4,371 research outputs found
Epitaxial Growth of LaSrFeO thin films by laser ablation
We report on the synthesis of high quality LaSrFeO (LSFO)
thin films using the pulsed laser deposition technique on both SrTiO (STO)
and LaAlO (LAO) substrates (100)-oriented. From X-Ray diffraction (XRD)
studies, we find that the films have an out-of-plane lattice parameter around
0.3865nm, almost independent of the substrate (i.e. the nature of the strains).
The transport properties reveal that, while LSFO films deposited on STO exhibit
an anomaly in the resistivity vs temperature at 180K (corresponding to the
charge-ordered transition and associated with a transition from a paramagnetic
to an antiferromagnetic state), the films grown on LAO display a very small
magnetoresistance behavior and present an hysteresis around 270K under the
application of a 4T magnetic field. The changes in transport properties between
both substrates are discussed and compared with the corresponding single
crystals.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Corrections to the universal behavior of the Coulomb-blockade peak splitting for quantum dots separated by a finite barrier
Building upon earlier work on the relation between the dimensionless interdot
channel conductance g and the fractional Coulomb-blockade peak splitting f for
two electrostatically equivalent dots, we calculate the leading correction that
results from an interdot tunneling barrier that is not a delta-function but,
rather, has a finite height V and a nonzero width xi and can be approximated as
parabolic near its peak. We develop a new treatment of the problem for g much
less than 1 that starts from the single-particle eigenstates for the full
coupled-dot system. The finiteness of the barrier leads to a small upward shift
of the f-versus-g curve at small values of g. The shift is a consequence of the
fact that the tunneling matrix elements vary exponentially with the energies of
the states connected. Therefore, when g is small, it can pay to tunnel to
intermediate states with single-particle energies above the barrier height V.
The correction to the zero-width behavior does not affect agreement with recent
experimental results but may be important in future experiments.Comment: Title changed from ``Non-universal...'' to ``Corrections to the
universal...'' No other changes. 10 pages, 1 RevTeX file with 2 postscript
figures included using eps
Nurses’ decision-making around gastric residual volume measurement in adult intensive care: a four-centre survey
Background: Despite increasing evidence of the potential inaccuracy and unwarranted practice of regular gastric residual volume (GRV) measurement in critically in adults, this practice persists within the United Kingdom.Aim: To explore adult intensive care nurses’ decision-making around the practice of gastric residual volume measurement to guide enteral feeding.Methods: A cross sectional 16 item electronic survey in four adult intensive care units in England and Wales.Results: Two hundred and seventy-three responses were obtained across four intensive care units with acceptable response rates for most [Unit 1 74 /127 = 58.2%; Unit 2 87/129 =67.4%; Unit 3 77/120= 64.1%; Unit 4 35/168 = 20.8%]. Most (243/273 (89%) reported measuring GRV 4-6 hourly, with most (223/273 82%) reporting that the main reason was to assess feed tolerance or intolerance and 37/273 (13.5%) saying their unit protocol required it. In terms of factors affecting decision-making, volume obtained was the most important factor, followed by the condition of the patient, with aspirate colour and appearance less important. When asked how they would feel about not measuring gastric residual volume routinely, the majority (78.2%) of nurses felt worried (140/273 = 51.2%) or very worried (74/273 = 27%).Conclusions: Factors affecting the nurses’ decision making around gastric residual volume were based on largely on fear of risk (around vomiting and pulmonary aspiration) and compliance with unit protocols. Relevance to clinical practice: Despite increasing evidence suggesting it is unnecessary, nurses’ beliefs around the value of this practice persist and it continues to be embedded into unit protocols around feeding.<br/
Force balance and membrane shedding at the Red Blood Cell surface
During the aging of the red-blood cell, or under conditions of extreme
echinocytosis, membrane is shed from the cell plasma membrane in the form of
nano-vesicles. We propose that this process is the result of the
self-adaptation of the membrane surface area to the elastic stress imposed by
the spectrin cytoskeleton, via the local buckling of membrane under increasing
cytoskeleton stiffness. This model introduces the concept of force balance as a
regulatory process at the cell membrane, and quantitatively reproduces the rate
of area loss in aging red-blood cells.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
In-Plane Orbital Texture Switch at the Dirac Point in the Topological Insulator Bi2Se3
Topological insulators are novel macroscopic quantum-mechanical phase of
matter, which hold promise for realizing some of the most exotic particles in
physics as well as application towards spintronics and quantum computation. In
all the known topological insulators, strong spin-orbit coupling is critical
for the generation of the protected massless surface states. Consequently, a
complete description of the Dirac state should include both the spin and
orbital (spatial) parts of the wavefunction. For the family of materials with a
single Dirac cone, theories and experiments agree qualitatively, showing the
topological state has a chiral spin texture that changes handedness across the
Dirac point (DP), but they differ quantitatively on how the spin is polarized.
Limited existing theoretical ideas predict chiral local orbital angular
momentum on the two sides of the DP. However, there have been neither direct
measurements nor calculations identifying the global symmetry of the spatial
wavefunction. Here we present the first results from angle-resolved
photoemission experiment and first-principles calculation that both show,
counter to current predictions, the in-plane orbital wavefunctions for the
surface states of Bi2Se3 are asymmetric relative to the DP, switching from
being tangential to the k-space constant energy surfaces above DP, to being
radial to them below the DP. Because the orbital texture switch occurs exactly
at the DP this effect should be intrinsic to the topological physics,
constituting an essential yet missing aspect in the description of the
topological Dirac state. Our results also indicate that the spin texture may be
more complex than previously reported, helping to reconcile earlier conflicting
spin resolved measurements
Quantum Computation with Quantum Dots
We propose a new implementation of a universal set of one- and two-qubit
gates for quantum computation using the spin states of coupled single-electron
quantum dots. Desired operations are effected by the gating of the tunneling
barrier between neighboring dots. Several measures of the gate quality are
computed within a newly derived spin master equation incorporating decoherence
caused by a prototypical magnetic environment. Dot-array experiments which
would provide an initial demonstration of the desired non-equilibrium spin
dynamics are proposed.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, 2 ps figures. v2: 20 pages (very minor corrections,
substantial expansion), submitted to Phys. Rev.
Work extraction in the spin-boson model
We show that work can be extracted from a two-level system (spin) coupled to
a bosonic thermal bath. This is possible due to different initial temperatures
of the spin and the bath, both positive (no spin population inversion) and is
realized by means of a suitable sequence of sharp pulses applied to the spin.
The extracted work can be of the order of the response energy of the bath,
therefore much larger than the energy of the spin. Moreover, the efficiency of
extraction can be very close to its maximum, given by the Carnot bound, at the
same time the overall amount of the extracted work is maximal. Therefore, we
get a finite power at efficiency close to the Carnot bound.
The effect comes from the backreaction of the spin on the bath, and it
survives for a strongly disordered (inhomogeneously broadened) ensemble of
spins. It is connected with generation of coherences during the work-extraction
process, and we derived it in an exactly solvable model. All the necessary
general thermodynamical relations are derived from the first principles of
quantum mechanics and connections are made with processes of lasing without
inversion and with quantum heat engines.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figure
Dynamics of a mesoscopic qubit under continuous quantum measurement
We present the conditional quantum dynamics of an electron tunneling between
two quantum dots subject to a measurement using a low transparency point
contact or tunnel junction. The double dot system forms a single qubit and the
measurement corresponds to a continuous in time readout of the occupancy of the
quantum dot. We illustrate the difference between conditional and unconditional
dynamics of the qubit. The conditional dynamics is discussed in two regimes
depending on the rate of tunneling through the point contact: quantum jumps, in
which individual electron tunneling current events can be distinguished, and a
diffusive dynamics in which individual events are ignored, and the
time-averaged current is considered as a continuous diffusive variable. We
include the effect of inefficient measurement and the influence of the relative
phase between the two tunneling amplitudes of the double dot/point contact
system.Comment: 12 pages (one-column Revtex), 7 figure
Formation and Interaction of Membrane Tubes
We show that the formation of membrane tubes (or membrane tethers), which is
a crucial step in many biological processes, is highly non-trivial and involves
first order shape transitions. The force exerted by an emerging tube is a
non-monotonic function of its length. We point out that tubes attract each
other, which eventually leads to their coalescence. We also show that detached
tubes behave like semiflexible filaments with a rather short persistence
length. We suggest that these properties play an important role in the
formation and structure of tubular organelles.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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