608 research outputs found
Atomic Resolution Electron Holography
It has been demonstrated that electron holography is a very powerful tool to investigate an electromagnetic potential in medium resolution, since the phase of an electron wave is approximately proportional to the potential. Now, electron holography is at the second stage of development: to establish holography at atomic resolution and further to realize Gabor\u27s idea to improve the resolution restricted by the spherical aberration of the objective lens. We investigate the possibility of electron holography to get information at atomic resolution by computer simulations as well as by digital processing of electron holograms. We show that the phase distribution has more resemblance to the specimen structure than the amplitude distribution. We also compare electron holography with electron microscopy from an image processing point of view
Colloidal Dynamics on Disordered Substrates
Using Langevin simulations we examine driven colloids interacting with
quenched disorder. For weak substrates the colloids form an ordered state and
depin elastically. For increasing substrate strength we find a sharp crossover
to inhomogeneous depinning and a substantial increase in the depinning force,
analogous to the peak effect in superconductors. The velocity versus driving
force curve shows criticality at depinning, with a change in scaling exponent
occuring at the order to disorder crossover. Upon application of a sudden pulse
of driving force, pronounced transients appear in the disordered regime which
are due to the formation of long-lived colloidal flow channels.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figure
Electron vortex beams in a magnetic field: A new twist on Landau levels and Aharonov-Bohm states
We examine the propagation of the recently-discovered electron vortex beams
in a longitudinal magnetic field. We consider both the Aharonov-Bohm
configuration with a single flux line and the Landau case of a uniform magnetic
field. While stationary Aharonov-Bohm modes represent Bessel beams with flux-
and vortex-dependent probability distributions, stationary Landau states
manifest themselves as non-diffracting Laguerre-Gaussian beams. Furthermore,
the Landau-state beams possess field- and vortex-dependent phases: (i) the
Zeeman phase from coupling the quantized angular momentum to the magnetic field
and (ii) the Gouy phase, known from optical Laguerre-Gaussian beams.
Remarkably, together these phases determine the structure of Landau energy
levels. This unified Zeeman-Landau-Gouy phase manifests itself in a nontrivial
evolution of images formed by various superpositions of modes. We demonstrate
that, depending on the chosen superposition, the image can rotate in a magnetic
field with either (i) Larmor, (ii) cyclotron (double-Larmor), or (iii) zero
frequency. At the same time, its centroid always follows the classical
cyclotron trajectory, in agreement with the Ehrenfest theorem. Remarkably, the
non-rotating superpositions reproduce stable multi-vortex configurations that
appear in rotating superfluids. Our results open up an avenue for the direct
electron-microscopy observation of fundamental properties of free quantum
electron states in magnetic fields.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Deformation and Depinning of Superconducting Vortices from Artificial Defects: A Ginzburg-Landau Study
Using Ginzburg-Landau theory, we have performed detailed studies of vortices
in the presence of artificial defect arrays, for a thin film geometry. We show
that when a vortex approaches the vicinity of a defect, an abrupt transition
occurs in which the vortex core develops a ``string'' extending to the defect
boundary, while simultaneously the supercurrents and associated magnetic flux
spread out and engulf the defect. Current induced depinning of vortices is
shown to be dominated by the core string distortion in typical experimental
situations. Experimental consequences of this unusual depinning behavior are
discussed.Comment: 10 pages,9 figure
Aharonov-Bohm interference in the presence of metallic mesoscopic cylinders
This work studies the interference of electrons in the presence of a line of
magnetic flux surrounded by a normal-conducting mesoscopic cylinder at low
temperature. It is found that, while there is a supplementary phase
contribution from each electron of the mesoscopic cylinder, the sum of these
individual supplementary phases is equal to zero, so that the presence of a
normal-conducting mesoscopic ring at low temperature does not change the
Aharonov-Bohm interference pattern of the incident electron. It is shown that
it is not possible to ascertain by experimental observation that the shielding
electrons have responded to the field of an incident electron, and at the same
time to preserve the interference pattern of the incident electron. It is also
shown that the measuring of the transient magnetic field in the region between
the two paths of an electron interference experiment with an accuracy at least
equal to the magnetic field of the incident electron generates a phase
uncertainty which destroys the interference pattern.Comment: 15 pages, 5 Postscript figure
Domain walls in (Ga,Mn)As diluted magnetic semiconductor
We report experimental and theoretical studies of magnetic domain walls in an
in-plane magnetized (Ga,Mn)As dilute moment ferromagnetic semiconductor. Our
high-resolution electron holography technique provides direct images of domain
wall magnetization profiles. The experiments are interpreted based on
microscopic calculations of the micromagnetic parameters and
Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert simulations. We find that the competition of uniaxial
and biaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropies in the film is directly reflected
in orientation dependent wall widths, ranging from approximately 40 nm to 120
nm. The domain walls are of the N\'eel type and evolve from near-
walls at low-temperatures to large angle [10]-oriented walls and small
angle [110]-oriented walls at higher temperatures.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Diffraction and quasiclassical limit of the Aharonov--Bohm effect
Since the Aharonov-Bohm effect is the purely quantum effect that has no
analogues in classical physics, its persistence in the quasiclassical limit
seems to be hardly possible. Nevertheless, we show that the scattering
Aharonov-Bohm effect does persist in the quasiclassical limit owing to the
diffraction, i.e. the Fraunhofer diffraction in the case when space outside the
enclosed magnetic flux is Euclidean, and the Fresnel diffraction in the case
when the outer space is conical. Hence, the enclosed magnetic flux can serve as
a gate for the propagation of short-wavelength, almost classical, particles. In
the case of conical space, this quasiclassical effect which is in principle
detectable depends on the particle spin.Comment: 12 pages, minor changes, references update
Magnetic imaging with a Zernike-type phase plate in a transmission electron microscope
We demonstrate the use of a hole-free phase plate (HFPP) for magnetic imaging in transmission electron microscopy by mapping the domain structure in PrDyFeB samples. The HFPP, a Zernike-like imaging method, allows for detecting magnetic signals in-focus to correlate the sample crystal structure and defects with the local magnetization topography, and to evidence stray fields protruding from the sample. Experimental and simulated results are shown and are compared with conventional Fresnel (out-of-focus) images without a phase plate. A key advantage of HFPP imaging is that the technique is free from the reference wave distortion from long-range fields affecting electron holography
Phase Coherence in Quantum Brownian Motion
The quantum theory of Brownian motion is discussed in the Schwinger version
wherein the notion of a coordinate moving forward in time is replaced by
two coordinates, moving forward in time and moving backward
in time. The role of the doubling of the degrees of freedom is illustrated for
the case of electron beam two slit diffraction experiments. Interference is
computed with and without dissipation (described by a thermal bath). The notion
of a dissipative interference phase, closely analogous to the Aharonov-Bohm
magnetic field induced phase, is explored.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, 2 Figure
- …