First-principles studies of the vibrational properties of amorphous carbon nitrides

Raman spectra of amorphous carbon nitride films (a-C:N) resemble those of typical amorphous carbon (a-C), and no specific features in the spectra are shown due to N doping. The present work provides a correlation between the microstructure and vibrational properties of a-C:N films from first principles. The six periodic model structures of 64 atoms with various mass densities and nitrogen contents are generated by the liquid-quench method using Car-Parinello molecular dynamics. By using Raman coupling tensors calculated with the finite electric field method, Raman spectra are obtained. The calculated results show that the vibrations of C=N could directly contribute to the Raman spectrum. The similarity of the Raman line shapes of N-doped and N-free amorphous carbons is due to the overlapping of C=N and C=C vibration bands. In addition, the origin of characteristic Raman peaks is also given.     

First-principles study on the geometric and electronic structures and phase transition of PbZr1-xTixO3 solid solutions

With first-principles virtual-crystal approximation calculations, we systematically investigate the geometric and elec- tronic structures as well as the phase transition of lead zirconate titanate (PbZr1-xTixO3 or PZT) as a function of Ti content for the whole range of 0 ≤ x Ti ≤ 1. It can be found that, with the increase of the Ti content, the PbZr1-xTixO3 solid solu- tions undergo a rhombohedral-to-tetragonal phase transition, which is consistent with the experimental results. In addition, we also show the evolution in geometric and electronic structures of rhombohedral and tetragonal PbZr1-x TixO3 with the increasing content of Ti.     

Rank-based deactivation model for networks with age

We study the impact of age on network evolution which couples addition of new nodes and deactivation of old ones. During evolution, each node experiences two stages: active and inactive. The transition from the active state to the inactive one is based on the rank of the node. In this paper, we adopt age as a criterion of ranking, and propose two deactivation models that generalize previous research. In model A, the older active node possesses the higher rank, whereas in model B, the younger active node takes the higher rank. We make a comparative study between the two models through the node-degree distribution.     

The pressure dependences of elastic and lattice dynamic properties of AlAs from ab initio calculations

Ab initio calculations,based on norm-conserving nonlocal pseudopotentials and density functional theory(DFT),are performed to investigate the structural,elastic,dielectric,and vibrational properties of aluminum arsenide(AlAs) with a zinc-blende(B3) structure and a nickel arsenide(B81) structure under hydrostatic pressure.Firstly,the path for the phase transition from B3 to B81 is confirmed by analyzing the energies of different structures,which is in good agreement with previous theoretical results.Secondly,we find that the elastic constants,bulk modulus,static dielectric constants,and the optical phonon frequencies vary in a nearly linear manner under hydrostatic pressure.What is more,the softening mode of the transversal acoustic mode at the X point supports the phase transition in AlAs.     

A low specific on-resistance SOI MOSFET with dual gates and a recessed drain

A low specific on-resistance(Ron,sp) integrable silicon-on-insulator(SOI) metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor(MOSFET) is proposed and investigated by simulation.The MOSFET features a recessed drain as well as dual gates,which consist of a planar gate and a trench gate extended to the buried oxide layer(BOX)(DGRD MOSFET).First,the dual gates form dual conduction channels,and the extended trench gate also acts as a field plate to improve the electric field distribution.Second,the combination of the trench gate and the recessed drain widens the vertical conduction area and shortens the current path.Third,the P-type top layer not only enhances the drift doping concentration but also modulates the surface electric field distributions.All of these sharply reduce Ron,sp and maintain a high breakdown voltage(BV).The BV of 233 V and Ron,sp of 4.151 mΩ·cm2(VGS = 15 V) are obtained for the DGRD MOSFET with 15-μm half-cell pitch.Compared with the trench gate SOI MOSFET and the conventional MOSFET,Ron,sp of the DGRD MOSFET decreases by 36% and 33% with the same BV,respectively.The trench gate extended to the BOX synchronously acts as a dielectric isolation trench,simplifying the fabrication processes.     

Modulation of electroencephalograph activity by manual acupuncture stimulation in healthy subjects:An autoregressive spectral analysis

To investigate whether and how manual acupuncture(MA) modulates brain activities,we design an experiment where acupuncture at acupoint ST36 of the right leg is used to obtain electroencephalograph(EEG) signals in healthy subjects.We adopt the autoregressive(AR) Burg method to estimate the power spectrum of EEG signals and analyze the relative powers in delta(0 Hz-4 Hz),theta(4 Hz-8 Hz),alpha(8 Hz-13 Hz),and beta(13 Hz-30 Hz) bands.Our results show that MA at ST36 can significantly increase the EEG slow wave relative power(delta band) and reduce the fast wave relative powers(alpha and beta bands),while there are no statistical differences in theta band relative power between different acupuncture states.In order to quantify the ratio of slow to fast wave EEG activity,we compute the power ratio index.It is found that the MA can significantly increase the power ratio index,especially in frontal and central lobes.All the results highlight the modulation of brain activities with MA and may provide potential help for the clinical use of acupuncture.The proposed quantitative method of acupuncture signals may be further used to make MA more standardized.     

Linewidth of electromagnetically induced transparency under motional averaging in a coated vapor cell

The linewidth of electromagnetically induced transparency(EIT) in a coated Rb vapor cell was studied under a magnetic field gradient.The nonlinear broadening of the EIT linewidth with the magnetic field gradient was observed.It was found that the motional averaging of the field gradient was more pronounced at higher laser intensities and larger beam sizes.In the same regime,there was a small linewidth decrease with the increasing magnetic field gradient.We have established a Monte-Carlo model,which gave results in good qualitative agreement with our experiment.Physics pictures for the above phenomena were also suggested.These results provide an understanding of the EIT linewidth behavior under motional averaging,and should be useful for applications in quantum optics and metrology based on coated vapor cells.     

Relativistic symmetries in the Rosen-Morse potential and tensor interaction using the Nikiforov-Uvarov method

Approximate analytical bound-state solutions of the Dirac particle in the fields of attractive and repulsive Rosen- Morse (RM) potentials including the Coulomb-like tensor (CLT) potential are obtained for arbitrary spin-orbit quantum number κ. The Pekeris approximation is used to deal with the spin-orbit coupling terms κ(κ± 1)r 2 . In the presence of exact spin and pseudospin (p-spin) symmetries, the energy eigenvalues and the corresponding normalized two-component wave functions are found by using the parametric generalization of the Nikiforov-Uvarov (NU) method. The numerical results show that the CLT interaction removes degeneracies between the spin and p-spin state doublets.     

A memristor oscillator based on a twin-T network

A novel inductance-free nonlinear oscillator circuit with a single bifurcation parameter is presented in this paper. This circuit is composed of a twin-T oscillator, a passive RC network, and a flux-controlled memristor. With an increase in the control parameter, the circuit exhibits complicated chaotic behaviors from double periodicity. The dynamic properties of the circuit are demonstrated by means of equilibrium stability, Lyapunov exponent spectra, and bifurcation diagrams. In order to confirm the occurrence of chaotic behavior in the circuit, an analog realization of the piecewise-linear flux-controlled memristor is proposed, and Pspice simulation is conducted on the resulting circuit.     

Rhythm dynamics of complex neuronal networks with mixed bursting neurons

The spatiotemporal order and rhythm dynamics of a complex neuronal network with mixed bursting neurons are studied in this paper. A quantitative characteristic, the width factor, is introduced to describe the rhythm dynamics of an individual neuron, and the average width factor is used to characterize the rhythm dynamics of a neuronal network. An r parameter is introduced to denote the ratio of the short bursting neurons in the network. Then we investigate the effect of the ratio on the rhythm dynamics of the neuronal network. The critical value of r is derived, and the neurons in the network always remain short bursting when the r ratio is larger than the critical value.