Negative refraction at optical frequencies in nonmagnetic two-component molecular media

There is significant motivation to develop media with negative refractive indices at optical frequencies, but efforts in this direction are hampered by the weakness of the magnetic response at such frequencies. We show theoretically that a nonmagnetic medium with two atomic or molecular constituents can exhibit a negative refractive index. A negative index is possible even when the real parts of both the permittivity and permeability are positive. This surprising result provides a route to isotropic negative-index media at optical frequencies.     

Ultimately short optical pulses in carbon nanotubes in dispersive nonmagnetic dielectric media

We consider Maxwell’s equations for an electromagnetic field propagating in carbon nanotubes placed in dispersive nonmagnetic dielectric media. An effective equation having the form of an analog of the classical sine-Gordon equation was obtained and analyzed numerically. The dependence of the pulse on the type of carbon nanotubes, initial pulse amplitude, and dispersion constants of the medium was revealed.     

Magnetocapacitance: probe of spin-dependent potentials

The magnetic field dependence of the capacitance of Pd-AlOx-Al thin-film structures has been measured. The observed quadratic dependence of capacitance on the magnetic field is consistent with a theoretical model that includes the effect of a spin-dependent electrochemical potential on electron screening in the paramagnetic Pd. This spin-dependent electrochemical potential is related to the Zeeman splitting of the narrow d bands in Pd. The quantitative details depend on the electronic band structure at the surface of Pd.     

Persistence in random walk in composite media

We consider a class of inhomogeneous media known as composite media that is often encountered in experimental sciences, and investigate the persistence probability of a random walker in such a system. Analytical and numerical results for the crossover time scales are obtained for a composite system with two homogeneous components and three homogeneous components respectively.     

Effect of Microwave Radiation on Quantum Magnetocapacitance Oscillations

JETP Letters - The effect of microwave radiation on the amplitudes of the quantum magnetocapacitance oscillations in field-effect transistors has been studied. It has been found that the...     

Stability of solitons in nonlinear composite media

An analysis is made of the dynamic stability of soliton solutions of the Hamilton equations describing plane waves in nonlinear elastic composite media in the presence and absence of anisotropy. In the anisotropiccase two two-parameter soliton families, fast and slow, are obtained in analytic form; in the absence of anisotropy there is a single three-parameter soliton family. It is shown that solitons from the slow family in an anisotropic composite and solitons in an isotropic composite are dynamically stable if their velocities lie in a certain range known as the range of stability. The analysis of stability is based on the spectral properties of the “linearized Hamiltonian” ?. It is shown that the operator ? is positively semidefinite on some linear subspace of the main solution space from which stability follows. Problems of instability of the fast soliton family in the anisotropic case and representatives of soliton families whose velocities lie outside the range of stability in the presence and absence of anisotropy are discussed.     

Multiscale models of hard-soft composite media

The status of models of composite media for ultra-high density recording is reviewed. It is shown that the usual micromagnetic formalism may break down when dealing with interfaces where rapid spatial changes in magnetisation may occur. A multiscale approach is outlined, in which atomistic models are coupled with micromagnetic concepts to provide an improved physical model. The theory is applied to FePt/FeRh bilayers, which have potential as media for heat-assisted magnetic recording.     

Stability of solitary waves in nonlinear composite media

The system of equations for planar waves in elastic composite media in the presence of anisotropy is considered. In anisotropic case two two-parametric families of solitary waves are found in an explicit form. In case of the absence of anisotropy these two families coalesce into the unique three parametric family. The solitary wave solutions are found to be orbitally stable in a certain range of their phase speeds (range of stability) both in an anisotropic as well as in an isotropic materials. It is also shown that the initial value problem for the governing equations is locally well posed which is needed to prove the stability result. The local well-posedness of the initial value problem along with stability of solitary waves implies global existence result provided the initial data lie in a neighbourhood of a stable solitary wave. This complements the previous results of blow-up for this type of equations.     

Poisson's ratio in composite elastic media with rigid rods

We calculate both the micromechanical response and bulk elastic constants of composites of rods embedded in elastic media. We find two fixed points for Poisson's ratio with respect to rod density: there is an unstable fixed point for Poisson's ratio =1/2 (an incompressible system) and a stable fixed point for Poisson's ratio =1/4 (a compressible system). We also derive approximate expressions for the elastic constants for arbitrary rod density, which agree with exact results for both low and high density. These results may help to explain recent experiments [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 188303 (2009)10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.188303] that reported compressibility for composites of microtubules in filamentous actin networks.     

Effect of the intrinsic nonlinearity on the propagation of ultrashort optical pulses in carbon nanotubes in dispersive nonmagnetic dielectric media

The Maxwell equations for the electromagnetic field that propagates in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) placed in dispersive nonmagnetic dielectric media are analyzed with allowance for the intrinsic nonlinearity of the medium. The dependences of the pulse on the initial pulse amplitude, dispersion constants, and nonlinearity are revealed.     

Magnetic polaritons in antiferromagnetic/nonmagnetic multilayers

Magnetic polaritons in infinite and semi-infinite antiferromagnetic/nonmagnetic multilayers are discussed using the electromagnetic wave theory in the Voigt configuration. The dispersion relations of the coupled magnetic-electromagnetic modes are derived, and we show the possibility for practical use due to the modulation characteristics of the multilayer structure.     

Giant negative magnetoresistance in a nonmagnetic semiconductor

Studies of a classical III–V semiconductor (InSb) doped with 3d magnetic ions (Mn²⁺, having a localized spin S=55/2) reveal some unexpected transport properties. It is found that the transition from the metallic to the low-temperature insulator phase occurs at an impurity concentration N _Mn∼N _cr=2× 10¹⁷ cm⁻³ and a temperature T<T _cr∼1 K. Under these conditions a giant negative magnetoresistance arises. The experimental results can be explained in terms of the onset of a hard Mott-Hubbard gap Δ in the impurity band formed by the shallow manganese acceptor in InSb at N _Mn∼N _cr. A model describing the gap formation is proposed. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 69, No. 5, 358–362 (10 March 1999) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

Magnetic response of nonmagnetic impurities in cuprates

A theory of the local magnetic response of a nonmagnetic impurity in a doped antiferromagnet, as relevant to the normal-state in cuprates, is presented. It is based on the assumption of the overdamped collective mode in the bulk system and on the evidence that equal-time spin correlations are only weakly renormalized in the vicinity of the impurity. The theory relates the Kondo-like behavior of the local susceptibility to the anomalous temperature dependence of the bulk magnetic susceptibility.     

Band profile of nonmagnetic AuMn

The electronic band structure of nonmagnetic AuMn has been determined by a combination of quantum defect and Green's function methods. The density of states has also been estimated.     

Tenfold magnetoconductance in a nonmagnetic metal film

We present magnetoconductance (MC) measurements of homogeneously disordered Be films whose zero field sheet conductance ( G) is described by the Efros-Shklovskii hopping law G(T) = (2e(2)/h)exp-(T0/T)(1/2). The low field MC of the films is negative with G decreasing a factor of 2 below 1 T. In contrast the MC above 1 T is strongly positive. At 8 T, G increases tenfold in perpendicular field and fivefold in parallel field. In the simpler parallel case, we observe field enhanced variable range hopping characterized by an attenuation of T0 via the Zeeman interaction.     

Effective nonlinear optical properties of shape distributed composite media

The effective linear and nonlinear optical properties of metal/dielectric composite media, in which ellipsoidal metal inclusions are distributed in shape, are investigated. The shape distribution function P(L _x, L _y) is assumed to be 2Δ^-2θ(L _x - 1/3 + Δ/3)θ(L _y - 1/3 + Δ/3)θ(2/3 + Δ/3 - L _x - L _y), where θ( ^{. . .} ) is the Heaviside function, Δ is the shape variance and L_i are the depolarization factors of the ellipsoidal inclusions along i-symmetric axes (i = x, y). Within the spectral representation, we adopt Maxwell-Garnett type approximation to study the effect of shape variance Δ on the effective nonlinear optical properties. Numerical results show that both the effective linear optical absorption α ∼ ωIm() and the modulus of the effective third-order optical nonlinearity enhancement |χ⁽³⁾ _e|/χ⁽³⁾ ₁ exhibit the nonmonotonic behavior with Δ. Moreover, with increasing Δ, the optical absorption and the nonlinearity enhancement bands become broad, accompanied with the decrease of their peaks. The adjustment of Δ from 0 to 1 allows us to examine the crossover behavior from no separation to large separation between optical absorption and nonlinearity enhancement peaks. As Δ → 0, i.e., the ellipsoidal shape deviates slightly from the spherical one, the dependence of |χ⁽³⁾ _e|/χ⁽³⁾ ₁ on Δ becomes strong first and then weak with increasing the imaginary part of inclusions' dielectric constant. In the dilute limit, the exact formula for the effective optical nonlinearity is derived, and the present approximation characterizes the exact results better than old mean field one does. Received 10 December 2002 Published online 4 June 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: lgaophys@pub.sz.jsinfo.net     

Optical detection of spin transport in nonmagnetic metals

We determine the dynamic magnetization induced in nonmagnetic metal wedges composed of silver, copper, and platinum by means of Brillouin light scattering microscopy. The magnetization is transferred from a ferromagnetic Ni80Fe20 layer to the metal wedge via the spin pumping effect. The spin pumping efficiency can be controlled by adding an insulating interlayer between the magnetic and nonmagnetic layer. By comparing the experimental results to a dynamical macroscopic spin-transport model we determine the transverse relaxation time of the pumped spin current which is much smaller than the longitudinal relaxation time.