214 research outputs found
First-principles calculation on the transport properties of molecular wires between Au clusters under equilibrium
Based on the matrix Green's function method combined with hybrid
tight-binding / density functional theory, we calculate the conductances of a
series of gold-dithiol molecule-gold junctions including benzenedithiol (BDT),
benzenedimethanethiol (BDMT), hexanedithiol (HDT), octanedithiol (ODT) and
decanedithiol (DDT). An atomically-contacted extended molecule model is used in
our calculation. As an important procedure, we determine the position of the
Fermi level by the energy reference according to the results from ultraviolet
photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) experiments. After considering the
experimental uncertainty in UPS measurement, the calculated results of
molecular conductances near the Fermi level qualitatively agree with the
experimental values measured by Tao et. al. [{\it Science} 301, 1221 (2003);
{\it J. Am. Chem. Soc.} 125, 16164 (2003); {\it Nano. Lett.} 4, 267 (2004).]Comment: 12 pages,8 figure
Metallic nanograins: spatially nonuniform pairing induced by quantum confinement
It is well-known that the formation of discrete electron levels strongly
influences the pairing in metallic nanograins. Here we focus on another effect
of quantum confinement in superconducting grains that was not studied
previously, i.e., spatially nonuniform pairing. This effect is very significant
when single-electron levels form bunches and/or a kind of shell structure: in
highly symmetric grains the order parameter can exhibit variations with
position by an order of magnitude. Nonuniform pairing is closely related to a
quantum-confinement induced modification of the pairing-interaction matrix
elements and size-dependent pinning of the chemical potential to groups of
degenerate or nearly degenerate levels. For illustration we consider spherical
metallic nanograins. We show that the relevant matrix elements are as a rule
enhanced in the presence of quantum confinement, which favors spatial
variations of the order parameter, compensating the corresponding energy cost.
The size-dependent pinning of the chemical potential further increases the
spatial variation of the pair condensate. The role of nonuniform pairing is
smaller in less symmetric confining geometries and/or in the presence of
disorder. However, it always remains of importance when the energy spacing
between discrete electron levels is approaching the scale of the bulk
gap , i.e., -
Efficiency of Energy Conversion in Thermoelectric Nanojunctions
Using first-principles approaches, this study investigated the efficiency of
energy conversion in nanojunctions, described by the thermoelectric figure of
merit . We obtained the qualitative and quantitative descriptions for the
dependence of on temperatures and lengths. A characteristic temperature:
was observed. When , . When , tends to a saturation value. The dependence of
on the wire length for the metallic atomic chains is opposite to that for
the insulating molecules: for aluminum atomic (conducting) wires, the
saturation value of increases as the length increases; while for
alkanethiol (insulating) chains, the saturation value of decreases as the
length increases. can also be enhanced by choosing low-elasticity bridging
materials or creating poor thermal contacts in nanojunctions. The results of
this study may be of interest to research attempting to increase the efficiency
of energy conversion in nano thermoelectric devices.Comment: 2 figure
Automated Intelligent Monitoring and the Controlling Software System for Solar Panels
The inspection of the solar panels on a periodic basis is important to improve longevity and ensure performance of the solar system. To get the most solar potential of the photovoltaic (PV) system is possible through an intelligent monitoring & controlling system. The monitoring & controlling system has rapidly increased its popularity because of its user-friendly graphical interface for data acquisition, monitoring, controlling and measurements. In order to monitor the performance of the system especially for renewable energy source application such as solar photovoltaic (PV), data-acquisition systems had been used to collect all the data regarding the installed system. In this paper the development of a smart automated monitoring & controlling system for the solar panel is described, the core idea is based on IoT (the Internet of Things). The measurements of data are made using sensors, block management data acquisition modules, and a software system. Then, all the real-time data collection of the electrical output parameters of the PV plant such as voltage, current and generated electricity is displayed and stored in the block management. The proposed system is smart enough to make suggestions if the panel is not working properly, to display errors, to remind about maintenance of the system through email or SMS, and to rotate panels according to a sun position using the Ephemeral table that stored in the system. The advantages of the system are the performance of the solar panel system which can be monitored and analyzed
Correlation of interfacial bonding mechanism and equilibrium conductance of molecular junctions
We report theoretical investigations on the role of interfacial bonding
mechanism and its resulting structures to quantum transport in molecular wires.
Two bonding mechanisms for the Au-S bond in an
Au(111)/1,4-benzenedithiol(BDT)/Au(111) junction were identified by ab initio
calculation, confirmed by a recent experiment, which, we showed, critically
control charge conduction. It was found, for Au/ BDT/Au junctions, the hydrogen
atom, bound by a dative bond to the Sulfur, is energetically non-dissociative
after the interface formation. The calculated conductance and junction
breakdown forces of H-non-dissociative Au/BDT/Au devices are consistent with
the experimental values, while the H-dissociated devices, with the interface
governed by typical covalent bonding, give conductance more than an order of
magnitude larger. By examining the scattering states that traverse the
junctions, we have revealed that mechanical and electric properties of a
junction have strong correlation with the bonding configuration. This work
clearly demonstrates that the interfacial details, rather than previously
believed many-body effects, is of vital importance for correctly predicting
equilibrium conductance of molecular junctions; and manifests that the
interfacial contact must be carefully understood for investigating quantum
transport properties of molecular nanoelectronics.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, to be appeared in Frontiers of Physics
9(6), 780 (2014
Effect of Thermoelectric Cooling in Nanoscale Junctions
We propose a thermoelectric cooling device based on an atomic-sized junction.
Using first-principles approaches, we investigate the working conditions and
the coefficient of performance (COP) of an atomic-scale electronic refrigerator
where the effects of phonon's thermal current and local heating are included.
It is observed that the functioning of the thermoelectric nano-refrigerator is
restricted to a narrow range of driving voltages. Compared with the bulk
thermoelectric system with the overwhelmingly irreversible Joule heating, the
4-Al atomic refrigerator has a higher efficiency than a bulk thermoelectric
refrigerator with the same due to suppressed local heating via the
quasi-ballistic electron transport and small driving voltages. Quantum nature
due to the size minimization offered by atomic-level control of properties
facilitates electron cooling beyond the expectation of the conventional
thermoelectric device theory.Comment: 8 figure
Conceptualizing a distributed, multi-scalar global public sphere through activist communication practices in the World Social Forum
This article contributes to debate about how to conceptualize the global public sphere. Drawing on media practice theory and ethnographic research on media activism in the World Social Forum, it shows how ‘global publics’ can be constituted through a diverse range of activist communication practices that complicate both conventional hierarchies of scale and contemporary theorizations of publics as personalized networks. It develops an understanding of the global public sphere as an emergent formation made up of multiple, interlinked publics at different scales and emphasizes the significance of collective communication spaces for actors at the margins of the global network society
The FGLamide-Allatostatins Influence Foraging Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster
Allatostatins (ASTs) are multifunctional neuropeptides that generally act in an inhibitory fashion. ASTs were identified as inhibitors of juvenile hormone biosynthesis. Juvenile hormone regulates insect metamorphosis, reproduction, food intake, growth, and development. Drosophila melanogaster RNAi lines of PheGlyLeu-amide-ASTs (FGLa/ASTs) and their cognate receptor, Dar-1, were used to characterize roles these neuropeptides and their respective receptor may play in behavior and physiology. Dar-1 and FGLa/AST RNAi lines showed a significant reduction in larval foraging in the presence of food. The larval foraging defect is not observed in the absence of food. These RNAi lines have decreased for transcript levels which encodes cGMP- dependent protein kinase. A reduction in the for transcript is known to be associated with a naturally occuring allelic variation that creates a sitter phenotype in contrast to the rover phenotype which is caused by a for allele associated with increased for activity. The sitting phenotype of FGLa/AST and Dar-1 RNAi lines is similar to the phenotype of a deletion mutant of an AST/galanin-like receptor (NPR-9) in Caenorhabditis elegans. Associated with the foraging defect in C. elegans npr-9 mutants is accumulation of intestinal lipid. Lipid accumulation was not a phenotype associated with the FGLa/AST and Dar-1 RNAi lines
Quantum transport through STM-lifted single PTCDA molecules
Using a scanning tunneling microscope we have measured the quantum
conductance through a PTCDA molecule for different configurations of the
tip-molecule-surface junction. A peculiar conductance resonance arises at the
Fermi level for certain tip to surface distances. We have relaxed the molecular
junction coordinates and calculated transport by means of the Landauer/Keldysh
approach. The zero bias transmission calculated for fixed tip positions in
lateral dimensions but different tip substrate distances show a clear shift and
sharpening of the molecular chemisorption level on increasing the STM-surface
distance, in agreement with experiment.Comment: accepted for publication in Applied Physics
Behavior of molecules and molecular ions near a field emitter
The cold emission of particles from surfaces under intense electric fields is a process which underpins a variety of applications including atom probe tomography (APT), an analytical microscopy technique with near-atomic spatial resolution. Increasingly relying on fast laser pulsing to trigger the emission, APT experiments often incorporate the detection of molecular ions emitted from the specimen, in particular from covalently or ionically bonded materials. Notably, it has been proposed that neutral molecules can also be emitted during this process. However, this remains a contentious issue. To investigate the validity of this hypothesis, a careful review of the literature is combined with the development of new methods to treat experimental APT data, the modeling of ion trajectories, and the application of density-functional theory simulations to derive molecular ion energetics. It is shown that the direct thermal emission of neutral molecules is extremely unlikely. However, neutrals can still be formed in the course of an APT experiment by dissociation of metastable molecular ions
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