Nonmonotonic magnetoresistance of a two-dimensional viscous electron-hole fluid in a confined geometry

Ultra-pure conductors may exhibit hydrodynamic transport where the collective motion of charge carriers resembles the flow of a viscous fluid. In a confined geometry (e.g., in ultra-high quality nanostructures) the electronic fluid assumes a Poiseuille-like flow. Applying an external magnetic field tends to diminish viscous effects leading to large negative magnetoresistance. In two-component systems near charge neutrality the hydrodynamic flow of charge carriers is strongly affected by the mutual friction between the two constituents. At low fields, the magnetoresistance is negative, however at high fields the interplay between electron-hole scattering, recombination, and viscosity results in a dramatic change of the flow profile: the magnetoresistance changes its sign and eventually becomes linear in very high fields. This novel non-monotonic magnetoresistance can be used as a fingerprint to detect viscous flow in two-component conducting systems.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Scaling in activated escape of underdamped systems

Noise-induced escape from a metastable state of a dynamical system is studied close to a saddle-node bifurcation point, but in the region where the system remains underdamped. The activation energy of escape scales as a power of the distance to the bifurcation point. We find two types of scaling and the corresponding critical exponents.Comment: 9 page

Counterflows in viscous electron-hole fluid

In ultra-pure conductors, collective motion of charge carriers at relatively high temperatures may become hydrodynamic such that electronic transport may be described similarly to a viscous flow. In confined geometries (e.g., in ultra-high quality nanostructures), the resulting flow is Poiseuille-like. When subjected to a strong external magnetic field, the electric current in semimetals is pushed out of the bulk of the sample towards the edges. Moreover, we show that the interplay between viscosity and fast recombination leads to the appearance of counterflows. The edge currents possess a non-trivial spatial profile and consist of two stripe-like regions: the outer stripe carrying most of the current in the direction of the external electric field and the inner stripe with the counterflow.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Quantum conductivity corrections in two dimensional long-range disordered systems with strong spin-orbit splitting of electron spectrum

We study quantum corrections to conductivity in a 2D system with a smooth random potential and strong spin-orbit splitting of the spectrum. We show that the interference correction is positive and down to the very low temperature can exceed the negative correction related to electron-electron interactions. We discuss this result in the context of the problem of the metal-insulator transition in Si-MOSFET structures.Comment: 8 pages, no figure

Magnetoresistance of compensated semimetals in confined geometries

Two-component conductors -- e.g., semi-metals and narrow band semiconductors -- often exhibit unusually strong magnetoresistance in a wide temperature range. Suppression of the Hall voltage near charge neutrality in such systems gives rise to a strong quasiparticle drift in the direction perpendicular to the electric current and magnetic field. This drift is responsible for a strong geometrical increase of resistance even in weak magnetic fields. Combining the Boltzmann kinetic equation with sample electrostatics, we develop a microscopic theory of magnetotransport in two and three spatial dimensions. The compensated Hall effect in confined geometry is always accompanied by electron-hole recombination near the sample edges and at large-scale inhomogeneities. As the result, classical edge currents may dominate the resistance in the vicinity of charge compensation. The effect leads to linear magnetoresistance in two dimensions in a broad range of parameters. In three dimensions, the magnetoresistance is normally quadratic in the field, with the linear regime restricted to rectangular samples with magnetic field directed perpendicular to the sample surface. Finally, we discuss the effects of heat flow and temperature inhomogeneities on the magnetoresistance.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, published versio

Magnetoresistance in two-component systems

Two-component systems with equal concentrations of electrons and holes exhibit non-saturating, linear magnetoresistance in classically strong magnetic fields. The effect is predicted to occur in finite-size samples at charge neutrality in both disorder- and interaction-dominated regimes. The phenomenon originates in the excess quasiparticle density developing near the edges of the sample due to the compensated Hall effect. The size of the boundary region is of the order of the electron-hole recombination length that is inversely proportional to the magnetic field. In narrow samples and at strong enough magnetic fields, the boundary region dominates over the bulk leading to linear magnetoresistance. Our results are relevant for semimetals and narrow-band semiconductors including most of the topological insulators.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

P- and T-violating Schiff moment of the Mercury nucleus

The Schiff moment of the $^{199}$Hg nucleus was calculated using finite range P- and T-violating weak nucleon-nucleon interaction. Effects of the core polarization were considered in the framework of RPA with effective residual forces.Comment: 10 pages and 2 figures,to appear in Yad. Fi

X-radiation of the moon and Roentgen cosmic background according to data of AMS ''Luna-12''

Satellite measurements of lunar soft X radiation, and Roentgen cosmic backgroun

Surface Nanoscale Axial Photonics (SNAP) at the silica microcapillary with ultrathin wall

We demonstrate SNAP microresonators fabricated in silica capillary fiber with ultrathin walls by local annealing with a focused CO2 laser and internal etching with hydrofluoric acid. We investigate the introduced capillary wall nonuniformity and demonstrate the feasibility of advanced microfluidic sensing with SNAP microresonators