Interface crack between dissimilar one-dimensional hexagonal quasicrystals with piezoelectric effect

In this paper, an interface crack between dissimilar one-dimensional (1D) hexagonal quasicrystals with piezoelectric effect under anti-plane shear and in-plane electric loadings is studied. By using integral transform techniques, the mixed boundary value problem for the interface crack is reduced to the solution of singular integral equations, which can be further reduced to solving Riemann–Hilbert problems with an exact solution. An analytical full-field solution for phonon and phason stresses, electric fields and electric displacement in the cracked bi-materials is given, and of particular interest, the analytical expression of the phonon and phason stresses and electric displacements along the interface is obtained. The crack sliding displacements of the interface crack are provided, and it is found that the phonon and phason stress distributions inside the dissimilar quasicrystal material are independent of the material properties under the anti-plane shear and in-plane electric loadings. The results of the stress intensity factors energy release rate indicate that the crack propagation can either be enhanced or retarded depending on the magnitude and direction of the electric loadings

The same superconducting criticality for underdoped and overdoped La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 single crystals

By measuring the superconducting diamagnetic moments for an underdoped and an overdoped La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 single crystal with equal qualities and roughly equal transition temperatures, it is found that the underdoped sample has only one transition which corresponds to H_{c2}, but the overdoped sample has two transitions with the higher one at H_{c2}. Further investigation reveals the same upper-critical field H_{c2} for both samples although the overall charge densities are very different, indicating the possibility of a very direct and detailed equivalence of the superconducting condensation process in the two doping limits. The second transition for the overdoped sample can be understood as the bulk coupling between the superconducting clusters produced by macroscopic phase separation.Comment: 4 pages (Revtex), 4 figures (PS), submitted to Physical Review Letter

Magnetic Insulator-Induced Proximity Effects in Graphene: Spin Filtering and Exchange Splitting Gaps

We report on first-principles calculations of spin-dependent properties in graphene induced by its interaction with a nearby magnetic insulator (Europium oxide, EuO). The magnetic proximity effect results in spin polarization of graphene $\pi$ orbitals by up to 24 %, together with large exchange splitting bandgap of about 36 meV. The position of the Dirac cone is further shown to depend strongly on the graphene-EuO interlayer. These findings point towards the possible engineering of spin gating by proximity effect at relatively high temperature, which stands as a hallmark for future all-spin information processing technologies.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Anatomy of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Fe/MgO magnetic tunnel junctions: First principles insight

Using first-principles calculations, we elucidate microscopic mechanisms of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA)in Fe/MgO magnetic tunnel junctions through evaluation of orbital and layer resolved contributions into the total anisotropy value. It is demonstrated that the origin of the large PMA values is far beyond simply considering the hybridization between Fe-3d$and O-2p orbitals at the interface between the metal and the insulator. On-site projected analysis show that the anisotropy energy is not localized at the interface but it rather propagates into the bulk showing an attenuating oscillatory behavior which depends on orbital character of contributing states and interfacial conditions. Furthermore, it is found in most situations that states with$d_{yz(xz)}$and$d_{z^2}$character tend always to maintain the PMA while those with$d_{xy}$and$d_{x^2-y^2}$character tend to favor the in-plane anisotropy. It is also found that while MgO thickness has no influence on PMA, the calculated perpendicular magnetic anisotropy oscillates as a function of Fe thickness with a period of 2ML and reaches a maximum value of 3.6 mJ/m$^2$.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure