1,810 research outputs found
Field desorption ion source development for neutron generators
A new approach to deuterium ion sources for deuterium-tritium neutron
generators is being developed. The source is based upon the field desorption of
deuterium from the surfaces of metal tips. Field desorption studies of
microfabricated field emitter tip arrays have been conducted for the first
time. Maximum fields of 30 V/nm have been applied to the array tip surfaces to
date, although achieving fields of 20 V/nm to possibly 25 V/nm is more typical.
Both the desorption of atomic deuterium ions and the gas phase field ionization
of molecular deuterium has been observed at fields of roughly 20 V/nm and 20-30
V/nm, respectively, at room temperature. The desorption of common surface
adsorbates, such as hydrogen, carbon, water, and carbon monoxide is observed at
fields exceeding ~10 V/nm. In vacuo heating of the arrays to temperatures of
the order of 800 C can be effective in removing many of the surface
contaminants observed
Strong Cosmic Censorship and Causality Violation
We investigate the instability of the Cauchy horizon caused by causality
violation in the compact vacuum universe with the topology , which Moncrief and Isenberg considered. We show that if
the occurrence of curvature singularities are restricted to the boundary of
causality violating region, the whole segments of the boundary become curvature
singularities. This implies that the strong cosmic censorship holds in the
spatially compact vacuum space-time in the case of the causality violation.
This also suggests that causality violation cannot occur for a compact
universe.Comment: corrected version, 8 pages, one eps figure is include
Efficient photon counting and single-photon generation using resonant nonlinear optics
The behavior of an atomic double lambda system in the presence of a strong
off-resonant classical field and a few-photon resonant quantum field is
examined. It is shown that the system possesses properties that allow a
single-photon state to be distilled from a multi-photon input wave packet. In
addition, the system is also capable of functioning as an efficient
photodetector discriminating between one- and two-photon wave packets with
arbitrarily high efficiency.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Optoelectric spin injection in semiconductor heterostructures without ferromagnet
We have shown that electron spin density can be generated by a dc current
flowing across a junction with an embedded asymmetric quantum well. Spin
polarization is created in the quantum well by radiative electron-hole
recombination when the conduction electron momentum distribution is shifted
with respect to the momentum distribution of holes in the spin split valence
subbands. Spin current appears when the spin polarization is injected from the
quantum well into the -doped region of the junction. The accompanied
emission of circularly polarized light from the quantum well can serve as a
spin polarization detector.Comment: 2 figure
Mesoscopic Stern-Gerlach device to polarize spin currents
Spin preparation and spin detection are fundamental problems in spintronics
and in several solid state proposals for quantum information processing. Here
we propose the mesoscopic equivalent of an optical polarizing beam splitter
(PBS). This interferometric device uses non-dispersive phases (Aharonov-Bohm
and Rashba) in order to separate spin up and spin down carriers into distinct
outputs and thus it is analogous to a Stern-Gerlach apparatus. It can be used
both as a spin preparation device and as a spin measuring device by converting
spin into charge (orbital) degrees of freedom. An important feature of the
proposed spin polarizer is that no ferromagnetic contacts are used.Comment: Updated to the published versio
Resonantly enhanced nonlinear optics in semiconductor quantum wells: An application to sensitive infrared detection
A novel class of coherent nonlinear optical phenomena, involving induced
transparency in quantum wells, is considered in the context of a particular
application to sensitive long-wavelength infrared detection. It is shown that
the strongest decoherence mechanisms can be suppressed or mitigated, resulting
in substantial enhancement of nonlinear optical effects in semiconductor
quantum wells.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, replaced with revised versio
The transcription factor NFATc2 controls IL-6-dependent T cell activation in experimental colitis.
The nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) family of transcription factors controls calcium signaling in T lymphocytes. In this study, we have identified a crucial regulatory role of the transcription factor NFATc2 in T cell-dependent experimental colitis. Similar to ulcerative colitis in humans, the expression of NFATc2 was up-regulated in oxazolone-induced chronic intestinal inflammation. Furthermore, NFATc2 deficiency suppressed colitis induced by oxazolone administration. This finding was associated with enhanced T cell apoptosis in the lamina propria and strikingly reduced production of IL-6, -13, and -17 by mucosal T lymphocytes. Further studies using knockout mice showed that IL-6, rather than IL-23 and -17, are essential for oxazolone colitis induction. Administration of hyper-IL-6 blocked the protective effects of NFATc2 deficiency in experimental colitis, suggesting that IL-6 signal transduction plays a major pathogenic role in vivo. Finally, adoptive transfer of IL-6 and wild-type T cells demonstrated that oxazolone colitis is critically dependent on IL-6 production by T cells. Collectively, these results define a unique regulatory role for NFATc2 in colitis by controlling mucosal T cell activation in an IL-6-dependent manner. NFATc2 in T cells thus emerges as a potentially new therapeutic target for inflammatory bowel diseases
Remarks on the multi-parameter reweighting method for the study of lattice QCD at non-zero temperature and density
We comment on the reweighting method for the study of finite density lattice
QCD. We discuss the applicable parameter range of the reweighting method for
models which have more than one simulation parameter. The applicability range
is determined by the fluctuations of the modification factor of the Boltzmann
weight. In some models having a first order phase transition, the fluctuations
are minimized along the phase transition line if we assume that the pressure in
the hot and the cold phase is balanced at the first order phase transition
point. This suggests that the reweighting method with two parameters is
applicable in a wide range for the purpose of tracing out the phase transition
line in the parameter space. To confirm the usefulness of the reweighting
method for 2 flavor QCD, the fluctuations of the reweighting factor are
measured by numerical simulations for the cases of reweighting in the quark
mass and chemical potential directions. The relation with the phase transition
line is discussed. Moreover, the sign problem caused by the complex phase
fluctuations is studied.Comment: 20 page, 6 figure
Coherent spin valve phenomena and electrical spin injection in ferromagnetic/semiconductor/ferromagnetic junctions
Coherent quantum transport in ferromagnetic/ semiconductor/ ferromagnetic
junctions is studied theoretically within the Landauer framework of ballistic
transport. We show that quantum coherence can have unexpected implications for
spin injection and that some intuitive spintronic concepts which are founded in
semi-classical physics no longer apply: A quantum spin-valve (QSV) effect
occurs even in the absence of a net spin polarized current flowing through the
device, unlike in the classical regime. The converse effect also arises, i.e. a
zero spin-valve signal for a non-vanishing spin-current. We introduce new
criteria useful for analyzing quantum and classical spin transport phenomena
and the relationships between them. The effects on QSV behavior of
spin-dependent electron transmission at the interfaces, interface Schottky
barriers, Rashba spin-orbit coupling and temperature, are systematically
investigated. While the signature of the QSV is found to be sensitive to
temperature, interestingly, that of its converse is not. We argue that the QSV
phenomenon can have important implications for the interpretation of
spin-injection in quantum spintronic experiments with spin-valve geometries.Comment: 15 pages including 11 figures. To appear in PR
- …