Tunneling of two interacting electrons in a quantum wire

A model calculation is reported for the tunneling probability of one as well as two interacting electrons from a quantum well within a narrow channel. We discuss the cases when the two electrons are spin polarized or unpolarized by transforming the system to a noninteracting one with the use of quantal density functional theory to obtain an effective single-particle confining potential. A semiclassical approach is used to obtain the tunneling probability from this effective potential. The calculation is motivated by recent measurements of the conductance of an electron gas in a narrow channel but is not meant to explain the anomalous behavior that has been reported since, for example, we deal with a simplified two-level system. Numerical results for the tunneling probability are presented.     

Anomalous electric-field effect and glassy behaviour in granular aluminium thin films: electron glass?

We present a study of non-equilibrium phenomena observed in the electrical conductance of insulating granular aluminium thin films. An anomalous field effect and its slow relaxation are studied in some detail. The phenomenology is very similar to the one already observed in indium oxide. The origin of the phenomena is discussed. In granular systems, the present experiments can naturally be interpreted along two different lines. One relies on a slow polarisation in the dielectric surrounding the metallic islands. The other one relies on a purely electronic mechanism: the formation of an electron Coulomb glass in the granular metal. More selective experiments and/or quantitative predictions about the Coulomb glass properties are still needed to definitely distinguish between the two scenarios.     

A flower-like Ising model. Thermodynamic properties

We consider a flower-like Ising model, in which there are some additional bonds (in the “flower-core”) compared to a pure Ising chain. To understand the behaviour of this system and particularly the competition between ferromagnetic (usual) bonds along the chain and antiferromagnetic (additional) bonds across the chain, we study analytically and iteratively the main thermodynamic quantities. Very interesting is, in the zero-field and zero-temperature limit, the behaviour of the magnetization and the susceptibility, closely related to the ground state configurations and their degeneracies. This degeneracy explains the existence of non-zero entropy at zero temperature, in our results. Also, this model could be useful for the experimental investigations in studying the saturation curves for the enzyme kinetics or the melting curves for DNA-denaturation in some flower-like configurations.     

Aluminium electron-phonon relaxation-time measurement from subpicosecond nonlinear single-photon photoelectric emission at 248 nm

The sensitivity of photoelectric emission of polycrystalline aluminium, produced by 248 nm laser pulses with p-polarization and 450 fs duration, under incidence angles = 74–86°, has been measured. A nonlinear increase of photoemission efficiency, as a function of the incident laser peak intensity in the range of 1–50 GW/cm², was displayed, which confirms earlier observations with gold and tungsten. This nonlinearity is consecutive to the non-thermal distribution of electron gas of laser-heated metal on the time scale of the electron-phonon relaxation time. Analysis of experimental data, using the model previously developed by us [1], gives a value of electron-phonon relaxation time 0.55 ± 0.11 ps.     

Microexplosions in tellurite glasses

Femtosecond laser pulses were used to produce localized damage in the bulk and near the surface of baseline, Al₂O₃-doped and La₂O₃-doped sodium tellurite glasses. Single or multiple laser pulses were non-linearly absorbed in the focal volume by the glass, leading to permanent changes in the material in the focal volume. These changes were caused by an explosive expansion of the ionized material in the focal volume into the surrounding material, i.e. a microexplosion. The writing of simple structures (periodic array of voxels, as well as lines) was demonstrated. The regions of microexplosion and writing were subsequently characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Fingerprints of microexplosions (concentric lines within the region and a concentric ring outside the region), due to the shock wave generated during microexplosions, were evident. In the case of the baseline glass, no chemistry change was observed within the region of the microexplosion. However, Al₂O₃-doped and La₂O₃-doped glasses showed depletion of the dopant from the edge to the center of the region of the microexplosions, indicating a chemistry gradient within the regions. Interrogation of the bulk- and laser-treated regions using micro-Raman spectroscopy revealed no structural change due to the microexplosions and writing within these glasses. Received: 27 December 2001 / Accepted: 9 July 2002 / Published online: 25 October 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. +1-509/376-3108, E-mail: sk.sundaram@pnl.gov     

Synthesis and characterization of visible light responsive N-TiO2 mixed crystal by a modified hydrothermal process

N doped TiO₂ with anatase and rutile mixed crystal were prepared by using tetrabutyl titanate as the precursor via a modified hydrothermal process and calcination at 320 °C. The microstructure and morphology of samples were characterized by XRD, UV-vis-DRS, FTIR and XPS. The results showed that N-TiO₂ particles were crystallized to anatase and rutile mixed crystal structure; they were presented narrow particle size distribution, and the average particle size was ca. 13.5 nm calculated from XRD results. It was found that the N-doped TiO₂ particles showed strong visible-light absorption and high photocatalytic activity for the mineralization of Rhodamine B under irradiation by visible light (400-500 nm). The high visible-light photocatalytic activity of the obtained N-doped TiO₂ might result from the synergetic effect of nitrogen doping and the mixed lattice structure of N-TiO₂. Possible mechanism of N-TiO₂ mixed crystal formed under hydrothermal conditions was discussed.     

Phonon effects in tunnelling through a double quantum dot molecule

Phonon effects in tunnelling through a double quantum dot molecule are investigated by use of a recently developed technique, which is based on an exact mapping of a many-body electron-phonon interaction problem onto a multichannel one-body problem. The molecule is sandwiched between two ideal electrodes and the electron at each dot of the molecule interacts independently with Einstein phonons. Single-electron transmission rates through the molecule are computed and the nonlinear spectrum obtained shows a structure with many more satellite peaks due to the excitations of phonons. The strength of resonant peaks is found to be strongly dependent on the number of excited phonons. The effects of electron-phonon interaction on the current and shot noise, depending on the voltage bias applied at the two electrodes as well as the potential energy of the molecule, are discussed.     

Formation of V2O3 nanocrystals by thermal reduction of V2O5 thin films

We report the formation of homogeneous and stable V₂O₃ nanocrystals, directly from V₂O₅ thin films, at 600 °C, as observed by using in situ electron microscopy experiments. Thermally-induced reduction of V₂O₅ thin films in vacuum is remarkably different when compared to reduction of V₂O₅ single crystals and results in the formation of nanophase V₂O₃. Thermally grown V₂O₃ nanocrystals exhibit hexagon or square shape and are stable at higher temperature as well as room temperature. The formation of stable nanocrystals through the reduction process in a non-chemical environment (vacuum) could provide a basis for understanding the complex processes of vanadium oxide phase transitions and for controlling the chemical processes to produce oxide nanocrystals.     

Phase transition properties of ferroelectric thin films with two surface layers

The phase diagrams of ferroelectric thin films with two surface layers described by the transverse Ising model have been studied under the mean-field approximation. We discuss the effects of the exchange interaction and transverse field parameters on the phase diagrams. The results indicate that the phase transition properties of the phase diagrams can be greatly modified by changing the transverse Ising model parameters. In addition, the crossover features of the parameters from the ferroelectric dominant phase diagram to the paraelectric dominant phase diagram are determined for ferroelectric thin films with two surface layers.     

Universal Three-Party Quantum Secret Sharing Against Collective Noise

we present a robust and universal quantum secret sharing protocol with four-qubit decoherence-free (DF) states against collective noise. The transmission's safety is ensured by the nonorthogonality of the noiseless states traveling on the quantum channel. Although this scheme uses entangled states for encoding, only single-particle product measurements are required.