Simulation of Confined and Interface Phonons Scattering in Terahertz Quantum Cascade Laser

We have performed the calculation of resonant-phonon transition in a terahertz quantum cascade laser. The electron wavefunctions and energy levels are obtained by solving the Schroedinger and Poisson equations selfconsistently. The scattering rates of the confined, interface, and bulk phonons are calculated by using the Fermi golden rule. It has been shown that the confined phonon scattering is comparable to the interface phonon scattering and should be taken into consideration in the calculation.     

Glass transition in the polaron dynamics of colossal magnetoresistive manganites

Neutron scattering measurements on a bilayer manganite near optimal doping show that the short-range polaron correlations are completely dynamic at high T, but then freeze upon cooling to a temperature T(*) approximately equal 310 K. This glass transition suggests that the paramagnetic/insulating state arises from an inherent orbital frustration that inhibits the formation of a long-range orbital- and charge-ordered state. Upon further cooling into the ferromagnetic-metallic state (T(C) = 114 K), where the polarons melt, the diffuse scattering quickly develops into a propagating, transverse optic phonon.     

Zener double exchange from local valence fluctuations in magnetite

Magnetite (Fe3O4) is a mixed valent system where electronic conductivity occurs on the B site (octahedral) iron sublattice of the spinel structure. Below T(V)=123 K, a metal-insulator transition occurs which is argued to arise from the charge ordering of 2+ and 3+ iron valences on the B sites (Verwey transition). Inelastic neutron scattering measurements show that optical spin waves propagating on the B site sublattice (approximately 80 meV) are shifted upwards in energy above T_{V} due to the occurrence of B-B ferromagnetic double exchange in the mixed valent phase. The double exchange interaction affects only spin waves of Delta(5) symmetry, not all modes, indicating that valence fluctuations are slow and the double exchange is constrained by short-range electron correlations above T(V).     

Lattice scattering mobility at low temperatures in quasi one-dimensional metals

We show that for a quasi 1-d metal the resistivity ? varies with temperature T as 1/sinh (? ω /k_BT), ?ω being the energy of the (external) 2k_F phonon involved in the scattering process. The theory fits the observed ? vs. T of (TMTSF)₂PF₆ and other quasi 1-d metals below 60K, where lattice expansion, internal mode scattering and precursor effects of the Peierls transition can be neglected.     

Reentrant phenomenon in the quantum phase transitions of a gas of bosons trapped in an optical lattice

We calculate the location of the quantum phase transitions of a Bose gas trapped in an optical lattice as a function of effective scattering length a(eff) and temperature T. Knowledge of recent high-loop results on the shift of the critical temperature at weak couplings is used to locate a nose in the phase diagram above the free Bose-Einstein critical temperature T((0))(c), thus predicting the existence of a reentrant transition above T((0))(c), where a condensate should form when increasing a(eff). At zero temperature, the transition to the normal phase produces the experimentally observed Mott insulator.     

Large electric-field-induced enhancement of resonant Raman scattering of a single quantum well

The electric-field enhancement of the resonant Raman efficiency of confined optical phonon modes in a single quantum well has been observed in an asymmetrical n-type triple-barrier GaAs/AlAs resonant tunneling structure. The measurement takes advantage of an outgoing resonance with the e₂-hh₁ exciton transition confined to the wide quantum well, and according to the polarization properties, the Fröhlich interaction dominates the scattering mechanism. A fifteenfold increase is found from zero field to 7.5 × 10⁴ V/cm, which results from break-down of the parity selection rules for the photon-exciton and the exciton phonon coupling mechanisms.     

Effect of structure anisotropy on low temperature spin dynamics in quantum wells

Spin dynamics of two-dimensional electron gas confined in an asymmetrical quantum well is studied theoretically in the regime where the scattering frequency is comparable with the spin precession frequency due to the conduction band spin splitting. The spin polarization is shown to demonstrate quantum beats. If the spin splitting is determined by both bulk and structural asymmetry mechanisms the beats are damped at zero temperature even in the absence of a scattering. We calculate the decay of spin beats due to the thermal broadening of the electron distribution function and electron scattering. The magnetic field applied along the structure growth axis is shown to increase the frequency of the beats and shift system towards the collision dominated regime.     

Achieving a BCS transition in an atomic Fermi gas

We consider a gas of cold fermionic atoms having two spin components with interactions characterized by their s-wave scattering length a. At positive scattering length the atoms form weakly bound bosonic molecules which can be evaporatively cooled to undergo Bose-Einstein condensation, whereas at negative scattering length BCS pairing can take place. It is shown that, by adiabatically tuning the scattering length a from positive to negative values, one may transform the molecular Bose-Einstein condensate into a highly degenerate atomic Fermi gas, with the ratio of temperature to Fermi temperature T/T(F) approximately 10(-2). The corresponding critical final value of k(F)/a/, which leads to the BCS transition, is found to be about one-half, where k(F) is the Fermi momentum.     

Water dynamics in glass ionomer cements

Glass ionomer cements (GIC) are an alternative for preventive dentistry. However, these dental cements are complex systems where important motions related to the different states of the hydrogen atoms evolve in a confined porous structure. In this paper, we studied the water dynamics of two different liquids used to prepare either conventional or resin-modified glass ionomer cement. By combining thermal analysis with neutron scattering data we were able to relate the water structure in the liquids to the materials properties.     

Determination of the short-wavelength propagation threshold in the collective excitations of liquid ammonia

The dynamics structure factor S(Q,E) of liquid ammonia l-NH3 at T = 200 K and at its vapor pressure has been measured by inelastic x-ray scattering (IXS) in the 1-15 nm(-1) momentum transfer ( Q) range. Contrary to previous IXS studies on other associated liquids and glasses, in l-NH3 a large inelastic signal is observed up to Q = 15 nm(-1). This, enabling S(Q,E) measurements as a function of Q at constant E transfer, allows us to demonstrate experimentally the transition from a propagating dynamics regime, where the acoustic excitation energy linearly disperses with Q, to a high-Q regime, where it is no longer possible to observe a dominant excitation in the S(Q,E).     

Dynamics of supercooled confined water measured by deep inelastic neutron scattering

In this paper, we present the results of deep inelastic neutron scattering (DINS) measurements on supercooled water confined within the pores (average pore diameter ~ 20 Å) of a disordered hydrophilic silica matrix obtained through hydrolysis and polycondensation of the alkoxide precursor Tetra-Methyl-Ortho-Silicate via the sol-gel method. Experiments were performed at two temperatures (250 K and 210 K, i.e., before and after the putative liquid–liquid transition of supercooled confined water) on a “wet” sample with hydration h ~ 40% w/w, which is high enough to have water-filled pores but low enough to avoid water crystallization. A virtually “dry” sample at h ~ 7% was also investigated to measure the contribution of the silica matrix to the neutron scattering signal. As is well known, DINS measurements allow the determination of the mean kinetic energy and the momentum distribution of the hydrogen atoms in the system and therefore, allow researchers to probe the local structure of supercooled confined water. The main result obtained is that at 210 K the hydrogen mean kinetic energy is equal or even slightly higher than at 250 K. This is at odds with the predictions of a semiempirical harmonic model recently proposed to describe the temperature dependence of the kinetic energy of hydrogen in water. This is a new and very interesting result, which suggests that at 210 K, the water hydrogens experience a stiffer intermolecular potential than at 250 K. This is in agreement with the liquid–liquid transition hypothesis.     

Resonant scattering by impurities in metals and the Anderson model

The Anderson Hamiltonian, written in a representation where the extra orbital is not orthogonal to the conduction states, is used to derive a general theory of the electronic structure of dilute alloys. The theory describes both simple impurities in the over-complete or Wolff limit, and transition or rare-earth impurities where the scattering of the conduction electrons has a resonance. The extra-orbital of Anderson is shown to be identical to a bound state extracted from higher bands by the impurity potential, and overlapping the conduction band in energy. The resonant scattering of conduction electrons is described by a pseudopotential, which is singular in energy, in analogy to the theory of band structures of pure transition elements. The position and width of the resonance, as well as a direct scattering potential introduced by the non-orthogonality, are given in terms of Anderson's parameters. The resonance is narrowed by the non-orthogonality and disappears in the over-complete limit.     

Layering of confined water between two graphene sheets and its liquid-liquid transition

Molecular dynamics(MD) simulations are performed to explore the layering structure and liquid–liquid transition of liquid water confined between two graphene sheets with a varied distance at different pressures. Both the size of nanoslit and pressure could cause the layering and liquid–liquid transition of the confined water. With increase of pressure and the nanoslit's size, the confined water could have a more obvious layering. In addition, the neighboring water molecules firstly form chain structure, then will transform into square structure, and finally become triangle with increase of pressure. These results throw light on layering and liquid–liquid transition of water confined between two graphene sheets.     

Effect of hydrostatic pressure on closed-loop phase behavior of block copolymers

The effect of hydrostatic pressure (P) on closed-loop phase behavior of deuterated polystyrene-block-poly(n-pentyl methacrylate) copolymers [dPS-PnPMA] was investigated by using small-angle neutron scattering and birefringence. For P<20.7 bar, dPS-PnPMA exhibited a lower disorder-to-order transition temperature (T(LDOT)) at 175 degrees C, and then an upper order-to-disorder transition temperature (T(UODT)) at 255 degrees C. With increasing pressure both T(LDOT) and T(UODT) were markedly changed, where dT(LDOT)/dP was 725 degrees C/kbar and dT(UODT)/dP was -725 degrees C/kbar. These are consistent with predictions by the Clausius-Clapeyron equation using measured values of the volume and enthalpy changes of both transitions. The large pressure coefficients imply that the closed-loop phase behavior observed for PS-PnPMA is an entropic-driven phase transition.     

Temperature dependence of the universal contact parameter in a unitary Fermi gas

The contact I, introduced by Tan, has emerged as a key parameter characterizing universal properties of strongly interacting Fermi gases. For ultracold Fermi gases near a Feshbach resonance, the contact depends upon two quantities: the interaction parameter 1/(k(F)a), where k(F) is the Fermi wave vector and a is the s-wave scattering length, and the temperature T/T(F), where T(F) is the Fermi temperature. We present the first measurements of the temperature dependence of the contact in a unitary Fermi gas using Bragg spectroscopy. The contact is seen to follow the predicted decay with temperature and shows how pair-correlations at high momentum persist well above the superfluid transition temperature.     

Determination of inelastic critical scattering at a first order phase transition in the CDW structure of 1TTaS2 using Mössbauer diffraction

We report Mössbauer diffraction measurements of the temperature dependence of the elastic and inelastic intensities at the (100) Bragg reflection in 1TTaS₂. These measurements use a newly developed microfoil conversion electron (MICE) spectrometry. They cover the temperature range from 19°C to 100°C, bracketing the first order 1T₁ to 1T₂ phase transition in the charge density wave structure at 79°C. The elastic Bragg peak shows a discontinuity at the phase transition as reported by Moret and Colella. The inelastic scattering shows a significant peak near the phase transition. This peak is interpreted as inelastic critical scattering at this first order phase transition.     

Four-body problem and BEC-BCS crossover in a quasi-one-dimensional cold fermion gas

The four-body problem for an interacting two-species Fermi gas is solved analytically in a confined quasi-one-dimensional geometry, where the two-body atom-atom scattering length a(aa) displays a confinement-induced resonance. We compute the dimer-dimer scattering length a(dd) and show that this quantity completely determines the many-body solution of the associated BEC-BCS crossover phenomenon in terms of bosonic dimers.     

Influence of surface interactions on the dynamics of the glass former ortho-terphenyl confined in nanoporous silica

We present results on investigations of the dynamics of the glass forming ortho-terphenyl (oTP) confined in nanoporous silica. Calorimetry experiments showed that the glass transition temperature of the confined liquid, T_gconf, has a non-trivial pore size dependence and is strongly affected by surface interactions. Fluid-wall interactions introduce gradients of structural relaxation times in the pores. The molecules at the surface of the pores are slowed down compared to those at the center of the pores. We focus here on a pore diameter range (7 σ< d < 12 σ, where σ is the molecular diameter), where a large variety of dynamical behavior were observed. Depending on surface properties of the confined media, T _gconf may be smaller or larger than the bulk one. In a quite attractive matrix with a pore size of around 7 nm, the structural relaxation times gradient is important enough to allow the observation of two glass transitions for the same liquid. Effects of fluid wall interactions on the short time dynamics at high temperature were also investigated by quasielastic neutron scattering. The self and collective motions exhibit well above the bulk melting point the same dependence on fluid-wall interactions as at T_g.     

Surface-induced order and diffusion in 5CB liquid crystal confined to porous glass.

Liquid crystals confined into small cavities are known to have a weak orientational order even above the nematic-isotropic transition temperature. The surface-induced order and molecular dynamics in this temperature range are studied with the aid of deuteron NMR spectra, spin relaxation times T(1) and T(2,) proton dipolar-correlation effect, and direct measurements of the effective diffusion coefficient for the liquid crystal 5CB confined to controlled-pore glasses. Our results show that an arrangement of molecules parallel to the wall is induced by local molecular interactions between the liquid crystal and solid, resulting in a weak and temperature independent surface order parameter, S(0) approximately 0.02 +/- 0.01. There is no indication of a significant slowing-down of molecular diffusion at the wall, neither rotational nor translational. In cavities of nanometer size, where the nematic order evolves gradually upon cooling, a broadening of the NMR linewidths due to dynamic effects should be taken into account.