Ultra‐high elastic strain energy storage in hybrid metal‐oxide infiltrated polymer nanocomposites

An understanding of the mechanical properties of materials at nanometer length scales, including a material’s ability to store and release elastic strain energy, is of great significance in the effective miniaturization of actuators, sensors and resonators for use in micro-/nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) as well as advanced development of artificial muscles for locomotion in soft robots. The measure of a material’s ability to store and release elastic strain energy, the modulus of resilience (R), is a crucial parameter in realizing such advanced mechanical actuation technologies. Typically, engineering a material system with a large R requires large increases in the material’s yield strength yet conservative increase in Young’s modulus, an engineering challenge as the two mechanical properties are strongly coupled; generally, strengthening methods results in considerable stiffening or increase in the Young’s modulus. Here, we present hybrid composite polymer nanopillars which achieve the highest specific R ever reported, by utilizing vapor-phase aluminum oxide infiltrations into lithographically patterned polymer resist SU-8. In-situ nanomechanical measurements reveal high, metallic-like yield strengths (~500 MPa) combined with a compliant, polymeric-like Young’s modulus (~7 GPa), a unique pairing never observed in known engineering materials. It is these exceptional elastic properties of our hybrid composite which allows for realization of R per density (Rs) values ~ 11200 J/kg, orders of magnitude greater than those in most engineering material systems. The high elastic energy storage/release capability of this material, as well as its compatibility with lithographic techniques, makes it an attractive candidate in the design of MEMS devices, which require an ultra-high elastic component for advanced actuation and sensor technologies. Furthermore, an opportunity for tunability of the elastic properties of the SU-8 polymeric material exists with this fabrication technique by varying the number of infiltration cycles or the organometallic precursor Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

The study of contact properties in edge-contacted graphene-aluminum Josephson junctions

Transparent contact interfaces in superconductor-graphene hybrid systems are critical for realizing superconducting quantum applications. Here, we examine the effect of the edge-contact fabrication process on the transparency of the superconducting aluminum-graphene junction. We show significant improvement in the transparency of our superconductor-graphene junctions by promoting the chemical component of the edge contact etch process. Our results compare favorably with state-of-the-art graphene Josephson junctions. The findings of our study contribute to advancing the fabrication knowledge of edge-contacted superconductor-graphene junctions

Anisotropy of Antiferromagnetic Domains in a Spin-orbit Mott Insulator

The temperature-dependent behavior of magnetic domains plays an essential role in the magnetic properties of materials, leading to widespread applications. However, experimental methods to access the three-dimensional (3D) magnetic domain structures are very limited, especially for antiferromagnets. Over the past decades, the spin-orbit Mott insulator iridate $Sr_2IrO_4$ has attracted particular attention because of its interesting magnetic structure and analogy to superconducting cuprates. Here, we apply resonant x-ray magnetic Bragg coherent diffraction imaging to track the real-space 3D evolution of antiferromagnetic ordering inside a $Sr_2IrO_4$ single crystal as a function of temperature, finding that the antiferromagnetic domain shows anisotropic changes. The anisotropy of the domain shape reveals the underlying anisotropy of the antiferromagnetic coupling strength within $Sr_2IrO_4$. These results demonstrate the high potential significance of 3D domain imaging in magnetism research

Evaporation and Condensation of Clusters

Influence of surrounding matter on the properties of clusters is considered by an approach combining the methods of statistical and quantum mechanics. A cluster is treated as a bound N-particle system and surrounding matter as thermostat. It is shown that, despite arbitrary strong interactions between particles, cluster energy can be calculated by using the controlled perturbation theory. The accuracy of the latter is found to be much higher than that of the quasiclassical approximation. Spectral distribution is obtained by minimizing conditional entropy. Increasing the thermostat temperature leads to the depletion of bound states. The characteristic temperature when bound states become essentially depleated defines the temperature of cluster evaporation. The inverse process of lowering the thermostate temperature, yielding the filling of bound states, corresponds to cluster condensation.Comment: 1 file, 15 pages, RevTex, 4 table

Microscopic Relaxation Channels in Materials for Superconducting Qubits

Despite mounting evidence that materials imperfections are a major obstacle to practical applications of superconducting qubits, connections between microscopic material properties and qubit coherence are poorly understood. Here, we perform measurements of transmon qubit relaxation times $T_1$ in parallel with spectroscopy and microscopy of the thin polycrystalline niobium films used in qubit fabrication. By comparing results for films deposited using three techniques, we reveal correlations between $T_1$ and grain size, enhanced oxygen diffusion along grain boundaries, and the concentration of suboxides near the surface. Physical mechanisms connect these microscopic properties to residual surface resistance and $T_1$ through losses arising from the grain boundaries and from defects in the suboxides. Further, experiments show that the residual resistance ratio can be used as a figure of merit for qubit lifetime. This comprehensive approach to understanding qubit decoherence charts a pathway for materials-driven improvements of superconducting qubit performance