2,548 research outputs found
Large polaron formation induced by Rashba spin-orbit coupling
Here the electron-phonon Holstein model with Rashba spin-orbit interaction is
studied for a two dimensional square lattice in the adiabatic limit. It is
demonstrated that a delocalized electron at zero spin-orbit coupling localizes
into a large polaron state as soon as the Rashba term is nonzero. This
spin-orbit induced polaron state has localization length inversely proportional
to the Rashba coupling , and it dominates a wide region of the
- phase diagram, where is the electron-phonon
interaction.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, version as publishe
Zeeman response of d-wave superconductors: Born approximation for impurity and spin-orbit scattering potentials
The effects of impurity and spin-orbit scattering potentials can strongly
affect the Zeeman response of a d-wave superconductor. Here, both the phase
diagram and the quasiparticle density of states are calculated within the Born
approximation and it is found that the spin-orbit interaction influences in a
qualitatively different way the Zeeman response of d-wave and s-wave
superconductors.Comment: 19 pages, 6 eps figures, submitted to Physica
Topological Change of the Fermi Surface in Low Density Rashba Gases: Application to Superconductivity
Strong spin-orbit coupling can have a profound effect on the electronic
structure in a metal or semiconductor, particularly for low electron
concentrations. We show how, for small values of the Fermi energy compared to
the spin-orbit splitting of Rashba type, a topological change of the Fermi
surface leads to an effective reduction of the dimensionality in the electronic
density of states. We investigate its consequences on the onset of the
superconducting instability. We show, by solving the Eliashberg equations for
the critical temperature as a function of spin-orbit coupling and electron
density, that the superconducting critical temperature is significantly tuned
in this regime by the spin-orbit coupling. We suggest that materials with
strong spin-orbit coupling are good candidates for enhanced superconductivity.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures ep
Tunneling and Non-Universality in Continuum Percolation Systems
The values obtained experimentally for the conductivity critical exponent in
numerous percolation systems, in which the interparticle conduction is by
tunnelling, were found to be in the range of and about , where
is the universal conductivity exponent. These latter values are however
considerably smaller than those predicted by the available ``one
dimensional"-like theory of tunneling-percolation. In this letter we show that
this long-standing discrepancy can be resolved by considering the more
realistic "three dimensional" model and the limited proximity to the
percolation threshold in all the many available experimental studiesComment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Electron-phonon effects on spin-orbit split bands of two dimensional systems
The electronic self-energy is studied for a two dimensional electron gas
coupled to a spin-orbit Rashba field and interacting with dispersionless
phonons. For the case of a momentum independent electron-phonon coupling
(Holstein model) we solve numerically the self-consistent non-crossing
approximation for the self-energy and calculate the electron mass enhancement
and the spectral properties. We find that, even for nominal weak
electron-phonon interaction, for strong spin-orbit couplings the electrons
behave as effectively strongly coupled to the phonons. We interpret this result
by a topological change of the Fermi surface occurring at sufficiently strong
spin-orbit coupling, which induces a square-root divergence in the electronic
density of states at low energies. We provide results for and for the
density of states of the interacting electrons for several values of the
electron filling and of the spin-orbit interaction.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. Version as printe
Compensating impurity effect on epitaxial regrowth rate of amorphized Si
The epitaxial regrowth of ion-implanted amorphous layers on Si with partly compensated doping profiles of 11B, 75As, and 31P was studied. Single implants of these impurities are found to increase the regrowth rate at 475 and 500°C. The compensated layers with equal concentrations of 11B and 31P or 11B and 75As show a strong decrease of the regrowth whereas for the layers with overlapping 75As and 31P profiles no compensation has been found
Percolation-to-hopping crossover in conductor-insulator composites
Here, we show that the conductivity of conductor-insulator composites in
which electrons can tunnel from each conducting particle to all others may
display both percolation and tunneling (i.e. hopping) regimes depending on few
characteristics of the composite. Specifically, we find that the relevant
parameters that give rise to one regime or the other are (where is
the size of the conducting particles and is the tunneling length) and the
specific composite microstructure. For large values of , percolation
arises when the composite microstructure can be modeled as a regular lattice
that is fractionally occupied by conducting particle, while the tunneling
regime is always obtained for equilibrium distributions of conducting particles
in a continuum insulating matrix. As decreases the percolating behavior
of the conductivity of lattice-like composites gradually crosses over to the
tunneling-like regime characterizing particle dispersions in the continuum. For
values lower than the conductivity has tunneling-like
behavior independent of the specific microstructure of the composite.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Weak and strong coupling limits of the two-dimensional Fr\"ohlich polaron with spin-orbit Rashba interaction
The continuous progress in fabricating low-dimensional systems with large
spin-orbit couplings has reached a point in which nowadays materials may
display spin-orbit splitting energies ranging from a few to hundreds of meV.
This situation calls for a better understanding of the interplay between the
spin-orbit coupling and other interactions ubiquitously present in solids, in
particular when the spin-orbit splitting is comparable in magnitude with
characteristic energy scales such as the Fermi energy and the phonon frequency.
In this article, the two-dimensional Fr\"ohlich electron-phonon problem is
reformulated by introducing the coupling to a spin-orbit Rashba potential,
allowing for a description of the spin-orbit effects on the electron-phonon
interaction. The ground state of the resulting Fr\"ohlich-Rashba polaron is
studied in the weak and strong coupling limits of the electron-phonon
interaction for arbitrary values of the spin-orbit splitting. The weak coupling
case is studied within the Rayleigh-Schr\"odinger perturbation theory, while
the strong-coupling electron-phonon regime is investigated by means of
variational polaron wave functions in the adiabatic limit. It is found that,
for both weak and strong coupling polarons, the ground state energy is
systematically lowered by the spin-orbit interaction, indicating that the
polaronic character is strengthened by the Rashba coupling. It is also shown
that, consistently with the lowering of the ground state, the polaron effective
mass is enhanced compared to the zero spin-orbit limit. Finally, it is argued
that the crossover between weakly and strongly coupled polarons can be shifted
by the spin-orbit interaction.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Electron Spin Dynamics in Impure Quantum Wells for Arbitrary Spin-Orbit Coupling
Strong interest has arisen recently on low-dimensional systems with strong
spin-orbit interaction due to their peculiar properties of interest for some
spintronic applications. Here, the time evolution of the electron spin
polarization of a disordered two-dimensional electron gas is calculated exactly
within the Boltzmann formalism for arbitrary couplings to a Rashba spin-orbit
field. The classical Dyakonov-Perel mechanism of spin relaxation is shown to
fail for sufficiently strong Rashba fields, in which case new regimes of spin
decay are identified. These results suggest that spin manipulation can be
greatly improved in strong spin-orbit interaction materials.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures -revised versio
Cadmium induces changes in corticotropic and prolactin cells in the Podarcis sicula lizard pituitary gland
We analyzed the effect of cadmium on corticotropic (ACTH) and prolactin (PRL) cells in the pituitary gland of the Podarcis sicula (P. sicula) lizard under chronic exposure to this metal. Adult lizards were given CdCl2 in drinking water at the dose of 10 µg/10 g body mass for 120 days. Light microscopy was performed after histological and immunohistochemical staining, and the effects were followed at regular time intervals up to 120 days post-treatment. We detected substantial variations in the general morphology of the pituitary: unlike the control lizards in which the gland appeared compact, the treated lizards showed a glandular tissue with dilated spaces that were more extensive at 90 and 120 days. PRL and ACTH cells showed an increase in occurrence and immunostaining intensity in treated lizards in comparison with the same cells of control animals. This cellular increase peaked for PRL at 30 days in the rostral, medial and also caudal pars distalis of the gland. ACTH cells appeared to increase markedly after 60 days of treatment in both the pars distalis and the pars intermedia. Again, at 60 days small, isolated ACTH cells were also found in the caudal pars distalis in which these cells were generally absent. However, at 120 days both these cellular types showed an occurrence, distribution and morphology similar to those observed in the control lizards. In lizards, protracted oral exposure to cadmium evidently involves an alteration of the normal morphology of the gland and an inhibitory effect of ACTH and PRL cells, since they increase in occurrence and immunostaining. Yet in time the inhibitory effect of cadmium on ACTH and PRL cells falls back and their occurrence appears similar to that of the control lizard
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