Infrared picosecond absorption spectroscopy of microcrystalline silicon: separation between carrier recombination in crystalline and amorphous fractions

We have studied ultra-fast carrier dynamics of photo-excited carriers in hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon prepared by a very high frequency glow-discharge technique. We report on direct observation of two types of dynamics using selective photo-excitation in picosecond pump and probe measurements. One type of the observed dynamics has been found to be independent of the sample preparation, while the other reflects the relative weights of crystalline and amorphous fractions. We propose a simple rate-equation model that describes the carrier dynamics in microcrystalline silicon in terms of the composition of those in Si microcrystallites and in the a-Si:H tissue which surrounds the microcrystallites. The model without any fitting parameters reproduces the experimental data very well when the dynamics are scaled with relative volume fractions as obtained from Raman spectra. Received: 23 November 2000 / Accepted: 17 March 2001 / Published online: 23 May 2001     

Newton-Leibniz integration for ket-bra operators in quantum mechanics and derivation of entangled state representations

Newton-Leibniz integration rule only applies to commuting functions of continuum variables, while operators made of Dirac’s symbols (ket versus bra, e.g., |q〉〈q| of continuous parameter q) in quantum mechanics are usually not commutative. Therefore, integrations over the operators of type |〉〈| cannot be directly performed by Newton-Leibniz rule. We invented an innovative technique of integration within an ordered product (IWOP) of operators that made the integration of non-commutative operators possible. The IWOP technique thus bridges this mathematical gap between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics, and further reveals the beauty and elegance of Dirac’s symbolic method and transformation theory. Various applications of the IWOP technique, including constructing the entangled state representations and their applications, are presented.     

Generation of 3rd and 5th harmonics in a thin superconducting film by temperature oscillations and isothermal nonlinear current response

The generation of harmonics of the voltage response is considered when an AC current is applied through a superconducting film above T_c. It is shown that almost at all temperatures the mechanism of the temperature oscillations created by the AC current and the temperature dependence of the resistance dominates over the isothermal nonlinear electric conductivity. Only in a narrow critical region close to T_c the latter is essential for the generation of the harmonics. A detailed investigation of harmonics generation provides an accurate method for measuring the thermal boundary conductance between the film and the insulating substrate. The critical behaviour of the third harmonic will give a new method for the determination of the lifetime of metastable Cooper pairs above T_c. The comparison of the calculated fifth harmonics of the voltage with the experiment is proposed as an important test for the applicability of the employed theoretical models. Received 8 September 2001     

Exact solutions and geometric phase factor of time-dependent three-generator quantum systems

There exist a number of typical and interesting systems and/or models, which possess three-generator Lie-algebraic structure, in atomic physics, quantum optics, nuclear physics and laser physics. The well-known fact that all simple 3-generator algebras are either isomorphic to the algebra sl (2, C) or to one of its real forms enables us to treat these time-dependent quantum systems in a unified way. By making use of both the Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant theory and the invariant-related unitary transformation formulation, the present paper obtains exact solutions of the time-dependent Schr?dinger equations governing various three-generator Lie-algebraic quantum systems. For some quantum systems whose time-dependent Hamiltonians have no quasialgebraic structures, it is shown that the exact solutions can also be obtained by working in a sub-Hilbert-space corresponding to a particular eigenvalue of the conserved generator (i.e., the time-independent invariant that commutes with the time-dependent Hamiltonian). The topological property of geometric phase factors and its adiabatic limit in time-dependent systems is briefly discussed. Received 6 July 2002 / Received in final form 21 October 2002 Published online 11 February 2003     

Numerical analysis of reversible A B C reaction-diffusion systems

We develop an effective numerical method of studying large-time properties of reversible reaction-diffusion systems of type A + B ↔ C with initially separated reactants. Using it we find that there are three types of asymptotic reaction zones. In particular we show that the reaction rate can be locally negative and concentrations of species A and B can be nonmonotonic functions of the space coordinate x, locally significantly exceeding their initial values. Received 6 June 2002 / Received in final form 20 January 2003 Published online 7 May 2003     

Interplay of charge, spin, orbital and lattice correlations in colossal magnetoresistance manganites

We derive a realistic microscopic model for doped colossal magnetoresistance manganites, which includes the dynamics of charge, spin, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom on a quantum mechanical level. The model respects the SU(2) spin symmetry and the full multiplet structure of the manganese ions within the cubic lattice. Concentrating on the hole doped domain ( 0≤x≤0.5) we study the influence of the electron-lattice interaction on spin and orbital correlations by means of exact diagonalisation techniques. We find that the lattice can cause a considerable suppression of the coupling between spin and orbital degrees of freedom and show how changes in the magnetic correlations are reflected in dynamic phonon correlations. In addition, our calculation gives detailed insights into orbital correlations and demonstrates the possibility of complex orbital states. Received 4 September 2002 / Received in final form 8 November 2002 Published online 31 December 2002     

Vibrational modes and infrared absorption of interstitial oxygen in silicon

A quasi-linear Si₂O molecule model (QLMM) is suggested from an analysis of the configuration and the interactions of an isolated oxygen atom with its neighbor silicon atoms. The vibrational modes are assigned and the infrared absorption spectra are calculated in detail with the model. The theoretical results are in reasonably good agreement with reported experimental values. This agreement shows that for the analysis of the vibrational modes of the interstitial oxygen atom in silicon crystals it is not necessary to consider the coupling of the molecule with the rest of the lattice. The interaction of the oxygen atom with its six second-nearest silicon atoms only causes the level separation of the ₂ mode and the formation of the fine structure.     

Electromagnetic fission of238U at 600 and 1000 MeV per nucleon

Electromagnetic fission of²³⁸U projectiles at E/A =600 and 1000 MeV was studied with the ALADIN spectrometer at the heavy-ion synchrotron SIS. Seven different targets (Be, C, Al, Cu, In, Au and U) were used. By considering only those fission events where the two charges added up to 92, most of the nuclear interactions were excluded. The nuclear contributions to the measured fission cross sections were determined by extrapolating from beryllium to the heavier targets with the concept of factorization. The obtained cross sections for electromagnetic fission are well reproduced by extended Weizsäcker-Williams calculations which include E1 and E2 excitations. The asymmetry of the fission fragments' charge distribution gives evidence for the excitation of the double giant-dipole resonance in uranium.Communicated by V. Metag     

Dynamical tunneling through a chaotic region

It is shown that a non-vibrating diatomic molecule (i.e. a rigid rotor) in the presence of a strong laser field changes its hindered rotational motion (which on the average is in resonance with the oscillating time dependent field) from anti-clockwise to clockwise (hindered) rotational motion. This transition is classically forbidden and is another example of a quantum mechanical tunneling phenomenon occurring due to the time-reversal symmetry of the Hamiltonian. Classically, the two stable rotational modes are separated by an extended chaotic region in phase space. The Husimi representation of the quasienergy states of the time-periodic quantum system enables us to localize wave packets inside the classical stability islands. The effect of the field and the molecular parameters on the perioid of this oscillation is obtained from the quasienergy splittings without the need to carry out long time dependent computations. An analytical analysis of the dynamical tunneling using an extended version of the (t,t) formalism recently developed (J. Chem. Phys.99, 4590 (1993)) is in remarkable agreement with the numerical results.Member of the Minerva center of non-linear physics of complex systems at the Technion     

Large-Quantity Synthesis of Single-Crystalline Metal Indium Nano/Sub-Micron Wires

Large quantities of metal indium single-crystalline wires with diameters ranging from tens of nanometres to a few micrometres were synthesized on Si substrates. Unlike traditional methods for the fabrication of nanowires or nanorods, liquid indium was squeezed out of the pores and cracks from porous an InAlN layer to form the wires. Continuous pushing out of liquid metal indium under strength, lowering of liquid-solid interfaces and the confinement of the cracks all contribute to the growth of indium wires. Our experiments have shed some light on the possibility of synthesizing large quantities quasi-1D nano/sub-micron structures with specified cross-sectional geometry using the similar method.