Liquid crystal anchoring transitions on aligning substrates processed by plasma beam

We observe a sequence of the anchoring transitions in nematic liquid crystals (NLC) sandwiched between the hydrophobic polyimide substrates treated with the plasma beam. There is a pronounced continuous transition from homeotropic to low tilted (nearly planar) alignment with the easy axis parallel to the incidence plane of the plasma beam (the zenithal transition) that takes place as the exposure dose increases. In NLC with positive dielectric anisotropy, a further increase in the exposure dose results in in-plane reorientation of the easy axis by 90 degrees (the azimuthal transition). This transition occurs through the two-fold degenerated alignment characteristic for the second order anchoring transitions. In contrast to critical behavior of anchoring, the contact angle of NLC and water on the treated substrates monotonically declines with the exposure dose. It follows that the surface concentration of hydrophobic chains decreases continuously. The anchoring transitions under consideration are qualitatively interpreted by using a simple phenomenological model of competing easy axes which is studied by analyzing anchoring diagrams of the generalized polar and non-polar anchoring models.Comment: revtex4, 18 pages, 10 figure

Transport of a Luttinger liquid in the presence of a time dependent impurity

We show that the macroscopic current and charge can be formulated as a Quantum Mechanical zero mode problem. We find that the current is given by the velocity operator of a particle restricted to move around a circle. As an explicit example we investigate a Luttinger liquid of length $L$ which is perturbed by a time dependent impurity. Using the statistical mechanics of zero modes we computed the non-equilibrium current. In particular we show that in the low temperature limit, $L_T/L>1$, the zero mode method introduced here becomes essential for computing the current

Supercurrent noise in quantum point contacts

Spectral density of current fluctuations in a short ballistic superconducting quantum point contact is calculated for arbitrary bias voltages $V$. Contrary to a common opinion that the supercurrent flow in Josephson junctions is coherent process with no fluctuations, we find extremely large current noise that is {\em caused} by the supercurrent coherence. An unusual feature of the noise, besides its magnitude, is its voltage dependence: the noise decreases with increasing $V$, despite the fact that the dc current grows steadily with $V$. At finite voltages the noise can be qualitatively understood as the shot noise of the large charge quanta of magnitude $2\Delta /V$ equal to the charge transferred during one period of Josephson oscillations.Comment: 12 pages, revtex, 2 figures by fax/conventional mail upon reques

Coulomb drag shot noise in coupled Luttinger liquids

Coulomb drag shot noise has been studied theoretically for 1D interacting electron systems, which are realized e.g. in single-wall nanotubes. We show that under adiabatic coupling to external leads, the Coulomb drag shot noise of two coupled or crossed nanotubes contains surprising effects, in particular a complete locking of the shot noise in the tubes. In contrast to Coulomb drag of the average current, the noise locking is based on a symmetry of the underlying Hamiltonian and is not limited to asymptotically small energy scales.Comment: 4 pages Revtex, accepted for publication in PR

Direct link between Coulomb blockade and shot noise in a quantum coherent structure

We analyze the current-voltage characteristic of a quantum conduction channel coupled to an electromagnetic environment of arbitrary frequency-dependent impedance. In the weak blockade regime the correction to the ohmic behavior is directly related to the channel current fluctuations vanishing at perfect transmission in the same way as shot noise. This relation can be generalized to describe the environmental Coulomb blockade in a generic mesoscopic conductor coupled to an external impedance, as the response of the latter to the current fluctuations in the former.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Shot noise of series quantum point contacts intercalating chaotic cavities

Shot noise of series quantum point contacts forming a sequence of cavities in a two dimensional electron gas are studied theoretically and experimentally. Noise in such a structure originates from local scattering at the point contacts as well as from chaotic motion of the electrons in the cavities. We found that the measured shot noise is in reasonable agreement with our theoretical prediction taking the cavity noise into account.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Effect of screening on shot noise in diffusive mesoscopic conductors

Shot noise in diffusive mesoscopic conductors, at finite observation frequencies $\omega$ (comparable to the reciprocal Thouless time $\tau_T^{-1}$), is analyzed with an account of screening. At low frequencies, the well-known result $S_I(\omega)=2eI/3$ is recovered. This result is valid at arbitrary $\omega \tau_T$ for wide conductors longer than the screening length. However, at least for two very different systems, namely, wide and short conductors, and thin conductors over a close ground plane, noise approaches a different fundamental level, $S_I(\omega) = eI$, at $\omega \tau _T\gg 1$.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Published version. Also available in the journal's format at http://hana.physics.sunysb.edu/~yehuda/cv/papers/shotnoise.pd

Tensor Ayy and vector Ay analyzing powers in the H(d,d')X and ^{12}C(d,d')X reactons at initial deuteron momenta of 9 GeV/c in the region of baryonic resonances excitation

The angular dependence of the tensor Ayy and vector Ay analyzing powers in the inelastic scattering of deuterons with a momentum of 9.0 GeV/c on hydrogen and carbon have been measured. The range of measurements corresponds to the baryonic resonance excitation with masses 2.2--2.6 GeV/c^2. The Ayy data being in good agreement with the previous results demonstrate an approximate $t$ scaling up to -1.5 (GeV/c)^2. The large values of A_y show a significant role of the spin-dependent part of the elementary amplitude of the NN->NN* reaction. The results of the experiment are compared with model predictions of the plane-wave impulse approximation.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures. submitted to Yad.Fi

Current fluctuations in a single tunnel junction

We study noise spectra of currents through a tunnel junction in weak tunneling limit. We introduce effective capacitance to take into account the interaction effect and explicitly incorporate the electromagnetic environment of the junction into the formulation. We study the effect of charging energy and macroscopic environment on noise spectra. We calculate current fluctuations at tunneling barrier and fluctuations measured at leads. It is shown that two fluctuations have different noise spectra and the relation between them is nontrivial. We provide an explanation for the origin of the difference. Experimental implications are discussed.Comment: 25 pages, Revtex 3.

The 1/3-shot noise suppression in diffusive nanowires

We report low-temperature shot noise measurements of short diffusive Au wires attached to electron reservoirs of varying sizes. The measured noise suppression factor compared to the classical noise value $2e\left| I\right|$ strongly depends on the electric heat conductance of the reservoirs. For small reservoirs injection of hot electrons increases the measured noise and hence the suppression factor. The universal 1/3-suppression factor can only asymptotically be reached for macroscopically large and thick electron reservoirs. A heating model based on the Wiedemann-Franz law is used to explain this effect.Comment: 10 figure