8,296 research outputs found
Coexistence of bulk and surface states probed by Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in BiSe with high charge-carrier density
Topological insulators are ideally represented as having an insulating bulk
with topologically protected, spin-textured surface states. However, it is
increasingly becoming clear that these surface transport channels can be
accompanied by a finite conducting bulk, as well as additional topologically
trivial surface states. To investigate these parallel conduction transport
channels, we studied Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in BiSe thin films,
in high magnetic fields up to 30 T so as to access channels with a lower
mobility. We identify a clear Zeeman-split bulk contribution to the
oscillations from a comparison between the charge-carrier densities extracted
from the magnetoresistance and the oscillations. Furthermore, our analyses
indicate the presence of a two-dimensional state and signatures of additional
states the origin of which cannot be conclusively determined. Our findings
underpin the necessity of theoretical studies on the origin of and the
interplay between these parallel conduction channels for a careful analysis of
the material's performance.Comment: Manuscript including supplemental materia
Probing molecular dynamics at the nanoscale via an individual paramagnetic center
Understanding the dynamics of molecules adsorbed to surfaces or confined to
small volumes is a matter of increasing scientific and technological
importance. Here, we demonstrate a pulse protocol using individual paramagnetic
nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond to observe the time evolution of 1H
spins from organic molecules located a few nanometers from the diamond surface.
The protocol records temporal correlations among the interacting 1H spins, and
thus is sensitive to the local system dynamics via its impact on the nuclear
spin relaxation and interaction with the NV. We are able to gather information
on the nanoscale rotational and translational diffusion dynamics by carefully
analyzing the time dependence of the NMR signal. Applying this technique to
various liquid and solid samples, we find evidence that liquid samples form a
semi-solid layer of 1.5 nm thickness on the surface of diamond, where
translational diffusion is suppressed while rotational diffusion remains
present. Extensions of the present technique could be adapted to highlight the
chemical composition of molecules tethered to the diamond surface or to
investigate thermally or chemically activated dynamical processes such as
molecular folding
Magnetic imaging with an ensemble of Nitrogen Vacancy centers in diamond
The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center in diamond is an atom-like system in
the solid-state which specific spin properties can be efficiently used as a
sensitive magnetic sensor. An external magnetic field induces Zeeman shifts of
the NV center levels which can be measured using Optically Detected Magnetic
Resonance (ODMR). In this work, we exploit the ODMR signal of an ensemble of NV
centers in order to quantitatively map the vectorial structure of a magnetic
field produced by a sample close to the surface of a CVD diamond hosting a thin
layer of NV centers. The reconstruction of the magnetic field is based on a
maximum-likelihood technique which exploits the response of the four intrinsic
orientations of the NV center inside the diamond lattice. The sensitivity
associated to a 1 {\mu}m^2 area of the doped layer, equivalent to a sensor
consisting of approximately 10^4 NV centers, is of the order of 2
{\mu}T/sqrt{Hz}. The spatial resolution of the imaging device is 400 nm,
limited by the numerical aperture of the optical microscope which is used to
collect the photoluminescence of the NV layer. The versatility of the sensor is
illustrated by the accurate reconstruction of the magnetic field created by a
DC current inside a copper wire deposited on the diamond sample.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, figure 4 added, results unchange
Laser radiation pressure slowing of a molecular beam
There is substantial interest in producing samples of ultracold molecules for
possible applications in quantum computation, quantum simulation of condensed
matter systems, precision measurements, controlled chemistry, and high
precision spectroscopy. A crucial step to obtaining large samples of ultracold,
trapped molecules is developing a means to bridge the gap between typical
molecular source velocities (~150-600 m/s) and velocities for which trap
loading or confinement is possible (~5-20 m/s). Here we show deceleration of a
beam of neutral strontium monofluoride (SrF) molecules using radiative force.
Under certain conditions, the deceleration results in a substantial flux of
molecules with velocities <50 m/s. The observed slowing, from ~140 m/s,
corresponds to scattering ~10000 photons. We also observe longitudinal velocity
compression under different conditions. Combined with molecular laser cooling
techniques, this lays the groundwork to create slow and cold molecular beams
suitable for trap loading.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures. Supplementary material updated
Unconventional Magnetization below 25 K in Nitrogen-doped Diamond provides hints for the existence of Superconductivity and Superparamagnetism
The magnetization of nitrogen-doped single crystalline diamond bulk samples shows unconventional field and temperature hysteresis loops at T ≲ 25 K. The results suggest the existence of superparamagnetic and superconducting regions in samples with nitrogen concentration <200 ppm. Both phases vanish at temperatures above 25 K where the samples show diamagnetic behavior similar to undoped diamond. The observation of superparamagnetism and superconductivity is attributed to the nitrogen doping and to the existence of defective regions. From particle-induced X-ray emission with ppm resolution we rule out that the main observations below 25 K are due to magnetic impurities. We investigated also the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic/high-temperature superconducting oxide bilayers. The magnetization results obtained from those bilayers show remarkable similarities to the ones in nitrogen-doped diamond
Anisotropic and strong negative magneto-resistance in the three-dimensional topological insulator Bi2Se3
We report on high-field angle-dependent magneto-transport measurements on
epitaxial thin films of Bi2Se3, a three-dimensional topological insulator. At
low temperature, we observe quantum oscillations that demonstrate the
simultaneous presence of bulk and surface carriers. The magneto- resistance of
Bi2Se3 is found to be highly anisotropic. In the presence of a parallel
electric and magnetic field, we observe a strong negative longitudinal
magneto-resistance that has been consid- ered as a smoking-gun for the presence
of chiral fermions in a certain class of semi-metals due to the so-called axial
anomaly. Its observation in a three-dimensional topological insulator implies
that the axial anomaly may be in fact a far more generic phenomenon than
originally thought.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Local structure of liquid carbon controls diamond nucleation
Diamonds melt at temperatures above 4000 K. There are no measurements of the
steady-state rate of the reverse process: diamond nucleation from the melt,
because experiments are difficult at these extreme temperatures and pressures.
Using numerical simulations, we estimate the diamond nucleation rate and find
that it increases by many orders of magnitude when the pressure is increased at
constant supersaturation. The reason is that an increase in pressure changes
the local coordination of carbon atoms from three-fold to four-fold. It turns
out to be much easier to nucleate diamond in a four-fold coordinated liquid
than in a liquid with three-fold coordination, because in the latter case the
free-energy cost to create a diamond-liquid interface is higher. We speculate
that this mechanism for nucleation control is relevant for crystallization in
many network-forming liquids. On the basis of our calculations, we conclude
that homogeneous diamond nucleation is likely in carbon-rich stars and unlikely
in gaseous planets
Can Polymer Coils be modeled as "Soft Colloids"?
We map dilute or semi-dilute solutions of non-intersecting polymer chains
onto a fluid of ``soft'' particles interacting via a concentration dependent
effective pair potential, by inverting the pair distribution function of the
centers of mass of the initial polymer chains. A similar inversion is used to
derive an effective wall-polymer potential; these potentials are combined to
successfully reproduce the calculated exact depletion interaction induced by
non-intersecting polymers between two walls. The mapping opens up the
possibility of large-scale simulations of polymer solutions in complex
geometries.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures ReVTeX[epsfig,multicol,amssymb] references update
Phase behavior and structure of model colloid-polymer mixtures confined between two parallel planar walls
Using Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations and density functional theory we
investigate the fluid-fluid demixing transition in inhomogeneous
colloid-polymer mixtures confined between two parallel plates with separation
distances between one and ten colloid diameters covering the complete range
from quasi two-dimensional to bulk-like behavior. We use the
Asakura-Oosawa-Vrij model in which colloid-colloid and colloid-polymer
interactions are hard-sphere like, whilst the pair potential between polymers
vanishes. Two different types of confinement induced by a pair of parallel
walls are considered, namely either through two hard walls or through two
semi-permeable walls that repel colloids but allow polymers to freely
penetrate. For hard (semi-permeable) walls we find that the capillary binodal
is shifted towards higher (lower) polymer fugacities and lower (higher) colloid
fugacities as compared to the bulk binodal; this implies capillary condensation
(evaporation) of the colloidal liquid phase in the slit. A macroscopic
treatment is provided by a novel symmetric Kelvin equation for general binary
mixtures, based on the proximity in chemical potentials of statepoints at
capillary coexistence and the reference bulk coexistence. Results for capillary
binodals compare well with those obtained from the classic version of the
Kelvin equation due to Evans and Marini Bettolo Marconi [J. Chem. Phys. 86,
7138 (1987)], and are quantitatively accurate away from the fluid-fluid
critical point, even at small wall separations. For hard walls the density
profiles of polymers and colloids inside the slit display oscillations due to
packing effects for all statepoints. For semi-permeable walls either similar
structuring or flat profiles are found, depending on the statepoint considered.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figure
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