632 research outputs found
Polarization-correlated photon pairs from a single ion
In the fluorescence light of a single atom, the probability for emission of a
photon with certain polarization depends on the polarization of the photon
emitted immediately before it. Here correlations of such kind are investigated
with a single trapped calcium ion by means of second order correlation
functions. A theoretical model is developed and fitted to the experimental
data, which show 91% probability for the emission of polarization-correlated
photon pairs within 24 ns.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure
Microscopic mechanisms of thermal and driven diffusion of non rigid molecules on surfaces
The motion of molecules on solid surfaces is of interest for technological
applications such as catalysis and lubrication, but it is also a theoretical
challenge at a more fundamental level. The concept of activation barriers is
very convenient for the interpretation of experiments and as input for Monte
Carlo simulations but may become inadequate when mismatch with the substrate
and molecular vibrations are considered. We study the simplest objects
diffusing on a substrate at finite temperature , namely an adatom and a
diatomic molecule (dimer), using the Langevin approach. In the driven case, we
analyse the characteristic curves, comparing the motion for different values of
the intramolecular spacing, both for T=0 and . The mobility of the
dimer is higher than that of the monomer when the drift velocity is less than
the natural stretching frequency. The role of intramolecular excitations is
crucial in this respect. In the undriven case, the diffusive dynamics is
considered as a function of temperature. Contrary to atomic diffusion, for the
dimer it is not possible to define a single, temperature independent,
activation barrier. Our results suggest that vibrations can account for drastic
variations of the activation barrier. This reveals a complex behaviour
determined by the interplay between vibrations and a temperature dependent
intramolecular equilibrium length.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Proceeding of the EMRS 2002 Conference, to be
published in Thin Solid Film
Mean-Field Treatment of the Many-Body Fokker-Planck Equation
We review some properties of the stationary states of the Fokker - Planck
equation for N interacting particles within a mean field approximation, which
yields a non-linear integrodifferential equation for the particle density.
Analytical results show that for attractive long range potentials the steady
state is always a precipitate containing one cluster of small size. For
arbitrary potential, linear stability analysis allows to state the conditions
under which the uniform equilibrium state is unstable against small
perturbations and, via the Einstein relation, to define a critical temperature
Tc separating two phases, uniform and precipitate. The corresponding phase
diagram turns out to be strongly dependent on the pair-potential. In addition,
numerical calculations reveal that the transition is hysteretic. We finally
discuss the dynamics of relaxation for the uniform state suddenly cooled below
Tc.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
Optical Control of Field-Emission Sites by Femtosecond Laser Pulses
We have investigated field emission patterns from a clean tungsten tip apex
induced by femtosecond laser pulses. Strongly asymmetric modulations of the
field emission intensity distributions are observed depending on the
polarization of the light and the laser incidence direction relative to the
azimuthal orientation of tip apex. In effect, we have realized an ultrafast
pulsed field-emission source with site selectivity on the 10 nm scale.
Simulations of local fields on the tip apex and of electron emission patterns
based on photo-excited nonequilibrium electron distributions explain our
observations quantitatively.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to Physical Review Letter
Diffusive Spreading of Chainlike Molecules on Surfaces
We study the diffusion and submonolayer spreading of chainlike molecules on
surfaces. Using the fluctuating bond model we extract the collective and tracer
diffusion coefficients D_c and D_t with a variety of methods. We show that
D_c(theta) has unusual behavior as a function of the coverage theta. It first
increases but after a maximum goes to zero as theta go to one. We show that the
increase is due to entropic repulsion that leads to steep density profiles for
spreading droplets seen in experiments. We also develop an analytic model for
D_c(theta) which agrees well with the simulations.Comment: 3 pages, RevTeX, 4 postscript figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Letters (1996
Non-Arrhenius Behavior of Surface Diffusion Near a Phase Transition Boundary
We study the non-Arrhenius behavior of surface diffusion near the
second-order phase transition boundary of an adsorbate layer. In contrast to
expectations based on macroscopic thermodynamic effects, we show that this
behavior can be related to the average microscopic jump rate which in turn is
determined by the waiting-time distribution W(t) of single-particle jumps at
short times. At long times, W(t) yields a barrier that corresponds to the
rate-limiting step in diffusion. The microscopic information in W(t) should be
accessible by STM measurements.Comment: 4 pages, Latex with RevTeX macro
Negotiation as an interaction mechanism for deciding app permissions
On the Android platform, apps make use of personal data as part of their business model, trading location, contacts, photos and more for app use. Few people are particularly aware of the permission settings or make changes to them. We hypothesize that both the difficulty in checking permission settings for all apps on a device, along with the lack of flexibility in deciding what happens to one's data, makes the perceived cost to protect one's privacy too high. In this paper, we present the preliminary results of a study that explores what happens when permission settings are more discretional at install time. We present the results of a pilot experiment, in which we ask users to negotiate which data they are happy to share, and we show that this results in higher user satisfaction than the typical take-it-or-leave-it setting. Our preliminary findings suggest negotiating consent is a powerful interaction mechanism that engages users and can enable them to strike a balance between privacy and pricing concerns
Field emission in ordered arrays of ZnO nanowires prepared by nanosphere lithography and extended Fowler-Nordheim analyses
A multistage chemical method based on nanosphere lithography was used to produce hexagonally patterned arrays of ZnO vertical nanowires, with 1 lm interspacing and aspect ratio 20, with a view to study the effects of emitter uniformity on the current emitted upon application of a dc voltage across a 250 lm vacuum gap. A new treatment, based on the use of analytical expressions for the image-potential correction functions, was applied to the linear region below 2000 V of the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) plot and showed the most suitable value of the work function / in the range 3.3â4.5 eV (conduction band emission) with a Schottky lowering parameter y ~ 0.72 and a field enhancement factor c in the 700â1100 range. A modeled c value of 200 was calculated for an emitter shape of a prolate ellipsoid of revolution and also including the effect of nanowire screening, in fair agreement with the experimental value. The Fowler-Nordheim current densities
and effective emission areas were derived as 1011 Am2 and 1017 m2, respectively, showing that field emission likely takes place in an area of atomic dimensions at the tip of the emitter. Possible causes for the observed departure from linear FN plot behavior above 2000 V were discussed
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