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At least 847 records · Page 47

Dynamic Atomistic Polar Structure Underpins Ultrahigh Linear Electro-Optic Coefficient in Transparent Ferroelectric Ceramics

Transparent ferroelectrics with high linear electro-optic (EO) coefficients are critical for advanced electro-optical devices. However, achieving optical transparency in ferroelectric ceramics remains challenging due to visible light scattering caused by defects such as domain walls, grain boundaries, and pores. Here, we report the successful fabrication of transparent ferroelectric ceramics through innovative chemical composition design and an advanced two-step sintering process in the La-doped Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 –PbTiO 3 system. The optical transparency, which is near the theoretical upper limit, can be attributed to the wide band gap and the minimization of light scattering of defects. By minimizing porosity and engineering grain/domain sizes to differ significantly from the wavelengths of visible light, we suppress scattering, achieving optical transparency near the theoretical upper limit. Strikingly, these ceramics exhibit an ultrahigh linear EO coefficient of ∼1417 pm/V, over 65 times greater than that of LiNbO 3 single crystals, the current industry standard. We attribute this exceptional performance to dynamic atomistic polar structures within switchable, thermally stable domains, which enhance electronic polarization sensitivity. This mechanism is corroborated by dielectric spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and simulation. Our findings offer insights into the design of cost-effective transparent materials with exceptional EO properties, paving the way for next-generation electro-optical devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Test-Particle Simulations of Linear and Nonlinear Interactions Between a 2-D Whistler-Mode Wave Packet and Radiation Belt Electrons

Using test-particle simulations, we describe (in 2-D) the interaction of an ensemble of electrons with a discrete whistler-mode wave packet, which propagates with a moderate wave-normal angle with respect to the background magnetic field. We evaluate both the average transport coefficients used in quasi-linear diffusion transport and also the full nonlinear wave-particle interactions. The magnitude of the calculated diffusion coefficients is found to increase proportionally to the wave amplitude squared, in agreement with quasi-linear diffusion theory. Cyclotron resonance of counterstreaming electrons (n = 1 harmonic number) is more important for pitch angle scattering than Landau resonance. Landau resonance of costreaming electrons (n = 0) is comparable to cyclotron resonance for energy diffusion and advection. Strong acceleration of high pitch angle, costreaming electrons arises in nonlinear wave-particle interactions with high-amplitude waves. In our simulations with zero parallel electric field, the energy source for electron acceleration is the wave’s perpendicular electric field, in both the cyclotron and Landau resonances. The Landau resonance can happen even with zero parallel electric field, if the wave packet propagates with a finite wave-normal angle. This resonance between the particle’s azimuthal velocity and the wave fields leads to trapping and substantial parallel acceleration.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Terahertz-driven linear electron acceleration

The cost, size and availability of electron accelerators are dominated by the achievable accelerating gradient. Conventional high-brightness radio-frequency accelerating structures operate with 30–50 MeVm -1 gradients. Electron accelerators driven with optical or infrared sources have demonstrated accelerating gradients orders of magnitude above that achievable with conventional radio-frequency structures. However, laser-driven wakefield accelerators require intense femtosecond sources and direct laser-driven accelerators suffer from low bunch charge, sub-micron tolerances and sub-femtosecond timing requirements due to the short wavelength of operation. Here we demonstrate linear acceleration of electrons with keV energy gain using optically generated terahertz pulses. Terahertz-driven accelerating structures enable high-gradient electron/proton accelerators with simple accelerating structures, high repetition rates and significant charge per bunch. As a result, these ultra-compact terahertz accelerators with extremely short electron bunches hold great potential to have a transformative impact for free electron lasers, linear colliders, ultrafast electron diffraction, X-ray science and medical therapy with X-rays and electron beams.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Superelasticity and cryogenic linear shape memory effects of CaFe 2 As 2

Shape memory materials have the ability to recover their original shape after a significant amount of deformation when they are subjected to certain stimuli, for instance, heat or magnetic fields. But, their performance is often limited by the energetics and geometry of the martensitic-austenitic phase transformation. We report a unique shape memory behavior in CaFe 2 As 2 , which exhibits superelasticity with over 13% recoverable strain, over 3 GPa yield strength, repeatable stress–strain response even at the micrometer scale, and cryogenic linear shape memory effects near 50 K. These properties are acheived through a reversible uni-axial phase transformation mechanism, the tetragonal/orthorhombic-to-collapsed-tetragonal phase transformation. These results offer the possibility of developing cryogenic linear actuation technologies with a high precision and high actuation power per unit volume for deep space exploration, and more broadly, suggest a mechanistic path to a class of shape memory materials, ThCr 2 Si 2 -structured intermetallic compounds.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Linear and nonlinear optical responses in the chiral multifold semimetal RhSi

Chiral topological semimetals are materials that break both inversion and mirror symmetries. They host interesting phenomena such as the quantized circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE) and the chiral magnetic effect. In this work, we report a comprehensive theoretical and experimental analysis of the linear and nonlinear optical responses of the chiral topological semimetal RhSi, which is known to host multifold fermions. We show that the characteristic features of the optical conductivity, which display two distinct quasi-linear regimes above and below 0.4 eV, can be linked to excitations of different kinds of multifold fermions. The characteristic features of the CPGE, which displays a sign change at 0.4 eV and a large non-quantized response peak of around 160 μA/V 2 at 0.7 eV, are explained by assuming that the chemical potential crosses a flat hole band at the Brillouin zone center. Our theory predicts that, in order to observe a quantized CPGE in RhSi, it is necessary to increase the chemical potential as well as the quasiparticle lifetime. More broadly, our methodology, especially the development of the broadband terahertz emission spectroscopy, could be widely applied to study photogalvanic effects in noncentrosymmetric materials and in topological insulators in a contact-less way and accelerate the technological development of efficient infrared detectors based on topological semimetals.

Materials Science↗

The positron arm of a plasma-based linear collider

Plasma-based acceleration of electrons has produced high-energy beams at high accelerating gradients with a narrow energy spread and high efficiency both in experiments and simulations. Furthermore, it is now being considered as a complementary approach to the use of radiofrequency cavities in next-generation lepton accelerators. However, compared with electrons, plasma-based positron acceleration is at the present time much less advanced. Although high-gradient positron acceleration in a plasma has been achieved, we are one to three orders of magnitude away from delivering the high-quality positron beams needed for a future high-energy linear collider. Here we review the status of plasma-based acceleration of electrons and positrons and discuss the prospects for substantial progress towards developing the positron arm of a plasma-based electron–positron linear collider in the next decade.

Plasma-based accelerators↗

Dissociated vacancies and screw dislocations in MgO and UO 2 : atomistic modeling and linear elasticity analysis

Understanding the effect of dislocations on the mass transport in ionic ceramics is important for understanding the behavior of these materials in a variety of contexts. In particular, the dissociated nature of vacancies at screw dislocations, or more generally, at a wide range of low-angle twist grain-boundaries, has ramifications for the mechanism of defect migration and thus mass transport at these microstructural features. In this paper, a systematic study of the dissociated vacancies at screw dislocations in MgO is carried out. The important role of stress migration in the atomistic modeling study is identified. Another aspect of the current work is a rigorous treatment of the linear elasticity model. As a result, good agreement between the atomistic modeling results and the linear elasticity model is obtained. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the proposed vacancy dissociation mechanism can also be extended to more complicated ionic ceramics such as UO 2 , highlighting the generality of the mechanism.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Achieving large linear elasticity and high strength in bulk nanocompsite via synergistic effect

Elastic strain in bulk metallic materials is usually limited to only a fraction of 1%. Developing bulk metallic materials showing large linear elasticity and high strength has proven to be difficult. Here, based on the synergistic effect between nanowires and orientated martensite NiTi shape memory alloy, we developed an in-situ Nb nanowires -orientated martensitic NiTi matrix composite showing an ultra-large linear elastic strain of 4% and an ultrahigh yield strength of 1.8 GPa. This material also has a high mechanical energy storage efficiency of 96% and a high energy storage density of 36 J/cm³ that is almost one order of larger than that of spring steel. It is demonstrated that the synergistic effect allows the exceptional mechanical properties of nanowires to be harvested at macro scale and the mechanical properties of matrix to be greatly improved, resulting in these superior properties. This study provides new avenues for developing advanced composites with superior properties by using effective synergistic effect between components.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Linear control of the oxidation level on graphene oxide sheets using the cyclic atomic layer reduction technique

Precise control of oxidation level on graphene oxide (GO) sheets is still a big challenge. This work demonstrates a linear control of surface oxidation level on GO sheets via atomic layer reduction (ALR) technique at 100 and 150°C. The oxygen stripping rate during the ALR cycling was assessed at different operating temperatures; 0.055 %/cycle (150°C) and 0.028 %/cycle (100°C). It was shown that the optical band gap as well as the electrical conductivity can be linearly tuned with ALR cycle number for the graphene-like materials. This unique capability was not feasible via utilizing conventional synthesis routes (e.g. thermal or chemical reduction) since these techniques only provide a stepwise control over the oxidation/reduction processes. The in-situ oxidation level on GO materials can be accurately controlled through the ALR/atomic layer oxidation (ALO) cycle. Accordingly, the ALR/ALO cycle offers excellent reversibility for adjusting the chemical composition of graphene-like materials, and tuning the optical and electronic properties of such nanomaterials.

42 ENGINEERING↗

On the choice of reference orbitals for linear-response calculations of solution-phase K-edge X-ray absorption spectra

The simplest response theory methods for computing vertical excitation spectra in condensed-phase are configuration interaction with single excitations (CIS) and linear-response time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) within the Tamm–Dancoff approximation. In applications to X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), methods like CIS and TDDFT that codify only single excitations into the wave function are prone to catastrophic errors in main-edge and post-edge features whose shapes act as a crucial fingerprint in structural analyses of liquids. Here, we show that these errors manifest primarily due to a lack of orbital relaxation in conventional linear-response theories and that core-ionized (n - 1-electron) references, like those of electron-affinity TDDFT, can eliminate the errors in the spectral profile, even in the highest-energy parts of the post-edge. Crucially, we find that single excitations atop core-ionized references are sufficient to elucidate liquid-phase XAS spectra with semi-quantitative accuracy, opening the door for methods like electron-affinity CIS/TDDFT to be used as efficient alternatives to higher-order wave function approaches.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Solving linear equations with messenger-field and conjugate gradient techniques: An application to CMB data analysis

We discuss linear system solvers invoking a messenger-field and compare them with (preconditioned) conjugate gradient approaches. We show that the messenger-field techniques correspond to fixed point iterations of an appropriately preconditioned initial system of linear equations. We then argue that a conjugate gradient solver applied to the same preconditioned system, or equivalently a preconditioned conjugate gradient solver using the same preconditioner and applied to the original system, will in general ensure at least a comparable and typically better performance in terms of the number of iterations to convergence and time-to-solution. We illustrate our conclusions with two common examples drawn from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data analysis: Wiener filtering and map-making. In addition, and contrary to the standard lore in the CMB field, we show that the performance of the preconditioned conjugate gradient solver can depend significantly on the starting vector. In conclusion, this observation seems of particular importance in the cases of map-making of high signal-to-noise ratio sky maps and therefore should be of relevance for the next generation of CMB experiments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Emulating galaxy and peculiar velocity clustering on non-linear scales

We explore the potential of cross-correlating galaxies and peculiar velocities on non-linear scales to enhance cosmological constraints. Leveraging the ABACUSSUMMIT simulation suite and the halo occupation distribution (HOD) formalism, we trained emulator models to describe the non-linear clustering of galaxies and velocities in redshift space. Our analysis demonstrates that combining galaxy and peculiar velocity clustering provides tighter constraints on both HOD and cosmological parameters, particularly on σ8 and w0. We further applied our models to realistic mock catalogues, reproducing the expected density and peculiar velocity errors of type-Ia supernovae, Tully-Fisher and fundamental plane measurements for the combined ZTF and DESI measurements. While systematic biases arise in the HOD parameters, the cosmological constraints remain unbiased, yielding a 3.8% precision measurement on fσ 8 compared to 4.7% when using galaxy clustering alone. We demonstrate that while combining tracers with realistic velocity measurements still yields an improvement, the gains are diminished, highlighting the need for further efforts to reduce velocity measurement uncertainties and correct observational systematics on small scales.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Linear convergence of accelerated conditional gradient algorithms in spaces of measures

A class of generalized conditional gradient algorithms for the solution of optimization problem in spaces of Radon measures is presented. The method iteratively inserts additional Dirac-delta functions and optimizes the corresponding coefficients. Under general assumptions, a sub-linear [see formula in PDF] rate in the objective functional is obtained, which is sharp in most cases. To improve efficiency, one can fully resolve the finite-dimensional subproblems occurring in each iteration of the method. We provide an analysis for the resulting procedure: under a structural assumption on the optimal solution, a linear [see formula in PDF] convergence rate is obtained locally.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

The Weizsäcker-Williams distribution of linearly polarized gluons (and its fluctuations) at small x

The conventional and linearly polarized Weizsäcker-Williams gluon distributions at small x are defined from the two-point function of the gluon field in light-cone gauge. They appear in the cross section for dijet production in deep inelastic scattering at high energy. We determine these functions in the small-x limit from solutions of the JIMWLK evolution equations and show that they exhibit approximate geometric scaling. Also, we discuss the functional distributions of these WW gluon distributions over the JIMWLK ensemble at rapidity Y ~ 1/αs. These are determined by a 2d Liouville action for the logarithm of the covariant gauge function g2tr A+(q)A+(-q). For transverse momenta on the order of the saturation scale we observe large variations across configurations (evolution trajectories) of the linearly polarized distribution up to several times its average, and even to negative values.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Observation of linear-polarization-sensitivity in the microwave-radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations

We examine the linear polarization sensitivity of the radiation- induced magneto-resistance oscillations by investigating the effect of rotating in-situ the electric field of linearly polarized microwaves relative to the current, in the GaAs/AlGaAs system. We find that the frequency and the phase of the photo-excited magneto-resistance oscillations are insensitive to the polarization. On the other hand, the amplitude of the resistance oscillations are strongly sensitive to the relative orientation between the microwave antenna and the current-axis in the specimen.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Studies on L-citrulline doped potassium dihydrogen phosphate- A non linear crystal with significant nonlinear properties

Potassium Dihydrogen Phosphate (KDP) single crystal is considered as one of the best representative of nonlinear optical crystals. Recently, amino acids having excellent nonlinear optical characteristics are being investigated as prospective dopants to improve the non linear optical characteristics of KDP. The present work is an attempt in this direction and L citrulline, one of the non essential amino acids showing good non linear optical characteristics is used as the dopant for KDP. Good quality crystals of L-citrulline doped KDP crystals were grown by slow evaporation technique. From the powder X-ray diffraction studies of doped KDP crystal, the structure of the doped crystals was determined by direct method and refined by Pawley method employing Topaz version program using the single crystal X-ray data for pure KDP. The lattice parameters for L citrulline doped KDP are a=7.467A{sup 0}, b=7.467 A{sup 0}, c=6.977 A{sup 0}. The crystal falls into the tetragonal crystal system with space group I42 d. The presence of carbon and oxygen, which are primary components of amino acids, in the EDAX spectrum confirms the effectiveness of doping. The absorption spectra of the doped samples show that the crystals are transparent in the entire visible region. The second harmonic generation efficiency of the doped samples was determined by Kurtz powder technique using the Q-switched Nd:YAG laser beam and is found to be 2.2 times that of KDP. The nonlinear optical properties can be well studied by the open aperture Z scan technique. The open aperture curve exhibits a normalized transmittance valley. The nonlinear absorption coefficient β is obtained by theoretical fitting for two photon absorption. It is inferred that doping KDP with L citrulline has enhanced the nonlinearity considerably. This obviously suggests the potentiality of the crystal as an optical power limiter and also for various optical device applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Self-consistent field theory based molecular dynamics with linear system-size scaling

We present an improved field-theoretic approach to the grand-canonical potential suitable for linear scaling molecular dynamics simulations using forces from self-consistent electronic structure calculations. It is based on an exact decomposition of the grand canonical potential for independent fermions and does neither rely on the ability to localize the orbitals nor that the Hamilton operator is well-conditioned. Hence, this scheme enables highly accurate all-electron linear scaling calculations even for metallic systems. The inherent energy drift of Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations, arising from an incomplete convergence of the self-consistent field cycle, is circumvented by means of a properly modified Langevin equation. The predictive power of the present approach is illustrated using the example of liquid methane under extreme conditions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Linearized Boltzmann collision integral with the correct cutoff

In the calculation of the linearized Boltzmann collision operator for an inverse-square force law interaction (Coulomb interaction) F(r)=κ/r{sup 2}, we found the widely used scattering angle cutoff θ≥θ{sub min} is a wrong practise since the divergence still exists after the cutoff has been made. When the correct velocity change cutoff |v′−v|≥δ{sub min} is employed, the scattering angle can be integrated. A unified linearized Boltzmann collision operator for both inverse-square force law and rigid-sphere interactions is obtained. Like many other unified quantities such as transition moments, Fokker-Planck expansion coefficients and energy exchange rates obtained recently [Y. B. Chang and L. A. Viehland, AIP Adv. 1, 032128 (2011)], the difference between the two kinds of interactions is characterized by a parameter, γ, which is 1 for rigid-sphere interactions and −3 for inverse-square force law interactions. When the cutoff is removed by setting δ{sub min}=0, Hilbert's well known kernel for rigid-sphere interactions is recovered for γ = 1.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗