DC Spin Current Generation in a Rashba-type Quantum Channel

We propose and demonstrate theoretically that resonant inelastic scattering (RIS) can play an important role in dc spin current generation. The RIS makes it possible to generate dc spin current via a simple gate configuration: a single finger-gate that locates atop and orients transversely to a quantum channel in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The ac biased finger-gate gives rise to a time-variation in the Rashba coupling parameter, which causes spin-resolved RIS, and subsequently contributes to the dc spin current. The spin current depends on both the static and the dynamic parts in the Rashba coupling parameter, $\alpha_0$ and $\alpha_1$, respectively, and is proportional to $\alpha_0 \alpha_1^2$. The proposed gate configuration has the added advantage that no dc charge current is generated. Our study also shows that the spin current generation can be enhanced significantly in a double finger-gate configuration.Comment: 4 pages,4 figure

All-optical switching in a two-channel waveguide with cubic-quintic nonlinearity

We consider dynamics of spatial beams in a dual-channel waveguide with competing cubic and quintic (CQ) nonlinearities. Gradually increasing the power in the input channel, we identify four different regimes of the pulses coupling into the cross channel, which alternate three times between full pass and full stop, thus suggesting three realizations of switching between the channels. As in the case of the Kerr (solely cubic) nonlinearity, the first two regimes are the linear one, and one dominated by the self-focusing nonlinearity, with the beam which, respectively, periodically couples between the channels, or stays in the input channel. Further increase of the power reveals two novel transmission regimes, one characterized by balance between the competing nonlinearities, which again allows full coupling between the channels, and a final regime dominated by the self-defocusing quintic nonlinearity. In the latter case, the situation resembles that known for a self-repulsive Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a double-well potential, which is characterized by strong symmetry breaking; accordingly, the beam again abides in the input channel, contrary to an intuitive expectation that the self-defocusing nonlinearity would push it into the cross channel. The numerical results are qualitatively explained by a simple analytical model based on the variational approximation.Comment: Journal of Physics B (in press

Inter- and Intra-Chain Attractions in Solutions of Flexible Polyelectrolytes at Nonzero Concentration

Constant temperature molecular dynamics simulations were used to study solutions of flexible polyelectrolyte chains at nonzero concentrations with explicit counterions and unscreened coulombic interactions. Counterion condensation, measured via the self-diffusion coefficient of the counterions, is found to increase with polymer concentration, but contrary to the prediction of Manning theory, the renormalized charge fraction on the chains decreases with increasing Bjerrum length without showing any saturation. Scaling analysis of the radius of gyration shows that the chains are extended at low polymer concentrations and small Bjerrum lengths, while at sufficiently large Bjerrum lengths, the chains shrink to produce compact structures with exponents smaller than a gaussian chain, suggesting the presence of attractive intrachain interactions. A careful study of the radial distribution function of the center-of-mass of the polyelectrolyte chains shows clear evidence that effective interchain attractive interactions also exist in solutions of flexible polyelectrolytes, similar to what has been found for rodlike polyelectrolytes. Our results suggest that the broad maximum observed in scattering experiments is due to clustering of chains.Comment: 12 pages, REVTeX, 15 eps figure

Scalable Parallel Numerical CSP Solver

We present a parallel solver for numerical constraint satisfaction problems (NCSPs) that can scale on a number of cores. Our proposed method runs worker solvers on the available cores and simultaneously the workers cooperate for the search space distribution and balancing. In the experiments, we attained up to 119-fold speedup using 256 cores of a parallel computer.Comment: The final publication is available at Springe