No Arabic abstract
The phonon thermal contribution to the melting temperature of nano-particles is inspected. Unlike in periodic boundary condition, under a general boundary condition the integration volume of low energy phonon for a nano-particle is more complex. We estimate the size-dependent melting temperature through the phase shift of the low energy phonon mode acquired by its scattering on boundary surface. A nano-particle can have either a rising or a decreasing melting temperature due to the boundary condition effect, and we found that an upper melting temperature bound exists for a nano-particle in various environments. Moreover, the melting temperature under a fixed boundary condition sets this upper bound.
We address the problem of overheating of electrons trapped on the liquid helium surface by cyclotron resonance excitation. Previous experiments, suggest that electrons can be heated to temperatures up to 1000K more than three order of magnitude higher than the temperature of the helium bath in the sub-Kelvin range. In this work we attempt to discriminate between a redistribution of thermal origin and other out-of equilibrium mechanisms that would not require so high temperatures like resonant photo-galvanic effects, or negative mobilities. We argue that for a heating scenario the direction of the electron flow under cyclotron resonance can be controlled by the shape of the initial electron density profile, with a dependence that can be modeled accurately within the Poisson-Boltzmann theory framework. This provides an self consistency-check to probe if the redistribution is indeed consistent with a thermal origin. We find that while our experimental results are consistent with the Poisson-Boltzmann theoretical dependence but some deviations suggest that other physical mechanisms can also provide a measurable contribution. Analyzing our results with the heating model we find that the electron temperatures increases with electron density under the same microwave irradiation conditions. This unexpected density dependence calls for a microscopic treatment of the energy relaxation of overheated electrons.
We present an approach to the melting of graphene based on nucleation theory for a first order phase transition from the 2D solid to the 3D liquid via an intermediate quasi-2D liquid. The applicability of nucleation theory, supported by the results of systematic atomistic Monte Carlo simulations, provides an intrinsic definition of the melting temperature of graphene, $ T_m $, and allows us to determine it. We find $T_m simeq 4510$ K, about 250 K higher than that of graphite using the same interatomic interaction model. The found melting temperature is shown to be in good agreement with the asymptotic results of melting simulations for finite disks and ribbons of graphene. Our results strongly suggest that graphene is the most refractory of all known materials.
Motivated by the recent experimental data [Phys. Rev. B 79, 100502 (2009)] indicating the existence of a pure stripe charge order over unprecedently wide temperature range in La_{1.8-x}Eu_{0.2}Sr_xCuO_4, we investigate the temperature-induced melting of the metallic stripe phase. In spite of taking into account local dynamic correlations within a real-space dynamical mean-field theory of the Hubbard model, we observe a mean-field like melting of the stripe order irrespective of the choice of the next-nearest neighbor hopping. The temperature dependence of the single-particle spectral function shows the stripe induced formation of a flat band around the antinodal points accompanied by the opening a gap in the nodal direction.
One of the most fundamental and yet elusive collective phases of an interacting electron system is the quantum Wigner crystal (WC), an ordered array of electrons expected to form when the electrons Coulomb repulsion energy eclipses their kinetic (Fermi) energy. In low-disorder, two-dimensional (2D) electron systems, the quantum WC is known to be favored at very low temperatures ($T$) and small Landau level filling factors ($ u$), near the termination of the fractional quantum Hall states. This WC phase exhibits an insulating behavior, reflecting its pinning by the small but finite disorder potential. An experimental determination of a $T$ vs $ u$ phase diagram for the melting of the WC, however, has proved to be challenging. Here we use capacitance measurements to probe the 2D WC through its effective screening as a function of $T$ and $ u$. We find that, as expected, the screening efficiency of the pinned WC is very poor at very low $T$ and improves at higher $T$ once the WC melts. Surprisingly, however, rather than monotonically changing with increasing $T$, the screening efficiency shows a well-defined maximum at a $T$ which is close to the previously-reported melting temperature of the WC. Our experimental results suggest a new method to map out a $T$ vs $ u$ phase diagram of the magnetic-field-induced WC precisely.
Quantum-well (QW) devices have been extensively investigated in semiconductor structures. More recently, spin-polarized QWs were integrated into magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). In this work, we demonstrate the spin-based control of the quantized states in iron $3d$-band QWs, as observed in experiments and theoretical calculations. We find that the magnetization rotation in the Fe QWs significantly shifts the QW quantization levels, which modulate the resonant-tunneling current in MTJs, resulting in a tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) effect of QWs. This QW-TAMR effect is sizable compared to other types of TAMR effect, and it is present above the room-temperature. In a QW MTJ of Cr/Fe/MgAl$_2$O$_4$/top electrode, where the QW is formed by a mismatch between Cr and Fe in the $d$ band with $Delta_1$ symmetry, a QW-TAMR ratio of up to 5.4 % was observed at 5 K, which persisted to 1.2 % even at 380K. The magnetic control of QW transport can open new applications for spin-coupled optoelectronic devices, ultra-thin sensors, and memories.