Scaling of broadband dielectric data of glass-forming liquids and plastic crystals

The Nagel-scaling and the modified scaling procedure proposed recently by Dendzik et al. have been applied to broadband dielectric data on two glass- forming liquids (glycerol and propylene carbonate) and three plastic crystals (ortho-carborane, meta-carborane, and 1-cyano-adamantane). Our data extend the upper limit of the abscissa range to considerably higher values than in previously published analyses. At the highest frequencies investigated, deviations from a single master curve show up which are most pronounced in the Dendzik-scaling plot. The loss curves of the plastic crystals do not scale in the Nagel-plot, but they fall onto a separate master curve in the Dendzik-plot. In addition, we address the question of a possible divergence of the static susceptibility near the Vogel-Fulcher temperature. For this purpose, the low-temperature evolution of the high-frequency wing of the dielectric loss peaks is investigated in detail. No convincing proof for such a divergence can be deduced from the present broadband data.Comment: 7 pages including 6 figures submitted to Eur. Phys. J.

The excess wing in the dielectric loss of glass-forming ethanol: A relaxation process

A detailed dielectric investigation of liquid, supercooled liquid, and glassy ethanol reveals a third relaxation process, in addition to the two processes already known. The relaxation time of the newly detected process exhibits strong deviations from thermally activated behavior. Most important, this process is the cause of the apparent excess wing, which was claimed to be present in the dielectric loss spectra of glass-forming ethanol. In addition, marked deviations of the spectra of ethanol from the scaling proposed by Dixon and Nagel have been detected.Comment: 8 pages including 4 figures submitted to Phys. Rev.

The Excess Wing in the Dielectric Loss of Glass-Formers: A Johari-Goldstein beta-Relaxation?

Dielectric loss spectra of glass-forming propylene carbonate and glycerol at temperatures above and below T_g are presented. By performing aging experiments lasting up to five weeks, equilibrium spectra below T_g have been obtained. During aging, the excess wing, showing up as a second power law at high frequencies, develops into a shoulder. The results strongly suggest that the excess wing, observed in a variety of glass formers, is the high-frequency flank of a beta-relaxation.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett., 4 figures, revised version after referee report

1420 MHz Continuum Absorption Towards Extragalactic Sources in the Galactic Plane

We present a 21-cm emission-absorption study towards extragalactic sources in the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS). We have analyzed HI spectra towards 437 sources with S > 150 mJy, giving us a source density of 0.6 sources per square degree at arcminute resolution. We present the results of a first analysis of the HI temperatures, densities, and feature statistics. Particular emphasis is placed on 5 features with observed spin temperatures below 40 K. We find most spin temperatures in the range from 40 K to 300 K. A simple HI two-component model constrains the bulk of the cold component to temperatures (T_c) between 40 K and 100 K. T_c peaks in the Perseus arm region and clearly drops off with Galactocentric radius, R, beyond that. The HI density follows this trend, ranging from a local value of 0.4 cm^{-3} to less than 0.1 cm^{-3} at R = 20 kpc. We find that HI emission alone on average traces about 75% of the total HI column density, as compared to the total inferred by the emission and absorption. Comparing the neutral hydrogen absorption to CO emission no correlation is found in general, but all strong CO emission is accompanied by a visible HI spectral feature. Finally, the number of spectral HI absorption features per kpc drop off exponentially with increasing R.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for March 2004 Ap

Soliton Magnetization Dynamics in Spin-Orbit Coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates

Ring-trapped Bose-Einstein condensates subject to spin-orbit coupling support localized dark soliton excitations that show periodic density dynamics in real space. In addition to the density feature, solitons also carry a localized pseudo-spin magnetization that exhibits a rich and tunable dynamics. Analytic results for Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling and spin-invariant interactions predict a conserved magnitude and precessional motion for the soliton magnetization that allows for the simulation of spin-related geometric phases recently seen in electronic transport measurements.Comment: 3 figures, 5 page

Origin of metallicity in atomic Ag wires on Si(557)

We investigated the metallicity of Ag-root 3 ordered atomic wires close to one monolayer (ML) coverage, which are formed on Si(557) via self assembly. For this purpose we combined high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy with tunneling microscopy. By extending the excess Ag coverage up to 0.6 ML on samples annealed at high temperatures where partial desorption occurs, we demonstrate that one-dimensional metallicity in the Ag-root 3 x root 3 R30 degrees ordered atomic wires on the (111) mini-terraces originates only from Ag atoms in excess of (local) monolayer coverage, which are adsorbed and localized at the highly stepped parts of the Si(557) surface. Thus these Ag atoms act as extrinsic dopants on the atomic scale, causing coverage dependent subband filling and increasing localization as a function of doping concentration. The second layer lattice gas as well as Ag islands on the (111) terraces turn out not to be relevant as dopants. We simulated the peculiar saturation behavior within a modified lattice gas model and give evidence that the preparation dependent saturation of doping is due to changes of average terrace size and step morphology induced by high temperature treatment.Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaftund KulturDFG/FOR/170