The Use of Dramatic Demonstrations to Enhance the Motivation and Learning of Chemistry Students

As part of the Virginia Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers (VCEPT) project, a series of demonstrations was incorporated into Chemistry 100: Man and Environment, a science course taken by non-science majors including many prospective K-12 teachers. Dramatic chemical demonstrations were first presented to the undergraduate students by the instructor, and then they used demonstration activities to teach each other during the semester. Finally, these undergraduates presented to the K-6 students in the Norfolk Statue University (NSU) Summer Children’s College. The perceptions of science by the undergraduates at the beginning and end of the course were assessed using a questionnaire. The responses of the K-6 students in the Children’s College were assessed through informal interviews and audience response. The use of these demonstrations seemed to change the perception of science held by the undergraduate students. In addition, this limited assessment indicated that these demonstrations may have helped more of the undergraduates consider teaching as a career option

On giant piezoresistance effects in silicon nanowires and microwires

The giant piezoresistance (PZR) previously reported in silicon nanowires is experimentally investigated in a large number of surface depleted silicon nano- and micro-structures. The resistance is shown to vary strongly with time due to electron and hole trapping at the sample surfaces. Importantly, this time varying resistance manifests itself as an apparent giant PZR identical to that reported elsewhere. By modulating the applied stress in time, the true PZR of the structures is found to be comparable with that of bulk silicon

Collective states of the odd-mass nuclei within the framework of the Interacting Vector Boson Model

A supersymmetric extension of the dynamical symmetry group $Sp^{B}(12,R)$ of the Interacting Vector Boson Model (IVBM), to the orthosymplectic group $OSp(2\Omega/12,R)$ is developed in order to incorporate fermion degrees of freedom into the nuclear dynamics and to encompass the treatment of odd mass nuclei. The bosonic sector of the supergroup is used to describe the complex collective spectra of the neighboring even-even nuclei and is considered as a core structure of the odd nucleus. The fermionic sector is represented by the fermion spin group $SO^{F}(2\Omega)\supset SU^{F}(2)$. The so obtained, new exactly solvable limiting case is applied for the description of the nuclear collective spectra of odd mass nuclei. The theoretical predictions for different collective bands in three odd mass nuclei, namely $^{157}Gd$, $^{173}Yb$ and $^{163}Dy$ from rare earth region are compared with the experiment. The $B(E2)$ transition probabilities for the $^{157}Gd$ and $^{163}Dy$ between the states of the ground band are also studied. The important role of the symplectic structure of the model for the proper reproduction of the $B(E2)$ behavior is revealed. The obtained results reveal the applicability of the models extension.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure

An exactly solvable model of a superconducting to rotational phase transition

We consider a many-fermion model which exhibits a transition from a superconducting to a rotational phase with variation of a parameter in its Hamiltonian. The model has analytical solutions in its two limits due to the presence of dynamical symmetries. However, the symmetries are basically incompatible with one another; no simple solution exists in intermediate situations. Exact (numerical) solutions are possible and enable one to study the behavior of competing but incompatible symmetries and the phase transitions that result in a semirealistic situation. The results are remarkably simple and shed light on the nature of phase transitions.Comment: 11 pages including 1 figur

Effect of the Pauli principle on photoelectron spin transport in p+p^+ GaAs

In p+ GaAs thin films, the effect of photoelectron degeneracy on spin transport is investigated theoretically and experimentally by imaging the spin polarization profile as a function of distance from a tightly-focussed light excitation spot. Under degeneracy of the electron gas (high concentration, low temperature), a dip at the center of the polarization profile appears with a polarization maximum at a distance of about $2 \; \mu m$ from the center. This counterintuitive result reveals that photoelectron diffusion depends on spin, as a direct consequence of the Pauli principle. This causes a concentration dependence of the spin stiffness while the spin dependence of the mobility is found to be weak in doped material. The various effects which can modify spin transport in a degenerate electron gas under local laser excitation are considered. A comparison of the data with a numerical solution of the coupled diffusion equations reveals that ambipolar coupling with holes increases the steady-state photo-electron density at the excitation spot and therefore the amplitude of the degeneracy-induced polarization dip. Thermoelectric currrents are predicted to depend on spin under degeneracy (spin Soret currents), but these currents are negligible except at very high excitation power where they play a relatively small role. Coulomb spin drag and bandgap renormalization are negligible due to electrostatic screening by the hole gas

Vector coherent state representations, induced representations, and geometric quantization: II. Vector coherent state representations

It is shown here and in the preceeding paper (quant-ph/0201129) that vector coherent state theory, the theory of induced representations, and geometric quantization provide alternative but equivalent quantizations of an algebraic model. The relationships are useful because some constructions are simpler and more natural from one perspective than another. More importantly, each approach suggests ways of generalizing its counterparts. In this paper, we focus on the construction of quantum models for algebraic systems with intrinsic degrees of freedom. Semi-classical partial quantizations, for which only the intrinsic degrees of freedom are quantized, arise naturally out of this construction. The quantization of the SU(3) and rigid rotor models are considered as examples.Comment: 31 pages, part 2 of two papers, published versio

Robust quantum gates on neutral atoms with cavity-assisted photon-scattering

We propose a scheme to achieve quantum computation with neutral atoms whose interactions are catalyzed by single photons. Conditional quantum gates, including an $N$-atom Toffoli gate and nonlocal gates on remote atoms, are obtained through cavity-assisted photon scattering in a manner that is robust to random variation in the atom-photon coupling rate and which does not require localization in the Lamb-Dicke regime. The dominant noise in our scheme is automatically detected for each gate operation, leading to signalled errors which do not preclude efficient quantum computation even if the error probability is close to the unity.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Spin and recombination dynamics of excitons and free electrons in p-type GaAs : effect of carrier density

Carrier and spin recombination are investigated in p-type GaAs of acceptor concentration NA = 1.5 x 10^(17) cm^(-3) using time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy at 15 K. At low pho- tocarrier concentration, acceptors are mostly neutral and photoelectrons can either recombine with holes bound to acceptors (e-A0 line) or form excitons which are mostly trapped on neutral acceptors forming the (A0X) complex. It is found that the spin lifetime is shorter for electrons that recombine through the e-A0 transition due to spin relaxation generated by the exchange scattering of free electrons with either trapped or free holes, whereas spin flip processes are less likely to occur once the electron forms with a free hole an exciton bound to a neutral acceptor. An increase of exci- tation power induces a cross-over to a regime where the bimolecular band-to-band (b-b) emission becomes more favorable due to screening of the electron-hole Coulomb interaction and ionization of excitonic complexes and free excitons. Then, the formation of excitons is no longer possible, the carrier recombination lifetime increases and the spin lifetime is found to decrease dramatically with concentration due to fast spin relaxation with free photoholes. In this high density regime, both the electrons that recombine through the e-A0 transition and through the b-b transition have the same spin relaxation time.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure