1,493 research outputs found
Metal-nanoparticle single-electron transistors fabricated using electromigration
We have fabricated single-electron transistors from individual metal
nanoparticles using a geometry that provides improved coupling between the
particle and the gate electrode. This is accomplished by incorporating a
nanoparticle into a gap created between two electrodes using electromigration,
all on top of an oxidized aluminum gate. We achieve sufficient gate coupling to
access more than ten charge states of individual gold nanoparticles (5-15 nm in
diameter). The devices are sufficiently stable to permit spectroscopic studies
of the electron-in-a-box level spectra within the nanoparticle as its charge
state is varied.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, submitted to AP
Observation of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect in Graphene
When electrons are confined in two dimensions and subjected to strong
magnetic fields, the Coulomb interactions between them become dominant and can
lead to novel states of matter such as fractional quantum Hall liquids. In
these liquids electrons linked to magnetic flux quanta form complex composite
quasipartices, which are manifested in the quantization of the Hall
conductivity as rational fractions of the conductance quantum. The recent
experimental discovery of an anomalous integer quantum Hall effect in graphene
has opened up a new avenue in the study of correlated 2D electronic systems, in
which the interacting electron wavefunctions are those of massless chiral
fermions. However, due to the prevailing disorder, graphene has thus far
exhibited only weak signatures of correlated electron phenomena, despite
concerted experimental efforts and intense theoretical interest. Here, we
report the observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect in ultraclean
suspended graphene, supporting the existence of strongly correlated electron
states in the presence of a magnetic field. In addition, at low carrier density
graphene becomes an insulator with an energy gap tunable by magnetic field.
These newly discovered quantum states offer the opportunity to study a new
state of matter of strongly correlated Dirac fermions in the presence of large
magnetic fields
Anisotropic magnetoresistance in nanocontacts
We present ab initio calculations of the evolution of anisotropic
magnetoresistance (AMR) in Ni nanocontacts from the ballistic to the tunnel
regime. We find an extraordinary enhancement of AMR, compared to bulk, in two
scenarios. In systems without localized states, like chemically pure break
junctions, large AMR only occurs if the orbital polarization of the current is
large, regardless of the anisotropy of the density of states. In systems that
display localized states close to the Fermi energy, like a single electron
transistor with ferromagnetic electrodes, large AMR is related to the variation
of the Fermi energy as a function of the magnetization direction.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; revised for publication, new figures in greyscal
Symbolic dynamics for the -centre problem at negative energies
We consider the planar -centre problem, with homogeneous potentials of
degree -\a<0, \a \in [1,2). We prove the existence of infinitely many
collisions-free periodic solutions with negative and small energy, for any
distribution of the centres inside a compact set. The proof is based upon
topological, variational and geometric arguments. The existence result allows
to characterize the associated dynamical system with a symbolic dynamics, where
the symbols are the partitions of the centres in two non-empty sets
Measurement of Scattering Rate and Minimum Conductivity in Graphene
The conductivity of graphene samples with various levels of disorder is
investigated for a set of specimens with mobility in the range of
cm/V sec. Comparing the experimental data with the
theoretical transport calculations based on charged impurity scattering, we
estimate that the impurity concentration in the samples varies from cm. In the low carrier density limit, the conductivity exhibits
values in the range of , which can be related to the residual
density induced by the inhomogeneous charge distribution in the samples. The
shape of the conductivity curves indicates that high mobility samples contain
some short range disorder whereas low mobility samples are dominated by long
range scatterers.Comment: 4 pages 4 figure
Temperature dependent transport in suspended graphene
The resistivity of ultra-clean suspended graphene is strongly temperature
dependent for 5K<T<240K. At T~5K transport is near-ballistic in a device of
~2um dimension and a mobility ~170,000 cm^2/Vs. At large carrier density,
n>0.5*10^11 cm^-2, the resistivity increases with increasing T and is linear
above 50K, suggesting carrier scattering from acoustic phonons. At T=240K the
mobility is ~120,000 cm^2/Vs, higher than in any known semiconductor. At the
charge neutral point we observe a non-universal conductivity that decreases
with decreasing T, consistent with a density inhomogeneity <10^8 cm^-2
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