Experimental simulation of the Unruh effect on an NMR quantum simulator

A triad mode resonance, or three-wave resonance, is typical of dynamical systems with quadratic nonlinearities. Suspended cables are found to be rich in triad mode resonant dynamics. In this paper, modulation equations for cable’s triad resonance are formulated by the multiple scale method. Dynamic conservative quantities, i.e., mode energy and Manley-Rowe relations, are then constructed. Equilibrium/dynamic solutions of the modulation equations are obtained, and full investigations into their stability and bifurcation characteristics are presented. Various bifurcation behaviors are detected in cable’s triad resonant responses, such as saddle-node, Hopf, pitchfork and period-doubling bifurcations. Nonlinear behaviors, like jump and saturation phenomena, are also found in cable’s responses. Based upon the bifurcation analysis, two interesting properties associated with activation of cable’s triad resonance are also proposed, i.e., energy barrier and directional dependence. The first gives the critical amplitude of high-frequency mode to activate cable’s triad resonance, and the second characterizes the degree of difficulty for activating cable’s triad resonance in two opposite directions, i.e., with positive or negative internal detuning parameter.     

Excitation dependent quenching of luminescence in LED phosphors

Droop, the decrease of efficiency with increased power density, became a major topic with InGaN LEDs, after its introduction in 2007. This paper provides insight into droop in localized center luminescence phosphors, exemplified here by Eu²⁺ doped materials. This topic is of increasing importance, as high brightness blue LEDs have reached outputs >1 W/mm². The nonlinearities in phosphor quantum efficiency result in drive‐dependent color point shift and reduction of overall efficiency of phosphor converted white LEDs which utilize Eu²⁺ activated phosphors. The efficiency quenching can be traced back to two processes, well‐known in laser physics, excited state absorption or/and cross relaxation by Foerster/Dexter transfer. Both processes lead to reduction in phosphor efficiency, but they can be differentiated. Understanding the root cause of efficiency quenching opens ways to minimize the practical consequences. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Observation of large low‐field magnetoresistance in spinel cobaltite: A new half‐metal

Low‐field magnetoresistance is an effective and energy‐saving way to use half‐metallic materials in magnetic reading heads and magnetic random access memory. Common spin‐polarized materials with low field magnetoresistance effect are perovskite‐type manganese, cobalt, and molybdenum oxides. In this study, we report a new type of spinel cobaltite materials, self‐assembled nanocrystalline NiCo₂O₄, which shows large low field magnetoresistance as large as –19.1% at 0.5 T and –50% at 9 T (2 K). The large low field magnetoresistance is attributed to the fast magnetization rotation of the core nanocrystals. The surface spin‐glass is responsible for the observed weak saturation of magnetoresistance under high fields. Our calculation demonstrates that the half‐metallicity of NiCo₂O₄ comes from the hopping e_g electrons within the tetrahedral Co‐atoms and the octahedral Ni‐atoms. The discovery of large low‐field magnetoresistance in simple spinel oxide NiCo₂O₄, a non‐perovskite oxide, leads to an extended family of low‐field magnetoresistance materials. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

p-Wave Feshbach molecules

We have produced and detected molecules using a p-wave Feshbach resonance between 40K atoms. We have measured the binding energy and lifetime for these molecules and we find that the binding energy scales approximately linearly with the magnetic field near the resonance. The lifetime of bound p-wave molecules is measured to be 1.0+/-0.1 ms and 2.3+/-0.2 ms for the ml=+/-1 and ml=0 angular momentum projections, respectively. At magnetic fields above the resonance, we detect quasibound molecules whose lifetime is set by the tunneling rate through the centrifugal barrier.     

Critical phenomena in head-on collisions of neutron stars

We find type I critical collapses of compact objects modeled by a polytropic equation of state (EOS) with a polytropic index Gamma=2 without the ultrarelativistic assumption. The object is formed in head-on collisions of neutron stars. Further, we show that the critical collapse can occur due to a change of the EOS, without fine-tuning of initial data. This opens the possibility that a neutron-star-like compact object, not just those formed in a collision, may undergo a critical collapse in processes which slowly change the EOS, such as cooling.     

Enhanced photovoltaic properties of polymer-fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells by thermal annealing

The effect of a thermal annealing treatment on the performance of bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells based on poly[2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-p-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) and fullerene (C₆₀) composites is investigated. Upon thermal annealing at 120 ^°C, short-circuit current and power conversion efficiency (η) are more than tripled, while a sharp rise by eight times in and η is found for the device annealed at 200 ^°C. It is concluded that the improved phase separation between MEH-PPV and C₆₀ leads to the enhancement of and η at 120 ^°C, while thermodynamic molecule arrangement at the higher temperature of ∼200 ^°C induces a significant increase in all photovoltaic parameters of composite devices except the open-circuit voltage .     

Negative refraction of complex lattices of dielectric cylinders

Some photonic crystals (PCs) consisting of complex lattices of dielectric cylinders can have an effective refraction index (neff$n_{\mathrm{eff}}$) of −1. Subwavelength imaging by a slab of a honeycomb PC of dielectric cylinders with neff=−1$n_{\mathrm{eff}}=-1$ is investigated and an open resonator with a quality factor higher than 3000 is designed with the same PC. Air–PC interfaces with low reflection are also used for the slab lens and open resonator.     

Syntheses and crystal structures of new mononuclear and binuclear ruthenium complexes supported by salicylaldimine ligands

Treatment of Ru₃(CO)₁₂ with salicylaldimines [2-HOC₆H₄-CH?=N–C₆H₄-4-R] [R?=?Me; Cl; Br; OMe; CF₃] in refluxing toluene gave three novel binuclear ruthenium carbonyl complexes {[µ-?²-2-OC₆H₄-CH=N-C₆H₄-4-R)][µ-?²-2-CH₂-OC₆H₄][µ-?-NH-C₆H₄-4-R]}Ru₂(CO)₄ [R?=?Me (1), Cl (2), Br (3)] and three mononuclear carbonyl complexes [2-OC₆H₄-CH=N-C₆H₄-4-R][2-OC₆H₄-CH₂NH-C₆H₄-4-R]Ru(CO)₂ [R?=?Me (4), OMe (5), CF₃ (6)], respectively. The structures of 1–6 were fully characterized using IR and NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. These results suggest that the substituent group on the phenyl of salicylaldimine has a significant effect on the structure of the Ru complex.

     

Preparation of copper ferrite by sol–gel method and the synergistic catalytic for the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate

Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology - In the present work, copper ferrite was prepared by a simple and mild sol–gel method followed by low-temperature calcination, and characterized by...     

Generation and Identification of the Linear OCBNO and OBNCO Molecules with 24 Valence Electrons

Two structural isomers containing five second-row element atoms with 24 valence electrons were generated and identified by matrix-isolation IR spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. The OCBNO complex, which is produced by the reaction of boron atoms with mixtures of carbon monoxide and nitric oxide in solid neon, rearranges to the more stable OBNCO isomer on UV excitation. Bonding analysis indicates that the OCBNO complex is best described by the bonding interactions between a triplet-state boron cation with an electron configuration of (2s)⁰(2p_σ)⁰(2p_π)² and the CO/NO⁻ ligands in the triplet state forming two degenerate electron-sharing π bonds and two ligand-to-boron dative σ bonds.