Electron Transport Properties of Composite Ferroelectrics

We study electron transport in composite ferroelectrics --- materials consisting of metallic grains embedded in a ferroelectric matrix. Due to its complex tunable morphology the thermodynamic properties of these materials can be essentially different from bulk or thin-film ferroelectrics. We calculate the conductivity of composite ferroelectrics by taking into account the interplay between charge localization, multiple grain boundaries, strong Coulomb repulsion, and ferroelectric order parameter. We show that the ferroelectricity plays a crucial role on the temperature behavior of the conductivity in the vicinity of the ferroelectric-paraelectric transition.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Nucleation of Spontaneous Vortices in Trapped Fermi Gases Undergoing a BCS-BEC Crossover

We study the spontaneous formation of vortices during the superfluid condensation in a trapped fermionic gas subjected to a rapid thermal quench via evaporative cooling. Our work is based on the numerical solution of the time dependent crossover Ginzburg-Landau equation coupled to the heat diffusion equation. We quantify the evolution of condensate density and vortex length as a function of a crossover phase parameter from BCS to BEC. The more interesting phenomena occur somewhat nearer to the BEC regime and should be experimentally observable; during the propagation of the cold front, the increase in condensate density leads to the formation of supercurrents towards the center of the condensate as well as possible condensate volume oscillations.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Thermoelectric performance of weakly coupled granular materials

We study thermoelectric properties of inhomogeneous nanogranular materials for weak tunneling conductance between the grains, g_t < 1. We calculate the thermopower and figure of merit taking into account the shift of the chemical potential and the asymmetry of the density of states in the vicinity of the Fermi surface. We show that the weak coupling between the grains leads to a high thermopower and low thermal conductivity resulting in relatively high values of the figure of merit on the order of one. We estimate the temperature at which the figure of merit has its maximum value for two- and three-dimensional samples. Our results are applicable for many emerging materials, including artificially self-assembled nanoparticle arrays.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure