Interlayer transport of an electron in bilayer graphene with phonon-induced lattice distortion in the presence of biased potential

The interlayer transport of an electron in bilayer graphene influenced by a phonon in the presence of a biased potential is investigated using the tight-binding approach. The in-plane optical mode E2g and out-of-plane optical mode B1g associated with the applied biased potential are considered to compute and discuss the interlayer transport probability of an electron initially localized on the bottom layer at the Dirac point in the Brillouin zone. Without the biased potential, the interlayer transport probability is equal to 0.5 regardless of the phonon displacement except for a few special cases. Applying a biased potential to the layers, we find that in different phonon modes the function of the transport probability with respect to the applied biased potential and phonon displacement is complex and various, but on the whole the transport probability decreases with the increase in the absolute value of the applied biased potential. These phenomena are discussed in detail in this paper.     

Construction and mechanism analysis on nanoscale thermal cloak by in-situ annealing silicon carbide film

In recent years,there is a strong interest in thermal cloaking at the nanoscale,which has been achieved by using graphene and crystalline silicon films to build the nanoscale thermal cloak according to the classical macroscopic thermal cloak model.Silicon carbide,as a representative of the third-generation semiconductor material,has splendid properties,such as the high thermal conductivity and the high wear resistance.Therefore,in the present study,we build a nanoscale thermal cloak based on silicon carbide.The cloaking performance and the perturbation of the functional area to the external temperature filed are analyzed by the ratio of thermal cloaking and the response temperature,respectively.It is demonstrated that silicon carbide can also be used to build the nanoscale thermal cloak.Besides,we explore the influence of inner and outer radius on cloaking performance.Finally,the potential mechanism of the designed nanoscale thermal cloak is investigated by calculating and analyzing the phonon density of states(PDOS)and mode participation rate(MPR)within the structure.We find that the main reason for the decrease in the thermal conductivity of the functional area is phonon localization.This study extends the preparation method of nanoscale thermal cloaks and can provide a reference for the development of other nanoscale devices.     

Sr-doping effects on conductivity,charge transport,and ferroelectricity of Ba0.7La0.3TiO3 epitaxial thin films

Sr-doped Ba_0.7La_0.3TiO₃(BSLTO)thin films are deposited by pulsed laser deposition,and their microstructure,conductivity,carrier transport mechanism,and ferroelectricity are systematically investigated.The x-ray diffraction measurements demonstrate that Sr-doping reduces the lattice constant of BSLTO thin films,resulting in the enhanced phonon energy in the films as evidenced by the Raman measurements.Resistivity-temperature and Hall effect measurements demonstrate that Sr can gradually reduce electrical resistivity while the electron concentration remains almost unchanged at high temperatures.For the films with semiconducting behavior,the charge transport model transforms from variable range hopping to small polaron hopping as the measurement temperature increases.The metalic conductive behaviors in the films with Sr=0.30,0.40 conform to thermal phonon scattering mode.The difference in charge transport behavior dependent on the A-site cation doping,is clarified.It is revealed that the increasing of phonon energy by Sr doping is responsible for lower activation energy of small polaron hopping,higher carrier mobility,and lower electrical resistivity.Interestingly,the piezoelectric force microscopy(PFM)results demonstrate that all the BSLTO films can exhibit ferroelectricity,especially for the room temperature metallic conduction film with Sr=0.40.These results imply that Sr-doping could be a potential way to explore ferroelectric metal materials for other perovskite oxides.     

High-temperature thermodynamics of silver:Semi-empirical approach

We report high-temperature thermodynamics for fcc silver by combining ab initio phonon dynamics to empirical quadratic temperature-dependent term for anharmonic part of Helmholtz free energy. The electronic free energy is added through an interpolation scheme, which connects ambient condition free electron gas model to Thomas-Fermi results.The present study shows good agreement with experimental and reported findings for several thermal properties, and the discrepancy observed in some caloric properties is addressed. The decreases in the product of volume thermal expansion coefficient and isothermal bulk modulus and in the constant volume anharmonic lattice specific heat at high temperature are the clear evidences of proper account of anharmonicity. The present study also reveals that T~2-dependent anharmonic free energy is sufficient for correct evaluation of thermal pressure and conventional Grüneisen parameter. We observe that the intrinsic phonon anharmonicity starts dominating above characteristic temperature, which is attributed to higher order anharmonicity and can be related to higher order potential derivatives. We conclude that the uncorrelated and largeamplitude lattice vibrations at high temperature raise dominating intrinsic thermal stress mechanism, which surpasses the phonon-anharmonism and requires future consideration.     

Thermal transport in twisted few-layer graphene

Twisted graphene possesses unique electronic properties and applications, which have been studied extensively. Recently, the phonon properties of twisted graphene have received a great deal of attention. To the best of our knowledge,thermal transports in twisted graphene have been investigated little to date. Here, we study perpendicular and parallel transports in twisted few-layer graphene(T-FLG). It is found that perpendicular and parallel transports are both sensitive to the rotation angle θ between layers. When θ increases from 0° to 60°, perpendicular thermal conductivity κ_(||) first decreases and then increases, and the transition angle is θ = 30°. For the parallel transport, the relation between thermal conductivity κand θ is complicated, because intra-layer thermal transport is more sensitive to the edge of layer than their stacking forms. However, the dependence of interlayer scattering on θ is similar to that of κ⊥. In addition, the effect of layer number on the thermal transport is discussed. Our results may provide references for designing the devices of thermal insulation and thermal management based on graphene.     

Vibrational frequency of a strong-coupling polaron in a quantum rod at finite temperatures

The Hamiltonian of a quantum rod with a boundary is presented after a coordinate transformation that changes the original ellipsoidal boundary into a spherical one. We then study the effect of temperature on the vibrational frequency and the ground state binding energy of the strong-coupling polaron in the rod. The two quantities are expressed as functions of the aspect ratio of the ellipsoid, the transverse and the longitudinal effective confinement lengths, the temperature and the electron—phonon coupling strength by linear combination operator and unitary transformation methods. It is found that the vibrational frequency and the ground state binding energy will increase rapidly with decreasing transverse and longitudinal effective confinement lengths. They are increasing functions of the electron—phonon coupling strength but become decreasing ones of the temperature and the aspect ratio.     

Experimental Investigation of the Velocity Effect on Adhesion Forces with an Atomic Force Microscope

Capillary forces are significantly dominant in adhesive forces measured with an atomic force microscope (AFM) in ambient air, which are always thought to be dependent on water film thickness, relative humidity, and the free energy of water film. We study the nature of the pull-off force on a variety of surfaces as a function of tip velocity. It is found that the capillary forces are of relatively strong dependence on tip velocity. The present experiment is expected to provide a better understanding of the work mechanism of AFM in ambient air.     

Electron–acoustic phonon interaction and mobility in stressed rectangular silicon nanowires

We investigate the effects of pre-stress and surface tension on the electron–acoustic phonon scattering rate and the mobility of rectangular silicon nanowires.With the elastic theory and the interaction Hamiltonian for the deformation potential,which considers both the surface energy and the acoustoelastic effects,the phonon dispersion relation for a stressed nanowire under spatial confinement is derived.The subsequent analysis indicates that both surface tension and pre-stress can dramatically change the electron–acoustic phonon interaction.Under a negative(positive)surface tension and a tensile(compressive)pre-stress,the electron mobility is reduced(enhanced)due to the decrease(increase)of the phonon energy as well as the deformation-potential scattering rate.This study suggests an alternative approach based on the strain engineering to tune the speed and the drive current of low-dimensional electronic devices.     

Properties of strangelets in a new quark mass confinement model with one-gluon-exchange interaction

The properties of strangelets at zero temperature with a new quark model that includes both the confinement and one-gluonexchange interactions is studied in a fully self-consistent method.The charge and parameter dependence of the stability of strangelets are discussed.It is found that the one-gluon-exchange interaction lowers the energy of a strangelet,and consequently allows the strangelet to be absolutely stable.The stable strangelet radius in the present model is smaller in comparison with the absence of one-gluon-exchange interaction,and can thus be much less than that of a normal nucleus with the same baryon number,according to the strength of the confinement and one-gluon-exchange interactions.     

Energy Band and Josephson Dynamics of Spin-Orbit Coupled Bose–Einstein Condensates

We theoretically investigate the energy band structure and Josephson dynamics of a spin-orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate in a double-well potential. We study the energy band structure and the corresponding tunneling dynamics of the system by properly adjusting the SO coupling, Raman coupling, Zeeman field and atomic interactions.The coupled effects of SO coupling, Raman coupling, Zeeman field and atomic interactions lead to the appearance of complex energy band structure including the loop structure. Particularly, the emergence of the loop structure in energy band also depends on SO coupling, Raman coupling, Zeeman field and atomic interactions. Correspondingly,the Josephson dynamics of the system are strongly related to the energy band structure. Especially, the emergence of the loop structure results in complex tunneling dynamics, including suppression-revival transitions and self-trapping of atoms transfer between two spin states and two wells. This engineering provides a possible means for studying energy level and corresponding dynamics of two-species SO coupled BECs.     

Effects of annealing temperature on shape transformation and optical properties of germanium quantum dots

The influences of thermal annealing on the structural and optical features of radio frequency(rf) magnetron sputtered self-assembled Ge quantum dots(QDs) on Si(100) are investigated.Preferentially oriented structures of Ge along the(220) and(111) directions together with peak shift and reduced strain(4.9%to 2.7%) due to post-annealing at 650 ℃ are discerned from x-ray differaction(XRD) measurement.Atomic force microscopy(AFM) images for both pre-annealed and post-annealed(650 ℃) samples reveal pyramidal-shaped QDs(density ~ 0.26×10~(11) cm~(-2)) and dome-shape morphologies with relatively high density ~ 0.92×10~(11) cm~(-2),respectively.This shape transformation is attributed to the mechanism of inter-diffusion of Si in Ge interfacial intermixing and strain non-uniformity.The annealing temperature assisted QDs structural evolution is explained using the theory of nucleation and growth kinetics where free energy minimization plays a pivotal role.The observed red-shift ~ 0.05 eV in addition to the narrowing of the photoluminescence peaks results from thermal annealing,and is related to the effect of quantum confinement.Furthermore,the appearance of a blue-violet emission peak is ascribed to the recombination of the localized electrons in the Ge-QDs/SiO_2 or GeO_x and holes in the ground state of Ge dots.Raman spectra of both samples exhibit an intense Ge-Ge optical phonon mode which shifts towards higher frequency compared with those of the bulk counterpart.An experimental Raman profile is fitted to the models of phonon confinement and size distribution combined with phonon confinement to estimate the mean dot sizes.A correlation between thermal annealing and modifications of the structural and optical behavior of Ge QDs is established.Tunable growth of Ge QDs with superior properties suitable for optoelectronic applications is demonstrated.     

Dynamics of Two-Level Trapped Ion in a Standing Wave Laser in Noncommutative Space

We study the dynamics of a two-level trapped ion in a standing wave electromagnetic field in two-dimensional （2D） noncommutative spaces in the Lamb-Dicke regime under the rotating wave approximation. We obtain the explicit analytical expressions for the energy spectra, energy eigenstates, unitary time evolution operator, atomic inversion, and phonon number operators. The Rabi oscillations, the collapse, and revivals in the average atomic inversion and the average phonon number are explicitly shown to contain the information of the parameter of the space noncommutativity, which sheds light on proposing new schemes based on the dynamics of trapped ion to test the noncommutativity.     

Thermal transport properties of defective graphene:A molecular dynamics investigation

In this work the thermal transport properties of graphene nanoribbons with randomly distributed vacancy defects are investigated by the reverse non-equilibrium molecular dynamics method. We find that the thermal conductivity of the graphene nanoribbons decreases as the defect coverage increases and is saturated in a high defect ratio range. Further analysis reveals a strong mismatch in the phonon spectrum between the unsaturated carbon atoms in 2-fold coordination around the defects and the saturated carbon atoms in 3-fold coordination, which induces high interfacial thermal resistance in defective graphene and suppresses the thermal conductivity. The defects induce a complicated bonding transform from sp2 to hybrid sp–sp2network and trigger vibration mode density redistribution, by which the phonon spectrum conversion and strong phonon scattering at defect sites are explained. These results shed new light on the understanding of the thermal transport behavior of graphene-based nanomaterials with new structural configurations and pave the way for future designs of thermal management phononic devices.     

Surface diffusion of Si,Ge and C adatoms on Si （001） substrate studied the molecular dynamics simulation

Depositions of Si, Ge and C atoms onto a preliminary Si (001) substrate at different temperatures are investigated by using the molecular dynamics method. The mechanism of atomic self-assembling occurring locally on the flat terraces between steps is suggested. Diffusion and arrangement patterns of adatoms at different temperatures are observed. At 900 K, the deposited atoms are more likely to form dimers in the perpendicular [110] direction due to the more favourable movement along the perpendicular [110] direction. C adatoms are more likely to break or reconstruct the dimers on the substrate surface and have larger diffusion distances than Ge and Si adatoms. Exchange between C adatoms and substrate atoms are obvious and the epitaxial thickness is small. Total potential energies of adatoms and substrate atoms involved in the simulation cell are computed. When a newly arrived adatom reaches the stable position, the potential energy of the system will decrease and the curves turns into a ladder-like shape. It is found that C adatoms can lead to more reduction of the system energy and the potential energy of the system will increase as temperature increases.     

Size Effect of a Negatively Charged Exciton in a Two-Dimensional Quantum Dot

In this paper we study a negatively charged exciton （NCE）, which is trapped by a two-dimensional （2D） parabolic potential. By using matrix diagonalization techniques, the correlation energies of the low-lying states with L=0, 1, and 2 are calculated as a function of confinement strength. We find that the size effects of different states are different. This phenomenon can be explained as a hidden symmetry, which is originated purely from symmetry. Based on symmetry, the features of the low-lying states are discussed in the influence of the 2D parabolic potential well. It is found that the confinement may cause accidental degeneracies between levels with different low-excited states. It is shown that the effect of quantum confinement on the binding energy of the heavy hole is stronger than that of a light hole.     

First-principles analysis of phonon thermal transport properties of two-dimensional WS_2/WSe_2 heterostructures

The van der Waals(vdW)heterostructures of bilayer transition metal dichalcogenide obtained by vertically stacking have drawn increasing attention for their enormous potential applications in semiconductors and insulators.Here,by using the first-principles calculations and the phonon Boltzmann transport equation(BTE),we studied the phonon transport properties of WS2/WSe2 bilayer heterostructures(WS2/WSe2-BHs).The lattice thermal conductivity of the ideal WS2/WSe2-BHs crystals at room temperature(RT)was 62.98 W/mK,which was clearly lower than the average lattice thermal conductivity of WS2 and WSe2 single layers.Another interesting finding is that the optical branches below 4.73 THz and acoustic branches have powerful coupling,mainly dominating the lattice thermal conductivity.Further,we also noticed that the phonon mean free path(MFP)of the WS2/WSe2-BHs(233 nm)was remarkably attenuated by the free-standing monolayer WS2(526 nm)and WSe2(1720 nm),leading to a small significant size effect of the WS2/WSe2-BHs.Our results systematically demonstrate the low optical and acoustic phonon modes-dominated phonon thermal transport in heterostructures and give a few important guidelines for the synthesis of van der Waals heterostructures with excellent phonon transport properties.     

Phonon Excitation and Energy Redistribution in Phonon Space for Energy Dissipation and Transport in Lattice Structure with Nonlinear Dispersion

We first propose fundamental solutions of wave propagation in dispersive chain subject to a localized initial perturbation in the displacement. Analytical solutions are obtained for both second order nonlinear dispersive chain and homogenous harmonic chain using stationary phase approximation. Solution is also compared with numerical results from molecular dynamics(MD) simulations. Locally dominant phonon modes(k-space) are introduced based on these solutions. These locally defined spatially and temporally varying phonon modes k(x, t) are critical to the concept of the local thermodynamic equilibrium(LTE). Wave propagation accompanying with the nonequilibrium dynamics leads to the excitation of these locally defined phonon modes. It is found that the system energy is gradually redistributed among these excited phonons modes(k-space). This redistribution process is only possible with nonlinear dispersion and requires a finite amount of time to achieve a steady state distribution. This time scale is dependent on the spatial distribution(or frequency content) of the initial perturbation and the dispersion relation. Sharper and more concentrated perturbation leads to a faster energy redistribution and dissipation. This energy redistribution generates localized phonons with various frequencies that can be important for phonon-phonon interaction and energy dissipation in nonlinear systems.Depending on the initial perturbation and temperature, the time scale associated with this energy distribution can be critical for energy dissipation compared to the Umklapp scattering process. Ballistic type of heat transport along the harmonic chain reveals that at any given position, the lowest mode(k = 0) is excited first and gradually expanding to the highest mode(kmax(x, t)), where kmax(x, t) can only asymptotically approach the maximum mode kBof the first Brillouin zone(kmax(x, t) → kB). No energy distributed into modes with kmax(x, t) k kBdemonstrates that the local thermodynamic equilibrium cannot be established in harmonic chain. Energy is shown to be uniformly distributed in all available phonon modes k ≤ kmax(x, t) at any position with heat transfer along the harmonic chain. The energy flux along the chain is shown to be a constant with time and proportional to the sound speed(ballistic transport).Comparison with the Fourier's law leads to a time-dependent thermal conductivity that diverges with time.     

Phonon-Limited Electron Mobility in Single-Layer MoS2

The dynamics of electron transport in single-layer MoS2 is simulated by employing the single particle Monte Carlo method. Acoustic phonon scattering, optical phonon scattering and Frohlich scattering are taken into account. It is found that the electron mobility decreases from 806cm2 /V.s for a transverse electrical field of 103 Vim to 426/112 cm2 /V.s for a transverse electrical field of 105/107 Vim. Further detailed analysis on carrier dynamics reveals that the low field mobility is dominated by the acoustic phonon scattering while the role of optical phonon scattering is to relax the electron energy below the optical phonon energy by efficient energy relaxation through optical phonon emission. Only when the transverse electrical field is larger than 106 V/m, the mobility can be determined by the optical phonon scattering, leading to a strong mobility degradation.     

Managing Quantum Heat Transfer in a Nonequilibrium Qubit-Phonon Hybrid System with Coherent Phonon States

We investigate quantum heat transfer in a nonequilibrium qubit-phonon hybrid open system,dissipated by external bosonic thermal reservoirs.By applying coherent phonon states embedded in the dressed quantum master equation,we are capable of dealing with arbitrary qubit-phonon coupling strength.It is counterintuitively found that the effect of negative differential thermal conductance is absent at strong qubit-phonon hybridization,but becomes profound at weak qubit-phonon coupling regime.The underlying mechanism of decreasing heat flux by increasing the temperature bias relies on the unidirectional transitions from the up-spin displaced coherent phonon states to the down-spin counterparts,which seriously freezes the qubit and prevents the system from completing a thermodynamic cycle.Finally,the effects of perfect thermal rectification and giant heat amplification are unraveled,thanks to the effect of negative differential thermal conductance.These results of the nonequilibrium qubit-phonon open system would have potential implications in smart energy control and functional design of phononic hybrid quantum devices.     

Stability of Tokamak Plasmas with Internal Transport Barriers against High Ideal Magnetohydrodynamic Ballooning Mode

High n （ the toroidal mode number） ballooning mode analysis is generally thought to be the most fundamental tool for the study of the magnetohydrodynamic （MHD） stability in magnetically confinement toroidal fusion devices. Very recently, new interest on ballooning mode study is put on the internal transport barrier （ITB） phenomena, an improved confinement structure characterized by a central negative shear region and a much smaller energy transport region near the minimum of q.