Multicaloric effect in a piezoelectric layer

Changes in the temperatures and entropy of a piezoelectric layer under the electric field and stresses applied to its boundaries (a multicaloric effect) have been investigated. It has been shown that these changes are composed of three terms, which describe the electrocaloric, elastocaloric, and piezoelectrocaloric effects, respectively. If the influence of the strain gradient on the polarization is taken into account, one more term associated with the flexoelectrocaloric effect arises in the entropy change. The influence of the multicaloric effect on losses and motion of domain walls in ferroelectrics has been discussed.     

Multicaloric effect in a solid: New aspects

The multicaloric effect that is the result of interaction between various caloric effects has been studied theoretically. The effects attributable to the pairwise interactions of fields (piezomagnetocaloric, piezoelectrocaloric, and magnetoelectrocaloric effects) have been added to the previously known electrocaloric, magnetocaloric, and elastocaloric effects that exist when the electric, magnetic, and elastic fields change. These new effects are shown to be determined by the temperature dependence of the piezomagnetic (magnetostrictive), piezoelectric (electrostrictive), and magnetoelectric coefficients. According to the estimates obtained, the change in entropy in an isothermal process under the magnetoelectrocaloric effect for Cr₂O₃ is 2–5 mJ kg^?1 K^?1. The caloric effects caused by the influence of the gradient in one of the fields on other fields are shown to contribute to the multicaloric effect. One of these gradient effects, the flexocaloric one, which consists in a change in temperature and/or entropy when a strain gradient is applied or removed, has been studied in detail as an example. It follows from the derived formulas that the greatest values of this effect should be expected for materials with strong temperature dependences of the flexocaloric coefficient, permittivity, or permeability. The change in temperature calculated from experimental data for a PMN ferroelectric is estimated as 2–6 mK at a strain gradient of 1 m^?1. The interaction between fields of a different nature is known to lead to the synergetic effect, and the multicaloric effect can reach values that are commonly called giant ones, expanding considerably the possible domains of its application.     

Evaluation of the Thermodynamic Efficiency of Solid-State Coolers and Generators Based on the Multicaloric Effect

Technical Physics - The efficiency of using the multicaloric effect (μCE) in solid-state cooling systems is investigated and compared with single caloric effects. The proposed approach is...     

Playing with quantum Hall effects and single-electron-tunneling effects

The usefulness of quantum Hall effect (QHE) conductors and quantum dot (QD) devices is revealed by reviewing five remarkable effects. The first is the sensitive detection of terahertz (THz) radiation by QHE conductors. The second is the imaging of THz emission from non-equilibrium carriers in QHE conductors, by using scanning THz microscopes. The third is the single-photon detection of THz radiation in strong magnetic fields, which is carried out by incorporating a QHE electron system into a QD. Individual events of single-THz-photon absorption within the QD via cyclotron resonance cause the QD to electrically polarize, which, in turn, is detected as switches of the tunnel conductance through the QD. The fourth is the single-photon detection of THz radiation by using double QDs in the absence of a magnetic field. Both of the photon detectors are implemented in gate-voltage-induced lateral GaAs/AlGaAs QDs, and exploiting the extraordinary sensitivity of single-electron transistors to the charge. The fifth is the coherent control of nuclear spins in QHE conductors. Nuclear spins are (i) electrically polarized by unequally populating spin-split QHE edge channels via the hyperfine interaction, (ii) coherently controlled via pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance induced by local RF magnetic fields, and (iii) finally detected by the edge channels through resistance change of the Hall device. The controlled nuclear spins are limited to those along the edge channels, on the order of 10⁹.     

Fractal analysis of size effects and surface morphology effects in catalysis and electrocatalysis

Fractal geometry tools are used in order to analyze several related problems in surface science, catalysis, and electrocatalysis. The effects of complex morphologies of adsorbents, catalysts, and electrodes on various molecular processes with these materials are determined both theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that fractal geometry provides a convenient and natural tool for the elucidation of geometry-performance relations in heterogeneous chemistry. Issues covered are particle size effects in physisorption and chemisorption; morphology effects on a variety of catalytic processes with unsupported catalysts (including coal liquefaction, alkene polymerizations, oxidations, dehydrogenations, and esterifications); surface accessibility effects on molecular interactions in an Eley-Rideal mechanism; surface patterning effects on concentration profiles near the surface; and electrode-morphology effects on a variety of electrochemical and electrocatalytic processes. The domains of applicability of the fractal approach to these problems is discussed.     

Subjective effects of traffic noise exposure: reliability and seasonal effects

Repeated interview surveys were made in suburban residential areas of London. At six selected sites, four sets of interviews were conducted at different times of year and at a further two sites two sets of interviews were conducted during summer months. At all sites traffic noise levels were measured over 24 hours at each interview phase with a microphone 1 m from the dwelling facade at first floor level. Seasonal weather data were also collected. In the course of the repeated interviews the initial sample of 364 respondents was reduced to 222. The questionnaire included two types of noise nuisance scale, questions bearing on the typicality of road traffic conditions, and on the opening and closing of windows. The results confirm others already reported but in addition, show that if annoyance scores are averaged over repeated occasions a highly significant increase in reliability is obtained, and the proportion of score variance accounted for by noise increases significantly. No evidence was found of seasonal changes in traffic noise levels and annoyance scores did not vary significantly despite significant differences in the proportion of windows open at different times of the year.     

Electro-optic size effects and effects of nonlinear saturation in PLZT ceramics

Results of studying electro-optic size effects and nonlinear electro-optic effects in ferroelectric PLZT ceramics are presented. It is established that the presence of electro-optic size effects makes microvolume samples of PLZT ceramics promising for designing efficient modulating devices.     

Jahn-Teller centers and pseudospin effects

The characteristics of the phenomenon of polar centers exhibiting Jahn-Teller behavior in copper oxides are investigated by the pseudospin approach. The emergence of relaxation pseudospin (dipole-quadrupole) modes and pseudospin-phonon interaction produces a number of anomalies in inelastic neutron scattering. The Jahn-Teller effect in polar centers brings about a change in the character of the tetra-ortho transition in the system La_2−x M_x-CuO₄ as the concentration x is increased. The possibility of the onset of fluctuation domain nanostructures is suggested. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 1948–1955 (November 1997)     

Core-particle coupling and polarization effects

The unpaired particle in an odd-mass transitional nucleus exerts forces on the rest of the system leading to an effective shape which is in general dependent on thej-orbital occupied by the extra particle. To account for this polarization effect we propose to modify the collective matrix elements by a phenomenological polarization factor. This enables us to describe also such band structures by the core-particle coupling model for which the common coupling rules seem to fail. Selecting a typical case the model is applied to¹²³I in order to demonstrate the important role of the polarization. The calculation reproduces fairly well all band structures including theirM1 andE2 decay properties.     

Gluon shadowing and unitarity effects

New data from HERA experiment on deep inelastic scattering have been used to parametrize nucleon and Pomeron structure functions. Within the Gribov theory, the parameterizations were employed to calculate gluon shadowing for various heavy ions. The latter was compared with predictions from other models. Calculations of multiplicity reduction due to gluon shadowing for d+Au collisions at forward rapidities at √s _NN =200 GeV are in good agreement with BRAHMS data on the nuclear modification factor.     

Electromagnetic radiation and in-medium effects

The theory of thermal photon and dilepton emission from a hot and dense hadronic gas, as well as from the Quark-Gluon Plasma, is reviewed in the context of extracting in-medium properties of the matter constituents. In phenomenological applications to ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions we focus on recent photon and dilepton spectra as measured by WA98 and CERES/NA45, respectively, at CERN-SPS energies.     

Thermoelectric effects and topological insulators

The recent discovery of topological insulators(TIs) offers new opportunities for the development of thermoelectrics,because many TIs(like Bi_2Te_3) are excellent thermoelectric(TE) materials.In this review,we will first describe the general TE properties of TIs and show that the coexistence of the bulk and boundary states in TIs introduces unusual TE properties,including strong size effects and an anomalous Seebeck effect.Importantly,the TE figure of merit zT of TIs is no longer an intrinsic property,but depends strongly on the geometric size.The geometric parameters of twodimensional TIs can be tuned to enhance zT to be significantly greater than 1.Then a few proof-of-principle experiments on three-dimensional TIs will be discussed,which observed unconventional TE phenomena that are closely related to the topological nature of the materials.However,current experiments indicate that the metallic surface states,if their advantage of high mobility is not fully utilized,would be detrimental to TE performance.Finally,we provide an outlook for future work on topological materials,which offers great possibilities to discover exotic TE effects and may lead to significant breakthroughs in improving zT.     

Spatial multistability and nonvariational effects

We investigate the phenomenon of spatial multistability of fronts in thin bistable systems and stress the important role played by the absence of a variational principle. Nonvariational effects allow, for instance, two different immobilized fronts to coexist. The morphological instability of the corresponding nucleating solution can then lead, even in the absence of any diffusive instability, to nontrivial patterns in the depth of one-side-fed reactors.     

Correlation effects and bound states

Bound states in a simple quark model that are due to correlation effects are analyzed. The confining properties of this model in meson (quark-antiquark and diquark) channels manifest themselves at any quark momenta, and an extra potential field may only enhance the confining effect.     

Electret and electretphotovoltaic effects: The new effects in thin films structures metal-CdTe-metal

Time dependence of voltage in thin films structures M _x -CdTe-M _x,y in darkness and under illumination are presented. From measurements it follows that thin films structures M _x -CdTe-M _x,y act in darkness as a source of voltage which reaches values up to 1 Volt. This effect is interpreted as the thin films electret effects. After illumination the voltage decreases and at a proper value of illumination it reaches either zero value or the polarity opposite to that in darkness. This effect is interpreted as the electretphotovoltaic effect. A simple model is proposed and discussed in order to give a qualitative explanation of the electret effect and the electretphotovoltaic effect.     

Cold nuclear matter effects on production: Intrinsic and extrinsic transverse momentum effects

Cold nuclear matter effects on J/ψ production in proton–nucleus and nucleus–nucleus collisions are evaluated taking into account the specific J/ψ-production kinematics at the partonic level, the shadowing of the initial parton distributions and the absorption in the nuclear matter. We consider two different parton processes for the -pair production: one with collinear gluons and a recoiling gluon in the final state and the other with initial gluons carrying intrinsic transverse momentum. Our results are compared to RHIC observables. The smaller values of the nuclear modification factor R_AA in the forward rapidity region (with respect to the mid rapidity region) are partially explained, therefore potentially reducing the need for recombination effects.