Investigation of ion induced bending mechanism for nanostructures

Ion induced bending is a promising controlled technique for manipulating nanoscale structures. However, the underlying mechanism of the process is not well understood. In this letter, we report a detailed study of the bending mechanism of Si nanowires (NWs) under Ga+ irradiation. The microstructural changes in the NW due to ion beam irradiation are studied and molecular dynamics simulations are used to explore the ion–NW interaction processes. The simulation results are compared with the microstructural studies of the NW. The investigations inform a generic understanding of the bending process in crystalline materials, which we suggest to be feasible as a versatile manipulation and integration technique in nanotechnology

High-Quality Planar high-Tc Josephson Junctions

Reproducible high-Tc Josephson junctions have been made in a rather simple two-step process using ion irradiation. A microbridge (1 to 5 ?m wide) is firstly designed by ion irradiating a c-axis-oriented YBa2Cu3O7-? film through a gold mask such as the non-protected part becomes insulating. A lower Tc part is then defined within the bridge by irradiating with a much lower fluence through a narrow slit (20 nm) opened in a standard electronic photoresist. These planar junctions, whose settings can be finely tuned, exhibit reproducible and nearly ideal Josephson characteristics. This process can be used to produce complex Josephson circuits.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Applied Physics Letter

Hardy type spaces on certain noncompact manifolds and applications

In this paper we consider a complete connected noncompact Riemannian manifold M with Ricci curvature bounded from below, positive injectivity radius and spectral gap b. We introduce a sequence X^1(M), X^2(M), ... of new Hardy spaces on M, the sequence Y^1(M/, Y^2(M), ... of their dual spaces, and show that these spaces may be used to obtain endpoint estimates for purely imaginary powers of the Laplace-Beltrami operator and for more general spectral multipliers associated to the Laplace--Beltrami operator L on M. Under the additional condition that the volume of the geodesic balls of radius r is controlled by C r^a e^{2\sqrt{b} r} for some real number a and for all large r, we prove also an endpoint result for first order Riesz transforms D L^{-1/2}. In particular, these results apply to Riemannian symmetric spaces of the noncompact type.Comment: 27 pages, v2: the first version has been revised and rearranged, with additions, in two papers, of which this new version is the first. The second paper is posted as arXiv:1002.1161v

THE ADMITTANCE AND TRANSFER FUNCTIONS OF SOLID CORE ELECTROMAGNETS (thesis)

The admittance and transfer functions of large, solidcore electromagnets were determined. The effects of eddy currents and hysteresis were considered in deriving the functions. The study was concerned with the type of magnet employed in nuclear physics research which requires very precise regulation of the magnetic field. The study originated during the design of an analyzing magnet regulator for the ORNL 63-inch cyclotron. (W.D.M.

Gaps and tails in graphene and graphane

We study the density of states in monolayer and bilayer graphene in the presence of a random potential that breaks sublattice symmetries. While a uniform symmetry-breaking potential opens a uniform gap, a random symmetry-breaking potential also creates tails in the density of states. The latter can close the gap again, preventing the system to become an insulator. However, for a sufficiently large gap the tails contain localized states with nonzero density of states. These localized states allow the system to conduct at nonzero temperature via variable-range hopping. This result is in agreement with recent experimental observations in graphane by Elias {\it et al.}.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Lifetime measurements of Triaxial Strongly Deformed bands in 163^{163}Tm

With the Doppler Shift Attenuation Method, quadrupole transition moments, $Q_t$, were determined for the two recently proposed Triaxial Strongly Deformed (TSD) bands in $^{163}$Tm. The measured $Q_t$ moments indicate that the deformation of these bands is larger than that of the yrast, signature partners. However, the measured values are smaller than those predicted by theory. This observation appears to be valid for TSD bands in several nuclei of the regionComment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to Physical Review

Swift heavy ion damage to sodium chloride: synergy between excitation and thermal spikes

Systematic data on the effect of irradiation with swift ions (Zn at 735 MeV and Xe at 929 MeV) on NaCl single crystals have been analysed in terms of a synergetic two-spike approach (thermal and excitation spikes). The coupling of the two spikes, simultaneously generated by the irradiation, contributes to the operation of a non-radiative exciton decay model as proposed for purely ionization damage. Using this scheme, we have accounted for the π-emission yield of self-trapped excitons and its temperature dependence under ion-beam irradiation. Moreover, the initial production rates of F-centre growth have also been reasonably simulated for irradiation at low temperatures ( < 100 K), where colour centre annealing and aggregation can be neglected

Optical Hall conductivity of systems with gapped spectral nodes

We calculate the optical Hall conductivity within the Kubo formalism for systems with gapped spectral nodes, where the latter have a power-law dispersion with exponent n. The optical conductivity is proportional to n and there is a characteristic logarithmic singularity as the frequency approaches the gap energy. The optical Hall conductivity is almost unaffected by thermal fluctuations and disorder for n=1, whereas disorder has a stronger effect on transport properties if n=2

Influence of ion implantation on the magnetic and transport properties of manganite films

We have used oxygen ions irradiation to generate controlled structural disorder in thin manganite films. Conductive atomic force microscopy CAFM), transport and magnetic measurements were performed to analyze the influence of the implantation process in the physical properties of the films. CAFM images show regions with different conductivity values, probably due to the random distribution of point defect or inhomogeneous changes of the local Mn3+/4+ ratio to reduce lattice strains of the irradiated areas. The transport and magnetic properties of these systems are interpreted in this context. Metal-insulator transition can be described in the frame of a percolative model. Disorder increases the distance between conducting regions, lowering the observed TMI. Point defect disorder increases localization of the carriers due to increased disorder and locally enhanced strain field. Remarkably, even with the inhomogeneous nature of the samples, no sign of low field magnetoresistance was found. Point defect disorder decreases the system magnetization but doesn t seem to change the magnetic transition temperature. As a consequence, an important decoupling between the magnetic and the metal-insulator transition is found for ion irradiated films as opposed to the classical double exchange model scenario.Comment: 27 pages, 11 Figure

Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Trap: the Case of a Dense Condensate

We consider the Bose-Einstein condensation of atoms in a trap where the density of particles is so high that the low density approach of Gross and Pitaevskii will not be applicable. For this purpose we use the slave boson representation which is valid for hard-core bosons at any density. This description leads to the same results as the Gross-Pitaevskii approach in the low density limit, but for higher densities, it predicts the depletion of the order parameter field condensate in the regions where the density of the atomic cloud is high.Comment: 6 pages RevTeX, 3 eps-figure