Surface diffusion of Pb atoms on the Si(553)-Au surface in narrow quasi-one-dimensional channels

The one-dimensional diffusion of individual Pb atoms on the Si(553)-Au surface has been investigated by a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), spectroscopy (STS), and first-principles density functional theory. The obtained results unambiguously prove that the diffusion channels are limited to a narrow region between Au chains and step edges of the surface. Much wider channels observed in STM and STS data have electronic origin and result from an interaction of Pb with surface atoms. The length of the channels is determined by a distance between defects at step edges of the Si(553)-Au surface. The defects can act as potential barriers or potential wells for Pb atoms, depending on their origin

Computerized microstrain test system

Design of computerized microstrain test apparatus to measure plastic deformation, hysteresis, and total strain energy at microinch sensitivitie

Electron transport across a quantum wire in the presence of electron leakage to a substrate

We investigate electron transport through a mono-atomic wire which is tunnel coupled to two electrodes and also to the underlying substrate. The setup is modeled by a tight-binding Hamiltonian and can be realized with a scanning tunnel microscope (STM). The transmission of the wire is obtained from the corresponding Green's function. If the wire is scanned by the contacting STM tip, the conductance as a function of the tip position exhibits oscillations which may change significantly upon increasing the number of wire atoms. Our numerical studies reveal that the conductance depends strongly on whether or not the substrate electrons are localized. As a further ubiquitous feature, we observe the formation of charge oscillations.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Classical big-bounce cosmology: dynamical analysis of a homogeneous and irrotational Weyssenhoff fluid

A dynamical analysis of an effective homogeneous and irrotational Weyssenhoff fluid in general relativity is performed using the 1+3 covariant approach that enables the dynamics of the fluid to be determined without assuming any particular form for the space-time metric. The spin contributions to the field equations produce a bounce that averts an initial singularity, provided that the spin density exceeds the rate of shear. At later times, when the spin contribution can be neglected, a Weyssenhoff fluid reduces to a standard cosmological fluid in general relativity. Numerical solutions for the time evolution of the generalised scale factor in spatially-curved models are presented, some of which exhibit eternal oscillatory behaviour without any singularities. In spatially-flat models, analytical solutions for particular values of the equation-of-state parameter are derived. Although the scale factor of a Weyssenhoff fluid generically has a positive temporal curvature near a bounce, it requires unreasonable fine tuning of the equation-of-state parameter to produce a sufficiently extended period of inflation to fit the current observational data.Comment: 34 pages, 18 figure