26,327 research outputs found
Crystal water induced switching of magnetically active orbitals in CuCl2
The dehydration of CuCl2*2(H2O) to CuCl2 leads to a dramatic change in
magnetic behavior and ground state. Combining density functional electronic
structure and model calculations with thermodynamical measurements we reveal
the microscopic origin of this unexpected incident -- a crystal water driven
switching of the magnetically active orbitals. This switching results in a
fundamental change of the coupling regime from a three-dimensional
antiferromagnet to a quasi one-dimensional behavior. CuCl2 can be well
described as a frustrated J1-J2 Heisenberg chain with ferromagnetic exchange J1
and J2/J1 ~ -1.5 for which a helical ground state is predicted.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 1 table (PRB, accepted
Fracture strength and Young's modulus of ZnO nanowires
The fracture strength of ZnO nanowires vertically grown on sapphire
substrates was measured in tensile and bending experiments. Nanowires with
diameters between 60 and 310 nm and a typical length of 2 um were manipulated
with an atomic force microscopy tip mounted on a nanomanipulator inside a
scanning electron microscope. The fracture strain of (7.7 +- 0.8)% measured in
the bending test was found close to the theoretical limit of 10% and revealed a
strength about twice as high as in the tensile test. From the tensile
experiments the Young's modulus could be measured to be within 30% of that of
bulk ZnO, contrary to the lower values found in literature.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
Detecting solar chameleons through radiation pressure
Light scalar fields can drive the accelerated expansion of the universe.
Hence, they are obvious dark energy candidates. To make such models compatible
with tests of General Relativity in the solar system and "fifth force" searches
on Earth, one needs to screen them. One possibility is the so-called
"chameleon" mechanism, which renders an effective mass depending on the local
matter density. If chameleon particles exist, they can be produced in the sun
and detected on Earth exploiting the equivalent of a radiation pressure. Since
their effective mass scales with the local matter density, chameleons can be
reflected by a dense medium if their effective mass becomes greater than their
total energy. Thus, under appropriate conditions, a flux of solar chameleons
may be sensed by detecting the total instantaneous momentum transferred to a
suitable opto-mechanical force/pressure sensor. We calculate the solar
chameleon spectrum and the reach in the chameleon parameter space of an
experiment using the preliminary results from a force/pressure sensor,
currently under development at INFN Trieste, to be mounted in the focal plane
of one of the X-Ray telescopes of the CAST experiment at CERN. We show, that
such an experiment signifies a pioneering effort probing uncharted chameleon
parameter space.Comment: revised versio
Efficiency of a thermodynamic motor at maximum power
Several recent theories address the efficiency of a macroscopic thermodynamic
motor at maximum power and question the so-called "Curzon-Ahlborn (CA)
efficiency." Considering the entropy exchanges and productions in an n-sources
motor, we study the maximization of its power and show that the controversies
are partly due to some imprecision in the maximization variables. When power is
maximized with respect to the system temperatures, these temperatures are
proportional to the square root of the corresponding source temperatures, which
leads to the CA formula for a bi-thermal motor. On the other hand, when power
is maximized with respect to the transitions durations, the Carnot efficiency
of a bi-thermal motor admits the CA efficiency as a lower bound, which is
attained if the duration of the adiabatic transitions can be neglected.
Additionally, we compute the energetic efficiency, or "sustainable efficiency,"
which can be defined for n sources, and we show that it has no other universal
upper bound than 1, but that in certain situations, favorable for power
production, it does not exceed 1/2
GaN/AlN Quantum Dots for Single Qubit Emitters
We study theoretically the electronic properties of -plane GaN/AlN quantum
dots (QDs) with focus on their potential as sources of single polarized photons
for future quantum communication systems. Within the framework of eight-band
k.p theory we calculate the optical interband transitions of the QDs and their
polarization properties. We show that an anisotropy of the QD confinement
potential in the basal plane (e.g. QD elongation or strain anisotropy) leads to
a pronounced linear polarization of the ground state and excited state
transitions. An externally applied uniaxial stress can be used to either induce
a linear polarization of the ground-state transition for emission of single
polarized photons or even to compensate the polarization induced by the
structural elongation.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures. Accepted at Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte
Lineshape of the thermopower of quantum dots
Quantum dots are an important model system for thermoelectric phenomena, and
may be used to enhance the thermal-to-electric energy conversion efficiency in
functional materials. It is therefore important to obtain a detailed
understanding of a quantum-dot's thermopower as a function of the Fermi energy.
However, so far it has proven difficult to take effects of co-tunnelling into
account in the interpretation of experimental data. Here we show that a
single-electron tunnelling model, using knowledge of the dot's electrical
conductance which in fact includes all-order co-tunneling effects, predicts the
thermopower of quantum dots as a function of the relevant energy scales, in
very good agreement with experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Low-voltage nanodomain writing in He-implanted lithium niobate crystals
A scanning force microscope tip is used to write ferroelectric domains in
He-implanted single-crystal lithium niobate and subsequently probe them by
piezoresponse force microscopy. Investigation of cross-sections of the samples
showed that the buried implanted layer, \,\textmu m below the surface,
is non-ferroelectric and can thus act as a barrier to domain growth. This
barrier enabled stable surface domains of \,\textmu m size to be written
in 500\,\textmu m-thick crystal substrates with voltage pulses of only 10\,V
applied to the tip
Stable expansion of high-grade serous ovarian cancer organoids requires a low-Wnt environment
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