National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

Effects of Ni, Nb and Mn co-doping on microstructural, dielectric and electromechanical properties of lead titanate (PT) dense ceramics, obtained as a result of decreasing lattice anisotropy with increasing amount of co-dopants, were investigated. Different values of the average valence (AV) of Ni-Nb co-dopants were obtained by mutual valence compensation between these acceptor donor ions of various relative concentrations. Significantly higher amounts of Mn2+ (resulted by reduction of Mn4+ in presence of donor co-dopants) were found in materials with Ni-Nb AV >4+. These materials show higher coupling factors, correlated with higher mechanical quality factors, compared to the rest of materials. Hard-like piezoelectric behavior was manifested in materials with Ni-Nb AV <4+, whereas ceramics with Ni-Nb AV >4+, and without manganese, turned out to have a soft-like behavior. Electromechanical properties of PT ceramics are discussed in terms of average valence of Ni-Nb co-dopants and multivalence state of manganese. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We study the electronic properties of the confined honeycomb lattice in the presence of the intrinsic spin-orbit (ISO) interaction and perpendicular magnetic field, and report on uncommon aspects of the quantum spin Hall conductance corroborated by peculiar properties of the edge states. The ISO interaction induces two specific gaps in the Hofstadter spectrum, namely the "weak" topological gap defined by Beugeling et al. [Phys. Rev. B 86, 075118 (2012)], and spin-imbalanced gaps in the relativistic range of the energy spectrum. We analyze the evolution of the helical states with the magnetic field and with increasing Anderson disorder. The "edge" localization of the spin-dependent states and its dependence on the disorder strength is shown. The quantum transport, treated in the Landauer-Buttiker formalism, reveals interesting new plateaus of the quantum spin Hall effect (QSHE), and also of the integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE), in the energy ranges corresponding to the spin-imbalanced gaps. The properties of the spin-dependent transmittance matrix that determine the symmetries with respect to the spin, energy, and magnetic field of the longitudinal and transverse resistance are shown.

Recent experiments have demonstrated that for a quantum dot in an optical resonator, off-resonant cavity-mode emission can occur even for detunings of the order of 10 meV. We show that Coulomb-mediated Auger processes based on additional carriers in delocalized states can facilitate this far off-resonant emission. A theoretical approach is developed for the nonperturbative treatment of the Auger-assisted quantum-dot carrier recombination. Using this method we present numerical calculations of the far off-resonant cavity feeding rate and cavity mean photon number, confirming efficient coupling at higher densities of carriers in the delocalized states. In comparison to fast Auger-like intraband scattering processes, we find a reduced overall efficiency of Coulomb-mediated interband transitions due the required electron-hole correlations for the recombination processes.

Circular cladding waveguides were realized in a 5.0-mm long, 1.1- at.% Nd:YAG ceramic by direct femtosecond-laser writing using a scheme in which the laser medium is moved on a helical trajectory along its axis and parallel to the writing direction. Laser emission was obtained under the pump with a fiber-coupled diode laser. A 100-mu m diameter waveguide delivered laser pulses at 1.06 mu m with 3.4-mJ energy for the pump with pulses of 13.1-mJ energy, at 0.30 slope efficiency; laser pulses at 1.3 mu m with 1.2-mJ energy were obtained from the same device. Comparison with a waveguide of the same dimension that was inscribed by the classical translation method of the laser medium is made. Efficient integrated lasers based on cladding waveguides that are pumped by fiber-coupled diode lasers could be realized by this writing method. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America

Spectroscopic investigation of the radiation-resistant Nd:GSGG crystals and ceramics reported in this paper evidences that the absorption line at 883 nm corresponding to the unusual situation of quasi-degenerate absorption transitions I-4(9/2)(2) -> F-4(3/2)(1) and I-4(9/2)(3) -> F-4(3/2)(2) can be used for efficient direct diode laser pumping of this material, with stable absorption over an extended temperature range. It is inferred that the reduction of the quantum defect at this wavelength of pump compared to the traditional 807 nm pumping could improve the laser parameters and reduce drastically the heat generation, leading to a considerable extension of the power scalability. This possibility is demonstrated for the first time in the case of the 1061 nm laser emission in a continuous-wave and in the repetitive active acousto-optic and passive Q-switched laser emission. In all regimes this manifests in the reduction of the laser threshold, increase of slope efficiency and extension of the average power range. Additionally, in the active Q-switching this enables increased pulse energy and reduced pulse duration. The direct pumping could revitalize the utilization of Nd:GSGG for construction of lasers with storage of population inversion or working in an ionizing radiation environment.

Dense boron carbide (above 95%) was achieved through high pressure (300 MPa) and low temperature (1600 degrees C) Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS). This approach resulted in improvement of fracture toughness and of dynamic toughness when compared to corresponding toughness values of the sample sintered by conventional SPS (2100 degrees C, 50 MPa). Dynamic toughness was extracted from Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar measurements. Results are understood based on microstructure and on very different behaviour of the samples in respect to residual B2O3 and carbon available in the raw B4C powder. (C) 2014 The Ceramic Society of Japan. All rights reserved.

Electric-field-induced transformations are studied experimentally in cube-on-cube-type epitaxial film of relaxor ferroelectric (FE) PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3 grown on (001) MgO substrate. The dielectric response, polarization, and current are measured along the out-of-plane < 100 > direction of the film and analyzed as a function of temperature, frequency, and applied field. Compared to the < 100 > crystal, transformation of the low-temperature relaxor state to a new state in the (001) film takes place at considerably lower temperatures and larger fields. Based on the found bisigmoidal shape and the two scaling regimes of the current-voltage curves, the two corresponding electric-field-induced processes are suggested to be dipolar flips and flow of a phase boundary in the film. The field-induced state in the film is dynamic and unstable, and it differs from the field-induced FE state in the crystal. The robustness of the relaxor state to electric field in the film is discussed in relation to spatial anisotropy of the dipolar system in the (001) film.

Additional pinning generated by magnetic nanoparticles which were created or inserted within polycrystalline MgB2 superconductor is analyzed. The composites were built in two ways: (i) ceramization of polysiloxane-co-ferrocene based copolymers and (ii) insertion of coated nanoparticles. The composites present two types of pinning: core pinning based on the variation of the superconducting parameter when a non-superconducting particle is present and a magnetic pinning resulting from the interaction of the screening currents around the particle and the flux line. All samples show a consistent improvement of the critical current density when the magnetic moment of the sample in normal state is finite but small, showing a maximum for a magnetic moment of 0.015 emu/cm(3). A tentative description of the effect of magnetic pinning is presented in the framework of the collective pinning. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We report on realization of buried waveguides in Nd: YAG ceramic media by direct femtosecond-laser writing technique and investigate the waveguides laser emission characteristics under the pump with fiber-coupled diode lasers. Laser pulses at 1.06 mu m with energy of 2.8 mJ for the pump with pulses of 13.1-mJ energy and continuous-wave output power of 0.49 W with overall optical efficiency of 0.13 were obtained from a 100-mu m diameter circular cladding waveguide realized in a 0.7-at.% Nd: YAG ceramic. A circular waveguide of 50-mu m diameter yielded laser pulses at 1.3 mu m with 1.2-mJ energy. (c) 2014 Optical Society of America