Analytical results regarding electrostatic resonances of surface phonon/plasmon polaritons: separation of variables with a twist

The boundary integral equation method ascertains explicit relations between localized surface phonon and plasmon polariton resonances and the eigenvalues of its associated electrostatic operator. We show that group-theoretical analysis of Laplace equation can be used to calculate the full set of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the electrostatic operator for shapes and shells described by separable coordinate systems. These results not only unify and generalize many existing studies but also offer the opportunity to expand the study of phenomena like cloaking by anomalous localized resonance. For that reason we calculate the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of elliptic and circular cylinders. We illustrate the benefits of using the boundary integral equation method to interpret recent experiments involving localized surface phonon polariton resonances and the size scaling of plasmon resonances in graphene nano-disks. Finally, symmetry-based operator analysis can be extended from electrostatic to full-wave regime. Thus, bound states of light in the continuum can be studied for shapes beyond spherical configurations.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures, to be published Proc. Royal Soc.

Multilayered Heterogeneous Parallelism Applied to Atmospheric Constituent Transport Simulation

Heterogeneous multicore chipsets with many levels of parallelism are becoming increasingly common in high-performance computing systems. Effective use of parallelism in these new chipsets constitutes the challenge facing a new generation of large scale scientific computing applications. This study examines methods for improving the performance of two-dimensional and three-dimensional atmospheric constituent transport simulation on the Cell Broadband Engine Architecture (CBEA). A function offloading approach is used in a 2D transport module, and a vector stream processing approach is used in a 3D transport module. Two methods for transferring incontiguous data between main memory and accelerator local storage are compared. By leveraging the heterogeneous parallelism of the CBEA, the 3D transport module achieves performance comparable to two nodes of an IBM BlueGene/P, or eight Intel Xeon cores, on a single PowerXCell 8i chip. Module performance on two CBEA systems, an IBM BlueGene/P, and an eight-core shared-memory Intel Xeon workstation are given

Nb-doped TiO2 thin films deposited by spray pyrolysis method

Undoped TiO2 and Nb-doped TiO2 thin films have been deposited by spray pyrolysis method on ITO/glass substrates. All the as-deposited films are amorphous, as shown by X-Ray Diffraction. Under certain conditions of heat-treatment in air, the films deposited by pyrolysis became pure anatase. The hydrophilic properties of all the films were investigated, and a comparison was made as a function of the heat treatment, and as a function of Nb doping. Contact angles lower then 3 deg. have been obtained, after irradiation times specific for each film

High Temperature Mixed State c−c-Axis Dissipation in Low Carrier Density Y0.54Pr0.46Ba2Cu3O7−δY_{0.54}Pr_{0.46}Ba_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7-\delta}

The nature of the out-of-plane dissipation was investigated in underdoped $Y_{0.54}Pr_{0.46}Ba_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7-\delta}$ single crystals at temperatures close to the critical temperature. For this goal, temperature and angle dependent out-of-plane resistivity measurements were carried out both below and above the critical temperature. We found that the Ambegaokar-Halperin relationship [V. Ambegaokar, and B. I. Halperin, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{22}, 1364 (1969)] depicts very well the angular magnetoresistivity in the investigated range of field and temperature. The main finding is that the in-plane phase fluctuations decouple the layers above the critical temperature and the charge transport is governed only by the quasiparticles. We also have calculated the interlayer Josephson critical current density, which was found to be much smaller than the one predicted by the theory of layered superconductors. This discrepancy could be a result of the d-wave symmetry of the order parameter and/or of the non BCS temperature dependence of the c-axis penetration length.Comment: Will appear in PR

Excimer laser processing of inkjet-printed and sputter-deposited transparent conducting SnO2:Sb for flexible electronics

The feasibility of low-temperature fabrication of transparent electrode elements from thin films of antimony-doped tin oxide (SnO2:Sb, ATO) has been investigated via inkjet printing, rf magnetron sputtering and post-deposition excimer laser processing. Laser processing of thin films on both glass and plastic substrates was performed using a Lambda Physik 305i excimer laser, with fluences in the range 20–100 mJ cm− 2 reducing sheet resistance from as-deposited values by up to 3 orders of magnitude. This is consistent with TEM analysis of the films that shows a densification of the upper 200 nm of laser-processed regions

TEM investigation of MoSeC films

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) are widely used as self-lubricating material either as oil additive or directly as thin films. Magnetron sputtering is a deposition method allowing depositing such films with high density and adhesion. However, their spread use in practical applications is still hindered since their excellent sliding properties are deteriorated in the presence of humidity and under high contact pressures. MoSe2, one of the members of TMD family recently studied, has been co-sputtered with carbon in order to improve the mechanical and tribological properties when compared to pure MoSe2 film

Anisotropic magnetoresistance of bulk carbon nanotube sheets

We have measured the magnetoresistance of stretched sheets of carbon nanotubes in temperatures ranging from 2 K to 300 K and in magnetic fields up to 9 T, oriented either perpendicular or parallel to the plane of the sheets. The samples have been partially aligned by post-fabrication stretching, such that the direction of stretching was either parallel or perpendicular to the direction of applied electric current. We have observed large differences between the magnetoresistance measured under the two field orientations, most pronounced at the lowest temperatures, highest fields, and for the laterally-aligned sample. Treatment of the sheets with nitric acid affects this anisotropy. We analyzed the results within the theoretical framework of weak and strong localization and concluded that the anisotropy bears the mark of a more unusual phenomenon, possibly magnetically-induced mechanical strain.Comment: 34 pages, 10 figure

Thermodynamics and the Measure of Entanglement

We point out formal correspondences between thermodynamics and entanglement. By applying them to previous work, we show that entropy of entanglement is the unique measure of entanglement for pure states.Comment: 8 pages, RevTeX; edited for clarity, additional references, to appear as a Rapid Communication in Phys. Rev.