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K. J. Thomas

Publications and source records attributed to K. J. Thomas.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2024

On the half life of $^{71}$Ge and the Gallium Anomaly

Recent discussions about the origin of the Gallium Anomaly have motivated a remeasurement of the half life of $^{71}$Ge. We have conducted three separate measurements using dedicated planar Ge detectors: one with $^{55}$Fe as a standard, one with $^{57}$Co as a standard, and one stand alone 71Ge measurement. Our results yield a half life of 11.468 +- 0.008 days, which is consistent with but significantly more precise than the currently accepted value. With this experiment, the potential explanation of the Gallium Anomaly being due to an unexpectedly long $^{71}$Ge half life has been ruled out, leaving the origin of the anomaly as an open question.

nucl-ex↗
arXiv2017

LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Technical Design Report

In this Technical Design Report (TDR) we describe the LZ detector to be built at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). The LZ dark matter experiment is designed to achieve sensitivity to a WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross section of three times ten to the negative forty-eighth square centimeters.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2015

The effect of split gate size on the electrostatic potential and 0.7 anomaly within one-dimensional quantum wires on a modulation doped GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure

We study 95 split gates of different size on a single chip using a multiplexing technique. Each split gate defines a one-dimensional channel on a modulation-doped GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure, through which the conductance is quantized. The yield of devices showing good quantization decreases rapidly as the length of the split gates increases. However, for the subset of devices showing good quantization, there is no correlation between the electrostatic length of the one dimensional channel (estimated using a saddle point model), and the gate length. The variation in electrostatic length and the one-dimensional subband spacing for devices of the same gate length exceeds the variation in the average values between devices of different length. There is a clear correlation between the curvature of the potential barrier in the transport direction and the strength of the "0.7 anomaly": the conductance value of the 0.7 anomaly reduces as the barrier curvature becomes shallower. These results highlight the key role of the electrostatic environment in one-dimensional systems. Even in devices with clean conductance plateaus, random fluctuations in the background potential are crucial in determining the potential landscape in the active device area such that nominally identical gate structures have different characteristics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2013

Measurements of Fission Products from the Fukushima Daiichi Incident in San Francisco Bay Area Air Filters, Automobile Filters, Rainwater, and Food

A variety of environmental media were analyzed for fallout radionuclides resulting from the Fukushima nuclear accident by the Low Background Facility (LBF) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, CA. Monitoring activities in air and rainwater began soon after the onset of the March 11, 2011 tsunami and are reported here through the end of 2012. Observed fallout isotopes include $^{131}$I, $^{132}$I,$^{132}$Te,$^{134}$Cs, $^{136}$Cs, and $^{137}$Cs. Isotopes were measured on environmental air filters, automobile filters, and in rainwater. An additional analysis of rainwater in search of $^{90}$Sr is also presented. Last, a series of food measurements conducted in September of 2013 are included due to extended media concerns of $^{134, 137}$Cs in fish. Similar measurements of fallout from the Chernobyl disaster at LBNL, previously unpublished publicly, are also presented here as a comparison with the Fukushima incident. All measurements presented also include natural radionuclides found in the environment to provide a basis for comparison.

nucl-ex↗
arXiv2011

Compressibility measurements of quasi-one-dimensional quantum wires

We report measurements of the compressibility of a one-dimensional (1D) quantum wire, defined in the upper well of a GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum well heterostructure. A wire defined simultaneously in the lower well probes the ability of the upper wire to screen the electric field from a biased surface gate. The technique is sensitive enough to resolve spin-splitting of the subbands in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field. We measure a compressibility signal due to the 0.7 structure and study its evolution with increasing temperature and magnetic field. We see no evidence of the formation of the quasibound state predicted by the Kondo model, instead our data are consistent with theories which predict that the 0.7 structure arises as a result of spontaneous spin polarization.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2009

Row coupling in an interacting quasi-one-dimensional quantum wire investigated using transport measurements

We study electron transport in quasi-one-dimensional wires at relatively weak electrostatic confinements, where the Coulomb interaction distorts the ground state, leading to the bifurcation of the electronic system into two rows. Evidence of finite coupling between the rows, resulting in bonding and antibonding states, is observed. At high dc source-drain bias, a structure is observed at 0.5(2e^2/h) due to parallel double-row transport, along with a structure at 0.25(2e^2/h), providing further evidence of coupling between the two rows.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2009

Incipient Formation of an Electron Lattice in a Weakly-Confined Quantum Wire

We study the low-temperature transport properties of 1D quantum wires as the confinement strength V_conf and the carrier density n_1D are varied using a combination of split gates and a top gate in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. At intermediate V_conf and n_1D, we observe a jump in conductance to 4e^2/h, suggesting a double wire. On further reducing n_1D, plateau at 2e^2/h returns. Our results show beginnings of the formation of an electron lattice in an interacting quasi-1D quantum wire. In the presence of an in-plane magnetic field, mixing of spin-aligned levels of the two wires gives rise to more complex states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2008

Spin-Incoherent Transport in Quantum Wires

When a quantum wire is weakly confined, a conductance plateau appears at e^2/h with decreasing carrier density in zero magnetic field accompanied by a gradual suppression of the 2e^2/h plateau. Applying an in-plane magnetic field B|| does not alter the value of this quantization; however, the e^2/h plateau weakens with increasing B|| up to 9 T, and then strengthens on further increasing B||, which also restores the 2e^2/h plateau. Our results are consistent with spin-incoherent transport in a one-dimensional wire.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2007

Orbital Domain Dynamics in a Doped Manganite

The coupling of multiple degrees of freedom - charge, spin, and lattice - in manganites has mostly been considered at the microscopic level. However, on larger length scales, these correlations may be affected by strain and disorder, which can lead to short range order in these phases and affect the coupling between them. To better understand these effects, we explore the dynamics of orbitally ordered domains in a half-doped manganite near the orbital ordering phase transition. Our results suggest that the domains are largely static, and exhibit only slow fluctuations near domain boundaries.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2007

Direct observation of oxygen superstructures in manganites

We report the observation of superstructures associated with the oxygen 2p-states in two prototypical manganites using x-ray diffraction at the oxygen K-edge. We determine the nature of the orderings and discuss our picture with respect to novel theoretical models. In the stripe order system Bi0.31 Ca0.69 MnO3, hole-doped O states are found to be orbitally ordered, at the same propagation vector as the Mn orbital ordering, but no evidence is found to support a picture of oxygen charge stripes at this periodicity. In La 7/8 Sr 1/8 MnO3, we observe a 2p charge ordering described by alternating hole-poor and hole-rich MnO planes that is consistent with recent predictions.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2004

Temperature dependent d-d excitations in manganites probed by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering

We report the observation of temperature dependent electronic excitations in various manganites utilizing resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Mn K-edge. Excitations were observed between 1.5 and 16 eV with temperature dependence found as high as 10 eV. The change in spectral weight between 1.5 and 5 eV was found to be related to the magnetic order and independent of the conductivity. On the basis of LDA+U and Wannier function calculations, this dependence is associated with intersite d-d excitations. Finally, the connection between the RIXS cross-section and the loss function is addressed.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2004

Fano factor reduction on the 0.7 structure in a ballistic one-dimensional wire

We have measured the non-equilibrium current noise in a ballisticone-dimensional wire which exhibits an additional conductanceplateau at $0.7\times2e^2/h$. The Fano factor shows a clearreduction on the 0.7 structure, and eventually vanishes uponapplying a strong parallel magnetic field. These results provideexperimental evidence that the 0.7 structure is associated withtwo conduction channels which have different transmissionprobabilities.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2004

Resonant x-ray diffraction study of the magnetoresistant perovskite Pr0.6Ca0.4MnO3

We report a x-ray resonant diffraction study of the perovskite Pr0.6Ca0.4MnO3. At the Mn K-edge, this technique is sensitive to details of the electronic structure of the Mn atoms. We discuss the resonant x-ray spectra measured above and below the charge and orbital ordering phase transition temperature (TCOO = 232 K), and present a detailed analysis of the energy and polarization dependence of the resonant scattering. The analysis confirms that the structural transition is a transition to an orbitally ordered phase in which inequivalent Mn atoms are ordered in a CE-type pattern. The Mn atoms differ mostly by their 3d orbital occupation. We find that the charge disproportionation is incomplete, 3d^{3.5-δ} and 3d^{3.5+δ} with δ\ll0.5 . A revised CE-type model is considered in which there are two Mn sublattices, each with partial e_{g} occupancy. One sublattice consists of Mn atoms with the 3x^{2}-r^{2} or 3y^{2}-r^{2} orbitals partially occupied, the other sublattice with the x^{2}-y^{2} orbital partially occupied.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2003

Soft x-ray resonant diffraction study of magnetic and orbital correlations in a manganite near half-doping

We have utilized the resonant x-ray diffraction technique at the Mn L-edge in order to directly compare magnetic and orbital correlations in the Mn sub-lattice of Pr0.6Ca0.4MnO3. The resonant line shape is measured below T_OO ~ 240 K at the orbital ordering wave vector (0,1/2,0), and below T_N ~ 175 K at the antiferromagnetic wave vector (1/2,0,0). Comparing the width of the super-lattice peaks at the two wavevectors, we find that the correlation length of the magnetism exceeds that of the orbital order by nearly a factor of two. Furthermore, we observe a large (~ 3 eV) shift in spectral weight between the magnetic and orbital line shapes, which cannot be explained within the classic Goodenough picture of a charge-ordered ground state. To explain the large shift, we calculate the resonant line shapes for orbital and magnetic diffraction based on a relaxed charge-ordered model.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2003

Interaction Effects at Crossings of Spin-Polarised One-Dimensional Subbands

We report conductance measurements of ballistic one-dimensional (1D) wires defined in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures in an in-plane magnetic field, B. When the Zeeman energy is equal to the 1D subband energy spacing, the spin-split subband N(up-spin) intersects (N+1)(down-spin), where N is the index of the spin-degenerate 1D subband. At the crossing of N=1(up-spin) and N=2(down-spin) subbands, there is a spontaneous splitting giving rise to an additional conductance structure evolving from the 1.5(2e^2/h) plateau. With further increase in B, the structure develops into a plateau and lowers to 2e^2/h. With increasing temperature and magnetic field the structure shows characteristics of the 0.7 structure. Our results suggest that at low densities a spontaneous spin splitting occurs whenever two 1D subbands of opposite spins cross.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2002

Effects of accidental microconstriction on the quantized conductance in long wires

We have investigated the conductance of long quantum wires formed in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. Using realistic fluctuation potentials from donor layers we have simulated numerically the conductance of four different kinds of wires. While ideal wires show perfect quantization, potential fluctuations from random donors may give rise to strong conductance oscillations and degradation of the quantization plateaux. Statistically there is always the possibility of having large fluctuations in a sample that may effectively act as a microconstriction. We therefore introduce microconstrictions in the wires by occasional clustering of donors. These microconstrictions are found to restore the quantized plateaux. A similar effect is found for accidental lithographic inaccuracies.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗