On the Casimir effect for parallel plates in the spacetime with one extra compactified dimension

In this paper, the Casimir effect for parallel plates in the presence of one compactified universal extra dimension is reexamined in detail. Having regularized the expressions of Casimir force, we show that the nature of Casimir force is repulsive if the distance between the plates is large enough, which is disagree with the experimental phenomena.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Intrinsic Spin Hall Effect in the Two Dimensional Hole Gas

We show that two types of spin-orbit coupling in the 2 dimensional hole gas (2DHG), with and without inversion symmetry breaking, contribute to the intrinsic spin Hall effect\cite{murakami2003,sinova2003}. Furthermore, the vertex correction due to impurity scattering vanishes in both cases, in sharp contrast to the case of usual Rashba coupling in the electron band. Recently, the spin Hall effect in a hole doped $GaAs$ semiconductor has been observed experimentally by Wunderlich \emph{et al}\cite{wunderlich2004}. From the fact that the life time broadening is smaller than the spin splitting, and the fact impurity vertex corrections vanish in this system, we argue that the observed spin Hall effect should be in the intrinsic regime.Comment: Minor typos fixed, one reference adde

Statistical variability and reliability in nanoscale FinFETs

A comprehensive full-scale 3D simulation study of statistical variability and reliability in emerging, scaled FinFETs on SOI substrate with gate-lengths of 20nm, 14nm and 10nm and low channel doping is presented. Excellent electrostatic integrity and resulting tolerance to low channel doping are perceived as the main FinFET advantages, resulting in a dramatic reduction of statistical variability due to random discrete dopants (RDD). It is found that line edge roughness (LER), metal gate granularity (MGG) and interface trapped charges (ITC) dominate the parameter fluctuations with different distribution features, while RDD may result in relatively rare but significant changes in the device characteristics

Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells

We show that the Quantum Spin Hall Effect, a state of matter with topological properties distinct from conventional insulators, can be realized in HgTe/CdTe semiconductor quantum wells. By varying the thickness of the quantum well, the electronic state changes from a normal to an "inverted" type at a critical thickness $d_c$. We show that this transition is a topological quantum phase transition between a conventional insulating phase and a phase exhibiting the QSH effect with a single pair of helical edge states. We also discuss the methods for experimental detection of the QSH effect.Comment: 22 pages. Submitted to Science for publication on Aug 14, 200

Observation of a Degenerate Fermi Gas Trapped by a Bose-Einstein Condensate

We report on the formation of a stable quantum degenerate mixture of fermionic $^6$Li and bosonic $^{133}$Cs in an optical trap by sympathetic cooling near an interspecies Feshbach resonance. New regimes of the quantum degenerate mixtures are identified. With moderate attractive interspecies interactions, we show that a degenerate Fermi gas of Li can be fully confined in the Cs condensate without external potentials. For stronger attraction where mean-field collapse is expected, no such instability is observed. In this case, we suggest the stability is a result of dynamic equilibrium, where the interspecies three-body loss prevents the collapse. Our picture is supported by a rate equation model, and the crossover between the thermalization rate and the observed inelastic loss rate in the regime where the mean-field collapse is expected to occur.Comment: 6 Pages, 4 Figure