70 research outputs found
Pressure effects on the Raman spectrum of
The pressure influence on the lattice vibration of has been studied
by Raman diffusion up to 17 GPa. Most Raman frequencies increase with
increasing pressure. Three singularities in the pressure induced frequency
evolution are observed around 1.5 GPa, 10 GPa and 17 GPa. The samples
pressurized to 17 GPa or higher do not revert to the ambient pressure phase
after being released, the new phase showing different Raman spectra from the
ordinary one. It is suggested that undergoes probably sudden lattice
deformations at about 1.5 GPa and 10 GPa, and an irreversible phase
transformation above 17 GPa.Comment: LaTeX file, 3 ps figures, 8 page
Atomistic mechanisms for the ordered growth of Co nano-dots on Au(788): comparison of VT-STM experiments and multi-scaled calculations
Hetero-epitaxial growth on a strain-relief vicinal patterned substrate has
revealed unprecedented 2D long range ordered growth of uniform cobalt
nanostructures. The morphology of a Co sub-monolayer deposit on a Au(111)
reconstructed vicinal surface is analyzed by Variable Temperature Scanning
Tunneling Microscopy (VT-STM) experiments. A rectangular array of nano-dots
(3.8 nm x 7.2 nm) is found for a particularly large deposit temperature range
lying from 60 K to 300 K. Although the nanodot lattice is stable at room
temperature, this paper focus on the early stage of ordered nucleation and
growth at temperatures between 35 K and 480 K. The atomistic mechanisms leading
to the nanodots array are elucidated by comparing statistical analysis of
VT-STM images with multi-scaled numerical calculations combining both Molecular
Dynamics for the quantitative determination of the activation energies for the
atomic motion and the Kinetic Monte Carlo method for the simulations of the
mesoscopic time and scale evolution of the Co submonolayer
Structure of self-organized Fe clusters grown on Au(111) analyzed by Grazing Incidence X-Ray Diffraction
We report a detailed investigation of the first stages of the growth of
self-organized Fe clusters on the reconstructed Au(111) surface by grazing
incidence X-ray diffraction. Below one monolayer coverage, the Fe clusters are
in "local epitaxy" whereas the subsequent layers adopt first a strained fcc
lattice and then a partly relaxed bcc(110) phase in a Kurdjumov-Sachs epitaxial
relationship. The structural evolution is discussed in relation with the
magnetic properties of the Fe clusters.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Physical Review B September 200
Interaction of (3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane with Pulsed Ar-O 2 Afterglow: Application to Nanoparticles Synthesis
International audienceThe interaction of (3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) with pulsed late Ar-O 2 afterglow is characterized by the synthesis of OH, CO and CO 2 in the gas phase as main by-products. Other minor species like CH, CN and C 2 H are also produced. We suggest that OH radicals are produced in a first step by dehydrogenation of APTES after interaction with oxygen atoms. In a second step, the molecule is oxidized by any O 2 state, to form peroxides that transform into by-products, break thus the precursor CC bonds. If oxidation is limited, i.e. a low duty cycle, fragmentation of the precursor is limited and produced nanoparticles keep the backbone structure of the precursor, but contain amide groups produced from the amine groups initially available in APTES. At high duty cycle, silicon-containing fragments contain some carbon and react together and produce nanoparticles with a non-silica-like structure
Universal scaling in sports ranking
Ranking is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the human society. By clicking the web
pages of Forbes, you may find all kinds of rankings, such as world's most
powerful people, world's richest people, top-paid tennis stars, and so on and
so forth. Herewith, we study a specific kind, sports ranking systems in which
players' scores and prize money are calculated based on their performances in
attending various tournaments. A typical example is tennis. It is found that
the distributions of both scores and prize money follow universal power laws,
with exponents nearly identical for most sports fields. In order to understand
the origin of this universal scaling we focus on the tennis ranking systems. By
checking the data we find that, for any pair of players, the probability that
the higher-ranked player will top the lower-ranked opponent is proportional to
the rank difference between the pair. Such a dependence can be well fitted to a
sigmoidal function. By using this feature, we propose a simple toy model which
can simulate the competition of players in different tournaments. The
simulations yield results consistent with the empirical findings. Extensive
studies indicate the model is robust with respect to the modifications of the
minor parts.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Kondo Insulator: p-wave Bose Condensate of Excitons
In the Anderson lattice model for a mixed-valent system, the
hybridization can possess a -wave symmetry. The strongly-correlated
insulating phase in the mean-field approximation is shown to be a -wave Bose
condensate of excitons with a spontaneous lattice deformation. We study the
equilibrium and linear response properties across the insulator-metal
transition. Our theory supports the empirical correlation between the lattice
deformation and the magnetic susceptibility and predicts measurable ultrasonic
and high-frequency phonon behavior in mixed-valent semiconductors.Comment: 5 pages, 3 encapsulated PostScript figure
Relaxation and reconstruction on (111) surfaces of Au, Pt, and Cu
We have theoretically studied the stability and reconstruction of (111)
surfaces of Au, Pt, and Cu. We have calculated the surface energy, surface
stress, interatomic force constants, and other relevant quantities by ab initio
electronic structure calculations using the density functional theory (DFT), in
a slab geometry with periodic boundary conditions. We have estimated the
stability towards a quasi-one-dimensional reconstruction by using the
calculated quantities as parameters in a one-dimensional Frenkel-Kontorova
model. On all surfaces we have found an intrinsic tensile stress. This stress
is large enough on Au and Pt surfaces to lead to a reconstruction in which a
denser surface layer is formed, in agreement with experiment. The
experimentally observed differences between the dense reconstruction pattern on
Au(111) and a sparse structure of stripes on Pt(111) are attributed to the
details of the interaction potential between the first layer of atoms and the
substrate.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Non-thermal transport of energy driven by photoexcited carriers in switchable solid states of GeTe
Phase change alloys have seen widespread use from rewritable optical discs to
the present day interest in their use in emerging neuromorphic computing
architectures. In spite of this enormous commercial interest, the physics of
carriers in these materials is still not fully understood. Here, we describe
the time and space dependence of the coupling between photoexcited carriers and
the lattice in both the amorphous and crystalline states of one phase change
material, GeTe. We study this using a time-resolved optical technique called
picosecond acoustic method to investigate the \textit{in situ} thermally
assisted amorphous to crystalline phase transformation in GeTe. Our work
reveals a clear evolution of the electron-phonon coupling during the phase
transformation as the spectra of photoexcited acoustic phonons in the amorphous
(-GeTe) and crystalline (-GeTe) phases are different. In particular
and surprisingly, our analysis of the photoinduced acoustic pulse duration in
crystalline GeTe suggests that a part of the energy deposited during the
photoexcitation process takes place over a distance that clearly exceeds that
defined by the pump light skin depth. In the opposite, the lattice
photoexcitation process remains localized within that skin depth in the
amorphous state. We then demonstrate that this is due to supersonic diffusion
of photoexcited electron-hole plasma in the crystalline state. Consequently
these findings prove the existence of a non-thermal transport of energy which
is much faster than lattice heat diffusion
DFT study of pressure induced phase transitions in LiYF4
An investigation of the pressure induced phase transition from the scheelite
phase (I41/a, Z=4) to the fergusonite-like phase (I2/a, Z=4)/LaTaO(P21/c, Z=4)
of LiYF4 is presented. Employing density functional theory (DFT) within the
generalized gradient approximation, the internal degrees of freedom were
relaxed for a pressure range of 0 GPa to 20 Gpa. The influence of pressure on
the lattice vibration spectrum of the scheelite phase (I41/a, Z=4) was
evaluated using the direct approach, i.e. using force constants calculated from
atomic displacements. The transition volume is in good agreement with
experiment, while the transition pressure is overestimated of 6 GPa. At 20 GPa,
a P21/c structure with apentacoordinated lithium cation is found to be the most
stable phase. This structure is compatible with a transition driven by a Bg
zone-center soft optic mode linked to a soft-acoustic mode along the [11-1]
direction as observed for the proper ferroelastic transition of BiVO4
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