8,545 research outputs found
Halving the Casimir force with conductive oxides
The possibility to modify the strength of the Casimir effect by tailoring the
dielectric functions of the interacting surfaces is regarded as a unique
opportunity in the development of Micro- and NanoElectroMechanical Systems. In
air, however, one expects that, unless noble metals are used, the electrostatic
force arising from trapped charges overcomes the Casimir attraction, leaving no
room for exploitation of Casimir force engineering at ambient conditions. Here
we show that, in the presence of a conductive oxide, the Casimir force can be
the dominant interaction even in air, and that the use of conductive oxides
allows one to reduce the Casimir force up to a factor of 2 when compared to
noble metals.Comment: modified version, accepted for publication in Phys Rev Let
Absorbing-state phase transitions on percolating lattices
We study nonequilibrium phase transitions of reaction-diffusion systems
defined on randomly diluted lattices, focusing on the transition across the
lattice percolation threshold. To develop a theory for this transition, we
combine classical percolation theory with the properties of the supercritical
nonequilibrium system on a finite-size cluster. In the case of the contact
process, the interplay between geometric criticality due to percolation and
dynamical fluctuations of the nonequilibrium system leads to a new universality
class. The critical point is characterized by ultraslow activated dynamical
scaling and accompanied by strong Griffiths singularities. To confirm the
universality of this exotic scaling scenario we also study the generalized
contact process with several (symmetric) absorbing states, and we support our
theory by extensive Monte-Carlo simulations.Comment: 11 pages, 10 eps figures included, final version as publishe
Magneto-Optical Stern-Gerlach Effect in Atomic Ensemble
We study the birefringence of the quantized polarized light in a
magneto-optically manipulated atomic ensemble as a generalized Stern-Gerlach
Effect of light. To explain this engineered birefringence microscopically, we
derive an effective Shr\"odinger equation for the spatial motion of two
orthogonally polarized components, which behave as a spin with an effective
magnetic moment leading to a Stern-Gerlach split in an nonuniform magnetic
field. We show that electromagnetic induced transparency (EIT) mechanism can
enhance the magneto-optical Stern-Gerlach effect of light in the presence of a
control field with a transverse spatial profile and a inhomogeneous magnetic
field.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Multiparty Quantum Secret Sharing Based on Entanglement Swapping
A multiparty quantum secret sharing (QSS) protocol is proposed by using
swapping quantum entanglement of Bell states. The secret messages are imposed
on Bell states by local unitary operations. The secret messages are split into
several parts and each part is distributed to a party so that no action of a
subset of all the parties but their entire cooperation is able to read out the
secret messages. In addition, the dense coding is used in this protocol to
achieve a high efficiency. The security of the present multiparty QSS against
eavesdropping has been analyzed and confirmed even in a noisy quantum channel.Comment: 5 page
Managing the development of digital educational games
Based on the practical experience of developing webbased educational games in a joint universities project in Hong Kong, the authors discuss a 'seven-stage rapid game development model' with a 'dynamic fine tuning' of team composition. Reflection on lessons learned from the practical experience is described. © 2010 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe 3rd IEEE International Conference on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning (DIGITEL), Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 12-16 April 2010. In Proceedings of the 3rd DIGITEL, 2010, p. 191-19
Fiber-top atomic force microscope
We present the implementation of an atomic force microscope (AFM) based on fiber-top design. Our results demonstrate that the performances of fiber-top AFMs in contact mode are comparable to those of similar commercially available instruments. Our device thus represents an interesting\ud
alternative to existing AFMs, particularly for applications outside specialized research laboratories, where a compact, user-friendly, and versatile tool might often be preferred
United States v. Hoskins: An Opportunity for the Second Circuit to Limit the Abusive Reach of the FCPA
Interplay between antiferromagnetic order and spin polarization in ferromagnetic metal/electron-doped cuprate superconductor junctions
Recently we proposed a theory of point-contact spectroscopy and argued that
the splitting of zero-bias conductance peak (ZBCP) in electron-doped cuprate
superconductor point-contact spectroscopy is due to the coexistence of
antiferromagnetic (AF) and d-wave superconducting orders [Phys. Rev. B {\bf
76}, 220504(R) (2007)]. Here we extend the theory to study the tunneling in the
ferromagnetic metal/electron-doped cuprate superconductor (FM/EDSC) junctions.
In addition to the AF order, the effects of spin polarization, Fermi-wave
vector mismatch (FWM) between the FM and EDSC regions, and effective barrier
are investigated. It is shown that there exits midgap surface state (MSS)
contribution to the conductance to which Andreev reflections are largely
modified due to the interplay between the exchange field of ferromagnetic metal
and the AF order in EDSC. Low-energy anomalous conductance enhancement can
occur which could further test the existence of AF order in EDSC. Finally, we
propose a more accurate formula in determining the spin polarization value in
combination with the point-contact conductance data.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
Nonequilibrium phase transition on a randomly diluted lattice
We show that the interplay between geometric criticality and dynamical
fluctuations leads to a novel universality class of the contact process on a
randomly diluted lattice. The nonequilibrium phase transition across the
percolation threshold of the lattice is characterized by unconventional
activated (exponential) dynamical scaling and strong Griffiths effects. We
calculate the critical behavior in two and three space dimensions, and we also
relate our results to the recently found infinite-randomness fixed point in the
disordered one-dimensional contact process.Comment: 4 pages, 1 eps figure, final version as publishe
Parametrical optimization of laser surface alloyed NiTi shape memory alloy with Co and Nb by the Taguchi method
Different high-purity metal powders were successfully alloyed on to a nickel titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloy (SMA) with a 3 kW carbon dioxide (CO2) laser system. In order to produce an alloyed layer with complete penetration and acceptable composition profile, the Taguchi approach was used as a statistical technique for optimizing selected laser processing parameters. A systematic study of laser power, scanning velocity, and pre-paste powder thickness was conducted. The signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) for each control factor were calculated in order to assess the deviation from the average response. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to understand the significance of process variables affecting the process effects. The Taguchi method was able to determine the laser process parameters for the laser surface alloying technique with high statistical accuracy and yield a laser surface alloying technique capable of achieving a desirable dilution ratio. Energy dispersive spectrometry consistently showed that the per cent by weight of Ni was reduced by 45 per cent as compared with untreated NiTi SMA when the Taguchi-determined laser processing parameters were employed, thus verifying the laser's processing parameters as optimum
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