arXiv subjects

Lilia M. Woods

Publications and source records attributed to Lilia M. Woods.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Dispersive interactions between standard and Dirac materials and the role of dimensionality

The van der Waals (vdW) interaction plays a prominent role between neutral objects at separations where short ranged chemical forces are negligible. This type of dispersive coupling is determined by the interplay between geometry and response properties of the materials making up the objects. Here, we investigate the vdW interaction between 1D, 2D, and 3D standard and Dirac materials within the Random Phase Approximation, which takes into account collective excitations originating from the electronic Coulomb potential. A comprehensive understanding of characteristic functionalities and scaling laws are obtained for systems with parabolic energy dispersion (standard materials) and crossing linear bands (Dirac materials). By comparing the quantum mechanical and thermal limits the onset of thermal fluctuations in the vdW interaction is discussed showing that thermal effects are significantly pronounced at smaller scales in reduced dimensions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Enhanced solar photothermal effect of PANi fabrics with plasmonic nanostructures

The photothermal energy conversion in hanging and floating polyaniline (PANi)-cotton fabrics is investigated using a model based on the heat diffusion equation. Perfect absorption and anti-reflection of wet hanging PANi-cotton fabrics cause quick transfer of total incident light into water confining nearly 100 $\%$ of the sunlight. As a result, a hanging membrane is found to have more attractive properties than a floating above water fabric. We find, however, that the photothermal properties of a floating PANi-cotton membrane can greatly be enhanced by dispersing TiN nanoparticles in the water below the fabric. The calculated temperature gradients for TiN nanoparticle solutions show that the absorbed energy grows with increasing the nanoparticle density and that the photothermal process occurs mostly near the surface. The collective heating effects depend on the size and density of nanoparticles, which can further be used to modulate the photothermal process.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Signatures of Complex Optical Response in Casimir Interactions of Type I and II Weyl Semimetals

The Casimir interaction is induced by electromagnetic fluctuations between objects and it is strongly dependent upon the electronic and optical properties of the materials making up the objects. Here we investigate this ubiquitous interaction between Weyl semimetals, a class of 3D systems with low energy linear dispersion and nontrivial topology due to symmetry conditions and stemming from separated energy cones. A comprehensive examination of all components of the bulk conductivity tensor as well as the surface conductivity due to the Fermi arc states in real and imaginary frequency domains is presented using the Kubo formalism for Weyl semimetals with different degree of tilting of their linear energy cones. The Casimir energy is calculated using a generalized Lifhsitz approach, for which electromagnetic boundary conditions for anisotropic materials were derived and used. We find that the Casimir interaction between Weyl semimetals is metallic-like and its magnitude and characteristic distance dependence can be modified by the degree of tilting and chemical potential. The nontrivial topology plays a secondary role in the Casimir interaction of these 3D materials and thermal fluctuations are expected to have similar effects as in metallic systems.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Confinement effect on solar thermal heating process of TiN solutions

We propose a theoretical approach to describe quantitatively the heating process in aqueous solutions of dispersed TiN nanoparticles under solar illumination. The temperature gradients of solution with different concentrations of TiN nanoparticles are calculated when confinement effects of the container on the solar absorption are taken into account. We find that the average penetration of solar radiation into the solution is significantly reduced with increasing the nanoparticle concentration. At high concentrations, our numerical results show that photons are localized near the surface of the solution. Moreover, the heat energy balance equation at the vapor-liquid interface is used to describe the solar steam generation. The theoretical time dependence of temperature rise and vaporization weight losses is consistent with experiments. Our calculations give strong evidence that the substantially localized heating near the vapor-liquid interface is the main reason for the more efficient steam generation process by floating plasmonic membranes when compared to randomly dispersed nanoparticles. The validated theoretical model suggests that our approach can be applied towards new predictions and other experimental data descriptions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Multiband Effects in Equations of Motion of Observables Beyond the Semiclassical Approach

The equations of motion for the position and gauge invariant crystal momentum are considered for multiband wave packets of Bloch electrons. For a localized packet in a subset of bands well-separated from the rest of the band structure of the crystal, one can construct an effective electromagnetic Hamiltonian with respect to the center of the packet. We show that the equations of motion can be obtained via a projection operator procedure, which is derived from the adiabatic approximation within perturbation theory. These relations explicitly contain information from each band captured in the expansion coefficients and energy band structure of the Bloch states as well as non-Abelian features originating from interband Berry phase properties. This general and transparent Hamiltonian-based approach is applied to a wave packet spread over a single band, a set of degenerate bands, and two linear crossing bands. The generalized equations of motion hold promise for novel effects in transport currents and Hall effect phenomena.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Composition and Stacking Dependent Topology in Bilayers from the Graphene Family

We present a compositional and structural investigation of silicene, germanene, and stanene bilayers from first-principles. Due to the staggering of the individual layers, several stacking patterns are possible, most of which are not available to the bilayer graphene. This structural variety, in conjunction with the presence of the spin-orbit coupling, unveil a diversity of the electronic properties, with the appearance of distinct band features, including orbital hybridization and band inversion. We show that for particular cases, the intrinsic spin Hall response exhibits signatures of non-trivial electronic band topology, making these structures promising candidates to probe Dirac-like physics.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Thermally driven anomalous Hall effect transitions in FeRh

Materials exhibiting controllable magnetic phase transitions are currently in demand for many spintronics applications. Here we investigate from first principles the electronic structure and intrinsic anomalous Hall, spin Hall and anomalous Nernst response properties of the FeRh metallic alloy which undergoes a thermally driven antiferromagnetic-to-ferromagnetic phase transition. We show that the energy band structures and underlying Berry curvatures have important signatures in the various Hall effects. Specifically, the suppression of the anomalous Hall and Nernst effects in the AFM state and a sign change in the spin Hall conductivity across the transition are found. It is suggested that the FeRh can be used a spin current detector capable of differentiating the spin Hall effect from other anomalous transverse effects. The implications of this material and its thermally driven phases as a spin current detection scheme are also discussed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Thermal Casimir and Casimir-Polder interactions in $N$ parallel 2D Dirac materials

The Casimir and Casimir-Polder interactions are investigated in a stack of equally spaced graphene layers. The optical response of the individual graphene is taken into account using gauge invariant components of the polarization tensor extended to the whole complex frequency plane. The planar symmetry for the electromagnetic boundary conditions is further used to obtain explicit forms for the Casimir energy stored in the stack and the Casimir-Polder energy between an atom above the stack. Our calculations show that these fluctuation induced interactions experience strong thermal effects due to the graphene Dirac-like energy spectrum. The spatial dispersion and temperature dependence in the optical response are also found to be important for enhancing the interactions especially at smaller separations. Analytical expressions for low and high temperature limits and their comparison with corresponding expressions for an infinitely conducting planar stack are further used to expand our understanding of Casimir and Casimir-Polder energies in Dirac materials. Our results may be useful to experimentalists as new ways to probe thermal effects at the nanoscale in such universal interactions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Nonlocal Optical Response in Topological Phase Transitions in the Graphene Family

We investigate the electromagnetic response of staggered two-dimensional materials of the graphene family, including silicene, germanene, and stanene, as they are driven through various topological phase transitions using external fields. Utilizing Kubo formalism, we compute their optical conductivity tensor taking into account the frequency and wave vector of the electromagnetic excitations, and study its behavior over the full electronic phase diagram of the materials. We also consider the plasmon excitations in the graphene family and find that nonlocality in the optical response can affect the plasmon dispersion spectra of the various phases. The expressions for the conductivity components are valid for the entire graphene family and can be readily used by others.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Cloaking of Thermoelectric Transport

The ability to control electromagnetic fields, heat currents, electric currents, and other physical phenomena by coordinate transformation methods has resulted in novel functionalities, such as cloaking, field rotations, and concentration effects. Transformation optics, as the underlying mathematical tool, has proven to be a versatile approach to achieve such unusual outcomes relying on materials with highly anisotropic and inhomogeneous properties. Most applications and designs thus far have been limited to functionalities within a single physical domain. Here we present transformation optics applied to thermoelectric phenomena, where thermal and electric flows are coupled via the Seebeck coefficient and Joule heating is taken into account. Using laminates, we describe a theoretical thermoelectric cloak capable of hiding objects from thermoelectric flow. Our calculations show that such a cloak does not depend on the particular boundary conditions and can also operate in different single domain regimes. These proof-of-principle results constitute a significant step forward towards finding unexplored ways to control and manipulate coupled transport.

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2017

Casimir Force Phase Transitions in the Graphene Family

The Casimir force is a universal interaction induced by electromagnetic quantum fluctuations between any types of objects. The expansion of the graphene family by adding silicene, germanene, and stanene, 2D allotropes of Si, Ge, and Sn, lands itself as a platform to probe Dirac-like physics in honeycomb staggered systems in such a ubiquitous interaction. We discover Casimir force phase transitions between these staggered 2D materials induced by the complex interplay between Dirac physics, spin-orbit coupling, and externally applied fields. In particular, we find that the interaction energy experiences different power law distance decays, magnitudes, and dependences on characteristic physical constants. Furthermore, due to the topological properties of these materials, repulsive and quantized Casimir interactions become possible.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

The Casimir-Polder effect for a stack of conductive planes

The Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and a multilayered system composed of infinitely thin planes is considered using the zeta-function regularization approach with summation of the zero-point energies. As a prototype material, each plane is represented by a graphene sheet whose optical response is described by a constant conductivity or Drude-Lorentz model conductivity. Asymptotic expressions for various separations are derived and compared to numerical calculations. We distinguish between large atom/plane limit, where retardation effects are prominent, and small atom/plane limit, where the typical van der Waals coefficient is found to be dependent on the number of graphenes and characteristic distances. The calculated energies for different atoms and graphene conductivity models brings forward the basic science of the Casimir-Polder effect and suggests ways to manipulate this interaction experimentally.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

The Casimir effect for a stack of conductive planes

The Casimir interaction in a stack of equally spaced infinitely thin layers is investigated within the zero-frequency mode summation method. The response properties are considered to be described by a constant conductivity or by a Drude-Lorentz model with a finite set of oscillators consistent with the optical characteristics for graphite. It is found that the asymptotic distance dependence is affected significantly by the specific response. While the energy is $\sim 1/d^3$ for the constant conductivity model, the energy exhibits fractional dependence $\sim 1/d^{5/2}$ for the Drude-Lorentz description. The Casimir force on a plane is also strongly dependent upon the particular plane location in the stack. Furthermore, the calculated Casimir energy within the Drude-Lorentz model yields results in good agreement with measured cohesion energy in graphite.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Charge Induced Fluctuation Forces in Graphitic Nanostructures

Charge fluctuations in nano-circuits with capacitor components are shown to give rise to a novel type of long-ranged interaction, which co-exist with the regular Casimir/van der Waals force. The developed theory distinguishes between thermal and quantum mechanical effects, and it is applied to capacitors involving graphene nanostructures. The charge fluctuations mechanism is captured via the capacitance of the system with geometrical and quantum mechanical components. The dependence on the distance separation, temperature, size, and response properties of the system shows that this type of force can have a comparable and even dominant effect to the Casimir interaction. Our results strongly indicate that fluctuations induced interactions due to various thermodynamic quantities can have important thermal and quantum mechanical contributions at the micro- and nanoscale.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Casimir energy for surfaces with constant conductivity

We consider the vacuum energy of the electromagnetic field in systems characterized by a constant conductivity using the zeta-regularization approach. The interaction in two cases is investigated: two infinitely thin parallel sheets and an infinitely thin spherical shell. We found that the Casimir energy for the planar system is always attractive and it has the same characteristic distance dependence as the interaction for two perfect semi-infinite metals. The Casimir energy for the spherical shell depends on the inverse radius of the sphere, but it maybe negative or positive depending on the value of the conductivity. If the conductivity is less than a certain critical value, the interaction is attractive, otherwise the Casimir force is repulsive regardless of the spherical shell radius.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Repulsive interactions of a lipid membrane with graphene in composite materials

The van der Waals interaction between a lipid membrane and a substrate covered by a graphene sheet is investigated using the Lifshitz theory. The reflection coefficients are obtained for a layered planar system submerged in water. The dielectric response properties of the involved materials are also specified and discussed. Our calculations show that a graphene covered substrate can repel the biological membrane in water. This is attributed to the significant changes in the response properties of the system due to the monolayer graphene. It is also found that the van der Waals interaction is mostly dominated by the presence of graphene, while the role of the particular substrate is secondary.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Near-field heat transfer between gold nanoparticle arrays

The radiative heat transfer between gold nanoparticle layers is presented using the coupled dipole method. Gold nanoparticles are modelled as effective electric and magnetic dipoles interacting via electromagnetic fluctuations. The effect of higher-order multipoles is implemented in the expression of electric polarizability to calculate the interactions at short distances. Our findings show that the near-field radiation reduces as the radius of the nanoparticles is increased. Also, the magnetic dipole contribution to the heat exchange becomes more important for larger particles. When one layer is displayed in parallel with respect to the other layer, the near-field heat transfer exhibits oscillatory-like features due to the influence of the individual nanostructures. Further details about the effect of the nanoparticles size are also discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Surface plasmon resonances of protein-conjugated gold nanoparticles on graphitic substrates

We present theoretical calculations for the absorption properties of protein-coated gold nanoparticles on graphene and graphite substrates. As the substrate is far away from nanoparticles, numerical results show that the number of protein bovine serum molecules molecules aggregating on gold surfaces can be quantitatively determined for gold nanoparticles with arbitrary size by means of the Mie theory and the absorption spectra. The presence of graphitic substrate near protein-conjugated gold nanoparticles substantially enhances the red shift of the surface plasmon resonances of the nanoparticles. Our findings show that graphene and graphite provide the same absorption band when the distance between the nanoparticles and the substrate is large. However at shorter distances, the resonant wavelength peak of graphene-particle system differs from that of graphite-particle system. Furthermore, the influence of the chemical potential of graphene on the optical spectra is also investigated.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗