Quantum point contact due to Fermi-level pinning and doping profiles in semiconductor nanocolumns

We show that nanoscale doping profiles inside a nanocolumn in combination with Fermi-level pinning at the surface give rise to the formation of a saddle-point in the potential profile. Consequently, the lateral confinement inside the channel varies along the transport direction, yielding an embedded quantum point contact. An analytical estimation of the quantization energies will be given

Extraction of Sm(III)and Nd(III) with N,N,N’,N’-tetrabutyl-3-oxy-diglycolamidefrom hydrochloric acid

The extraction behavior of Sm(III) and Nd(III) with N,N,N’,N’-tetrabutyl-3-oxa-diglycolamide (TBDGA) in 70% kerosene-30% n-octanol from hydrochloride acid wasstudied. The effect of hydrochloric acid concentration, extractant concentration,and temperature on the distribution of rare earth elementswas investigated. The extraction mechanism was established and the stoichiometry of the main extracted species was confirm to be SmCl3•2TBDGA and NdCl3•2TBDGA for Sm(III) and Nd(III), respectively. The extraction distribution ratio decreases with an increase in temperature, which demonstrates that the extraction reaction is exothermic. The IR spectra of the loaded organic phase and free extractant were recorded and discussed

High-gyrotropy seedlayer-free Ce:TbIG for monolithic laser-matched SOI optical isolators

Monolithic optical isolators that provide modal (transverse electric, TE) and dimensional (500 nm core) matching to on-chip lasers have been realized with “one step” seedlayer-free garnets. To date, seedlayer-free garnet claddings have required thinner (< 340 nm) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) cores because mode-cladding interactions were too weak for laser-matched cores. However, laser matching is important because tapers, and/or mode converters between the laser and the isolator can cause detrimental reflections prior to isolation. This paper reports the use of cerium-doped terbium iron garnet (Ce:TbIG) in a quasi-phase matched non-reciprocal mode conversion (NRMC) isolator that operates on both TE and TM modes. A key innovation presented here is a repeatable process for foundry-friendly sputter deposition of Ce:TbIG, which enables this high Faraday rotation material (-3200°/cm) to be synthesized in any isolator design that would benefit from one-step lithographical manufacturing. A proof-of-feasibility 500 nm-SOI NRMC device is demonstrated with seedlayer-free Ce:TbIG that achieves an isolation ratio of 11 dB. With an optimal length, this NRMC design can provide greater than 30 dB isolation

The coral Acropora loripes genome reveals an alternative pathway for cysteine biosynthesis in animals

The metabolic capabilities of animals have been derived from well-studied model organisms and are generally considered to be well understood. In animals, cysteine is an important amino acid thought to be exclusively synthesized through the transsulfuration pathway. Corals of the genus Acropora have lost cystathionine β-synthase, a key enzyme of the transsulfuration pathway, and it was proposed that Acropora relies on the symbiosis with dinoflagellates of the family Symbiodiniaceae for the acquisition of cysteine. Here, we identify the existence of an alternative pathway for cysteine biosynthesis in animals through the analysis of the genome of the coral Acropora loripes. We demonstrate that these coral proteins are functional and synthesize cysteine in vivo, exhibiting previously unrecognized metabolic capabilities of animals. This pathway is also present in most animals but absent in mammals, arthropods, and nematodes, precisely the groups where most of the animal model organisms belong to, highlighting the risks of generalizing findings from model organisms

Information loss in local dissipation environments

The sensitivity of entanglement to the thermal and squeezed reservoirs' parameters is investigated regarding entanglement decay and what is called sudden-death of entanglement, ESD, for a system of two qubit pairs. The dynamics of information is investigated by means of the information disturbance and exchange information. We show that for squeezed reservoir, we can keep both of the entanglement and information survival for a long time. The sudden death of information is seen in the case of thermal reservoir

Formation of Nanopits in Si Capping Layers on SiGe Quantum Dots

In-situ annealing at a high temperature of 640°C was performed for a low temperature grown Si capping layer, which was grown at 300°C on SiGe self-assembled quantum dots with a thickness of 50 nm. Square nanopits, with a depth of about 8 nm and boundaries along 〈110〉, are formed in the Si capping layer after annealing. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy observation shows that each nanopit is located right over one dot with one to one correspondence. The detailed migration of Si atoms for the nanopit formation is revealed by in-situ annealing at a low temperature of 540°C. The final well-defined profiles of the nanopits indicate that both strain energy and surface energy play roles during the nanopit formation, and the nanopits are stable at 640°C. A subsequent growth of Ge on the nanopit-patterned surface results in the formation of SiGe quantum dot molecules around the nanopits

Running coupling: Does the coupling between dark energy and dark matter change sign during the cosmological evolution?

In this paper we put forward a running coupling scenario for describing the interaction between dark energy and dark matter. The dark sector interaction in our scenario is free of the assumption that the interaction term $Q$ is proportional to the Hubble expansion rate and the energy densities of dark sectors. We only use a time-variable coupling $b(a)$ (with $a$ the scale factor of the universe) to characterize the interaction $Q$. We propose a parametrization form for the running coupling $b(a)=b_0a+b_e(1-a)$ in which the early-time coupling is given by a constant $b_e$, while today the coupling is given by another constant, $b_0$. For investigating the feature of the running coupling, we employ three dark energy models, namely, the cosmological constant model ($w=-1$), the constant $w$ model ($w=w_0$), and the time-dependent $w$ model ($w(a)=w_0+w_1(1-a)$). We constrain the models with the current observational data, including the type Ia supernova, the baryon acoustic oscillation, the cosmic microwave background, the Hubble expansion rate, and the X-ray gas mass fraction data. The fitting results indicate that a time-varying vacuum scenario is favored, in which the coupling $b(z)$ crosses the noninteracting line ($b=0$) during the cosmological evolution and the sign changes from negative to positive. The crossing of the noninteracting line happens at around $z=0.2-0.3$, and the crossing behavior is favored at about 1$\sigma$ confidence level. Our work implies that we should pay more attention to the time-varying vacuum model and seriously consider the phenomenological construction of a sign-changeable or oscillatory interaction between dark sectors.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; refs added; to appear in EPJ

Two-pronged kill mechanism at the end-Triassic mass extinction

High-resolution biomarker and compound-specific isotope distributions coupled with the degradation of calcareous fossil remnants reveal that intensive euxinia and decalcification (acidification) driven by Central Atlantic magmatic province (CAMP) activity formed a twopronged kill mechanism at the end-Triassic mass extinction. In a newly proposed extinction interval for the basal Blue Lias Formation (Bristol Channel Basin, UK), biomarker distributions reveal an episode of persistent photic zone euxinia (PZE) that extended further upward into the surface waters. In the same interval, shelly taxa almost completely disappear. Beginning in the basal paper shales of the Blue Lias Formation, a Lilliput assemblage is preserved consisting of only rare calcitic oysters (Liostrea) and ghost fossils of decalcified aragonitic bivalves. The stressors of PZE and decalcification parsimoniously explain the extinction event and inform possible combined causes of other biotic crises linked to emplacement of large igneous provinces, notably the end-Permian mass extinction, when PZE occurred on a broad and perhaps global scal

Edge magnetoplasmons in periodically modulated structures

We present a microscopic treatment of edge magnetoplasmons (EMP's) within the random-phase approximation for strong magnetic fields, low temperatures, and filling factor $\nu =1(2)$, when a weak short-period superlattice potential is imposed along the Hall bar. The modulation potential modifies both the spatial structure and the dispersion relation of the fundamental EMP and leads to the appearance of a novel gapless mode of the fundamental EMP. For sufficiently weak modulation strengths the phase velocity of this novel mode is almost the same as the group velocity of the edge states but it should be quite smaller for stronger modulation. We discuss in detail the spatial structure of the charge density of the renormalized and the novel fundamental EMP's.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Structure of Fat Jets at the Tevatron and Beyond

Boosted resonances is a highly probable and enthusiastic scenario in any process probing the electroweak scale. Such objects when decaying into jets can easily blend with the cornucopia of jets from hard relative light QCD states. We review jet observables and algorithms that can contribute to the identification of highly boosted heavy jets and the possible searches that can make use of such substructure information. We also review previous studies by CDF on boosted jets and its measurements on specific jet shapes.Comment: invited review for a special "Top and flavour physics in the LHC era" issue of The European Physical Journal C, we invite comments regarding contents of the review; v2 added references and institutional preprint number