A Neural Circuit for Coordinating Reaching with Grasping: Autocompensating Variable Initial Apertures, Perturbations to Target Size, and Perturbations to Target Orientation

A neural network model is presented, that extends principles of the VITE (vector integration to end-point) model [1, 2, 3, 4] of primate reaching to the more complex case of reach-grasp coordination. The main new planning problem addressed by the model is how to simulate human data on temporal coordination between reaching and grasping, while at the same time remaining stable and compensating for altered initial apertures and perturbations of object size and object location/ orientation. Simulations of the model replicate key features of four different experimental protocols with a single set of parameters. The proposed circuit computes reaching to grasp trajectories in real-time, by continuously updating vector positioning commands, and with no precomputation of total or component movement times. The model consists of three generator channels: transport, which generates a reaching trajectory; aperture, which controls distance between thumb and index finger; and orientation, which controls hand orientation vis-a-vis target's orientation.CONACYT of Mexico; Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-1-0409

Spin polarization control by electric field gradients

We show that the propagation of spin polarized carriers may be dramatically affected by {\em inhomogeneous} electric fields. Surprisingly, the spin diffusion length is found to strongly depend on the sign and magnitude of electric field \emph{gradients}, in addition to the previously reported dependence on the sign and magnitude of the electric field [Yu & Flatt\'e, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 66}, 201202(R) 2002; {\em ibid.} {\bf 66}, 235302 (2002)]. This indicates that purely electrical effects may play a crucial role in spin polarized injection, transport and detection in semiconductor spintronics. A generalized drift-diffusion equation that describes our findings is derived and verified by numerical calculations using the Boltzmann transport equation.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; updated and extended version, added figure, updated reference lis

Magnon spin Hall magnetoresistance of a gapped quantum paramagnet

Motivated by recent experimental work, we consider spin transport between a normal metal and a gapped quantum paramagnet. We model the latter as the magnonic Mott-insulating phase of an easy-plane ferromagnetic insulator. We evaluate the spin current mediated by the interface exchange coupling between the ferromagnet and the adjacent normal metal. For the strongly interacting magnons that we consider, this spin current gives rise to a spin Hall magnetoresistance that strongly depends on the magnitude of the magnetic field, rather than its direction. This Letter may motivate electrical detection of the phases of quantum magnets and the incorporation of such materials into spintronic devices.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Zeeman splitting of shallow donors in GaN

The Zeeman splitting of the donor spectra in cubic- and hexagonal-GaN are studied using an effective mass theory approach. Soft-core pseudopotentials were used to describe the chemical shift of the different substitutional dopants. The donor ground states calculated range from 29.5 to 33.7 meV, with typically 1 meV higher binding in the hexagonal phase. Carbon is found to produce the largest donor binding energy. The ionization levels and excited states are in excellent agreement with Hall and optical measurements, and suggest the presence of residual C in recent experiments.Comment: REVTEX file - 2 figure

RKKY interaction and intervalley processes in p-doped transition metal dichalcogenides

We study the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction in p-doped transition metal dichalcogenides such as MoS$_2$ and WS$_2$. We consider magnetic impurities hybridized to the Mo d-orbitals characteristic of the valence bands. Using the Matsubara Green's function formalism, we obtain the two-impurity interaction vs their separation and chemical potential of the system, accounting for the important angular dependence which reflects the underlying triangular lattice symmetry. The inclusion of the valence band valley at the $\Gamma$ point results in a strong enhancement of the interaction. Electron scattering processes transferring momentum between valleys at different symmetry points give rise to complex spatial oscillation patterns. Variable doping would allow the exploration of rather interesting behavior in the interaction of magnetic impurities on the surfaces of these materials, including the control of the interaction symmetry, which can be directly probed in STM experiments.Comment: Includes supplemental materia

Coulomb effects in artificial molecules

We study the capacitance spectra of artificial molecules consisting of two and three coupled quantum dots from an extended Hubbard Hamiltonian model that takes into account quantum confinement, intra- and inter-dot Coulomb interaction and tunneling coupling between all single particle states in nearest neighbor dots. We find that, for weak coupling, the interdot Coulomb interaction dominates the formation of a collective molecular state. We also calculate the effects of correlations on the tunneling probability through the evaluation of the spectral weights, and corroborate the importance of selection rules for understanding experimental conductance spectra.Comment: dvi file and 4 postscript figures, all included in uu file. To appear in Superlatt. and Microstr. Also available at http://www.phy.ohiou.edu/~ulloa/ulloa.htm