arXiv subjects

B. Placais

Publications and source records attributed to B. Placais.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2019

Hyperbolic Phonon Polariton Electroluminescence as an Electronic Cooling Pathway

Engineering of cooling mechanism is of primary importance for the development of nanoelectronics. Whereas radiation cooling is rather inefficient in nowadays electronic devices, the strong anisotropy of 2D materials allows for enhanced efficiency because their hyperbolic electromagnetic dispersion near phonon resonances allows them to sustain much larger ($\sim 10^5$) number of radiating channels. In this review, we address radiation cooling in 2D materials, specifically graphene hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) heterostructures. We present the hyperbolic dispersion of electromagnetic waves due to anisotropy, and describe how the spontaneous fluctuations of current in a 2D electronic channel can radiate thermal energy in its hyperbolic surrounding medium. We show that both the regime of (i) thermal current fluctuations and (ii) out-of-equilibrium current fluctuations can be described within the framework of transmission line theory leading to (i) superPlanckian thermal emission and (ii) electroluminescent cooling. We discuss a recent experimental investigation on graphene-on-hBN transistors using electronic noise thermometry. In a high mobility semimetal like graphene at large bias, a steady-state out-of-equilibrium situation is caused by the constant Zener tunneling of electrons opening a route for electroluminescence of hyperbolic electromagnetic modes. Experiments reveal that, compared to superPlanckian thermal emission, electroluminescence cooling is particularly prominent once the Zener tunneling regime is reached: observed cooling powers are nine orders of magnitude larger than in conventional LEDs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Thermal shot noise in top-gated single carbon nanotube field effect transistors

The high-frequency transconductance and current noise of top-gated single carbon nanotube transistors have been measured and used to investigate hot electron effects in one-dimensional transistors. Results are in good agreement with a theory of 1-dimensional nano-transistor. In particular the prediction of a large transconductance correction to the Johnson-Nyquist thermal noise formula is confirmed experimentally. Experiment shows that nanotube transistors can be used as fast charge detectors for quantum coherent electronics with a resolution of $13\mathrm{μe/\sqrt{Hz}}$ in the 0.2-$0.8 \mathrm{GHz}$ band.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Conserved spin and orbital phase along carbon nanotubes connected with multiple ferromagnetic contacts

We report on spin dependent transport measurements in carbon nanotubes based multi-terminal circuits. We observe a gate-controlled spin signal in non-local voltages and an anomalous conductance spin signal, which reveal that both the spin and the orbital phase can be conserved along carbon nanotubes with multiple ferromagnetic contacts. This paves the way for spintronics devices exploiting both these quantum mechanical degrees of freedom on the same footing.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Cotunneling and one-dimensional localization in individual single-wall carbon nanotubes

We report on the temperature dependence of the intrinsic resistance of long individual disordered single-wall carbon nanotubes. The resistance grows dramatically as the temperature is reduced, and the functional form is consistent with an activated behavior. These results are described by Coulomb blockade along a series of quantum dots. We occasionally observe a kink in the activated behavior that reflects the change of the activation energy as the temperature range is changed. This is attributed to charge hopping events between non-adjacent quantum dots, which is possible through cotunneling processes.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2003

Geometrical Dependence of High-Bias Current in Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

We have studied the high-bias transport properties of the different shells that constitute a multiwalled carbon nanotube. The current is shown to be reduced as the shell diameter is decreased or the length is increased. We assign this geometrical dependence to the competition between electron-phonon scattering process and Zener tunneling.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2002

Peak-effect and surface crystal-glass transition for surface-pinned vortex array

The peak effect has been investigated in clean Nb crystals with artificially corrugated surfaces by measuring the linear surface impedance in the 1kHz-1MHz frequency range. From a two-mode analysis of the complex spectra, we establish that vortex dynamics is governed by surface pinning and deduce the associated vortex slippage length. We demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that the peak effect is related to a transition from collective to individual surface pinning. A proper account of the peak-effect anomalies implies softening of the shear rigidity by disorder-induced lattice deformations. This leads to a vortex crystal-glass transition induced by surface defects.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2002

Granularity-induced gapless superconductivity in NbN films: evidence of thermal phase fluctuations

Using a single coil mutual inductance technique, we measure the low temperature dependence of the magnetic penetration depth in superconducting NbN films prepared with similar critical temperatures around 16 K but with different microstructures. Only (100) epitaxial and weakly granular (100) textured films display the characteristic exponential dependence of conventional BCS s-wave superconductors. More granular (111) textured films exhibit a linear dependence, indicating a gapless state in spite of the s-wave gap. This result is quantitatively explained by a model of thermal phase fluctuations favored by the granular structure.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Anisotropy of flux-flow resistivity in UPt3

The ac prenetration depth, λ_ac(T,H,f), has been measured in superconducting UPt3 single crystals for H\parallel c and H\perp c in the range f=0.01-1MHz and T=0.1-0.4 K. The contributions from bulk pinning and surface pinning have been separated out to yield the flux-flow resistivity ρ_f(H). With H\perp c, rho_f displays magneto-resistance at low field which agrees with previous dc measurements and the characteristic scaling law of clean crystals with anisotropic gap. When H\parallel c, the low-field ρ_f is three times larger. We interpret this property as evidence for flux line with unconventional core structure.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1998

Magnetic-field step response of a type-II superconductor as a simple test of the vortex bulk pinning

A slab in parallel field is submitted to a step-like magnetic-field excitation, of amplitude 1--10 G, in the same direction as the applied field. The slab has been rolled or spark cut, without special care, from a conventional superconductor ingot (lead-indium alloy), and its critical currents have standard values. The transitory electric field, induced on a face of the slab, has been measured. Thus, we obtain information about the magnetic flux penetrating and vortices entering the sample through this face. The only observed deviation from the ideal response is that magnetic-field diffusion being limited by surface screening, associated with a superficial critical-current density. Otherwise, the vortex array inside the slab responds exactly as if bulk pinning were ineffective.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1998

rf-studies of vortex dynamics in isotropic type-II superconductors

We have measured the surface impedance of thick superconductors in the mixed state over a broad 2 kHz - 20 MHz frequency range. The depinning cross-over is observed; but it is much broader than expected from classical theories of pinning. A striking result is the existence of size effects which invalidate the common interpretation of the low-frequency surface inductance in terms of a single penetration depth. Instead, a two-mode description of vortex dynamics, assuming free vortex flow in the bulk and surface pinning, accounts quantitatively for the spectrum of the complex apparent penetration depth.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1998

Depinning transition in type-II superconductors

The surface impedance Z(f) of conventional isotropic materials has been carefully measured for frequencies f ranging from 1 kHz to 3 MHz, allowing a detailed investigation of the depinning transition. Our results exhibit the irrelevance of classical ideas to the dynamics of vortex pinning. We propose a new picture, where the linear ac response is entirely governed by disordered boundary conditions of a rough surface, whereas in the bulk vortices respond freely. The universal law for Z(f) thus predicted is in remarkable agreement with experiment, and tentatively applies to microwave data in YBaCuO films.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1997

Critical Velocity of Vortex Nucleation in Rotating Superfluid 3He-A

We have measured the critical velocity v_c at which 3He-A in a rotating cylinder becomes unstable against the formation of quantized vortex lines with continuous (singularity-free) core structure. We find that v_c is distributed between a maximum and minimum limit, which we ascribe to a dependence on the texture of the orbital angular momentum l(r) in the cylinder. Slow cool down through T_c in rotation yields l(r) textures for which the measured v_c's are in good agreement with the calculated instability of the expected l texture.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv1997

Defect Formation in Quench-Cooled Superfluid Phase Transition

We use neutron absorption in rotating 3He-B to heat locally a 10 micrometer-size volume into normal phase. When the heated region cools back in microseconds, vortex lines are formed. We record with NMR the number of lines as a function of superflow velocity and compare to the Kibble-Zurek theory of vortex-loop freeze-out from a random network of defects. The measurements confirm the calculated loop-size distribution and show that also the superfluid state itself forms as a patchwork of competing A and B phase blobs. This explains the A to B transition in supercooled neutron-irradiated 3He-A.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1995

Big bang simulation in superfluid 3He-B -- Vortex nucleation in neutron-irradiated superflow

We report the observation of vortex formation upon the absorption of a thermal neutron in a rotating container of superfluid $^3$He-B. The nuclear reaction n + $^3$He = p + $^3$H + 0.76MeV heats a cigar shaped region of the superfluid into the normal phase. The subsequent cooling of this region back through the superfluid transition results in the nucleation of quantized vortices. Depending on the superflow velocity, sufficiently large vortex rings grow under the influence of the Magnus force and escape into the container volume where they are detected individually with nuclear magnetic resonance. The larger the superflow velocity the smaller the rings which can expand. Thus it is possible to obtain information about the morphology of the initial defect network. We suggest that the nucleation of vortices during the rapid cool-down into the superfluid phase is similar to the formation of defects during cosmological phase transitions in the early universe.

cond-mat↗