2,140 research outputs found
An extreme ultraviolet spectrometer experiment for the Shuttle Get Away Special Program
An extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrometer experiment operated successfully during the STS-7 mission in an experiment to measure the global and diurnal variation of the EUV airglow. The spectrometer is an F 3.5 Wadsworth mount with mechanical collimator, a 75 x 75 mm grating, and a bare microchannel plate detector providing a spectral resolution of 7 X FWHM. Read-out of the signal is through discrete channels or resistive anode techniques. The experiment includes a microcomputer, 20 Mbit tape recorder, and a 28V, 40 Ahr silver-zinc battery. It is the first GAS payload to use an opening door. The spectrometer's 0.1 x 4.2 deg field of view is pointed vertically out of the shuttle bay. During the STS-7 flight data were acquired continuously for a period of 5 hours and 37 minutes, providing spectra of the 570 A to 850 A wavelength region of the airglow. Five diurnal cycles of the 584 A emission of neutral helium and the 834 A emission of ionized atomic oxygen were recorded. The experiment also recorded ion events and pressure pulses associated with thruster firings. The experiment is to fly again on Mission 41-F
Ab-initio transport theory for digital ferromagnetic heterostructures
MnAs/GaAs superlattices, made by -doping GaAs with Mn, are known as
digital ferromagnetic heterostructures. Here we present a theoretical density
functional study of the electronic, magnetic and transport properties of such
heterostructures. In the absence of intrinsic donors these systems show an half
metallic density of states, with an exchange interaction much stronger than
that of a random alloy with the same Mn concentration. {\it Ab initio}
ballistic transport calculations show that the carriers with energies close to
the Fermi energy are strongly confined within a few monolayers around the MnAs
plane. This strong confinement is responsible for the large exchange coupling.
Therefore the system can be described as a two dimensional half metal with
large conductance in the MnAs plane and small conductance in the perpendicular
direction
Spin currents and spin dynamics in time-dependent density-functional theory
We derive and analyse the equation of motion for the spin degrees of freedom
within time-dependent spin-density-functional theory (TD-SDFT). Results are (i)
a prescription for obtaining many-body corrections to the single-particle spin
currents from the Kohn-Sham equation of TD-SDFT, (ii) the existence of an
exchange-correlation (xc) torque within TD-SDFT, (iii) a prescription for
calculating, from TD-SDFT, the torque exerted by spin currents on the spin
magnetization, (iv) a novel exact constraint on approximate xc functionals, and
(v) the discovery of serious deficiencies of popular approximations to TD-SDFT
when applied to spin dynamics.Comment: now includes discussion of OEP and GGA; to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Ground-state energy and spin in disordered quantum dots
We investigate the ground-state energy and spin of disordered quantum dots
using spin-density-functional theory. Fluctuations of addition energies
(Coulomb-blockade peak spacings) do not scale with average addition energy but
remain proportional to level spacing. With increasing interaction strength, the
even-odd alternation of addition energies disappears, and the probability of
non-minimal spin increases, but never exceeds 50%. Within a two-orbital model,
we show that the off-diagonal Coulomb matrix elements help stabilize a ground
state of minimal spin.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Surface Half-Metallicity of CrAs in the Zinc-Blende Structure
The development of new techniques such as the molecular beam epitaxy have
enabled the growth of thin films of materials presenting novel properties.
Recently it was made possible to grow a CrAs thin-film in the zinc-blende
structure. In this contribution, the full-potential screened KKR method is used
to study the electronic and magnetic properties of bulk CrAs in this novel
phase as well as the Cr and As terminated (001) surfaces. Bulk CrAs is found to
be half-ferromagnetic for all three GaAs, AlAs and InAs experimental lattice
constants with a total spin magnetic moment of 3 . The Cr-terminated
surface retains the half-ferromagnetic character of the bulk, while in the case
of the As-termination the surface states destroy the gap in the minority-spin
band.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, new text, new titl
New Supernova Constraints on Sterile Neutrino Production
We consider the possibility that a light sterile-neutrino species can
be produced by scattering during the cooling of a proto-neutron star.
If we parameterize the sterile neutrino production cross-section by a parameter
as , where is an electron, neutron or proton, we show that is
constrained by limits to the conversion of to in the region
between the sterile-neutrino trapping region and the electron-neutrino trapping
region. This consideration excludes values of in the range between 10^{-4}
\la A \la 10^{-1}.Comment: 12 pages; Late
Spin interactions and switching in vertically tunnel-coupled quantum dots
We determine the spin exchange coupling J between two electrons located in
two vertically tunnel-coupled quantum dots, and its variation when magnetic (B)
and electric (E) fields (both in-plane and perpendicular) are applied. We
predict a strong decrease of J as the in-plane B field is increased, mainly due
to orbital compression. Combined with the Zeeman splitting, this leads to a
singlet-triplet crossing, which can be observed as a pronounced jump in the
magnetization at in-plane fields of a few Tesla, and perpendicular fields of
the order of 10 Tesla for typical self-assembled dots. We use harmonic
potentials to model the confining of electrons, and calculate the exchange J
using the Heitler-London and Hund-Mulliken technique, including the long-range
Coulomb interaction. With our results we provide experimental criteria for the
distinction of singlet and triplet states and therefore for microscopic spin
measurements. In the case where dots of different sizes are coupled, we present
a simple method to switch on and off the spin coupling with exponential
sensitivity using an in-plane electric field. Switching the spin coupling is
essential for quantum computation using electronic spins as qubits.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure
A theory of ferromagnetism in planar heterostructures of (Mn,III)-V semiconductors
A density functional theory of ferromagnetism in heterostructures of compound
semiconductors doped with magnetic impurities is presented. The variable
functions in the density functional theory are the charge and spin densities of
the itinerant carriers and the charge and localized spins of the impurities.
The theory is applied to study the Curie temperature of planar heterostructures
of III-V semiconductors doped with manganese atoms. The mean-field,
virtual-crystal and effective-mass approximations are adopted to calculate the
electronic structure, including the spin-orbit interaction, and the magnetic
susceptibilities, leading to the Curie temperature. By means of these results,
we attempt to understand the observed dependence of the Curie temperature of
planar -doped ferromagnetic structures on variation of their
properties. We predict a large increase of the Curie Temperature by additional
confinement of the holes in a -doped layer of Mn by a quantum well.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
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