Domain structure of epitaxial Co films with perpendicular anisotropy

Epitaxial hcp Cobalt films with pronounced c-axis texture have been prepared by pulsed lased deposition (PLD) either directly onto Al2O3 (0001) single crystal substrates or with an intermediate Ruthenium buffer layer. The crystal structure and epitaxial growth relation was studied by XRD, pole figure measurements and reciprocal space mapping. Detailed VSM analysis shows that the perpendicular anisotropy of these highly textured Co films reaches the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of hcp-Co single crystal material. Films were prepared with thickness t of 20 nm < t < 100 nm to study the crossover from in-plane magnetization to out-of-plane magnetization in detail. The analysis of the periodic domain pattern observed by magnetic force microscopy allows to determine the critical minimum thickness below which the domains adopt a pure in-plane orientation. Above the critical thickness the width of the stripe domains is evaluated as a function of the film thickness and compared with domain theory. Especially the discrepancies at smallest film thicknesses show that the system is in an intermediate state between in-plane and out-of-plane domains, which is not described by existing analytical domain models

Exhaustion of Nucleation in a Closed System

We determine the distribution of cluster sizes that emerges from an initial phase of homogeneous aggregation with conserved total particle density. The physical ingredients behind the predictions are essentially classical: Super-critical nuclei are created at the Zeldovich rate, and before the depletion of monomers is significant, the characteristic cluster size is so large that the clusters undergo diffusion limited growth. Mathematically, the distribution of cluster sizes satisfies an advection PDE in "size-space". During this creation phase, clusters are nucleated and then grow to a size much larger than the critical size, so nucleation of super-critical clusters at the Zeldovich rate is represented by an effective boundary condition at zero size. The advection PDE subject to the effective boundary condition constitutes a "creation signaling problem" for the evolving distribution of cluster sizes during the creation era. Dominant balance arguments applied to the advection signaling problem show that the characteristic time and cluster size of the creation era are exponentially large in the initial free-energy barrier against nucleation, G_*. Specifically, the characteristic time is proportional to exp(2 G_*/ 5 k_B T) and the characteristic number of monomers in a cluster is proportional to exp(3G_*/5 k_B T). The exponentially large characteristic time and cluster size give a-posteriori validation of the mathematical signaling problem. In a short note, Marchenko obtained these exponentials and the numerical pre-factors, 2/5 and 3/5. Our work adds the actual solution of the kinetic model implied by these scalings, and the basis for connection to subsequent stages of the aggregation process after the creation era.Comment: Greatly shortened paper. Section on growth model removed. Added a section analyzing the error in the solution of the integral equation. Added reference

Steering most probable escape paths by varying relative noise intensities

We demonstrate the possibility to systematically steer the most probable escape paths (MPEPs) by adjusting relative noise intensities in dynamical systems that exhibit noise-induced escape from a metastable point via a saddle point. Using a geometric minimum action approach, an asymptotic theory is developed which is broadly applicable to fast-slow systems and shows the important role played by the nullcline associated with the fast variable in locating the MPEPs. A two-dimensional quadratic system is presented which permits analytical determination of both the MPEPs and associated action values. Analytical predictions agree with computed MPEPs, and both are numerically confirmed by constructing prehistory distributions directly from the underlying stochastic differential equation

Engineering chromium related single photon emitters in single crystal diamond

Color centers in diamond as single photon emitters, are leading candidates for future quantum devices due to their room temperature operation and photostability. The recently discovered chromium related centers are particularly attractive since they possess narrow bandwidth emission and a very short lifetime. In this paper we investigate the fabrication methodologies to engineer these centers in monolithic diamond. We show that the emitters can be successfully fabricated by ion implantation of chromium in conjunction with oxygen or sulfur. Furthermore, our results indicate that the background nitrogen concentration is an important parameter, which governs the probability of success to generate these centers.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Tunneling dynamics of side chains and defects in proteins, polymer glasses, and OH-doped network glasses

Simulations on a Lennard-Jones computer glass are performed to study effects arising from defects in glasses at low temperatures. The numerical analysis reveals that already a low concentration of defects may dramatically change the low temperature properties by giving rise to extrinsic double-well potentials (DWP's). The main characteristics of these extrinsic DWP's are (i) high barrier heights, (ii) high probability that a defect is indeed connected with an extrinsic DWP, (iii) highly localized dynamics around this defect, and (iv) smaller deformation potential coupling to phonons. Designing an extension of the Standard Tunneling Model (STM) which parametrizes this picture and comparing with ultrasound experiments on the wet network glass $a$-B$_2$O$_3$ shows that effects of OH-impurities are accurately accounted for. This model is then applied to organic polymer glasses and proteins. It is suggested that side groups may act similarly like doped impurities inasmuch as extrinsic DWP's are induced, which possess a distribution of barriers peaked around a high barrier height. This compares with the structurlessly distributed barrier heights of the intrinsic DWP's, which are associated with the backbone dynamics. It is shown that this picture is consistent with elastic measurements on polymers, and can explain anomalous nonlogarithmic line broadening recently observed in hole burning experiments in PMMA.Comment: 34 pages, Revtex, 9 eps-figures, accepted for publication in J. Chem. Phy

Ultra-bright and efficient single photon generation based on N-V centres in nanodiamonds on a solid immersion lens

Single photons are fundamental elements for quantum information technologies such as quantum cryptography, quantum information storage and optical quantum computing. Colour centres in diamond have proven to be stable single photon sources and thus essential components for reliable and integrated quantum information technology. A key requirement for such applications is a large photon flux and a high efficiency. Paying tribute to various attempts to maximise the single photon flux we show that collection efficiencies of photons from colour centres can be increased with a rather simple experimental setup. To do so we spin-coated nanodiamonds containing single nitrogen-vacancy colour centres on the flat surface of a ZrO2 solid immersion lens. We found stable single photon count rates of up to 853 kcts/s at saturation under continuous wave excitation while having excess to more than 100 defect centres with count rates from 400 kcts/s to 500 kcts/s. For a blinking defect centre we found count rates up to 2.4 Mcts/s for time intervals of several ten seconds. It seems to be a general feature that very high rates are accompanied by a blinking behaviour. The overall collection efficiency of our setup of up to 4.2% is the highest yet reported for N-V defect centres in diamond. Under pulsed excitation of a stable emitter of 10 MHz, 2.2% of all pulses caused a click on the detector adding to 221 kcts/s thus opening the way towards diamond based on-demand single photon sources for quantum applications

Monopolelike probes for quantitative magnetic force microscopy: calibration and application

A local magnetization measurement was performed with a Magnetic Force Microscope (MFM) to determine magnetization in domains of an exchange coupled [Co/Pt]/Co/Ru multilayer with predominant perpendicular anisotropy. The quantitative MFM measurements were conducted with an iron filled carbon nanotube tip, which is shown to behave like a monopole. As a result we determined an additional in-plane magnetization component of the multilayer, which is explained by estimating the effective permeability of the sample within the \mu*-method.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure