This article reviews the basic theoretical aspects of graphene, a one-atom-thick allotrope of carbon, with unusual two-dimensional Dirac-like electronic excitations. The Dirac electrons can be controlled by application of external electric and magnetic fields, or by altering sample geometry and/or topology. The Dirac electrons behave in unusual ways in tunneling, confinement, and the integer quantum Hall effect. The electronic properties of graphene stacks are discussed and vary with stacking order and number of layers. Edge (surface) states in graphene depend on the edge termination (zigzag or armchair) and affect the physical properties of nanoribbons. Different types of disorder modify the Dirac equation leading to unusual spectroscopic and transport properties. The effects of electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions in single layer and multilayer graphene are also presented.

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The electronic properties of graphene

[신간의 별자리x] 우리/미술, 그리고 ‘슬픔의 박물관’

Deposits of clastic carbonate-dominated (calciclastic) sedimentary slope systems in the rock record have been identified mostly as linearly-consistent carbonate apron deposits, even though most ancient clastic carbonate slope deposits fit the submarine fan systems better. Calciclastic submarine fans are consequently rarely described and are poorly understood. Subsequently, very little is known especially in mud-dominated calciclastic submarine fan systems. Presented in this study are a sedimentological core and petrographic characterisation of samples from eleven boreholes from the Lower Carboniferous of Bowland Basin (Northwest England) that reveals a >250 m thick calciturbidite complex deposited in a calciclastic submarine fan setting. Seven facies are recognised from core and thin section characterisation and are grouped into three carbonate turbidite sequences. They include: 1) Calciturbidites, comprising mostly of highto low-density, wavy-laminated bioclast-rich facies; 2) low-density densite mudstones which are characterised by planar laminated and unlaminated muddominated facies; and 3) Calcidebrites which are muddy or hyper-concentrated debrisflow deposits occurring as poorly-sorted, chaotic, mud-supported floatstones. These

Phd by thesis

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is a metastable form of amorphous carbon with significant sp3 bonding. DLC is a semiconductor with a high mechanical hardness, chemical inertness, and optical transparency. This review will describe the deposition methods, deposition mechanisms, characterisation methods, electronic structure, gap states, defects, doping, luminescence, field emission, mechanical properties and some applications of DLCs. The films have widespread applications as protective coatings in areas, such as magnetic storage disks, optical windows and micro-electromechanical devices (MEMs).

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Diamond-like amorphous carbon

Topological quantum computation has emerged as one of the most exciting approaches to constructing a fault-tolerant quantum computer. The proposal relies on the existence of topological states of matter whose quasiparticle excitations are neither bosons nor fermions, but are particles known as non-Abelian anyons, meaning that they obey non-Abelian braiding statistics. Quantum information is stored in states with multiple quasiparticles, which have a topological degeneracy. The unitary gate operations that are necessary for quantum computation are carried out by braiding quasiparticles and then measuring the multiquasiparticle states. The fault tolerance of a topological quantum computer arises from the nonlocal encoding of the quasiparticle states, which makes them immune to errors caused by local perturbations. To date, the only such topological states thought to have been found in nature are fractional quantum Hall states, most prominently the $\ensuremath{\nu}=5∕2$ state, although several other prospective candidates have been proposed in systems as disparate as ultracold atoms in optical lattices and thin-film superconductors. In this review article, current research in this field is described, focusing on the general theoretical concepts of non-Abelian statistics as it relates to topological quantum computation, on understanding non-Abelian quantum Hall states, on proposed experiments to detect non-Abelian anyons, and on proposed architectures for a topological quantum computer. Both the mathematical underpinnings of topological quantum computation and the physics of the subject are addressed, using the $\ensuremath{\nu}=5∕2$ fractional quantum Hall state as the archetype of a non-Abelian topological state enabling fault-tolerant quantum computation.

Non-Abelian Anyons and Topological Quantum Computation

Ion transport through narrow water-filled channels is impeded by a high electrostatic barrier. The latter originates from the large ratio of the dielectric constants of the water and the surrounding media. We show that ``doping,'' i.e., immobile charges attached to the walls of the channel, substantially reduces the barrier. This explains why most of the biological ion channels are ``doped.'' We show that at rather generic conditions the channels may undergo ion exchange phase transitions (typically of the first order). Upon such a transition a finite latent concentration of ions may either enter or leave the channel, or be exchanged between the ions of different valences. We discuss possible implications of these transitions for the Ca-vs-Na selectivity of biological Ca channels. We also show that transport of divalent Ca ions is assisted by their fractionalization into two separate excitations.

Ion exchange phase transitions in water-filled channels with charged walls.

We show that $1∕f$ noise in the variable-range hopping regime is related to transitions of many-electrons clusters (fluctuators) between two almost-degenerate states. Giant fluctuation times necessary for $1∕f$ noise are provided by a slow rate of simultaneous tunneling of many localized electrons and by large activation barriers for their consecutive rearrangements. The Hooge constant steeply grows with decreasing temperature because it is easier to find a slow fluctuator at lower temperatures. Our conclusions qualitatively agree with the low-temperature observations of $1∕f$ noise in $p$-type silicon and GaAs.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/cond-mat/0512348.pdf

Many electron theory of 1/f noise in hopping conductivity

We use Monte Carlo simulations to examine the simplest model of a room-temperature ionic liquid (RTIL), called the "restricted primitive model," at a metal surface. We find that at moderately low temperatures the capacitance of the metal-RTIL interface is so large that the effective thickness of the electrostatic double layer is up to three times smaller than the ion radius. To interpret these results we suggest an approach which is based on the interaction between discrete ions and their image charges in the metal surface and which therefore goes beyond the mean-field approximation. When a voltage is applied across the interface, the strong image attraction causes counterions to condense onto the metal surface to form compact ion-image dipoles. These dipoles repel each other to form a correlated liquid. When the surface density of these dipoles is low, the insertion of an additional dipole does not require much energy. This leads to a large capacitance C that decreases monotonically with voltage V, producing a "bell-shaped" curve C(V). We also consider what happens when the electrode is made from a semimetal rather than a perfect metal. In this case, the finite screening radius of the electrode shifts the reflection plane for image charges to the interior of the electrode, and we arrive at a "camel-shaped" C(V). These predictions seem to be in qualitative agreement with experiment.

Anomalously large capacitance of an ionic liquid described by the restricted primitive model.

We study variable-range hopping in the quantum Hall effect regime in the presence of a metallic gate parallel to the plane of a two-dimensional electron gas. Screening of the Coulomb interaction by the gate causes the partial ``filling'' of the Coulomb gap in the density of localized states. At low enough temperatures this leads to a substantial enhancement and a different temperature behavior of the hopping conductivity. As a result, the diagonal conductivity peaks become much wider. The power-law dependence of the width of the peaks on the temperature changes: the corresponding exponent turns out to be twice as small as that for gateless structures. The width dependences on the current in the non-Ohmic regime and on the frequency for the absorption of the electromagnetic waves experience a similar modification. The experimental observation of the crossovers predicted may demonstrate the important role of the Coulomb interaction in the integer quantum Hall regime.

Effect of screening of the Coulomb interaction on the conductivity in the quantum Hall regime

Proteins are known to locate their specific targets on DNA up to two orders of magnitude faster than predicted by the Smoluchowski three-dimensional diffusion rate. One of the mechanisms proposed to resolve this discrepancy is termed "intersegment transfer." Many proteins have two DNA binding sites and can transfer from one DNA segment to another without dissociation to water. We calculate the target search rate for such proteins in a dense globular DNA, taking into account intersegment transfer working in conjunction with DNA motion and protein sliding along DNA. We show that intersegment transfer plays a very important role in cases where the protein spends most of its time adsorbed on DNA.

Boris I Shklovskii

Papers

Ion exchange phase transitions in water-filled channels with charged walls.

Many electron theory of 1/f noise in hopping conductivity

Anomalously large capacitance of an ionic liquid described by the restricted primitive model.

Effect of screening of the Coulomb interaction on the conductivity in the quantum Hall regime

How a protein searches for its specific site on DNA: the role of intersegment transfer.