576 research outputs found
Spectrum of surface-mode contributions to the excitation probability for electron beam interacting with sharp-edged dielectric wedges
The interaction of a nonrelativistic charged particle beam, travelling
parallel to the surface of a sharp-edged dielectric wedge is analyzed. The
general expressions for excitation probability are obtained for a beam moving
along the direction of a symmetry axis, either outside or inside the dielectric
wedge. The dielectric function of the medium is assumed to be isotropic, and
numerical results are given for the materials of experimental interest.Comment: LaTeX 2.09, 15 pages, 10 figure
An exact expression to calculate the derivatives of position-dependent observables in molecular simulations with flexible constraints
In this work, we introduce an algorithm to compute the derivatives of
physical observables along the constrained subspace when flexible constraints
are imposed on the system (i.e., constraints in which the hard coordinates are
fixed to configuration-dependent values). The presented scheme is exact, it
does not contain any tunable parameter, and it only requires the calculation
and inversion of a sub-block of the Hessian matrix of second derivatives of the
function through which the constraints are defined. We also present a practical
application to the case in which the sought observables are the Euclidean
coordinates of complex molecular systems, and the function whose minimization
defines the constraints is the potential energy. Finally, and in order to
validate the method, which, as far as we are aware, is the first of its kind in
the literature, we compare it to the natural and straightforward
finite-differences approach in three molecules of biological relevance:
methanol, N-methyl-acetamide and a tri-glycine peptideComment: 13 pages, 8 figures, published versio
Electron-phonon relaxation and excited electron distribution in gallium nitride
We develop a theory of energy relaxation in semiconductors and insulators
highly excited by the long-acting external irradiation. We derive the equation
for the non-equilibrium distribution function of excited electrons. The
solution for this function breaks up into the sum of two contributions. The
low-energy contribution is concentrated in a narrow range near the bottom of
the conduction band. It has the typical form of a Fermi distribution with an
effective temperature and chemical potential. The effective temperature and
chemical potential in this low-energy term are determined by the intensity of
carriers' generation, the speed of electron-phonon relaxation, rates of
inter-band recombination and electron capture on the defects. In addition,
there is a substantial high-energy correction. This high-energy 'tail' covers
largely the conduction band. The shape of the high-energy 'tail' strongly
depends on the rate of electron-phonon relaxation but does not depend on the
rates of recombination and trapping. We apply the theory to the calculation of
a non-equilibrium distribution of electrons in irradiated GaN. Probabilities of
optical excitations from the valence to conduction band and electron-phonon
coupling probabilities in GaN were calculated by the density functional
perturbation theory. Our calculation of both parts of distribution function in
gallium nitride shows that when the speed of electron-phonon scattering is
comparable with the rate of recombination and trapping then the contribution of
the non-Fermi 'tail' is comparable with that of the low-energy Fermi-like
component. So the high-energy contribution can affect essentially the charge
transport in the irradiated and highly doped semiconductors.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure
Nonlinear energy-loss straggling of protons and antiprotons in an electron gas
The electronic energy-loss straggling of protons and antiprotons moving at
arbitrary nonrelativistic velocities in a homogeneous electron gas are
evaluated within a quadratic response theory and the random-phase approximation
(RPA). These results show that at low and intermediate velocities quadratic
corrections reduce significantly the energy-loss straggling of antiprotons,
these corrections being, at low-velocities, more important than in the
evaluation of the stopping power.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory for the Stopping Power of an Interacting Electron Gas for Slow Ions
Based on the time-dependent density-functional theory, we have derived a
rigorous formula for the stopping power of an {\it interacting} electron gas
for ions in the limit of low projectile velocities. If dynamical correlation
between electrons is not taken into account, this formula recovers the
corresponding stopping power of {\it noninteracting} electrons in an effective
Kohn-Sham potential. The correlation effect, specifically the excitonic one in
electron-hole pair excitations, however, is found to considerably enhance the
stopping power for intermediately charged ions, bringing our theory into good
agreement with experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, Accepted to Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Communication
Inelastic decay rate of quasiparticles in a two-dimensional spin-orbit coupled electron system
We present a study of the inelastic decay rate of quasiparticles in a
two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit interaction. The study is done
within the G0W0 approximation. The spin-orbit interaction is taken in the most
general form that includes both Rashba and Dresselhaus contributions linear in
magnitude of the electron 2D momentum. Spin-orbit interaction effect on the
inelastic decay rate is examined at different parameters characterizing the
interaction strength in the electron gas.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Quadratic electronic response of a two-dimensional electron gas
The electronic response of a two-dimensional (2D) electron system represents
a key quantity in discussing one-electron properties of electrons in
semiconductor heterojunctions, on the surface of liquid helium and in
copper-oxide planes of high-temperature superconductors. We here report an
evaluation of the wave-vector and frequency dependent dynamical quadratic
density-response function of a 2D electron gas (2DEG), within a self-consistent
field approximation. We use this result to find the correction to the
stopping power of a 2DEG for charged particles moving at a fixed distance from
the plane of the 2D sheet, being the projectile charge. We reproduce, in
the high-density limit, previous full nonlinear calculations of the stopping
power of a 2DEG for slow antiprotons, and we go further to calculate the
correction to the stopping power of a 2DEG for a wide range of
projectile velocities. Our results indicate that linear response calculations
are, for all projectile velocities, less reliable in two dimensions than in
three dimensions.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Surface plasmons in metallic structures
Since the concept of a surface collective excitation was first introduced by
Ritchie, surface plasmons have played a significant role in a variety of areas
of fundamental and applied research, from surface dynamics to surface-plasmon
microscopy, surface-plasmon resonance technology, and a wide range of photonic
applications. Here we review the basic concepts underlying the existence of
surface plasmons in metallic structures, and introduce a new low-energy surface
collective excitation that has been recently predicted to exist.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, to appear in J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Op
Many-body approach to the nonlinear interaction of charged particles with an interacting free electron gas
We report various many-body theoretical approaches to the nonlinear decay
rate and energy loss of charged particles moving in an interacting free
electron gas. These include perturbative formulations of the scattering matrix,
the self-energy, and the induced electron density. Explicit expressions for
these quantities are obtained, with inclusion of exchange and correlation
effects.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Journal of Physics
Ehrenfest dynamics is purity non-preserving: a necessary ingredient for decoherence
We discuss the evolution of purity in mixed quantum/classical approaches to
electronic nonadiabatic dynamics in the context of the Ehrenfest model. As it
is impossible to exactly determine initial conditions for a realistic system,
we choose to work in the statistical Ehrenfest formalism that we introduced in
Ref. 1. From it, we develop a new framework to determine exactly the change in
the purity of the quantum subsystem along the evolution of a statistical
Ehrenfest system. In a simple case, we verify how and to which extent Ehrenfest
statistical dynamics makes a system with more than one classical trajectory and
an initial quantum pure state become a quantum mixed one. We prove this
numerically showing how the evolution of purity depends on time, on the
dimension of the quantum state space , and on the number of classical
trajectories of the initial distribution. The results in this work open new
perspectives for studying decoherence with Ehrenfest dynamics.Comment: Revtex 4-1, 14 pages, 2 figures. Final published versio
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