Investigations of the exciton condensate

Recent experiments on quantum Hall bilayers in the vicinity of total filling factor 1 (ν_T=1) have revealed many exciting observations characteristic of a superfluidic exciton condensate. We report on our experimental work involving the ν_T=1 exciton condensate in independently contacted bilayer two-dimensional electron systems. We observe previously reported phenomena as a zero-bias resonant tunneling peak, a quantized Hall drag resistivity, and in counter-flow configuration, the near vanishing of both ρ_xx and ρ_xy resistivity components. At balanced electron densities in the layers, we find for both drag and counter-flow current configurations, thermally activated transport with a monotonic increase of the activation energy for d/ℓ_B<1.65 with activation energies up to 0.4 K. In the imbalanced system the activation energies show a striking asymmetry around the balance point, implying that the gap to charge excitations is considerably different in the separate layers that form the bilayer condensate. This indicates that the measured activation energy is neither the binding energy of the excitons, nor their condensation energy.     

ac Conductivity of mixed spinel NiAl0.7Cr0.7Fe0.6O4

ac Conductivity measurements are carried out across the metal to insulator transition in NiAl_0.7Cr_0.7Fe_0.6O₄. The low frequency data is analyzed using Summerfield scaling theory for hopping conductivity. The exponent of the scaling behavior has significantly different values in the conducting and insulating regimes. The hopping frequency and the zero frequency conductivity are found to increase with temperature, slowly in the metallic regime and rapidly in the insulating regime.     

Phase behavior and self-organized structures of diglycerol monolaurate in different nonpolar organic solvents

Nonaqueous phase behavior and reverse micellar structures of diglycerol monolaurate (DGL) in different nonpolar organic solvents, such as n-decane, n-tetradecane, and n-hexadecane, have been studied over a wide range of compositions and temperatures. The equilibrium phases are identified by means of visual observation and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). A solid phase present at lower temperature swells small amount of oils and transforms into a lamellar liquid crystalline structure at higher temperature. The melting temperature of the solid phase is virtually constant at all mixing ratios of the surfactant and oil. With the further increase of temperature, the liquid crystal transforms into an isotropic single-liquid phase near the surfactant axis, whereas there is a coexistence region of two isotropic phases near the solvent axis. The area of the two-liquid (II) phase region depends largely on the hydrocarbon chain length of the oils, the longer chain leading to the wider II area. Accordingly, the DGL surfactant is most miscible with decane, exhibiting a reduced miscibility with increasing solvent hydrocarbon chain length. Increasing temperature enhances the dissolution tendency of the surfactant in oil, where the two-liquid phase transforms into an isotropic single phase. SAXS analysis based on the GIFT technique is used to characterize the structure of the reverse micellar aggregates in the isotropic single-phase liquids. We have demonstrated that instead of changing polarity or a functional group of the solvent molecules, if we optimize the hydrophilic nature of the surfactant head group, the alkyl chain length of the solvent oils can serve as a tunable parameter of the micellar geometry. The hydrophilic surfactant DGL interestingly forms cylindrical micelles in nonpolar oils, decane, and tetradecane in the dilute region above the II phase region. The micellar size shows temperature dependence behavior, and the micellar length goes on increasing with decreasing temperature; eventually we found a signature of the onset of critical fluctuations in the deduced pair-distance distribution function near the phase separation line. The signature of the attractive interaction between the cylindrical reverse aggregates when a phase separation line is approached is likely to be a precursor of critical phenomenon. Doping with a trace of water results in a similar but more pronounced structural enhancement. The transfer free energy of diglycerol moiety from a hydrophilic environment to different hydrocarbon oils may account for these phenomena.     

Oil-induced anomalous thermoresponsive viscoelasticity in fluorinated surfactant systems

We have studied the rheology and structure of a mixed nonionic fluorinated surfactant, perfluoroalkyl sulfonamide ethoxylate, C(8)F(17)SO(2)N(C(3)H(7))(CH(2)CH(2)O)(n)H abbreviated as C(8)F(17)EO(10), and perfluorodecalin (C(10)F(18)) or perfluoropolyether oil, (C(3)F(6)O)(n)COOH, in an aqueous system using rheometry and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) techniques. In the absence of oil, the viscosity of surfactant solutions (10 and 15 wt %) first decreases slightly and then more strongly with temperature. Addition of a small amount of fluorinated oil to the wormlike micellar solution disrupts the network structure and decreases the viscosity sharply at lower temperature indicating a rod-sphere transition. The trend of the viscosity curve changes gradually and an anomalous viscosity maximum as a function of temperature appears. It is found that perfluoropolyether oil decreases the viscosity more effectively than perfluorodecalin. The generalized indirect Fourier transformation (GIFT) analysis of the SAXS data confirmed the formation of long rod-like particles in an oil-free, surfactant/water system at 20 degrees C. Addition of a trace amount of fluorinated oils induces modulation in the structure of the micelles and eventually short rods or spherical particles are formed. The decreasing trend in the viscosity with oil concentration is thus attributed to the microstructure changes induced by the added oils.     

Rapid determination of vitamin B12 concentration with a chemiluminescence lab on a chip

This paper reports a novel method for the rapid determination of vitamin B(12) concentration in a continuous-flow lab-on-a-chip system. This new method is based on luminol-peroxide chemiluminescence (CL) assays for the detection of cobalt(II) ions in vitamin B(12) molecules. The lab-on-a-chip device consisted of two passive micromixers acting as microreactors and a double spiral microchannel network serving as an optical detection region. This system could operate in two modes. In the first mode, samples are acidified and evaluated directly in the microchip. In the second mode, samples are treated externally by acidification prior to detection in the microchip. In the first mode, the linear range obtained was between 1.00 ng ml(-1) to 10 μg ml(-1), R(2) = 0.996, with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 1.23 to 2.31% (n = 5) and a limit of detection (lod) of 0.368 pg ml(-1). The minimum sample volume required and the analytical time were 30 μl and 3.6 s, respectively. In the second mode, the linear range obtained was between 0.10 ng ml(-1) to 10 μg ml(-1), R(2) = 0.994, with the RSD of 0.90 to 2.32% (n = 6) and a lod of 0.576 pg ml(-1). The minimum sample and the analytical time required were 50 μl and 6 s, respectively. The lab on a chip working in mode II was successfully used for the determination of vitamin B(12) concentrations in nutritional supplemental tablets and hen egg yolks.     

Stretching or shrinking sheet problem for unsteady separated stagnation-point flow

Meccanica - A detailed study of the problem of unsteady separated stagnation-point flow toward a stretching or shrinking sheet is presented. By use of a similarity transformation, the partial...     

Topographically controlled growth of silver nanoparticle clusters

We present a straightforward method to form regular arrays of chemically synthesized Ag nanoparticle clusters, which are preferentially nucleated and developed inside pre‐patterned Si nanowells. The sizes and shapes of the clusters follow the dimensions of the lithographically defined Si nanowells, which here have a depth of 100 nm and form a square array with a pitch of 300 nm. Potential use of the array of Ag nanoparticle clusters as a surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) based sensing platform is demonstrated by the calculation of locally enhanced electromagnetic fields and by confocal microscopic measurements of increased Raman signals from organic molecules adsorbed on the Ag nanoparticle clusters. (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Computing quasiconformal maps using an auxiliary metric and discrete curvature flow

Surface mapping plays an important role in geometric processing, which induces both area and angular distortions. If the angular distortion is bounded, the mapping is called a quasiconformal mapping (QC-Mapping). Many surface mappings in our physical world are quasiconformal. The angular distortion of a QC mapping can be represented by the Beltrami differentials. According to QC Teichmüller theory, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the set of Beltrami differentials and the set of QC surface mappings under normalization conditions. Therefore, every QC surface mapping can be fully determined by the Beltrami differential and reconstructed by solving the so-called Beltrami equation. In this work, we propose an effective method to solve the Beltrami equation on general Riemann surfaces. The solution is a QC mapping associated with the prescribed Beltrami differential. The main strategy is to define an auxiliary metric (AM) on the domain surface, such that the original QC mapping becomes conformal under the auxiliary metric. The desired QC-mapping can then be obtained by using the conventional conformal mapping method. In this paper, we first formulate a discrete analogue of QC mappings on triangular meshes. Then, we propose an algorithm to compute discrete QC mappings using the discrete Yamabe flow method. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first work to compute the discrete QC mappings for general Riemann surfaces, especially with different topologies. Numerically, the discrete QC mapping converges to the continuous solution as the mesh grid size approaches to 0. We tested our algorithm on surfaces scanned from real life with different topologies. Experimental results demonstrate the generality and accuracy of our auxiliary metric method.     

Nanoarchitectonic‐Based Material Platforms for Environmental and Bioprocessing Applications

The challenges of pollution, environmental science, and energy consumption have become global issues of broad societal importance. In order to address these challenges, novel functional systems and advanced materials are needed to achieve high efficiency, low emission, and environmentally friendly performance. A promising approach involves nanostructure‐level controls of functional material design through a novel concept, nanoarchitectonics. In this account article, we summarize nanoarchitectonic approaches to create nanoscale platform structures that are potentially useful for environmentally green and bioprocessing applications. The introduced platforms are roughly classified into (i) membrane platforms and (ii) nanostructured platforms. The examples are discussed together with the relevant chemical processes, environmental sensing, bio‐related interaction analyses, materials for environmental remediation, non‐precious metal catalysts, and facile separation for biomedical uses.     

Local canted spin behaviour in Co1.4−x Zn x Ge0.4Fe1.2O4 spinels: A macroscopic, mesoscopic and microscopic study

DC magnetization, neutron depolarization and neutron diffraction (with both polarized and unpolarized neutrons) measurements have been reported for the Co_1.1−x Zn _x Ge_0.1Fe_1.2O₁ spinels with x=0.5, 0.6 and 0.7. Neutron depolarization and neutron diffraction measurements confirm the presence of a long range ferrimagnetic ordering of the local canted spins in these ferrite samples. The observed features of low field magnetization have been explained under the framework of thermally activated domain wall movement of ferrimagnetic arrangement of local canted spins. An important role of magnetic anisotropy (due to the presence of Co²⁺ ions) in establishing the magnetic ordering and domain kinetics in these ferrites has been observed.