A critical examination of discrete lattice and dispersed barrier hardening

Critical assessment of discrete lattice and dispersed barrier hardening theories of thermally activated deformation of metal

Antisymmetrized molecular dynamics of wave packets with stochastic incorporation of Vlasov equation

On the basis of the antisymmetrized molecular dynamics (AMD) of wave packets for the quantum system, a novel model (called AMD-V) is constructed by the stochastic incorporation of the diffusion and the deformation of wave packets which is calculated by Vlasov equation without any restriction on the one-body distribution. In other words, the stochastic branching process in molecular dynamics is formulated so that the instantaneous time evolution of the averaged one-body distribution is essentially equivalent to the solution of Vlasov equation. Furthermore, as usual molecular dynamics, AMD-V keeps the many-body correlation and can naturally describe the fluctuation among many channels of the reaction. It is demonstrated that the newly introduced process of AMD-V has drastic effects in heavy ion collisions of 40Ca + 40Ca at 35 MeV/nucleon, especially on the fragmentation mechanism, and AMD-V reproduces the fragmentation data very well. Discussions are given on the interrelation among the frameworks of AMD, AMD-V and other microscopic models developed for the nuclear dynamics.Comment: 26 pages, LaTeX with revtex and epsf, embedded postscript figure

Using single quantum states as spin filters to study spin polarization in ferromagnets

By measuring electron tunneling between a ferromagnet and individual energy levels in an aluminum quantum dot, we show how spin-resolved quantum states can be used as filters to determine spin-dependent tunneling rates. We also observe magnetic-field-dependent shifts in the magnet's electrochemical potential relative to the dot's energy levels. The shifts vary between samples and are generally smaller than expected from the magnet's spin-polarized density of states. We suggest that they are affected by field-dependent charge redistribution at the magnetic interface.Comment: 4 pages, 1 color figur

Real-space observation of current-driven domain wall motion in submicron magnetic wires

Spintronic devices, whose operation is based on the motion of a magnetic domain wall (DW), have been proposed recently. If a DW could be driven directly by flowing an electric current instead of a magnetic field, the performance and functions of such device would be drastically improved. Here we report real-space observation of the current-driven DW motion by using a well-defined single DW in a micro-fabricated magnetic wire with submicron width. Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) visualizes that a single DW introduced in the wire is displaced back and forth by positive and negative pulsed-current, respectively. We can control the DW position in the wire by tuning the intensity, the duration and the polarity of the pulsed-current. It is, thus, demonstrated that spintronic device operation by the current-driven DW motion is possible.Comment: Accepted and published in PR

The Lunar Surface Gravimeter as a Lunar Seismograph

Introduction: The primary objective for the Lunar Surface Gravimeter (LSG) on Apollo 17 was to search for gravitational waves, but it failed in detecting them [1]. When the instrument was deployed on the Moon, the sensor beam could not be balanced in the proper equilibrium position. Consequently, the LSG was not able to function as originally designed. Lauderdale and Eichelman (1974) [1] concluded that “no provision has been made to supply data from the experiment to the National Space Science Data Center.” However, it was reported in Giganti et al. (1977) [2] that though they had not detected gravitational waves, after a series of reconfigurations the beam was recentered and the LSG gathered useful data. Besides the observation of gravitational waves, the LSG was also designed to observe seismic signals and tidal deformations [3]. According to Giganti et al. (1977) [2] LSG’s sensitivity covered the frequency range from 1~16Hz (Fig.1). There are several types of moonquakes reported, deep moonquakes, meteorite impacts, and high frequency teleseismic (HFT). Each of the moonquakes is known to have a resonant frequency around 1Hz and in addition, HFT has a predominant frequency around 10 Hz [4]. Therefore it is likely that the LSG was detecting the seismic events on the Moon. However, the LSG data have not been analyzed from a seismological point of view

First-Principles Study on Leakage Current through Si/SiO2_2 Interface

The relationship between the presence of defects at the stacking structure of the Si/SiO$_2$ interface and leakage current is theoretically studied by first-principles calculation. I found that the leakage current through the interface with dangling bonds is 530 times larger than that without any defects, which is expected to lead to dielectric breakdown. The direction of the dangling bonds is closely related to the performance of the oxide as an insulator. In addition, it is proved that the termination of the dangling bonds by hydrogen atoms is effective for reducing the leakage current.Comment: 11 pages. to be published in Phys. Rev.

Nonequilibrium spin distribution in single-electron transistor

Single-electron transistor with ferromagnetic outer electrodes and nonmagnetic island is studied theoretically. Nonequilibrium electron spin distribution in the island is caused by tunneling current. The dependencies of the magnetoresistance ratio $\delta$ on the bias and gate voltages show the dips which are directly related to the induced separation of Fermi levels for electrons with different spins. Inside a dip $\delta$ can become negative.Comment: 11 pages, 2 eps figure