Combined frequency-amplitude nonlinear modulation: theory and applications

In this work we formulate a generalized theoretical model to describe the nonlinear dynamics observed in combined frequency-amplitude modulators whose characteristic parameters exhibit a nonlinear dependence on the input modulating signal. The derived analytical solution may give a satisfactory explanation of recent laboratory observations on magnetic spin-transfer oscillators and fully agrees with results of micromagnetic calculations. Since the theory has been developed independently of the mechanism causing the nonlinearities, it may encompass the description of modulation processes of any physical nature, a promising feature for potential applications in the field of communication systems.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, to be published on IEEE Transactions on Magnetic

High Gain Amplifier with Enhanced Cascoded Compensation

A two-stage CMOS operational amplifier with both, gain-boosting and indirect current feedback frequency compensation performed by means of regulated cascode amplifiers, is presented. By using quasi-floating-gate transistors (QFGT) the supply requirements, the number of capacitors and the size of the compensation capacitors respect to other Miller schemes are reduced. A prototype was fabricated using a 0.5 μm technology, resulting, for a load of 45 pF and supply voltage of 1.65 V, in open-loop-gain of 129 dB, 23 MHz of gain-bandwidth product, 60o phase margin, 675 μW power consumption and 1% settling time of 28 ns

The t->WZb decay in the Standard Model: A Critical Reanalysis

We compute the t->WZb decay rate, in the Standard Model, at the leading order in perturbation theory, with special attention to the effects of the finite widths of the W and Z bosons. These effects are extremely important, since the t->WZb decay occurs near its kinematical threshold. They increase the value of the decay rate by orders of magnitude near threshold or allow it below the nominal threshold. We discuss a procedure to take into account the finite-width effects and compare the results with previous studies of this decay. Within the Standard Model, for a top quark mass in the range between 170 and 180 GeV, we find BR(t->WZb) ~ 2 x 10^{-6}, which makes the observation at the LHC very difficult if at all possible.Comment: 10 pages, 4 eps figures, LaTeX. Few references added and minor changes in the text. Results unchanged. Final version to appear on PL

Effects of interdot dipole coupling in mesoscopic epitaxial Fe(100) dot arrays

The domain structure and the coercivity of epitaxial Fe(100) circular dot arrays of different diameters and separations have been studied using magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and focused magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE). The MFM images of the 1 µm diameter single domain dot arrays show direct evidence of strong interdot dipole coupling when the separation is reduced down to 0.1 µm. The coercivity of the dots is also found to be dependent on the separation, indicating the effect of the interdot dipole coupling on the magnetization reversal process