743 research outputs found
Characterization of defect structures in nanocrystalline materials by X-ray line profile analysis
X-ray line profile analysis is a powerful alternative tool for determining dislocation densities, dislocation type, crystallite and subgrain size and size-distributions, and planar defects, especially the frequency of twin boundaries and stacking faults. The method is especially useful in the case of submicron grain size or nanocrystalline materials, where X-ray line broadening is a well pronounced effect, and the observation of defects with very large density is often not easy by transmission electron microscopy. The fundamentals of X-ray line broadening are summarized in terms of the different qualitative breadth methods, and the more sophisticated and more quantitative whole pattern fitting procedures. The efficiency and practical use of X-ray line profile analysis is shown by discussing its applications to metallic, ceramic, diamond-like and polymer nanomaterials
On the modulation instability development in optical fiber systems
Extensive numerical simulations were performed to investigate all stages of
modulation instability development from the initial pulse of pico-second
duration in photonic crystal fiber: quasi-solitons and dispersive waves
formation, their interaction stage and the further propagation. Comparison
between 4 different NLS-like systems was made: the classical NLS equation, NLS
system plus higher dispersion terms, NLS plus higher dispersion and
self-steepening and also fully generalized NLS equation with Raman scattering
taken into account. For the latter case a mechanism of energy transfer from
smaller quasi-solitons to the bigger ones is proposed to explain the dramatical
increase of rogue waves appearance frequency in comparison to the systems when
the Raman scattering is not taken into account.Comment: 9 pages, 54 figure
Electromechanical instability in suspended carbon nanotubes
We have theoretically investigated electromechanical properties of freely
suspended carbon nanotubes when a current is injected into the tubes using a
scanning tunneling microscope. We show that a shuttle-like electromechanical
instability can occur if the bias voltage exceeds a dissipation-dependent
threshold value. An instability results in large amplitude vibrations of the
carbon nanotube bending mode, which modify the current-voltage characteristics
of the system
Nanocrystalline materials studied by powder diffraction line profile analysis
X-ray powder diffraction is a powerful tool for characterising the microstructure of crystalline materials in terms of size and strain. It is widely applied for nanocrystalline materials, especially since other methods, in particular electron microscopy is, on the one hand tedious and time consuming, on the other hand, due to the often metastable states of nanomaterials it might change their microstructures. It is attempted to overview the applications of microstructure characterization by powder diffraction on nanocrystalline metals, alloys, ceramics and carbon base materials. Whenever opportunity is given, the data provided by the X-ray method are compared and discussed together with results of electron microscopy. Since the topic is vast we do not try to cover the entire field
Encounters with the moral economy of water: convergent evolution in Valencia
[EN] This article presents the results of comparative fieldwork on the huerta of Valencia in Spain, a successful community-managed irrigation system of medium scale, one governed collectively by thousands of small farmers organized into 10 autonomous but highly interdependent irrigator groups. The study tested a model identified previously in research on successful systems of much smaller scale in Peru, a set of principles of operation that, when affirmed by farmers and obeyed as collective-choice rules, interact to create equity among water rights and transparency in water use in an unusual way. The authors show that a nearly identical set are at work in all 10 communities of Valencia, revealing the unique manner in which these work together to promote successful and sustainable cooperation, both within and between the user groups, and arguing that their presence in Spain and the Andes is indicative, not of diffusion from one continent to another, but of independent invention. These principles together laid the foundations for separate Andean and Islamic hydraulic traditions, which were often manifested locally in robust and equitable systems of the same general type, here called the moral economy of water. This kind of communal system appears to have emerged repeatedly, and often independently, in a great many other locales and settings throughout the world; its adaptive dynamics are shown to be of great relevance to small farmers today as they face the growing scarcity of water being induced by population growth and by climate change.Trawick, P.; Ortega Reig, MV.; Palau-Salvador, G. (2014). Encounters with the moral economy of water: convergent evolution in Valencia. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water. 1(1):87-110. doi:10.1002/wat2.1008S871101
Ab-initio structural, elastic, and vibrational properties of carbon nanotubes
A study based on ab initio calculations is presented on the estructural,
elastic, and vibrational properties of single-wall carbon nanotubes with
different radii and chiralities. We use SIESTA, an implementation of
pseudopotential-density-functional theory which allows calculations on systems
with a large number of atoms per cell. Different quantities like bond
distances, Young moduli, Poisson ratio and the frequencies of different phonon
branches are monitored versus tube radius. The validity of expectations based
on graphite is explored down to small radii, where some deviations appear
related to the curvature effects. For the phonon spectra, the results are
compared with the predictions of the simple zone-folding approximation. Except
for the known defficiencies of this approximation in the low-frequency
vibrational regions, it offers quite accurate results, even for relatively
small radii.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B (11 Nov. 98
Thermodynamic Behavior of a Model Covalent Material Described by the Environment-Dependent Interatomic Potential
Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the thermodynamic behavior of a
single-component covalent material described by the recently proposed
Environment-Dependent Interatomic Potential (EDIP). The parameterization of
EDIP for silicon exhibits a range of unusual properties typically found in more
complex materials, such as the existence of two structurally distinct
disordered phases, a density decrease upon melting of the low-temperature
amorphous phase, and negative thermal expansion coefficients for both the
crystal (at high temperatures) and the amorphous phase (at all temperatures).
Structural differences between the two disordered phases also lead to a
first-order transition between them, which suggests the existence of a second
critical point, as is believed to exist for amorphous forms of frozen water.
For EDIP-Si, however, the unusual behavior is associated not only with the open
nature of tetrahedral bonding but also with a competition between four-fold
(covalent) and five-fold (metallic) coordination. The unusual behavior of the
model and its unique ability to simulation the liquid/amorphous transition on
molecular-dynamics time scales make it a suitable prototype for fundamental
studies of anomalous thermodynamics in disordeered systems.Comment: 48 pages (double-spaced), 13 figure
Spectral compression of single photons
Photons are critical to quantum technologies since they can be used for
virtually all quantum information tasks: in quantum metrology, as the
information carrier in photonic quantum computation, as a mediator in hybrid
systems, and to establish long distance networks. The physical characteristics
of photons in these applications differ drastically; spectral bandwidths span
12 orders of magnitude from 50 THz for quantum-optical coherence tomography to
50 Hz for certain quantum memories. Combining these technologies requires
coherent interfaces that reversibly map centre frequencies and bandwidths of
photons to avoid excessive loss. Here we demonstrate bandwidth compression of
single photons by a factor 40 and tunability over a range 70 times that
bandwidth via sum-frequency generation with chirped laser pulses. This
constitutes a time-to-frequency interface for light capable of converting
time-bin to colour entanglement and enables ultrafast timing measurements. It
is a step toward arbitrary waveform generation for single and entangled
photons.Comment: 6 pages (4 figures) + 6 pages (3 figures
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