460 research outputs found
Evidence for a Second Order Phase Transition in Glasses at Very Low Temperatures -- A Macroscopic Quantum State of Tunneling Systems
Dielectric measurements at very low temperature indicate that in a glass with
the eutectic composition BaO-AlO-SiO a phase transition occurs at
5.84 mK. Below that temperature small magnetic fields of the order of 10 T
cause noticeable changes of the dielectric constant although the glass is
insensitive to fields up to 20 T above 10 mK. The experimental findings may be
interpreted as the signature of the formation of a new phase in which many
tunneling systems perform a coherent motion resulting in a macroscopic wave
function.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Magnetic Field Dependent Tunneling in Glasses
We report on experiments giving evidence for quantum effects of
electromagnetic flux in barium alumosilicate glass. In contrast to expectation,
below 100 mK the dielectric response becomes sensitive to magnetic fields. The
experimental findings include both, the complete lifting of the dielectric
saturation by weak magnetic fields and oscillations of the dielectric response
in the low temperature resonant regime. As origin of these effects we suggest
that the magnetic induction field violates the time reversal invariance leading
to a flux periodicity in the energy levels of tunneling systems. At low
temperatures, this effect is strongly enhanced by the interaction between
tunneling systems and thus becomes measurable.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
An experimental study of reactive turbulent mixing
An experimental study of two coaxial gas streams, which react very rapidly, was performed to investigate the mixing characteristics of turbulent flow fields. The center stream consisted of a CO-N2 mixture and the outer annular stream consisted of air vitiated by H2 combustion. The streams were at equal velocity (50 m/sec) and temperature (1280 K). Turbulence measurements were obtained using hot film anemometry. A sampling probe was used to obtain time averaged gas compositions. Six different turbulence generators were placed in the annular passage to alter the flow field mixing characteristics. The turbulence generators affected the bulk mixing of the streams and the extent of CO conversion to different degrees. The effects can be related to the average eddy size (integral scale) and the bulk mixing. Higher extents of conversion of CO to CO2 were found be increasing the bulk mixing and decreasing the average eddy size
Parity Effects in Stacked Nanoscopic Quantum Rings
The ground state and the dielectric response of stacked quantum rings are
investigated in the presence of an applied magnetic field along the ring axis.
For odd number of rings and an electric field perpendicular to the axis, a
linear Stark effect occurs at distinct values of the magnetic field. At those
fields energy levels cross in the absence of electric field. For even values of
a quadratic Stark effect is expected in all cases, but the induced electric
polarization is discontinuous at those special magnetic fields. Experimental
consequences for related nanostructures are discussed.Comment: typos corrected, to appear Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Communication) 15 Au
Correlated Persistent Tunneling Currents in Glasses
Low temperature properties of glasses are derived within a generalized
tunneling model, considering the motion of charged particles on a closed path
in a double-well potential. The presence of a magnetic induction field B
violates the time reversal invariance due to the Aharonov-Bohm phase, and leads
to flux periodic energy levels. At low temperature, this effect is shown to be
strongly enhanced by dipole-dipole and elastic interactions between tunneling
systems and becomes measurable. Thus, the recently observed strong sensitivity
of the electric permittivity to weak magnetic fields can be explained. In
addition, superimposed oscillations as a function of the magnetic field are
predicted.Comment: 4 page
Magnetic field effect on the dielectric constant of glasses: Evidence of disorder within tunneling barriers
The magnetic field dependence of the low frequency dielectric constant
(H) of a structural glass a - SiO2 + xCyHz was studied from 400 mK to 50
mK and for H up to 3T. Measurement of both the real and the imaginary parts of
is used to eliminate the difficult question of keeping constant the
temperature of the sample while increasing H: a non-zero (H) dependence is
reported in the same range as that one very recently reported on multicomponent
glasses. In addition to the recently proposed explanation based on
interactions, the reported (H) is interpreted quantitatively as a
consequence of the disorder lying within the nanometric barriers of the
elementary tunneling systems of the glass.Comment: latex Bcorrige1.tex, 5 files, 4 figures, 7 pages [SPEC-S02/009
Effect of Nuclear Quadrupole Interaction on the Relaxation in Amorphous Solids
Recently it has been experimentally demonstrated that certain glasses display
an unexpected magnetic field dependence of the dielectric constant. In
particular, the echo technique experiments have shown that the echo amplitude
depends on the magnetic field. The analysis of these experiments results in the
conclusion that the effect seems to be related to the nuclear degrees of
freedom of tunneling systems. The interactions of a nuclear quadrupole
electrical moment with the crystal field and of a nuclear magnetic moment with
magnetic field transform the two-level tunneling systems inherent in amorphous
dielectrics into many-level tunneling systems. The fact that these features
show up at temperatures , where the properties of amorphous materials
are governed by the long-range interaction between tunneling systems,
suggests that this interaction is responsible for the magnetic field dependent
relaxation. We have developed a theory of many-body relaxation in an ensemble
of interacting many-level tunneling systems and show that the relaxation rate
is controlled by the magnetic field. The results obtained correlate with the
available experimental data. Our approach strongly supports the idea that the
nuclear quadrupole interaction is just the key for understanding the unusual
behavior of glasses in a magnetic field.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure
A Classroom Demonstration of Levitation and Suspension of a Superconductor over a Magnetic Track
The suspension and levitation of superconductors by permanent magnets is one
of the most fascinating consequences of superconductivity, and a wonderful
instrument for generating interest in low temperature physics and
electrodynamics. We present a novel classroom demonstration of the
levitation/suspension of a superconductor over a magnetic track that maximizes
levitation/suspension time, separation distance between the magnetic track and
superconductor and also insulator aesthetics. The demonstration as described is
both inexpensive and easy to construct.Comment: 5 page
Comparative study of the effects of electron irradiation and natural disorder in single crystals of SrFe(AsP) (0.35) superconductor
London penetration depth, , was measured in single crystals of
SrFe(AsP) (0.35) iron - based superconductor. The
influence of disorder on the transition temperature, , and on
was investigated. The effects of scattering controlled by the annealing of
as-grown crystals was compared with the effects of artificial disorder
introduced by 2.5~MeV electron irradiation. The low temperature behavior of
can be described by a power-law function, , with the exponent close to one in pristine annealed samples, as
expected for superconducting gap with line nodes. Upon
\ecm irradiation, the exponent increases rapidly exceeding a dirty limit
value of 2 implying that the nodes in the superconducting gap are
accidental and can be lifted by the disorder. The variation of the exponent
with is much stronger in the irradiated crystals compared to the crystals
in which disorder was controlled by the annealing of the growth defects. We
discuss the results in terms of different influence of different types of
disorder on intra- and inter- band scattering
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