Detection of DC currents and resistance measurements in longitudinal spin Seebeck effect experiments on Pt/YIG and Pt/NFO

In this work we investigated thin films of the ferrimagnetic insulators YIG and NFO capped with thin Pt layers in terms of the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE). The electric response detected in the Pt layer under an out-of-plane temperature gradient can be interpreted as a pure spin current converted into a charge current via the inverse spin Hall effect. Typically, the transverse voltage is the quantity investigated in LSSE measurements (in the range of \mu V). Here, we present the directly detected DC current (in the range of nA) as an alternative quantity. Furthermore, we investigate the resistance of the Pt layer in the LSSE configuration. We found an influence of the test current on the resistance. The typical shape of the LSSE curve varies for increasing test currents.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Resistivity and the Hall effect in polycrystalline Ni-Cu and Ta-Cu multi-layered thin films

Reiss G, Vancea J, Kapfberger K, Meier G, Hoffmann H. Resistivity and the Hall effect in polycrystalline Ni-Cu and Ta-Cu multi-layered thin films. Journal of Physics, Condensed Matter. 1989;1(7):1275-1283.In the present paper the dependences of the resistivity p and the Hall voltage UH of polycrystalline Ni-Cu and Ta-Cu multi-layered thin films on the layer thickness dr are discussed. The thickness dependence of p and UH can be well understood using a simple model in which the layers are considered as parallel resistors, whereby the resistivity of a single layer is enhanced via surface scattering described by the well known Fuchs-Namba size theory. The Hall coefficients are independent of the layer thickness, although the measured Hall voltage varies with dr owing to the enhancement of the individual layer resistivities. For very thin layers, i.e. if the layer thickness becomes smaller than the layer roughness, the experimental data on both p and UH indicate a breakdown of the multi-layered structure to an island-like clustered film structure. For Ni-Cu a crossover from ferroparamagnetic to superparamagnetic behaviour was observed at this critical thickness

Static Magnetic Proximity Effect in Pt Layers on Sputter-Deposited NiFe2O4 and on Fe of Various Thicknesses Investigated by XRMR

The longitudinal spin Seebeck effect is detected in sputter-deposited NiFe2O4 films using Pt as a spin detector and compared to previously investigated NiFe2O4 films prepared by chemical vapor deposition. Anomalous Nernst effects induced by the magnetic proximity effect in Pt can be excluded for the sputter-deposited NiFe2O4 films down to a certain limit, since x-ray resonant magnetic reflectivity measurements show no magnetic response down to a limit of 0.04 {\mu}B per Pt atom comparable to the case of the chemicallydeposited NiFe2O4 films. These differently prepared films have various thicknesses. Therefore, we further studied Pt/Fe reference samples with various Fe thicknesses and could confirm that the magnetic proximity effect is only induced by the interface properties of the magnetic material.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

A Novel Concept for In-Situ Gas-Phase Laser Raman Spectroscopy for SOFC

Gas-phase laser Raman spectroscopy has recently been adopted to determine the concentrations of relevant gaseous species within the anode flow channel with high spatial and temporal resolution during operation at technically relevant operating conditions. The paper describes the configuration of an optically accessible SOFC, the laser system and optical setup for 1 D Raman spectroscopy as well as the challenges associated with the measurements of an electrolyte supported cell of a size of 50 x 50 mm2. At different operating conditions Raman spectra were recorded and concentration profiles of gas species along the flow path in the anode were determined demonstrating this new experimental approach for a better understanding of SOFC processes

Tunnel Magnetoresistance Sensors with Magnetostrictive Electrodes: Strain Sensors

Magnetostrictive tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) sensors pose a bright perspective in micro- and nano-scale strain sensing technology. The behavior of TMR sensors under mechanical stress as well as their sensitivity to the applied stress depends on the magnetization configuration of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ)s with respect to the stress axis. Here, we propose a configuration resulting in an inverse effect on the tunnel resistance by tensile and compressive stresses. Numerical simulations, based on a modified Stoner–Wohlfarth (SW) model, are performed in order to understand the magnetization reversal of the sense layer and to find out the optimum bias magnetic field required for high strain sensitivity. At a bias field of -3.2 kA/m under a 0.2 × 10$^{-3}$ strain, gauge factors of 2294 and -311 are calculated under tensile and compressive stresses, respectively. Modeling results are investigated experimentally on a round junction with a diameter of 30 ± 0.2 μm using a four-point bending apparatus. The measured field and strain loops exhibit nearly the same trends as the calculated ones. Also, the gauge factors are in the same range. The junction exhibits gauge factors of 2150 ± 30 and -260 for tensile and compressive stresses, respectively, under a -3.2 kA/m bias magnetic field. The agreement of the experimental and modeling results approves the proposed configuration for high sensitivity and ability to detect both tensile and compressive stresses by a single TMR sensor

Dynamic Virtualized Deployment of Particle Physics Environments on a High Performance Computing Cluster

The NEMO High Performance Computing Cluster at the University of Freiburg has been made available to researchers of the ATLAS and CMS experiments. Users access the cluster from external machines connected to the World-wide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). This paper describes how the full software environment of the WLCG is provided in a virtual machine image. The interplay between the schedulers for NEMO and for the external clusters is coordinated through the ROCED service. A cloud computing infrastructure is deployed at NEMO to orchestrate the simultaneous usage by bare metal and virtualized jobs. Through the setup, resources are provided to users in a transparent, automatized, and on-demand way. The performance of the virtualized environment has been evaluated for particle physics applications

Dynamic provisioning of a HEP computing infrastructure on a shared hybrid HPC system

Experiments in high-energy physics (HEP) rely on elaborate hardware, software and computing systems to sustain the high data rates necessary to study rare physics processes. The Institut fr Experimentelle Kernphysik (EKP) at KIT is a member of the CMS and Belle II experiments, located at the LHC and the Super-KEKB accelerators, respectively. These detectors share the requirement, that enormous amounts of measurement data must be processed and analyzed and a comparable amount of simulated events is required to compare experimental results with theoretical predictions. Classical HEP computing centers are dedicated sites which support multiple experiments and have the required software pre-installed. Nowadays, funding agencies encourage research groups to participate in shared HPC cluster models, where scientist from different domains use the same hardware to increase synergies. This shared usage proves to be challenging for HEP groups, due to their specialized software setup which includes a custom OS (often Scientific Linux), libraries and applications. To overcome this hurdle, the EKP and data center team of the University of Freiburg have developed a system to enable the HEP use case on a shared HPC cluster. To achieve this, an OpenStack-based virtualization layer is installed on top of a bare-metal cluster. While other user groups can run their batch jobs via the Moab workload manager directly on bare-metal, HEP users can request virtual machines with a specialized machine image which contains a dedicated operating system and software stack. In contrast to similar installations, in this hybrid setup, no static partitioning of the cluster into a physical and virtualized segment is required. As a unique feature, the placement of the virtual machine on the cluster nodes is scheduled by Moab and the job lifetime is coupled to the lifetime of the virtual machine. This allows for a seamless integration with the jobs sent by other user groups and honors the fairshare policies of the cluster. The developed thin integration layer between OpenStack and Moab can be adapted to other batch servers and virtualization systems, making the concept also applicable for other cluster operators. This contribution will report on the concept and implementation of an OpenStack-virtualized cluster used for HEP work ows. While the full cluster will be installed in spring 2016, a test-bed setup with 800 cores has been used to study the overall system performance and dedicated HEP jobs were run in a virtualized environment over many weeks. Furthermore, the dynamic integration of the virtualized worker nodes, depending on the workload at the institute\u27s computing system, will be described

Statistisches Konzept zur Risikoanalyse von Tagesbrüchen über natürlichen und künstlichen Hohlräumen: Statistisches Konzept zur Risikoanalyse von Tagesbrüchen über natürlichen und künstlichen Hohlräumen

Die Nutzung von Flächen mit Altbergbau oder mit natürlichen Hohlräumen im Unter- und Baugrund ist mit erhöhten Risiken behaftet, dass Bauwerke durch unerwünschte Deformationen des Baugrundes in Mitleidenschaft gezogen werden. Eine typische Versagensart ist die Entwicklung von Tagesbrüchen oder Erdfällen, wobei sich Massen in Richtung von Hohlräumen im Unterund und Baugrund verlagern und auflockern. Die Umlagerung von Massen setzt sich solange fort, bis sich ein statisches Gleichgewicht einstellt und eine weitere Fortpflanzung des Bruchvorganges verhindert oder stark reduziert. Die Ermittlung der Versagenswahrscheinlichkeit an einem gegebenen Standort wird nach dem Konzept der geometrischen Wahrscheinlichkeit vorgeschlagen. Die Größe entstehender Tagesbrüche wird dabei als eine Zufallsvariable betrachtet. Die berechneten Versagenswahrscheinlichkeiten können als Grundlage der Risikobewertung von zu schützenden Objekten herangezogen werden.The use of sites over old mining regions or with natural openings in the ground includes an elevated technical risk, as constructions can be constrained due to unplanned deformations of the subsoil. Typical failure modes include pothole subsidence or earthfalls, when failing soil masses are displaced and loosened stepwise toward a collapsing opening in the ground. The displacement process continues until a stable static equilibrium is reached and a further propagation of displacements is prevented. The determination of the failure probability on a given site due to pothole subsidence is recommended based on the concept of geometric probabilities, considering the subsidence volume as a probabilistic quantity. The failure probabilities can be used for a risk analysis of protected objects on sites with expected pothole subsidence

Longitudinal spin Seebeck coefficient: heat flux vs. temperature difference method

Sola A, Bougiatioti P, Kuepferling M, et al. Longitudinal spin Seebeck coefficient: heat flux vs. temperature difference method. Scientific Reports. 2017;7(1): 46752.The determination of the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE) coefficient is currently plagued by a large uncertainty due to the poor reproducibility of the experimental conditions used in its measurement. In this work we present a detailed analysis of two different methods used for the determination of the LSSE coefficient. We have performed LSSE experiments in different laboratories, by using different setups and employing both the temperature difference method and the heat flux method. We found that the lack of reproducibility can be mainly attributed to the thermal contact resistance between the sample and the thermal baths which generate the temperature gradient. Due to the variation of the thermal resistance, we found that the scaling of the LSSE voltage to the heat flux through the sample rather than to the temperature difference across the sample greatly reduces the uncertainty. The characteristics of a single YIG/Pt LSSE device obtained with two different setups was (1.143 ± 0.007) 10^−7 Vm/W and (1.101 ± 0.015) 10^−7 Vm/W with the heat flux method and (2.313 ± 0.017) 10^−7 V/K and (4.956 ± 0.005) 10^−7 V/K with the temperature difference method. This shows that systematic errors can be considerably reduced with the heat flux method