8,141 research outputs found
Role of electronic structure in photoassisted transport through atomic-sized contacts
We study theoretically quantum transport through laser-irradiated metallic
atomic-sized contacts. The radiation field is treated classically, assuming its
effect to be the generation of an ac voltage over the contact. We derive an
expression for the dc current and compute the linear conductance in one-atom
thick contacts as a function of the ac frequency, concentrating on the role
played by electronic structure. In particular, we present results for three
materials (Al, Pt, and Au) with very different electronic structures. It is
shown that, depending on the frequency and the metal, the radiation can either
enhance or diminish the conductance. This can be intuitively understood in
terms of the energy dependence of the transmission of the contacts in the
absence of radiation.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures; four new figures adde
Ab initio study of charge transport through single oxygen molecules in atomic aluminum contacts
We present ab initio calculations of transport properties of atomic-sized
aluminum contacts in the presence of oxygen. The experimental situation is
modeled by considering a single oxygen atom (O) or one of the molecules O2 and
O3 bridging the gap between electrodes forming ideal, atomically sharp
pyramids. The transport characteristics are computed for these geometries with
increasing distances between the leads, simulating the opening of a break
junction. To facilitate comparison with experiments further, the vibrational
modes of the oxygen connected to the electrodes are studied. It is found that
in the contact regime the change of transport properties due to the presence of
oxygen is strong and should be detectable in experiments. All three types of
oxygen exhibit a comparable behavior in their vibrational frequencies and
conductances, which are well below the conductance of pure aluminum atomic
contacts. The conductance decreases for an increasing number of oxygen atoms.
In the tunneling regime the conductance decays exponentially with distance and
the decay length depends on whether or not oxygen is present in the junction.
This fact may provide a way to identify the presence of a gas molecule in
metallic atomic contacts.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures; added appendi
Molecular dynamics study of the thermopower of Ag, Au, and Pt nanocontacts
Using molecular dynamics simulations of many junction stretching processes we
analyze the thermopower of silver (Ag), gold (Au), and platinum (Pt) atomic
contacts. In all cases we observe that the thermopower vanishes on average
within the standard deviation and that its fluctuations increase for decreasing
minimum cross-section of the junctions. However, we find a suppression of the
fluctuations of the thermopower for the s-valent metals Ag and Au, when the
conductance originates from a single, perfectly transmitting channel. Essential
features of the experimental results for Au, Ag, and copper (Cu) of Ludoph and
van Ruitenbeek [Phys. Rev. B 59, 12290 (1999)], as yet unaddressed by atomistic
studies, can hence be explained by considering the atomic and electronic
structure at the disordered narrowest constriction of the contacts. For the
multivalent metal Pt our calculations predict the fluctuations of the
thermopower to be larger by one order of magnitude as compared to Ag and Au,
and suppressions of the fluctuations as a function of the conductance are
absent.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
Length-dependent conductance and thermopower in single-molecule junctions of dithiolated oligophenylene derivatives
We study theoretically the length dependence of both conductance and
thermopower in metal-molecule-metal junctions made up of dithiolated
oligophenylenes contacted to gold electrodes. We find that while the
conductance decays exponentially with increasing molecular length, the
thermopower increases linearly as suggested by recent experiments. We also
analyze how these transport properties can be tuned with methyl side groups.
Our results can be explained by considering the level shifts due to their
electron-donating character as well as the tilt-angle dependence of conductance
and thermopower. Qualitative features of the substituent effects in our
density-functional calculations are explained using a tight-binding model. In
addition, we observe symmetry-related even-odd transmission channel
degeneracies as a function of molecular length.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.
Evidence for Two Time Scales in Long SNS Junctions
We use microwave excitation to elucidate the dynamics of long superconductor
/ normal metal / superconductor Josephson junctions. By varying the excitation
frequency in the range 10 MHz - 40 GHz, we observe that the critical and
retrapping currents, deduced from the dc voltage vs. dc current characteristics
of the junction, are set by two different time scales. The critical current
increases when the ac frequency is larger than the inverse diffusion time in
the normal metal, whereas the retrapping current is strongly modified when the
excitation frequency is above the electron-phonon rate in the normal metal.
Therefore the critical and retrapping currents are associated with elastic and
inelastic scattering, respectively
Stability of non-time-reversible phonobreathers
Non-time reversible phonobreathers are non-linear waves that can transport
energy in coupled oscillator chains by means of a phase-torsion mechanism. In
this paper, the stability properties of these structures have been considered.
It has been performed an analytical study for low-coupling solutions based upon
the so called {\em multibreather stability theorem} previously developed by
some of the authors [Physica D {\bf 180} 235]. A numerical analysis confirms
the analytical predictions and gives a detailed picture of the existence and
stability properties for arbitrary frequency and coupling.Comment: J. Phys. A.:Math. and Theor. In Press (2010
Electron-vibration interaction in transport through atomic gold wires
We calculate the effect of electron-vibration coupling on conduction through
atomic gold wires, which was measured in the experiments of Agra\"it et al.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 216803 (2002)]. The vibrational modes, the coupling
constants, and the inelastic transport are all calculated using a tight-binding
parametrization and the non-equilibrium Green function formalism. The
electron-vibration coupling gives rise to small drops in the conductance at
voltages corresponding to energies of some of the vibrational modes. We study
systematically how the position and height of these steps vary as a linear wire
is stretched and more atoms are added to it, and find a good agreement with the
experiments. We also consider two different types of geometries, which are
found to yield qualitatively similar results. In contrast to previous
calculations, we find that typically there are several close-lying drops due to
different longitudinal modes. In the experiments, only a single drop is usually
visible, but its width is too large to be accounted for by temperature.
Therefore, to explain the experimental results, we find it necessary to
introduce a finite broadening to the vibrational modes, which makes the
separate drops merge into a single, wide one. In addition, we predict how the
signatures of vibrational modes in the conductance curves differ between linear
and zigzag-type wires.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure
A Review of Soil-Improving Cropping Systems for Soil Salinization
A major challenge of the Sustainable Development Goals linked to Agriculture, Food Security, and Nutrition, under the current global crop production paradigm, is that increasing crop yields often have negative environmental impacts. It is therefore urgent to develop and adopt optimal soil-improving cropping systems (SICS) that can allow us to decouple these system parameters. Soil salinization is a major environmental hazard that limits agricultural potential and is closely linked to agricultural mismanagement and water resources overexploitation, especially in arid climates. Here we review literature seeking to ameliorate the negative effect of soil salinization on crop productivity and conduct a global meta-analysis of 128 paired soil quality and yield observations from 30 studies. In this regard, we compared the effectivity of different SICS that aim to cope with soil salinization across 11 countries, in order to reveal those that are the most promising. The analysis shows that besides case-specific optimization of irrigation and drainage management, combinations of soil amendments, conditioners, and residue management can contribute to significant reductions of soil salinity while significantly increasing crop yields. These results highlight that conservation agriculture can also achieve the higher yields required for upscaling and sustaining crop production
Localized to extended states transition for two interacting particles in a two-dimensional random potential
We show by a numerical procedure that a short-range interaction induces
extended two-particle states in a two-dimensional random potential. Our
procedure treats the interaction as a perturbation and solve Dyson's equation
exactly in the subspace of doubly occupied sites. We consider long bars of
several widths and extract the macroscopic localization and correlation lengths
by an scaling analysis of the renormalized decay length of the bars. For ,
the critical disorder found is , and the critical
exponent . For two non-interacting particles we do not find any
transition and the localization length is roughly half the one-particle value,
as expected.Comment: 4 two-column pages, 4 eps figures, Revtex, to be published in
Europhys. Let
- âŠ