The role of Si impurities in the transient dopant segregation and precipitation in yttrium-doped alumina

Y-doped alumina was sintered at 1500 degrees C for 10 h under ultra-clean experimental conditions without experiencing any abnormal grain growth. The yttrium was fairly homogeneously distributed at the grain boundaries, with a mean value of (Gamma) over bar (Y) = 5.5 at nm(-2). The Y-Al-O precipitates in the clean, Y2O3-doped alumina specimen were the YAP (YAlO3) phase, whereas only the YAG (Y3Al5O12) phase was present in the Y2O3-doped alumina samples contaminated with SiO2. The excess concentrations of Y and Si atoms at the grain boundaries that, at the same time, provoke the formation of structurally complex YAG precipitates and abnormal grain growth were both estimated to be at 4-5 at nm(-2). The compositions of the triple point pocket phases found in the region of the exaggeratedly grown alumina grains indicate the presence of alumino-silicate bulk liquids at the sintering temperature

Electronic and Vibrational Properties of PbI 2 : From Bulk to Monolayer

Using first-principles calculations, we study the dependence of the electronic and vibrational properties of multi-layered PbI 2 crystals on the number of layers and focus on the electronic-band structure and the Raman spectrum. Electronic-band structure calculations reveal that the direct or indirect semiconducting behavior of PbI 2 is strongly influenced by the number of layers. We find that at 3L-thickness there is a direct-to-indirect band gap transition (from bulk-to-monolayer). It is shown that in the Raman spectrum two prominent peaks, A 1g and E g , exhibit phonon hardening with increasing number of layers due to the inter-layer van der Waals interaction. Moreover, the Raman activity of the A 1g mode significantly increases with increasing number of layers due to the enhanced out-of-plane dielectric constant in the few-layer case. We further characterize rigid-layer vibrations of low-frequency inter-layer shear (C) and breathing (LB) modes in few-layer PbI 2 . A reduced mono-atomic (linear) chain model (LCM) provides a fairly accurate picture of the number of layers dependence of the low-frequency modes and it is shown also to be a powerful tool to study the inter-layer coupling strength in layered PbI 2 .Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev.

Conservation relation of nonclassicality and entanglement for Gaussian states in a beam-splitter

We study the relation between single-mode nonclassicality and two-mode entanglement in a beam-splitter. We show that not all of the nonclassicality (entanglement potential) is transformed into two-mode entanglement for an incident single-mode light. Some of the entanglement potential remains as single-mode nonclassicality in the two entangled output modes. Two-mode entanglement generated in the process can be equivalently quantified as the increase in the minimum uncertainty widths (or decrease in the squeezing) of the output states compared to the input states. We use the nonclassical depth and logarithmic negativity as single-mode nonclassicality and entanglement measures, respectively. We realize that a conservation relation between the two quantities can be adopted for Gaussian states, if one works in terms of uncertainty width. This conservation relation is extended to many sets of beam-splitters.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

The Relationship Between The Inflation Rate And Inequality Across U.S. States: A Semiparametric Approach

This paper uses a cross-state panel for the United States over the 1976–2007 period to assess the relationship between income inequality and the inflation rate. Employing a semiparametric instrument variable (IV) estimator, we find that the relationship depends on the level of the inflation rate. A positive relationship occurs only if the states exceed a threshold level of inflation rate. Below this value, inflation rate lowers income inequality. The results suggest that a nonlinear relationship exists between income inequality and the inflation rate. © 2018 Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Natur