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At least 919 records · Page 51

The theory of transport in helical spin-structure crystals

Abstract We study helical structures in spin-spiral single crystals. In the continuum approach for the helicity potential energy the simple electronic band splits into two non-parabolic bands. For low exchange integrals, the lower band is described by a surface with a saddle shape in the direction of the helicity axis. Using the Boltzmann equation with the relaxation due to acoustic phonons, we discover the dependence of the current on the angle between the electric field and helicity axis leading to the both parallel and perpendicular to the electric field components in the electroconductivity. The latter can be interpreted as a planar Hall effect. In addition, we find that the transition rates depend on an electron spin allowing the transition between the bands. The electric conductivities exhibit nonlinear behaviors with respect to chemical potential µ . We explain this effect as the interference of the band anisotropy, spin conservation, and interband transitions. The proposed theory with the spherical model in the effective mass approximation for conduction electrons can elucidate nonlinear dependencies that can be identified in experiments. We find the excellent agreement between the theoretical and experimental data for parallel resistivity depending on temperature at the phase transition from helical to ferromagnetic state in a M n P single crystal. In addition, we predict that the perpendicular resistivity abruptly drops to zero in the ferromagnetic phase.

Physics↗

Floquet engineering of tilted and gapped Dirac bandstructure in 1T$$^\prime$$-MoS$$_2$$

Abstract We have developed a rigorous theoretical formalism for Floquet engineering, investigating, and subsequently tailoring most crucial electronic properties of 1T $$^\prime$$ ′ -MoS $$_2$$ 2 by applying an external high-frequency dressing field within the off-resonance regime. It was recently demonstrated that monolayer semiconducting 1T $$^\prime$$ ′ -MoS $$_2$$ 2 exhibits tunable and gapped spin- and valley-polarized tilted Dirac bands. The electron-photon dressed states depend strongly on the polarization of the applied irradiation and reflect a full complexity of the low-energy Hamiltonian for non-irradiated material. We have calculated and analyzed the properties of the electron dressed states corresponding to linear and circular polarization of a dressing field by focusing on their symmetry, anisotropy, tilting, direct and indirect band gaps. Circularly polarized dressing field is known for transition into a new electronic state with broken time-reversal symmetry and a non-zero Chern number, and therefore, the combination of these topologically non-trivial phases and transitions between them could reveal some truly unique and previously unknown phenomena and applications. We have also computed and discussed the density of states for various types of 1T $$^\prime$$ ′ -MoS $$_2$$ 2 materials and its modification in the presence of a dressing field.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

The energy balance and pressure in the solar transition zone for network and active region features

The electron pressure and energy balance in the solar transition zone are determined for about 125 network and active region features on the basis of high spectral and spatial resolution extreme ultraviolet spectra. Si III line intensity ratios obtained from the Naval Research Laboratory high-resolution telescope and spectrograph during a rocket flight are used as diagnostics of electron density and pressure for solar features near 3.5 x 10 to the 4th K. Observed ratios are compared with the calculated dependence of the 1301 A/1312 A and 1301 A/1296 A line intensity ratios on electron density, temperature and pressure. Electron densities ranging from 2 x 10 to the 10th/cu cm to 10 to the 12th/cu cm and active region pressures from 3 x 10 to the 15th to 10 to the 16th/cu cm K are obtained. Energy balance calculations reveal the balance of the divergence of the conductive flux and turbulent energy dissipation by radiative energy losses in a plane-parallel homogeneous transition zone (fill factor of 1), and an energy source requirement for a cylindrical zone geometry (fill factor less than 0.04).

Nicolas, K. R.↗

Near-Infrared Optical Gain of Colloidal Quantum Wells via Intraband Transitions

Tunable, unipolar, near-infrared intraband optical gain is demonstrated in semiconductor colloidal quantum wells, expanding the form and optical range for potential infrared applications. Atomically flat colloidal quantum wells of cadmium selenide display photoinduced absorption features in the near-infrared assigned to intraband (alternatively intersubband) transitions from the first to second electron subbands of the quantum wells. Under ultraviolet optical excitation, these same transitions from the first to second electron subbands are shown to exhibit stimulated emission, resulting in optical gain covering the near-infrared spectral region. The modal gain, bandwidth, and lifetime of this intraband gain are manipulated by using excitation energy, fluence, temperature, and surface chemistry. Unlike previous demonstrations of intraband optical gain in epitaxial quantum wells (e.g., quantum cascade lasers), the colloidal quantum wells are undoped. As a result, nearly thresholdless gain is in principle possible and limited in practice by the measurement of small optical losses of the samples in the near-infrared. Furthermore, the observations may be understood as a modified "quantum fountain" employing the valence band, a strategy that may be applied to many other materials.

Optical gain↗

Floquet engineering of strongly driven excitons in monolayer tungsten disulfide

Interactions of quantum materials with strong-laser fields can induce exotic nonequilibrium electronic states. Monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides, a new class of direct-gap semiconductors with prominent quantum confinement, offer exceptional opportunities toward Floquet engineering of quasiparticle electron-hole states, or excitons. Strong-field driving has a potential to achieve enhanced control of electronic band structure, thus a possibility to open a new realm of exciton light-matter interactions. However, experimental implementation of strongly-driven excitons has so far remained out of reach. Here, we use mid-infrared laser pulses below the optical bandgap to excite monolayer tungsten disulfide up to a field strength of 0.3 V/nm, and demonstrate strong-field light dressing of excitons in the excess of a hundred millielectronvolt. Our high-sensitivity transient absorption spectroscopy further reveals formation of a virtual absorption feature below the 1s-exciton resonance, which is assigned to a light-dressed sideband from the dark 2p-exciton state. Quantum-mechanical simulations substantiate the experimental results and enable us to retrieve real-space movies of the exciton dynamics. Here, this study advances our understanding of the exciton dynamics in the strong-field regime, and showcases the possibility of harnessing ultrafast, strong-field phenomena in device applications of two-dimensional materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Jahn–Teller distortion controls electron transfer in photoexcited Cu( I ) donor–acceptor systems

The Jahn–Teller distortion (JTD) is a defining structural response to electronic excitation in Cu( I )-based transition metal complexes, yet its role in photoinduced electron transfer (PET) remains largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrate that the JTD governs charge separation (CS) through a vibronically controlled conical intersection in heteroleptic Cu( I ) bisphenanthroline–naphthalene diimide (CuHETPHEN-NDI) donor–acceptor dyads. Using 20-fs broadband transient absorption spectroscopy combined with coherent vibrational wavepacket (CVWP) analysis and quantum chemical calculations, we directly track nuclear motions that steer the system from the metal-to-ligand charge-transfer ( 1 MLCT) state to the CS state. Steric bulkiness of the pendant groups at the 2,9-positions of the phenanthroline ligand systematically slows both JTD and CS. Short-time Fourier transformation and Fourier filtering analyses identify two key vibrational signatures: a low-frequency breathing mode (∼100 cm −1 ) via a bond distance change between Cu and ligated Ns (Cu–N) that modulates the NDI anion absorption and acts as a vibronic coupling coordinate, and a higher-frequency mode (∼313 cm −1 ) that evolves along the PET trajectory. Normal mode analysis and potential energy surface calculations show that the JTD brings the 1 MLCT and CS states into degeneracy, while the Cu–N breathing motion dynamically modulates donor–acceptor electronic coupling to enable ultrafast nonadiabatic electron transfer. Steric hindrance exerted by the groups at the 2,9 positions of the phenanthroline ligands suppresses this vibronic coupling, leading to faster CVWP decoherence for the 313 cm −1 mode and slower CS. These findings unravel JTD-controlled vibronic coupling at conical intersection as a governing factor for CS and provide insight into designing Cu-based photosensitizers by harnessing structural dynamics to control PET.

Kim, Pyosang [Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), A↗

Dual wavelength operation of the GaSb-based Y-branch distributed Bragg reflector lasers near 2.1 μ m

The GaSb-based diode lasers operating simultaneously at two wavelengths near 2.1 μm have been designed and fabricated. The Y-branch devices used the 6th order distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR) to provide spectrally selective feedback. The laser active region contained two asymmetric quantum wells with allowed optical transitions between two lowest electron (e1 and e2) and top hole (hh1) subbands. The laser emission lines loosely matched the e1-hh1 and e2-hh1 optical transitions with separation corresponding to ~3.1 THz. Finally, the 10 μm wide deeply etched straight ridge DBR lasers demonstrated stable single mode operation with more than 50 mW of output power.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

Fretting of titanium at temperatures to 650 C in air

Fretting wear experiments were conducted on high-purity titanium at temperatures up to 650 C. Results indicate that up to about 500 C, the fretting wear increases with temperature. A further increase in the temperature up to 650 C results in decreasing fretting wear. This change in trend of fretting wear with temperature is shown to be associated with a change in oxidation rate. Additional experiments at 650 C showed a transmission from a low rate of fretting wear to a higher rate occurred after exposure to a number of fretting cycles; the number of cycles required to cause this transition was dependent on the normal load. Scanning electron microscopy studies revealed that this transition was marked by cracking and disruption of the surface oxide film. A model was proposed that coupled the oxidation rate kinetics of titanium at 650 C with the occurrence of wear at the surface of the oxide film.

Bill, R. C.↗

Kondo Lattice Model of Magic-Angle Twisted-Bilayer Graphene: Hund’s Rule, Local-Moment Fluctuations, and Low-Energy Effective Theory

For this work, we apply a generalized Schrieffer-Wolff transformation to the extended Anderson-like topological heavy fermion (THF) model for the magic-angle (θ=1.05°) twisted bilayer graphene (MATBLG) [Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 047601 (2022)], to obtain its Kondo lattice limit. In this limit localized $\mathcal{f}$ electrons on a triangular lattice interact with topological conduction $\mathcal{c}$ electrons. By solving the exact limit of the THF model, we show that the integer fillings ν=0, ±1, ±2 are controlled by the heavy $\mathcal{f}$ electrons, while ν=±3 is at the border of a phase transition between two $\mathcal{f}$-electron fillings. For ν=0, ±1, ±2, we then calculate the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interactions between the $\mathcal{f}$ moments in the full model and analytically prove the SU(4) Hund’s rule for the ground state which maintains that two $\mathcal{f}$ electrons fill the same valley-spin flavor. Our (ferromagnetic interactions in the) spin model dramatically differ from the usual Heisenberg antiferromagnetic interactions expected at strong coupling. We show the ground state in some limits can be found exactly by employing a positive semidefinite “bond-operators” method. We then compute the excitation spectrum of the $\mathcal{f}$ moments in the ordered ground state, prove the stability of the ground state favored by RKKY interactions, and discuss the properties of the Goldstone modes, the (reason for the accidental) degeneracy of (some of) the excitation modes, and the physics of their phase stiffness. We develop a low-energy effective theory for the $\mathcal{f}$ moments and obtain analytic expressions for the dispersion of the collective modes. We discuss the relevance of our results to the spin-entropy experiments in TBG.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Structural transitions in the GTP cap visualized by cryo-electron microscopy of catalytically inactive microtubules

Microtubules (MTs) are nonequilibrium polymers that switch between states of growth and shrinkage. This property is critical for their function and is a consequence of GTP hydrolysis in the MT. The structure of the stable GTP part of the MT (the GTP cap) has previously been inferred from MTs polymerized with nonhydrolyzable GTP analogs. Here, we report high-resolution structures of MTs truly containing GTP, polymerized from mutated, hydrolysis-deficient tubulins. We find that GTP-MTs have an “expanded lattice” and a “closed seam,” structural characteristics possibly responsible for stabilizing the GTP cap. These results provide insight into the structural transitions at growing MT ends, furthering our understanding of the bistable nature of MTs.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Strong Langmuir turbulence generated by electron beams - Electric-field distributions and electron scattering

Strong turbulence and transit-time scattering theory are applied here to calculate the statistical distribution of intense Langmuir fields and the consequent beam scattering in plasma turbulence driven by an electron beam. The experimentally observed electric-field distributions are compared with predictions of strong-turbulence theory, concentrating on the wave levels, the Gaussian tail of the high-field distribution observed in one experiment, the arrest scale of collapse, and the fractional volume occupied by the highest fields. The Guassian form of the tail is confirmed, and the results imply that the collapse is arrested at a scale where the peak electrostatic energy density is of the same order as the thermal energy density. The theory of transit-time interactions is generalized to include relativistic particle dynamics and is applied to predict the scattering of the beam electrons in energy and angle as they pass through strong Langmuir turbulence. The results support the validity of the recently developed scaling theory of strong turbulence.

Robinson, P. A.↗

Strongly Correlated States of Transition Metal Spin Defects: The Case of an Iron Impurity in Aluminum Nitride

We investigate the electronic properties of an exemplar transition metal impurity in an insulator, with the goal of accurately describing strongly correlated defect states. Here, we consider iron in aluminum nitride, a material of interest for hybrid quantum technologies, and we carry out calculations with quantum embedding methods, density matrix embedding theory (DMET) and quantum defect embedding theory (QDET), and with spin-flip time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). We show that both DMET and QDET accurately describe the ground state and low-lying excited states of the defect and that TDDFT yields photoluminescence spectra in agreement with experiments. In addition, we provide a detailed discussion of the convergence of our results as a function of the active space used in the embedding methods, thus defining a protocol to obtain converged data directly comparable with experiments.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Densities and mass motions in transition-zone plasmas in solar flares observed from Skylab

The electron densities and bulk motions in the transition-zone plasma of a solar flare are investigated by an analysis of EUV emission line spectra taken on Skylab. Spectra of three flares were obtained with the NRL normal incidence grating slit spectrograph in the ranges 1100-1940 and 1940-3940 A. The line ratios of transition-zone Si III lines and the intensity of the forbidden O IV 1401-A lines during flare maximum indicate electron densities on the order of 10 to the 12th/cu cm, decreasing by a factor of 2 to 3 in the flare decay phase. Line broadening of the transition-zone ions such as Si III, O IV, C IV and N V is noted, and the observed asymmetrical N V line profiles are approximated by a bi-Gaussian model of a stationary and a moving plasma component with a bulk velocity of 12 to 70 km/sec. Turbulent velocities of from 45 to 85 km/sec and from 20 to 40 km/sec are also indicated for the moving and stationary components of the transition-zone plasma, respectively.

Cheng, C.-C.↗

Incommensurate Transverse Peierls Transition and Signature of Chiral Charge Density Wave in EuAl 4

In one-dimensional quantum materials, electrons and lattices can undergo a Peierls transition, a translational symmetry-breaking instability traditionally understood through electron coupling to longitudinal acoustic phonons. Recently, this paradigm has been revised in topological semimetals, where transverse acoustic phonons couple to p-orbital electrons, giving rise to a transverse Peierls transition. Importantly, transverse Peierls transition-induced distortions can further break mirror or inversion symmetries, producing nematic or chiral charge density waves. Here, we report the experimental identification of an incommensurate transverse Peierls transition in EuAl 4 . Using meV-resolution inelastic x-ray scattering, we observe complete softening of a transverse acoustic phonon upon cooling, while the longitudinal acoustic mode remains unaffected. First-principles calculations reveal that the transverse Peierls transition wavevector coincides with a charge susceptibility peak connecting nested Dirac bands. Second harmonic generation confirms mirror symmetry breaking, supporting a chiral charge density wave stabilized by the transverse Peierls transition.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Cross Sections for Electron Impact Excitation of Ions Relevant to Planetary Atmospheres Observation

The goal of this research grant was to calculate accurate oscillator strengths and electron collisional excitation strengths for inelastic transitions in atomic species of relevance to Planetary Atmospheres. Large scale configuration-interaction atomic structure calculations have been performed to obtain oscillator strengths and transition probabilities for transitions among the fine-structure levels and R-matrix method has been used in the calculations of electron-ion collision cross sections of C II, S I, S II, S III, and Ar II. A number of strong features due to ions of sulfur have been detected in the spectra of Jupiter satellite Io. The electron excitation cross sections for the C II and S II transitions are studied in collaboration with the experimental atomic physics group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There is excellent agreement between experiment and theory which provide an accurate and broad-base test of the ability of theoretical methods used in the calculation of atomic processes. Specifically, research problems have been investigated for: electron impact excitation cross sections of C II: electron impact excitation cross sections of S III; energy levels and oscillator strengths for transitions in S III; collision strengths for electron collisional excitation of S II; electron impact excitation of inelastic transitions in Ar II; oscillator strengths of fine-structure transitions in neutral sulfur; cross sections for inelastic scattering of electrons from atomic nitrogen; and excitation of atomic ions by electron impact.

Tayal, Swaraj S.↗

Modeling EUV Intensity at the Top of the Transition Region Using SPICE Data on Board Solar Orbiter

The Spectral Imaging of Coronal Environment (SPICE; SPICE Consortium et al. 2020) provides an extraordinary opportunity to study the chromosphere and transition region using EUV wavelengths, e.g., Ne VIII 770 Å, CIII 977 Å, OVI 1032 Å, and Lyman-𝛽 025 Å. We present results modeling Ne VIII 770 Å intensity using images from SPICE and the COronal DEnsity and Temperature (CODET) model. This model is based on relationships between the magnetic field, density, and temperature. It uses a flux transport model, the Potential Field Extrapolation model (PFSS), an emission model based on Chianti atomic database 10.0.2, and an optimization algorithm. In addition, we assume that the emission from the top of the transition region (Ne VIII 770 Å) can be described using the magnetic field in the coronal base at 1.014𝑅⨀ (from PFSS). We found the mean full disc electron density in the transition region obtained from the CODET model for Ne VIII 770 Å (𝑙𝑜𝑔10𝑇[𝐾] = 5.8) corresponds to ∼ 𝑙𝑜𝑔10𝑁 𝑐𝑚−3 >9, and temperature value is 𝑙𝑜𝑔10𝑇[𝐾]~6. This value agrees with the Ne VIII 770 Å temperature formation 𝑙𝑜𝑔10𝑇[𝐾]~5.8. The density above sunspots (𝐵 > 50 𝐺) corresponds to 𝑙𝑜𝑔10𝑁 𝑐𝑚−3 > 9, while in quiet Sun regions (𝐵 < 50 𝐺) the mean density is 𝑙𝑜𝑔10𝑁[𝑐𝑚−3 ] = 8 .

Jenny M Rodriguez Gomez↗