Generalized nonlinear sigma model approach to alternating spin chains and ladders

We generalize the nonlinear sigma model treatment of quantum spin chains to cases including ferromagnetic bonds. When these bonds are strong enough, the classical ground state is no longer the standard Néel order and we present an extension of the known formalism to deal with this situation. We study the alternating ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic spin chain introduced by Hida. The smooth crossover between decoupled dimers and the Haldane phase is semi-quantitatively reproduced. We study also a spin ladder with diagonal exchange couplings that interpolates between the gapped phase of the two-leg spin ladder and the Haldane phase. Here again we show that there is a good agreement between DMRG data and our analytical results. Received 6 September 1999     

Encoding calamitic mesomorphism in thermotropic lanthanidomesogens

Peripheral cyanobiphenyl dendrimers impose a microphase organization compatible with smectic mesomorphism, in which the bulky nine-coordinate lanthanide core is located between the decoupled mesogenic sublayers made up of parallel cyanobiphenyl groups.     

Graphene on Ru(0001): contact formation and chemical reactivity on the atomic scale

Graphene on Ru(0001) is contacted with Au tips of a cryogenic scanning tunneling microscope. The formation and conductance of single-atom contacts vary within the moiré unit cell. Density functional calculations reveal that elastic distortions of the graphene lattice occur at contact due to a selectively enhanced chemical reactivity of C atoms at hollow sites of Ru(0001). Concomitant quantum transport calculations indicate that the graphene-Ru distance determines the conductance variations.     

Giant amplification of interfacially driven transport by hydrodynamic slip: diffusio-osmosis and beyond

We demonstrate that "moderate" departures from the no-slip hydrodynamic boundary condition (hydrodynamic slip lengths in the nanometer range) can result in a very large enhancement--up to 2 orders of magnitude--of most interfacially driven transport phenomena. We study analytically and numerically the case of neutral solute diffusio-osmosis in a slab geometry to account for nontrivial couplings between interfacial structure and hydrodynamic slip. Possible outcomes are fast transport of particles in externally applied or self-generated gradient, and flow enhancement in nano- or microfluidic geometries.     

Inelastic spectroscopy identification of STM-induced benzene dehydrogenation

Inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS) performed with the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) has been deemed as the ultimate tool for identifying chemicals on the atomic scale. However, IETS-based chemical analysis is error-prone due to the numerous degrees of freedom of chemisorbed molecular systems. First-principles simulations of IETS are presented that, by quantitative comparison with the experimental spectra, permit one to determine the final products of an STM-induced reaction on chemisorbed benzene. Our simulations reveal that IETS possesses an enhanced sensitivity to atomic structure as compared to topographic imaging due to both its energy and space resolution.     

Indoor coverage improvement of MB-OFDM UWB signals with radio over POF system

A radio over fiber system using the fluorinated based polymer multimode fibers (PMMF) is presented in this paper for the enhancement of the indoor coverage of the multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing ultra-wideband standard (MB-OFDM UWB) inside a building. A preliminary part related the cost analysis owing to glass and polymer multimode fiber deployment inside a fiber network is reported. The study of the physical properties of the polymer optical fibers (core diameter, numerical aperture, differential mode delays, modal bandwidth…) is firstly performed in order to effectively exhibit the potentialities and the robustness of such fibers to be used in a low cost radio over fiber system. The DMD measurements of four fluorinated based polymer optical fiber are reported. The designed system operates at 850 nm with commercial off the shelf (COTS) devices combined to the intensity modulation/direct detection technique. The opportunity of using polymer fibers and COTS components to improve the indoor coverage of the MB-OFDM UWB standard is so reported by the measurement of the Error Vector Magnitude or the Relative Constellation Error variation as a function of the system parameters (RF power, optical attenuation, fiber length…) as well as the compliance of the eye diagram with the mask testing. By the way, the transmission performance of both 200 and 480 Mbps signals is demonstrated over up to 200 m link length of polymer multimode fibers: transmission penalties are quantified by relative constellation error with values under the standard requirements. A comparative study with classical OM2 50 μm based glass multimode fiber having the same bandwidth/length product than the PMMF is done.     

Slippage of water past superhydrophobic carbon nanotube forests in microchannels

We present in this Letter an experimental characterization of liquid flow slippage over superhydrophobic surfaces made of carbon nanotube forests, incorporated in microchannels. We make use of a particle image velocimetry technique to achieve the submicrometric resolution on the flow profile necessary for accurate measurement of the surface hydrodynamic properties. We demonstrate boundary slippage on the Cassie superhydrophobic state, associated with slip lengths of a few microns, while a vanishing slip length is found in the Wenzel state when the liquid impregnates the surface. Varying the lateral roughness scale L of our carbon nanotube forest-based superhydrophobic surfaces, we demonstrate that the slip length varies linearly with L in line with theoretical predictions for slippage on patterned surfaces.     

Étude de la phényl-2 oxine et de ses chélates: Préparation et propr1étés de la phényl-2 oxine

The authors prepared phenyloxin by three different methods. They obtained a product whose melting point was 59° C and then another form melting at 72° C. Ultraviolet absorption spectra were determined in cyclohexan and in alcohol-watermixtures; from these determiaations, the solubilities of phenyloxin in water and in alcohol-water mixtures of different concentrations were obtained. If ultraviolet absorption spectra are plotted for different pH values (from 1.1 to 13.7) several isobestic points are noted.     

Elastic consequences of a single plastic event: A step towards the microscopic modeling of the flow of yield stress fluids

With the eventual aim of describing flowing elasto-plastic materials, we focus here on the elementary process of such a flow, a plastic event, and compute the long-range perturbation it elastically induces in a medium submitted to a global shear strain. We characterize the effect of a nearby wall on this perturbation, and quantify the importance of finite-size effects. Although most of our explicit formulae refer to 2D situations, our statements hold for 3D situations as well.