最具潜力的新型"奇迹材料"——石墨烯

2009年4月29日据物理世界网报道,意大利的科研人员成功地用石墨烯制造了首枚包含两个晶体管的集成电路(见封面主图),它拥有简单的计算能力,标制着碳基电子学时代的到来.这枚只有两个晶体管的集成电路虽然很小,却是向制造碳基高性能电子器件迈出的重要一步.     

Jamming, two-fluid behavior, and "self-filtration" in concentrated particulate suspensions

We study the flow of model hard-sphere colloidal suspensions at high volume fraction Phi driven through a constriction by a pressure gradient. Above a particle-size dependent limit Phi(0), direct microscopic observations demonstrate jamming and unjamming-conversion of fluid to solid and vice versa-during flow. We show that such a jamming flow produces a reduction in colloid concentration Phi(x) downstream of the constriction. We propose that this "self-filtration" effect is due to a combination of jamming of the particulate part of the system and continuing flow of the liquid part, i.e., the solvent, through the pores of the jammed solid. Thus we link jamming in colloidal and granular media with a "two-fluid-like" picture of the flow of concentrated suspensions. Results are also discussed in the light of the original experiments of Reynolds on dilation in granular materials.     

Energy landscapes, supergraphs, and "folding funnels" in spin systems

Dynamical connectivity graphs, which describe dynamical transition rates between local energy minima of a system, can be displayed against the background of a disconnectivity graph which represents the energy landscape of the system. The resulting supergraph describes both dynamics and statics of the system in a unified coarse-grained sense. We give examples of the supergraphs for several two-dimensional spin and protein-related systems. We demonstrate that disordered ferromagnets have supergraphs akin to those of model proteins whereas spin glasses behave like random sequences of amino acids that fold badly.     

DC effects,sub-harmonics,stochasticity and "memory" for contact acoustic non-linearity

Acoustic wave interaction with non-bonded contacts was found to be inherently non-linear due to asymmetrical stiffness distribution across the interface. A diode-type non-linearity results in local static elastic fields inside the contact, which are shown to be a source of transient longitudinal and shear DC-acoustic pulses polarized oppositely to a biasing contact stress. A parametric modulation of contact stiffness leads to acoustic instability effects, multiple sub-harmonics, and amplitude "self-modulation", and provides chaotic noise-like non-linear acoustic excitations in solids. For realistic cracked flaws, contact acoustic non-linearity exhibits amplitude hysteresis and storage caused by acoustic wave impact on the defect. Maximum storage time observed comes to several hours for read-in time less than half a minute. A long-term non-linear memory is believed to be due to a slow relaxation of thermally induced micro-strain within the crack area.