2,047 research outputs found
Experimental realization of SQUIDs with topological insulator junctions
We demonstrate topological insulator (BiTe) dc SQUIDs, based on
superconducting Nb leads coupled to nano-fabricated Nb-BiTe-Nb
Josephson junctions. The high reproducibility and controllability of the
fabrication process allows the creation of dc SQUIDs with parameters that are
in agreement with design values. Clear critical current modulation of both the
junctions and the SQUID with applied magnetic fields have been observed. We
show that the SQUIDs have a periodicity in the voltage-flux characteristic of
, of relevance to the ongoing pursuit of realizing interferometers for
the detection of Majorana fermions in superconductor- topological insulator
structures
Optimizing the Majorana character of SQUIDs with topologically non-trivial barriers
We have modeled SQUIDs with topologically non-trivial superconducting
junctions and performed an optimization study on the Majorana fermion
detection. We find that the SQUID parameters beta_L, and beta_C can be used to
increase the ratio of Majorana tunneling to standard Cooper pair tunneling by
more than two orders of magnitude. Most importantly, we show that dc SQUIDs
including topologically trivial components can still host strong signatures of
the Majorana fermion. This paves the way towards the experimental verification
of the theoretically predicted Majorana fermion.Comment: accepted by Physical Review
Josephson supercurrent in a topological insulator without a bulk shunt
A Josephson supercurrent has been induced into the three-dimensional
topological insulator Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.7Se1.3. We show that the transport in
Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.7Se1.3 exfoliated flakes is dominated by surface states and that
the bulk conductivity can be neglected at the temperatures where we study the
proximity induced superconductivity. We prepared Josephson junctions with
widths in the order of 40 nm and lengths in the order of 50 to 80 nm on several
Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.7Se1.3 flakes and measured down to 30 mK. The Fraunhofer patterns
unequivocally reveal that the supercurrent is a Josephson supercurrent. The
measured critical currents are reproducibly observed on different devices and
upon multiple cooldowns, and the critical current dependence on temperature as
well as magnetic field can be well explained by diffusive transport models and
geometric effects
Higher levels of CO2 during late incubation alter the hatch time of chicken embryos
status: publishe
Person-Specific Non-shared Environmental Influences in Intra-individual Variability : A Preliminary Case of Daily School Feelings in Monozygotic Twins
Most behavioural genetic studies focus on genetic and environmental influences on inter-individual phenotypic differences at the population level. The growing collection of intensive longitudinal data in social and behavioural science offers a unique opportunity to examine genetic and environmental influences on intra-individual phenotypic variability at the individual level. The current study introduces a novel idiographic approach and one novel method to investigate genetic and environmental influences on intra-individual variability by a simple empirical demonstration. Person-specific non-shared environmental influences on intra-individual variability of daily school feelings were estimated using time series data from twenty-one pairs of monozygotic twins (age = 10 years, 16 female pairs) over two consecutive weeks. Results showed substantial inter-individual heterogeneity in person-specific non-shared environmental influences. The current study represents a first step in investigating environmental influences on intra-individual variability with an idiographic approach, and provides implications for future behavioural genetic studies to examine developmental processes from a microscopic angle
Vortex trapping and expulsion in thin-film YBCO strips
A scanning SQUID microscope was used to image vortex trapping as a function
of the magnetic induction during cooling in thin-film YBCO strips for strip
widths W from 2 to 50 um. We found that vortices were excluded from the strips
when the induction Ba was below a critical induction Bc. We present a simple
model for the vortex exclusion process which takes into account the vortex -
antivortex pair production energy as well as the vortex Meissner and
self-energies. This model predicts that the real density n of trapped vortices
is given by n=(Ba-BK)/Phi0 with BK = 1.65Phi0/W^2 and Phi0 = h/2e the
superconducting flux quantum. This prediction is in good agreement with our
experiments on YBCO, as well as with previous experiments on thin-film strips
of niobium. We also report on the positions of the trapped vortices. We found
that at low densities the vortices were trapped in a single row near the
centers of the strips, with the relative intervortex spacing distribution width
decreasing as the vortex density increased, a sign of longitudinal ordering.
The critical induction for two rows forming in the 35 um wide strip was (2.89 +
1.91-0.93)Bc, consistent with a numerical prediction
Optics-less smart sensors and a possible mechanism of cutaneous vision in nature
Optics-less cutaneous (skin) vision is not rare among living organisms,
though its mechanisms and capabilities have not been thoroughly investigated.
This paper demonstrates, using methods from statistical parameter estimation
theory and numerical simulations, that an array of bare sensors with a natural
cosine-law angular sensitivity arranged on a flat or curved surface has the
ability to perform imaging tasks without any optics at all. The working
principle of this type of optics-less sensor and the model developed here for
determining sensor performance may be used to shed light upon possible
mechanisms and capabilities of cutaneous vision in nature
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