Project description:Dy[Formula: see text]Zr[Formula: see text]O[Formula: see text] a disordered pyrochlore system, exhibits the spin freezing behavior under the application of the magnetic field. We have performed detailed magnetic studies of Dy[Formula: see text]La[Formula: see text]Zr[Formula: see text]O[Formula: see text] to understand the evolution of the magnetic spin freezing in the system. Our studies suggest the stabilization of the pyrochlore phase with the substitution of non-magnetic La along with the biphasic mixture of fluorite and pyrochlore phases for the intermediate compositions. We observed that the spin freezing (T[Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] 17 K) at higher La compositions (1.5 [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] 1.99) is similar to the field-induced spin freezing for low La compositions (0 [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] 0.5) and the well-known spin ice systems Dy[Formula: see text]Ti[Formula: see text]O[Formula: see text] and Ho[Formula: see text]Ti[Formula: see text]O[Formula: see text]. The low-temperature magnetic state for higher La compositions (1.5 [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] 1.99) culminates into a spin-glass like state below 6 K. Cole-Cole plot and Casimir-du Pr[Formula: see text] fit shows the narrow distribution of spin relaxation time in these compounds.
Project description:Unconventional superconductivity in non-centrosymmetric superconductors has attracted a considerable amount of attention. While several lanthanide-based materials have been reported previously, the number of actinide-based systems remains small. In this work, we present the discovery of a novel cubic complex non-centrosymmetric superconductor [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text] space group). This intermetallic cage compound displays superconductivity below [Formula: see text] K, as evidenced by specific heat and resistivity data. [Formula: see text] is a type-II superconductor, which has an upper critical field [Formula: see text] T and a moderate Sommerfeld coefficient [Formula: see text] mJ [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text]. A non-zero density of states at the Fermi level is evident from metallic behavior in the normal state, as well as from electronic band structure calculations. The isostructural [Formula: see text] compound is a paramagnet with a moderately enhanced electronic mass, as indicated by the electronic specific heat coefficient [Formula: see text] mJ [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] and Kadowaki-Woods ratio [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] cm [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] (mJ)[Formula: see text]. Both [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are crystallographically complex, each hosting 212 atoms per unit cell.
Project description:The experimental value for the isospin amplitude [Formula: see text] in [Formula: see text] decays has been successfully explained within the standard model (SM), both within the large [Formula: see text] approach to QCD and by QCD lattice calculations. On the other hand within the large [Formula: see text] approach the value of [Formula: see text] is by at least [Formula: see text] below the data. While this deficit could be the result of theoretical uncertainties in this approach and could be removed by future precise QCD lattice calculations, it cannot be excluded that the missing piece in [Formula: see text] comes from new physics (NP). We demonstrate that this deficit can be significantly softened by tree-level FCNC transitions mediated by a heavy colourless [Formula: see text] gauge boson with a flavour-violating left-handed coupling [Formula: see text] and an approximately universal flavour diagonal right-handed coupling [Formula: see text] to the quarks. The approximate flavour universality of the latter coupling assures negligible NP contributions to [Formula: see text]. This property, together with the breakdown of the GIM mechanisms at tree level, allows one to enhance significantly the contribution of the leading QCD-penguin operator [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text]. A large fraction of the missing piece in the [Formula: see text] rule can be explained in this manner for [Formula: see text] in the reach of the LHC, while satisfying the constraints from [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], LEP-II and the LHC. The presence of a small right-handed flavour-violating coupling [Formula: see text] and of enhanced matrix elements of [Formula: see text] left-right operators allows one to satisfy simultaneously the constraints from [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], although this requires some fine-tuning. We identify the quartic correlation between [Formula: see text] contributions to [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. The tests of this proposal will require much improved evaluations of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] within the SM, of [Formula: see text] as well as precise tree-level determinations of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. We present correlations between [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] with and without the [Formula: see text] rule constraint and generalise the whole analysis to [Formula: see text] with colour ([Formula: see text]) and [Formula: see text] with FCNC couplings. In the latter case no improvement on [Formula: see text] can be achieved without destroying the agreement of the SM with the data on [Formula: see text]. Moreover, this scenario is very tightly constrained by [Formula: see text]. On the other hand, in the context of the [Formula: see text] rule [Formula: see text] is even more effective than [Formula: see text]: it provides the missing piece in [Formula: see text] for [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text].
Project description:The Josephson effect in point contacts between an "ordinary" superconductor [Formula: see text]In[Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]) and single crystals of the Fe-based superconductor Ba[Formula: see text]K[Formula: see text](FeAs)[Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]), was investigated. In order to shed light on the order parameter symmetry of Ba[Formula: see text]K[Formula: see text](FeAs)[Formula: see text], the dependence of the Josephson supercurrent [Formula: see text] on the temperature and on [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text] was studied. The dependencies of the critical current on temperature [Formula: see text] and of the amplitudes of the first current steps of the current-voltage characteristic [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] on the power of microwave radiation with frequency [Formula: see text] were measured. It is shown that the dependencies [Formula: see text] are close to the well-known Ambegaokar-Baratoff (AB) dependence for tunnel contacts between "ordinary" superconductors and to the dependence calculated by Burmistrova et al. (Phys Rev B 91, 214501 (2015)) for microshorts between an "ordinary" superconductor and a two-band superconductor with [Formula: see text] order parameter symmetry at certain values of the transparency of boundaries and thickness of the transition layer. It is found that the dependencies [Formula: see text] cannot be approximated within the resistively shunted model using the normalized microwave frequencies [Formula: see text] with characteristic voltages [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]-normal resistance of the contact) found from the low-voltage parts of the current-voltage characteristics. The reasons for this failure are discussed and a method is proposed for accurately determining the value of [Formula: see text], which takes into account all the features of the point contact affecting the period of the dependence [Formula: see text]. An analysis of the [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] dependencies shows that the superconducting current of the Josephson contacts under investigation is proportional to the [Formula: see text] of the phase difference [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]. The implications of these results on the symmetry of the order parameter are also discussed.
Project description:The temperature-dependent ([Formula: see text]) optical constants of monolayer [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] were investigated through spectroscopic ellipsometry over the spectral range of 0.73-6.42 eV. At room temperature, the spectra of refractive index exhibited several anomalous dispersion features below 800 nm and approached a constant value of 3.5-4.0 in the near-infrared frequency range. With a decrease in temperature, the refractive indices decreased monotonically in the near-infrared region due to the temperature-dependent optical band gap. The thermo-optic coefficients at room temperature had values from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] for monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides at a wavelength of 1200 nm below the optical band gap. The optical band gap increased with a decrease in temperature due to the suppression of electron-phonon interactions. On the basis of first-principles calculations, the observed optical excitations at 4.5 K were appropriately assigned. These results provide basic information for the technological development of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides-based photonic devices at various temperatures.
Project description:Traditional refrigeration technologies based on compression cycles of greenhouse gases pose serious threats to the environment and cannot be downscaled to electronic device dimensions. Solid-state cooling exploits the thermal response of caloric materials to changes in the applied external fields (i.e., magnetic, electric and/or mechanical stress) and represents a promising alternative to current refrigeration methods. However, most of the caloric materials known to date present relatively small adiabatic temperature changes ([Formula: see text] to 10 K) and/or limiting irreversibility issues resulting from significant phase-transition hysteresis. Here, we predict by using molecular dynamics simulations the existence of colossal barocaloric effects induced by pressure (isothermal entropy changes of [Formula: see text] J K[Formula: see text] kg[Formula: see text]) in the energy material Li[Formula: see text]B[Formula: see text]H[Formula: see text]. Specifically, we estimate [Formula: see text] J K[Formula: see text] kg[Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] K for a small pressure shift of P = 0.1 GPa at [Formula: see text] K. The disclosed colossal barocaloric effects are originated by a fairly reversible order-disorder phase transformation involving coexistence of Li[Formula: see text] diffusion and (BH)[Formula: see text] reorientational motion at high temperatures.
Project description:For more than four decades, mass of Abrikosov vortices defied experimental observations. We demonstrate a method of its detection in high-temperature superconductors. Similarly to electrons, fluxons circulate in the direction given by the magnetic field, causing circular dichroism. We report the magneto-transmittance of a nearly optimally doped thin YBa[Formula: see text]Cu[Formula: see text]O[Formula: see text] film, measured using circularly polarized submillimeter waves. The circular dichroism emerges in the superconducting state and increases with dropping temperature. Our results confirm the dominant role of quasiparticle states in the vortex core and yield the diagonal fluxon mass of [Formula: see text] electron masses per centimeter at 45 K and zero-frequency limit, and even larger off-diagonal mass of [Formula: see text]/cm.
Project description:Growth factor receptor-bound 2 (Grb2) is an important link in the receptor tyrosine kinase signaling cascades. It is involved in crucial processes, both physiological (mainly embryogenesis) and pathological (different types of cancer). Several binding partners of all three domains (SH3-SH2-SH3) of this adaptor protein are well described, such as ErbB family members for the SH2 domain and Sos for the SH3 domains. How the different domains interact with each other, both structurally and functionally, is still unclear. These interactions could be essential for regulation processes, and therefore are of great interest. Although a lot of structural data on Grb2 exist, they describe either individual domains, ligand-bound conformations, or frozen pictures of the protein captured by crystallography. Here we report the assignment of backbone and of [Formula: see text] chemical shifts of full-length, apo-Grb2 in solution. In addition to the assigned conformation corresponding to three well-folded domains, a set of peaks compatible with the presence of an unfolded conformation of the N-terminal SH3 domain is observed. This assignment paves the way for future studies of inter-domain interactions and dynamics that have to be taken into account when studying the regulation of Grb2 interactions and signaling pathways.
Project description:Understanding and controlling the transition between antiferromagnetic states having different symmetry content with respect to time-inversion and space-group operations are fundamental challenges for the design of magnetic phases with topologically nontrivial character. Here, we consider a paradigmatic antiferromagnetic oxide insulator, Ca[Formula: see text]RuO[Formula: see text], with symmetrically distinct magnetic ground states and unveil a novel path to guide the transition between them. The magnetic changeover results from structural and orbital reconstruction at the transition metal site that in turn arise as a consequence of substitutional doping. By means of resonant X-ray diffraction we track the evolution of the structural, magnetic, and orbital degrees of freedom for Mn doped Ca[Formula: see text]RuO[Formula: see text] to demonstrate the mechanisms which drive the antiferromagnetic transition. While our analysis focuses on a specific case of substitution, we show that any perturbation that can impact in a similar way on the crystal structure, by reconstructing the induced spin-orbital exchange, is able to drive the antiferromagnetic reorganization.
Project description:Complete visualization of lesions is critical for the accurate diagnosis and management of dermatological diseases. Currently, the most readily available technologies used by dermatologists include dermoscopy and photography. Nevertheless, ultrasound has emerged as a useful non-invasive modality in dermatology, which can be added to the clinical examination supporting an early and more accurate diagnosis. Moreover, there are significant technological advances in recent years, such as the development of handheld devices and ultra-high frequency probes that have expanded the integration of ultrasound into daily dermatology practice. In this article, we reviewed the most common applications of ultrasound in the field of dermatology.