747 research outputs found
Ferromagnetic Domain Structure of La0.78Ca0.22MnO3 Single Crystals
The magneto-optical technique has been employed to observe spontaneous
ferromagnetic domain structures in La0.78Ca0.22MnO3 single crystals. The
magnetic domain topology was found to be correlated with the intrinsic twin
structure of the investigated crystals. With decreasing temperature the regular
network of ferromagnetic domains undergoes significant changes resulting in
apparent rotation of the domain walls in the temperature range of 70-150 K. The
apparent rotation of the domain walls can be understood in terms of the
Jahn-Teller deformation of the orthorhombic unit cell, accompanied by
additional twinning.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, to be published in PR
Timing and mechanism of the rise of the Shillong Plateau in the Himalayan foreland
The Shillong Plateau (northeastern India) constitutes the only significant topography in the Himalayan foreland. Knowledge of its surface uplift history is key to understanding topographic development and unraveling tectonic–climate–topographic coupling in the eastern Himalaya. We use the sedimentary record of the Himalayan foreland basin north of the Shillong Plateau to show that the paleo-Brahmaputra river was redirected north and west by the rising plateau at 5.2–4.9 Ma. We suggest that onset of plateau uplift is a result of increased fault-slip rates in response to stresses caused by the Indian lithosphere bending beneath the Himalaya
Transport Properties of Vortex Matter Governed by the Edge Inductance of Superconducting BiSrCaCuO Single Crystals
We study the distribution of transport current across superconducting
BiSrCaCuO crystals and the vortex flow through the sample
edges. We show that the transition is of electrodynamic rather than
thermodynamic nature, below which vortex dynamics is governed by the edge
inductance instead of the resistance. This allows measurement of the resistance
down to two orders of magnitude below the transport noise. By irradiating the
current contacts the resistive step at vortex melting is shown to be due to
loss of c-axis correlations rather than breakdown of quasi-long-range order
within the a-b planes
Flux pinning in (1111) iron-pnictide superconducting crystals
Local magnetic measurements are used to quantitatively characterize
heterogeneity and flux line pinning in PrFeAsO_1-y and NdFeAs(O,F)
superconducting single crystals. In spite of spatial fluctuations of the
critical current density on the macroscopic scale, it is shown that the major
contribution comes from collective pinning of vortex lines by microscopic
defects by the mean-free path fluctuation mechanism. The defect density
extracted from experiment corresponds to the dopant atom density, which means
that dopant atoms play an important role both in vortex pinning and in
quasiparticle scattering. In the studied underdoped PrFeAsO_1-y and NdFeAs(O,F)
crystals, there is a background of strong pinning, which we attribute to
spatial variations of the dopant atom density on the scale of a few dozen to
one hundred nm. These variations do not go beyond 5% - we therefore do not find
any evidence for coexistence of the superconducting and the antiferromagnetic
phase. The critical current density in sub-T fields is characterized by the
presence of a peak effect, the location of which in the (B,T)-plane is
consistent with an order-disorder transition of the vortex lattice.Comment: 12 pages, submitted to Phys Rev.
Calculation of minor hysteresis loops under metastable to stable transformations in vortex matter
We present a model in which metastable supercooled phase and stable
equilibrium phase of vortex matter coexist in different regions of a sample.
Minor hysteresis loops are calculated with the simple assumption of the two
phases of vortex matter having field-independent critical current densities. We
use our earlier published ideas that the free energy barrier separating the
metastable and stable phases reduces as the magnetic induction moves farther
from the first order phase transition line, and that metastable to stable
transformations occur in local regions of the sample when the local energy
dissipation exceeds a critical value. Previously reported anomalous features in
minor hysteresis loops are reproduced, and calculated field profiles are
presented.Comment: 9pages, 7 figure
Supercooling of the disordered vortex lattice in Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_8+d
Time-resolved local induction measurements near to the vortex lattice
order-disorder transition in optimally doped
BiSrCaCuO single crystals shows that the
high-field, disordered phase can be quenched to fields as low as half the
transition field. Over an important range of fields, the electrodynamical
behavior of the vortex system is governed by the co-existence of the two phases
in the sample. We interpret the results in terms of supercooling of the
high-field phase and the possible first order nature of the order-disorder
transition at the ``second peak''.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Nature, July 10th, 1999; Rejected
August 8th for lack of broad interest Submitted to Physical Review Letters
September 10th, 199
Naturally Occurring Lipid A Mutants in Neisseria meningitidis from Patients with Invasive Meningococcal Disease Are Associated with Reduced Coagulopathy
Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of bacterial meningitis and sepsis worldwide. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a major component of the Gram-negative bacterial outer membrane, is sensed by mammalian cells through Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), resulting in activation of proinflammatory cytokine pathways. TLR4 recognizes the lipid A moiety of the LPS molecule, and the chemical composition of the lipid A determines how well it is recognized by TLR4. N. meningitidis has been reported to produce lipid A with six acyl chains, the optimal number for TLR4 recognition. Indeed, meningococcal sepsis is generally seen as the prototypical endotoxin-mediated disease. In the present study, we screened meningococcal disease isolates from 464 patients for their ability to induce cytokine production in vitro. We found that around 9% of them were dramatically less potent than wild-type strains. Analysis of the lipid A of several of the low-activity strains by mass spectrometry revealed they were penta-acylated, suggesting a mutation in the lpxL1 or lpxL2 genes required for addition of secondary acyl chains. Sequencing of these genes showed that all the low activity strains had mutations that inactivated the lpxL1 gene. In order to see whether lpxL1 mutants might give a different clinical picture, we investigated the clinical correlate of these mutations in a prospective nationwide observational cohort study of adults with meningococcal meningitis. Patients infected with an lpxL1 mutant presented significantly less frequently with rash and had higher thrombocyte counts, consistent with reduced cytokine induction and less activation of tissue-factor mediated coagulopathy. In conclusion, here we report for the first time that a surprisingly large fraction of meningococcal clinical isolates have LPS with underacylated lipid A due to mutations in the lpxL1 gene. The resulting low-activity LPS may have an important role in virulence by aiding the bacteria to evade the innate immune system. Our results provide the first example of a specific mutation in N. meningitidis that can be correlated with the clinical course of meningococcal disease
Collective pinning of a frozen vortex liquid in ultrathin superconducting YBa_2Cu_3O_7 films
The linear dynamic response of the two-dimensional (2D) vortex medium in
ultrathin YBa_2Cu_3O_7 films was studied by measuring their ac sheet impedance
Z over a broad range of frequencies \omega. With decreasing temperature the
dissipative component of Z exhibits, at a temperature T*(\omega) well above the
melting temperature of a 2D vortex crystal, a crossover from a thermally
activated regime involving single vortices to a regime where the response has
features consistent with a description in terms of a collectively pinned vortex
manifold. This suggests the idea of a vortex liquid which, below T*(\omega),
appears to be frozen at the time scales 1/\omega of the experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Amplitude saturation of MEMS resonators explained by autoparametric resonance
Abstract This paper describes a phenomenon that limits the power handling of MEMS resonators. It is observed that above a certain driving level, the resonance amplitude becomes independent of the driving level. In contrast to previous studies of power handling of MEMS resonators, it is found that this amplitude saturation cannot be explained by nonlinear terms in the spring constant or electrostatic force. Instead we show that the amplitude in our experiments is limited by nonlinear terms in the equation of motion which couple the in-plane length-extensional resonance mode to one or more out-of-plane (OOP) bending modes. We present experimental evidence for the autoparametric excitation of these OOP modes using a vibrometer. The measurements are compared to a model that can be used to predict a power-handling limit for MEMS resonators
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