Ferroelectricity in antiferromagnetic phases of Eu1−xY xMnO3

This work reports an experimental investigation of the ferroelectric character of magnetic phases of the orthorhombic Eu_1−xY _xMnO₃ system at low temperatures. The temperature dependence of the polarization curves clearly reveals the existence of a re-entrant improper ferroelectric phase for x=0.2, 0.3 and 0.5. A ferroelectric phase is also stable for x=0.4, and we have no experimental evidence for its vanishing down to 7 K. From these and early results obtained using other experimental techniques, the corresponding (x,T) phase diagram was traced, yielding significant differences with regard to the ones previously reported.     

Surface tension in field theory at finite temperature: Semiclassical fermionic plus bosonic contributions

We compute, within the one loop approximation, the temperature dependent surface tension for a model involving a scalar field coupled to a fermionic field. The fermionic and bosonic contributions have been computed in this approximation by evaluating explicitly the determinants in the presence of a domain wall.     

Geodesic motion in the neighbourhood of submanifolds embedded in warped product spaces

We study the classical geodesic motions of nonzero rest mass test particles and photons in (3 + 1 + n)- dimensional warped product spaces. An important feature of these spaces is that they allow a natural decoupling between the motions in the (3 + 1)-dimensional spacetime and those in the extra n dimensions. Using this decoupling and employing phase space analysis we investigate the conditions for confinement of particles and photons to the (3 + 1)- spacetime submanifold. In addition to providing information regarding the motion of photons, we also show that these motions are not constrained by the value of the extrinsic curvature. We obtain the general conditions for the confinement of geodesics in the case of pseudo-Riemannian manifolds as well as establishing the conditions for the stability of such confinement. These results also generalise a recent result of the authors concerning the embeddings of hypersurfaces with codimension one.     

Structural, vibrational and optical studies on an amorphous Se90P10 alloy produced by mechanical alloying

We investigated some physicochemical properties of an amorphous Se(90)P(10) alloy produced by mechanical alloying through x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, optical absorption spectroscopy and EXAFS techniques. The total structure factor obtained from x-ray diffraction and the EXAFS χ(k) oscillations on the Se K edge were used in reverse Monte Carlo simulations to obtain structural information such as average coordination numbers and interatomic distances and the distribution of structural units present in the alloy. In addition, we also determined the vibrational modes and the optical band gap energy of the alloy.     

Ferroelectric switching behavior of pulsed laser deposited Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3 thin films

The effect of pulse amplitude on the ferroelectric and switching properties of pulsed laser deposited Ba_0.8Sr_0.2TiO₃ thin films has been studied. The structural and morphological analysis revealed that the films had a well crystallized perovskite phase and grain size of about 30–40 nm. A well saturated P–E hysteresis loop was observed with a remnant polarization (P_r) ≈ 4.8 μC/cm² and a coercive field ≈ 100 kV/cm at a frequency of 1 kHz. The P_r has been found to be decreased only 4.3% after passing 8.0 × 10⁸ cycles. The analysis of switching response with nucleation limited switching model reveals that characteristic switching time (t₀) variance is due to the random distribution of the local electric fields. The peak value of polarization current and t₀ exhibits exponential dependence on reciprocal of pulse amplitude.     

H2O2–Ng dynamics predictions using an accurate potential energy surface

ABSTRACT

Based on ab initio calculations, our research group has built an analytical ground-state potential energy surface (PES) for hydrogen peroxide– noble gas (Ng) interactions, such as H₂O₂–He, H₂O₂–Ne, H₂O₂–Ar, H₂O₂–Kr, and H₂O₂–Xe complexes. From this PES, it was verified that the Ng presence does not affect the equilibrium values of the H₂O₂ dihedral angles. This happens because the H₂O₂ intramolecular barriers have much higher energies than the atom–bond interaction within these complexes. From this point of view, it is indeed reasonable to consider the H₂O₂ system as a rigid rotor, frozen at its equilibrium configuration. We present in this work the torsional motion for the H₂O₂ isolated system, the vibration–rotation energy levels and spectroscopic constants for hydrogen peroxide–noble gas by using the aforementioned PES. The predicted H₂O₂ torsional motions are in good agreement with both theoretical and experimental results available in the literature. Regarding H₂O₂–Ng ro-vibrational energies and spectroscopic constants, it is the first time that these calculations are presented in the literature. The current theoretical predictions are expected to be useful in the future experimental investigations.     

Analysis of metallic nanoparticles embedded in thin film semiconductors for optoelectronic applications

This paper reports about a study of the local plasmonic resonance (LSPR) produced by metal nanoparticles embedded in a dielectric or semiconductor matrix. It is presented an analysis of the LSPR for different nanoparticle metals, shapes, and embedding media composition. Metals of interest for nanoparticle composition are Aluminum and Gold. Shapes of interest are nanospheres and nanotriangles. We study in this work the optical properties of metal nanoparticles diluted in water or embedded in amorphous silicon, ITO and ZnO as a function of size, aspect-ratio and metal type. Following the analysis based on the exact solution of the Mie theory and DDSCAT numerical simulations, it is presented a comparison with experimental measurements realized with arrays of metal nanospheres. Simulations are also compared with the LSPR produced by gold nanotriangles (Au NTs) that were chemically produced and characterized by microscope and optical measurements.     

Fluorescent Properties of a Hybrid Cadmium Sulfide-Dendrimer Nanocomposite and its Quenching with Nitromethane

A fluorescent hybrid cadmium sulphide quantum dots (QDs) dendrimer nanocomposite (DAB-CdS) synthesised in water and stable in aqueous solution is described. The dendrimer, DAB-G5 dendrimer (polypropylenimine tetrahexacontaamine) generation 5, a diaminobutene core with 64 amine terminal primary groups. The maximum of the excitation and emission spectra, Stokes’ shift and the emission full width of half maximum of this nanocomposite are, respectively: 351, 535, 204 and 212 nm. The fluorescence time decay was complex and a four component decay time model originated a good fit (χ = 1.20) with the following lifetimes: τ ₁ = 657 ps; τ ₂ = 10.0 ns; τ ₃ = 59.42 ns; and τ ₄ = 265 ns. The fluorescence intensity of the nanocomposite is markedly quenched by the presence of nitromethane with a dynamic Stern-Volmer constant of 25 M⁻¹. The quenching profiles show that about 81% of the CdS QDs are located in the external layer of the dendrimer accessible to the quencher. PARAFAC analysis of the excitation emission matrices (EEM) acquired as function of the nitromethane concentration showed a trilinear data structure with only one linearly independent component describing the quenching which allows robust estimation of the excitation and emission spectra and of the quenching profiles. This water soluble and fluorescent nanocomposite shows a set of favourable properties to its use in sensor applications.