8,968 research outputs found
Anomalous temperature dependence of the band-gap in Black Phosphorus
Black Phosphorus (BP) has gained renewed attention due to its singular
anisotropic electronic and optical properties that might be exploited for a
wide range of technological applications. In this respect, the thermal
properties are particularly important both to predict its room temperature
operation and to determine its thermoelectric potential. From this point of
view, one of the most spectacular and poorly understood phenomena is, indeed,
the BP temperature-induced band-gap opening: when temperature is increased the
fundamental band-gap increases instead of decreasing. This anomalous thermal
dependence has also been observed, recently, in its monolayer counterpart. In
this work, based on \textit{ab-initio} calculations, we present an explanation
for this long known, and yet not fully explained, effect. We show that it
arises from a combination of harmonic and lattice thermal expansion
contributions, which are, in fact, highly interwined. We clearly narrow down
the mechanisms that cause this gap opening by identifying the peculiar atomic
vibrations that drive the anomaly. The final picture we give explains both the
BP anomalous band-gap opening and the frequency increase with increasing volume
(tension effect).Comment: Published in Nano Letter
Pressure in an exactly solvable model of active fluid
We consider the pressure in the steady-state regime of three stochastic
models characterized by self-propulsion and persistent motion and widely
employed to describe the behavior of active particles, namely the Active
Brownian particle (ABP) model, the Gaussian colored noise (GCN) model and the
unified colored noise model (UCNA). Whereas in the limit of short but finite
persistence time the pressure in the UCNA model can be obtained by different
methods which have an analog in equilibrium systems, in the remaining two
models only the virial route is, in general, possible.
According to this method, notwithstanding each model obeys its own specific
microscopic law of evolution, the pressure displays a certain universal
behavior. For generic interparticle and confining potentials, we derive a
formula which establishes a correspondence between the GCN and the UCNA
pressures. In order to provide explicit formulas and examples, we specialize
the discussion to the case of an assembly of elastic dumbbells confined to a
parabolic well. By employing the UCNA we find that, for this model, the
pressure determined by the thermodynamic method coincides with the pressures
obtained by the virial and mechanical methods. The three methods when applied
to the GCN give a pressure identical to that obtained via the UCNA. Finally, we
find that the ABP virial pressure exactly agrees with the UCNA and GCN result.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure Submitted for publication 23rd of January 2017 The
introduction has been modifie
First-Principle Description of Correlation Effects in Layered Materials
We present a first-principles description of anisotropic materials
characterized by having both weak (dispersion-like) and strong covalent bonds,
based on the Adiabatic--Connection Fluctuation--Dissipation Theorem within
Density Functional Theory. For hexagonal boron nitride the in-plane and out of
plane bonding as well as vibrational dynamics are well described both at
equilibrium and when the layers are pulled apart. Also bonding in covalent and
ionic solids is described. The formalism allows to ping-down the deficiencies
of common exchange-correlation functionals and provides insight towards the
inclusion of dispersion interactions into the correlation functional.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter
Heat Capacity Mapping Mission (HCMM) program: Study of geological structure of Sicily and other Italian areas
The usefulness of thermal inertia mapping in discriminating geolithological units was investigated using Sardinia and the Gulf of Orosei as test sites. Software designed for LANDSAT data were modified and improved for HCMM tapes. A first attempt was made to compare the geological cross section, the topography, the IR radiance, and the thermal inertia along selected profiles of the test site. Thermal inertia profiles appear smoothed in comparison with the thermal radiance. The lowest apparent thermal inertia (ATI) was found on granitic and basaltic outcrops where their image is of sufficient extent, while ATI is higher on carbonatic and dolomitic or moist deposits. Almost every fault is marked by a jump of ATI, the interval being sometimes of the order of one pixel. This seems to demonstrate the ability of ATI to detect contacts or tectonically disturbed zones with a good resolution. It seems more difficult to measure the differences in ATI between homogeneous materials having different lithology. Ground surveys conducted and a simulation model of diurnal temperatures of rocks having different thermal inertia are discussed
Pseudo-critical clusterization in nuclear multifragmentation
In this contribution we show that the biggest fragment charge distribution in
central collisions of Xe+Sn leading to multifragmentation is an admixture of
two asymptotic distributions observed for the lowest and highest bombarding
energies. The evolution of the relative weights of the two components with
bombarding energy is shown to be analogous to that observed as a function of
time for the largest cluster produced in irreversible aggregation for a finite
system. We infer that the size distribution of the largest fragment in nuclear
multifragmentation is also characteristic of the time scale of the process,
which is largely determined by the onset of radial expansion in this energy
range.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Contribution to conference proceedings of the
25th International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC 2013
Sequential fissions of heavy nuclear systems
In Xe+Sn central collisions from 12 to 20 MeV/A measured with the INDRA
4 multidetector, the three-fragment exit channel occurs with a significant
cross section. In this contribution, we show that these fragments arise from
two successive binary splittings of a heavy composite system. Strong Coulomb
proximity effects are observed in the three-fragment final state. By comparison
with Coulomb trajectory calculations, we show that the time scale between the
consecutive break-ups decreases with increasing bombarding energy, becoming
compatible with quasi-simultaneous multifragmentation above 18 MeV/A.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, contribution to conference proceedings of the
Fifth International Workshop on Nuclear fission and Fission-Product
Spectroscop
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