393 research outputs found
Electronic structure of the compound from ab initio local interactions
We used fully correlated ab initio calculations to determine the effective
parameters of Hubbard and t - J models for the thermoelectric misfit compound
. As for the family the Fermi level orbitals
are the orbitals of the cobalt atoms ; the being always lower
in energy by more than 240\,meV. The electron correlation is found very large
as well as the parameters fluctuations as a function of the
structural modulation. The main consequences are a partial electrons
localization and a fluctuation of the in-plane magnetic exchange from AFM to
FM. The behavior of the Seebeck coefficient as a function of temperature is
discussed in view of the ab initio results, as well as the 496\,K phase
transition
The crucial importance of the -- hybridization in transition metal oxides
We studied the influence of the trigonal distortion of the regular octahedron
along the (111) direction, found in the layers. Under such a
distortion the orbitals split into one and two degenerated
orbitals. We focused on the relative order of these orbitals.
Using quantum chemical calculations of embedded clusters at different levels of
theory, we analyzed the influence of the different effects not taken into
account in the crystalline field theory; that is metal-ligand hybridization,
long-range crystalline field, screening effects and orbital relaxation. We
found that none of them are responsible for the relative order of the
orbitals. In fact, the trigonal distortion allows a mixing of the and
orbitals of the metallic atom. This hybridization is at the origin of the
-- relative order and of the incorrect prediction of the
crystalline field theory
An ab initio study of magneto-electric coupling of
The present paper proposes the direct calculation of the microscopic
contributions to the magneto-electric coupling, using ab initio methods. The
electrostrictive and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya contributions were evaluated
individually. For this purpose a specific method was designed, combining DFT
calculations and embedded fragments, explicitely correlated, quantum chemical
calculations. This method allowed us to calculate the evolution of the magnetic
couplings as a function of an applied electric field. We found that in the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya contribution to the magneto-electric effect
is three orders of magnitude weaker than the electrostrictive contribution.
Strictive effects are thus dominant in the magnetic exchange evolution under an
applied electric field, and by extension on the magneto-electric effect. These
effects remain however quite small and the modifications of the magnetic
excitations under an applied electric field will be difficult to observe
experimentally. Another important conclusion is that the amplitude of the
magneto-electric effect is very small. Indeed, it can be shown that the linear
magneto-electric tensor is null due to the inter-layer symmetry operations.Comment: J. Phys. Cond. Matter 201
Nanofibre-based trap for Rb molecule
We describe a theoretical proposal of a nanofibre-based trap for a Rb
molecule prepared in the metastable state . The trapping
potential results from the combination of a travelling and a standing-wave
fields, both carried by the fundamental guided mode HE of the fibre. We
show that, with an experimentally realistic choice of laser frequencies and
powers, one can implement a K-deep well at nm
from the fibre surface accomodating for translational molecular
states
: a complete model for the chain sub-system
A second neighbor model for the chain subsystem of the
has been extracted from ab-initio calculations. This
model does not use periodic approximation but describes the entire chain
through the use of the four-dimensional crystallographic description. Second
neighbors interactions are found to be of same order than the first neighbors
ones. The computed values of the second neighbors magnetic interaction are
coherent with experimental estimations of the intra-dimer magnetic
interactions, even if slightly smaller. The reasons of this underestimation are
detailed. The computed model allowed us to understand the origin of the chain
dimerisation and predicts correctly the relative occurrence of dimers and free
spins. The orbitals respectively supporting the magnetic electrons and the
holes have been found to be essentially supported by the copper 3d orbitals
(spins) and the surrounding oxygen orbitals (holes), thus giving a strong
footing to the existence of Zhang-Rice singlets
Phonons in the multiferroic langasite BaNbFeSiO : evidences for symmetry breaking
The chiral langasite BaNbFeSiO is a multiferroic
compound. While its magnetic order below T=27 K is now well characterised,
its polar order is still controversial. We thus looked at the phonon spectrum
and its temperature dependence to unravel possible crystal symmetry breaking.
We combined optical measurements (both infrared and Raman spectroscopy) with ab
initio calculations and show that signatures of a polar state are clearly
present in the phonon spectrum even at room temperature. An additional symmetry
lowering occurs below 120~K as seen from emergence of softer phonon modes in
the THz range. These results confirm the multiferroic nature of this langasite
and open new routes to understand the origin of the polar state
Ultrafast non-linear optical signal from a single quantum dot: exciton and biexciton effects
We present results on both the intensity and phase-dynamics of the transient
non-linear optical response of a single quantum dot (SQD).
The time evolution of the Four Wave Mixing (FWM) signal on a subpicosecond
time scale is dominated by biexciton effects. In particular, for the
cross-polarized excitation case a biexciton bound state is found. In this
latter case, mean-field results are shown to give a poor description of the
non-linear optical signal at small times. By properly treating exciton-exciton
effects in a SQD, coherent oscillations in the FWM signal are clearly
demonstrated. These oscillations, with a period corresponding to the inverse of
the biexciton binding energy, are correlated with the phase dynamics of the
system's polarization giving clear signatures of non-Markovian effects in the
ultrafast regime.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Phase distortions of attosecond pulses produced by resonance-enhanced high harmonic generation
Resonant enhancement of high harmonic generation can be obtained in plasmas
containing ions with strong radiative transitions resonant with harmonic
orders. The mechanism for this enhancement is still debated. We perform the
first temporal characterization of the attosecond emission from a tin plasma
under near-resonant conditions for two different resonance detunings. We show
that the resonance considerably changes the relative phase of neighbouring
harmonics. For very small detunings, their phase locking may even be lost,
evidencing strong phase distortions in the emission process and a modified
attosecond structure. These features are well reproduced by our simulations,
allowing their interpretation in terms of the phase of the recombination dipole
moment
Functional heterogeneity of the fucoxanthins and fucoxanthin-chlorophyll proteins in diatom cells revealed by their electrochromic response and fluorescence and linear dichroism spectra
In this work, by analyzing the electrochromic transient spectra, the 77 K fluorescence emission and excitation, as well as the linear dichroism (LD) and circular dichroism (CD) spectra of low-light (LL) and high-light (HL) grown Phaeodactylum tricornutum cells, we show that the fucoxanthins (Fx) and fucoxanthin-chlorophyll proteins (FCP) exhibit marked functional heterogeneity. Electrochromic transients reveal that LL and HL cells differ substantially in their relative contents of two Fx forms, which absorb at 501 and 550 nm; they exhibit distinct LD signals but are CD silent. Fluorescence emission and excitation spectra at 77 K reveal that although both forms efficiently transfer excitation energy to Chl a, the red form feeds somewhat more energy to photosystem II than to photosystem I. Similar data obtained in Cyclotella meneghiniana cells suggest that the heterogeneity of the FCP pool, with different Fx forms, plays a role in the regulation of energy utilization in FCP-containing organisms. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Structurally flexible macro-organization of the pigment-protein complexes of the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum
By means of circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, we have characterized the organization of the photosynthetic complexes of the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum at different levels of structural complexity: in intact cells, isolated thylakoid membranes and purified fucoxanthin chlorophyll protein (FCP) complexes. We found that the CD spectrum of whole cells was dominated by a large band at (+)698 nm, accompanied by a long tail from differential scattering, features typical for psi-type (polymerization or salt-induced) CD. The CD spectrum additionally contained intense (-)679 nm, (+)445 nm and (-)470 nm bands, which were also present in isolated thylakoid membranes and FCPs. While the latter two bands were evidently produced by excitonic interactions, the nature of the (-)679 nm band remained unclear. Electrochromic absorbance changes also revealed the existence of a CD-silent long-wavelength (∼545 nm) absorbing fucoxanthin molecule with very high sensitivity to the transmembrane electrical field. In intact cells the main CD band at (+)698 nm appeared to be associated with the multilamellar organization of the thylakoid membranes. It was sensitive to the osmotic pressure and was selectively diminished at elevated temperatures and was capable of undergoing light-induced reversible changes. In isolated thylakoid membranes, the psi-type CD band, which was lost during the isolation procedure, could be partially restored by addition of Mg-ions, along with the maximum quantum yield and the non-photochemical quenching of singlet excited chlorophyll a, measured by fluorescence transients. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V
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