Suppression of Chaos and Phase Locking in Two Coupled Nonidentical Neurons under Periodic Input

Dynamical behaviour of two coupled neurons with at least one of them being chaotic is presented. Bifurcation diagrams and Lyapunov exponents are calculated to diagnose the dynamical behaviour of the coupled neurons with the increasing coupling strength. It is found that when the coupling strength increases, a chaotic neuron can be controlled by the coupling between neurons. At the same time, phase locking is studied by the maxima of the differences of instantaneous phases and average frequencies between two coupled neurons, and the inherent connection of phase locking and the suppression of chaos is formulated. It is observed that the onset of phase locking is closely related to the suppression of chaos. Finally, a way for suppression of chaos in two coupled nonidentical neurons under periodic input is suggested.     

A modular scanning tunneling microscope with an interchangeable elastic closed cell and external actuators

We introduce a novel modular cell based scanning tunneling microscope with external piezoelectric actuators. A tip and a sample are contained in a closed interchangeable cell, consisting of a stiff top plate and a bottom part, fastened together by an elastic material. The bottom part, containing a scanning tip, is fastened to a base unit while the top plate, containing a sample, is capable of scanning motion by external piezoelectric actuators mounted in the same base unit. The actuators are pre-loaded by the deformation of the elastic material of the cell, giving an increased stability. This design is expected to simplify the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) operation in difficult environments greatly by enclosing only the tip and sample in a small cell-module, which is pluggable to a scanning mechanism and other supportive functionalities. A frequency characterization and an image scan showing atomic resolution of highly oriented graphite in air, at room temperature, is presented.     

Tunable Nongeometric Phase Gates for Two Hot Ions via Adiabatic Evolution of Dark States

We propose a scheme for implementing nongeometric phase gates fbr two trapped ions via adiabatic passage of dark states. During the operation, the vibrational mode is only virtually excited, thus the scheme is insensitive to heating. Furthermore, the spontaneous emission is suppressed since the ions are always in the electronic ground states. The scheme is robust against small fluctuations of parameters, and the conditional phase is tunable.     

Heat Transfe for Power Law Non-Newtonian Fluids

We present a theoretical analysis for heat transfer in power law non-Newtonian fluid by assuming that the thermal diffusivity is a function of temperature gradient. The laminar boundary layer energy equation is considered as an example to illustrate the application. It is shown that the boundary layer energy equation subject to the corresponding boundary conditions can be transformed to a boundary value problem of a nonlinear ordinary differential equation when similarity variables are introduced. Numerical solutions of the similarity energy equation are presented.     

Modelling the sensitivity of infrared emissivity of magnetic thin films to giant magnetoresistance

The correlation between emissivity and giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in magnetic thin films is investigated at infrared (IR) wavelengths using a thin-film model of emissivity. The sensitivity of emissivity to GMR is shown to depend upon film thickness, and agrees excellently with bulk-material results for films thicker than the material skin depth. However, for films thinner than the skin depth the sensitivity to GMR is shown to weaken. In addition, at mid-to-far IR wavelengths the spectral dependence of the correlation is investigated using a modified Drude-type expression for the refractive index combined with the thin-film model. This is applied to a multilayered GMR material, and the sensitivity of emissivity to GMR is shown to have a similar spectral dependence to that of the magnetorefractive effect. An analytical interpretation in terms of skin depth is also developed at long wavelengths, and shown to agree excellently with thin-film simulations.     

Fisher Information of Wavefunctions： Classical and Quantum

A parametric quantum mechanical wavefunction naturally induces parametric probability distributions by taking absolute square, and we can consider its classical Fisher information. On the other hand, it also induces parametric rank-one projections which may be viewed as density operators, and we can talk about its quantum Fisher information. Among many versions of quantum Fisher information, there are two prominent ones. The first, defined via a quantum score function, was introduced by Helstrom in 1967 and is well known. The second, defined via the square root of the density operator, has its origin in the skew information introduced by Wigner and Yanase in 1963 and remains relatively unnoticed. This study is devoted to investigating the relationships between the classical Fisher information and these two versions of quantum Fisher information for wavefunctions. It is shown that the two versions of quantum Fisher information differ by a factor 2 and that they dominate the classical Fisher information. The non-coincidence of these two versions of quantum Fisher information may be interpreted as a manifestation of quantum discord. We further calculate the difference between the Helstrom quantum Fisher information and the classical Fisher information, and show that it is precisely the instantaneous phase fluctuation of the wavefunctions.     

Quantum Thermal Transport through Extremely Cold Dielectric Chains

In the framework of Green＇s function theory out of equilibrium, a Landauer-Buttiker （LB） formula for thermal conductance is derived. A simplified model for describing extremely cold dielectric chains is proposed for the first time. Further we apply the present LB formula for studying thermal conductance at low-lying modes, emerging in dielectric atom chains. We find that quantum thermal conductance undergoes an anomalous transition due to new quasiparticle excitations, resulting from nonlinear atom-atom interactions. This theoretical prediction is in excellent agreement with a high-accuracy measurement to thermal conductance quantum.     

Femtosecond laser-induced ZnSe nanowires on the surface of a ZnSe wafer in water

We present a simple route for ZnSe nanowire growth in the ablation crater on a ZnSe crystal surface. The crystal wafer, which was horizontally dipped in pure water, was irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses. No furnace, vacuum chamber or any metal catalyst were used in this experiment. The size of the nanowires is about 1-3 μm long and 50-150 nm in diameter. The growth rate is 1-3 μm/s, which is much higher than that achieved with molecular-beam epitaxy and chemical vapor deposition methods. Our discovery reveals a rapid and simple way to grow nanowires on designed micro-patterns, which may have potential applications in microscopic optoelectronics.     

High-Power Extracavity Pulse Compression in Solid Materials

A novel technique for high-power extracavity pulse compression with a nonlinear solid material is demonstrated. Before spectral broadening by self-phase modulation in the solid material, a short filament generated in argon is used as a spatial filter, which works for a uniform spectrum broadening over the spatial profile. Compensated by chirped mirrors, a 15-fs pulse is generated from a 32-fs input laser pulse. A total transmission larger than 80% after the solid material is achieved.     

Quantum Secret Sharing with Two-Particle Entangled States

We present a new protocol for the quantum secret sharing （QSS） task among multiparties with two-particle entangled states. In our scheme, the secret is split among a number of participatlng partners and the reconstruction requires collaboration of all the authorized partners. Instead of multiparticle Greenberger-Horne-Zeillnger states, only two-particle entangled states are employed in this scheme. By local operations and individual measurements on either of the two entangled particles, each authorized partner obtains a sequence of secret bits shared with other authorized partners. This protocol can be experimentally realized using only linear optical elements and simple entanglement source. It is scalable in practice.     

Exact Timing of Returned Molecular Wavepacket

An ionizing wavepacket of electron will re-visit its parent molecular ion during photoionization by strong laser field. This scenario is associated with physical concepts such as molecular re-scattering/collision, interference, diffraction, molecular clock, and generation of XUV light via high-order harmonic generation. On the workbench of a reduced dimensionality model of molecular hydrogen ions irradiated by laser pulse of 0.01-10.0 a.u. intensities, one-cycle pulsewidth, and 800nm wavelength, by deploying a momentum operator on the time-dependent wavefunction of an ionizing wavepacket, we can determine, in a precise manner, the exact time instant for the re-visiting electron to come back to the cation position. The time value is 57.6% of an optical cycle of the exciting laser pulse. This result may be useful in attosecond pump-probe experiments or molecular clock applications.     

Mechanism and control of current transport in GaN and AlGaN Schottky barriers for chemical sensor applications

Strong interests are recently emerging for development of integrated high-performance chemical sensor chips. In this paper, the present status of understanding and controlling the current transport in the GaN and AlGaN Schottky diodes is discussed from the viewpoint of chemical sensor applications. For this purpose, a series of works recently carried out by our group are reviewed in addition to a general discussion. First, current transport in GaN and AlGaN Schottky barriers is discussed, introducing the thin surface barrier (TSB) model to explain the anomalously large leakage currents. Following this, attempts to reduce the leakage currents are presented and discussed. Then, as an example of gas-phase sensors using Schottky barriers, a Pd/AlGaN/GaN Schottky diode hydrogen sensor developed recently by our group is presented with a discussion on the sensing mechanism and related current transport. On the other hand, in liquid-phase sensors, contact is made between liquid and semiconductor which is regarded as a kind of Schottky barrier by electrochemists. As one of such liquid-phase sensors, open-gate AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistor (HFET) pH sensor developed recently by our group is presented. Finally, a brief summary is given together with some remarks for future research.     

Conceptual design of a phase-shifting telescope-interferometer

This paper deals with the theoretical principle and optical design of a phase-shifting telescope-interferometer. What is called a “telescope-interferometer” (T-I) is indeed a novel, recently proposed wavefront error (WFE) sensing technique, whose basic idea consists in combining the main pupil of a telescope with a second, off-axis reference arm. Then a weak modulation of the point spread function (PSF) is generated at the focal plane, allowing for direct phase measurements. We propose a notable improvement of the method, inspired from classical principles of phase-shifting interferometry. Herein are presented the alternative principle and its achievable measurement accuracy. The technique shows high performance excepted on narrow areas located near the pupil boundary. It is applicable to both ground or space telescopes and is suitable for the co-phasing of segmented mirrors, which is of prime importance in view of future giant telescope projects.     

Cellular solid behaviour of liquid crystal colloids 2. Mechanical properties

This paper presents the results of a rheological study of thermotropic nematic colloids aggregated into cellular structures. Small sterically stabilised PMMA particles dispersed in a liquid crystal matrix densely pack on cell interfaces, but reversibly mix with the matrix when the system is heated above . We obtain a remarkably high elastic modulus, , which is a nearly linear function of particle concentration. A characteristic yield stress is required to disrupt the continuity of cellular structure and liquify the response. The colloid aggregation in a “poor nematic” MBBA has the same cellular morphology as in the “good nematic” 5CB, but the elastic strength is at least an order of magnitude lower. These findings are supported by theoretical arguments based on the high surface tension interfaces of a foam-like cellular system, taking into account the local melting of nematic liquid and the depletion locking of packed particles on interfaces. Received 13 March 2000 and Received in final form 6 June 2000     

Analysis of X（1576） as a Tetraquark State with the QCD Sum Rules

We take the viewpoint that X（1576） is the tetraquark state which consists of a scalar diquark and an antiscalar-diquark in relative P-wave, and calculate its mass in the framework of the QCD sum rule approach. The numerical value of the mass mx= （1.66 =k 0.14） GeV is consistent with the experimental data. There might be some tetraquark components in the vector meson X（1576）.     

Quantum Nernst effect

It is theoretically predicted that the Nernst coefficient is strongly suppressed and the thermal conductance is quantized in the quantum Hall regime of the two-dimensional electron gas. The Nernst effect is the induction of a thermomagnetic electromotive force in the y-direction under a temperature bias in the x-direction and a magnetic field in the z-direction. The quantum nature of the Nernst effect is analyzed with the use of a circulating edge current and is demonstrated numerically. The present system is a physical realization of the non-equilibrium steady state.     

Slip effects on the peristaltic transport of MHD fluid with variable viscosity

This Letter concerns with the peristaltic analysis of MHD viscous fluid in a two-dimensional channel with variable viscosity under the effect of slip condition. A long wavelength and low Reynolds number assumption is used in the problem formulation. An exact solution is presented for the case of hydrodynamic fluid while for magnetohydrodynamic fluid a series solution is obtained in the small power of viscosity parameter. The salient features of pumping and trapping phenomena are discussed in detail through the numerical integration. It is noted that an increase in the slip parameter decreases the peristaltic pumping region. Moreover, the size of trapped bolus decreases by increasing the slip parameter.     

Coherence domains in matter interacting with radiation

The coupling of the electromagnetic field to matter polarization (dipole interaction) is examined in order to assess the possibility of setting up a coherent state as envisaged by Preparata and coworkers [G. Preparata, QED Coherence in Matter, World Scientific, 1995, and references therein]. It is found that coherence domains may set up in matter, their phases being arranged in a periodic lattice, as a consequence of, basically, a two-level interaction, which leads to a long-range ordered state, governed by a macroscopic occupation of both the photon state and the two levels. The non-linear equations of motion are solved for the new, non-perturbative ground-state, which is energetically favourable, provided the coupling strength exceeds a critical value. The elementary excitations with respect to this ground-state are derived, their energy being non-trivially affected by interaction. The “thermodynamics” of the coherent phase is computed and the super-radiant phase transition is re-derived in this context. Except for the general suggestion of coherence, the present results differ appreciably from Preparata's, loc cit.     

Stability of the tunneling current across Si nanochain network

The stability of the current across Si nanochain network is investigated using a micromanipulator in a scanning electron microscope system. We confirm that the current is dominated by the tunneling of electrons between Si nanoparticles. We observe large current fluctuations at a high bias voltage, while the current is stable at a relatively low bias voltage. The origin of the fluctuation is discussed in terms of percolation.     

Persistence of quantum information

We study the flip-processes in a two-level system, which is triggered by the coupling to a classical bath. When the bath is represented by a stochastic field, the time evolution of the density matrix leads to a stochastic equation with a multiplicative noise. Accordingly the Fokker–Planck-equation (FPE) depends on the matrix elements of the underlying density operator. The solution of the FPE can be parametrized in terms of an inherent conserved quantity α, which is interpreted as a measure for the persistence of quantum information. We show that the FPE exhibits a single unique steady state solution different from Boltzmann's law. The exactly computable discrete spectrum of the relaxation times is characterized by two quantum numbers and the ratio of Planck's constant and the coupling strength to the bath. The total entropy is analyzed as function of the quantum number α  . In case of α=1$\alpha =1$ the system is in a pure state whereas for α≠1$\alpha \ne 1$ a mixed state is realized. In case of two, two-level systems, immersed in the common bath, the two noninteracting two-level systems become mutually entangled. The annealed entropy is in that case non-extensive.