Atomically thin two-dimensional materials for functional electrodes of electrochemical devices

The development of atomically thin semiconductor nanocrystals for electrodes of various electrochemical devices is probably one of the fastest growing fields in the modern condensed conductive matter research. Two-dimensional (2D) nanocrystals have been established as a large class of nanostructures with unusual properties. In this study, specific characteristic, features and technologies of making the 2D nanocrystals including graphene for composite nanostructured electrodes of electrochemical devices are reviewed.     

Periodic motions and resonances of impact oscillators

Bilinear oscillators – the oscillators whose springs have different stiffnesses in compression and tension – model a wide range of phenomena. A limiting case of bilinear oscillator with infinite stiffness in compression – the impact oscillator – is studied here. We investigate a special set of impact times – the eigenset, which corresponds to the solution of the homogeneous equation, i.e. the oscillator without the driving force. We found that this set and its subsets are stable with respect to variation of initial conditions. Furthermore, amongst all periodic sets of impact times with the period commensurate with the period of driving force, the eigenset is the only one which can support resonances, in particular the multi-‘harmonic’ resonances. Other resonances should produce non-periodic sets of impact times. This funding indicates that the usual simplifying assumption [e.g., S.W. Shaw, P.J. Holmes, A periodically forced piecewise linear oscillator, Journal of Sound and Vibration 90 (1983) 129–155] that the times between impacts are commensurate with the period of the driving force does not always hold. We showed that for the first sub-‘harmonic resonance’ – the resonance achieved on a half frequency of the main resonance – the set of impact times is asymptotically close to the eigenset. The envelope of the oscillations in this resonance increases as a square root of time, opposite to the linear increase characteristic of multi-‘harmonic’ resonances.     

Dimer structures formed in smectic films by inclusions with parallel and antiparallel topological dipole moments

Self-organization of cholesteric and nematic droplets in smectic free-standing films is investigated. Strong tangential anchoring at the droplet boundary leads to nucleation of a topological defect and formation of a topological dipole from the droplet and the defect. The interaction between droplets results in assembly of the droplets in dimers and line chains. Topological dipoles of the droplet-defect pairs can be oriented in dimers with polar (ferroelectric) and nonpolar (antiferroelectric) ordering. In this paper we found novel dimer structures formed by droplets with different handedness of the c-director field near the droplets. Depending on the relative magnitude of the droplet dipoles the resulting structure may be dipolar or quadrupolar. Formation of antiferroelectric dimers is discussed on the basis of electromagnetic analogy.     

2.1 Tesla permanent-magnet Faraday isolator for subkilowatt average power lasers

A Faraday isolator with one magneto-optical element providing 31 dB isolation ratio for 330 W average power lasers was produced and investigated in an experiment. These remarkable parameters were achieved by increasing the magnetic field and using a [0 0 1] oriented TGG crystal.     

Coexistence of superfluid and solid helium in aerogel

The results of recent neutron scattering studies of solid helium in silica aerogel are discussed. Previously I.V. Kalinin et al., Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 87 (1), 743 (2008) [JETP Lett. 87 (1), 645 (2008)], we detected the existence of a superfluid phase in solid helium at a temperature below 0.6 K and a pressure of 51 bar, although, according to the phase diagram, helium should be in the solid state under these conditions. This work is a continuation of the above studies whose main goal was to examine the detected phenomenon and to establish basic parameters of the existence of a superfluid phase. We have determined the temperature of the superfluid transition from solid to superfluid helium, T _C = 1.3 K, by analyzing experimental data. The superfluid phase excitation parameters (lifetime, intensity, and energy) have a temperature dependence similar to that of bulk helium. The superfluid phase coexists with the solid phase in the entire measured temperature range from T = 0.05 K to T _C and is a nonequilibrium one and disappears at T _C.     

Symmetry of electrostatic interaction between pyrophosphate DNA molecules

We study chiral electrostatic interaction between artificial ideal homopolymer DNA-like molecules in which a number of phosphate groups of the sugar-phosphate backbone are exchanged for the pyrophosphate ones. We employ a model in which the DNA is considered as a one-dimensional lattice of dipoles and charges corresponding to base pairs and (pyro)phosphate groups, respectively. The interaction between molecules of the DNA is described by a pair potential U of electrostatic forces between the two sets of dipoles and charges belonging to respective lattices describing the molecules. Minima of the potential U indicate orientational ordering of the molecules and thus liquid crystalline phases of the DNA. We use numerical methods for finding the set of minima in conjunction with symmetries verified by the potential U . The symmetries form a non-commutative group of 8th order, S . Using the group S we suggest a classification of liquid crystalline phases of the DNA, which allows several cholesteric phases, that is polymorphism. Pyrophosphate forms of the DNA could clarify the role played by charges in their liquid crystalline phases, and open experimental research, important for nano-technological and bio-medical applications.     

Circular Dichroism Spectra of DNA Dispersions and Textures of DNA Phases

Optics and Spectroscopy - Circular dichroism (CD) spectra of liquid crystalline dispersions formed as a result of phase exclusion of double-stranded DNA molecules from aqueous-salt-poly(ethylene...     

Multicomponent loschmidt echo and mixing in the quantum dynamics of systems with dense discrete spectra

A dynamic problem for a system coupled to a reservoir possessing a dense discrete spectrum of states has been analytically solved under two simplifying assumptions proposed by Zwanzig [15], according to which the reservoir spectrum is equidistant and all the system-reservoir coupling matrix elements are identical (i.e., independent of reservoir states). It is demonstrated that a multicomponent Loschmidt echo arises in each recurrence cycles, the number of components being equal to the cycle number. At a certain critical cycle number, the components of neighboring cycles exhibit mixing. As a result, the dynamics of the system transforms from a regular to stochastic-like dynamics, in which an arbitrarily small coarse graining (inherent in any real system) of the results of measurements or uncertainty in the initial conditions leads to (i) the loss of one-to-one correspondence between the discrete spectrum of eigenvalues and the state of the system and (ii) the loss of invariance with respect to the time reversal. Interrelation between the mixing of cycles with the entanglement of trajectories, on the one hand, and the overlap of resonances in classical systems with mixing, on the other hand, is discussed. The properties of the proposed model are consistent with a variety of the kinetic regimes of vibrational relaxation (from exponential decay to irregular, weakly damping oscillations) observed in various objects. Common features are average distances between neighboring levels on the order of 1–10 cm^?1 and recurrence cycles on a time scale of 10^–13–10^?11 s, which is studied using femtosecond spectroscopy techniques.     

Collapse of islands in freely suspended smectic nanofilms

A time-nonlinear stage of the collapse of islands in freely suspended smectic nanofilms is observed and investigated. Islands thicker than a nanofilm are prepared and studied, which are unstable inside the dislocation loops, since they increase the energy of the film. Such instability leads to the decrease in the size of islands and is terminated by their collapse. The time dependence of the size of islands is measured experimentally. It is shown that the found dependence is in agreement with the theory of the dynamics of dislocation loops in smectic films developed earlier with allowance for the dissipation of energy in the film and in the meniscus. A nontrivial dynamic coupling between islands in a film resembling Ostwald ripening is also found, though the nonequilibrium kinetics of unstable islands, at which the hydrodynamic flow through a film leads to the decrease in sizes of one island and the increase in those of the other, rather than of the growth of the nucleation centers in the thermodynamically stable phase from the metastable state of the system (described by the Lifshitz–Slezov theory in films), is studied in our experiments.     

Ferrielectric smectic phase with a layer-by-layer change of the two-component order parameter

One of the most remarkable properties of smectics is the wide variety of possible equilibrium structures. In this paper, based on the Landau theory of the phase transitions, the transitions between ferroelectric and antiferroelectric phases and the structure formed by smectic layers with different azimuthal and polar orientations of the molecules were calculated. This unique structure has been predicted [P.V. Dolganov et al., JETP Lett. 76, 498 (2002)] using the minimization of the free energy with respect to the phase and modulus of the two-component order parameter, but never before detected. Recently, a nonresonant Bragg reflection, consistent with the predictions of the model, was found [P. Fernandes et al., Eur. Phys. J. E 20, 81 (2006)] in the ferrielectric smectic C* _FI1(SmC* _FI1) phase. In the three-layer ferrielectric structure with a macroscopic helical pitch, the modulus of the order parameter is larger in anticlinic-like layers and smaller in layers with mixed ordering. The values of the interlayer interactions were determined for smectic liquid-crystalline materials forming different polar structures. The text was submitted by the authors in English.