Corrigendum: Identifying single electron charge sensor events using wavelet edge detection (2015 Nanotechnology 26 215201)

The simulated noise used to benchmark wavelet edge detection in this work was described incorrectly. The correct description is given here, and new results based on noise that matches the original description are provided. The results support our original conclusion, which is that wavelet edge detection outperforms thresholding in the presence of white noise and 1/f noise.

Paradigms and paradoxes: fractional electron charge

There is hardly a generic connection between the partial atomic charges, a useful concept in chemistry, and the “fractionalization” of the electron accomplished under extreme experimental conditions in solid samples. Nonetheless, there is a relationship on a philosophical level. There is no information of who first introduced the concept of partial atomic charges in chemistry. In contrast, the physicists whose experiment turned the electron into excitations carrying a partial charge and whose theory provided the interpretation received the Nobel Prize for their discoveries.

Corrigendum: Simple do-it-yourself experimental set-up for electron charge qe measurement (2018 Eur. J. Phys. 39 065202)

This is a correction for 2018 Eur. J. Phys. 39 065202.

Volt-ampere characteristic of the double Schottky barrier

The volt-ampere characteristic (I-V characteristic) of the double Schottky barrier located in the contact region of ZnO grains of zinc oxide based varistor ceramics is calculated using the mechanism of the above-barrier electron emission. I-V characteristic is symmetric to the polarity of the voltage U. At U > 2kBT/e (kB is the Boltzmann constant, T is the absolute temperature, e is electron charge) the electric current is saturated. The contact of ZnO grains with a double Schottky barrier behaves like an electrical circuit consisting of two oppositely connected Schottky diodes. A small maximum possible decrease in the height of the double Schottky barrier in an electric field ~ 0.7kBT ≈ 0.018 eV does not allow explaining the high nonlinearity of I – V characteristic of varistor materials by the above-barrier electron emission. The most probable cause of nonlinearity is the tunnel emission of electrons and impact ionization.

Substituent Effect in the Cation Radicals of Monosubstituted Benzenes

In 30 monosubstituted benzene cation radicals, studied at the ωB97XD/aug-cc-pVTZ level, the phenyl rings usually adopt a compressed form, but a differently compressed form—equivalent to an elongated one—may coexist. The computational and literature ionization potentials are well correlated. The geometrical and magnetic aromaticity, estimated using HOMA and NICS indices, show the systems to be structurally aromatic but magnetically antiaromatic or only weakly aromatic. The partial charge is split between the substituent and ring and varies the most at C(ipso). In the ring, the spin is 70%, concentrated equally at the C(ipso) and C(p) atoms. The sEDA(D) and pEDA(D) descriptors of the substituent effect in cation radicals, respectively, were determined. In cation radicals, the substituent effect on the σ-electron system is like that in the ground state. The effect on the π-electron systems is long-range, and its propagation in the radical quinone-like ring is unlike that in the neutral molecules. The pEDA(D) descriptor correlates well with the partial spin at C(ipso) and C(p) and weakly with the HOMA(D) index. The correlation of the spin at the ring π-electron system and the pEDA(D) descriptor shows that the electron charge supplied to the ring π-electron system and the spin flow oppositely.