Oscillation of Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction driven by weak electric fields

Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction(DMI) is under extensive investigation considering its crucial status in chiral magnetic orders, such as Néel-type domain wall(DW) and skyrmions. It has been reported that the interfacial DMI originating from Rashba spin–orbit coupling(SOC) can be linearly tuned with strong external electric fields. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate that the strength of DMI exhibits rapid fluctuations, ranging from 10% to 30% of its original value, as a function of applied electric fields in Pt/Co/MgO heterostructures within the small field regime(< 10-2V/nm). Brillouin light scattering(BLS) experiments have been performed to measure DMI, and first-principles calculations show agreement with this observation, which can be explained by the variation in orbital hybridization at the Co/MgO interface in response to the weak electric fields. Our results on voltage control of DMI(VCDMI) suggest that research related to the voltage control of magnetic anisotropy for spin–orbit torque or the motion control of skyrmions might also have to consider the role of the external electric field on DMI as small voltages are generally used for the magnetoresistance detection.

ELECTRIC FIELD EFFECTS ON YOUNG'S MOLULUS OF NANOWIRES

As an important component of nanodevices and nanomachine constructions, the mechanical performance of nanowires （NWs） has been a subject of intense research efforts due to gaining relevance in controlling functionality of nanoelectromechanical systems （NEMS）; meanwhile, one of the characteristics of the NEMS is the dependence of the functionality of the systems upon the applied electric field. The study of the electric effects on the Young＇s modulus of nanostructures is of certain usefulness in the design of NEMS and the precise measurement of mechanical properties of one-dimensional nanostructures. This paper reviews the origin of the size-dependence of the elastic property of NWs and the factors influencing the discrepancies and inconsistencies in the measured values of the Young＇s modulus for the NW, besides the surface effects, nonlinear effects, the electromechanical coupling effects as a possible effect responsible for the differences in quantitative and qualitative performance of the measured Young＇s modulus for the NWs versus the diameter are clarified.

Non-Kramers doublet ground state in a quaternary cubic compound PrRu_(2)In_(2)Zn_(18) investigated by ultrasonic measurements

We performed ultrasonic measurements on a quaternary cubic compound PrRu_(2)In_(2)Zn_(18) to explore the ground state properties derived from non-Kramers Γ_(3) doublet of Pr^(3+).PrRu_(2)In_(2)Zn_(18) is a quaternary derivative of the ternary compound PrRu_(2)Zn_(20) that exhibits a structural phase transition at T_S=138 K.In PrRu_(2)In_(2)Zn_(18),the Zn atoms at the 16c site in PrRu_(2)Zn_(20) are selectively replaced by In atoms.A monotonic increase was observed in the temperature dependence of elastic constants C_L=(C_(11)+2C_(12)+4C_(44))/3 and C_(T)=(C_(11)-C_(12)+C_(44))/3 in the temperature range around T_(S) to which an elastic softening was observed in(C_(11)-C_(12))/2 for PrRu_(2)Zn_(20).The disappearance of the softening indicates that the structural transition in PrRu_(2)Zn_(20) is suppressed by the substitution of Zn ions by In ones with a larger ionic radius.Alternatively,the C_(T) of PrRu_(2)In_(2)Zn_(18) exhibits a precursor Curie-type elastic softening toward low temperatures being responsible for the non-Kramers Γ_(3) ground state.We discuss the ground state and the evolution of the elastic properties of the different single-crystal samples of PrRu_(2)In_(2)Zn_(18) grown under different conditions.

Saturation effects on Ba 6phi （l=0, 2） and 6pnk （｜M｜= 0, 1） autoionization spectra

Using a three-step laser saturation excitation technique, the saturation effects on the Ba 6pns （J = 1） and 6pad （J = 1, 3） autoionization spectra are observed systemically in zero field. These saturation spectra are introduced to determine the high n members of 6pnl （l = 0, 2） autoionizing series and are used to analyse the channel interactions among the autoionizing series in zero field. Furthermore, the saturation excitation technique is applied to the electric field case, in which the saturation spectra of Ba 6pnk （｜M｜= 0, 1） autoionizing Stark states are measured. Most of these saturation spectra are observed for the first time so far as we know, which indicate the mixing of the autoionizing states in the electric fields.

Effect of electric field on the electronic spectrum and the persistent current of a quantum ring with two electrons

The effect of an electric field E on a narrow quantum ring that contains two electrons and is threaded by a magnetic flux B has been investigated. Localization of the electronic distribution and suppression of the AharonovBohm oscillation （ABO） are found in the two-electron ring, which are similar to those found in a one-electron ring. However, the period of ABO in a two-electron ring is reduced by half compared with that in a one-electron ring. Furthermore, during the variation of B, the persistent current of the ground state may undergo a sudden change in sign. This change is associated with a singlet-triplet transition and has no counterpart in one-electron rings. For a given E, there exists a threshold of energy. When the energy of the excited state exceeds the threshold, the localization would disappear and the ABO would recover. The value of the threshold is proportional to the magnitude of E. Once the threshold is exceeded, the persistent current is much stronger than the current of the ground state at E=0.

Understanding the effect of propofol and electrical cardioversion on the systolic blood pressure of emergency department patients with atrial fibrillation

Dear editor, We read with pleasure the well-designed study by Butler et al of electrical cardioversion of emergency department patients with atrial fibrillation. We appreciate their analysis of the distinctives of procedural sedation when employed for this indication. Understanding the dosing adjustments to propofol undertaken by their sedationists will help us more carefully evaluate our own approach to sedating patients undergoing electrical cardioversion of atrial fibrillation.

Electrically Tunable Energy Bandgap in Dual-Gated Ultra-Thin Black Phosphorus Field Effect Transistors

The energy bandgap is an intrinsic character of semiconductors, which largely determines their properties. The ability to continuously and reversibly tune the bandgap of a single device during real time operation is of great importance not only to device physics but also to technological applications. Here we demonstrate a widely tunable bandgap of few-layer black phosphorus （BP） by the application of vertical electric field in dual-gated BP field-effect transistors. A total bandgap reduction of 124 meV is observed when the electrical displacement field is increased from 0.10 V/nm to 0.83 V/nm. Our results suggest appealing potential for few-layer BP as a tunable bandgap material in infrared optoelectronies, thermoelectric power generation and thermal imaging.

Effect of low-frequency pulse percutaneous electric stimulation on peripheral nerve injuries at different sites

BACKGROUND： The postoperative recovery of nerve function in patients with peripheral nerve injury is always an important problem to solve after treatment. The electric stimulation induced electromagnetic field can nourish nerve, postpone muscular atrophy, and help the postoperative neuromuscular function. OBJECTIVE： To observe the effects of low-frequency pulse percutaneous electric stimulation on the functional recovery of postoperative patients with peripheral nerve injury, and quantitatively evaluate the results of electromyogram （EMG） examination before and after treatment. DESIGN ： A retrospective case analysis SETTING： The Sixth People＇s Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University PARTICIPANTS： Nineteen postoperative inpatients with peripheral nerve injury were selected from the De- partment of Orthopaedics, the Sixth People＇s Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University from June 2005 to January 2006, including 13 males and 6 females aged 24-62 years with an average of 36 years old. There were 3 cases of brachial plexus nerve injury, 3 of median nerve injury, 7 of radial nerve injury, 3 of ul- nar nerve injury and 3 of common peroneal nerve injury, and all the patients received probing nerve fiber restoration. Their main preoperative manifestations were dennervation, pain in limbs, motor and sensory disturbances. All the 19 patients were informed with the therapeutic program and items for evaluation. METHODS： ① Low-frequency pulse percutaneous electric stimulation apparatus： The patients were given electric stimulation with the TERESA cantata instrument （TERESA-0, Shanghai Teresa Health Technology, Co., Ltd.）. The patients were stimulated with symmetric square waves of 1-111 Hz, and the intensity was 1.2-5.0 mA, and it was gradually adjusted according to the recovered conditions of neural regeneration following the principle that the intensity was strong enough and the patients felt no obvious upset. They were treated for 4- 24 weeks, 10-30 minutes for each time, 1-3 times a day, and 6 weeks as a course. ② EMG examination was applied to evaluate the recoveries of recruitment, motor conduction velocity （MCV） and sensory conduction velocity （SCV） before and after treatment. The patients were examined with the EMG apparatus （DIS- A2000C, Danmark） before and after the treatment of percutaneous electric stimulation. ③Standards for evaluating the effects included cured （complete recovery of motor functions, muscle strength of grade 5, no abnormality in EMG examination）, obviously effective [general recovery of motor function, muscle strength of grade 4, no or a few denervation potentials, motor conduction velocity （MCV） and sensory conduction velocity （SCV）], improved （partial recovery of motor function, muscle strength of grade 3, denervation potentials and reinneration potentials, slowed MCV and SCV, invalid （no obvious changes of motor function）. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： ① Ameliorated degree of the nerve function of the postoperative patients with peripheral nerve injury treated with percutaneous electric stimulation; ② Changes of EMG examination before and after treatment. RESULTS： All the 19 postoperative patients with peripheral nerve injury were involved in the analysis of results. ① Comparison of nerve function before and after treatment in 19 patients with peripheral nerve injury of different sites： For the patients with radial nerve injury （n=7）, the nerve functions all completely recovered after 8-week treatment, and the cured and obvious rate was 100% （7/7）; For the patients with brachial plexus nerve injury （n=3）, 1 case had no obvious improvement, and the cured and obvious rate was 67% （2/3）; For the patients with common peroneal nerve injury （n=3）, the extension of foot dorsum generally recovered in 1 case of nerve contusion after 4-week treatment, and the cured and obvious rate was 67% （2/3）; For the patients with median nerve injury （n=3）, muscle strength was obviously recovered, and the cured and obvious rate was 100% （3/3）; For the patients with ulnar nerve injury （n=3）, 1 case only had recovery of partial senses, and the cured and obvious rate was 67% （2/3）. Totally 9 cases were cured, 7 were obviously effective, 1 was improved, and only 2 were invalid. After 4 courses, the cured rate of damaged nerve function after four courses was 47% （9/19）, and effective rate was 89% （17/19）.② Comparison of EMG examination before and after treatment： Before and after percutaneous electric stimulation, he effective rates of recruitment, MCV and SCV were 89% （17/19）, 58% （11/19）, 47% （9/19） respectively, and there were extremely obvious differences （P〈 0.01）. CONCLUSION： ①Low-frequency pulse percutaneous electric stimulation can improve the nerve function of postoperative patients with peripheral nerve injury of different sites, especially that the injuries of radial nerve and median nerve recover more obviously. ②Percutaneous electric stimulation can ameliorate the indexes of EMG examination, especially the recruitment, in postoperative patients with peripheral nerve injury.

Equivalent circuit model including magnetic and thermo sources for the thermo–magneto–electric coupling effect in magnetoelectric laminates

The nonlinear thermo–magneto–mechanical magnetostrictive constitutive and the linear thermo–mechanical-electric piezoelectric constitutive are adopted in this paper. The bias magnetic field and ambient temperature are equivalent to a magnetic source and a thermo source, respectively. An equivalent circuit, which contains a magnetic source and a thermo source at the input, for the thermo–magneto–electric coupling effect in magnetoelectric（ME） laminates, is established. The theoretical models of the output voltage and static ME coefficient for ME laminates can be derived from this equivalent circuit model. The predicted static ME coefficient versus temperature curves are in excellent agreement with the experimental data available both qualitatively and quantitatively. It confirms the validity of the proposed model. Then the models are adopted to predict variations in the output voltages and ME coefficients in the laminates under different ambient temperatures, bias magnetic fields, and the volume ratios of magnetostrictive phases. This shows that the output voltage increases with both increasing temperature and increasing volume ratio of magnetostrictive phases; the ME coefficient decreases with increasing temperature; the ME coefficient shows an initial sharp increase and then decreases slowly with the increase in the bias magnetic field, and there is an optimum volume ratio of magnetostrictive phases that maximize the ME coefficient.This paper can not only provide a new idea for the study of the thermo–magneto–electric coupling characteristics of ME laminates, but also provide a theoretical basis for the design and application of ME laminates, operating under different sensors.

Tuning the phase separation in La_(0.325)Pr_(0.3)Ca_(0.375)MnO_3 using the electric double-layer field effect

Electric double-layer field effect experiments were performed on ultrathin films of La0.325Pr0.3Ca0.375MnO3, which is noted for its micrometer-scale phase separation. A clear change of resistance up to 220% was observed and the characteristic metal-insulator transition temperature Tp was also shifted. The changes of both the resistance and Tp, suggest that the electric field induced not only tuning of the carrier density but also rebalancing of the phase separation states. The change of the charge-ordered insulating phase fraction was estimated to be temperature dependent, and a maximum of 16% was achieved in the phase separation regime. This tuning effect was partially irreversible, which might be due to an oxygen vacancy migration that is driven by the huge applied electric field.

Electric-field induced fluctuations in laser generated plasma plume

The effect of an external electric field on laser-generated plasma has been studied.It is observed that the laser-generated plasma can be used for the ignition of a spark in the presence of a low voltage external electric field.An eight-fold emission intensity enhancement in Cu I spectral lines are measured as compared to the signal intensity in the absence of an external electric field.The plasma parameters remain the same initially,up to a few microseconds after the generation of plasma,and this feature makes it more interesting for the quantitative analysis of any sample using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS).In the presence of an external electric field,fluctuations(contraction and expansion)in the laser-generated plasma are observed which increase the plasma decay time and consequently result in enhanced signal intensity.

Crystalline Electric Field Scheme of CeRh_2 Ga

The crystalline electric field (CEF) scheme of rare earth compound CeRh_2Ga was obtained by means of fitting the temperature dependence of inverse magnetic susceptibility. The CEF analysis shows that this compound has a doublet ground state. The first and second excited CEF doublet levels are estimated to be about 56 and 937 K, respectively. The calculated results are in good agreement with experimental data.

Research on Electric Field Confinement Effect in Silicon LED Fabricated by Standard CMOS Technology

The wedge-shaped and leaf-type silicon light-emitting devices(LED)are designed and fabricated with the Singapore Chartered Semi Inc.'s dual-gate standard 0.35μm CMOS process.The basic structure of the two devices is N well-P+ junction.P+ area is the wedge-shaped structure,which is embedded in N well.The leaf-type silicon LED device is a combination of the three wedge-shaped LED devices.The main difference between the two devices is their different electrode distribution,which is mainly in order to analyze the application of electric field confinement(EFC).The devices' micrographs were measured with the Olympus IC test microscope.The forward and reverse bias electrical characteristics of the devices were tested.Light measurements of the devices show that the electrode layout is very important when the electric field confinement is applied.

Effect of Electric Current on Diffusion of Aluminum in Ti3AlC2 into Zirconium Alloy

The spark plasma sintering（SPS） method was used to study the mechanism of reaction interface between Zr and Ti3AlC2 with electric current going through it. It was found that electric current greatly reduced the bonding temperature of Zr and Ti3AlC2. By the micro-structure analysis of the interface through SEM/EDS, it was found that Al atoms diffused from the Ti3AlC2 substrate into the Zr side and reacted with Zr to form the Zr-Al compounds at the interface, which is the strengthening mechanism of Ti3AlC2-Zr bonding. The thickness of reaction layers（Zr-Al alloy） was from 0.879 to 13.945 mm depending on different sintering condition. Current direction, heating rate, soaking time, pulse patterns all influenced the diffusion of Al atoms which affected the joining quality of Zr and Ti3AlC2.

Air breakdown induced by the microwave with two mutually orthogonal and heterophase electric field components

The air breakdown is easily caused by the high-power microwave, which can have two mutually orthogonal and heterophase electric field components. For this case, the electron momentum conservation equation is employed to deduce the electric field power and effective electric field for heating electrons. Then the formula of the electric field power is introduced into the global model to simulate the air breakdown. The breakdown prediction from the global model agrees well with the experimental data. Simulation results show that the electron temperature is sensitive to the phase difference between the two electron field components, while the latter can affect obviously the growth of the electron density at low electron temperature amplitudes. The ionization of nitrogen and oxygen induces the growth of electron density, and the density loss due to the dissociative attachment and dissociative recombination is obvious only at low electron temperatures.

EFFECT OF DISPERSED PHASE PARTICLES ON ELECTRICAL CONDUCTION OF PEO-NaSCN

Fast ionic conductors are one kind of solid state material with ionic conductivity as high as that of melten salts or liquid electrolytes.Ionic conductivity is one of the important parameters for characterizing a fast ionic conductor.For a long time materialists and chemists have made great efforts in search of new fast ionic conductors with high ionic conductivity.In view of structure,they have synthesised silver and copper fast ionic conductors with so called open structures.But it is not so successful for searching more applicable alkaline fast ionic conductors.Since polymer has flexibility for making thin film,it concentrates attention on the polymer-alkaline salt complex.Fenton et al.have first reported poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-alkaline salt complex.Later on Armard et al.have investigated the electrical property of PEO-NaSCN.

Modeling porous structure of oil-pressboard interface and its effect on electric field distribution

The oil-pressboard insulation is a typical composite insulation system widely used in the design and manufactory of large power apparatus. The implement of oil-pressboard insulation may lead to surface electrification and discharge at the interface under certain condition. It is of significant importance to take an insight into the phenomenon occurring at the interface. Through experiment, the pressboard is found as a porous material. The interface changes abruptly from bulk pressboard to the bulk oil as a result of the porous structure. A new model is proposed which divides the interface into bulk oil region, transition region, and bulk pressboard region. The width of the transition region is decided according to the microtome figure. The effective permittivity of the transition region is calculated using a new model based on fractal theory. The model is validated and compared with previous calculation model. The effect of the existence of transition region on the electric field distribution is discussed.

Effect of Metal Contact and Rapid Thermal Annealing on Electrical Characteristics of Graphene Matrix

Development of graphene field effect transistors （GFETs） faces a serious challenge of graphene interface to the dielectric material. A single layer of intrinsic graphene has an average sheet resistance of the order of 1-5 kΩ/□. The intrinsic nature of graphene leads to higher contact resistance yielding into the outstanding properties of the material. We design a graphene matrix with minimized sheet resistance of 0.185 kΩ/□ with Ag contacts. The developed matrices on silicon substrates provide a variety of transistor design options for subsequent fabrication. The graphene layer is developed over 400 nm nickel in such a way as to analyze hypersensitive electrical properties of the interface for exfoliation. This work identifies potential of the design in the applicability of few-layer GFETs with less process steps with the help of analyzing the effect of metal contact and post-process anneMing on its electrical fabrication.

A study on effective parameters of electric cortical stimulation for motor-sensory brain mapping

Objective The purpose of the study was to investigate the effective parameters of electric cortex stimulation (ECS) for functional brain mapping. Methods We collected 21 subjects who underwent epilepsy surgeries consecutively in Beijing Institute of Functional Neurosurgery with the epileptogenic zone located in perirolandic areas from