5,538 research outputs found
Transition metal amides and imides as precursors to metal nitride and carbonitride thin films via chemical vapor deposition
Transition metal nitrides are known for their hardness and semiconducting properties. These properties have lead to their use as barrier layers, which prevent the diffusion of copper into silicon in gate electrodes. Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) of transition metal nitrides and carbonitrides at low temperatures (200-600 °C), using imido and amido complexes as precursors, has been reported. We have been investigating the synthesis of a range of tungsten imido and amido complexes, and zirconium cyclopentadienyl and amido compounds via transamination and metathesis reactions. We have investigated the potential of the compounds synthesised as single-source precursors to their respective metal nitrides via CVD, involving studies at low pressure (LPCVD) and using an aerosol-assisted (AACVD) technique
Superfluid vs Ferromagnetic Behaviour in a Bose Gas of Spin-1/2 Atoms
We study the thermodynamic phases of a gas of spin-1/2 atoms in the
Hartree-Fock approximation. Our main result is that, for repulsive or
weakly-attractive inter-component interaction strength, the superfluid and
ferromagnetic phase transitions occur at the same temperature. For
strongly-attractive inter-component interaction strength, however, the
ferromagnetic phase transition occurs at a higher temperature than the
superfluid phase transition. We also find that the presence of a condensate
acts as an effective magnetic field that polarizes the normal cloud. We finally
comment on the validity of the Hartree-Fock approximation in describing
different phenomena in this system.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Skyrmions in a ferromagnetic Bose-Einstein condensate
The recently realized multicomponent Bose-Einstein condensates provide
opportunities to explore the rich physics brought about by the spin degrees of
freedom. For instance, we can study spin waves and phase separation,
macroscopic quantum tunneling, Rabi oscillations, the coupling between spin
gradients and superfluid flow, squeezed spin states, vortices and other
topological excitations. Theoretically, there have been already some studies of
the ground-state properties of these systems and their line-like vortex
excitations. In analogy with nuclear physics or the quantum Hall effect, we
explore here the possibility of observing point-like topological excitations or
skyrmions. These are nontrivial spin textures that in principle can exist in a
spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. In particular, we investigate the stability of
skyrmions in a fictitious spin-1/2 condensate of Rb87 atoms. We find that
skyrmions can exist in this case only as a metastable state, but with a
lifetime of the order of, or even longer than, the typical lifetime of the
condensate itself. In addition to determining the size and the lifetime of the
skyrmion, we also present its spin texture and finally briefly consider its
dynamical properties.Comment: 4 pages (REVtex), 3 PDF figures. See also cond-mat/000237
Supermassive black holes do not correlate with dark matter halos of galaxies
Supermassive black holes have been detected in all galaxies that contain
bulge components when the galaxies observed were close enough so that the
searches were feasible. Together with the observation that bigger black holes
live in bigger bulges, this has led to the belief that black hole growth and
bulge formation regulate each other. That is, black holes and bulges
"coevolve". Therefore, reports of a similar correlation between black holes and
the dark matter halos in which visible galaxies are embedded have profound
implications. Dark matter is likely to be nonbaryonic, so these reports suggest
that unknown, exotic physics controls black hole growth. Here we show - based
in part on recent measurements of bulgeless galaxies - that there is almost no
correlation between dark matter and parameters that measure black holes unless
the galaxy also contains a bulge. We conclude that black holes do not correlate
directly with dark matter. They do not correlate with galaxy disks, either.
Therefore black holes coevolve only with bulges. This simplifies the puzzle of
their coevolution by focusing attention on purely baryonic processes in the
galaxy mergers that make bulges.Comment: 12 pages, 9 Postscript figures, 1 table; published in Nature (20
January 2011
A jetlet hierarchy for ideal fluid dynamics
European Research Council Advanced Grant 267382 FCCA
Characterization and Comparison of 2 Distinct Epidemic Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Clones of ST59 Lineage.
Sequence type (ST) 59 is an epidemic lineage of community-associated (CA) methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates. Taiwanese CA-MRSA isolates belong to ST59 and can be grouped into 2 distinct clones, a virulent Taiwan clone and a commensal Asian-Pacific clone. The Taiwan clone carries the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) genes and the staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec (SCCmec) VT, and is frequently isolated from patients with severe disease. The Asian-Pacific clone is PVL-negative, carries SCCmec IV, and a frequent colonizer of healthy children. Isolates of both clones were characterized by their ability to adhere to respiratory A549 cells, cytotoxicity to human neutrophils, and nasal colonization of a murine and murine sepsis models. Genome variation was determined by polymerase chain reaction of selected virulence factors and by multi-strain whole genome microarray. Additionally, the expression of selected factors was compared between the 2 clones. The Taiwan clone showed a much higher cytotoxicity to the human neutrophils and caused more severe septic infections with a high mortality rate in the murine model. The clones were indistinguishable in their adhesion to A549 cells and persistence of murine nasal colonization. The microarray data revealed that the Taiwan clone had lost the ø3-prophage that integrates into the β-hemolysin gene and includes staphylokinase- and enterotoxin P-encoding genes, but had retained the genes for human immune evasion, scn and chps. Production of the virulence factors did not differ significantly in the 2 clonal groups, although more α-toxin was expressed in Taiwan clone isolates from pneumonia patients. In conclusion, the Taiwan CA-MRSA clone was distinguished by enhanced virulence in both humans and an animal infection model. The evolutionary acquisition of PVL, the higher expression of α-toxin, and possibly the loss of a large portion of the β-hemolysin-converting prophage likely contribute to its higher pathogenic potential than the Asian-Pacific clone
Coating and Density Distribution Analysis of Commercial Ciprofloxacin Hydrochloride Monohydrate Tablets by Terahertz Pulsed Spectroscopy and Imaging
Terahertz pulsed spectroscopy was used to qualitatively detect ciprofloxacin hydrochloride monohydrate (CPFX·HCl·H2O) in tablets, and terahertz pulsed imaging (TPI) was used to scrutinize not only the coating state but also the density distribution of tablets produced by several manufacturers. TPI was also used to evaluate distinguishability among these tablets. The same waveform, which is a unique terahertz absorption spectrum derived from pure CPFX·HCl·H2O, was observed in all of the crushed tablets and in pure CPFX·HCl·H2O. TPI can provide information about the physical states of coated tablets. Information about the uniformity of parameters such as a coating thickness and density can be obtained. In this study, the authors investigated the coating thickness distributions of film-coated CPFX·HCl·H2O from four different manufacturers. Unique terahertz images of the density distributions in these commercial tablets were obtained. Moreover, B-scan (depth) images show the status of the coating layer in each tablet and the density map inside the tablets. These features would reflect differences resulting from different tablet-manufacturing processes
A disk of dust and molecular gas around a high-mass protostar
The processes leading to the birth of low-mass stars such as our Sun have
been well studied, but the formation of high-mass (> 8 x Sun's mass) stars has
heretofore remained poorly understood. Recent observational studies suggest
that high-mass stars may form in essentially the same way as low-mass stars,
namely via an accretion process, instead of via merging of several low-mass (<
8 Msun) stars. However, there is as yet no conclusive evidence. Here, we report
the discovery of a flattened disk-like structure observed at submillimeter
wavelengths, centered on a massive 15 Msun protostar in the Cepheus-A region.
The disk, with a radius of about 330 astronomical units (AU) and a mass of 1 to
8 Msun, is detected in dust continuum as well as in molecular line emission.
Its perpendicular orientation to, and spatial coincidence with the central
embedded powerful bipolar radio jet, provides the best evidence yet that
massive stars form via disk accretion in direct analogy to the formation of
low-mass stars
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