Chemical markers for rumen methanogens and methanogenesis

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Compositional tuning of ferromagnetism in Ga1-xMnxP

We report the magnetic and transport properties of Ga1-xMnxP synthesized via ion implantation followed by pulsed laser melting over a range of x, namely 0.018 to 0.042. Like Ga1-xMnxAs, Ga1-xMnxP displays a monotonic increase of the ferromagnetic Curie temperature with x associated with the hole-mediated ferromagnetic phase while thermal annealing above 300 C leads to a quenching of ferromagnetism that is accompanied by a reduction of the substitutional fraction of Mn. However, contrary to observations in Ga1-xMnxAs, Ga1-xMnxP is non-metallic over the entire composition range. At the lower temperatures over which the films are ferromagnetic, hole transport occurs via hopping conduction in a Mn-derived band; at higher temperatures it arises from holes in the valence band which are thermally excited across an energy gap that shrinks with x.Comment: To be published in Solid State Communication

Revealing Nanoscale Chemical Heterogeneities in Polycrystalline Mo-BiVO4 Thin Films

Indexación: Scopus.The activity of polycrystalline thin film photoelectrodes is impacted by local variations of the material properties due to the exposure of different crystal facets and the presence of grain/domain boundaries. Here a multi-modal approach is applied to correlate nanoscale heterogeneities in chemical composition and electronic structure with nanoscale morphology in polycrystalline Mo-BiVO4. By using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy, the characteristic structure of polycrystalline film is used to disentangle the different X-ray absorption spectra corresponding to grain centers and grain boundaries. Comparing both spectra reveals phase segregation of V2O5 at grain boundaries of Mo-BiVO4 thin films, which is further supported by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and many-body density functional theory calculations. Theoretical calculations also enable to predict the X-ray absorption spectral fingerprint of polarons in Mo-BiVO4. After photo-electrochemical operation, the degraded Mo-BiVO4 films show similar grain center and grain boundary spectra indicating V2O5 dissolution in the course of the reaction. Overall, these findings provide valuable insights into the degradation mechanism and the impact of material heterogeneities on the material performance and stability of polycrystalline photoelectrodes. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbHhttps://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.recursosbiblioteca.unab.cl/doi/10.1002/smll.20200160

Spatially Modulated Silicon Interface Energetics Via Hydrogen Plasma Assisted Atomic Layer Deposition of Ultrathin Alumina

Atomic layer deposition ALD is a key technique for the continued scaling of semiconductor devices, which increasingly relies on scalable processes for interface manipulation of structured surfaces on the atomic level. While ALD allows the synthesis of conformal films with utmost control over the thickness, atomically defined closed coatings and surface modifications are challenging to achieve because of 3D growth during nucleation. Here, a route is presented toward the sub nanometer thin and continuous aluminum oxide AlOx coatings on silicon substrates for the spatial control of the surface charge density and interface energetics. Trimethylaluminum in combination with remote hydrogen plasma is used instead of a gas phase oxidant for the transformation of silicon dioxide SiO2 into alumina. Depending on the number of ALD cycles, the SiO2 can be partially or fully transformed, which is exploited to deposit ultrathin AlOx layers in selected regions defined by lithographic patterning. The resulting patterned surfaces are characterized by lateral AlOx SiO2 interfaces possessing 0.3 nm step heights and surface potential steps exceeding 0.4 V. In addition, the introduction of fixed negative charges of 9 1012 cm amp; 8722;2 enables modulation of the surface band bending, which is relevant to the field effect passivation of silicon and low impedance charge transfer across contact interface

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Measurement of the Lambda(b) cross section and the anti-Lambda(b) to Lambda(b) ratio with Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda decays in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The Lambda(b) differential production cross section and the cross section ratio anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) are measured as functions of transverse momentum pt(Lambda(b)) and rapidity abs(y(Lambda(b))) in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurements are based on Lambda(b) decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi Lambda, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to an opposite-sign muon pair and Lambda to proton pion, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 inverse femtobarns. The product of the cross section times the branching ratio for Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda versus pt(Lambda(b)) falls faster than that of b mesons. The measured value of the cross section times the branching ratio for pt(Lambda(b)) > 10 GeV and abs(y(Lambda(b))) < 2.0 is 1.06 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.12 nb, and the integrated cross section ratio for anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) is 1.02 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.09, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Search for new physics in events with opposite-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in final states with a pair of opposite-sign isolated leptons accompanied by jets and missing transverse energy. The search uses LHC data recorded at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 5 inverse femtobarns. Two complementary search strategies are employed. The first probes models with a specific dilepton production mechanism that leads to a characteristic kinematic edge in the dilepton mass distribution. The second strategy probes models of dilepton production with heavy, colored objects that decay to final states including invisible particles, leading to very large hadronic activity and missing transverse energy. No evidence for an event yield in excess of the standard model expectations is found. Upper limits on the BSM contributions to the signal regions are deduced from the results, which are used to exclude a region of the parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Additional information related to detector efficiencies and response is provided to allow testing specific models of BSM physics not considered in this paper.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of isolated photon production in pp and PbPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV

Isolated photon production is measured in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta|<1.44 and transverse energies ET between 20 and 80 GeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measured ET spectra are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions. The ratio of PbPb to pp isolated photon ET-differential yields, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions, is consistent with unity for all PbPb reaction centralities.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of the mass difference between top quark and antiquark in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Measurement of the Z boson differential cross section in transverse momentum and rapidity in proton-proton collisions at 8 TeV

We present a measurement of the Z boson differential cross section in rapidity and transverse momentum using a data sample of pp collision events at a centre-of-mass energy s=8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb-1. The Z boson is identified via its decay to a pair of muons. The measurement provides a precision test of quantum chromodynamics over a large region of phase space. In addition, due to the small experimental uncertainties in the measurement the data has the potential to constrain the gluon parton distribution function in the kinematic regime important for Higgs boson production via gluon fusion. The results agree with the next-to-next-to-leading-order predictions computed with the fewz program. The results are also compared to the commonly used leading-order MadGraph and next-to-leading-order powheg generators. © 2015 CERN for the benefit of the CMS Collaboration