Low-temperature pyroelectricity

The current state of the set of problems associated with the study and application of the pyroelectric effect at low (T<30 K) temperatures is outlined. The reasons for the qualitatively different temperature dependences of the total pyroelectric coefficient γ^σ(T) in linear pyroelectrics and ferroelectrics are discussed. An analysis is given of the reasons why the theoretical temperature dependences obtained for the primary pyroelectric coefficient γ^ε(T) adequately describe the experimental γ^σ(T) dependences for all materials studied. In this connection, the correctness of determining the secondary pyroelectric coefficient γ^S(T) from the macroscopically measured coefficients of thermal expansion is considered. The potential of thermodynamically nonequilibrium polar media and low-temperature pyroelectric materials is substantiated. The review consists of the following sections: (1) an introduction; (2) the theory of low-temperature pyroelectricity; (3) experimental procedures; (4) discussion of the experimental data: (A) perfect single crystals, (B) the problem of the secondary pyroelectric coefficient, (C) imperfect single crystals; (5) pyroelectric materials for low-temperature applications; and (6) a conclusion.     

On the pyroelectricity of DKDP single crystals and PZT-40 ceramics at 1.5–30 K

By analyzing experimental data, the lowest modes that are responsible for pyroelectricity in DKDP single crystals (87.3 and 201.6 cm^?1) and in PZT-40 ferroelectric ceramics (20.7, 54.75, and 171.3 cm^?1) are determined. A set of physical mechanisms that occur in real polar dielectrics that are piroelectrically active in the temperature range 0–30 K is discussed; and methods of their identification, separation, and determination of quantitative characteristics for each component of spontaneous polarization are shown.     

Balanced complexes and complexes without large missing faces

The face numbers of simplicial complexes without missing faces of dimension larger than i are studied. It is shown that among all such (d−1)-dimensional complexes with non-vanishing top homology, a certain polytopal sphere has the componentwise minimal f-vector; and moreover, among all such 2-Cohen–Macaulay (2-CM) complexes, the same sphere has the componentwise minimal h-vector. It is also verified that the l-skeleton of a flag (d−1)-dimensional 2-CM complex is 2(d−l)-CM, while the l-skeleton of a flag piecewise linear (d−1)-sphere is 2(d−l)-homotopy CM. In addition, tight lower bounds on the face numbers of 2-CM balanced complexes in terms of their dimension and the number of vertices are established.     

Surface state charge dynamics of a high-mobility three-dimensional topological insulator

We present a magneto-optical study of the three-dimensional topological insulator, strained HgTe, using a technique which capitalizes on advantages of time-domain spectroscopy to amplify the signal from the surface states. This measurement delivers valuable and precise information regarding the surface-state dispersion within <1 meV of the Fermi level. The technique is highly suitable for the pursuit of the topological magnetoelectric effect and axion electrodynamics.     

Lyubeznik's Resolution and Rooted Complexes

We describe a new family of free resolutions for a monomial ideal I, generalizing Lyubeznik's construction. These resolutions are cellular resolutions supported on the rooted complexes of the lcm-lattice of I. Our resolutions are minimal for the matroid ideal of a finite projective space.     

A Note on Geometric Embeddings of Simplicial Complexes in a Euclidean Space

In this note we prove that if a simplicial complex K can be embedded geometrically in R ^m , then a certain linear system of equations associated with K possesses a small integral solution. Received July 5, 1998, and in revised form May13, 1999.     

Dynamics of the transport barrier formation on the FT-2 tokamak caused by lower hybrid heating

Experiments at the FT-2 tokamak had demonstrated effective plasma LH heating, which was accounted for by both direct absorption of RF power and plasma transport suppression. The improved core confinement accompanied by Internal Transport Barrier (ITB) formation was observed. The RF pulse switch off is followed by triggering of LH transition and the External Transport Barrier (ETB) formation near the last closed flux surface. The present paper is devoted to a much more detailed study of the radial electric fieldE _r behaviour in the region of ITB and ETB and its influence on the tokamak microturbulence in these regions. The new experimental data were obtained by spatial spectroscopic technique using additional pulse helium puffing in hydrogen plasma. Simultaneously microscale plasma oscillations in the frequency band (0.01–2) MHz are observed with local enhanced microwave scattering diagnostics and by x-mode fluctuation reflectometry. Experiments demonstrate that the improved confinement is associated with the modification of microturbulence by the shear of theE×B poloidal velocity. This conclusion is also confirmed by the data obtained by Langmuir probes in the edge plasma. Presented at 5th Workshop “Role of Electric Fields in Plasma Confinement and Exhaust”, Montreux, Switzerland, June 23–24, 2002”. The study was performed with the support of the Ministry of General and Professional Education of RF (TOO-7.4-2797), INTAS-01-2056 and the RFBR Grants 00-02-16927, 01-02-17926 and 02-02-17684.     

Explicit Constructions of Centrally Symmetric k-Neighborly Polytopes and Large Strictly Antipodal Sets

We present explicit constructions of centrally symmetric $2$ -neighborly $d$ -dimensional polytopes with about $3^{d/2}\approx (1.73)^d$ vertices and of centrally symmetric $k$ -neighborly $d$ -polytopes with about $2^{{3d}/{20k^2 2^k}}$ vertices. Using this result, we construct for a fixed $k\ge 2$ and arbitrarily large $d$ and $N$ , a centrally symmetric $d$ -polytope with $N$ vertices that has at least $\left( 1-k^2\cdot (\gamma _k)^d\right) \genfrac(){0.0pt}{}{N}{k}$ faces of dimension $k-1$ , where $\gamma _2=1/\sqrt{3}\approx 0.58$ and $\gamma _k = 2^{-3/{20k^2 2^k}}$ for $k\ge 3$ . Another application is a construction of a set of $3^{\lfloor d/2 -1\rfloor }-1$ points in $\mathbb R ^d$ every two of which are strictly antipodal as well as a construction of an $n$ -point set (for an arbitrarily large $n$ ) in $\mathbb R ^d$ with many pairs of strictly antipodal points. The two latter results significantly improve the previous bounds by Talata, and Makai and Martini, respectively.     

Investigation of the octaethylporphin cationic forms in a silicate gel matrix by methods of low-temperature site selective spectroscopy

The spectral-luminescent properties of an octaethylporphin-doped inorganic xerogel prepared from tetraethoxysilane by the sol-gel method have been investigated. With the help of selective excitation and selective monitoring of fluorescence, it has been established that the octaethylporphin molecules, on their embedment into the gel matrix, form two cationic forms, dicationic and monocationic; the longest wavelength absorption band of the latter is shifted to the red. The significant influence of the gel matrix on the energy of the excited electronic Q states (S₁ and S₂) is shown. By the fluorescence line narrowing method at 4.2 K, fine-structure fluorescence and fluorescence excitation spectra of both forms have been obtained; the frequencies of the normal modes in the S₀ and S₁ states have been determined. The data on vibrational frequencies are interpreted on the basis of their juxtaposition with those from the fluorescence line narrowing spectrum of octaethylporphin and resonance Raman spectra of its complexes with copper and nickel. Cases of the appearance of out-of-plane vibrations in the fluorescence spectra have been revealed; their activation is explained by the nonplanarity of the porphyrin macrocycle for the cationic forms.     

On the time dependence of the dielectric dispersion for triglycine sulfate in the vicinity of the curie point

The evolution of the dielectric spectrum of triglycine sulfate with time is investigated in the frequency range from 20 MHz to 1 Hz at a temperature of 48.8°C for 420 min. It is revealed that the evolution of the dielectric spectrum exhibits a non-steady-state behavior due to the broadening of the relaxation-time spectrum. The process clearly manifests itself in a transformation of the Cole-Cole diagram with time. The transformation to a quasi-stationary state is completed in approximately 1 h. The phenomenon is explained by the retarded motion of domain walls. The inference is made that, for ferroelectrics, the time evolution of all parameters associated with the domain-wall state should be a universal property.