11,526 research outputs found
Superconductivity in the Sn-Ba-Sr-Y-Cu-O system
Since Bednorz and Muller discovered high-T(sub c) superconductivity in the La-Ba-Cu-O compound, several families of superconducting oxides have been synthesized. Here, researchers report the results of search for superconductivity in the compounds based on tin, which has a lone electron pair like Bi, Tl, Pb. The following compounds were synthesized: Sn1Ba1Sr1Cu3Ox, Sn1Ba1Ca1Cu3Ox, Sn1Ba1Mg1Cu3Ox, Sn1Sr1Ca1Cu3Ox, Sn1Sr1Mg1Cu3Ox, Sn1Ca1Mg1Cu3Ox. The initial components were oxides and carbonates of the appropriate elements. Standard firing-grinding procedure was used. Final heating was carried out at 960 C during 12 hours. Then the samples were cooled inside the furnace. All the synthesis cycles were carried out in air atmosphere. Among the synthesized compounds only Sn1Ba1Sr1Cu3Ox showed remarkable conductivity. Other compounds were practically dielectrics. Presence of a possible superconductivity in Sn1Ba1Sr1Cu3Ox was defined by using the Meissner effect. At low temperature a deviation from paramagnetic behavior is observed. The hysteresis loops obtained at lower temperatures undoubtly testify to the presence of a superconductive phase in the sample. However, the part of the superconductive phase in the Sn1Ba1Sr1Cu3Ox ceramic turned out to be small, less than 2 percent, which agrees with the estimation from magnetic data. In order to increase the content of the superconductive phase two-valent cations Ba, Sr were partially substituted by univalent (K) and three-valent ones (Y)
Performance of the modified Becke-Johnson potential
Very recently, in the 2011 version of the Wien2K code, the long standing
shortcome of the codes based on Density Functional Theory, namely, its
impossibility to account for the experimental band gap value of semiconductors,
was overcome. The novelty is the introduction of a new exchange and correlation
potential, the modified Becke-Johnson potential (mBJLDA). In this paper, we
report our detailed analysis of this recent work. We calculated using this
code, the band structure of forty one semiconductors and found an important
improvement in the overall agreement with experiment as Tran and Blaha [{\em
Phys. Rev. Lett.} 102, 226401 (2009)] did before for a more reduced set of
semiconductors. We find, nevertheless, within this enhanced set, that the
deviation from the experimental gap value can reach even much more than 20%, in
some cases. Furthermore, since there is no exchange and correlation energy term
from which the mBJLDA potential can be deduced, a direct optimization procedure
to get the lattice parameter in a consistent way is not possible as in the
usual theory. These authors suggest that a LDA or a GGA optimization procedure
is used previous to a band structure calculation and the resulting lattice
parameter introduced into the 2011 code. This choice is important since small
percentage differences in the lattice parameter can give rise to quite higher
percentage deviations from experiment in the predicted band gap value.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 5 Table
Probing photo-ionization: simulations of positive streamers in varying N2:O2 mixtures
Photo-ionization is the accepted mechanism for the propagation of positive
streamers in air though the parameters are not very well known; the efficiency
of this mechanism largely depends on the presence of both nitrogen and oxygen.
But experiments show that streamer propagation is amazingly robust against
changes of the gas composition; even for pure nitrogen with impurity levels
below 1 ppm streamers propagate essentially with the same velocity as in air,
but their minimal diameter is smaller, and they branch more frequently.
Additionally, they move more in a zigzag fashion and sometimes exhibit a
feathery structure. In our simulations, we test the relative importance of
photo-ionization and of the background ionization from pulsed repetitive
discharges, in air as well as in nitrogen with 1 ppm O2 . We also test
reasonable parameter changes of the photo-ionization model. We find that photo-
ionization dominates streamer propagation in air for repetition frequencies of
at least 1 kHz, while in nitrogen with 1 ppm O2 the effect of the repetition
frequency has to be included above 1 Hz. Finally, we explain the feather-like
structures around streamer channels that are observed in experiments in
nitrogen with high purity, but not in air.Comment: 12 figure
Detection of radio frequency magnetic fields using nonlinear magneto-optical rotation
We describe a room-temperature alkali-metal atomic magnetometer for detection
of small, high frequency magnetic fields. The magnetometer operates by
detecting optical rotation due to the precession of an aligned ground state in
the presence of a small oscillating magnetic field. The resonance frequency of
the magnetometer can be adjusted to any desired value by tuning the bias
magnetic field. We demonstrate a sensitivity of in a 3.5 cm diameter, paraffin coated cell. Based
on detection at the photon shot-noise limit, we project a sensitivity of
.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Spin noise in quantum dot ensembles
We study theoretically spin fluctuations of resident electrons or holes in
singly charged quantum dots. The effects of external magnetic field and
effective fields caused by the interaction of electron and nuclei spins are
analyzed. The fluctuations of spin Faraday, Kerr and ellipticity signals
revealing the spin noise of resident charge carriers are calculated for the
continuous wave probing at the singlet trion resonance.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Sampling of quantum dynamics at long time
The principle of energy conservation leads to a generalized choice of
transition probability in a piecewise adiabatic representation of
quantum(-classical) dynamics. Significant improvement (almost an order of
magnitude, depending on the parameters of the calculation) over previous
schemes is achieved. Novel perspectives for theoretical calculations in
coherent many-body systems are opened.Comment: Revised versio
Fast-Neutron Activation of Long-Lived Isotopes in Enriched Ge
We measured the production of \nuc{57}{Co}, \nuc{54}{Mn}, \nuc{68}{Ge},
\nuc{65}{Zn}, and \nuc{60}{Co} in a sample of Ge enriched in isotope 76 due to
high-energy neutron interactions. These isotopes, especially \nuc{68}{Ge}, are
critical in understanding background in Ge detectors used for double-beta decay
experiments. They are produced by cosmogenic-neutron interactions in the
detectors while they reside on the Earth's surface. These production rates were
measured at neutron energies of a few hundred MeV. We compared the measured
production to that predicted by cross-section calculations based on CEM03.02.
The cross section calculations over-predict our measurements by approximately a
factor of three depending on isotope. We then use the measured cosmic-ray
neutron flux, our measurements, and the CEM03.02 cross sections to predict the
cosmogenic production rate of these isotopes. The uncertainty in extrapolating
the cross section model to higher energies dominates the total uncertainty in
the cosmogenic production rate.Comment: Revised after feedback and further work on extrapolating cross
sections to higher energies in order to estimate cosmic production rates.
Also a numerical error was found and fixed in the estimate of the Co-57
production rat
Breakdown of the Migdal-Eliashberg theory in the strong-coupling adiabatic regime
In view of some recent works on the role of vertex corrections in the
electron-phonon system we readress an important question of the validity of the
Migdal-Eliashberg theory.
Based on the solution of the Holstein model and inverse coupling constant
expansion, we argue that the standard Feynman-Dyson perturbation theory by
Migdal and Eliashberg with or without vertex corrections cannot be applied if
the electron-phonon coupling constant is larger than 1 for any ratio
of the phonon and Fermi energies.
In the extreme adiabatic limit of the Holstein model electrons collapse into
self-trapped small polarons or bipolarons due to spontaneous
translational-symmetry breaking when is between 0.5 and 1.3
(depending on the lattice dimensionality). With the increasing phonon frequency
the region of the applicability of the theory shrinks to lower values of the
coupling constant.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
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