Maximal Complexifications of Certain Riemannian Homogeneous Manifolds

A characterization of maximal domains of existence of adapted complex structures for Riemannian homogeneous manifolds under certain extensibility assumptions on their geodesic flow is given. This is applied to generalized Heisenberg groups and naturally reductive Riemannian homogeneous spaces. As an application it is shown that the case of generalized Heisenberg groups yields examples of maximal domains of definition for the adapted complex structure which are are neither holomorphically separable, nor holomorphically convex.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX-fil

Fiber-top cantilevers: a new sensor on the tip of a fiber

Micromachined cantilevers are the most elementary example of miniaturized sensors. A free-standing rectangular beam can often detect changes in the chemical, biological and physical properties of the surroundings with sensitivity comparable to much more complicated devices. It is therefore not surprising that this simple design is still at the heart of several scientific instruments

Halving the Casimir force with conductive oxides

The possibility to modify the strength of the Casimir effect by tailoring the dielectric functions of the interacting surfaces is regarded as a unique opportunity in the development of Micro- and NanoElectroMechanical Systems. In air, however, one expects that, unless noble metals are used, the electrostatic force arising from trapped charges overcomes the Casimir attraction, leaving no room for exploitation of Casimir force engineering at ambient conditions. Here we show that, in the presence of a conductive oxide, the Casimir force can be the dominant interaction even in air, and that the use of conductive oxides allows one to reduce the Casimir force up to a factor of 2 when compared to noble metals.Comment: modified version, accepted for publication in Phys Rev Let

Corrosion Inhibition of AA2024-T3 by Vanadates

The speciation of vanadate solutions and the resultinginhibition of oxygen reduction and corrosion of AA2024-T3 wereinvestigated. 51V NMR is very useful for assessing vanadatespeciation. Clear metavanadate solutions contain nodecavanadate, which forms whenever the pH was decreased by theaddition of acid. Orange decavanadate solutions contain nomonovanadate, even when the pH is adjusted to high values.Monovanadate is a potent inhibitor in contrast to decavanadate. Inhibition by monovanadate seems to result from an adsorptionmechanism rather than reduction. Monovanadate effectivelyprotects S phase particles. Aging of high-pH decavanadatesolutions does not improve the inhibition performance or resultin complete depolymerization of the decavanadate

No anomalous scaling in electrostatic calibrations for Casimir force measurements

In a recent paper (Phys.Rev.A78, 020101(R) (2008)), Kim at al. have reported a large anomaly in the scaling law of the electrostatic interaction between a sphere and a plate, which was observed during the calibration of their Casimir force set-up. Here we experimentally demonstrate that in proper electrostatic calibrations the scaling law follows the behavior expected from elementary electrostatic arguments, even when the electrostatic voltage that one must apply to minimize the force (typically ascribed to contact potentials) depends on the separation between the surfaces.Comment: Final versio

Fiber-top atomic force microscope

We present the implementation of an atomic force microscope (AFM) based on fiber-top design. Our results demonstrate that the performances of fiber-top AFMs in contact mode are comparable to those of similar commercially available instruments. Our device thus represents an interesting\ud alternative to existing AFMs, particularly for applications outside specialized research laboratories, where a compact, user-friendly, and versatile tool might often be preferred

Aluminum Alloy Corrosion Inhibition by Vanadates

The inhibition of Al alloy corrosion by vanadates was studied in this work. Vanadium speciation is very complicated and vital to the inhibition efficacy. Critical conditions for decavanadate polymerization from clear metavanadate solutions were investigated. Decavanadate only formed when metavanadate was added to solutions of pH 3 or less. It was not possible to change the pH of a metavanadate solution without forming decavanadates, creating an orange-colored solution. According to ^51 V nuclear magnetic resonance, monovanadates were present only in clear metavanadate solutions; orange solutions always contained decavanadates and never contained monovanadates. Orange decavanadate solutions containing 0.5 M NaCl at pH 8.71 exhibited no significant inhibition of the oxygen reduction reaction and increasing decavanadate concentration was detrimental. In contrast, clear metavanadate solutions containing monovanadate exhibited strong inhibition of the oxygen reduction reaction, to a level similar to chromate. At a fixed pH, increased NaVO3 concentration in clear metavanadate solutions increased inhibition efficiency.This work was partially funded by AFOSR under award F 49620-02-0321, Major J. Gresham, Ph.D., contract monitor

A study of the mechanisms of corrosion inhibition of AA2024-T3 by vanadates using the split cell technique

The mechanisms of corrosion inhibition of AA2024-T3 by vanadates were studied in this work using the split cell technique and polarization curves. The electrochemical behavior of clear solutions containing metavanadates and orange solutions containing decavanadates was clearly distinctive. Injection of metavanadates to the cathode side of the different split cell setups greatly reduced the galvanic current, indicating a potent inhibition of the oxygen reduction kinetics. The galvanic current never exhibited a transient current peak, suggesting that metavanadates inhibit AA2024-T3 corrosion by a mechanism that does not involve electrochemical reduction. Injection of metavanadate to the anode side of the different split cells had no effect on the galvanic current. Injection of orange decavanadate to the cathode side of the AA2024-T3 split cell resulted in a large current peak, associated with the electrochemical reduction of decavanadate. However, decavanadates did not impart significant corrosion protection.This work was partially funded by AFOSR under award F 49620-02-0321, Major J. Gresham, PhD, contract monitor. JK’s travel expenses were paid by NATO under grant PST.CLG.979370

Understanding the role of oxygen-vacancy defects in Cu₂O(111) from first-principle calculations

The presence of defects, such as copper and oxygen vacancies, in cuprous oxide films determines their characteristic carrier conductivity and consequently their application as semiconducting systems. There are still open questions on the induced electronic re-distribution, including the formation of polarons. Indeed, to accurately reproduce the structural and electronic properties at the cuprous oxide surface, very large slab models and theoretical approaches that go beyond the standard generalized gradient corrected density functional theory are needed. In this work we investigate oxygen vacancies formed in proximity of a reconstructed Cu$_{2}$O(111) surface, where the outermost unsaturated copper atoms are removed, thus forming non-stoichiometric surface layers with copper vacancies. We address simultaneously surface and bulk properties by modelling a thick and symmetric slab, to find that hybrid exchange-correlation functionals are needed to describe the oxygen vacancy in this system. Our simulations show that the formation of oxygen vacancies is favoured in the sub-surface layer. Moreover, the oxygen vacancy leads to a splitting and left-shift of the shallow hole states in the gap, which are associated with the deficiency of copper at the surface. These findings suggest that surface electronic structure and reactivity are sensitive to the presence of oxygen vacancies, also when the latter are formed deeper within the film