Formation of an Icosahedral Structure during the Freezing of Gold Nanoclusters: Surface-Induced Mechanism

The freezing behavior of gold nanoclusters was studied by employing molecular dynamics simulations based on a semi-empirical embedded-atom method. Investigations of the gold nanoclusters revealed that, just after freezing, ordered nano-surfaces with a fivefold symmetry were formed with interior atoms remaining in the disordered state. Further lowering of temperatures induced nano-crystallization of the interior atoms that proceeded from the surface towards the core region, finally leading to an icosahedral structure. These dynamic processes explain why the icosahedral cluster structure is dominantly formed in spite of its energetic metastability.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures(including 14 eps-files

Charge ordering and chemical potential shift in La2−x_{2-x}Srx_xNiO4_4 studied by photoemission spectroscopy

We have studied the chemical potential shift in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$NiO$_4$ and the charge ordering transition in La$_{1.67}$Sr$_{0.33}$NiO$_4$ by photoemission spectroscopy. The result shows a large ($\sim$ 1 eV/hole) downward shift of the chemical potential with hole doping in the high-doping regime ($\delta \gtrsim$ 0.33) while the shift is suppressed in the low-doping regime ($\delta \lesssim$ 0.33). This suppression is attributed to a segregation of doped holes on a microscopic scale when the hole concentration is lower than $\delta \simeq 1/3$. In the $\delta = 1/3$ sample, the photoemission intensity at the chemical potential vanishes below the charge ordering transition temperature $T_{\rm CO}=$ 240 K.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Photoemission Spectral Weight Transfer and Mass Renormalization in the Fermi-Liquid System La1−x_{1-x}Srx_xTiO3+y/2_{3+y/2}

We have performed a photoemission study of La$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$TiO$_{3+y/2}$ near the filling-control metal-insulator transition (MIT) as a function of hole doping. Mass renormalization deduced from the spectral weight and the width of the quasi-particle band around the chemical potential $\mu$ is compared with that deduced from the electronic specific heat. The result implies that, near the MIT, band narrowing occurs strongly in the vicinity of $\mu$. Spectral weight transfer occurs from the coherent to the incoherent parts upon antiferromagnetic ordering, which we associate with the partial gap opening at $\mu$.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Pulsed UCN production using a Doppler shifter at J-PARC

We have constructed a Doppler-shifter-type pulsed ultra-cold neutron (UCN) source at the Materials and Life Science Experiment Facility (MLF) of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). Very-cold neutrons (VCNs) with 136-$\mathrm{m/s}$ velocity in a neutron beam supplied by a pulsed neutron source are decelerated by reflection on a m=10 wide-band multilayer mirror, yielding pulsed UCN. The mirror is fixed to the tip of a 2,000-rpm rotating arm moving with 68-$\mathrm{m/s}$ velocity in the same direction as the VCN. The repetition frequency of the pulsed UCN is $8.33~\mathrm{Hz}$ and the time width of the pulse at production is $4.4~\mathrm{ms}$. In order to increase the UCN flux, a supermirror guide, wide-band monochromatic mirrors, focus guides, and a UCN extraction guide have been newly installed or improved. The $1~\mathrm{MW}$-equivalent count rate of the output neutrons with longitudinal wavelengths longer than $58~\mathrm{nm}$ is $1.6 \times 10^{2}~\mathrm{cps}$, while that of the true UCNs is $80~\mathrm{cps}$. The spatial density at production is $1.4~\mathrm{UCN/cm^{3}}$. This new UCN source enables us to research and develop apparatuses necessary for the investigation of the neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM).Comment: 32 pages, 15 fugures. A grammatical error was fixe

Theoretical study of the thermal behavior of free and alumina-supported Fe-C nanoparticles

The thermal behavior of free and alumina-supported iron-carbon nanoparticles is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations, in which the effect of the substrate is treated with a simple Morse potential fitted to ab initio data. We observe that the presence of the substrate raises the melting temperature of medium and large $Fe_{1-x}C_x$ nanoparticles ($x$ = 0-0.16, $N$ = 80-1000, non- magic numbers) by 40-60 K; it also plays an important role in defining the ground state of smaller Fe nanoparticles ($N$ = 50-80). The main focus of our study is the investigation of Fe-C phase diagrams as a function of the nanoparticle size. We find that as the cluster size decreases in the 1.1-1.6-nm-diameter range the eutectic point shifts significantly not only toward lower temperatures, as expected from the Gibbs-Thomson law, but also toward lower concentrations of C. The strong dependence of the maximum C solubility on the Fe-C cluster size may have important implications for the catalytic growth of carbon nanotubes by chemical vapor deposition.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, higher quality figures can be seen in article 9 at http://alpha.mems.duke.edu/wahyu

Evolution of the electronic structure from electron-doped to hole-doped states in the two-dimensional Mott-Hubbard system La1.17-xPbxVS3.17

The filling-controlled metal-insulator transition (MIT) in a two-dimensional Mott-Hubbard system La1.17-xPbxVS3.17 has been studied by photoemission spectroscopy. With Pb substitution x, chemical potential mu abruptly jumps by ~ 0.07 eV between x=0.15 and 0.17, indicating that a charge gap is opened at x ~= 0.16 in agreement with the Mott insulating state of the d2 configuration. When holes or electrons are doped into the Mott insulator of x ~= 0.16, the gap is filled and the photoemission spectral weight at mu, rho(mu), gradually increases in a similar way to the electronic specific heat coefficient, although the spectral weight remains depressed around mu compared to that expected for a normal metal, showing a pseudogap behavior in the metallic samples. The observed behavior of varrho(mu)->0 for x->0.16 is contrasted with the usual picture that the electron effective mass of the Fermi-liquid system is enhanced towards the metal-insulator boundary. With increasing temperature, the gap or the pseudogap is rapidly filled up, and the spectra at T=300 K appears to be almost those of a normal metal. Near the metal-insulator boundary, the spectra around mu are consistent with the formation of a Coulomb gap, suggesting the influence of long-range Coulomb interaction under the structural disorder intrinsic to this system.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figure