210 research outputs found
Circularly polarized light emission in scanning tunneling microscopy of magnetic systems
Light is produced when a scanning tunneling microscope is used to probe a
metal surface. Recent experiments on cobalt utilizing a tungsten tip found that
the light is circularly polarized; the sense of circular polarization depends
on the direction of the sample magnetization, and the degree of polarization is
of order 10 %. This raises the possibility of constructing a magnetic
microscope with very good spatial resolution. We present a theory of this
effect for iron and cobalt and find a degree of polarization of order 0.1 %.
This is in disagreement with the experiments on cobalt as well as previous
theoretical work which found order of magnitude agreement with the experimental
results. However, a recent experiment on iron showed 0.0 2 %. We predict
that the use of a silver tip would increase the degree of circular polarization
for a range of photon energies.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, (To appear in Phys. Rev. B, February 2000
Comparison of Variational Approaches for the Exactly Solvable 1/r-Hubbard Chain
We study Hartree-Fock, Gutzwiller, Baeriswyl, and combined
Gutzwiller-Baeriswyl wave functions for the exactly solvable one-dimensional
-Hubbard model. We find that none of these variational wave functions is
able to correctly reproduce the physics of the metal-to-insulator transition
which occurs in the model for half-filled bands when the interaction strength
equals the bandwidth. The many-particle problem to calculate the variational
ground state energy for the Baeriswyl and combined Gutzwiller-Baeriswyl wave
function is exactly solved for the~-Hubbard model. The latter wave
function becomes exact both for small and large interaction strength, but it
incorrectly predicts the metal-to-insulator transition to happen at infinitely
strong interactions. We conclude that neither Hartree-Fock nor Jastrow-type
wave functions yield reliable predictions on zero temperature phase transitions
in low-dimensional, i.e., charge-spin separated systems.Comment: 23 pages + 3 figures available on request; LaTeX under REVTeX 3.
Space-time evolution of electron cascades in diamond
Here we describe model calculations to follow the spatio-temporal evolution
of secondary electron cascades in diamond. The band structure of the insulator
has been explicitly incorporated into the calculations as it affects
ionizations from the valence band. A Monte-Carlo model was constructed to
describe the path of electrons following the impact of a single electron of
energy E 250 eV. The results show the evolution of the secondary electron
cascades in terms of the number of electrons liberated, the spatial
distribution of these electrons, and the energy distribution among the
electrons as a function of time. The predicted ionization rates (5-13 electrons
in 100 fs) lie within the limits given by experiments and phenomenological
models. Calculation of the local electron density and the corresponding Debye
length shows that the latter is systematically larger than the radius of the
electron cloud. This means that the electron gas generated does not represent a
plasma in a single impact cascade triggered by an electron of E 250 eV energy.
This is important as it justifies the independent-electron approximation used
in the model. At 1 fs, the (average) spatial distribution of secondary
electrons is anisotropic with the electron cloud elongated in the direction of
the primary impact. The maximal radius of the cascade is about 50 A at this
time. As the system cools, energy is distributed more equally, and the spatial
distribution of the electron cloud becomes isotropic. At 90 fs maximal radius
is about 150 A. The Monte-Carlo model described here could be adopted for the
investigation of radiation damage in other insulators and has implications for
planned experiments with intense femtosecond X-ray sources.Comment: 26 pages, latex, 13 figure
Electron-electron interactions and two-dimensional - two-dimensional tunneling
We derive and evaluate expressions for the dc tunneling conductance between
interacting two-dimensional electron systems at non-zero temperature. The
possibility of using the dependence of the tunneling conductance on voltage and
temperature to determine the temperature-dependent electron-electron scattering
rate at the Fermi energy is discussed. The finite electronic lifetime produced
by electron-electron interactions is calculated as a function of temperature
for quasiparticles near the Fermi circle. Vertex corrections to the random
phase approximation substantially increase the electronic scattering rate. Our
results are in an excellent quantitative agreement with experiment.Comment: Revtex style, 21 pages and 8 postscript figures in a separate file;
Phys. Rev. B (in press
Dynamics of Excited Electrons in Copper and Ferromagnetic Transition Metals: Theory and Experiment
Both theoretical and experimental results for the dynamics of photoexcited
electrons at surfaces of Cu and the ferromagnetic transition metals Fe, Co, and
Ni are presented. A model for the dynamics of excited electrons is developed,
which is based on the Boltzmann equation and includes effects of
photoexcitation, electron-electron scattering, secondary electrons (cascade and
Auger electrons), and transport of excited carriers out of the detection
region. From this we determine the time-resolved two-photon photoemission
(TR-2PPE). Thus a direct comparison of calculated relaxation times with
experimental results by means of TR-2PPE becomes possible. The comparison
indicates that the magnitudes of the spin-averaged relaxation time \tau and of
the ratio \tau_\uparrow/\tau_\downarrow of majority and minority relaxation
times for the different ferromagnetic transition metals result not only from
density-of-states effects, but also from different Coulomb matrix elements M.
Taking M_Fe > M_Cu > M_Ni = M_Co we get reasonable agreement with experiments.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures, added a figure and an appendix, updated
reference
Optical properties of MgH2 measured in situ in a novel gas cell for ellipsometry/spectrophotometry
The dielectric properties of alpha-MgH2 are investigated in the photon energy
range between 1 and 6.5 eV. For this purpose, a novel sample configuration and
experimental setup are developed that allow both optical transmission and
ellipsometric measurements of a transparent thin film in equilibrium with
hydrogen. We show that alpha-MgH2 is a transparent, colour neutral insulator
with a band gap of 5.6 +/- 0.1 eV. It has an intrinsic transparency of about
80% over the whole visible spectrum. The dielectric function found in this work
confirms very recent band structure calculations using the GW approximation by
Alford and Chou [J.A. Alford and M.Y. Chou (unpublished)]. As Pd is used as a
cap layer we report also the optical properties of PdHx thin films.Comment: REVTeX4, 15 pages, 12 figures, 5 table
Multiband tight-binding theory of disordered ABC semiconductor quantum dots: Application to the optical properties of alloyed CdZnSe nanocrystals
Zero-dimensional nanocrystals, as obtained by chemical synthesis, offer a
broad range of applications, as their spectrum and thus their excitation gap
can be tailored by variation of their size. Additionally, nanocrystals of the
type ABC can be realized by alloying of two pure compound semiconductor
materials AC and BC, which allows for a continuous tuning of their absorption
and emission spectrum with the concentration x. We use the single-particle
energies and wave functions calculated from a multiband sp^3 empirical
tight-binding model in combination with the configuration interaction scheme to
calculate the optical properties of CdZnSe nanocrystals with a spherical shape.
In contrast to common mean-field approaches like the virtual crystal
approximation (VCA), we treat the disorder on a microscopic level by taking
into account a finite number of realizations for each size and concentration.
We then compare the results for the optical properties with recent experimental
data and calculate the optical bowing coefficient for further sizes
Physics of Solar Prominences: I - Spectral Diagnostics and Non-LTE Modelling
This review paper outlines background information and covers recent advances
made via the analysis of spectra and images of prominence plasma and the
increased sophistication of non-LTE (ie when there is a departure from Local
Thermodynamic Equilibrium) radiative transfer models. We first describe the
spectral inversion techniques that have been used to infer the plasma
parameters important for the general properties of the prominence plasma in
both its cool core and the hotter prominence-corona transition region. We also
review studies devoted to the observation of bulk motions of the prominence
plasma and to the determination of prominence mass. However, a simple inversion
of spectroscopic data usually fails when the lines become optically thick at
certain wavelengths. Therefore, complex non-LTE models become necessary. We
thus present the basics of non-LTE radiative transfer theory and the associated
multi-level radiative transfer problems. The main results of one- and
two-dimensional models of the prominences and their fine-structures are
presented. We then discuss the energy balance in various prominence models.
Finally, we outline the outstanding observational and theoretical questions,
and the directions for future progress in our understanding of solar
prominences.Comment: 96 pages, 37 figures, Space Science Reviews. Some figures may have a
better resolution in the published version. New version reflects minor
changes brought after proof editin
Network and Psychological Effects in Urban Movement
Correlations are regularly found in space syntax studies between
graph-based configurational measures of street networks, represented as
lines, and observed movement patterns. This suggests that topological
and geometric complexity are critically involved in how people navigate
urban grids. This has caused difficulties with orthodox urban
modelling, since it has always been assumed that insofar as spatial
factors play a role in navigation, it will be on the basis of metric
distance. In spite of much experimental evidence from cognitive science
that geometric and topological factors are involved in navigation, and
that metric distance is unlikely to be the best criterion for
navigational choices, the matter has not been convincingly resolved
since no method has existed for extracting cognitive information from
aggregate flows. Within the space syntax literature it has also
remained unclear how far the correlations that are found with syntactic
variables at the level of aggregate flows are due to cognitive factors
operating at the level of individual movers, or they are simply
mathematically probable network effects, that is emergent statistical
effects from the structure of line networks, independent of the
psychology of navigational choices. Here we suggest how both problems
can be resolved, by showing three things: first, how cognitive
inferences can be made from aggregate urban flow data and distinguished
from network effects; second by showing that urban movement, both
vehicular and pedestrian, are shaped far more by the geometrical and
topological properties of the grid than by its metric properties; and
third by demonstrating that the influence of these factors on movement
is a cognitive, not network, effect
All-sky search for long-duration gravitational wave transients with initial LIGO
We present the results of a search for long-duration gravitational wave transients in two sets of data collected by the LIGO Hanford and LIGO Livingston detectors between November 5, 2005 and September 30, 2007, and July 7, 2009 and October 20, 2010, with a total observational time of 283.0 days and 132.9 days, respectively. The search targets gravitational wave transients of duration 10-500 s in a frequency band of 40-1000 Hz, with minimal assumptions about the signal waveform, polarization, source direction, or time of occurrence. All candidate triggers were consistent with the expected background; as a result we set 90% confidence upper limits on the rate of long-duration gravitational wave transients for different types of gravitational wave signals. For signals from black hole accretion disk instabilities, we set upper limits on the source rate density between 3.4×10-5 and 9.4×10-4 Mpc-3 yr-1 at 90% confidence. These are the first results from an all-sky search for unmodeled long-duration transient gravitational waves. © 2016 American Physical Society
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