Uplift of Central Mongolia Recorded in Vesicular Basalts

Epeirogenic histories of highland areas have confounded earth scientists for decades, as there are few sedimentary records of paleoelevation in eroding highlands. For example, mechanisms that have led to the high elevations of the Hangay Mountains in central Mongolia are not clear, nor is it well understood how the epeirogenic history of central Mongolia is connected to that of a broader region of high elevation that extends hundreds of kilometers to the north, east, and west. However, preserved basaltic lava flows record paleoelevation in the size distributions of vesicles at the tops and bottoms of flow units. As an initial step toward better understanding the tectonics of this part of Asia, we collected and analyzed samples from several basaltic lava flows from throughout the Hangay Mountains to use as a paleoaltimeter on the basis of lava flow vesicularity. Samples were dated and scanned with x-ray tomography to provide quantitative information regarding their internal vesicle size distributions. This yielded the pressure difference between the top and bottom of each flow for paleoelevation calculation. Results suggest that the Hangay Mountains experienced uplift of more than 1 km sometime during the past 9 m.yr. The magnitude of uplift of the Hangay, in addition to the composition of its lavas, the geomorphology of the region, its drainage pattern history, and other proxies, bears on possible mechanisms for uplift of this part of central Asia

Magnetothermoelectric properties of Bi2Se3

We present a study of entropy transport in Bi2Se3 at low temperatures and high magnetic fields. In the zero-temperature limit, the magnitude of the Seebeck coefficient quantitatively tracks the Fermi temperature of the 3D Fermi surface at \Gamma-point as the carrier concentration changes by two orders of magnitude (10$^{17}$ to 10$^{19}$cm$^{-3}$). In high magnetic fields, the Nernst response displays giant quantum oscillations indicating that this feature is not exclusive to compensated semi-metals. A comprehensive analysis of the Landau Level spectrum firmly establishes a large $g$-factor in this material and a substantial decrease of the Fermi energy with increasing magnetic field across the quantum limit. Thus, the presence of bulk carriers significantly affects the spectrum of the intensively debated surface states in Bi2Se3 and related materials.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Transport Gap in Suspended Bilayer Graphene at Zero Magnetic Field

We report a change of three orders of magnitudes in the resistance of a suspended bilayer graphene flake which varies from a few k$\Omega$s in the high carrier density regime to several M$\Omega$s around the charge neutrality point (CNP). The corresponding transport gap is 8 meV at 0.3 K. The sequence of appearing quantum Hall plateaus at filling factor $\nu=2$ followed by $\nu=1$ suggests that the observed gap is caused by the symmetry breaking of the lowest Landau level. Investigation of the gap in a tilted magnetic field indicates that the resistance at the CNP shows a weak linear decrease for increasing total magnetic field. Those observations are in agreement with a spontaneous valley splitting at zero magnetic field followed by splitting of the spins originating from different valleys with increasing magnetic field. Both, the transport gap and $B$ field response point toward spin polarized layer antiferromagnetic state as a ground state in the bilayer graphene sample. The observed non-trivial dependence of the gap value on the normal component of $B$ suggests possible exchange mechanisms in the system.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Constructive role of non-adiabaticity for quantized charge pumping

We investigate a recently developed scheme for quantized charge pumping based on single-parameter modulation. The device was realized in an AlGaAl-GaAs gated nanowire. It has been shown theoretically that non-adiabaticity is fundamentally required to realize single-parameter pumping, while in previous multi-parameter pumping schemes it caused unwanted and less controllable currents. In this paper we demonstrate experimentally the constructive and destructive role of non-adiabaticity by analysing the pumping current over a broad frequency range.Comment: Presented at ICPS 2010, July 25 - 30, Seoul, Kore

Field induced quantum-Hall ferromagnetism in suspended bilayer graphene

We have measured the magneto-resistance of freely suspended high-mobility bilayer graphene. For magnetic fields $B>1$ T we observe the opening of a field induced gap at the charge neutrality point characterized by a diverging resistance. For higher fields the eight-fold degenerated lowest Landau level lifts completely. Both the sequence of this symmetry breaking and the strong transition of the gap-size point to a ferromagnetic nature of the insulating phase developing at the charge neutrality point.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Coating and Density Distribution Analysis of Commercial Ciprofloxacin Hydrochloride Monohydrate Tablets by Terahertz Pulsed Spectroscopy and Imaging

Terahertz pulsed spectroscopy was used to qualitatively detect ciprofloxacin hydrochloride monohydrate (CPFX·HCl·H2O) in tablets, and terahertz pulsed imaging (TPI) was used to scrutinize not only the coating state but also the density distribution of tablets produced by several manufacturers. TPI was also used to evaluate distinguishability among these tablets. The same waveform, which is a unique terahertz absorption spectrum derived from pure CPFX·HCl·H2O, was observed in all of the crushed tablets and in pure CPFX·HCl·H2O. TPI can provide information about the physical states of coated tablets. Information about the uniformity of parameters such as a coating thickness and density can be obtained. In this study, the authors investigated the coating thickness distributions of film-coated CPFX·HCl·H2O from four different manufacturers. Unique terahertz images of the density distributions in these commercial tablets were obtained. Moreover, B-scan (depth) images show the status of the coating layer in each tablet and the density map inside the tablets. These features would reflect differences resulting from different tablet-manufacturing processes

Extremely high magnetoresistance and conductivity in the type-II Weyl semimetals WP2 and MoP2

The peculiar band structure of semimetals exhibiting Dirac and Weyl crossings can lead to spectacular electronic properties such as large mobilities accompanied by extremely high magnetoresistance. In particular, two closely neighbouring Weyl points of the same chirality are protected from annihilation by structural distortions or defects, thereby significantly reducing the scattering probability between them. Here we present the electronic properties of the transition metal diphosphides, WP2 and MoP2, that are type-II Weyl semimetals with robust Weyl points. We present transport and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements, and first principles calculations. Our single crystals of WP2 display an extremely low residual low-temperature resistivity of 3 nohm-cm accompanied by an enormous and highly anisotropic magnetoresistance above 200 million % at 63 T and 2.5 K. These properties are likely a consequence of the novel Weyl fermions expressed in this compound. We observe a large suppression of charge carrier backscattering in WP2 from transport measurements.Comment: Appeared in Nature Communication