of reactor antineutrinos can resolve the neutrino mass hierarchy
at a confidence level of 3-4, and determine neutrino oscillation
parameters , , and to
an accuracy of better than 1%. The JUNO detector can be also used to study
terrestrial and extra-terrestrial neutrinos and new physics beyond the Standard
Model. The central detector contains 20,000 tons liquid scintillator with an
acrylic sphere of 35 m in diameter. 17,000 508-mm diameter PMTs with high
quantum efficiency provide 75% optical coverage. The current choice of
the liquid scintillator is: linear alkyl benzene (LAB) as the solvent, plus PPO
as the scintillation fluor and a wavelength-shifter (Bis-MSB). The number of
detected photoelectrons per MeV is larger than 1,100 and the energy resolution
is expected to be 3% at 1 MeV. The calibration system is designed to deploy
multiple sources to cover the entire energy range of reactor antineutrinos, and
to achieve a full-volume position coverage inside the detector. The veto system
is used for muon detection, muon induced background study and reduction. It
consists of a Water Cherenkov detector and a Top Tracker system. The readout
system, the detector control system and the offline system insure efficient and
stable data acquisition and processing.Comment: 328 pages, 211 figure
Nitrogen-Functionalized Graphene Nanoflakes (GNFs:N): Tunable Photoluminescence and Electronic Structures
This study investigates the strong photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray excited
optical luminescence observed in nitrogen-functionalized 2D graphene nanoflakes
(GNFs:N), which arise from the significantly enhanced density of states in the
region of {\pi} states and the gap between {\pi} and {\pi}* states. The
increase in the number of the sp2 clusters in the form of pyridine-like N-C,
graphite-N-like, and the C=O bonding and the resonant energy transfer from the
N and O atoms to the sp2 clusters were found to be responsible for the blue
shift and the enhancement of the main PL emission feature. The enhanced PL is
strongly related to the induced changes of the electronic structures and
bonding properties, which were revealed by the X-ray absorption near-edge
structure, X-ray emission spectroscopy, and resonance inelastic X-ray
scattering. The study demonstrates that PL emission can be tailored through
appropriate tuning of the nitrogen and oxygen contents in GNFs and pave the way
for new optoelectronic devices.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures (including toc figure
Financial Inclusion in China: Use of Credit
Limited access to credit can cause financial vulnerability for a household and economic loss for a country. Previous studies have shown that only small portions of populations in developing countries use formal credit, but few studies have focused on Chinese populations. Analyzing data from the 2011 China Household Financial Survey, this study explored Chinese households’ credit use. Over half of the sample (53.21%) reported using credit, and only 19.77% of the sample used formal credit. Use of formal credit was associated with the socioeconomic characteristics of household heads (e.g., employment and education) and of households (e.g., income and net worth). The findings suggest that promoting financial inclusion in China involves expanding access to formal credit among socially and economically disadvantaged households
New Insights into White-Light Flare Emission from Radiative-Hydrodynamic Modeling of a Chromospheric Condensation
(abridged) The heating mechanism at high densities during M dwarf flares is
poorly understood. Spectra of M dwarf flares in the optical and
near-ultraviolet wavelength regimes have revealed three continuum components
during the impulsive phase: 1) an energetically dominant blackbody component
with a color temperature of T 10,000 K in the blue-optical, 2) a smaller
amount of Balmer continuum emission in the near-ultraviolet at lambda 3646
Angstroms and 3) an apparent pseudo-continuum of blended high-order Balmer
lines. These properties are not reproduced by models that employ a typical
"solar-type" flare heating level in nonthermal electrons, and therefore our
understanding of these spectra is limited to a phenomenological interpretation.
We present a new 1D radiative-hydrodynamic model of an M dwarf flare from
precipitating nonthermal electrons with a large energy flux of erg
cm s. The simulation produces bright continuum emission from a
dense, hot chromospheric condensation. For the first time, the observed color
temperature and Balmer jump ratio are produced self-consistently in a
radiative-hydrodynamic flare model. We find that a T 10,000 K
blackbody-like continuum component and a small Balmer jump ratio result from
optically thick Balmer and Paschen recombination radiation, and thus the
properties of the flux spectrum are caused by blue light escaping over a larger
physical depth range compared to red and near-ultraviolet light. To model the
near-ultraviolet pseudo-continuum previously attributed to overlapping Balmer
lines, we include the extra Balmer continuum opacity from Landau-Zener
transitions that result from merged, high order energy levels of hydrogen in a
dense, partially ionized atmosphere. This reveals a new diagnostic of ambient
charge density in the densest regions of the atmosphere that are heated during
dMe and solar flares.Comment: 50 pages, 2 tables, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in the Solar
Physics Topical Issue, "Solar and Stellar Flares". Version 2 (June 22, 2015):
updated to include comments by Guest Editor. The final publication is
available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11207-015-0708-
The use of a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model to evaluate deconvolution measurements of systemic absorption
BACKGROUND: An unknown input function can be determined by deconvolution using the systemic bolus input function (r) determined using an experimental input of duration ranging from a few seconds to many minutes. The quantitative relation between the duration of the input and the accuracy of r is unknown. Although a large number of deconvolution procedures have been described, these routines are not available in a convenient software package. METHODS: Four deconvolution methods are implemented in a new, user-friendly software program (PKQuest, ). Three of these methods are characterized by input parameters that are adjusted by the user to provide the "best" fit. A new approach is used to determine these parameters, based on the assumption that the input can be approximated by a gamma distribution. Deconvolution methodologies are evaluated using data generated from a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model (PBPK). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The 11-compartment PBPK model is accurately described by either a 2 or 3-exponential function, depending on whether or not there is significant tissue binding. For an accurate estimate of r the first venous sample should be at or before the end of the constant infusion and a long (10 minute) constant infusion is preferable to a bolus injection. For noisy data, a gamma distribution deconvolution provides the best result if the input has the form of a gamma distribution. For other input functions, good results are obtained using deconvolution methods based on modeling the input with either a B-spline or uniform dense set of time points
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