Low-temperature acoustic characteristics of the amorphous alloy Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5

The temperature dependences of the sound velocity v and attenuation alpha of high-frequency (50–160 MHz) sound in the bulk amorphous alloy Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 are studied at helium temperatures in the normal and superconducting states. The alloy is characterized by a relatively small constant C determining the intensity of interaction between an elastic wave and two-level systems. The density of states of the latter systems is estimated. The peculiarities in the variation of v during the superconducting transition point to the possibility of a gapless superconductivity in a narrow temperature interval near Tc

Surface pinning in amorphous ZrTiCuNiBe alloy

We have measured the amplitude and the phase of an electromagnetic (EM) field radiated from superconductor (amorphous ZrTiCuNiBe alloy) in the mixed state due to interaction of the flux lattice with an elastic wave. The results undoubtedly point to an essential contribution of a surface pinning into the flux lattice dynamics. We propose a model that describes radiation of EM field from superconductors with non-uniform pinning. The model allows to reconstruct the viscosity and the Labush parameters from the experimental data. The behavior of the Labush parameter can be qualitatively explained in terms of the collective pinning theory with the allowance of thermal fluctuations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Sound attenuation in the superconducting amorphous alloy ZrTiCuNiBe

The superconducting energy gap and the parameter of the intensity of electron scattering at two-level systems in amorphous ZrTiCuNiBe are determined from the results of measurements of sound attenuation. The mechanism of adiabatic renormalization of the amplitude of coherent tunneling is used for a quantitative description of the peculiarities of sound absorption in the vicinity of critical temperature.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, 2 Postscript figures corrected, submitted to Low Temp. Phy

Spatial Modulation Microscopy for Real-Time Imaging of Plasmonic Nanoparticles and Cells

Spatial modulation microscopy is a technique originally developed for quantitative spectroscopy of individual nano-objects. Here, a parallel implementation of the spatial modulation microscopy technique is demonstrated based on a line detector capable of demodulation at kHz frequencies. The capabilities of the imaging system are shown using an array of plasmonic nanoantennas and dendritic cells incubated with gold nanoparticles.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure

Ectoplasm & Superspace Integration Measure for 2D Supergravity with Four Spinorial Supercurrents

Building on a previous derivation of the local chiral projector for a two dimensional superspace with eight real supercharges, we provide the complete density projection formula required for locally supersymmetrical theories in this context. The derivation of this result is shown to be very efficient using techniques based on the Ectoplasmic construction of local measures in superspace.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX; V2: minor changes, typos corrected, references added; V3: version to appear in J. Phys. A: Math. Theor., some comments and references added to address a referee reques

Band-gap and sub-band-gap photoelectrochemical processes at nanocrystalline CdS grown on ZnO by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method

Cadmium sulfide nanoparticle (NP) deposition by the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method on the surface of mesoporous ZnO micro-platelets with a large specific surface area (110 ± 10 m2g− 1) results in the formation of ZnO/CdS heterostructures exhibiting a high incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (Y) not only within the region of CdS fundamental absorption (Ymax = 90%; 0.1 M Na2S + 0.1 M Na2SO3), but also in the sub-band-gap (SBG) range (Ymax = 25%). The onset potentials of SBG photoelectrochemical processes are more positive than the band-gap (BG) onset potential by up to 100 mV. A maximum incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency value for SBG processes is observed at larger amount of deposited CdS in comparison with the case of BG ones. The Urbach energy (EU) of CdS NPs determined from the photocurrent spectra reaches a maximal value on an early deposition stage (EU = 93 mV at SILAR cycle number N = 5), then lowers somewhat (EU = 73 mV at N = 10) and remains steady in the range of N from 20 to 300 (EU = 67 ± 1 mV). High efficiency of the photoelectrochemical SBG processes are interpreted in terms of light scattering in the ZnO/CdS heterostructures