arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M. E. Hawley.
Using conductive atomic force microscopy, we observed non-uniform distributions of metallic and insulating domains on the surface of a single crystalline (La0.4Pr0.6)0.67Ca0.33MnO3 film grown on a (110) NdGaO3 substrate. The electronic properties of the surface exhibit thermal hysteresis. The hysteresis is similar to that of the transport and magnetism of the film bulk.
We describe how to implement quantum logic operations in a silicon-based quantum computer with phosphorus atoms serving as qubits. The information is stored in the states of nuclear spins and the conditional logic operations are implemented through the electron spins using nuclear-electron hyperfine and electron-electron exchange interactions. The electrons in our computer should stay coherent only during implementation of one Control-Not gate. The exchange interaction is constant and selective excitations are provided by a magnetic field gradient. The quantum logic operations are implemented by rectangular radio-frequency pulses. This architecture is scalable and does not require manufacturing nanoscale electronic gates. As shown in this paper parameters of a quantum protocol can be derived analytically even for a computer with a large number of qubits using our perturbation approach. We present the protocol for initialization of the nuclear spins and the protocol for creation of entanglement. All analytical results are tested numerically using a two-qubit system.
There are numerous potential applications for superconducting tapes, based on YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) films coated onto metallic substrates. A long established goal of more than 15 years has been to understand the magnetic flux pinning mechanisms which allow films to maintain high current densities out to high magnetic fields. In fact, films carry 1-2 orders of magnitude higher current densities than any other form of the material. For this reason, the idea of further improving pinning has received little attention. Now that commercialisation of conductors is much closer, for both better performance and lower fabrication costs, an important goal is to achieve enhanced pinning in a practical way. In this work, we demonstrate a simple and industrially scaleable route which yields a 1.5 to 5-fold improvement in the in-field current densities of already-high-quality conductors.
Dimer vacancy (DV) defect complexes in the Si(001)2x1 surface were investigated using high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy and first principles calculations. We find that under low bias filled-state tunneling conditions, isolated 'split-off' dimers in these defect complexes are imaged as pairs of protrusions while the surrounding Si surface dimers appear as the usual 'bean-shaped' protrusions. We attribute this to the formation of pi-bonds between the two atoms of the split-off dimer and second layer atoms, and present charge density plots to support this assignment. We observe a local brightness enhancement due to strain for different DV complexes and provide the first experimental confirmation of an earlier prediction that the 1+2-DV induces less surface strain than other DV complexes. Finally, we present a previously unreported triangular shaped split-off dimer defect complex that exists at SB-type step edges, and propose a structure for this defect involving a bound Si monomer.
We have performed microwave measurements on superconducting hot-isostatically- pressed (HIPed) bulk MgB2 using a parallel-plate resonator technique. The high density and strength of the HIPed material allowed preparation of samples with mirror-like surfaces for microwave measurements. The microwave surface resistance decreased by about 40% at 20 K when the root-mean-square surface roughness was reduced from 220 nm to 110 nm through surface-polishing and ion-milling. The surface resistance was independent of surface microwave magnetic field at least up to 4 Oe and below 30 K. We attribute this behavior, and the overall low surface resistance (~0.8 mOhms at 10 GHz and 20 K), to the high density of our samples and the absence of weak links between grains.
The quest to build a quantum computer has been inspired by the recognition of the formidable computational power such a device could offer. In particular silicon-based proposals, using the nuclear or electron spin of dopants as qubits, are attractive due to the long spin relaxation times involved, their scalability, and the ease of integration with existing silicon technology. Fabrication of such devices however requires atomic scale manipulation - an immense technological challenge. We demonstrate that it is possible to fabricate an atomically-precise linear array of single phosphorus bearing molecules on a silicon surface with the required dimensions for the fabrication of a silicon-based quantum computer. We also discuss strategies for the encapsulation of these phosphorus atoms by subsequent silicon crystal growth.
We propose a solid-state nuclear spin quantum computer based on application of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and well-developed silicon technology. It requires the measurement of tunneling current modulation caused by the Larmor precession of a single electron spin. Our envisioned STM quantum computer would operate at the high magnetic field ($\sim 10$T) and at low temperature $\sim 1$K.