Electromechanical influence of crack velocity at bifurcation for poled ferroelectric materials

The piezoelastodynamic field equations are solved to determine the crack velocity at bifurcation for poled ferroelectric materials where the applied electrical field and mechanical stress can be varied. The underlying physical mechanism, however, may not correspond to that assumed in the analytical model. Bifurcation has been related to the occurrence of a pair of maximum circumferential stress oriented symmetrically about the moving crack path. The velocity at which this behavior prevails has been referred to as the limiting crack speed. Unlike the classical approach, bifurcation will be identified with finite distances ahead of a moving crack. Nucleation of microcracks can thus be modelled in a single formulation. This can be accomplished by using the energy density function where fracture initiation is identified with dominance of dilatation in relation to distortion. Poled ferroelectric materials are selected for this study because the microstructure effects for this class of materials can be readily reflected by the elastic, piezoelectic and dielectric permittivity constants at the macroscopic scale. Existing test data could also shed light on the trend of the analytical predictions. Numerical results are thus computed for PZT-4 and compared with those for PZT-6B in an effort to show whether the branching behavior would be affected by the difference in the material microstructures. A range of crack bifurcation speed upsilon(b) is found for different r/a and E/sigma ratios. Here, r and a stand for the radial distance and half crack length, respectively, while E and a for the electric field and mechanical stress. For PZT-6B with upsilon(b) in the range 100-1700 m/s, the bifurcation angles varied from +/-6degrees to +/-39degrees. This corresponds to E/sigma of -0.072 to 0.024 V m/N. At the same distance r/a = 0.1, PZT-4 gives upsilon(b) values of 1100-2100 m/s; bifurcation angles of +/-15degrees to +/-49degrees; and E/sigma of -0.056 to 0.059 V m/N. In general, the bifurcation angles +/-theta(0) are found to decrease with decreasing crack velocity as the distance r/a is increased. Relatively speaking, the speed upsilon(b) and angles +/-theta(0) for PZT-4 are much greater than those for PZT-6B. This may be attributed to the high electromechanical coupling effect of PZT-4. Using upsilon(b)(0) as a base reference, an equality relation upsilon(b)(-) < upsilon(b)(0) < upsilon(b)(+) can be established. The superscripts -, 0 and + refer, respectively, to negative, zero and positive electric field. This is reminiscent of the enhancement and retardation of crack growth behavior due to change in poling direction. Bifurcation characteristics are found to be somewhat erratic when r/a approaches the range 10(-2)-10(-1) where the kinetic energy densities would fluctuate and then rise as the distance from the moving crack is increased. This is an artifact introduced by the far away condition of non-vanishing particle velocity. A finite kinetic energy density prevails at infinity unless it is made to vanish in the boundary value problem. Future works are recommended to further clarify the physical mechanism(s) associated with bifurcation by means of analysis and experiment. Damage at the microscopic level needs to be addressed since it has been known to affect the macrocrack speeds and bifurcation characteristics. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Electrothermal stress in conductive body with collinear cracks

The temperature and stress field in a thin plate with collinear cracks interrupting an electric current field are determined. This is accomplished by using a complex function method that allows a direct means of finding the distribution of the electric current, the temperature and stress field. Temperature dependency for the heat-transfer coefficient, coefficient of linear expansion and the elastic modulus are considered. As an example, temperature distribution is calculated for an alloy (No. GH2132) plate with two collinear cracks under high temperature. Relationships between the stress, temperature, electric density and crack length are obtained. Crack trajectories emanating from existing crack are predicted by application of the strain energy density criterion which can also be used for finding the load carrying capacity of the cracked plate. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Surface planar ion chip for linear radio-frequency Paul traps

We propose a surface planar ion chip which forms a linear radio frequency Paul ion trap. The electrodes reside in the two planes of a chip, and the trap axis is located above the chip surface. Its electric field and potential distribution are similar to the standard linear radio frequency Paul ion trap. This ion trap geometry may be greatly meaningful for quantum information processing.

强外加电场与大调制度下光折变动力学光栅形成研究

强外加电场与大调制度在光折变效应的研究中已经得到了广泛应用。采用PDECOL算法, 严格求解光折变带输运方程, 得到外加电场时不同调制度下光折变晶体中随时间变化的空间电荷场、载流子浓度, 并讨论了外加电场对它们的影响。通过将物质方程与耦合波方程联立数值求解, 可得到光折变光栅形成过程中两波耦合增益系数以及光束条纹相位的变化。模拟结果表明, 在强外加电场作用下, 两束记录光之间的光强与相位耦合都得到了增强, 而原有的解析式忽视了强外加电场与大调制度对空间电荷场相位耦合的影响, 此时不再适用。同时发现折射率光

Electrochromism accompanying ferroelectric domain inversion in congruent RuO2 : LiNbO3 crystal

Electrochromic phenomena accompanying the ferroelectric domain inversion in congruent RuO2-doped z-cut LiNbO3 crystals at room temperature are observed in experiments. During the electric poling process, the electrochromism accompanies the ferroelectric domain inversion simultaneously in the same poled area. The electrochromism is completely reversible when the domain is inverted from the reverse direction. The influences of electric field and annealing conditions on domain inversion and electrochromism are also discussed. We propose the reasonable assumption that charge redistribution within the crystal structure caused by domain inversion is the source for electrochemically oxidation and reduction of Ru ion to produce the electrochromic effect. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.

Anisotropic Bragg diffraction of finite-sized volume holographic grating in photorefractive crystals

Anisotropic diffraction of uniform plane wave by finite-sized volume holographic grating in photorefractive crystals is considered. It is found that the anisotropic diffraction can take place when some special conditions are satisfied. The diffracted image is obtained in experiment for the anisotropic Bragg diffraction in Fe:LiNbO3 crystals. A coupled wave analysis is presented to study the properties of anisotropic diffraction. An analytical integral solution for the amplitudes of the diffracted beams is submitted. A trade off between high diffraction efficiency and the deterioration of reconstruction fidelity is analyzed. Numerical evaluations also show that the finite-sized anisotropic volume grating exhibits strong angular and wavelength selectivity. All the results are useful for the optimizing design of VHOE based on finite-sized volume grating structures. (c) 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

A metal-mirror-based reflecting polarizing beam splitter

We theoretically investigated the design of a metal-mirror-based reflecting polarizing beam splitter (RPBS). The metal mirror is a silver slab, which is embedded in the substrate of a rectangular silica transmission grating. By using a modal analysis and rigorous coupled-wave analysis, an RPBS grating is designed for operation at 1550 nm. When it is illuminated in Littrow mounting, the transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) waves will be mainly reflected in the minus-first and zeroth orders, respectively. Moreover, a wideband RPBS grating is obtained by adopting the simulated annealing algorithm. The RPBS gratings exhibit high diffraction efficiencies (similar to 95%) and high extinction ratios over a certain angle and wavelength range, especially for the minus-first-order reflection. This kind of RPBS should be useful in practical optical applications.

Electrically controllable RKKY interaction in semiconductor quantum wires

We demonstrate in theory that it is possible to all-electrically manipulate the RKKY interaction in a quasi-one-dimensional electron gas embedded in a semiconductor heterostructure, in the presence of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction. In an undoped semiconductor quantum wire where intermediate excitations are gapped, the interaction becomes the short-ranged Bloembergen-Rowland superexchange interaction. Owing to the interplay of different types of spin-orbit interaction, the interaction can be controlled to realize various spin models, e.g., isotropic and anisotropic Heisenberg-like models, Ising-like models with additional Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya terms, by tuning the external electric field and designing the crystallographic directions. Such controllable interaction forms a basis for quantum computing with localized spins and quantum matters in spin lattices.

Quantum-confined Stark effects in a single GaN quantum dot

Using analytical expressions for the polarization field in GaN quantum dot, and an approximation by separating the potential into a radial and an axial, we investigate theoretically the quantum-confined Stark effects. The electron and hole energy levels and optical transition energies are calculated in the presence of an electric field in different directions. The results show that the electron and hole energy levels and the optical transition energies can cause redshifts for the lateral electric field and blueshifts for the vertical field. The rotational direction of electric field can also change the energy shift.

Spin splitting of conduction subbands in Al0.3Ga0.7As/GaAs/AlxGa1-x As/Al0.3Ga0.7As step quantum wells

By means of the transfer matrix technique, interface-induced Rashba spin splitting of conduction subbands in Al0.3Ga0.7As/GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As step quantum wells which contain internal structure inversion asymmetry introduced by the insertion of AlxGa1-xAs step potential is investigated theoretically in the absence of electric field and magnetic field. The dependence of spin splitting on the well width, step width and Al concentration is investigated in detail. We find that the sign of the first excited subband spin splitting changes with well width and step width, and is opposite to that of the ground subband under certain conditions. The sign and strength of the spin splitting are shown to be sensitive to the components of the envelope function at three interfaces. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2009

Spin-dependent transport through Cd1-xMnxTe diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dots

We theoretically investigate the spin-dependent transport through Cd1-xMnxTe diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) quantum dots (QD's) under the influence of both the external electric field and magnetic field using the recursion method. Our results show that (1) it can get a 100% polarized electric current by using suitable structure parameters; (2) for a fixed Cd1-xMnxTe DMS QD, the wider the system is, the more quickly the transmission coefficient increases; (3) for a fixed system length, the transmission peaks of the spin-up electrons move to lower Fermi energy with increasing Cd1-xMnxTe DMS QD radius, while the transmission of the spin-down electrons is almost unchanged; (4) the spin-polarized effect is slightly increased for larger magnetic fields; (5) the external static electric field moves the transmission peaks to higher or lower Fermi energy depending on the direction of the applied field; and (6) the spin-polarized effect decreases as the band offset increases. Our calculated results may be useful for the application of Cd1-xMnxTe DMS QD's to the spin-dependent microelectronic and optoelectronic devices.

Tunable Fano resonance in photonic crystal slabs

A three dimensional analysis of a special class of anisotropic materials is presented. We introduce an extension of the Scattering Matrix Method (SMM) to investigate the behavior of anisotropic Photonic Crystal Slabs (PhCS) subject to external radiation. We show how the Fano effect can play a fundamental role in the realization of tunable optical devices. Moreover, we show how to utilize electron injection, electric field and temperature as parameters to control the Fano resonance shift in both isotropic and anisotropic materials as Si and Potassium Titanium Oxide Phosphate (KTP). We will see that because Fano modes are sensitive and controllable, a broad range of applications can be considered. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America

A complex Fourier transformation study of the contactless electroreflectance of an undoped-n(+) GaAs structure

Complex Fourier transformation (CFT) has been employed to analyse contactless electroreflectance (CER) spectra from an undoped-n(+) GaAs structure with various ac modulations and dc bias voltages. The CFT spectra of CER have been compared with those of photoreflectance (PR). It has been found that the CER non-flat modulation is between the built-in electric field and a larger electric field which increases with the modulation voltage. The result has been explained by the screening of the applied modulation electric field in one of the two half modulation cycles and the trapping of electrons in surface states in the other half modulation cycle. The dc bias does not change the CER spectra, hence their CFT spectra. This is because of the screening of the applied dc bias electric field.

Rashba spin splitting in biased semiconductor quantum wells

Rashba spin splitting (RSS) in biased semiconductor quantum wells is investigated theoretically based on eight-band k center dot p theory. We find that at large wave vectors, RSS is both nonmonotonic and anisotropic as a function of in-plane wave vector, in contrast to the widely used isotropic linear model. We derive an analytical expression for RSS, which can qualitatively reproduce such nonmonotonic behavior at large wave vectors. We also investigate numerically the dependence of RSS on the various band parameters and find that RSS increases with decreasing band gap and subband index, increasing valence band offset, external electric field, and well width. All these dependences can be qualitatively described by our analytical model.

Effect of InAs quantum dots on the Fermi level pinning of undoped-n(+) type GaAs surface studied by contactless electroreflectance

Self-assembled InAs quantum dots (QDs) have been fabricated by depositing 1.6, 1.8, 2.0 and 2.5 monolayer (ML) InAs on surfaces of the undoped-n(+) (UN+) type GaAs structure. Room temperature contactless electroreflectance (CER) was employed to study the built-in electric field and the surface Fermi level pinning of these QD-covered UN+ GaAs samples. The CER results show that 1.6 ML InAs QDs on GaAs do not modify the Fermi level, whereas for samples with more than 1.6 ML InAs coverage, the surface Fermi level is moved to the valence band maximum of GaAs by about 70 meV (which is independent of the InAs deposition thickness) compared to bare GaAs. It is concluded that the modification of InAs coverage on the Fermi level on the GaAs surface is due to the QDs, rather than to the wetting layer. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.