Fundamental optical and magneto-optical constants of Co/Pt and CoNi/Pt multilayered films

A study has been made of the optical and magneto-optical properties of several Co/Pt and CoNi/Pt multilayered films that were fabricated by magnetron sputter deposition. Spectroscopic rotating analyzer ellipsometry and Kerr polarimetry were carried out to determine the fundamental optical and magneto-optical constants over the spectral range 320¿860 nm. The constants determined were the complex refractive index and the first-order magneto-optic Voigt parameter. A total of seven films were examined and excellent reproducibility was observed in the measured material constants. These have been used to discuss the spectral dependence of the figure-of-merit, for each material, associated with the detection of the polar Kerr effect

Increase in soil organic carbon by agricultural intensification in northern China

Acknowledgements. This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 31370527 and 31261140367) and the National Science and Technology Support Program of China (no. 2012BAD14B01-2). The authors gratefully thank the Huantai Agricultural Station for providing of the Soil Fertility Survey data. We also thank Zheng Liang from China Agricultural University for the soil sampling and analysis in 2011. Thanks are extended to Jessica Bellarby for helpful discussion and suggestions.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The effects of geometric uncertainties on computational modelling of knee biomechanics

The geometry of the articular components of the knee is an important factor in predicting joint mechanics in computational models. There are a number of uncertainties in the definition of the geometry of cartilage and meniscus, and evaluating the effects of these uncertainties is fundamental to understanding the level of reliability of the models. In this study, the sensitivity of knee mechanics to geometric uncertainties was investigated by comparing polynomial-based and image-based knee models and varying the size of meniscus. The results suggested that the geometric uncertainties in cartilage and meniscus resulting from the resolution of MRI and the accuracy of segmentation caused considerable effects on the predicted knee mechanics. Moreover, even if the mathematical geometric descriptors can be very close to the imaged-based articular surfaces, the detailed contact pressure distribution produced by the mathematical geometric descriptors was not the same as that of the image-based model. However, the trends predicted by the models based on mathematical geometric descriptors were similar to those of the imaged-based models

Conduction mechanisms of epitaxial EuTiO3 thin films

To investigate leakage current density versus electric field characteristics, epitaxial EuTiO3 thin films were deposited on (001) SrTiO3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition and were post-annealed in a reducing atmosphere. This investigation found that conduction mechanisms are strongly related to temperature and voltage polarity. It was determined that from 50 to 150 K the dominant conduction mechanism was a space-charge-limited current under both negative and positive biases. From 200 to 300 K, the conduction mechanism shows Schottky emission and Fowler-Nordheim tunneling behaviors for the negative and positive biases, respectively. This work demonstrates that Eu3+ is one source of leakage current in EuTiO3 thin films.Comment: 17 pages,4 figures, conferenc

AFM studies of surface morphologies of sputtered SrTiO₃ films and annealed MgO substrates

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is applied to study the surface morphologies and growth mechanisms of sputtered SrTiO3 films on single-crystal MgO(100) substrates. Meanwhile, surface morphologies of as-polished and post-annealed MgO(100) substrates are investigated as well. Effects of the miscut (or misorientation) of the substrate surface on morphologies and growth mechanisms are discussed. For comparison, a typical surface morphology and growth mechanism of the spiral island structure in sputtered PrBa2Cu3O7-δ films on MgO(100) substrates are presented

Supersymmetric Modified Korteweg-de Vries Equation: Bilinear Approach

A proper bilinear form is proposed for the N=1 supersymmetric modified Korteweg-de Vries equation. The bilinear B\"{a}cklund transformation of this system is constructed. As applications, some solutions are presented for it.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX using packages amsmath and amssymb, some corrections mad

Pressure dependence of the superconducting transition and electron correlations in Na_xCoO_2 \cdot 1.3H_2O

We report T_c and ^{59}Co nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) measurements on the cobalt oxide superconductor Na_{x}CoO_{2}\cdot 1.3H_{2}O (T_c=4.8 K) under hydrostatic pressure (P) up to 2.36 GPa. T_c decreases with increasing pressure at an average rate of -0.49\pm0.09 K/GPa. At low pressures P\leq0.49 GPa, the decrease of T_c is accompanied by a weakening of the spin correlations at a finite wave vector and a reduction of the density of states (DOS) at the Fermi level. At high pressures above 1.93 GPa, however, the decrease of T_c is mainly due to a reduction of the DOS. These results indicate that the electronic/magnetic state of Co is primarily responsible for the superconductivity. The spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T_1 at P=0.49 GPa shows a T^3 variation below T_c down to T\sim 0.12T_c, which provides compelling evidence for the presence of line nodes in the superconducting gap function.Comment: published on 19, Sept. 2007 on Phys. Rev.

Candidate MKiD nucleus 106Rh in triaxial relativistic mean-field approach with time-odd fields

The configuration-fixed constrained triaxial relativistic mean-field approach is extended by including time-odd fields and applied to study the candidate multiple chiral doublets (MKiD) nucleus 106Rh. The energy contribution from time-odd fields and microscopical evaluation of center-of-mass correction as well as the modification of triaxial deformation parameters beta, gamma due to the time-odd fields are investigated. The contributions of the time-odd fields to the total energy are 0.1-0.3 MeV and they modify slightly the gamma values. However, the previously predicted multiple chiral doublets still exist.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication as a Brief Report in Physical Review

Right-sided invasive metastatic thymoma of the heart

Cardiac tumours may display diverse symptoms through potential involvement of any structure of the heart. We describe a case of a highly malignant thymoma with involvement of different cardiac structures with important haemodynamic compromise. With the high sensitivity of transthoracic echocardiography for detection of intracardiac masses, computed tomography and magnetic resonance add essential structural preoperative information on the tumour and surrounding tissue as vessels, pleura, lung and mediastinum