Dynamics of Charge Flow in the Channel of a Thin-Film Field-Effect Transistor

The local conductivity in the channel of a thin-film field-effect transistor is proportional to the charge density induced by the local gate voltage. We show how this determines the frequency- and position-dependence of the charge induced in the channel for the case of "zero applied current": zero drain-source voltage with charge induced by a square-wave voltage applied to the gate, assuming constant mobility and negligible contact impedances. An approximate expression for the frequency dependence of the induced charge in the center of the channel can be conveniently used to determine the charge mobility. Fits of electro-optic measurements of the induced charge in organic transistors are used as examples.Comment: 9 pages including table + 3 figures; submitted to Jnl. Appl. Phy

Heavy Water Obtained by the Combustion of Dried Biological Specimens

Dry, finely divided plant and animal tissues were oxidized by passage over hot copper oxide; the aqueous condensates were first distilled from potassium permanganate and then alone. If necessary, oxidation and distillation were repeated until there was no significant change in density. Densities were determined by a modification of the submerged magnetic float procedure, and the accuracy was one part per million. The specimens examined were practically all of the chief organs of cattle; yeasts; dairy products; and some parts of plants like corn and melons. The study is being extended to other biological specimens, normal and pathological

The shape of invasion perclation clusters in random and correlated media

The shape of two-dimensional invasion percolation clusters are studied numerically for both non-trapping (NTIP) and trapping (TIP) invasion percolation processes. Two different anisotropy quantifiers, the anisotropy parameter and the asphericity are used for probing the degree of anisotropy of clusters. We observe that in spite of the difference in scaling properties of NTIP and TIP, there is no difference in the values of anisotropy quantifiers of these processes. Furthermore, we find that in completely random media, the invasion percolation clusters are on average slightly less isotropic than standard percolation clusters. Introducing isotropic long-range correlations into the media reduces the isotropy of the invasion percolation clusters. The effect is more pronounced for the case of persisting long-range correlations. The implication of boundary conditions on the shape of clusters is another subject of interest. Compared to the case of free boundary conditions, IP clusters of conventional rectangular geometry turn out to be more isotropic. Moreover, we see that in conventional rectangular geometry the NTIP clusters are more isotropic than TIP clusters

Nematic Ordering of Rigid Rods in a Gravitational Field

The isotropic-to-nematic transition in an athermal solution of long rigid rods subject to a gravitational (or centrifugal) field is theoretically considered in the Onsager approximation. The new feature emerging in the presence of gravity is a concentration gradient which coupled with the nematic ordering. For rodlike molecules this effect becomes noticeable at centrifugal acceleration g ~ 10^3--10^4 m/s^2, while for biological rodlike objects, such as tobacco mosaic virus, TMV, the effect is important even for normal gravitational acceleration conditions. Rods are concentrated near the bottom of the vessel which sometimes leads to gravity induced nematic ordering. The concentration range corresponding to phase separation increases with increasing g. In the region of phase separation the local rod concentration, as well as the order parameter, follow a step function with height.Comment: Full article http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v60/i3/p2973_

On the Microscopic Origin of Cholesteric Pitch

We present a microscopic analysis of the instability of the nematic phase to chirality when molecular chirality is introduced perturbatively. We show that previously neglected short-range biaxial correlations play a crucial role in determining the cholesteric pitch. We propose an order parameter which quantifies the chirality of a molecule.Comment: RevTeX 3.0, 4 pages, one included eps figure. Published versio

Order parameter for two-dimensional critical systems with boundaries

Conformal transformations can be used to obtain the order parameter for two-dimensional systems at criticality in finite geometries with fixed boundary conditions on a connected boundary. To the known examples of this class (such as the disk and the infinite strip) we contribute the case of a rectangle. We show that the order parameter profile for simply connected boundaries can be represented as a universal function (independent of the criticality model) raised to the power eta/2. The universal function can be determined from the Gaussian model or equivalently a problem in two-dimensional electrostatics. We show that fitting the order parameter profile to the theoretical form gives an accurate route to the determination of eta. We perform numerical simulations for the Ising model and percolation for comparison with these analytic predictions, and apply this approach to the study of the planar rotor model.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures. Revisions: Removed many typos, improved presentation of most of the figure

Glassiness Vs. Order in Densely Frustrated Josephson Arrays

We carry out extensive Monte Carlo simulations on the Coulomb gas dual to the uniformly frustrated two dimensional XY model, for a sequence of frustrations f converging to the irraltional (3-sqrt 5)/2. We find in these systems a sharp first order equilibrium phase transition to an ordered vortex structure at a T_c which varies only slightly with f. This ordered vortex structure remains in general phase incoherent until a lower pinning transition T_p(f) that varies with f. We argue that the glassy behaviors reported for this model in earlier simulations are dynamic effects.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figure

Markov chain analysis of random walks on disordered medium

We study the dynamical exponents $d_{w}$ and $d_{s}$ for a particle diffusing in a disordered medium (modeled by a percolation cluster), from the regime of extreme disorder (i.e., when the percolation cluster is a fractal at $p=p_{c}$) to the Lorentz gas regime when the cluster has weak disorder at $p>p_{c}$ and the leading behavior is standard diffusion. A new technique of relating the velocity autocorrelation function and the return to the starting point probability to the asymptotic spectral properties of the hopping transition probability matrix of the diffusing particle is used, and the latter is numerically analyzed using the Arnoldi-Saad algorithm. We also present evidence for a new scaling relation for the second largest eigenvalue in terms of the size of the cluster, $|\ln{\lambda}_{max}|\sim S^{-d_w/d_f}$, which provides a very efficient and accurate method of extracting the spectral dimension $d_s$ where $d_s=2d_f/d_w$.Comment: 34 pages, REVTEX 3.

Phase Separation of Crystal Surfaces: A Lattice Gas Approach

We consider both equilibrium and kinetic aspects of the phase separation (``thermal faceting") of thermodynamically unstable crystal surfaces into a hill--valley structure. The model we study is an Ising lattice gas for a simple cubic crystal with nearest--neighbor attractive interactions and weak next--nearest--neighbor repulsive interactions. It is likely applicable to alkali halides with the sodium chloride structure. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the equilibrium crystal shape can be interpreted as a phase diagram and that the details of its structure tell us into which surface orientations an unstable surface will decompose. We find that, depending on the temperature and growth conditions, a number of interesting behaviors are expected. For a crystal in equilibrium with its vapor, these include a low temperature regime with logarithmically--slow separation into three symmetrically--equivalent facets, and a higher temperature regime where separation proceeds as a power law in time into an entire one--parameter family of surface orientations. For a crystal slightly out of equilibrium with its vapor (slow crystal growth or etching), power--law growth should be the rule at late enough times. However, in the low temperature regime, the rate of separation rapidly decreases as the chemical potential difference between crystal and vapor phases goes to zero.Comment: 16 pages (RevTex 3.0); 12 postscript figures available on request ([email protected]). Submitted to Physical Review E. SFU-JDSDJB-94-0