Raman scattering in iron-based superconductors

Iron-based superconducting layered compounds have the second highest transition temperature after cuprate superconductors. Their discovery is a milestone in the history of high-temperature superconductivity and will have profound implications for high-temperature superconducting mechanism as well as industrial applications. Raman scattering has been extensively applied to correlated electron systems including the new superconductors due to its unique ability to probe multiple primary excitations and their coupling. In this review, we will give a brief summary of the existing Raman experiments in the iron-based materials and their implication for pairing mechanism in particular. And we will also address some open issues from the experiments.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, invited review articl

Impact of weak localization in the time domain

We find a renormalized "time-dependent diffusion coefficient", D(t), for pulsed excitation of a nominally diffusive sample by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation with recurrent scattering. We observe a crossover in dynamics in the transformation from a quasi-1D to a slab geometry implemented by varying the ratio of the radius, R, of the cylindrical sample with reflecting walls and the sample length, L. Immediately after the peak of the transmitted pulse, D(t) falls linearly with a nonuniversal slope that approaches an asymptotic value for R/L >> 1. The value of D(t) extrapolated to t = 0 depends only upon the dimensionless conductance, g, for R/L > 1, where k is the wave vector and l is the bare mean free path.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Fermi motion and nuclear modification factor

It has been argued recently that the so-called nuclear modification factor ($R_{AA}$) is an observable useful for identifying the quark-gluon plasma. We discuss the effect of Fermi motion in nuclei on $R_{AA}$ at CERN SPS and BNL RHIC energies. Contrary to the simple intuition, rather large effects are found for CERN SPS. The Fermi motion in nuclei contributes significantly to the Cronin effect. The effect found is qualitatively similar to the one observed experimentally at CERN energies and similar to the one obtained in the models of multiple scattering of initial partons. We predict different size of the effect for different types of hadrons, especially at low energies.Comment: 16 pages + 6 figures, some calculations have been corrected, text has been modified accordingly, 1 figure has been added, in print Modern Physics Letters A19 (2004)

Preparation and flammability properties of polyethylene-clay nanocomposites

Polyethylene (PE)–clay nanocomposites have been prepared using melt blending in a Brabrender mixer. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the nano-structure of these composites while the thermal stability was evaluated from thermogravimetric analysis and the flammability parameters using cone calorimetry. It is found that the PE–clay nanocomposites have a mixed immiscible-intercalated structure and there is better intercalation when maleic anhydride is combined with the polymer and clay to be melt blended. The reduction in peak heat release rate is 30–40%

The Microscopic Response Method: theory of transport for systems with both topological and thermal disorder

In this paper, we review and substantially develop the recently proposed "Microscopic Response Method", which has been devised to compute transport coefficients and especially associated temperature dependence in complex materials. The conductivity and Hall mobility of amorphous semiconductors and semiconducting polymers are systematically derived, and shown to be more practical than the Kubo formalism. The effect of a quantized lattice (phonons) on transport coefficients is fully included and then integrated out, providing the primary temperature dependence for the transport coefficients. For higher-order processes, using a diagrammatic expansion, one can consistently include all important contributions to a given order and directly write out the expressions of transport coefficients for various processes.Comment: paper: 12.3 pages, 13 figures, submitted to physica status solidi (b), supporting information: 14.5 page