超导纳米线单光子探测器件的制备

超导纳米线单光子探测器件(SNSPD)是超导单光子探测系统的核心器件。文中介绍了成功制备的基于5nm厚的NbN超导超薄薄膜的SNSPD器件。器件核心结构为150nm宽的纳米曲折线结构,纳米线条占空比为75%,面积为20μm×20μm。超导纳米线是利用电子束曝光(EBL)技术和反应离子刻蚀(RIE)等工艺技术制备的。所制备的SNSPD样品,在温度3.5K下的临界电流约12.9μA;在1310nm波长光波辐照,12.5μA的偏置电流下,探测效率约0.016%。     

Polyhydrazide-Based Organic Nanotubes as Efficient and Selective Artificial Iodide Channels

Reported herein is a series of pore-containing polymeric nanotubes based on a hydrogen-bonded hydrazide backbone. Nanotubes of suitable lengths, possessing a hollow cavity of about a 6.5 Å diameter, mediate highly efficient transport of diverse types of anions, rather than cations, across lipid membranes. The reported polymer channel, having an average molecular weight of 18.2 kDa and 3.6 nm in helical height, exhibits the highest anion-transport activities for iodide (EC₅₀=0.042 μm or 0.028 mol % relative to lipid), whcih is transported 10 times more efficiently than chlorides (EC₅₀=0.47 μm ). Notably, even in cholesterol-rich environment, iodide transport activity remains high with an EC₅₀ of 0.37 μm . Molecular dynamics simulation studies confirm that the channel is highly selective for anions and that such anion selectivity arises from a positive electrostatic potential of the central lumen rendered by the interior-pointing methyl groups.     

Testing primitivity on partial words

Primitive words, or strings over a finite alphabet that cannot be written as a power of another string, play an important role in numerous research areas including formal language theory, coding theory, and combinatorics on words. Testing whether or not a word is primitive can be done in linear time in the length of the word. Indeed, a word is primitive if and only if it is not an inside factor of its square. In this paper, we describe a linear time algorithm to test primitivity on partial words which are strings that may contain a number of “do not know” symbols. Our algorithm is based on the combinatorial result that under some condition, a partial word is primitive if and only if it is not compatible with an inside factor of its square. The concept of special, related to commutativity on partial words, is foundational in the design of our algorithm. A World Wide Web server interface at http://www.uncg.edu/mat/primitive/ has been established for automated use of the program.     

Conventionality of Simultaneity and the Tippe Top Paradox in Relativity

In this paper we critically examine a recently posed paradox (tippe top paradox in relativity) and its suggested resolution. A tippe top when spun on a table, tips over after a few rotations and eventually stands spinning on its stem. The ability of the top to demonstrate this charming feat depends on its geometry (all tops are not tippe tops). To a rocket-bound observer the top geometry should change because of the Lorentz contraction. This gives rise to the possibility that for a sufficiently fast observer the geometry of the top may get altered to such an extent that the top may not tip over! This is certainly paradoxical since a mere change of the observer cannot alter the fact that the top tips over on the table. In an effort to resolve the issue the authors of the paradox compare the equations of motion of the particles of the top from the perspective of the inertial frames of the rocket and the table and observe among other things that (1) the relativity of simultaneity plays an essential role in resolving the paradox and (2) the puzzle in some way is connected with one of the corrolaries of special relativity that the notion of rigidity is inconsistent with the theory. We show here that the question of the incompatibility of the notion of rigidity with special relativity has nothing to do with the current paradox and the role of the lack of synchronization of clocks in the context of the paradox is grossly over-emphasized. The conventionality of simultaneity of special relativity and the notion of the standard (Einstein) synchrony in the Galilean world have been used to throw light on some subtle issues concerning the paradox.     

Non-intrinsic superconductivity in InN epilayers: Role of Indium Oxide

In recent years there have been reports of anomalous electrical resistivity and the presence of superconductivity in semiconducting InN layers. By a careful correlation of the temperature dependence of resistivity and magnetic susceptibility with structural information from high-resolution x-ray diffraction measurements, we show that superconductivity is not intrinsic to InN and is seen only in samples that show traces of oxygen impurity. We hence believe that InN is not intrinsically a superconducting semiconductor.     

Neutrino oscillations: Recent results and future directions

A brief introduction to the phenomena of vacuum neutrino oscillations and resonant flavour conversion is presented with a heavy pedagogic leaning. Variants of these ideas, e.g., neutrino helicity flip in a magnetic field, violation of the equivalence principle, etc. are outlined. A few vexing issues pertaining to the quantum mechanics of neutrino oscillations are discussed. Expectations from some of the future experiments are summarized.