A unified projection formalism for the Al-Pd-Mn quasicrystal Xi-approximants and their metadislocations

The approximants xi, xi' and xi'_n of the quasicrystal Al-Mn-Pd display most interesting plastic properties as for example phason-induced deformation processes (Klein, H., Audier, M., Boudard, M., de Boissieu, M., Beraha, L., and Duneau, M., 1996, Phil. Mag. A, 73, 309.) or metadislocations (Klein, H., Feuerbacher, M., Schall, P., and Urban, K., 1999, Phys. Rev. Lett., 82, 3468.). Here we demonstrate that the phases and their deformed or defected states can be described by a simple projection formalism in three-dimensional space - not as usual in four to six dimensions. With the method we can interpret microstructures observed with electron microscopy as phasonic phase boundaries. Furthermore we determine the metadislocations of lowest energy and relate them uniquely to experimentally observed ones. Since moving metadislocations in the xi'-phase can create new phason-planes, we suggest a dislocation induced phase transition from xi' to xi'_n. The methods developed in this paper can as well be used for various other complex metallic alloys.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figure

Quantum theory of large amplitude collective motion and the Born-Oppenheimer method

We study the quantum foundations of a theory of large amplitude collective motion for a Hamiltonian expressed in terms of canonical variables. In previous work the separation into slow and fast (collective and non-collective) variables was carried out without the explicit intervention of the Born Oppenheimer approach. The addition of the Born Oppenheimer assumption not only provides support for the results found previously in leading approximation, but also facilitates an extension of the theory to include an approximate description of the fast variables and their interaction with the slow ones. Among other corrections, one encounters the Berry vector and scalar potential. The formalism is illustrated with the aid of some simple examples, where the potentials in question are actually evaluated and where the accuracy of the Born Oppenheimer approximation is tested. Variational formulations of both Hamiltonian and Lagrangian type are described for the equations of motion for the slow variables.Comment: 29 pages, 1 postscript figure, preprint no UPR-0085NT. Latex + epsf styl

Hydrogen-oxygen electrolytic regenerative fuel cells

X ray diffraction analysis of matrices of hydrogen-oxygen electrolytic regenerative fuel cell

Research and development of magnesium/aluminum electroforming process for solar concentrators Final report, 13 May 1966 - 10 May 1967

Magnesium and aluminum electroforming process for solar concentrator

Infrared light emission from atomic point contacts

Gold atomic point contacts are prototype systems to evidence ballistic electron transport. The typical dimension of the nanojunction being smaller than the electron-phonon interaction length, even at room temperature, electrons transfer their excess energy to the lattice only far from the contact. At the contact however, favored by huge current densities, electron-electron interactions result in a nano hot electron gas acting as a source of photons. Using a home built Mechanically Controlled Break Junction, it is reported here, for the first time, that this hot electron gas also radiates in the infrared range (0.2eV to 1.2eV). Moreover, in agreement with the pioneering work of Tomchuk, we show that this radiation is compatible with a blackbody like spectrum emitted from an electron gas at temperatures of several thousands of Kelvin given by $(kB.Te)^2 = \alpha. I.V$ where $\alpha$, $I$ and $V$ are respectively a fitting parameter, the current flowing and the applied bias.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Estimating single molecule conductance from spontaneous evolution of a molecular contact

We present an original method to estimate the conductivity of a single molecule anchored to nanometric-sized metallic electrodes, using a Mechanically Controlled Break Junction (MCBJ) operated at room temperature in liquid. We record the conductance through the metal / molecules / metal nanocontact while keeping the metallic electrodes at a fixed distance. Taking advantage of thermal diffusion and electromigration, we let the contact naturally explore the more stable configurations around a chosen conductance value. The conductance of a single molecule is estimated from a statistical analysis of raw conductance and conductance standard deviation data for molecular contacts containing up to 14 molecules. The single molecule conductance values are interpreted as time-averaged conductance of an ensemble of conformers at thermal equilibrium.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure

Spin-Peierls vs. Peierls distortions in a family of conjugated Polymers

Distortions in a family of conjugated polymers are studied within two complementary approaches, i.e. within a many-body Valence Bond (VB) approach using a transfer matrix technique to treat the Heisenberg model of the systems, and also in terms of the tight-binding band-theoretic model with interactions limited to nearest neighbors. The computations indicate that both methods predict the presence or absence of the same distortions in most of the polymers studied.Comment: Latex209 (twocolumn revtex), 11 pages; 9 figures available by mail from authors; Phys. Rev. B (in press