Retrievals of Antarctic aerosol characteristics using a Sun-sky radiometer during the 2001-2002 austral summer campaign

In order to characterize the Antarctic aerosol and to analyze the effect of katabatic winds on the properties of suspended particles, measurements of solar direct and diffuse irradiance were carried out at the Italian Terra Nova Bay station in Antarctica, during the 2001-2002 austral summer campaign. Measurements were performed by the ground-based PREDE sky radiometer and processed by using the Skyrad inversion code. Aerosol optical thickness at 500 nm was found to vary between 0.01 and 0.02. The volume size distribution curves showed bimodal features with the two modes located within 0.1-0.3 μm and 5-7 μm radius intervals, respectively. The real part of the refractive index characterizing the Antarctic aerosol was found to have a mean value of 1.40. During the katabatic event the analysis indicated that the advection of larger and drier fresh particles, together with the removal of marine suspended particles, caused the decrease in aerosol optical thickness

Phase-Control of Photoabsorption in Optically Dense Media

We present a self-consistent theory, as well as an illustrative application to a realistic system, of phase control of photoabsorption in an optically dense medium. We demonstrate that, when propagation effects are taken into consideration, the impact on phase control is significant. Independently of the value of the initial phase difference between the two fields, over a short scaled distance of propagation, the medium tends to settle the relative phase so that it cancels the atomic excitation. In addition, we find some rather unusual behavior for an optically thin layer.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR

Solitons in Chern-Simons theories of nonrelativistic CP^{N-1} models: Spin textures in the quantum Hall effect

Topological solitons in CP^{N-1} models coupled with Chern-Simons gauge theory and a Hopf term are studied both analytically and numerically.These models are low-energy effective theories for the quantum Hall effect with internal degrees of freedom, like that in bilayer electron systems. We explicitly show that the CP^{N-1} models describe quite well spin textures in the original Chern-Simons theory of bosonized electrons.Comment: Latex, 19 pages, 6 figure

Transport and magnetic properties of Co-doped BaFe_{2}As_{2} epitaxial thin films

We report resistivity, Hall coefficient, current-voltage characteristics, and magneto-optical imaging measurements of epitaxial Co-doped BaFe_{2}As_{2} thin films deposited on MgO(001) substrate. The Hall resistivity of the films has a substantial contribution arising from anomalous Hall effect of ferromagnetic components. The critical current density (J_{c}) of the films is ~2 MA/cm^{2} at low temperatures. Differential magneto-optical images of the remanent state give similar J_{c} values and also exhibit presence of extended defects in the film.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Specific heat evidence for two-gap superconductivity in ternary-iron silicide Lu2_{2}Fe3_{3}Si5_{5}

We report low-temperature specific heat studies on single-crystalline ternary-iron silicide superconductor Lu$_{2}$Fe$_{3}$Si$_{5}$ with$T_c$ = 6.1 K down to $\sim T_c/20$. We confirm a reduced normalized jump in specific heat at $T_c$, and find that the specific heat divided by temperature $C/T$ shows sudden drop at $\sim T_c/5$ and goes to zero with further decreasing temperature. These results indicate the presence of two distinct superconducting gaps in Lu$_{2}$Fe$_{3}$Si$_{5}$, similar to a typical two-gap superconductor MgB$_{2}$. We also report Hall coefficients, band structure calculation, and the anisotropy of upper critical fields for Lu$_{2}$Fe$_{3}$Si$_{5}$, which support the anisotropic multiband nature and reinforce the existence of two superconducting gaps in Lu$_{2}$Fe$_{3}$Si$_{5}$.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure