2,258 research outputs found
Infrared light emission from atomic point contacts
Gold atomic point contacts are prototype systems to evidence ballistic
electron transport. The typical dimension of the nanojunction being smaller
than the electron-phonon interaction length, even at room temperature,
electrons transfer their excess energy to the lattice only far from the
contact. At the contact however, favored by huge current densities,
electron-electron interactions result in a nano hot electron gas acting as a
source of photons. Using a home built Mechanically Controlled Break Junction,
it is reported here, for the first time, that this hot electron gas also
radiates in the infrared range (0.2eV to 1.2eV). Moreover, in agreement with
the pioneering work of Tomchuk, we show that this radiation is compatible with
a blackbody like spectrum emitted from an electron gas at temperatures of
several thousands of Kelvin given by where ,
and are respectively a fitting parameter, the current flowing and the
applied bias.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure
A QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTION OF RECEVING A DIAGNOSIS OF CLEFTING IN THE PRENATAL OR POSTNATAL PERIOD
Background: Advances in ultrasound technology have revolutionized obstetrical care and have resulted in a greater number of cases of cleft lip with or without cleft palate diagnosed prenatally by ultrasound. This study investigated the experience of receiving a diagnosis of clefting in the prenatal or postnatal period. Methods: Open-ended interviews were conducted with 20 parents of children with cleft lip with or without cleft palate. Of these parents, 12 experienced a prenatal diagnosis of their child's cleft, while eight received the diagnosis at birth. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a qualitative description approach with an emphasis on thematic analysis. Common themes emerged from participant's responses to questions regarding the delivery of the diagnosis, preparation for the birth of their child, advantages and disadvantages of prenatal diagnosis, use of the Internet, views on abortion, interaction with other parents, among other issues. Findings: Preliminary findings were synthesized into themes that included "shared parental experiences," "coping," "preparation," "disadvantages," and "alternative perspectives." These overarching themes were divided into subthemes. Advantages cited for prenatal diagnosis included having the time to psychologically adjust to the diagnosis, to become informed, to educate other children, to opt for additional testing, and to plan for the baby's needs. Some participants felt a drawback of prenatal diagnosis was an emotional disruption of the pregnancy, while other participants found no disadvantages. All participants in the prenatal group indicated they were glad they learned of the cleft before the birth of their child. Some participants in the postnatal group would have rather received the diagnosis prenatally, while others were satisfied learning of the diagnosis in the delivery room.Interpretation: There seemed to be greater similarities than differences between the two groups of participants. Parents seemed to be affected more by how the diagnosis was delivered than the timing of the diagnosis. A prenatal diagnosis of a cleft may have a negative impact on the pregnancy, nonetheless parents seemed to want this information. High-resolution ultrasound has become standard of care for many pregnant women. Understanding the consequences of prenatal diagnosis is an important contribution to the field of public health
Estimating single molecule conductance from spontaneous evolution of a molecular contact
We present an original method to estimate the conductivity of a single
molecule anchored to nanometric-sized metallic electrodes, using a Mechanically
Controlled Break Junction (MCBJ) operated at room temperature in liquid. We
record the conductance through the metal / molecules / metal nanocontact while
keeping the metallic electrodes at a fixed distance. Taking advantage of
thermal diffusion and electromigration, we let the contact naturally explore
the more stable configurations around a chosen conductance value. The
conductance of a single molecule is estimated from a statistical analysis of
raw conductance and conductance standard deviation data for molecular contacts
containing up to 14 molecules. The single molecule conductance values are
interpreted as time-averaged conductance of an ensemble of conformers at
thermal equilibrium.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure
Two types of all-optical magnetization switching mechanisms using femtosecond laser pulses
Magnetization manipulation in the absence of an external magnetic field is a
topic of great interest, since many novel physical phenomena need to be
understood and promising new applications can be imagined. Cutting-edge
experiments have shown the capability to switch the magnetization of magnetic
thin films using ultrashort polarized laser pulses. In 2007, it was first
observed that the magnetization switching for GdFeCo alloy thin films was
helicity-dependent and later helicity-independent switching was also
demonstrated on the same material. Recently, all-optical switching has also
been discovered for a much larger variety of magnetic materials (ferrimagnetic,
ferromagnetic films and granular nanostructures), where the theoretical models
explaining the switching in GdFeCo films do not appear to apply, thus
questioning the uniqueness of the microscopic origin of all-optical switching.
Here, we show that two different all-optical switching mechanisms can be
distinguished; a "single pulse" switching and a "cumulative" switching process
whose rich microscopic origin is discussed. We demonstrate that the latter is a
two-step mechanism; a heat-driven demagnetization followed by a
helicity-dependent remagnetization. This is achieved by an all-electrical and
time-dependent investigation of the all-optical switching in ferrimagnetic and
ferromagnetic Hall crosses via the anomalous Hall effect, enabling to probe the
all-optical switching on different timescales.Comment: 1 page, LaTeX; classified reference number
Entrainment rates and microphysics in POST stratocumulus
The article of record as published may be located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50878An aircraft field study (POST; Physics of Stratocumulus Top) was conducted off the
central California coast in July and August 2008 to deal with the known difficulty of
measuring entrainment rates in the radiatively important stratocumulus (Sc) prevalent in that
area. The Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies Twin Otter
research aircraft flew 15 quasi-Lagrangian flights in unbroken Sc and carried a full
complement of probes including three high-data-rate probes: ultrafast temperature probe,
particulate volume monitor probe, and gust probe. The probes’ colocation near the nose of
the Twin Otter permitted estimation of entrainment fluxes and rates with an in-cloud
resolution of 1m. Results include the following: Application of the conditional sampling
variation of classical mixed layer theory for calculating the entrainment rate into cloud top
for POST flights is shown to be inadequate for most of the Sc. Estimated rates resemble
previous results after theory is modified to take into account both entrainment and
evaporation at cloud top given the strong wind shear and mixing at cloud top. Entrainment
rates show a tendency to decrease for large shear values, and the largest rates are for the
smallest temperature jumps across the inversion. Measurements indirectly suggest that
entrained parcels are primarily cooled by infrared flux divergence rather than cooling from
droplet evaporation, while detrainment at cloud top causes droplet evaporation and cooling
in the entrainment interface layer above cloud top.NSF supported H. Gerber, G. Frick, and S. Malinowski (ATM-0735121, AGS-1020445), D. Khelif (ATM-0734323), and S. Krueger (ATM-0735118). The Office of Naval Research and the Naval Postgraduate School supported in part the deployment of the Twin Otter aircraft
About the maximal rank of 3-tensors over the real and the complex number field
High dimensional array data, tensor data, is becoming important in recent
days. Then maximal rank of tensors is important in theory and applications. In
this paper we consider the maximal rank of 3 tensors. It can be attacked from
various viewpoints, however, we trace the method of Atkinson-Stephens(1979) and
Atkinson-Lloyd(1980). They treated the problem in the complex field, and we
will present various bounds over the real field by proving several lemmas and
propositions, which is real counterparts of their results.Comment: 13 pages, no figure v2: correction and improvemen
Strain dependence of bonding and hybridization across the metal-insulator transition of VO2
Soft x-ray spectroscopy is used to investigate the strain dependence of the
metal-insulator transition of VO2. Changes in the strength of the V 3d - O 2p
hybridization are observed across the transition, and are linked to the
structural distortion. Furthermore, although the V-V dimerization is
well-described by dynamical mean-field theory, the V-O hybridization is found
to have an unexpectedly strong dependence on strain that is not predicted by
band theory, emphasizing the relevance of the O ion to the physics of VO2
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