Origin of the asymmetric magnetization reversal behavior in exchange-biased systems: competing anisotropies

The magnetization reversal in exchange-biased ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic (FM-AFM) bilayers is investigated. Different reversal pathways on each branch of the hysteresis loop, i.e., asymmetry, are obtained both experimentally and theoretically when the magnetic field is applied at certain angles from the anisotropy direction. The range of angles and the magnitude of this asymmetry are determined by the ratio between the FM anisotropy and the interfacial FM-AFM exchange anisotropy. The occurrence of asymmetry is linked with the appearance of irreversibility, i.e., finite coercivity, as well as with the maximum of exchange bias, increasing for larger anisotropy ratios. Our results indicate that asymmetric hysteresis loops are intrinsic to exchange-biased systems and the competition between anisotropies determines the asymmetric behavior of the magnetization reversal.     

Can MRI Contribute to the Understanding and Therapy of Mental Diseases?

The nowadays most accepted hypothesis of the origin of mental diseases is an impaired connectivity between various brain areas. Magnetic resonance tractography reveals structural connectivities through neuronal fibers and resting state functional imaging allows one to visualize functional connectivities. The detection of the small signal changes needs the highest sensitivity and the magnetic resonance imaging scans must be repeated as fast as possible. Statistical evaluation and cross correlation of the signals in all voxels show synchrony of signal-level fluctuations even in remote brain areas. This makes it possible to establish brain networks. The most important of them are the default mode network, the salience network, and the central executive network. Applications to schizophrenia and depression will be discussed. In deep brain stimulation, the excitation, currently used for therapy of Parkinson’s disease, is now introduced for therapy of major depressive disorder and can be taylored to the necessary brain location.     

"Safe" Coulomb excitation of 30Mg

We report on the first radioactive beam experiment performed at the recently commissioned REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN in conjunction with the highly efficient gamma spectrometer MINIBALL. Using 30Mg ions accelerated to an energy of 2.25 MeV/u together with a thin (nat)Ni target, Coulomb excitation of the first excited 2+ states of the projectile and target nuclei well below the Coulomb barrier was observed. From the measured relative deexcitation gamma-ray yields the B(E2;0(+)gs-->2(+)1) value of 30Mg was determined to be 241(31)e2 fm4. Our result is lower than values obtained at projectile fragmentation facilities using the intermediate-energy Coulomb excitation method, and confirms the theoretical conjecture that the neutron-rich magnesium isotope 30Mg resides outside the "island of inversion."     

Loss of Ergodicity in the Transition from Annealed to Quenched Disorder in a Finite Kinetic Ising Model

We consider a kinetic Ising model which represents a generic agent-based model for various types of socio-economic systems. We study the case of a finite (and not necessarily large) number of agents N as well as the asymptotic case when the number of agents tends to infinity. The main ingredient are individual decision thresholds which are either fixed over time (corresponding to quenched disorder in the Ising model, leading to nonlinear deterministic dynamics which are generically non-ergodic) or which may change randomly over time (corresponding to annealed disorder, leading to ergodic dynamics). We address the question how increasing the strength of annealed disorder relative to quenched disorder drives the system from non-ergodic behavior to ergodicity. Mathematically rigorous analysis provides an explicit and detailed picture for arbitrary realizations of the quenched initial thresholds, revealing an intriguing “jumpy” transition from non-ergodicity with many absorbing sets to ergodicity. For large N we find a critical strength of annealed randomness, above which the system becomes asymptotically ergodic. Our theoretical results suggests how to drive a system from an undesired socio-economic equilibrium (e.g. high level of corruption) to a desirable one (low level of corruption).     

High resolution spectroscopy of (lambda)(12)B by electroproduction

An experiment measuring electroproduction of hypernuclei has been performed in hall A at Jefferson Lab on a 12C target. In order to increase counting rates and provide unambiguous kaon identification two superconducting septum magnets and a ring imaging Cherenkov detector were added to the hall A standard equipment. An unprecedented energy resolution of less than 700 keV FWHM has been achieved. Thus, the observed (Lambda)(12)B spectrum shows for the first time identifiable strength in the core-excited region between the ground-state s-wave Lambda peak and the 11 MeV p-wave Lambda peak.     

Anomalous lattice response at the Mott transition in a quasi-2D organic conductor

Discontinuous changes of the lattice parameters at the Mott metal-insulator transition are detected by high-resolution dilatometry on deuterated crystals of the layered organic conductor kappa-(BEDT-TTF)(2)Cu[N(CN)(2)]Br. The uniaxial expansivities uncover a striking and unexpected anisotropy, notably a zero effect along the in-plane c axis along which the electronic interactions are relatively strong. A huge thermal expansion anomaly is observed near the end point of the first-order transition line enabling us to explore the critical behavior with very high sensitivity. The analysis yields critical fluctuations with an exponent alpha approximately 0.8+/-0.15 at odds with the novel criticality recently proposed for these materials [Kagawa et al., Nature (London) 436, 534 (2005)]. Our data suggest an intricate role of the lattice degrees of freedom in the Mott transition for the present materials.     

Nanostructures in calcia stabilized hafnia thin films observed by PAC as a function of temperature

The hyperfine quadrupole interaction at Hf sites in films and powders of 14 mol% CaO–HfO₂ and 20 mol% CaO–HfO₂ has been determined as a function of temperature. Results indicate the formation of a cubic solid solution and other microstructures assigned to the ?₁ (CaHf₄O₉) and ?₂ (Ca₆Hf₁₉O₄₄) phases. Dynamical effects on the electric field gradient reveal the existence of oxygen vacancies movements in the solid solution. The thermal behavior of the relaxation constant observed in films allowed the determination of activation energies of 0.54 eV and 0.70 eV for the 14 mol% and 20 mol% CaO doped hafnias, respectively. The influence of the microdomains and the stability of the cubic solid solution are discussed.     

Accumulation of Stark-decelerated NH molecules in a magnetic trap

Here we report on the accumulation of ground-state NH molecules in a static magnetic trap. A pulsed supersonic beam of NH (a¹Δ) radicals is produced and brought to a near standstill at the center of a quadrupole magnetic trap using a Stark decelerator. There, optical pumping of the metastable NH radicals to the X³Σ^? ground state is performed by driving the spin-forbidden A³Π ← a¹Δ transition, followed by spontaneous A → X emission. The resulting population in the various rotational levels of the ground state is monitored via laser induced fluorescence detection. A substantial fraction of the ground-state NH molecules stays confined in the several milliKelvin deep magnetic trap. The loading scheme allows one to increase the phase-space density of trapped molecules by accumulating packets from consecutive deceleration cycles in the trap. In the present experiment, accumulation of six packets is demonstrated to result in an overall increase of only slightly over a factor of two, limited by the trap-loss and reloading rates.     

Ion-beam analysis of the structure and composition of nanocomposite nc-TiC/a-C:H coatings

The structure and composition of nanocomposite nc-TiC/a-C:H thin films prepared by closed-field unbalanced reactive magnetron sputtering in an argon-acetylene atmosphere have been investigated. The concentrations of carbon and heavier elements have been obtained by Rutherford backscattering and nuclear backscattering. The hydrogen concentration in the films has been determined by elastic recoil detection analysis. Based on the data obtained, a scheme has been proposed to evaluate the C:H matrix mass density and the sp ³ and sp ² fractions in the matrix.