The Kondo effect in an artificial quantum dot molecule

Double quantum dots provide an ideal model system for studying interactions between localized impurity spins. We report on the transport properties of a series-coupled double quantum dot as electrons are added one by one onto the dots. When the many-body molecular states are formed, we observe a splitting of the Kondo resonance peak in the differential conductance. This splitting reflects the energy difference between the bonding and antibonding states formed by the coherent superposition of the Kondo states of each dot. The occurrence of the Kondo resonance and its magnetic field dependence agree with a simple interpretation of the spin status of a double quantum dot.     

Controlling the Kondo effect of an adsorbed magnetic ion through its chemical bonding

We report that the Kondo effect exerted by a magnetic ion depends on its chemical environment. A cobalt phthalocyanine molecule adsorbed on an Au111 surface exhibited no Kondo effect. Cutting away eight hydrogen atoms from the molecule with voltage pulses from a scanning tunneling microscope tip allowed the four orbitals of this molecule to chemically bond to the gold substrate. The localized spin was recovered in this artificial molecular structure, and a clear Kondo resonance was observed near the Fermi surface. We attribute the high Kondo temperature (more than 200 kelvin) to the small on-site Coulomb repulsion and the large half-width of the hybridized d-level.     

Magnetic clusters on single-walled carbon nanotubes: the Kondo effect in a one-dimensional host

Single-walled carbon nanotubes are ideal systems for investigating fundamental properties and applications of one-dimensional electronic systems. The interaction of magnetic impurities with electrons confined in one dimension has been studied by spatially resolving the local electronic density of states of small cobalt clusters on metallic single-walled nanotubes with a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. Spectroscopic measurements performed on and near these clusters exhibit a narrow peak near the Fermi level that has been identified as a Kondo resonance. Using the scanning tunneling microscope to fabricate ultrasmall magnetic nanostructures consisting of small cobalt clusters on short nanotube pieces, spectroscopic studies of this quantum box structure exhibited features characteristic of the bulk Kondo resonance, but also new features due to finite size.     

High-temperature ferromagnetism in CaB2C2

We report a high Curie-temperature ferromagnet, CaB2C2. Although the compound has neither transition metal nor rare earth ions, the ferromagnetic transition temperature Tc is about 770 Kelvin. Despite this high T(c), the magnitude of the ordered moment at room temperatures is on the order of 10(-4) Bohr magneton per formula unit. These properties are rather similar to those of doped divalent hexaborides, such as Ca(1-x)La(x)B6. The calculated electronic states also show similarity near the Fermi level between CaB2C2 and divalent hexaborides. However, there is an important difference: CaB2C2 crystallizes in a tetragonal structure, and there are no equivalent pockets in the energy bands for electrons and holes-in contrast with CaB6. Thus, the disputed threefold degeneracy, specific to the cubic structure, in the energy bands of divalent hexaborides turns out not to be essential for high-temperature ferromagnetism. It is the peculiar molecular orbitals near the Fermi level that appear to be crucial to the high-Tc ferromagnetism.     

Photon-induced Kondo satellites in a single-electron transistor

We measure the differential conductance of a single-electron transistor (SET) irradiated with microwaves. The spin-entangled many-electron Kondo state produces a zero-bias peak in the dc differential conductance if the quantum dot in the SET contains an unpaired electron. When the photon energy hf is comparable to the energy width of the Kondo peak and to e (the charge on the electron) times the microwave voltage across the dot, satellites appear in the differential conductance shifted in voltage by +/-hf/e from the zero-bias resonance. We also observe an overall suppression of the Kondo features with increasing microwave voltage.     

Room-temperature ferromagnetism in transparent transition metal-doped titanium dioxide

Dilute magnetic semiconductors and wide gap oxide semiconductors are appealing materials for magnetooptical devices. From a combinatorial screening approach looking at the solid solubility of transition metals in titanium dioxides and of their magnetic properties, we report on the observation of transparent ferromagnetism in cobalt-doped anatase thin films with theconcentration of cobalt between 0 and 8%. Magnetic microscopy images reveal a magnetic domain structure in the films, indicating the existence of ferromagnetic long-range ordering. The materials remain ferromagnetic above room temperature with a magnetic moment of 0.32 Bohr magnetons per cobalt atom. The film is conductive and exhibits a positive magnetoresistance of 60% at 2 kelvin.     

Quantum hall ferromagnetism in a two-dimensional electron system

Experiments on a nearly spin degenerate two-dimensional electron system reveals unusual hysteretic and relaxational transport in the fractional quantum Hall effect regime. The transition between the spin-polarized (with fill fraction nu = 1/3) and spin-unpolarized (nu = 2/5) states is accompanied by a complicated series of hysteresis loops reminiscent of a classical ferromagnet. In correlation with the hysteresis, magnetoresistance can either grow or decay logarithmically in time with remarkable persistence and does not saturate. In contrast to the established models of relaxation, the relaxation rate exhibits an anomalous divergence as temperature is reduced. These results indicate the presence of novel two-dimensional ferromagnetism with a complicated magnetic domain dynamic.     

Zener model description of ferromagnetism in zinc-blende magnetic semiconductors

Ferromagnetism in manganese compound semiconductors not only opens prospects for tailoring magnetic and spin-related phenomena in semiconductors with a precision specific to III-V compounds but also addresses a question about the origin of the magnetic interactions that lead to a Curie temperature (T(C)) as high as 110 K for a manganese concentration of just 5%. Zener's model of ferromagnetism, originally proposed for transition metals in 1950, can explain T(C) of Ga(1-)(x)Mn(x)As and that of its II-VI counterpart Zn(1-)(x)Mn(x)Te and is used to predict materials with T(C) exceeding room temperature, an important step toward semiconductor electronics that use both charge and spin.     

Competition of superconducting phenomena and Kondo screening at the nanoscale

Magnetic and superconducting interactions couple electrons together to form complex states of matter. We show that, at the atomic scale, both types of interactions can coexist and compete to influence the ground state of a localized magnetic moment. Local spectroscopy at 4.5 kelvin shows that the spin-1 system formed by manganese-phthalocyanine (MnPc) adsorbed on Pb(111) can lie in two different magnetic ground states. These are determined by the balance between Kondo screening and superconducting pair-breaking interactions. Both ground states alternate at nanometer length scales to form a Moiré-like superstructure. The quantum phase transition connecting the two (singlet and doublet) ground states is thus tuned by small changes in the molecule-lead interaction.     

Organic molecular soft ferromagnetism in a fullerene c60

The properties of an organic molecular ferromagnet [C(60)TDAE(0.86); TDAE is tetrakis(dimethylamino)ethylene] with a Curie temperature ;T(c) = 16.1 kelvin are described. The ferromagnetic state shows no remanence, and the temperature dependence of the magnetization below ;T(c) does not follow the behavior expected of a conventional ferromagnet. These results are interpreted as a reflection of a three-dimensional system leading to a soft ferromagnet.     

Electrically induced ferromagnetism at room temperature in cobalt-doped titanium dioxide

The electric field effect in ferromagnetic semiconductors enables switching of the magnetization, which is a key technology for spintronic applications. We demonstrated electric field-induced ferromagnetism at room temperature in a magnetic oxide semiconductor, (Ti,Co)O(2), by means of electric double-layer gating with high-density electron accumulation (>10(14) per square centimeter). By applying a gate voltage of a few volts, a low-carrier paramagnetic state was transformed into a high-carrier ferromagnetic state, thereby revealing the considerable role of electron carriers in high-temperature ferromagnetism and demonstrating a route to room-temperature semiconductor spintronics.     

Decision-making in the presence of risk

Proposed in the 18th century by Cramer and Bernoulli and formally axiomatized in the 20th century by von Neumann and Morgenstern and others, the expected utility model has long been the dominant framework for the analysis of decision-making under risk. A growing body of experimental evidence, however, indicates that individuals systematically violate the key behavioral assumption of this model, the so-called independence axiom. This has led to the development and analysis of nonexpected utility models of decision-making. Although recent work in this area has shown that the analytical results of expected utility theory are more robust than previously supposed, other important issues remain unresolved.     

扩展动力学平均场理论中近藤晶格模型的Luttinger Ward 泛函方法

提出了一种新的基于 Luttinger Ward 泛函的图解赝粒子方法来处理具有 RKKY 相互作用的重费米子体系的近藤晶格模型。采用此新方法,近藤晶格模型的光导结果被给出,并与已有研究结果较好相符。     

重金属存在下微塑料对环丙沙星的吸附特征及机制研究

为了揭示微塑料在重金属与抗生素共存体系中的吸附特征,以聚酰胺(PA)、聚氯乙烯(PVC)为典型微塑料,以环丙沙星(CIP)作为目标抗生素,以Cu、Cd为重金属代表,通过批量吸附试验研究了重金属存在下微塑料对CIP的吸附行为及机理。结果表明:PA和PVC两种微塑料对CIP的吸附同时符合Langmuir方程和Freundlich方程,由Langmuir方程拟合得到的CIP对PA和PVC的最大吸附量分别为1.846 mg·g~(-1)和1.862 mg·g~(-1)。不同pH下两种微塑料对CIP的吸附呈现先增加再降低的趋势,pH为6时吸附量达到最大。重金属Cu、Cd存在下的吸附等温线更符合Langmuir方程,Cu的存在显著促进了微塑料对CIP的吸附,而Cd的存在抑制了微塑料对CIP的吸附,Cu、Cd没有改变吸附量随pH变化的趋势。PVC对CIP的吸附以物理吸附为主,PA吸附CIP的机制包括酰胺基与羰基间氢键的产生,此外静电相互作用、极性作用也是两种微塑料吸附CIP的重要机制。研究表明,重金属Cu、Cd存在下,可以改变微塑料对CIP的吸附量,但不会对PA、PVC吸附CIP的机制产生影响。     

The presence in normal serum of inhibiting subsequences against Bacillus subtilis

Sera from 35 normal persons who had received no previous medication were tested for inhibiting substances against Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus. Thirty of the sera (85 per cent) inhibited Bacillus subtilis in dilutions varying up to 1:32, but in no instance was Staphylococcus aureus inhibited. The data presented would indicate that Bacillus subtilis is not a suitable organism for use in the assay of antibiotics in the presence of serum.     

The kondo effect in the unitary limit

We observe a strong Kondo effect in a semiconductor quantum dot when a small magnetic field is applied. The Coulomb blockade for electron tunneling is overcome completely by the Kondo effect, and the conductance reaches the unitary limit value. We compare the experimental Kondo temperature with the theoretical predictions for the spin- 12 Anderson impurity model. Excellent agreement is found throughout the Kondo regime. Phase coherence is preserved when a Kondo quantum dot is included in one of the arms of an Aharonov-Bohm ring structure, and the phase behavior differs from previous results on a non-Kondo dot.