General circulation in the atmosphere of Venus driven by polar and diurnal variations of surface temperature

Mathematical model for Venus atmosphere circulation pattern determined by polar and diurnal temperature variation

The vibrational predissociation spectroscopy of hydrogen cluster ions

The first infrared spectra of protonated hydrogen clusters in the gas phase have been observed. Predissociation spectra were taken with a tandem mass spectrometer: mass selected hydrogen cluster ions were irradiated inside a rf ion trap by a tunable infrared laser, and the fragment ions created by photodissociation of the clusters were mass selected and detected. Spectra for each product channel were measured by counting fragment ions as a function of laser frequency. Low resolution spectra (Deltanu=10 cm^−1) in the region from 3800 to 4200 cm^−1 were observed for the ions H + 5, H + 7, and H + 9 at 3910, 3980, and 4020 cm−1, respectively. A band was also observed for H + 5 at 3532 cm^−1. No rotational structure was resolved. The frequencies of the band maxima agree well with the frequencies predicted by previous ab initio calculations for the highest modes

Infrared spectra of the cluster ions H7O⁺₃·H2 and H9O⁺₄·H2

Infrared spectra of hydrated hydronium ions weakly bound to an H2 molecule, specifically H7O + 3 ·H2 and H9O + 4 ·H2, have been observed. Mass-selected parent ions, trapped in a radio frequency ion trap, are excited by a tunable infrared laser; following absorption, the complex predissociates with loss of the H2, and the resulting fragment ions are detected. Spectra have been taken from 3000 to 4000 cm^−1, with a resolution of 1.2 cm^−1. They are compared to recent theoretical and experimental spectra of the hydronium ion hydrates alone. Binding an H2 molecule to these clusters should only weakly perturb their vibrations; if so, our spectra should be similar to spectra of the hydrated hydronium ions H7O + 3 and H9O + 4

Investigating the Physical Origin of Unconventional Low-Energy Excitations and Pseudogap Phenomena in Cuprate Superconductors

We investigate the physical origin of unconventional low-energy excitations in cuprate superconductors by considering the effect of coexisting competing orders (CO) and superconductivity (SC) and of quantum fluctuations and other bosonic modes on the low-energy charge excitation spectra. By incorporating both SC and CO in the bare Green's function and quantum phase fluctuations in the self-energy, we can consistently account for various empirical findings in both the hole- and electron-type cuprates, including the excess subgap quasiparticle density of states, ``dichotomy'' in the fluctuation-renormalized quasiparticle spectral density in momentum space, and the occurrence and magnitude of a low-energy pseudogap being dependent on the relative gap strength of CO and SC. Comparing these calculated results with experiments of ours and others, we suggest that there are two energy scales associated with the pseudogap phenomena, with the high-energy pseudogap probably of magnetic origin and the low-energy pseudogap associated with competing orders.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Invited paper for the 2006 Taiwan International Conference on Superconductivity. Correspondence author: Nai-Chang Yeh (e-mail: [email protected]

A parallel VLSI architecture for a digital filter of arbitrary length using Fermat number transforms

A parallel architecture for computation of the linear convolution of two sequences of arbitrary lengths using the Fermat number transform (FNT) is described. In particular a pipeline structure is designed to compute a 128-point FNT. In this FNT, only additions and bit rotations are required. A standard barrel shifter circuit is modified so that it performs the required bit rotation operation. The overlap-save method is generalized for the FNT to compute a linear convolution of arbitrary length. A parallel architecture is developed to realize this type of overlap-save method using one FNT and several inverse FNTs of 128 points. The generalized overlap save method alleviates the usual dynamic range limitation in FNTs of long transform lengths. Its architecture is regular, simple, and expandable, and therefore naturally suitable for VLSI implementation

Experimental investigation of the asymmetric spectroscopic characteristics of electron- and hole-doped cuprates

Quasiparticle tunneling spectroscopic studies of electron- (n-type) and hole-doped (p-type) cuprates reveal that the pairing symmetry, pseudogap phenomenon and spatial homogeneity of the superconducting order parameter are all non-universal. We compare our studies of p-type YBa2Cu3O7-delta and n-type infinite-layer Sr(0.9)Ln(0.1)CuO(2) (Ln = La, Gd) systems with results from p-type Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox and n-type one-layer Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4 cuprates, and attribute various non-universal behavior to different competing orders in p-type and n-type cuprates

Infrared spectroscopy of the cluster ions H⁺₃·(H2)n

The vibrational spectra of the clusters H + 3(H2)n were observed near 4000 cm−1 by vibrational predissociation spectroscopy. Spectra of mass-selected clusters were obtained by trapping the ions in a radio frequency ion trap, exciting vibrational transitions of the cluster ions to predissociating levels, and detecting the fragment ions with a mass spectrometer. Low resolution bands of the solvent H2 stretches were observed for the clusters of one to six H2 coordinated to an H + 3 ion. The red shift of these vibrations relative to the monomer H2 frequency supported the model of H + 9 as an H + 3 with a complete inner solvation shell of three H2, one bound to each corner of the ion. Two additional bands of H + 5 were observed, one assigned as the H + 3 symmetric stretch, and the other as a combination or overtone band. High-resolution scans (0.5 and 0.08 cm−1) of H + n, n=5, 7, and 9 yielded no observable rotational structure, a result of either spectral congestion or rapid cluster dissociation. The band contour of the H + 5 band changed upon cooling the internal degrees of freedom, but the peaks remained featureless. The observed frequencies of H + 7 and H + 9 agreed well with ab initio predictions, but those of H + 5 did not. This deviation is discussed in terms of the large expected anharmonicity of the proton bound dimer H + 5

Scanning tunneling spectroscopic studies of the pairing state of cuprate superconductors

Quasiparticle tunneling spectra of both hole-doped (p-type) and electron-doped (n-type) cuprates are studied using a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. The results reveal that neither the pairing symmetry nor the pseudogap phenomenon is universal among all cuprates, and that the response of n-type cuprates to quantum impurities is drastically different from that of the p-type cuprates. The only ubiquitous features among all cuprates appear to be the strong electronic correlation and the nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic Cu2+-Cu2+ coupling in the CuO2 planes

Thin-ribbon tapered coupler for dielectric waveguides

A recent discovery shows that a high-dielectric constant, low-loss, solid material can be made into a ribbon-like waveguide structure to yield an attenuation constant of less than 0.02 dB/m for single-mode guidance of millimeter/submillimeter waves. One of the crucial components that must be invented in order to guarantee the low-loss utilization of this dielectric-waveguide guiding system is the excitation coupler. The traditional tapered-to-a-point coupler for a dielectric rod waveguide fails when the dielectric constant of the dielectric waveguide is large. This article presents a new way to design a low-loss coupler for a high- or low-dielectric constant dielectric waveguide for millimeter or submillimeter waves