Proximity effect and strong coupling superconductivity in nanostructures built with an STM

We present high resolution tunneling spectroscopy data at very low temperatures on superconducting nanostructures of lead built with an STM. By applying magnetic fields, superconductivity is restricted to length scales of the order of the coherence length. We measure the tunneling conductance and analyze the phonon structure and the low energy DOS. We demonstrate the influence of the geometry of the system on the magnetic field dependence of the tunneling density of states, which is gapless in a large range of fields. The behavior of the features in the tunneling conductance associated to phonon modes are explained within current models.Comment: 4 figures, 4 page

Point-contact spectroscopy on URu2_2Si2_2

Tunnel and point contact experiments have been made in a URu$_2$Si$_2$ single crystal along the c-axis. The experiments were performed changing temperature and contact size in a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope. A resonance develops at the Fermi level at $T\sim 60$ K. This resonance splits and becomes asymmetric when the 17.5 K phase transition is crossed. These results are consistent with the existence of Kondo like bound states of the U$^{4+}$ ionic configurations and the conduction electrons. Below the transition, these configurations are split by the development of quadrupolar ordering. The peak separation can be interpreted as a direct measurement of the order parameter. Measurements on a policrystalline UAu_2Si_2$ sample are also reported, with a comparative study of the behavior of both materials.Comment: 4 pages (Latex) + 2 postscript figure

Full Circle or Spiralling Out of Control?: State Violence and the Control of Urbanisation in Papua New Guinea

There is an administrative reluctance to recognise the permanency of urban settlement in Papua New Guinea. This reluctance, evident since the 1960s, has been characteristic of both the colonial and post-colonial administrations. Opposition to some facets of urbanisation continues today, despite growing population and land pressures in most rural areas and real problems of landlessness emerging in particular rural areas. Colonial control of urban populations has been replicated in contemporary times, often in more draconian form. Eviction of urban settlers has been tied to issues of crime and urban respectability, and lingering perceptions that Melanesians should be rural residents. The growth of informal settlements and urbanisation are not seen as issues of urban planning, nor is the context of urban migration linked to socioeconomic inequality, hence other forms of urban policy are largely absent. Strengthening alliances between land-owners and the state (especially police and provincial administrations) have thus emphasised intraurban inequality and hampered national development

A first-principles approach to electrical transport in atomic-scale nanostructures

We present a first-principles numerical implementation of Landauer formalism for electrical transport in nanostructures characterized down to the atomic level. The novelty and interest of our method lies essentially on two facts. First of all, it makes use of the versatile Gaussian98 code, which is widely used within the quantum chemistry community. Secondly, it incorporates the semi-infinite electrodes in a very generic and efficient way by means of Bethe lattices. We name this method the Gaussian Embedded Cluster Method (GECM). In order to make contact with other proposed implementations, we illustrate our technique by calculating the conductance in some well-studied systems such as metallic (Al and Au) nanocontacts and C-atom chains connected to metallic (Al and Au) electrodes. In the case of Al nanocontacts the conductance turns out to be quite dependent on the detailed atomic arrangement. On the contrary, the conductance in Au nanocontacts presents quite universal features. In the case of C chains, where the self-consistency guarantees the local charge transfer and the correct alignment of the molecular and electrode levels, we find that the conductance oscillates with the number of atoms in the chain regardless of the type of electrode. However, for short chains and Al electrodes the even-odd periodicity is reversed at equilibrium bond distances.Comment: 14 pages, two-column format, submitted to PR

Renal replacement therapy in Europe : A summary of the 2013 ERA-EDTA Registry Annual Report with a focus on diabetes mellitus

Publisher Copyright: © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of ERA-EDTA.Background: This article provides a summary of the 2013 European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association (ERA-EDTA) Registry Annual Report (available at http://www.era-edta-reg.org), with a focus on patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) as the cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Methods: In 2015, the ERA-EDTA Registry received data on renal replacement therapy (RRT) for ESRD from 49 national or regional renal registries in 34 countries in Europe and bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Individual patient datawere provided by 31 registries, while 18 registries provided aggregated data. The total population covered by the participating registries comprised 650 million people. Results: In total, 72 933 patients started RRT for ESRD within the countries and regions reporting to the ERA-EDTA Registry, resulting in an overall incidence of 112 per million population (pmp). The overall prevalence on 31 December 2013was 738 pmp (n = 478 990). Patients with DM as the cause of ESRD comprised 24% of the incident RRT patients (26 pmp) and 17% of the prevalent RRT patients (122 pmp).Whencompared with the USA, the incidence of patients starting RRTpmpsecondary toDMin Europe was five times lower and the incidence of RRT due to other causes of ESRD was two times lower. Overall, 19 426 kidney transplants were performed (30 pmp). The 5-year adjusted survival for all RRT patients was 60.9% [95% confidence interval (CI) 60.5-61.3] and 50.6% (95% CI 49.9-51.2) for patients with DM as the cause of ESRD.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Cathodoluminescence properties of La2MoO6:Ln3+ (Ln: Eu, Dy, and Sm) phosphors

La2MoO6 orange-red phosphors with high efficiency incorporated with Eu, Dy and Sm have been synthesized through a gel combustion method. The influences of rare earth doping in synthesized samples were analysed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and cathodoluminescence. Rare earth doped La2MoO6 samples show strong emission bands in the range of 400–750 nm and optimal doping concentration for all samples was 2 mol%. La2MoO6 host doped Eu ion showed intense and predominant emission peaks in 450–750 nm range. The electrical multipolar interaction contributed to the non-radiative energy transfer between Eu3+ ions in La2MoO6 host matrix. Sm doped La2MoO6 host exhibited orange-red CL emission peaks at 564, 608, 652 and 708 nm La2MoO6:Dy3+ phosphor displayed emissions at 484, 574 and 670 nm, respectively. The observed intense and sharp emission peaks indicate that La2MoO6 is promising host for lanthanides doped phosphor materials in the applications of optoelectronic. © 2020 Elsevier Lt

Luminescence characteristics of Dy3+ incorporated zinc borate powders

We have synthesized powder samples of Dy3+ doped zinc borates by nitric acid method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) techniques were utilized to examine the structure and morphological observation of the samples. Luminescence characteristics of the samples were investigated using room temperature (RT) cathodoluminescence (CL) and radioluminescence (RL) measurements under excitation with electron beam and X-rays, respectively. The presence of small amounts of Dy3+ incorporated in the host lattice does not affect the structure of the prepared samples remarkably. The CL and RL spectra showed the characteristic emissions of Dy3+(magnetic dipole transition of 4F9/2 ›6H11/2 Blue; forced electric dipole transition of 4F9/2› 6H13/2 Yellow; 4F9/2 ›6H11/2 Red; 4F9/2 ›(6H9/2 +6H11/2) infrared). Thermoluminescence (TL) method was also conducted to determine the effects of various concentrations of Dy3+ on the TL properties of ZnB2O4. The TL glow peak of beta irradiated ZnB2O4:Dy3+ phosphors is a well-defined and centered at around 96 °C with a constant heating rate of 2 °C/s. Initial rise method was employed to observed main TL glow curve for determining the activation energy (Ea) and the frequency factor (s). © 2017 Elsevier B.V

Luminescence studies of zinc borates activated with different concentrations of Ce and La under x-ray and electron excitation

Several ZnB2O4 powder samples having dopants concentrations of 0.1, 0.01, 0.04 wt% Ce and La were prepared using the nitric acid method via the starting oxides. Several complementary methods such as powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal analyses environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), Radioluminescence (RL) and Cathodoluminescence (CL) techniques were used. Unique luminescence properties of Ce doped ZnB2O4 powder samples are reported for the first time. A new luminescence bands appearing in red part of the spectrum and having all the characteristics of Ce3+ were obtained from RL results. Changing the Ce and La concentration of 0.01–0.1 wt% leads to an increase in RL and CL intensities of Ce3+ and La3+ ions and also CL emission spectra of ZnB2O4 show gradual shift towards longer wavelength. When we compare the luminescence intensity of the samples it is seen that Ce doped ZnB2O4 has the highest intense whereas La doped ZnB2O4 has the lowest one. However, emission spectra of both Ce and La doped samples kept unchanged. © 2017 Elsevier Lt

Preparation and cathodoluminescence characteristics of rare earth activated BaAl2O4 phosphors

Undoped and Pr, Sm and Tb activated BaAl2O4 phosphors have been synthesized by solid state reaction method and combustion method. The structure and morphological observation of the phosphor samples were monitored by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) coupled to an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS). The all diffraction peaks are well assigned to standard data card (PDF?17–306). Emission properties of the samples were explored using light emission induced by an electron beam (i.e cathodoluminescence, CL) at room temperature (RT). Undoped BaAl2O4 sample exhibits a broad defect emission from 300 to 500 nm from the aluminate defect centres. CL spectra recorded at room temperature display that the as-prepared BaAl2O4:Ln (Ln=Pr, Sm and Tb) phosphors exhibit different luminescence colors coming from different rare earth activator ions. The transition 4G5/2 › 6H7/2 located at 606 and 610 nm for Sm3+ can occur as hypersensitive transition having the selection rule ?J = ± 1. For the Tb3+ doped samples, they exhibit D45 green line emissions. The proposed luminescent mechanisms of all doped rare earth ions are also discussed. © 2018 Elsevier LtdDeanship of Scientific Research, King Faisal University Jazan UniversityThis study is based on the research supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR) at Jazan University, KSA and this financial assistance from Jazan University is gratefully acknowledged

Cathodoluminescence and thermoluminescence of ZnB2O4:Eu3+ phosphors prepared via wet-chemical synthesis

In present work, a series of Eu doped zinc borate, ZnB2O4, phosphors prepared via wet chemical synthesis and their structural, surface morphology, cathodoluminescence (CL) and thermoluminescence (TL) properties have been studied. Phase purity and crystal structure of as-prepared samples are confirmed by X-ray diffraction measurements (XRD) and they were well consistent with PDF card No. 39-1126, indicating the formation of pure phase. The thermoluminescence (TL) behaviors of Eu activated ZnB2O4 host lattice are studied for various beta doses ranging from 0.1 to 10 Gy. The high-temperature peak of Eu activated sample located at 192 °C exhibited a linear dose response in the range of 0.1–10 Gy. Initial rise (IR) and peak shape (PS) methods were used to determine the activation energies of the trapping centres. The effects of the variable heating rate on TL behaviour of Eu activated ZnB2O4 were also studied. When excited using an electron beam induced light emission (i.e cathodoluminescence, CL) at room temperature (RT), the as-prepared phosphors generate reddish-orange color due to predominant emission peaks of Eu3+ ions located at 576–710 nm assigned to the 5D0›7FJ (J=1,2,3, and 4) transitions. The maximum CL intensity for Eu3+ ions at 614 nm with transition 5D0›7F2 was reached Eu3+ concentration of 5 mol%; quenching occurred at higher concentrations. Strong emission peak for Eu3+ ions at 614 nm with transition 5D0›7F2 is observed. The CL experimental data indicate that ZnB2O4:Eu3+ phosphor as an orange-red emitting phosphor may be promising luminescence materials for the optoelectronic applications. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l