104 research outputs found
Optical investigation of the metal-insulator transition in FeSb2
Abstract.: We present a comprehensive optical study of the narrow gap FeSb2 semiconductor. From the optical reflectivity, measured from the far infrared up to the ultraviolet spectral range, we extract the complete absorption spectrum, represented by the real part σ1(ω) of the complex optical conductivity. With decreasing temperature below 80K, we find a progressive depletion of σ1(ω) below Eg∼300 cm-1, the semiconducting optical gap. The suppressed (Drude) spectral weight within the gap is transferred at energies ω>Eg and also partially piles up over a continuum of excitations extending in the spectral range between zero and Eg. Moreover, the interaction of one phonon mode with this continuum leads to an asymmetric phonon shape. Even though several analogies between FeSb2 and FeSi were claimed and a Kondo-insulator scenario was also invoked for both systems, our data on FeSb2 differ in several aspects from those of FeSi. The relevance of our findings with respect to the Kondo insulator description will be addresse
Comment on ``Texture in the Superconducting Order Parameter of CeCoIn Revealed by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance''
The study of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state has been of
considerable recent interest. Below the temperature which is believed to
be the transition temperature () to the FFLO phase in CeCoIn, K.
Kakuyanagi et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 047602 (2005)) reported a composite NMR
spectrum with a tiny component observed at frequencies corresponding to the
normal state signal. The results were interpreted as evidence for the emergence
of an FFLO state. This result is inconsistent with two other NMR studies of V.
F. Mitrovi{\'c} et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 117002 (2006)) and B.-L. Young et
al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 036402 (2007)). In this comment we show that the
findings of K. Kakuyanagi et al. do not reflect the true nature of the FFLO
state but result from excess RF excitation power used in that experiment.Comment: 1 page, to appear in PR
Similar glassy features in the NMR response of pure and disordered La1.88Sr0.12CuO4
High Tc superconductivity in La2-xSrxCuO4 coexists with (striped and glassy)
magnetic order. Here, we report NMR measurements of the 139La spin-lattice
relaxation, which displays a stretched-exponential time dependence, in both
pure and disordered x=0.12 single crystals. An analysis in terms of a
distribution of relaxation rates T1^-1 indicates that i) the spin-freezing
temperature is spatially inhomogeneous with an onset at Tg(onset)=20 K for the
pristine samples, and ii) the width of the T1^-1 distribution in the vicinity
of Tg(onset) is insensitive to an ~1% level of atomic disorder in CuO2 planes.
This suggests that the stretched-exponential 139La relaxation, considered as a
manifestation of the systems glassiness, may not arise from quenched disorder.Comment: 7 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev.
A Multistage Stochastic Programming Approach to the Dynamic and Stochastic VRPTW - Extended version
We consider a dynamic vehicle routing problem with time windows and
stochastic customers (DS-VRPTW), such that customers may request for services
as vehicles have already started their tours. To solve this problem, the goal
is to provide a decision rule for choosing, at each time step, the next action
to perform in light of known requests and probabilistic knowledge on requests
likelihood. We introduce a new decision rule, called Global Stochastic
Assessment (GSA) rule for the DS-VRPTW, and we compare it with existing
decision rules, such as MSA. In particular, we show that GSA fully integrates
nonanticipativity constraints so that it leads to better decisions in our
stochastic context. We describe a new heuristic approach for efficiently
approximating our GSA rule. We introduce a new waiting strategy. Experiments on
dynamic and stochastic benchmarks, which include instances of different degrees
of dynamism, show that not only our approach is competitive with
state-of-the-art methods, but also enables to compute meaningful offline
solutions to fully dynamic problems where absolutely no a priori customer
request is provided.Comment: Extended version of the same-name study submitted for publication in
conference CPAIOR201
Optical investigation of the metal-insulator transition in
We present a comprehensive optical study of the narrow gap
semiconductor. From the optical reflectivity, measured from the far infrared up
to the ultraviolet spectral range, we extract the complete absorption spectrum,
represented by the real part of the complex optical
conductivity. With decreasing temperature below 80 K, we find a progressive
depletion of below cm, the
semiconducting optical gap. The suppressed (Drude) spectral weight within the
gap is transferred at energies and also partially piles up over a
continuum of excitations extending in the spectral range between zero and
. Moreover, the interaction of one phonon mode with this continuum leads
to an asymmetric phonon shape. Even though several analogies between
and were claimed and a Kondo-insulator scenario was also invoked for
both systems, our data on differ in several aspects from those of
. The relevance of our findings with respect to the Kondo insulator
description will be addressed.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
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