A proposed direct measurement of cross section at Gamow window for key reaction ~(19)F( p,α)~(16)O in Asymptotic Giant Branch stars with a planned accelerator in CJPL

In 2014, the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC) approved the Jinping Underground Nuclear Astrophysics laboratory(JUNA) project, which aims at direct cross-section measurements of four key stellar nuclear reactions right down to the Gamow windows. In order to solve the observed fluorine overabundances in Asymptotic Giant Branch(AGB) stars, measuring the key ~(19)F( p,α)~(16)O reaction at effective burning energies(i.e., at Gamow window) is established as one of the scientific research sub-projects. The present paper describes this sub-project in details, including motivation, status, experimental setup, yield and background estimation, aboveground test, as well as other relevant reactions.     

A one-equation turbulence model for recirculating flows

A one-equation turbulence model which relies on the turbulent kinetic energy transport equation has been developed to predict the flow properties of the recirculating flows. The turbulent eddy-viscosity coefficient is computed from a recalibrated Bradshaw’s assumption that the constant a₁ = 0.31 is recalibrated to a function based on a set of direct numerical simulation (DNS) data. The values of dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy consist of the near-wall part and isotropic part, and the isotropic part involves the von Karman length scale as the turbulent length scale. The performance of the new model is evaluated by the results from DNS for fully developed turbulence channel flow with a wide range of Reynolds numbers. However, the computed result of the recirculating flow at the separated bubble of NACA4412 demonstrates that an increase is needed on the turbulent dissipation, and this leads to an advanced tuning on the self-adjusted function. The improved model predicts better results in both the non-equilibrium and equilibrium flows, e.g. channel flows, backward-facing step flow and hump in a channel.     

Concerted diffusion, clustering, and magnetic properties of Mn dopants on a 2 x 2-T4 GaN(0001) substrate

Based on first-principles calculations within density functional theory, we propose a kinetic pathway for Mn incorporation on reconstructed 2 x 2-T4 GaN(0001), characterized by concerted substitution of a Ga atom by a Mn adatom via a precursor surface site T4. The Mn dopants at low densities are randomly distributed, resulting in intrinsic diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS). At high Mn densities, planar ferromagnetic clusters oriented in the (0001) plane can be readily formed at relatively low growth temperatures, but ferrimagnetic zigzag columns along the growth orientation will be formed at high temperatures. Furthermore, intrinsic DMS are more likely to be formed via codeposition of Mn+Ga+N at high growth rates. These findings help to explain the observed variations in both the magnetic ordering temperature TC and the magnetic nature of Ga1-xMnxN.     

Time-resolved shadowgraphs of material ejection in intense femtosecond laser ablation of aluminum

The dynamic process of intense 50 fs laser ablation of aluminum is investigated by ultrafast time-resolved microscopy. A stripe pattern preceding phase explosion is clearly seen in the shadowgraph of 1 ns time delay. Intermittent material ejections are observed within the ejected plume after 2.5 and 7 ns time delay, respectively, which may be attributed to the material response to the generation of an extremely strong thermoelastic wave. Similar processes are also recorded in the ablation of silicon and glass samples, except for the glass samples, the intermittent material ejections are not found.     

Evolution of the electronic structure of 1T-Cu(x)TiSe(2)

The electronic structure of a new charge-density-wave system or superconductor, 1T-Cu(x)TiSe(2), has been studied by photoemission spectroscopy. A correlated semiconductor band structure is revealed for the undoped case, which resolves a long-standing controversy in the system. With Cu doping, the charge-density wave is suppressed by the raising of the chemical potential, while the superconductivity is enhanced by the enhancement of the density of states, and possibly suppressed at higher doping by the strong scattering.     

Experimental realization of one-way quantum computing with two-photon four-qubit cluster states

We report an experimental realization of one-way quantum computing on a two-photon four-qubit cluster state. This is accomplished by developing a two-photon cluster state source entangled both in polarization and spatial modes. With this special source, we implemented a highly efficient Grover's search algorithm and high-fidelity two-qubit quantum gates. Our experiment demonstrates that such cluster states could serve as an ideal source and a building block for rapid and precise optical quantum computation.     

Imaging intrinsic diffusion of bridge-bonded oxygen vacancies on TiO2(110)

We report the first measurements and calculations of the intrinsic mobility of bridge-bonded oxygen (BBO) vacancies on a rutile TiO2(110). The sequences of isothermal (340-420 K) scanning tunneling microscope images show that BBO vacancies migrate along BBO rows. The hopping rate increases exponentially with increasing temperature with an experimental activation energy of 1.15 eV. Density functional theory calculations are in very good agreement giving an energy barrier for hopping of 1.03 eV. Both theory and experiment indicate repulsive interactions between vacancies on a given BBO row.     

First-principles study of defect-induced magnetism in carbon

We have studied the role of defects on the magnetic properties of carbon materials using first-principles density functional methods. We show that, while the total magnetization decreases both for diamond and graphite with increase in vacancy density, the magnetization decreases more rapidly for graphitic structures. The presence of nitrogen nearby a vacancy is shown to produce larger macroscopic magnetic signals as compared to a standalone carbon vacancy. The results indicate the possibility of tuning magnetization in carbon by controlled defect generation and doping.     

Electric field effect tuning of electron-phonon coupling in graphene

Gate-modulated low-temperature Raman spectra reveal that the electric field effect (EFE), pervasive in contemporary electronics, has marked impacts on long-wavelength optical phonons of graphene. The EFE in this two-dimensional honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms creates large density modulations of carriers with linear dispersion (known as Dirac fermions). Our EFE Raman spectra display the interactions of lattice vibrations with these unusual carriers. The changes of phonon frequency and linewidth demonstrate optically the particle-hole symmetry about the charge-neutral Dirac point. The linear dependence of the phonon frequency on the EFE-modulated Fermi energy is explained as the electron-phonon coupling of massless Dirac fermions.     

Ferroelectricity in an s=1/2 chain cuprate

We report our discovery of ferroelectricity in the spiral-magnetic state in the quantum quasi-one-dimensional (1D) S=1/2 magnet of LiCu2O2. Electric polarization (P) emerges along the c direction below the spiral-magnetic order temperature, but changes from the c to a axis when magnetic fields (H) are applied along the b direction. We also found that P(c) increases with H(c), and P(a) appears with H(a). LiCu2O2 in zero field appears to be the first ferroelectric cuprate and also a prototypical example of the "1D spiral-magnetic ferroelectrics." However, the unexpected behavior in H may demonstrate the complexity of the ordered spin configuration, inherent in the 1D S=1/2 magnet of LiCu2O2.