2,769 research outputs found
Conductance of Atomic-Sized Lead Contacts in an Electrochemical Environment
Atomic-sized lead (Pb) contacts are deposited and dissolved in an
electrochemical environment, and their transport properties are measured. Due
to the electrochemical fabrication process, we obtain mechanically unstrained
contacts and conductance histograms with sharply resolved, individual peaks.
Charge transport calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) for
various ideal Pb contact geometries are in good agreement with the experimental
results. Depending on the atomic configuration, single-atom-wide contacts of
one and the same metal yield very different conductance values.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Anomalous density of states of a Luttinger liquid in contact with a superconductor
We study the frequency and space dependence of the local tunneling density of
states of a Luttinger liquid (LL) which is connected to a superconductor. This
coupling {\em strongly} modifies the single-particle properties of the LL. It
significantly enhances the density of states near the Fermi level, whereas this
quantity vanishes as a power law for an isolated LL. The enhancement is due to
the interplay between electron-electron interactions and multiple
back-scattering processes of low-energy electrons at the interface between the
LL and the superconductor. This anomalous behavior extends over large distances
from the interface and may be detected by coupling normal probes to the system.Comment: 8 pages Revtex, two postscript figure
The possible explanation of electric-field-doped C60 phenomenology in the framework of Eliashberg theory
In a recent paper (J.H. Schon, Ch. Kloc, R.C. Haddon and B. Batlogg, Nature
408 (2000) 549) a large increase in the superconducting critical temperature
was observed in C60 doped with holes by application of a high electric field.
We demonstrate that the measured Tc versus doping curves can be explained by
solving the (four) s-wave Eliashberg equations in the case of a finite,
non-half-filled energy band. In order to reproduce the experimental data, we
assume a Coulomb pseudopotential depending on the filling in a very simple and
plausible way. Reasonable values of the physical parameters involved are
obtained. The application of the same approach to new experimental data (J.H.
Schon, Ch. Kloc and B. Batlogg, Science 293 (2001) 2432) on electric
field-doped, lattice-expanded C60 single crystals (Tc=117 K in the hole-doped
case) gives equally good results and sets a theoretical limit to the linear
increase of Tc at the increase of the lattice spacing.Comment: latex2e, 6 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, revised versio
Ab initio study of charge transport through single oxygen molecules in atomic aluminum contacts
We present ab initio calculations of transport properties of atomic-sized
aluminum contacts in the presence of oxygen. The experimental situation is
modeled by considering a single oxygen atom (O) or one of the molecules O2 and
O3 bridging the gap between electrodes forming ideal, atomically sharp
pyramids. The transport characteristics are computed for these geometries with
increasing distances between the leads, simulating the opening of a break
junction. To facilitate comparison with experiments further, the vibrational
modes of the oxygen connected to the electrodes are studied. It is found that
in the contact regime the change of transport properties due to the presence of
oxygen is strong and should be detectable in experiments. All three types of
oxygen exhibit a comparable behavior in their vibrational frequencies and
conductances, which are well below the conductance of pure aluminum atomic
contacts. The conductance decreases for an increasing number of oxygen atoms.
In the tunneling regime the conductance decays exponentially with distance and
the decay length depends on whether or not oxygen is present in the junction.
This fact may provide a way to identify the presence of a gas molecule in
metallic atomic contacts.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures; added appendi
Sequential generation of entangled multi-qubit states
We consider the deterministic generation of entangled multi-qubit states by
the sequential coupling of an ancillary system to initially uncorrelated
qubits. We characterize all achievable states in terms of classes of matrix
product states and give a recipe for the generation on demand of any
multi-qubit state. The proposed methods are suitable for any sequential
generation-scheme, though we focus on streams of single photon time-bin qubits
emitted by an atom coupled to an optical cavity. We show, in particular, how to
generate familiar quantum information states such as W, GHZ, and cluster
states, within such a framework.Comment: 4 pages and 2 figures, submitted for publicatio
Density Dependent Parametrization Models: Formalism and Applications
In this work we derive a formalism to incorporate asymmetry and temperature
effects in the Brown-Rho (BR) scaled lagrangian model in a mean field theory.
The lagrangian density discussed in this work requires less parameters than the
usual models with density dependent couplings. We also present the formalism
with the inclusion of the eight lightest baryons, two lightest leptons, beta
equilibrium and charge neutrality in order to apply the BR scaled model to the
study of neutron stars. The results are again compared with the ones obtained
from another density dependent parametrization model. The role played by the
rearrangement term at T=0 for nuclear or neutron star matter and at finite
temperature is investigated. The BR scaled model is shown to be a good tool in
studies involving density dependent effective masses and in astrophysics
applications.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure
Ab-initio study of the thermopower of biphenyl-based single-molecule junctions
Employing ab-initio electronic structure calculations combined with the
non-equilibrium Green's function technique, we study the dependence of the
thermopower Q on the conformation in biphenyl-based single-molecule junctions.
For the series of experimentally available biphenyl molecules, alkyl side
chains allow us to gradually adjust the torsion angle \phi\ between the two
phenyl rings from 0 to 90{\deg} and to control in this way the degree of
\pi-electron conjugation. Studying different anchoring groups and binding
positions, our theory predicts that the absolute values of the thermopower
decrease slightly towards larger torsion angles, following an a+b*cos^{2}\phi\
dependence. The anchoring group determines the sign of Q and a,b,
simultaneously. Sulfur and amine groups give rise to Q,a,b>0, while for cyano
Q,a,b<0. The different binding positions can lead to substantial variations of
the thermopower mostly due to changes in the alignment of the frontier
molecular orbital levels and the Fermi energy. We explain our ab-initio results
in terms of a \pi-orbital tight-binding model and a minimal two-level model,
which describes the pair of hybridizing frontier orbital states on the two
phenyl rings. The variations of the thermopower with \phi\ seem to be within
experimental resolution.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figues, 3 table
Effect of pH-lowering litter amendment on animal-based welfare indicators and litter quality in a European commercial broiler husbandry
ABSTRACT Several studies have shown that litter moisture is a major reason for foot pad lesions (FPD) and promotes microbial growth of nitrifying bacteria. The aim of the current study was to determine the possible effects of a sodium bisulfate complex (SBS) as a litter additive on FPD, hock burn (HB), and litter parameters. Two application rates of SBS were examined in 2 experiments on a commercial farm. Two groups of about 30,000 broiler chicks each were introduced on spelt granulate spread at 700 g/m² and kept for 36 d. In the first experiment (TRT1), 250 g/m² SBS was spread on top of litter 20 h before chick placement; in the second experiment (TRT2), SBS was reduced to 150 g/m². Each experiment consisted of 1 treatment group (SBS) and a control group without treatment (CON). Both experiments were repeated once. Litter parameters (pH, percentage of dry matter), foot pad, hock condition and body weight of randomly sampled birds (n = 60 per group) were recorded weekly. Mortality rate was higher in SBS groups compared to CON groups (TRT1 2.79 vs. CON 2.03%, TRT2 2.88 vs. CON 2.27%). SBS had no effect on body weight averaged over the whole production period (P> 0.05). Incidence of FPD was significantly reduced in both groups treated with SBS compared to CON (P 0.05) but by dry matter content (
Two Dimensional Electron and Hole Gases at the Surface of Graphite
We report high-quality two-dimensional (2D) electron and hole gases induced
at the surface of graphite by the electric field effect. The 2D carriers reside
within a few near-surface atomic layers and exhibit mobilities up to 15,000 and
60,000 cm2/Vs at room and liquid-helium temperatures, respectively. The
mobilities imply ballistic transport at micron scale. Pronounced Shubnikov-de
Haas oscillations reveal the existence of two types of carries in both 2D
electron and hole gases.Comment: related to cond-mat/0410631 where preliminary data for this
experimental system were reporte
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