Anti-phase Modulation of Electron- and Hole-like States in Vortex Core of Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox Probed by Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy

In the vortex core of slightly overdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox, the electron-like and hole-like states have been found to exhibit spatial modulations in anti-phase with each other along the Cu-O bonding direction. Some kind of one-dimensionality has been observed in the vortex core, and it is more clearly seen in differential conductance maps at lower biases below +-9 mV

Lithium production on a low-mass secondary in a black hole soft X-ray transient

We examine production of Li on the surface of a low-mass secondary in a black hole soft X-ray transient (BHSXT) through the spallation of CNO nuclei by neutrons which are ejected from a hot (> 10 MeV) advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) around the black hole. Using updated binary parameters, cross sections of neutron-induced spallation reactions, and mass accretion rates in ADAF derived from the spectrum fitting of multi-wavelength observations of quiescent BHSXTs, we obtain the equilibrium abundances of Li by equating the production rate of Li and the mass transfer rate through accretion to the black hole. The resulting abundances are found to be in good agreement with the observed values in seven BHSXTs. We note that the abundances vary in a timescale longer than a few months in our model. Moreover, the isotopic ratio Li6/Li7 is calculated to be about 0.7--0.8 on the secondaries, which is much higher than the ratio measured in meteorites. Detection of such a high value is favorable to the production of Li via spallation and the existence of a hot accretion flow, rather than an accretion disk corona system in quiescent BHSXT.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, and 2 tables, submitted to Astrophyscal Jounal Letter

Optimised Curing of Silver Ink Jet Based Printed Traces

Manufacturing electronic devices by printing techniques with low temperature sintering of nano-size material particles can revolutionize the electronics industry in coming years. The impact of this change to the industry can be significant enabling low-cost products and flexibility in manufacturing. implementation of a new production technology with new materials requires thorough elementary knowledge creation. It should be noticed that although some of first electronic devices ideally can be manufactured by printing, at the present several modules are in fact manufactured by using hybrid techniques (for instance photolithography, vapor depositions, spraying, etc...).Comment: Submitted on behalf of TIMA Editions (http://irevues.inist.fr/tima-editions

Exact Solutions for Domain Walls in Coupled Complex Ginzburg - Landau Equations

The complex Ginzburg Landau equation (CGLE) is a ubiquitous model for the evolution of slowly varying wave packets in nonlinear dissipative media. A front (shock) is a transient layer between a plane-wave state and a zero background. We report exact solutions for domain walls, i.e., pairs of fronts with opposite polarities, in a system of two coupled CGLEs, which describe transient layers between semi-infinite domains occupied by each component in the absence of the other one. For this purpose, a modified Hirota bilinear operator, first proposed by Bekki and Nozaki, is employed. A novel factorization procedure is applied to reduce the intermediate calculations considerably. The ensuing system of equations for the amplitudes and frequencies is solved by means of computer-assisted algebra. Exact solutions for mutually-locked front pairs of opposite polarities, with one or several free parameters, are thus generated. The signs of the cubic gain/loss, linear amplification/attenuation, and velocity of the coupled-front complex can be adjusted in a variety of configurations. Numerical simulations are performed to study the stability properties of such fronts.Comment: Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, in pres

Stability of Breakwater Armor Units against Tsunami Attacks

The design of breakwater armour units against tsunami attacks has received little attention in the past because of the comparative low frequency of these events and the rarity of structures designed specifically to withstand them. However, field surveys of recent events, such as the 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake Tsunami and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, have shown flaws in the design of protection structures. During these extreme events, many breakwaters suffered partial or catastrophic damage. Although it is to be expected that most normal structures fail due to such high order events, practicing engineers need to possess tools to design certain important breakwaters that should not fail even during level 2 events. Research into the design of critical structures that only partially fail (i.e., “resilient” or “tenacious” structures) during a very extreme level 2 tsunami event should be prioritized in the future, and in this sense the present paper proposes a formula that allows the estimation of armour unit damage depending on the tsunami wave height

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy of high-temperature superconductors

Tunneling spectroscopy played a central role in the experimental verification of the microscopic theory of superconductivity in the classical superconductors. Initial attempts to apply the same approach to high-temperature superconductors were hampered by various problems related to the complexity of these materials. The use of scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) on these compounds allowed to overcome the main difficulties. This success motivated a rapidly growing scientific community to apply this technique to high-temperature superconductors. This paper reviews the experimental highlights obtained over the last decade. We first recall the crucial efforts to gain control over the technique and to obtain reproducible results. We then discuss how the STM/STS technique has contributed to the study of some of the most unusual and remarkable properties of high-temperature superconductors: the unusual large gap values and the absence of scaling with the critical temperature; the pseudogap and its relation to superconductivity; the unprecedented small size of the vortex cores and its influence on vortex matter; the unexpected electronic properties of the vortex cores; the combination of atomic resolution and spectroscopy leading to the observation of periodic local density of states modulations in the superconducting and pseudogap states, and in the vortex cores.Comment: To appear in RMP; 65 pages, 62 figure