761 research outputs found
Integer quantum Hall effect on a six valley hydrogen-passivated silicon (111) surface
We report magneto-transport studies of a two-dimensional electron system
formed in an inversion layer at the interface between a hydrogen-passivated
Si(111) surface and vacuum. Measurements in the integer quantum Hall regime
demonstrate the expected sixfold valley degeneracy for these surfaces is
broken, resulting in an unequal occupation of the six valleys and anisotropy in
the resistance. We hypothesize the misorientation of Si surface breaks the
valley states into three unequally spaced pairs, but the observation of odd
filling factors, is difficult to reconcile with non-interacting electron
theory.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Physical Review Letter
Charge transport through weakly open one dimensional quantum wires
We consider resonant transmission through a finite-length quantum wire
connected to leads via finite transparency junctions. The coherent electron
transport is strongly modified by the Coulomb interaction. The low-temperature
current-voltage () curves show step-like dependence on the bias voltage
determined by the distance between the quantum levels inside the conductor, the
pattern being dependent on the ratio between the charging energy and level
spacing. If the system is tuned close to the resonance condition by the gate
voltage, the low-voltage curve is Ohmic. At large Coulomb energy and low
temperatures, the conductance is temperature-independent for any relationship
between temperature, level spacing, and coupling between the wire and the
leads
Decline of nucleotide excision repair capacity in aging Caenorhabditis elegans
Repair of UVC-induced DNA damage in Caenorhabditis elegans is similar kinetically and genetically to repair in humans, and it slows significantly in aging C. elegans
Nonlinear Dynamics of Composite Fermions in Nanostructures
We outline a theory describing the quasi-classical dynamics of composite
fermions in the fractional quantum Hall regime in the potentials of arbitrary
nanostructures. By an appropriate parametrization of time we show that their
trajectories are independent of their mass and dispersion. This allows to study
the dynamics in terms of an effective Hamiltonian although the actual
dispersion is as yet unknown. The applicability of the theory is verified in
the case of antidot arrays where it explains details of magnetoresistance
measurements and thus confirms the existence of these quasiparticles.Comment: submitted to Europhys. Lett., 4 pages, postscrip
Localization fom conductance in few-channel disordered wires
We study localization in two- and three channel quasi-1D systems using
multichain tight-binding Anderson models with nearest-neighbour interchain
hopping. In the three chain case we discuss both the case of free- and that of
periodic boundary conditions between the chains. The finite disordered wires
are connected to ideal leads and the localization length is defined from the
Landauer conductance in terms of the transmission coefficients matrix. The
transmission- and reflection amplitudes in properly defined quantum channels
are obtained from S-matrices constructed from transfer matrices in Bloch wave
bases for the various quasi-1D systems. Our exact analytic expressions for
localization lengths for weak disorder reduce to the Thouless expression for 1D
systems in the limit of vanishing interchain hopping. For weak interchain
hopping the localization length decreases with respect to the 1D value in all
three cases. In the three-channel cases it increases with interchain hopping
over restricted domains of large hopping
Anomalous Conductance Quantization in Carbon Nanotubes
Conductance measurements of carbon nanotubes containing gated local depletion
regions exhibit plateaus as a function of gate voltage, spaced by approximately
e2/h, the quantum of conductance for a single (non-degenerate) mode. Plateau
structure is investigated as a function of bias voltage, temperature, and
magnetic field. We speculate on the origin of this surprising quantization,
which appears to lack band and spin degeneracy.Comment: related articles at http://marcuslab.harvard.ed
Sensitivity and back-action in charge qubit measurements by a strongly coupled single-electron transistor
We consider charge-qubit monitoring (continuous-in-time weak measurement) by
a single-electron transistor (SET) operating in the sequential-tunneling
regime. We show that commonly used master equations for this regime are not of
the Lindblad form that is necessary and sufficient for guaranteeing valid
physical states. In this paper we derive a Lindblad-form master equation and a
corresponding quantum trajectory model for continuous measurement of the charge
qubit by a SET. Our approach requires that the SET-qubit coupling be strong
compared to the SET tunnelling rates. We present an analysis of the quality of
the qubit measurement in this model (sensitivity versus back-action).
Typically, the strong coupling when the SET island is occupied causes
back-action on the qubit beyond the quantum back-action necessary for its
sensitivity, and hence the conditioned qubit state is mixed. However, in one
strongly coupled, asymmetric regime, the SET can approach the limit of an ideal
detector with an almost pure conditioned state. We also quantify the quality of
the SET using more traditional concepts such as the measurement time and
decoherence time, which we have generalized so as to treat the strongly
responding regime.Comment: About 11 pages, 6 figures. Changes in v2: we made general
improvements to the manuscript including, but not limited to(!), the removal
of one reference, and modification of the footnote
Effects of Electron-Electron Scattering on Electron-Beam Propagation in a Two-Dimensional Electron-Gas
We have studied experimentally and theoretically the influence of
electron-electron collisions on the propagation of electron beams in a
two-dimensional electron gas for excess injection energies ranging from zero up
to the Fermi energy. We find that the detector signal consists of
quasiballistic electrons, which either have not undergone any electron-electron
collisions or have only been scattered at small angles. Theoretically, the
small-angle scattering exhibits distinct features that can be traced back to
the reduced dimensionality of the electron system. A number of nonlinear
effects, also related to the two-dimensional character of the system, are
discussed. In the simplest situation, the heating of the electron gas by the
high-energy part of the beam leads to a weakening of the signal of
quasiballistic electrons and to the appearance of thermovoltage. This results
in a nonmonotonic dependence of the detector signal on the intensity of the
injected beam, as observed experimentally.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Thermo-Electric Properties of Quantum Point Contacts
I. Introduction
II. Theoretical background (Landauer-Buttiker formalism of
thermo-electricity, Quantum point contacts as ideal electron waveguides,
Saddle-shaped potential)
III. Experiments (Thermopower, Thermal conductance, Peltier effect)
IV. ConclusionsComment: #4 of a series of 4 legacy reviews on QPC'
Structure of Disk Dominated Galaxies I. Bulge/Disk Parameters, Simulations, and Secular Evolution
(Abridged) A robust analysis of galaxy structural parameters, based on the
modeling of bulge and disk brightnesses in the BVRH bandpasses, is presented
for 121 face-on and moderately inclined late-type spirals. Each surface
brightness (SB) profile is decomposed into a sum of a generalized Sersic bulge
and an exponential disk. The reliability and limitations of our bulge-to-disk
(B/D) decompositions are tested with extensive simulations of galaxy brightness
profiles (1D) and images (2D). Galaxy types are divided into 3 classes
according to their SB profile shapes; Freeman Type-I and Type-II, and a third
``Transition'' class for galaxies whose profiles change from Type-II in the
optical to Type-I in the infrared. We discuss possible interpretations of
Freeman Type-II profiles. The Sersic bulge shape parameter for nearby Type-I
late-type spirals shows a range between n=0.1-2 but, on average, the underlying
surface density profile for the bulge and disk of these galaxies is adequately
described by a double-exponential distribution. We confirm a coupling between
the bulge and disk with a scale length ratio r_e/h=0.22+/-0.09, or
h_bulge/h_disk=0.13+/-0.06 for late-type spirals, in agreement with recent
N-body simulations of disk formation and models of secular evolution. This
ratio increases from ~0.20 for late-type spirals to ~0.24 for earlier types.
The similar scaling relations for early and late-type spirals suggest
comparable formation and/or evolution scenarios for disk galaxies of all Hubble
types.Comment: 78 pages with 23 embedded color figures + tables of galaxy structural
parameters. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. The
interested reader is strongly encouraged to ignore some of the low res
figures within; instead, download the high resolution version from
http://www.astro.ubc.ca/people/courteau/public/macarthur02_disks.ps.g
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