Study of intercalation and deintercalation of Na_xCoO_2 yH_2O single crystals

Single crystals of NaxCoO2 with beta-phase (x=0.55, 0.60 and 0.65), alpha'-phase (x=0.75) and alpha-phase (x=0.9, 1.0) have been grown by the floating zone technique. The Na-extraction and hydration were carried out for the alpha'-sample to get superconducting phase of NaxCoO2.yH2O (x~0.3, y~1.3). Hydrated single crystals exhibit cracked layers perpendicular to the c-axis due to a large expansion when the water is inserted into the structure. A study of intercalation/deintercalation was performed to determine the stability of the hydrated phase and effects of hydration on the structure of the compound. X-ray diffraction and Thermogravimetric experiments are used to monitor the process of water molecules accommodated in and removed from the crystal lattice. The initial intercalation process takes place with two-water molecules corresponding to y=0.6) inserted in a formula unit, followed by a group of four (y=1.3) to form a cluster of Na(H2O)4. Thermogravimetric analysis suggests that the deintercalation occurs with the removal of the water molecules one by one from the hydrated cluster at elevated temperatures of approximately 50, 100, 200 and 300 C, respectively. Our investigations reveal that the hydration process is dynamic and that water molecule inter- and deintercalation follow different reaction paths in an irreversible way.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, figures with higher resolution by email request from the corresponding autho

Direct fabrication of high-performance high speed steel products enhanced by LaB6

A direct fabrication technology (DFT) without smelting has been developed for fabricating sophisticated high speed steel products with low pollution, near-net shaping and short process. The steel consisting of (wt.%): 6.4W, 5.0Mo, 4.2Cr, 3.1V, 8.5Co and 1.28C, was fabricated as exemplary material. The activated and reactive sintering of green compacts under vacuum with low activation energy, redox reaction enhanced diffusion and the construction of concentration gradient of alloying elements around pores, promotes the nearly full densification (>\ua099.40%). Also, the DFT steels show high purity and superior mechanical properties. Minor strengthening agent LaB (0.1\ua0wt.%), which is easily to be accurately introduced in DFT, obviously increases the hot hardness, temper resistance, bend strength and toughness of DFT M3:2. The strengthening effect of boron atoms and La-rich complexes are proposed to directly result in the high hot hardness and temper resistance of LaB containing steel

From antiferromagnetism to d-wave superconductivity in the 2D t-J model

We have found that the two dimensional t-J model, for the physical parameter range J/t = 0.4 reproduces the main experimental qualitative features of High-Tc copper oxide superconductors: d-wave superconducting correlations are strongly enhanced upon small doping and clear evidence of off diagonal long range order is found at the optimal doping \delta ~ 0.15. On the other hand antiferromagnetic long range order, clearly present at zero hole doping, is suppressed at small hole density with clear absence of antiferromagnetism at \delta >~ 0.1.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Quantum tunneling of superconducting string currents

We investigate the decay of current on a superconducting cosmic string through quantum tunneling. We construct the instanton describing tunneling in a simple bosonic string model, and estimate the decay rate. The tunneling rate vanishes in the limit of a chiral current. This conclusion, which is supported by a symmetry argument, is expected to apply in general. It has important implications for the stability of chiral vortons.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure

Top quark associated production of the neutral top-pion at high energy e+e−e^{+}e^{-} colliders

In the context of topcolor-assisted technicolor (TC2) models, we calculate the associated production of the neutral top-pion $\pi_{t}^{0}$ with a pair of top quarks via the process $e^{+}e^{-}\longrightarrow t\bar{t}\pi_{t}^{0}$. We find that the production cross section is larger than that of the process $e^{+}e^{-}\longrightarrow t\bar{t}H$ both in the standard model (SM) and in the minimal supersymmetric SM. With reasonable values of the parameters in TC2 models, the cross section can reach $20fb$. The neutral top-pion $\pi_{t}^{0}$ may be direct observed via this process.Comment: Latex files, 10 pages and 3 figure

Beautiful Mirrors and Precision Electroweak Data

The Standard Model (SM) with a light Higgs boson provides a very good description of the precision electroweak observable data coming from the LEP, SLD and Tevatron experiments. Most of the observables, with the notable exception of the forward-backward asymmetry of the bottom quark, point towards a Higgs mass far below its current experimental bound. The disagreement, within the SM, between the values for the weak mixing angle as obtained from the measurement of the leptonic and hadronic asymmetries at lepton colliders, may be taken to indicate new physics contributions to the precision electroweak observables. In this article we investigate the possibility that the inclusion of additional bottom-like quarks could help resolve this discrepancy. Two inequivalent assignments for these new quarks are analysed. The resultant fits to the electroweak data show a significant improvement when compared to that obtained in the SM. While in one of the examples analyzed, the exotic quarks are predicted to be light, with masses below 300 GeV, and the Higgs tends to be heavy, in the second one the Higgs is predicted to be light, with a mass below 250 GeV, while the quarks tend to be heavy, with masses of about 800 GeV. The collider signatures associated with the new exotic quarks, as well as the question of unification of couplings within these models and a possible cosmological implication of the new physical degrees of freedom at the weak scale are also discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 4 embedded postscript figures, LaTeX. Two minor corrections performe

Design of vitamin E d-α-Tocopheryl Polyethylene Glycol 1000 Succinate-Emulsified Poly (D,L–Lactide–co-Glycolide) Nanoparticles: Influence of Duration of Ultrasonication Energy

The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of the duration of ultrasonication energy on the physicochemical characteristics of the nano–sized particulate drug delivery systems. For this purpose, meloxicam-loaded vitamin E d-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS)-emulsified poly (D,L–lactide–co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanoparticles were designed by using ultrasonication-solvent evaporation technique and were characterized by photon correlation spectroscopy for size and size distribution, scanning electron microscopy for surface morphology and laser Doppler anemometry for surface charge. Ultraviolet -spectrophotometer was used to measure the drug encapsulation efficiency and to obtain in vitro drug release profile. The results showed that the physicochemical properties of the prepared nanoparticles are effectively controlled by the amount of shear stress transferred from the energy source to the emulsion, which is strongly correlated to the ultrasonication time

Hubbard model versus t-J model: The one-particle spectrum

The origin of the apparent discrepancies between the one-particle spectra of the Hubbard and t-J models is revealed: Wavefunction corrections, in addition to the three-site terms, should supplement the bare t-J. In this way a quantitative agreement between the two models is obtained, even for the intermediate-$U$ values appropriate for the high-Tc cuprate superconductors. Numerical results for clusters of up to 20 sites are presented. The momentum dependence of the observed intensities in the photoemission spectra of Sr2CuO2Cl2 are well described by this complete strong-coupling approach.Comment: 4 two-column RevTeX pages, including 4 Postscript figures. Uses epsf. Accepted for publication in Physical Review B, Rapid Communicatio