Visible photoluminescence from a-Si : H/SiO2 superlattices fabricated by UHV evaporation

Hydrogenated amorphous-Si/SiO₂ (a-Si:H/SiO₂) superlattices with different a-Si : H thickness in the range of a few nanometers have been fabricated by ultra high vacuum evaporator (UHV evaporator). The photoluminescence (PL) of our superlattices is observed in the visible spectral region and the peak energy shifts to higher energy as the a-Si : H layer thickness decreases. The temperature dependence of the PL spectra reveals four sub-bands by fitting. Bands at 2.2, 1.9, 1.65 and 1.45 eV are detected and are attributed to E′δ centers, nonbridging-oxygen–hole centers (NBOHC), Si/SiO₂ interface and a-Si : H layer, respectively. We explain the overall blueshift of the PL spectra by the modification of the contribution of these sub-bands.     

NMR studies of the superconducting state of copper oxide superconductors

The authors review and up-date their work on Knight shifts, spin-lattice relaxation, and indirect nuclear spin-spin coupling for YBa₂Cu₃O₇ in the superconducting state. The data are analyzed in particular to show what it may indicate about the orbital and spin pairing of the superconducting state.     

Using GPU parallelization to perform realistic simulations of the LPCTrap experiments

We performed classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in order to search the conditions for efficient sympathetic cooling of highly charged ions (HCIs) in a linear Paul trap. Small two-component ion Coulomb crystals consisting of laser-cooled ions and HCIs were characterized by the results of the MD simulations. We found that the spatial distribution is determined by not only the charge-to-mass ratio but also the space charge effect. Moreover, the simulation results suggest that the temperature of HCIs do not necessarily decrease with increasing the number of laser-cooled ions in the cases of linear ion crystals. We also determined the cooling limit of sympathetically cooled ¹⁶⁵Ho¹⁴⁺ ions in small linear ion Coulomb crystals. The present results show that sub-milli-Kelvin temperatures of at least 10 Ho¹⁴⁺ ions will be achieved by sympathetic cooling with a single laser-cooled Be⁺.     

Precision measurements with LPCTrap at GANIL

The experimental achievements and the results obtained so far with the LPCTrap device installed at GANIL are presented. The apparatus is dedicated to the study of the weak interaction at low energy by means of precise measurements of the β ? ν angular correlation parameter in nuclear β decays. So far, the data collected with three isotopes have enabled to determine, for the first time, the charge state distributions of the recoiling ions, induced by shakeoff process. The analysis is presently refined to deduce the correlation parameters, with the potential of improving both the constraint deduced at low energy on exotic tensor currents (⁶He¹⁺) and the precision on the V _{u d} element of the quark-mixing matrix (³⁵Ar¹⁺ and ¹⁹Ne¹⁺) deduced from the mirror transitions dataset.     

On the crucial importance of the pH for the formation and self-stabilization of protein microgels and strands

Stable suspensions of protein microgels are formed by heating salt-free β-lactoglobulin solutions at concentrations up to about C = 50 g·L(-1) if the pH is set within a narrow range between 5.75 and 6.1. The internal protein concentration of these spherical particles is about 150 g·L(-1) and the average hydrodynamic radius decreases with increasing pH from 200 to 75 nm. The formation of the microgels leads to an increase of the pH, which is a necessary condition to obtain stable suspensions. The spontaneous increase of the pH during microgel formation leads to an increase of their surface charge density and inhibits secondary aggregation. This self-stabilization mechanism is not sufficient if the initial pH is below 5.75 in which case secondary aggregation leads to precipitation. Microgels are no longer formed above a critical initial pH, but instead short, curved protein strands are obtained with a hydrodynamic radius of about 15-20 nm.     

Theoretical and experimental studies on the carbon-nanotube surface oxidation by nitric acid: interplay between functionalization and vacancy enlargement

The nitric acid oxidation of multiwalled carbon nanotubes leading to surface carboxylic groups has been investigated both experimentally and theoretically. The experimental results show that such a reaction involves the initial rapid formation of carbonyl groups, which are then transformed into phenol or carboxylic groups. At room temperature, this reaction takes place on the most reactive carbon atoms. At higher temperatures a different mechanism would operate, as evidenced by the difference in activation energies. Experimental data can be partially related to first-principles calculations, showing a multistep functionalization mechanism. The theoretical aspects of the present article have led us to propose the most efficient pathway leading to carboxylic acid functional groups on the surface. Starting from mono-vacancies, it ends up with the synergistic formation of dangling -COOH groups and the enlargement of the vacancies.     

Complexity issues for the sandwich homogeneous set problem

Graph sandwich problems were introduced by Golumbic et al. (1994) in [12] for DNA physical mapping problems and can be described as follows. Given a property Π of graphs and two disjoint sets of edges E₁, E₂ with E₁⊆E₂ on a vertex set V, the problem is to find a graph G on V with edge set E_s having property Π and such that E₁⊆E_s⊆E₂.In this paper, we exhibit a quasi-linear reduction between the problem of finding an independent set of size k≥2 in a graph and the problem of finding a sandwich homogeneous set of the same size k. Using this reduction, we prove that a number of natural (decision and counting) problems related to sandwich homogeneous sets are hard in general. We then exploit a little further the reduction and show that finding efficient algorithms to compute small sandwich homogeneous sets would imply substantial improvement for computing triangles in graphs.     

Benzoxazole-based heterometallic dodecanuclear complex [Dy(III)4Cu(II)8] with single-molecule-magnet behavior

Three Cu-Ln (Ln = Dy, Gd, Y) dodecanuclear clusters assembled by a novel ligand of the benzoxazole type are reported. The dysprosium cluster exhibits a frequency dependence of the alternating-current susceptibility and hysteresis loop at low temperature, indicating single-molecule-magnet behavior.     

Low temperature dependence of the penetration depth in YBCO thin films revisited by mm wave transmission and surface impedance measurements

We report results obtained with two different experimental set-ups in state-of-the-art YBCO thin films as similar as possible, prepared by pulsed laser deposition on LaAlO₃ substrates: a surface impedance measurement on 4000 ? thick films using a parallel plate resonator (10 GHz), and a far infrared transmission (100-400 GHz) measurement which requires thinner (1000 ?) samples. The former measurement yields the temperature variation of the penetration depth λ(T) and the real part of the conductivity, provided the absolute value of λ(T) is known. The latter yields the imaginary part of the conductivity, hence the absolute value of the penetration depth, as well as its temperature dependence at the measuring frequency. Combining these two experiments, we establish a quasi-linear temperature variation of λ(T), with a 2 ? K^-1 low temperature slope, and a fairly large zero temperature value λ(T = 0)=(1800±200) ? . The scattering rate of the quasi-particles calculated from a two-fluids model shows that the films compare to good quality single crystals, where twice a larger slope has been found. This surprising behavior is described in detail, including an in-depth structural analysis of the samples in order to evaluate their similarities. We find that the 10 GHz data obtained in the thickest films can be fitted to the dirty d-wave mode in the unitarity limit, with an extrapolated slope of 3 ? K^-1, but yield a scattering rate that is difficult to reconcile with the high T _c (92 K) of the films. Received 7 May 2001 and Received in final form 18 October 2001