17,541 research outputs found
Linear magnetoresistance on the topological surface
A positive, non-saturating and dominantly linear magnetoresistance is
demonstrated to occur in the surface state of a topological insulator having a
wavevector-linear energy dispersion together with a finite positive Zeeman
energy splitting. This linear magnetoresistance shows up within quite wide
magnetic-field range in a spatially homogenous system of high carrier density
and low mobility in which the conduction electrons are in extended states and
spread over many smeared Landau levels, and is robust against increasing
temperature, in agreement with recent experimental findings in BiSe
nanoribbons.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Negative differential thermal resistance and thermal transistor
We report on the first model of a thermal transistor to control heat flow.
Like its electronic counterpart, our thermal transistor is a three-terminal
device with the important feature that the current through the two terminals
can be controlled by small changes in the temperature or in the current through
the third terminal. This control feature allows us to switch the device between
"off" (insulating) and "on" (conducting) states or to amplify a small current.
The thermal transistor model is possible because of the negative differential
thermal resistance.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. SHortened. To appear in Applied Physics Letter
Effect of surface modification on single-walled carbon nanotube retention and transport in saturated and unsaturated porous media
This work investigated the effect of different surface modification methods, including oxidization, surfactant coating, and humic acid coating, on single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) stability and their mobility in granular porous media under various conditions. Characterization and stability studies demonstrated that the three surface modification methods were all effective in solubilizing and stabilizing the SWNTs in aqueous solutions. Packed sand column experiments showed that although the three surface medication methods showed different effect on the retention and transport of SWNTs in the columns, all the modified SWNTs were highly mobile. Compared with the other two surface modification methods, the humic acid coating method introduced the highest mobility to the SWNTs. While reductions in moisture content in the porous media could promote the retention of the surface modified SWNTs in some sand columns, results from bubble column experiment suggested that only oxidized SWNTs were retention in unsaturated porous media through attachment on air–water interfaces. Other mechanisms such as grain surface attachment and thin-water film straining could also be responsible for the retention of the SWNTs in unsaturated porous media. An advection–dispersion model was successfully applied to simulate the experimental data of surface modified SWNT retention and transport in porous media
On methods to determine bounds on the Q-factor for a given directivity
This paper revisit and extend the interesting case of bounds on the Q-factor
for a given directivity for a small antenna of arbitrary shape. A higher
directivity in a small antenna is closely connected with a narrow impedance
bandwidth. The relation between bandwidth and a desired directivity is still
not fully understood, not even for small antennas. Initial investigations in
this direction has related the radius of a circumscribing sphere to the
directivity, and bounds on the Q-factor has also been derived for a partial
directivity in a given direction. In this paper we derive lower bounds on the
Q-factor for a total desired directivity for an arbitrarily shaped antenna in a
given direction as a convex problem using semi-definite relaxation techniques
(SDR). We also show that the relaxed solution is also a solution of the
original problem of determining the lower Q-factor bound for a total desired
directivity.
SDR can also be used to relax a class of other interesting non-convex
constraints in antenna optimization such as tuning, losses, front-to-back
ratio. We compare two different new methods to determine the lowest Q-factor
for arbitrary shaped antennas for a given total directivity. We also compare
our results with full EM-simulations of a parasitic element antenna with high
directivity.Comment: Correct some minor typos in the previous versio
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