Monte Carlo and cell model calculations for the solid—fluid phase behaviour of the triangle-well model

Monte Carlo simulations and cell model calculations are reported for the vapour-liquid and solid-liquid phase behaviour of the triangle-well model system. The behaviour is examined as a function of the range of the triangle-well attraction, from 1.05 to 2.5 times the diameter of the hard core of the potential. Cell model calculations indicate that the stable solid is almost always face-centred cubic (fcc), except for a small set of conditions where hexagonal close-packed (hcp) is favoured. This outcome differs markedly from a much earlier study performed for the square-well model potential, where a much richer phase diagram was observed, with significant regions of stability for hep and body-centred cubic (bcc) phases. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the cell model calculations represent well the true phase behaviour for this model system. The differing behaviour between the triangle-well and square-well models indicates an important role for the flatness of the potential well in governing the stability of hcp and bcc phases relative to the fcc phase.     

Generation of VLF emissions with the increasing and decreasing frequency in the magnetosperic cyclotron maser in the backward wave oscillator regime

We study the mechanisms of the formation of falling tones in the dynamic spectrum of whistler-mode waves generated by energetic electrons in the Earth’s magnetosphere when the backward-wave oscillator (BWO) regime is realized in the magnetospheric cyclotron maser. As was shown earlier, this regime allows one to explain many features of ELF/VLF chorus emissions in the magnetosphere, in particular, the generation of elements with discrete frequency spectrum, characterized by a large growth rate and a fast frequency drift. On the basis of numerical simulations of a simplified system of nonlinear equations describing the magnetospheric BWO dynamics under the assumption of small efficiency of wave-particle interactions we show that the falling tones are generated in the case where the generation region is shifted from the equatorial plane (geomagnetic-field minimum) upstream with respect to the motion of energetic electrons. In this case, the resonant electrons move towards the decreasing magnetic field in the process of generation; hence, their longitudinal velocity increases, which corresponds to a decrease in the cyclotron-resonance frequency. Two mechanisms of the shift of the generation region from the equator are considered, i.e., (i) an increase in the linear instability growth rate (e. g., due to an increase in the energetic-electron density), and (ii) persistence of the phase bunching of the particles coming back to the generation region due to the bounce oscillations. We show that both of these mechanisms can result in the formation of falling tones, but the properties of the generated emissions such as the frequency drift rate and characteristic time interval between the elements are different. The conditions of preserving the phase bunching due to the bounce oscillations are discussed. Probably, this mechanism can operate in the case where the length of the generation region along the magnetic field is close to the characteristic bounce-oscillation length of energetic electrons which is realized for a sufficiently high cold-plasma density in the generation region.     

Effects of annealing in nitrogen atmosphere and HCl-etching on the photoluminescence spectra of spray-deposited CdS:In thin films

The aim of this work is to find the effect of processing on the photoluminescence (PL) of spray-deposited CdS:In thin films. So the PL spectra of the as-deposited, annealed and HCl-etched CdS:In thin films prepared by the spray pyrolysis (SP) technique were recorded at T = 23 K. The yellow and red bands were observed in the spectrum of the as-deposited film beside bands with weaker intensity in the infrared region. The PL signal was weakened by annealing in nitrogen atmosphere at T = 400 °C and HCl-etching. A deconvolution peak fit was established to find the effects of these treatments on the different bands. The spectrum of the as-deposited film was deconvoluted to 12 peaks, which were reduced to 6 peaks after both treatments. It was found that both treatments have approximately the same effects on the PL spectra; that is they removed most of the peaks and shoulders in the red and infrared regions and attenuated most of the peaks in the yellow region. Some peaks were blue-shifted after annealing which was explained by the growth of nanocrystallites due to the thermal stress that results from the different expansion coefficients of the film and the substrate. These changes were accompanied by a phase change from the mixed (cubic and hexagonal) phase to the hexagonal phase as shown in the X-ray diffractograms.     

Two distinct photoluminescence responses of CdTe quantum dots to Ag (I)

Four sizes of water-soluble thiol-capped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) have been synthesized and used to investigate the photoluminescence (PL) responses to Ag⁺ ions. For small particles, the CdTe QDs exhibit PL enhancement in the presence of lower concentration of Ag⁺ but show obvious quenching with the further increase of Ag⁺; for larger particles, however, PL of CdTe QDs is quenched all the time with the Ag⁺ addition, no PL enhancement is observed. Mechanism study shows that small QDs with more traps on the particle surface are effectively passivated by initial adsorbed Ag⁺, which accounts for the PL enhancement observed; after the initial traps are saturated, the excess Ag⁺ facilitates nonradiative recombination, resulting in PL quenching. For larger particles, the nonradiative recombination dominates the whole process even for the lower concentration of Ag⁺, due to the fewer traps on the QD surface. Compared with larger particles, the small CdTe QDs are more suitable for sensing Ag⁺ because of the more sensitive and selective PL response. To our best knowledge, this is the first systematical study on the interaction of Ag⁺ with different-sized CdTe QDs.     

Generating energetic electrons through staged acceleration in the two-plasmon-decay instability in inertial confinement fusion

A new hot-electron generation mechanism in two-plasmon-decay instabilities is described based on a series of 2D, long-term (~10 ps) particle-in-cell and fluid simulations under parameters relevant to inertial confinement fusion. The simulations show that significant laser absorption and hot-electron generation occur in the nonlinear stage. The hot electrons are stage accelerated from the low-density region to the high-density region. New modes with small phase velocities develop in the low-density region in the nonlinear stage and form the first stage for electron acceleration. Electron-ion collisions are shown to significantly reduce the efficiency of this acceleration mechanism.     

Temperature induced size selective synthesis of hybrid Cds/pepsin nanocrystals and their photoluminescence investigation

There is growing interest in materials chemistry for taking advantage of the physical and chemical properties of biomolecules in the development of next generation nanoscale materials for opto-electronic applications. A biomimetic approach to materials synthesis offers the possibility of controlling size, shape, crystal structure, orientation, and organization. The great progress has been made in the control that can be exerted over optical materials synthesis using biomolecules (protein, nucleic acid)/mineral interfaces as templates for directed synthesis. We have synthesized the CdS nanocrystals using pepsin by biomimetic technique at four different set temperatures. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) results showed that we are able to tune the size and distribution profile just by tuning the reaction (Rx) temperature and goes towards excitonic Bhor radius (2.5 nm) at low temperature (4 °C). The narrow absorption peak at 260 nm from Cd²⁺-pepsin complex dominates and indicates the size dispersion of the modified CdS nanoparticles are fairly monodisperse. Effective mass approximation (EMA) shows large blue-shift (~1 eV) in the band gap for the cubic phase from bulk hexagonal CdS. The photoluminescence (PL) and photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectra are dominated by a strong and narrow band-edge emission tunable in the blue region indicating a narrow size distribution. The reduction in PL efficiency is observed when the Rx temperature increases however no change in PLE spectra and temporal profiles of the band-edge PL is observed. At 4 °C, high emission efficiency with shift of PL spectrum in the violet region is observed for 1.7 nm size CdS quantum dots (QDs). Presence of pepsin has slowed the PL decay which is of the order of 100 μs.     

Structural, chemical and optical features of nanocrystalline Si films prepared by PECVD techniques

The nanostructural and chemical features of nanocrystalline Si (nc-Si) films, which were prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), were investigated in terms of various deposition conditions such as reaction gas fractions and substrate temperature. Such features were related with the photoluminescence (PL) phenomena of the nc-Si films. The phase of the nc-Si films prepared at room temperature is somewhere between amorphous and crystalline states, containing about 2 nm size nanocrystallites, which are well passivated by hydrogen. These films exhibit significant PL intensities near blue light region; the PL peaks shift to lower wavelength with decreasing nanocrystallite size.     

Analytical Study of Giant Fluctuations and Temporal Intermittency

We study analytically giant fluctuations and temporal intermittency in a stochastic one-dimensional model with diffusion and aggregation of masses in the bulk, along with influx of single particles and outflux of aggregates at the boundaries. We calculate various static and dynamical properties of the total mass in the system for both biased and unbiased movement of particles and different boundary conditions. These calculations show that (i) in the unbiased case, the total mass has a non-Gaussian distribution and shows giant fluctuations which scale as system size (ii) in all the cases, the system shows strong intermittency in time, which is manifested in the anomalous scaling of the dynamical structure functions of the total mass. The results are derived by taking a continuum limit in space and agree well with numerical simulations performed on the discrete lattice. The analytic results obtained here are typical of the full phase of a more general model with fragmentation, which was studied earlier using numerical simulations.     

First-principles based atomistic modeling of phase stability in PMN-xPT

We have performed molecular dynamics simulations using a shell model potential developed by fitting first-principles results to describe the behavior of the relaxor-ferroelectric (1 - x)PbMg(1/3)Nb(2/3)O(3)-xPbTiO(3) (PMN-xPT) as a function of concentration and temperature, using site occupancies within the random site model. In our simulations, PMN is cubic at all temperatures and behaves as a polar glass. As a small amount of Ti is added, a weak polar state develops, but structural disorder dominates, and the symmetry is rhombohedral. As more Ti is added the ground state is clearly polar and the system is ferroelectric, but with easy rotation of the polarization direction. In the high Ti content region, the solid solution adopts ferroelectric behavior similar to PT, with tetragonal symmetry. The ground state sequence with increasing Ti content is R-M(B)-O-M(C)-T. The high-temperature phase is cubic at all compositions. Our simulations give the slopes of the morphotropic phase boundaries, crucial for high-temperature applications. We find that the phase diagram of PMN-xPT can be understood within the random site model.     

High-Density Effects on the Exciton Systems and Their Dynamical Behavior in Al x Ga 1− x As/AlAs Quantum Wires

In Al x Ga 1 m x As/AlAs quantum wire (QWR) structures, the lower lying indirect exciton (IE) photoluminescence (PL) peak shows remarkable blue-shift under intense light-excitation contrary to the higher lying direct exciton (DE) PL band with very small blue-shift, although the two kinds of exciton states consist of the common hole state. In time-resolved PL spectra in the type-II QWR of x = 0.4, the DE PL band appears at an earlier stage without peak-shift and the excitons relax to the IE state making the IE PL peak dominant with time evolution. The blue-shift of the IE peak in a quasi equilibrium after the relaxation seriously depends on the excitation density. The origin of the blue-shift is explained in terms of many-body effects including band-bending effect due to the electric field induced by spatially separated electrons and holes in the QWR structures.     

Effects of channel alternating corrugation on a laser beam propagation in plasmas

The propagation of an intense laser beam in an alternating corrugated plasma channel, which has a wide region and a narrow region in one corrugated space period, is investigated. Compared with the usual corrugated plasma channel, it is found that there are many more resonance peaks and many more abundant beat-like wave phenomena for the laser beam in this extended channel. Moreover, the much narrower region in some special alternating corrugated channels can play the role like a plasma lens for some laser beams, i.e., it can obviously change the laser spot size from small (large) to large (small) amplitude when the laser passes through the narrow region. These results are well confirmed by the final numerical simulations of wave equation and particle-in-cell approach.     

Molecular dynamic simulations and global equation of state of square-well fluids with the well-widths from λ = 1.1 to 2.1

We present the results of extensive new molecular dynamic (MD) simulations in the one-phase region for square well fluids with well widths λ?=?1.10, 1.15, 1.20, 1.25, 1.375, 1.50, 1.75, 1.90, 2.0, and 2.10. These data have been used in developing a crossover equation of state (CR EOS) for square-well fluids with well widths 1.1?≤?λ?≤?2.1. The CR EOS incorporates non-analytic scaling laws in the critical region, and in the limit of low densities yields the exact second and third virial coefficients. Also in the high-temperature region, it reproduces first-order perturbation theory results. The CR EOS was tested against our new MD simulations, and earlier MD and Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations reported by other authors as well. Excellent agreement between calculated values and simulation data for all SW fluids is observed. In combination with the density-functional theory, the CR EOS is also capable of reproducing surface tension simulations with high accuracy. Application of the CR EOS for solid–liquid equilibrium calculations in combination with the Lennard–Jones and Devonshire cell model for the solid phase, is also discussed.     

Distortion products and backward-traveling waves in nonlinear active models of the cochlea

This study explores the phenomenology of distortion products in nonlinear cochlear models, predicting their amplitude and phase along the basilar membrane. The existence of a backward-traveling wave at the distortion-product frequency, which has been recently questioned by experiments measuring the phase of basilar-membrane vibration, is discussed. The effect of different modeling choices is analyzed, including feed-forward asymmetry, micromechanical roughness, and breaking of scaling symmetry. The experimentally observed negative slope of basilar-membrane phase is predicted by numerical simulations of nonlinear cochlear models under a wide range of parameters and modeling choices. In active models, positive phase slopes are predicted by the quasi-linear analytical computations and by the fully nonlinear numerical simulations only if the distortion-product sources are localized apical to the observation point and if the stapes reflectivity is unrealistically small. The results of this study predict a negative phase slope whenever the source is distributed over a reasonably wide cochlear region and/or a reasonably high stapes reflectivity is assumed. Therefore, the above-mentioned experiments do not contradict "classical" models of cochlear mechanics and of distortion-product generation.     

Pulsed laser deposited ZnO/ZnO:Li multilayer for blue light emitting diodes

Thin films of ZnO, Li doped ZnO (ZLO) and multilayer of ZnO and ZLO (ZnO/ZLO) were grown on silicon and corning glass substrates by pulsed laser deposition technique. Single phase formation and the crystalline qualities of the films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction and Li composition in the film was investigated to be 15 wt% by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Raman spectrum reveals the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO, ZLO and ZnO/ZLO multilayer and confirms the single phase formation. Films grown on corning glass shows more than 80% transmittance in the visible region and the optical band gaps were calculated to be 3.245, 3.26 and 3.22 eV for ZnO, ZLO and ZnO/ZLO, respectively. An efficient blue emission was observed in all films which were grown on silicon (1 0 0) substrate by photoluminescence (PL). PL measurements at different temperatures reveal that the PL emission intensity of ZnO/ZLO multilayer was weakly dependent on temperature as compared to the single layers of ZnO and ZLO and the wavelength of emission was independent of temperature. Our results indicate that ZnO/ZLO multilayer can be used for the fabrication of blue light emitting diodes.     

Excellent UV absorption in spin-coated thin films of oleic acid modified zinc oxide nanorods embedded in Polyvinyl alcohol

The aim of the study is to investigate the optical properties of spin-coated, highly transparent nanocomposite films of oleic acid modified ZnO (Zinc oxide) nanorods embedded in Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix. Pristine and oleic acid (OA) modified ZnO nanorods have been prepared by wet chemical synthesis and are characterized by X-ray diffraction, FESEM, TEM and FT–IR spectroscopy techniques. The optical properties of ZnO/PVA films are studied using UV–visible absorption and Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The results show that the optical absorption of the films in the UV region is quite high and more than 95% absorption is observed in films prepared from OA modified ZnO nanorods. The excellent UV absorption at around 300 nm offers prospects of applications of these films as efficient UV filters in this wavelength region. The PL spectrum of pristine ZnO nanorods shows almost white light emission whereas OA modified ZnO nanorods have a more intense peak centered in the blue region. The PL emission of OA modified ZnO/PVA film shows appreciable increase in intensity compared to the film obtained with pristine ZnO. The surface modification of ZnO by the polymer matrix removes defect states within ZnO and facilitates sharp near band edge PL emission at 364 nm.     

Coherent beam combination of adaptive fiber laser array with tilt-tip and phase-locking control

We present an experimental study on tilt-tip(TT) and phase-locking(PL) control in a coherent beam combination(CBC) system of adaptive fiber laser array.The TT control is performed using the adaptive fiber-optics collimator(AFOC),and the PL control is realized by the phase modulator(PM).Cascaded and simultaneous controls of TT and PL using stochastic parallel gradient descent(SPGD) algorithm are investigated in this paper.Two-fiber-laser-,four-fiber-laser-,and six-fiber-laser-arrays are employed to study the TT and PL control.In the cascaded control system,only one high-speed CMOS camera is used to collect beam data and a computer is used as the controller.In a simultaneous control system one high-speed CMOS camera and one photonic detector(PD) are employed,and a computer and a control circuit based on field programmable gate array(FPGA) are used as the controllers.Experimental results reveal that both cascaded and simultaneous controls of TT using AFOC and PL using PM in fiber laser array are feasible and effective.Cascaded control is more effective in static control situation and simultaneous control can be applied to the dynamic control system directly.The control signals of simultaneous PL and TT disturb each other obviously and TT and PL control may compete with each other,so the control effect is limited.     

No collective neutrino flavor conversions during the supernova accretion phase

We perform a dedicated study of the supernova (SN) neutrino flavor evolution during the accretion phase, using results from recent neutrino radiation hydrodynamics simulations. In contrast to what was expected in the presence of only neutrino-neutrino interactions, we find that the multiangle effects associated with the dense ordinary matter suppress collective oscillations. The matter suppression implies that neutrino oscillations will start outside the neutrino decoupling region and therefore will have a negligible impact on the neutrino heating and the explosion dynamics. Furthermore, the possible detection of the next galactic SN neutrino signal from the accretion phase, based on the usual Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect in the SN mantle and Earth matter effects, can reveal the neutrino mass hierarchy in the case that the mixing angle θ(13) is not very small.     

A study of GaInP/GaAs interfaces: metallurgical coupling of successive quantum wells

We present a study of GaInP/GaAs interfaces by means of photoluminescence (PL) of multi quantum wells (MQW), embedded in GaInP, or asymmetric structures having an AlGaAs barrier GaInP/GaAs/AlGaAs. The PL energies of quantum wells were compared with calculations based on the transfer matrix envelope function approximation, well suited for asymmetric structures. GaInP/GaAs/AlGaAs MQW structures (GaInP grown first) are in reasonably good agreement with calculations. Reverse ones, AlGaAs/GaAs/GaInP, present a lower PL energy than calculated. But the agreement with theory is recovered on single quantum well samples, or in MQW when the GaInP thickness is increased up to 100 nm. We interpret this phenomenon as a diffusion of arsenic atoms from the next GaAs well through the GaInP barrier. Arsenic atoms exchange with phosphorus atoms at the GaInP-on-GaAs interface of the former well, leading to a small gap strained InGaAs region responsible for the lowering of PL energies.     

掺饵氢化非晶氧化硅1.54μm发光性质的研究

采用等离子体增强化学汽相沉积技术生长不同氧含量的氢化非晶氧化硅薄膜(a-SiO_{x∶H),离子注入铒及退火后在室温观察到很强的光致发光.当材料中氧硅含量比约为1和 1.76时,分别对应77Ｋ和室温测量时最强的1.54μm光致发光.从15到250Ｋ的变温实验显示 出三个不同的强度与温度变化关系,表明氢化非晶氧化硅中铒离子的能量激发和发光是一个 复杂的过程.提出氢化非晶氧化硅薄膜中发光铒离子来自于富氧区,并对实验现象进行了解 释.氢化非晶氧化硅中铒发光的温度淬灭效应很弱.从15到250Ｋ,光致发光强度减弱约1/2. 关键词： 铒 光致发光 氧含量}     

Critical and tricritical behavior of a selectively diluted triangular Ising antiferromagnet in a field

We study a geometrically frustrated triangular Ising antiferromagnet in an external magnetic field which is selectively diluted with nonmagnetic impurities employing an effective-field theory with correlations and Monte Carlo simulations. We focus on the frustration-relieving effects of such a selective dilution on the phase diagram and find that it can lead to rather intricate phase diagrams in the dilution-field parameters space. In particular, in a highly (weakly) diluted system the frustration is greatly (little) relieved and such a system is found to display only the second(first)-order phase transitions at any field. On the other hand, for a wide interval of intermediate dilution values the transition remains second-order at low fields but it changes to first-order at higher fields and the system displays a tricritical behavior. The existence of the first-order transition in the region of intermediate dilution and high fields is verified by Monte Carlo simulations.