1,176 research outputs found
How branching can change the conductance of ballistic semiconductor devices
We demonstrate that branching of the electron flow in semiconductor
nanostructures can strongly affect macroscopic transport quantities and can
significantly change their dependence on external parameters compared to the
ideal ballistic case even when the system size is much smaller than the mean
free path. In a corner-shaped ballistic device based on a GaAs/AlGaAs
two-dimensional electron gas we observe a splitting of the commensurability
peaks in the magnetoresistance curve. We show that a model which includes a
random disorder potential of the two-dimensional electron gas can account for
the random splitting of the peaks that result from the collimation of the
electron beam. The shape of the splitting depends on the particular realization
of the disorder potential. At the same time magnetic focusing peaks are largely
unaffected by the disorder potential.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Antiferromagnetic spintronics
Antiferromagnetic materials could represent the future of spintronic
applications thanks to the numerous interesting features they combine: they are
robust against perturbation due to magnetic fields, produce no stray fields,
display ultrafast dynamics and are capable of generating large
magneto-transport effects. Intense research efforts over the past decade have
been invested in unraveling spin transport properties in antiferromagnetic
materials. Whether spin transport can be used to drive the antiferromagnetic
order and how subsequent variations can be detected are some of the thrilling
challenges currently being addressed. Antiferromagnetic spintronics started out
with studies on spin transfer, and has undergone a definite revival in the last
few years with the publication of pioneering articles on the use of spin-orbit
interactions in antiferromagnets. This paradigm shift offers possibilities for
radically new concepts for spin manipulation in electronics. Central to these
endeavors are the need for predictive models, relevant disruptive materials and
new experimental designs. This paper reviews the most prominent spintronic
effects described based on theoretical and experimental analysis of
antiferromagnetic materials. It also details some of the remaining bottlenecks
and suggests possible avenues for future research
``Smoke Rings'' in Ferromagnets
It is shown that bulk ferromagnets support propagating non-linear modes that
are analogous to the vortex rings, or ``smoke rings'', of fluid dynamics. These
are circular loops of {\it magnetic} vorticity which travel at constant
velocity parallel to their axis of symmetry. The topological structure of the
continuum theory has important consequences for the properties of these
magnetic vortex rings. One finds that there exists a sequence of magnetic
vortex rings that are distinguished by a topological invariant (the Hopf
invariant). We present analytical and numerical results for the energies,
velocities and structures of propagating magnetic vortex rings in ferromagnetic
materials.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps-figures, revtex with epsf.tex and multicol.sty. To
appear in Physical Review Letters. (Postscript problem fixed.
Fine Mapping Major Histocompatibility Complex Associations in Psoriasis and Its Clinical Subtypes
Psoriasis vulgaris (PsV) risk is strongly associated with variation within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region, but its genetic architecture has yet to be fully elucidated. Here, we conducted a large-scale fine-mapping study of PsV risk in the MHC region in 9,247 PsV-affected individuals and 13,589 controls of European descent by imputing class I and II human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes from SNP genotype data. In addition, we imputed sequence variants for MICA, an MHC HLA-like gene that has been associated with PsV, to evaluate association at that locus as well. We observed that HLA-C*06:02 demonstrated the lowest p value for overall PsV risk (p = 1.7 x 10(-364)). Stepwise analysis revealed multiple HLA-C*06:02-independent risk variants in both class I and class II HLA genes for PsV susceptibility (HLA-C*12:03, HLA-B amino acid positions 67 and 9, HLA-A amino acid position 95, and HLA-DQ alpha 1 amino acid position 53; p \u3c 5.0 x 10(-8)), but no apparent risk conferred by MICA. We further evaluated risk of two major clinical subtypes of PsV, psoriatic arthritis (PsA; n = 3,038) and cutaneous psoriasis (PsC; n = 3,098). We found that risk heterogeneity between PsA and PsC might be driven by HLA-B amino acid position 45 (P-omnibus = 2.2 x 10(-11)), indicating that different genetic factors underlie the overall risk of PsV and the risk of specific PsV subphenotypes. Our study illustrates the value of high-resolution HLA and MICA imputation for fine mapping causal variants in the MHC
Herbs and Rehabilitation after Stroke Study: A Multi-center, Double-blinded, Randomized Trial in Hong Kong
published_or_final_versio
Electron focusing, mode spectroscopy and mass enhancement in small GaAs/AlGaAs rings
A new electron focusing effect has been discovered in small single and
coupled GaAs/AlGaAs rings. The focusing in the single ring is attributed solely
to internal orbits. The focusing effect allows the ring to be used as a small
mass spectrometer. The focusing causes peaks in the magnetoresistance at low
fields, and the peak positions were used to study the dispersion relation of
the one-dimensional magnetoelectric subbands. The electron effective mass
increases with the applied magnetic field by a factor of , at a magnetic
field of . This is the first time this increase has been measured
directly. General agreement obtains between the experiment and the subband
calculations for straight channels.Comment: 13 pages figures are available by reques
Magnetic vortex oscillator driven by dc spin-polarized current
Transfer of angular momentum from a spin-polarized current to a ferromagnet
provides an efficient means to control the dynamics of nanomagnets. A peculiar
consequence of this spin-torque, the ability to induce persistent oscillations
of a nanomagnet by applying a dc current, has previously been reported only for
spatially uniform nanomagnets. Here we demonstrate that a quintessentially
nonuniform magnetic structure, a magnetic vortex, isolated within a nanoscale
spin valve structure, can be excited into persistent microwave-frequency
oscillations by a spin-polarized dc current. Comparison to micromagnetic
simulations leads to identification of the oscillations with a precession of
the vortex core. The oscillations, which can be obtained in essentially zero
magnetic field, exhibit linewidths that can be narrower than 300 kHz, making
these highly compact spin-torque vortex oscillator devices potential candidates
for microwave signal-processing applications, and a powerful new tool for
fundamental studies of vortex dynamics in magnetic nanostructures.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
An Interlaboratory Study on the Stability of All-Printable Hole Transport Material–Free Perovskite Solar Cells
Comparisons between different laboratories on long-term stability analyses of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is still lacking in the literature. This work presents the results of an interlaboratory study conducted between five laboratories from four countries. Carbon-based PSCs are prepared by screen printing, encapsulated, and sent to different laboratories across Europe to assess their stability by the application of three ISOS aging protocols: (a) in the dark (ISOS-D), (b) under simulated sunlight (ISOS-L), and (c) outdoors (ISOS-O). Over 1000 h stability is reported for devices in the dark, both at room temperature and at 65 degrees C. Under continuous illumination at open circuit, cells survive only for few hours, although they recover after being stored in the dark. Better stability is observed for cells biased at maximum power point under illumination. Finally, devices operate in outdoors for 30 days, with minor degradation, in two different locations (Barcelona, Spain and Paola, Malta). The findings demonstrate that open-circuit conditions are too severe for stability assessment and that the diurnal variation of the photovoltaic parameters reveals performance to be strongly limited by the fill factor, in the central hours of the day, due to the high series resistance of the carbon electrode
Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications
Spintronics, or spin electronics, involves the study of active control and
manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. This article
reviews the current status of this subject, including both recent advances and
well-established results. The primary focus is on the basic physical principles
underlying the generation of carrier spin polarization, spin dynamics, and
spin-polarized transport in semiconductors and metals. Spin transport differs
from charge transport in that spin is a nonconserved quantity in solids due to
spin-orbit and hyperfine coupling. The authors discuss in detail spin
decoherence mechanisms in metals and semiconductors. Various theories of spin
injection and spin-polarized transport are applied to hybrid structures
relevant to spin-based devices and fundamental studies of materials properties.
Experimental work is reviewed with the emphasis on projected applications, in
which external electric and magnetic fields and illumination by light will be
used to control spin and charge dynamics to create new functionalities not
feasible or ineffective with conventional electronics.Comment: invited review, 36 figures, 900+ references; minor stylistic changes
from the published versio
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