9,933 research outputs found
Edge Electron Gas
The uniform electron gas, the traditional starting point for density-based
many-body theories of inhomogeneous systems, is inappropriate near electronic
edges. In its place we put forward the appropriate concept of the edge electron
gas.Comment: 4 pages RevTex with 7 ps-figures included. Minor changes in
title,text and figure
Total energy global optimizations using non orthogonal localized orbitals
An energy functional for orbital based calculations is proposed, which
depends on a number of non orthogonal, localized orbitals larger than the
number of occupied states in the system, and on a parameter, the electronic
chemical potential, determining the number of electrons. We show that the
minimization of the functional with respect to overlapping localized orbitals
can be performed so as to attain directly the ground state energy, without
being trapped at local minima. The present approach overcomes the multiple
minima problem present within the original formulation of orbital based
methods; it therefore makes it possible to perform calculations for an
arbitrary system, without including any information about the system bonding
properties in the construction of the input wavefunctions. Furthermore, while
retaining the same computational cost as the original approach, our formulation
allows one to improve the variational estimate of the ground state energy, and
the energy conservation during a molecular dynamics run. Several numerical
examples for surfaces, bulk systems and clusters are presented and discussed.Comment: 24 pages, RevTex file, 5 figures available upon reques
Degenerate ground states and nonunique potentials: breakdown and restoration of density functionals
The Hohenberg-Kohn (HK) theorem is one of the most fundamental theorems of
quantum mechanics, and constitutes the basis for the very successful
density-functional approach to inhomogeneous interacting many-particle systems.
Here we show that in formulations of density-functional theory (DFT) that
employ more than one density variable, applied to systems with a degenerate
ground state, there is a subtle loophole in the HK theorem, as all mappings
between densities, wave functions and potentials can break down. Two weaker
theorems which we prove here, the joint-degeneracy theorem and the
internal-energy theorem, restore the internal, total and exchange-correlation
energy functionals to the extent needed in applications of DFT to atomic,
molecular and solid-state physics and quantum chemistry. The joint-degeneracy
theorem constrains the nature of possible degeneracies in general many-body
systems
Optical beam guidance in monolithic polymer chips for miniaturized colorimetric assays
For the first time, we present a simple and robust optical concept to enable precise and sensitive read-out of colorimetric assays in flat lab-on-a-chip devices. The optical guidance of the probe beam through an incorporated measurement chamber to the detector is based on the total internal reflection at V-grooves in the polymer chip. This way, the optical path length through the flat measurement chamber and thus the performance of the measurements are massively enhanced compared to direct (perpendicular) beam incidence. This is demonstrated by a chip-based, colorimetric glucose-assay on serum. Outstanding features are an excellent reproducibility (CV= 1.91 %), a competitive lower limit of detection (cmin = 124 μM), and a high degree of linearity (R2 = 0.998) within a working range extending over nearly three orders of magnitude
Ab initio Study of Misfit Dislocations at the SiC/Si(001) Interface
The high lattice mismatched SiC/Si(001) interface was investigated by means
of combined classical and ab initio molecular dynamics. Among the several
configurations analyzed, a dislocation network pinned at the interface was
found to be the most efficient mechanism for strain relief. A detailed
description of the dislocation core is given, and the related electronic
properties are discussed for the most stable geometry: we found interface
states localized in the gap that may be a source of failure of electronic
devices
Itinerant in-plane magnetic fluctuations and many-body correlations in NaCoO
Based on the {\it ab-initio} band structure for NaCoO we derive the
single-electron energies and the effective tight-binding description for the
bands using projection procedure. Due to the presence of the
next-nearest-neighbor hoppings a local minimum in the electronic dispersion
close to the point of the first Brillouin zone forms. Correspondingly,
in addition to a large Fermi surface an electron pocket close to the
point emerges at high doping concentrations. The latter yields the new
scattering channel resulting in a peak structure of the itinerant magnetic
susceptibility at small momenta. This indicates dominant itinerant in-plane
ferromagnetic fluctuations above certain critical concentration , in
agreement with neutron scattering data. Below the magnetic susceptibility
shows a tendency towards the antiferromagnetic fluctuations. We further analyze
the many-body effects on the electronic and magnetic excitations using various
approximations applicable for different ratio.Comment: 10 page
Numerical Analysis of Three-dimensional Acoustic Cloaks and Carpets
We start by a review of the chronology of mathematical results on the
Dirichlet-to-Neumann map which paved the way towards the physics of
transformational acoustics. We then rederive the expression for the
(anisotropic) density and bulk modulus appearing in the pressure wave equation
written in the transformed coordinates. A spherical acoustic cloak consisting
of an alternation of homogeneous isotropic concentric layers is further
proposed based on the effective medium theory. This cloak is characterised by a
low reflection and good efficiency over a large bandwidth for both near and far
fields, which approximates the ideal cloak with a inhomogeneous and anisotropic
distribution of material parameters. The latter suffers from singular material
parameters on its inner surface. This singularity depends upon the sharpness of
corners, if the cloak has an irregular boundary, e.g. a polyhedron cloak
becomes more and more singular when the number of vertices increases if it is
star shaped. We thus analyse the acoustic response of a non-singular spherical
cloak designed by blowing up a small ball instead of a point, as proposed in
[Kohn, Shen, Vogelius, Weinstein, Inverse Problems 24, 015016, 2008]. The
multilayered approximation of this cloak requires less extreme densities
(especially for the lowest bound). Finally, we investigate another type of
non-singular cloaks, known as invisibility carpets [Li and Pendry, Phys. Rev.
Lett. 101, 203901, 2008], which mimic the reflection by a flat ground.Comment: Latex, 21 pages, 7 Figures, last version submitted to Wave Motion.
OCIS Codes: (000.3860) Mathematical methods in physics; (260.2110)
Electromagnetic theory; (160.3918) Metamaterials; (160.1190) Anisotropic
optical materials; (350.7420) Waves; (230.1040) Acousto-optical devices;
(160.1050) Acousto-optical materials; (290.5839) Scattering,invisibility;
(230.3205) Invisibility cloak
Evidence of breakdown of the spin symmetry in diluted 2D electron gases
Recent claims of an experimental demonstration of spontaneous spin
polarisation in dilute electron gases \cite{young99} revived long standing
theoretical discussions \cite{ceper99,bloch}. In two dimensions, the
stabilisation of a ferromagnetic fluid might be hindered by the occurrence of
the metal-insulator transition at low densities \cite{abra79}. To circumvent
localisation in the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) we investigated the low
populated second electron subband, where the disorder potential is mainly
screened by the high density of the first subband. This letter reports on the
breakdown of the spin symmetry in a 2DEG, revealed by the abrupt enhancement of
the exchange and correlation terms of the Coulomb interaction, as determined
from the energies of the collective charge and spin excitations. Inelastic
light scattering experiments and calculations within the time-dependent local
spin-density approximation give strong evidence for the existence of a
ferromagnetic ground state in the diluted regime.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Revte
Ensemble density functional theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect
We develop an ensemble density functional theory for the fractional quantum
Hall effect using a local density approximation. Model calculations for edge
reconstructions of a spin-polarized quantum dot give results in good agreement
with semiclassical and Hartree-Fock calculations, and with small system
numerical diagonalizations. This establishes the usefulness of density
functional theory to study the fractional quantum Hall effect, which opens up
the possibility of studying inhomegeneous systems with many more electrons than
has heretofore been possible.Comment: Improved discussion of ensemble density functional theory. 4 pages
plus 3 postscript figures, uses latex with revtex. Contact
[email protected]
Physical mechanisms of interface-mediated intervalley coupling in Si
The conduction band degeneracy in Si is detrimental to quantum computing
based on spin qubits, for which a nondegenerate ground orbital state is
desirable. This degeneracy is lifted at an interface with an insulator as the
spatially abrupt change in the conduction band minimum leads to intervalley
scattering. We present a theoretical study of the interface-induced valley
splitting in Si that provides simple criteria for optimal fabrication
parameters to maximize this splitting. Our work emphasizes the relevance of
different interface-related properties to the valley splitting.Comment: 4 pages, revised versio
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