Proximity Effect in Heterostructures Based on a Superconductor/Half-Metal System

JETP Letters - We have demonstrated that with increasing the exchange splitting of the conduction band of a ferromagnet and, respectively, of the degree of the spin polarization, the probability of...     

Electrochemical reduction of 1,1-dihalo-2,2-disubstituted cyclopropanes

The electrochemical reduction of 1,1-dihalo-2-R-2-methylcyclopropanes was studied by polarography and preparative electrolysis. A mixture of stereoisomeric monoboro- and monochlorocyclopropanes was obtained with preparative yield of 60–70% in preparative electroreduction in methanol against a background of 0.1 M LiClO₄. In the case of bromine derivatives of cyclopropanes (except when R = CN) an effect was found on the part of the current density on the ratio of cis and trans isomers, which was interpreted as a change, in dependence on current density, of the contributions of the reactions of reduction of the starting compounds (S_N2 mechanism) and ionic pairs (S_N1 mechanism). The effect of the solvent (CHCl₃, DMF, DMSO, MeOH) and background salt (LiClO₄, Et₄NBr) on the ratio of stereoisomers is in agreement with this interpretation.A. E. Arbuzov Institute of Organic and Physical Chemistry, Kazan Science Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kazan. Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 9, pp. 2023–2032, September, 1992.     

Proximity effect in superconductor/ferromagnet layered system: Influence of superconductivity on magnetic properties of Nb/Fe epitaxial bilayers

Magnetic and superconducting properties of Fe/Nb epitaxial bilayers have been studied. Single crystal Fe/Nb (110) bilayers with a Nb thicknessd _Nb in the range from 250 to 650 Å and with a Fe thicknessd _Fe in the range from 7 to 27 Å were prepared using molecular beam epitaxy techniques. Magnetization measurements showed the existence of a magnetically “dead” Fe-interface layer with a thicknessd _NM varying strongly with minor modifications of the growth conditions. For bilayers with a small magnetic layer thicknessd _M and a smalld _NM the FMR measurements revealed an anomalous decrease of the effective magnetization 4πM _eff of the ferromagnetic Fe layer below the superconducting transition temperatureT _c. The absolute change of 4πM _eff belowT _c depends strongly on the actual values ofd _M andd _NM: upon decreasing bothd _M andd _NM the effect increases considerably. As a possible mechanism for the anomalous temperature dependence of 4πM _eff belowT _c we discuss a spatial modulation of ferromagnetic order due to a modification of the RKKY inter-action in the superconducting state.     

Kinetics of the mediatory reduction ofgem-dichlorocyclopropanes

The effect of the nature of organic electron transfer agents and of Pt^II, Pd^II, Rh^II, Co^II, Ni^II, Cu^II, Cr^III, Mn^II, Ti^III, V^III, Zn^II, and Ag^I metal ions on the kinetics of the homogeneous reduction ofgem-dichlorocyclopropanes has been studied. Pt^II, Pd^II, Rh^III, Co^II, and Ni^II ions accelerate this process, V^III and Ag^I ions exert practically no effect on the reduction rate, and the rest of the metal ions exhibit inhibitor properties.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 8, pp. 1407–1410, August, 1993.     

A mechanistic investigation of (Me3Si)3SiH oxidation

The interaction of (Me₃Si)₃SiH with O₂ is known to afford (Me₃SiO)₂Si(H)SiMe₃ in which the two oxygen atoms arise from the same oxygen molecule. In order to investigate the mechanism of this unusual reaction, the oxidation rates were measured in the temperature range 30-70 °C by following oxygen uptake in the presence and absence of hydroquinone as inhibitor. The rate constant for the spontaneous reaction of (Me₃Si)₃SiH with O₂ was determined at 70 °C to be ∼3.5 × 10⁻⁵ M⁻¹ s⁻¹. A sequence of the propagation steps is proposed by combining the previous and present experimental findings with some theoretical results obtained at the semiempirical level. These calculations showed that the silylperoxyl radical (Me₃Si)₃SiOO undergoes three consecutive unimolecular steps to give (Me₃SiO)₂Si()SiMe₃. Evidence has been obtained that the rate determining step is the rearrangement of silylperoxyl radical to a dioxirand-like pentacoordinated silyl radical. Our findings are of considerable importance for the understanding of the oxidation of hydrogen-terminated silicon surfaces.     

Direct calculation of the crystal-melt interfacial free energy via molecular dynamics computer simulation

We review our recent work on the direct calculation of the interfacial free energy, gamma, of the crystal-melt interface via molecular dynamics computer simulation for a number of model systems. The value of gamma as a function of crystal orientation is determined using a thermodynamic integration technique employing moving cleaving walls [Phys. Rev. Lett. 2000, 85, 4751]. The calculation is sufficiently precise to resolve the small anisotropy in gamma, which is crucial in determining the kinetics and morphology of dendritic growth. We report values of gamma for the hard-sphere and Lennard-Jones systems, as well as recent results on the series of inverse-power potentials. For the inverse sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-power systems, we determine gamma for both fcc and bcc crystal structures. For these systems, the bcc-melt gamma is lower than that for fcc crystals by about 25%, consistent with recent experiments and computer simulations on fcc-forming systems that show preferential formation of bcc nuclei in the initial stages of crystallization. In addition, we show that our results give a molecular interpretation of Turnbull's rule, which is the empirical relationship between gamma and the enthalpy of fusion.