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F. Liu

Publications and source records attributed to F. Liu.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2017

Realizing the insulator-to-metal transition in Se-hyperdoped Si via non-equilibrium material processing

We report on the insulator-to-metal transition in Se-hyperdoped Si layers driven by manipulating the Se concentration via non-equilibrium material processing, i.e. ion implantation followed by millisecond-flash lamp annealing. Electrical transport measurements reveal an increase of carrier concentration and conductivity with increasing Se concentration. For the semi-insulating sample with Se concentrations below the Mott limit, quantitative analysis of the temperature dependence of conductivity indicates a variable-range hopping mechanism with an exponent of s = 1/2 rather than 1/4, which implies a Coulomb gap at the Fermi level. The observed insulator-to-metal transition is attributed to the formation of an intermediate band in the Se-hyperdoped Si layers.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2016

Finite element method for nonlinear Riesz space fractional diffusion equations on irregular domains

In this paper, we consider two-dimensional Riesz space fractional diffusion equations with nonlinear source term on convex domains. Applying Galerkin finite element method in space and backward difference method in time, we present a fully discrete scheme to solve Riesz space fractional diffusion equations. Our breakthrough is developing an algorithm to form stiffness matrix on unstructured triangular meshes, which can help us to deal with space fractional terms on any convex domain. The stability and convergence of the scheme are also discussed. Numerical examples are given to verify accuracy and stability of our scheme.

math.NA↗
arXiv2016

Systematic non-LTE study of the $-2.6 \le$ [Fe/H] $\le 0.2$ F and G dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood. II. Abundance patterns from Li to Eu

For the first time, we present an extensive study of stars with individual non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) abundances for 17 chemical elements from Li to Eu in a sample of stars uniformly distributed over the $-2.62 \le$ [Fe/H] $\le +0.24$ metallicity range that is suitable for the Galactic chemical evolution research. The star sample has been kinematically selected to trace the Galactic thin and thick disks and halo. We find new and improve earlier results as follows. (i) The element-to-iron ratios for Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti form a MP plateau at a similar height of 0.3~dex, and the knee occurs at common [Fe/H] $\simeq -0.8$. The knee at the same metallicity is observed for [O/Fe], and the MP plateau is formed at [O/Fe] = 0.61. (ii) The upward trend of [C/O] with decreasing metallicity exists at [Fe/H] $< -1.2$, supporting the earlier finding of Akerman et al. (iii) An underabundance of Na relative to Mg in the [Fe/H] $< -1$ stars is nearly constant, with the mean [Na/Mg] $\simeq -0.5$. (iv) The K/Sc, Ca/Sc, and Ti/Sc ratios form well-defined trends, suggesting a common site of the K-Ti production. (v) Sr follows the Fe abundance down to [Fe/H] $\simeq -2.5$, while Zr is enhanced in MP stars. (vi) The comparisons of our results with some widely used Galactic evolution models are given. The use of the NLTE element abundances raises credit to the interpretation of the data in the context of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2016

The chemical compositions of solar twins in the open cluster M67

Stars in open clusters are expected to share an identical abundance pattern. Establishing the level of chemical homogeneity in a given open cluster deserves further study as it is the basis of the concept of chemical tagging to unravel the history of the Milky Way. M67 is particularly interesting given its solar metallicity and age as well as being a dense cluster environment. We conducted a strictly line-by-line differential chemical abundance analysis of two solar twins in M67: M67-1194 and M67-1315. Stellar atmospheric parameters and elemental abundances were obtained with high precision using Keck/HIRES spectra. M67-1194 is essentially identical to the Sun in terms of its stellar parameters. M67-1315 is warmer than M67-1194 by ~ 150 K as well as slightly more metal-poor than M67-1194 by ~ 0.05 dex. M67-1194 is also found to have identical chemical composition to the Sun, confirming its solar twin nature. The abundance ratios [X/Fe] of M67-1315 are similar to the solar abundances for elements with atomic number Z <= 30, while most neutron-capture elements are enriched by ~ 0.05 dex, which might be attributed to enrichment from a mixture of AGB ejecta and r-process material. The distinct chemical abundances for the neutron-capture elements in M67-1315 and the lower metallicity of this star compared to M67-1194, indicate that the stars in M67 are likely not chemically homogeneous. This poses a challenge for the concept of chemical tagging since it is based on the assumption of stars forming in the same star-forming aggregate.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2016

Dynamic vibronic coupling in InGaAs quantum dots

The electron-phonon coupling in self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots is relatively weak at low light intensities, which means that the zero-phonon line in emission is strong compared to the phonon sideband. However, the coupling to acoustic phonons can be dynamically enhanced in the presence of an intense optical pulse tuned within the phonon sideband. Recent experiments have shown that this dynamic vibronic coupling can enable population inversion to be achieved when pumping with a blue-shifted laser and for rapid de-excitation of an inverted state with red detuning. In this paper we confirm the incoherent nature of the phonon-assisted pumping process and explore the temperature dependence of the mechanism. We also show that a combination of blue- and red-shifted pulses can create and destroy an exciton within a timescale ~20 ps determined by the pulse duration and ultimately limited by the phonon thermalisation time.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2016

Ultrafast Depopulation of a Quantum Dot by LA-phonon-assisted Stimulated Emission

We demonstrate ultrafast incoherent depopulation of a quantum dot from above to below the transparency point using LA-phonon-assisted emission stimulated by a redshifted laser pulse. The QD is turned from a weakly vibronic system into a strongly vibronic one by laser driving which enables the phonon-assisted relaxation between the excitonic components of two dressed states. The depopulation is achieved within a laser pulse-width-limited time of 20 ps and exhibits a broad tuning range of a few meV. Our experimental results are well reproduced by path-integral calculations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2016

The Hyades open cluster is chemically inhomogeneous

We present a high-precision differential abundance analysis of 16 solar-type stars in the Hyades open cluster based on high resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N ~ 350 - 400) spectra obtained from the McDonald 2.7m telescope. We derived stellar parameters and differential chemical abundances for 19 elements (C, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, S, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Ba) with uncertainties as low as ~ 0.01 - 0.02 dex. Our main results include: (1) there is no clear chemical signature of planet formation detected among the sample stars, i.e., no correlations in abundances versus condensation temperature; (2) the observed abundance dispersions are a factor of ~ 1.5 - 2 larger than the average measurement errors for most elements; (3) there are positive correlations, of high statistical significance, between the abundances of at least 90% of pairs of elements. We demonstrate that none of these findings can be explained by errors due to the stellar parameters. Our results reveal that the Hyades is chemically inhomogeneous at the 0.02 dex level. Possible explanations for the abundance variations include (1) inhomogeneous chemical evolution in the proto-cluster environment, (2) supernova ejection in the proto-cluster cloud, and (3) pollution of metal-poor gas before complete mixing of the proto-cluster cloud. Our results provide significant new constraints on the chemical composition of open clusters and a challenge to the current view of Galactic archeology.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2015

Strange matter and strange stars in a thermodynamically self-consistent perturbation model with running coupling and running strange quark mass

A quark model with running coupling and running strange quark mass, which is thermodynamically self-consistent at both high and lower densities, is presented and applied to study properties of strange quark matter and structure of compact stars. An additional term to the thermodynamic potential density is determined by meeting the fundamental differential equation of thermodynamics. It plays an important role in comparatively lower density and ignorable at extremely high density, acting as a chemical-potential dependent bag constant. In this thermodynamically enhanced perturbative QCD model, strange quark matter still has the possibility of being absolutely stable, while the pure quark star has a sharp surface with a maximum mass as large as about 2 times the solar mass and a maximum radius of about 11 kilometers.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2015

The detailed chemical composition of the terrestrial planet host Kepler-10

Chemical abundance studies of the Sun and solar twins have demonstrated that the solar composition of refractory elements is depleted when compared to volatile elements, which could be due to the formation of terrestrial planets. In order to further examine this scenario, we conducted a line-by-line differential chemical abundance analysis of the terrestrial planet host Kepler-10 and fourteen of its stellar twins. Stellar parameters and elemental abundances of Kepler-10 and its stellar twins were obtained with very high precision using a strictly differential analysis of high quality CFHT, HET and Magellan spectra. When compared to the majority of thick disc twins, Kepler-10 shows a depletion in the refractory elements relative to the volatile elements, which could be due to the formation of terrestrial planets in the Kepler-10 system. The average abundance pattern corresponds to ~ 13 Earth masses, while the two known planets in Kepler-10 system have a combined ~ 20 Earth masses. For two of the eight thick disc twins, however, no depletion patterns are found. Although our results demonstrate that several factors (e.g., planet signature, stellar age, stellar birth location and Galactic chemical evolution) could lead to or affect abundance trends with condensation temperature, we find that the trends give further support for the planetary signature hypothesis.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2015

Systematic NLTE study of the -2.6 < [Fe/H] < 0.2 F and G dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood. I. Stellar atmosphere parameters

We present atmospheric parameters for 51 nearby FG dwarfs uniformly distributed over the -2.60 < [Fe/H] < +0.20 metallicity range that is suitable for the Galactic chemical evolution research. Lines of iron, Fe I and Fe II, were used to derive a homogeneous set of effective temperatures, surface gravities, iron abundances, and microturbulence velocities. We used high-resolution (R>60000) Shane/Hamilton and CFHT/ESPaDOnS observed spectra and non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) line formation for Fe I and Fe II in the classical 1D model atmospheres. The spectroscopic method was tested with the 20 benchmark stars, for which there are multiple measurements of the infrared flux method (IRFM) Teff and their Hipparcos parallax error is < 10%. We found NLTE abundances from lines of Fe I and Fe II to be consistent within 0.06 dex for every benchmark star, when applying a scaling factor of S_H = 0.5 to the Drawinian rates of inelastic Fe+H collisions. The obtained atmospheric parameters were checked for each program star by comparing its position in the log g-Teff plane with the theoretical evolutionary track in the Yi et al. (2004) grid. Our final effective temperatures lie in between the T_IRFM scales of Alonso et al. (1996) and Casagrande et al. (2011), with a mean difference of +46 K and -51 K, respectively. NLTE leads to higher surface gravity compared with that for LTE. The shift in log g is smaller than 0.1 dex for stars with either [Fe/H] > -0.75, or Teff < 5750 K, or log g > 4.20. NLTE analysis is crucial for the VMP turn-off and subgiant stars, for which the shift in log g between NLTE and LTE can be up to 0.5 dex. The obtained atmospheric parameters will be used in the forthcoming papers to determine NLTE abundances of important astrophysical elements from lithium to europium and to improve observational constraints on the chemo-dynamical models of the Galaxy evolution.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2015

The dissimilar chemical composition of the planet-hosting stars of the XO-2 binary system

Using high-quality spectra of the twin stars in the XO-2 binary system, we have detected significant differences in the chemical composition of their photospheres. The differences correlate strongly with the elements' dust condensation temperature. In XO-2N, volatiles are enhanced by about 0.015 dex and refractories are overabundant by up to 0.090 dex. On average, our error bar in relative abundance is 0.012 dex. We present an early metal-depletion scenario in which the formation of the gas giant planets known to exist around these stars is responsible for a 0.015 dex offset in the abundances of all elements while 20 M_Earth of non-detected rocky objects that formed around XO-2S explain the additional refractory-element difference. An alternative explanation involves the late accretion of at least 20 M_Earth of planet-like material by XO-2N, allegedly as a result of the migration of the hot Jupiter detected around that star. Dust cleansing by a nearby hot star as well as age or Galactic birthplace effects can be ruled out as valid explanations for this phenomenon.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2015

Caught in the act: gas and stellar velocity dispersions in a fast quenching compact star-forming galaxy at z~1.7

We present Keck-I MOSFIRE spectroscopy in the Y and H bands of GDN-8231, a massive, compact, star-forming galaxy (SFG) at a redshift $z\sim1.7$. Its spectrum reveals both H$_α$ and [NII] emission lines and strong Balmer absorption lines. The H$_α$ and Spitzer MIPS 24 $μ$m fluxes are both weak, thus indicating a low star formation rate of SFR $\lesssim5-10$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. This, added to a relatively young age of $\sim700$ Myr measured from the absorption lines, provides the first direct evidence for a distant galaxy being caught in the act of rapidly shutting down its star formation. Such quenching allows GDN-8231 to become a compact, quiescent galaxy, similar to 3 other galaxies in our sample, by $z\sim1.5$. Moreover, the color profile of GDN-8231 shows a bluer center, consistent with the predictions of recent simulations for an early phase of inside-out quenching. Its line-of-sight velocity dispersion for the gas, $σ^{\rm{gas}}_{\!_{\rm LOS}}=127\pm32$ km s$^{-1}$, is nearly 40% smaller than that of its stars, $σ^{\star}_{\!_{\rm LOS}}=215\pm35$ km s$^{-1}$. High-resolution hydro-simulations of galaxies explain such apparently colder gas kinematics of up to a factor of $\sim1.5$ with rotating disks being viewed at different inclinations and/or centrally concentrated star-forming regions. A clear prediction is that their compact, quiescent descendants preserve some remnant rotation from their star-forming progenitors.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2015

Hyperdoping silicon with selenium: solid vs. liquid phase epitaxy

Chalcogen-hyperdoped silicon shows potential applications in silicon-based infrared photodetectors and intermediate band solar cells. Due to the low solid solubility limits of chalcogen elements in silicon, these materials were previously realized by femtosecond or nanosecond laser annealing of implanted silicon or bare silicon in certain background gases. The high energy density deposited on the silicon surface leads to a liquid phase and the fast recrystallization velocity allows trapping of chalcogen into the silicon matrix. However, this method encounters the problem of surface segregation. In this paper, we propose a solid phase processing by flash-lamp annealing in the millisecond range, which is in between the conventional rapid thermal annealing and pulsed laser annealing. Flash lamp annealed selenium-implanted silicon shows a substitutional fraction of around 70% with an implanted concentration up to 2.3%. The resistivity is lower and the carrier mobility is higher than those of nanosecond pulsed laser annealed samples. Our results show that flash-lamp annealing is superior to laser annealing in preventing surface segregation and in allowing scalability.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2014

Non-linear Simulations of MHD Instabilities in Tokamaks Including Eddy Current Effects and Perspectives for the Extension to Halo Currents

The dynamics of large scale plasma instabilities can strongly be influenced by the mutual interaction with currents flowing in conducting vessel structures. Especially eddy currents caused by time-varying magnetic perturbations and halo currents flowing directly from the plasma into the walls are important. The relevance of a resistive wall model is directly evident for Resistive Wall Modes (RWMs) or Vertical Displacement Events (VDEs). However, also the linear and non-linear properties of most other large-scale instabilities may be influenced significantly by the interaction with currents in conducting structures near the plasma. The understanding of halo currents arising during disruptions and VDEs, which are a serious concern for ITER as they may lead to strong asymmetric forces on vessel structures, could also benefit strongly from these non-linear modeling capabilities. Modeling the plasma dynamics and its interaction with wall currents requires solving the magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) equations in realistic toroidal X-point geometry consistently coupled with a model for the vacuum region and the resistive conducting structures. With this in mind, the non-linear finite element MHD code JOREK has been coupled with the resistive wall code STARWALL, which allows to include the effects of eddy currents in 3D conducting structures in non-linear MHD simulations. This article summarizes the capabilities of the coupled JOREK-STARWALL system and presents benchmark results as well as first applications to non-linear simulations of RWMs, VDEs, disruptions triggered by massive gas injection, and Quiescent H-Mode. As an outlook, the perspectives for extending the model to halo currents are described.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2014

Spectrally-resolved hyperfine interactions between polaron and nuclear spins in organic light emitting diodes: Magneto-EL studies

We use spectrally-resolved magneto-electroluminescence (EL) measurements to study the energy dependence of hyperfine interactions between polaron and nuclear spins in organic LEDs. Using layered devices based on Bphen/MTDATA -- a well-known exciplex emitter -- we show that the increase in EL emission intensity $I$ due to small applied magnetic fields of order 100 mT is markedly larger at the high-energy blue end of the EL spectrum (dI/I ~11%) than at the low-energy red end (~4%). Concurrently, the widths of the magneto-EL curves increase monotonically from blue to red, revealing an increasing hyperfine coupling between polarons and nuclei and directly providing insight into the energy-dependent spatial extent and localization of polarons.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2014

Phonon-assisted population inversion of a single quantum dot

We demonstrate an approach to realize the population inversion of a single InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot, which is driven by a laser pulse tuned within the neutral exciton phonon sideband. The inversion is achieved by rapid thermalization of the optically dressed states via phonon-assisted relaxation. A maximum exciton population of 0.67 $\pm$ 0.06 is measured for a laser tuned 0.83 meV to higher energy and the phonon sideband is mapped using a two-color pump-probe technique. Our experiments reveal that, in accordance with theory, the phonon-bath provides additional functionality for an optically driven quantum dot qubit.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2014

Energy and Centrality Dependence of Chemical Freeze-out Thermodynamics parameters

Driven by the Beam Energy Scan (BES) program at the RHIC, researches and discussions on the QCD phase diagram have flourished recently. In order to provide a reference from microscopic transport models, we performed a systematic analysis, using a multiphase transport (AMPT) model for the particle yields and a statistical model (THERMUS) for the thermal fit, for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}$=7.7-200 GeV. It is found that at a fixed collision centrality the chemical freeze-out parameter, temperature $T_{\text{ch}}$, increases with collision energy and somehow saturates at certain values of $T_{\text{ch}}$ in collisions near $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}$=10 GeV, indicating the limiting temperature in hadronic interactions; meanwhile the baryon chemical potential $μ_B$ decrease with the collision energy. The saturation temperature is also found to be dependent on partonic interaction. At a given collision energy, it is found that both $T_{\text{ch}}$ and $μ_B$ decrease towards more peripheral collisions in the grand canonical approach. The energy and centrality dependence of other chemical freeze-out parameters, strangeness chemical potential $μ_S$, strangeness undersaturation factor $γ_S$, and the volume of the fireball $V$ are also presented in this paper. The chemical potential ratio $μ_s/μ_B$ is also compared with lattice QCD calculation. The AMPT default model gives better descriptions on both the particle yields and the chemical freeze-out parameters than those from the AMPT string-melting model.

hep-ph↗