13,341 research outputs found
Low-loss photonic crystal fibers for transmission systems and their dispersion properties
We report on a single-mode photonic crystal fiber with attenuation and
effective area at 1550 nm of 0.48 dB/km and 130 square-micron, respectively.
This is, to our knowledge, the lowest loss reported for a PCF not made from VAD
prepared silica and at the same time the largest effective area for a low-loss
(< 1 dB/km) PCF. We briefly discuss the future applications of PCFs for data
transmission and show for the first time, both numerically and experimentally,
how the group velocity dispersion is related to the mode field diameterComment: 5 pages including 3 figures + 1 table. Accepted for Opt. Expres
Simulations of energetic beam deposition: from picoseconds to seconds
We present a new method for simulating crystal growth by energetic beam
deposition. The method combines a Kinetic Monte-Carlo simulation for the
thermal surface diffusion with a small scale molecular dynamics simulation of
every single deposition event. We have implemented the method using the
effective medium theory as a model potential for the atomic interactions, and
present simulations for Ag/Ag(111) and Pt/Pt(111) for incoming energies up to
35 eV. The method is capable of following the growth of several monolayers at
realistic growth rates of 1 monolayer per second, correctly accounting for both
energy-induced atomic mobility and thermal surface diffusion. We find that the
energy influences island and step densities and can induce layer-by-layer
growth. We find an optimal energy for layer-by-layer growth (25 eV for Ag),
which correlates with where the net impact-induced downward interlayer
transport is at a maximum. A high step density is needed for energy induced
layer-by-layer growth, hence the effect dies away at increased temperatures,
where thermal surface diffusion reduces the step density. As part of the
development of the method, we present molecular dynamics simulations of single
atom-surface collisions on flat parts of the surface and near straight steps,
we identify microscopic mechanisms by which the energy influences the growth,
and we discuss the nature of the energy-induced atomic mobility
A real-space grid implementation of the Projector Augmented Wave method
A grid-based real-space implementation of the Projector Augmented Wave (PAW)
method of P. E. Blochl [Phys. Rev. B 50, 17953 (1994)] for Density Functional
Theory (DFT) calculations is presented. The use of uniform 3D real-space grids
for representing wave functions, densities and potentials allows for flexible
boundary conditions, efficient multigrid algorithms for solving Poisson and
Kohn-Sham equations, and efficient parallelization using simple real-space
domain-decomposition. We use the PAW method to perform all-electron
calculations in the frozen core approximation, with smooth valence wave
functions that can be represented on relatively coarse grids. We demonstrate
the accuracy of the method by calculating the atomization energies of twenty
small molecules, and the bulk modulus and lattice constants of bulk aluminum.
We show that the approach in terms of computational efficiency is comparable to
standard plane-wave methods, but the memory requirements are higher.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
A Prismatic Analyser concept for Neutron Spectrometers
A development in modern neutron spectroscopy is to avoid the need of large
samples. We demonstrate how small samples together with the right choice of
analyser and detector components makes distance collimation an important
concept in crystal analyser spectrometers. We further show that this opens new
possibilities where neutrons with different energies are reflected by the same
analyser but counted in different detectors, thus improving both energy
resolution and total count rate compared to conventional spectrometers. The
technique can be combined with advanced focusing geometries and with
multiplexing instrument designs. We present a combination of simulations and
data with 3 energies from one analyser. The data was taken on a prototype
installed at PSI, Switzerland, and shows excellent agreement with the
predictions. Typical improvements will be 2 times finer resolution and a factor
1.9 in flux gain compared to a Rowland geometry or 3 times finer resolution and
a factor 3.2 in flux gain compared to a single flat analyser slab
Computational Design of Chemical Nanosensors: Metal Doped Carbon Nanotubes
We use computational screening to systematically investigate the use of
transition metal doped carbon nanotubes for chemical gas sensing. For a set of
relevant target molecules (CO, NH3, H2S) and the main components of air (N2,
O2, H2O), we calculate the binding energy and change in conductance upon
adsorption on a metal atom occupying a vacancy of a (6,6) carbon nanotube.
Based on these descriptors, we identify the most promising dopant candidates
for detection of a given target molecule. From the fractional coverage of the
metal sites in thermal equilibrium with air, we estimate the change in the
nanotube resistance per doping site as a function of the target molecule
concentration assuming charge transport in the diffusive regime. Our analysis
points to Ni-doped nanotubes as candidates for CO sensors working under typical
atmospheric conditions
Critical manifold of the kagome-lattice Potts model
Any two-dimensional infinite regular lattice G can be produced by tiling the
plane with a finite subgraph B of G; we call B a basis of G. We introduce a
two-parameter graph polynomial P_B(q,v) that depends on B and its embedding in
G. The algebraic curve P_B(q,v) = 0 is shown to provide an approximation to the
critical manifold of the q-state Potts model, with coupling v = exp(K)-1,
defined on G. This curve predicts the phase diagram both in the ferromagnetic
(v>0) and antiferromagnetic (v<0) regions. For larger bases B the
approximations become increasingly accurate, and we conjecture that P_B(q,v) =
0 provides the exact critical manifold in the limit of infinite B. Furthermore,
for some lattices G, or for the Ising model (q=2) on any G, P_B(q,v) factorises
for any choice of B: the zero set of the recurrent factor then provides the
exact critical manifold. In this sense, the computation of P_B(q,v) can be used
to detect exact solvability of the Potts model on G.
We illustrate the method for the square lattice, where the Potts model has
been exactly solved, and the kagome lattice, where it has not. For the square
lattice we correctly reproduce the known phase diagram, including the
antiferromagnetic transition and the singularities in the Berker-Kadanoff
phase. For the kagome lattice, taking the smallest basis with six edges we
recover a well-known (but now refuted) conjecture of F.Y. Wu. Larger bases
provide successive improvements on this formula, giving a natural extension of
Wu's approach. The polynomial predictions are in excellent agreement with
numerical computations. For v>0 the accuracy of the predicted critical coupling
v_c is of the order 10^{-4} or 10^{-5} for the 6-edge basis, and improves to
10^{-6} or 10^{-7} for the largest basis studied (with 36 edges).Comment: 31 pages, 12 figure
Evaluation of an in-clinic Serum Amyloid A (SAA) assay and assessment of the effects of storage on SAA samples
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An in-clinic assay for equine serum amyloid A (SAA) analysis, Equinostic EVA1, was evaluated for use in a clinical setting. Stability of SAA in serum samples was determined.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Intra- and inter- assay variation of the in-clinic method was determined. The in-clinic method (EVA1) results were compared to a reference method (Eiken LZ SAA) with 62 patient samples. For samples with SAA concentrations within the assay range of EVA1 (10-270 mg/L), differences between the methods were evaluated in a difference plot. Linearity under dilution was evaluated in two samples. Stability of SAA in three serum pools stored at 4°C and approximately 22°C was evaluated with the reference method day 0, 1, 2, 4, 7, 17 and analysed with a two-way ANOVA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The imprecision (coefficient of variation, CV) for the in-clinic method was acceptable at higher SAA concentrations with CV values of 7,3-12%, but poor at low SAA concentrations with CV values of 27% and 37% for intra- and inter-assay variation respectively. Recovery after dilution was 50-138%. The in-clinic assay and the reference method identified equally well horses with low (<10 mg/L) and high (>270 mg/L) SAA concentrations. Within the assay range of the in-clinic method, 10-270 mg/L, the difference between the two methods was slightly higher than could be explained by the inherent imprecision of the assays. There were no significant changes of serum SAA concentrations during storage.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The in-clinic assay identified horses with SAA concentrations of <10 mg/L and >270 mg/L in a similar way as the reference method, and provided an estimate of the SAA concentration in the range of 10-270 mg/L. The imprecision of the in-clinic method was acceptable at high SAA concentrations but not at low concentrations. Dilution of samples gave inconsistent results. SAA was stable both at room temperature and refrigerated, and thus samples may be stored before analysis with the reference method.</p
Critical behavior of loops and biconnected clusters on fractals of dimension d < 2
We solve the O(n) model, defined in terms of self- and mutually avoiding
loops coexisting with voids, on a 3-simplex fractal lattice, using an exact
real space renormalization group technique. As the density of voids is
decreased, the model shows a critical point, and for even lower densities of
voids, there is a dense phase showing power-law correlations, with critical
exponents that depend on n, but are independent of density. At n=-2 on the
dilute branch, a trivalent vertex defect acts as a marginal perturbation. We
define a model of biconnected clusters which allows for a finite density of
such vertices. As n is varied, we get a line of critical points of this
generalized model, emanating from the point of marginality in the original loop
model. We also study another perturbation of adding local bending rigidity to
the loop model, and find that it does not affect the universality class.Comment: 14 pages,10 figure
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