The effect of process variables on the characteristics of carbon nanotubes obtained by spray pyrolysis

A simple spray pyrolysis setup is used to grow multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), from a ferrocene solution in benzene as precursor. The effects of process variables such as growth temperature, position of the aerosol generator and position in the reactor where the sample was formed were investigated. These variables have a strong influence on the graphitization degree, homogeneity, diameter and alignment of the nanotubes, as observed by TEM, SEM, XRD and Raman spectroscopy. Vertically aligned MWCNT arrays with high density were obtained in large areas (10 × 10 mm²), with high yield (2.1 mg cm⁻²) and at a growth rate at 1.43 μm min⁻¹, by a suitable choice of the experimental conditions.     

X-ray double-crystal rocking curves in GaAlAs/GaAs heterostructures

Summary X-ray double-crystal rocking curves of Ga_1−x Al _x As/GaAs heterostructures have been calculated using a dynamical diffraction model for the general case of Bragg reflection geometry. Different experimental configurations have been considered and the possibility of studying both slightly mismatched and relatively thin layers has been investigated. Experimental rocking curves have been measured using the CuKα ₁ radiation, the 004 symmetric reflection and a perfect crystal as the monochromator. An excellent agreement between calculated and experimental rocking curves has been found and this demonstrates the reliability of both the experimental procedure and the theoretical approach.     

Shot noise in linear macroscopic resistors

We report on direct experimental evidence of shot noise in a linear macroscopic resistor. The origin of the shot noise comes from the fluctuation of the total number of charge carriers inside the resistor associated with their diffusive motion under the condition that the dielectric relaxation time becomes longer than the dynamic transit time. The present results show that neither potential barriers nor the absence of inelastic scattering are necessary to observe shot noise in electronic devices.     

Phase modulation by polarization recording in bacteriorhodopsin: application to phase-shifting interferometry

A novel phase-control method with application to phase-shifting interferometry is presented. The linear polarization state of an external (green) light beam is recorded on a bacteriorhodopsin film, and this polarization state is read by a circular polarized (red) laser beam. By reading the bacteriorhodopsin film, the original (red) wave reverses its circularity and becomes phase shifted by an amount that is dependent on the polarization of the external (green) beam. This method of phase control can be applied in a two-beam interferometer in which the test and reference waves are orthogonally polarized, which allows one to obtain phase modulation without moving parts inside the interferometer.     

Dynamic roughening of tetrahedral amorphous carbon

The roughness of tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films grown at room temperature is measured as a function of film thickness by atomic force microscopy, to extract roughness and growth exponents of alpha approximately 0.39 and beta approximately 0-0.1, respectively. This extremely small growth exponent shows that some form of surface diffusion and relaxation operates at a homologous temperature of 0.07, much lower than in any other material. This is accounted for by a Monte Carlo simulation, which assumes a smoothening during a thermal spike, following energetic ion deposition. The low roughness allows ta-C to be used as an ultrathin protective coating on magnetic disk storage systems with approximately 1 Tbit/in.(2) storage density.     

Potts Model on Infinite Graphs and the Limit of Chromatic Polynomials

 Given an infinite graph 𝔾 quasi-transitive and amenable with maximum degree Δ, we show that reduced ground state degeneracy per site W _r (𝔾, q) of the q-state antiferromagnetic Potts model at zero temperature on 𝔾 is analytic in the variable 1/q, whenever |2Δe ³ /q|<1. This result proves, in an even stronger formulation, a conjecture originally sketched in [12] and explicitly formulated in [16 and 19], based on which a sufficient condition for W _r (𝔾, q) to be analytic at 1/q=0 is that 𝔾 is a regular lattice. Received: 16 January 2002 / Accepted: 17 October 2002 Published online: 18 February 2003 RID="*" ID="*" Partially supported by CNPq (Brazil) RID="**" ID="**" Partially supported by CNR, G.N.F.M. (Italy) Communicated by H. Spohn     

The chiral ring and the periods of the resolvent

The strongly coupled vacua of an supersymmetric gauge theory can be described by imposing quantization conditions on the periods of the gauge theory resolvent, or equivalently by imposing factorization conditions on the associated Seiberg–Witten curve (the so-called strong-coupling approach). We show that these conditions are equivalent to the existence of certain relations in the chiral ring, which themselves follow from the fact that the gauge group has a finite rank. This provides a conceptually very simple explanation of why and how the strongly coupled physics of theories, including fractional instanton effects, chiral symmetry breaking and confinement, can be derived from purely semi-classical calculations involving instantons only.     

Power losses in the international linear collider 20 mrad extraction line at 1 TeV

We have performed a detailed study of the power losses in the post-collision extraction line of a TeV e ⁺ e ⁻ collider with a crossing angle of 20 mrad at the interaction point. Five cases were considered: four luminosity configurations for ILC and one for CLIC. For all of them, the strong beam-beam effects at the interaction point lead to an emittance growth for the outgoing beam, as well as to the production of beamstrahlung photons and e ⁺ e ⁻ coherent pairs. The power losses along the extraction line, which are due to energy deposition by a fraction of the disrupted beam, of the beamstrahlung photons and of the coherent pairs, were estimated in the case of ideal collisions, as well as with a vertical position or angular offset at the interaction point.      

Lorentz violation in the linearized gravity

We study some physical consequences of the introduction of a Lorentz-violating modification term in the linearized gravity, which leads to modified dispersion relations for gravitational waves in the vacuum. We discuss two possible mechanisms for the induction of such a term in the Lagrangian. First, it is generated at the quantum level by a Lorentz-breaking coupling of the gravity field to a spinor field. Second, it appears as consequence of a particular modification of the Poisson algebra of the canonical variables, in the spirit of the so-called “noncommutative fields approach”.     

Surface wave effect on light scattering from one-dimensional photonic crystals

Light scattering and reflection measurements using attenuated total reflection technique for s polarization of the incident light on a finite one-dimensional photonic crystal are reported. Angular specular reflection was measured experimentally to determine, the optimum thickness, the angular position of the surface mode, and the number of bi-layers of the system. It was demonstrated that the position of the surface mode inside the last film is close to the asymptotic value when the number of periods is increased. Spectral reflection measurements were made to determine experimentally the band gap width and measure the dispersion relation of the surface mode inside this band. The corresponding field amplitude was calculated (∣E∣²) showing that in resonant conditions it has a maximum near the surface. The angular dependence of the scattered light measured displays a peak caused by singles cattering and located approximately at the excitation angle of the surface electromagnetic mode. When the incident light is in resonance with the surface electromagnetic wave, it is found experimentally that the scattering of light is enhanced overall by approximately one order of magnitude in comparison with the off-resonance case.