Flux Noise in MgB2 Thin Films

We have performed flux noise and AC-susceptibility measurements on two 400 nm thick MgB$_2$ films. Both measurement techniques give information about the vortex dynamics in the sample, and hence the superconducting transition, and can be linked to each other through the fluctuation-dissipation-theorem. The transition widths for the two films are 0.3 and 0.8 K, respectively, and the transitions show a multi step-like behavior in the AC-susceptibility measurements. The same phenomenon is observed in the flux noise measurements through a change in the frequency dependence of the spectral density at each step in the transition. The results are discussed and interpreted in terms of vortices carrying an arbitrary fraction of a flux quantum as well as in terms of different macroscopic regions in the films having slightly different compositions, and hence, different critical temperatures.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, conference contribution to "Fluctuations and Noise", Santa Fe, New mexico 1-4 june 200

Natural Resources Policy Under the Bush Administration: Not What it Says, But What it has Done in Court

Bioassays relying on magnetic read-out using probe-tagged magnetic nanobeads are potential platforms for low-cost biodiagnostic devices for pathogen detection. For optimal assay performance it is crucial to apply an easy, efficient and robust bead-probe conjugation protocol. In this paper, sensitive (1.5 pM) singleplex detection of bacterial DNA sequences is demonstrated in a portable AC susceptometer by a magnetic nanobead-based bioassay principle; the volume-amplified magnetic nanobead detection assay (VAM-NDA). Two bead sizes, 100 and 250 nm, are investigated along with a highly efficient, rapid, robust, and stable conjugation chemistry relying on the avidin-biotin interaction for bead-probe attachment. Avidin-biotin conjugation gives easy control of the number of detection probes per bead; thus allowing for systematic investigation of the impact of varying the detection probe surface coverage upon bead immobilization in rolling circle amplified DNA-coils. The existence of an optimal surface coverage is discussed. Biplex VAM-NDA detection is for the first time demonstrated in the susceptometer: Semi-quantitative results are obtained and it is concluded that the concentration of DNA-coils in the incubation volume is of crucial importance for target quantification. The present findings bring the development of commercial biodiagnostic devices relying on the VAM-NDA further towards implementation in point-of-care and outpatient settings

Comment on ‘Analytical results for a Bessel function times Legendre polynomials class integrals’

A result is obtained, stemming from Gegenbauer, where the products of certain Bessel functions and exponentials are expressed in terms of an infinite series of spherical Bessel functions and products of associated Legendre functions. Closed form solutions for integrals involving Bessel functions times associated Legendre functions times exponentials, recently elucidated by Neves et al(J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 39 L293), are then shown to result directly from the orthogonality properties of the associated Legendre functions. This result offers greater flexibility in the treatment of classical Heisenberg chains and may do so in other problems such as occur in electromagnetic diffraction theory

Strain engineering for controlled growth of thin-film FeNi L10

FeNi thin films in the L1(0) phase were successfully grown by magnetron sputtering on HF-etched Si(001) substrates on Cu/Cu100-xNix buffers. The strain of the FeNi layer, (c/a)(FeNi), was varied in a controlled manner by changing the Ni content of the Cu100-xNix buffer layer from x = 0 at.% to x = 90 at.%, which influenced the common in- plane lattice parameter of the CuNi and FeNi layers. The presence of the L1(0) phase was confirmed by resonant x-ray diffraction measurements at various positions in reciprocal space. The uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy K-U is observed to be smaller (around 0.35 MJ m(-3)) than predicted for a perfect FeNi L1(0) sample, but it is larger than for previously studied films. No notable variation in K-U with strain state (c/a)(FeNi) is observed in the range achieved (0.99 less than or similar to (c/a)(FeNi) less than or similar to 1.02), which is in agreement with theoretical predictions