Collective pinning of imperfect vortex lattices by material line defects in extreme type-II superconductors

The critical current density shown by a superconductor at the extreme type-II limit is predicted to follow an inverse square-root power law with external magnetic field if the vortex lattice is weakly pinned by material line defects. It acquires an additional inverse dependence with thickness along the line direction once pinning of the interstitial vortex lines by material point defects is included. Moderate quantitative agreement with the critical current density shown by second-generation wires of high-temperature superconductors in kG magnetic fields is achieved at liquid-nitrogen temperature.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables. To appear in Physical Review

Strong Enhancement of the Critical Current at the Antiferromagnetic Transition in ErNi2B2C Single Crystals

We report on transport and magnetization measurements of the critical current density Jc in ErNi2B2C single crystals that show strongly enhanced vortex pinning at the Neel temperature TN and low applied fields. The height of the observed Jc peak decreases with increasing magnetic field in clear contrast with that of the peak effect found at the upper critical field. We also performed the first angular transport measurements of Jc ever conducted on this compound. They reveal the correlated nature of this pinning enhancement, which we attribute to the formation of antiphase boundaries at TN.Comment: 3 figure

Transport properties of an ionic magnetic colloid: experimental study of increasing the ionic strength

Abstract The phase separation of an ionic magnetic colloid in zero magnetic field by increasing the ionic strength is well known [Universite Paris VI, France, 1987; J. Colloid Interface Sci. 132 (1989) 1]. The present work deals with investigation of an ionic ferrofluid by increasing the ionic strength in the range of 0-0.14 mol/l, being safely below the threshold value at which the effect of phase separation occurs. By the optical grid setup [Fourth International conference PAMIR, France, 2000], the main transport properties of a ferrofluid, i.e. translational mass diffusion and thermal diffusion (Soret) coefficients, are measured. The obtained results show a strong dependence of mass diffusion coefficient and no dependence of the Soret coefficient upon increasing the ionic strength. It is possible to explain both these effects theoretically; nevertheless, there is the lack of an exact theoretical model due to its complexity.

Contact potential that recognizes the correct folding of globular proteins

We have devised a continuous function of interresidue contacts in globular proteins such that the X-ray crystal structure has a lower function value than that of thousands of protein-like alternative conformations. Although we fit the adjustable parameters of the potential using only 10,000 alternative structures for a selected training set of 37 proteins, a grand total of 530,000 constraints was satisfied, derived from 73 proteins and their numerous alternative conformations. In every case where the native conformation is adequately globular and compact, according to objective criteria we have developed, the potential function always favors the native over all alternatives by a substantial margin. This is true even for an additional three proteins never used in any way in the fitting procedure. Conformations differing only slightly from the native, such as those coming from crystal structures of the same protein complexed with different ligands or from crystal structures of point mutants, have function values very similar to the native's and always less than those of alternatives derived from substantially different crystal structures. This holds for all 95 structures that are homologous to one or another of various proteins we used. Realizing that this potential should be useful for modeling the conformation of new protein sequences from the body of protein crystal structures, we suggest a test for deciding whether a nearly correct approximation to the native conformation has been found.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29791/1/0000133.pd

Size-independent comparison of protein three-dimensional structures

Protein structures are routinely compared by their root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) in atomic coordinates after optimal rigid body superposition. What is not so clear is the significance of different RMSD values, particularly above the customary arbitrary cutoff for obvious similarity of 2–3 Å. Our earlier work argued for an intrinsic cutoff for protein similarity that varied with the number of residues in the polypeptide chains being compared. Here we introduce a new measure, Ρ, of structural similarity based on RMSD that is independent of the sizes of the molecules involved, or of any other special properties of molecules. When Ρ is less than 0.4–0.5, protein structures are visually recognized to be obviously similar, but the mathematically pleasing intrinsic cutoff of Ρ>1.0 corresponds to overall similarity in folding motif at a level not usually recognized until smoothing of the polypeptide chain path makes it striking. When the structures are scaled to unit radius of gyration and equal principle moments of inertia, the comparisons are even more universal, since they are no longer obscured by differences in overall size and ellipticity. With increasing chain length, the distribution of Ρ for pairs of random structures is skewed to higher values, but the value for the best 1% of the comparisons rises only slowly with the number of residues. This level is close to an intrinsic cutoff between similar and dissimilar comparisons, namely the maximal scaled Ρ possible for the two structures to be more similar to each other than one is to the other's mirror image. The intrinsic cutoff is independent of the number of residues or points being compared. For proteins having fewer than 100 residues, the 1% Ρ falls below the intrinsic cutoff, so that for very small proteins, geometrically significant similarity can often occur by chance. We believe these ideas will be helpful in judging success in NMR structure determination and protein folding modeling. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/38521/1/340220308_ftp.pd

Correlated enhancement of Hc2 and Jc in carbon nanotube-doped MgB2

The use of MgB2 in superconducting applications still awaits for the development of a MgB2-based material where both current-carrying performance and critical magnetic field are optimized simultaneously. We achieved this by doping MgB2 with double-wall carbon nanotubes (DWCNT) as a source of carbon in polycrystalline samples. The optimum nominal DWCNT content for increasing the critical current density, Jc is in the range 2.5-10%at depending on field and temperature. Record values of the upper critical field, Hc2(4K) = 41.9 T (with extrapolated Hc2(0) ~ 44.4 T) are reached in a bulk sample with 10%at DWCNT content. The measured Hc2 vs T in all samples are successfully described using a theoretical model for a two-gap superconductor in the dirty limit first proposed by Gurevich et al.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Fabrication and characterization of magnetic FePt nanoparticles prepared by extraction–pyrolysis method

We are grateful to Prof. E. Kotomin for useful discussions. The research leading to these results has received funding from the ERAF (2017) Project, while A. I. Popov thanks IMIS-2 for the funding support.In the present work, possibilities of the extraction–pyrolysis method (EPM) to produce FePt nanoparticles with the face-centered tetragonal (fct) phase were studied. A mixture of fine-disperse powder of carbonyl iron and n-trioctylam-monium hexachloroplatinate [(С8Н17)3NH]2PtCl6 solution in toluene, preliminary produced by the solvent extraction method, is used as a precursor. Precursors with a different molar ratio of metals were used. The performed investigations show that as a result of pyrolysis in the air (Tpyr = 600°C, tanneal = 30 min), a FePt alloy with the fct phase is produced. Moreover, such phases as FePt3 and/or Fe3Pt with the cubic structure may be also present in the final products. The phase composition of the produced samples depends on the Fe:Pt molar ratio in the precursor. An increase of the fct phase part with the growth of the iron content from 40 to 60 mol% is observed. Also, with the Fe80%Pt20% molar ratio of the metals in the precursor, only the ordered fct phase along with a small amount of hematite and iron chloride exists in the produced sample. Magnetic measurements confirm the fct-FePt phase formation in all produced samples and evidence that the coercivity exceeds the value (3 kOe) at the 50 mol% Fe concentration in the precursor and significantly decreases with increasing the Fe concentration to 80 mol%.ERAF; IMIS-2; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART