Superlubric polycrystalline graphene interfaces

The effects of corrugated grain boundaries on the frictional properties of extended planar graphitic contacts incorporating a polycrystalline surface are investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. The kinetic friction is found to be dominated by shear induced buckling and unbuckling of corrugated grain boundary dislocations, leading to a nonmonotonic behavior of the friction with normal load and temperature. The underlying mechanism involves two effects, where an increase of dislocation buckling probability competes with a decrease of the dissipated energy per buckling event. These effects are well captured by a phenomenological two-state model, that allows for characterizing the tribological properties of any large-scale polycrystalline layered interface, while circumventing the need for demanding atomistic simulations. The resulting negative differential friction coefficients obtained in the high-load regime can reduce the expected linear scaling of grain-boundary friction with surface area and restore structural superlubricity at increasing length-scales.

Features of the Structure and Electrophysical Properties of Solid Solutions of the System (1-x-y) NaNbO3-xKNbO3-yCd0.5NbO3

Ferroelectric ceramic materials based on the (1-x-y) NaNbO3-xKNbO3-yCd0.5NbO3 system (x = 0.05–0.65, y = 0.025–0.30, Δx = 0.05) were obtained by a two-stage solid-phase synthesis followed by sintering using conventional ceramic technology. It was found that the region of pure solid solutions extends to x = 0.70 at y = 0.05 and, with increasing y, it narrows down to x ≤ 0.10 at y = 0.25. Going out beyond the specified concentrations leads to the formation of a heterogeneous region. It is shown that the grain landscape of all studied ceramics is formed during recrystallization sintering in the presence of a liquid phase, the source of which is unreacted components (Na2CO3 with Tmelt. = 1126 K, K2CO3 with Tmelt. = 1164 K, KOH with Tmelt. = 677 K) and low-melting eutectics in niobate mixtures (NaNbO3, Tmelt. = 1260 K, KNbO3, Tmelt. = 1118 K). A study of the electrophysical properties at room temperature showed the nonmonotonic behavior of all dependences with extrema near symmetry transitions, which corresponds to the logic of changes in the electrophysical parameters in systems with morphotropic phase boundaries. An analysis of the evolution of dielectric spectra made it possible to distinguish three groups of solid solutions: classical ferroelectrics (y = 0.05–0.10), ferroelectrics with a diffuse phase transition (y = 0.30), and ferroelectrics relaxors (y = 0.15–0.25). A conclusion about the expediency of using the obtained data in the development of materials and devices based on such materials has been made.

Unexpected Scaling of Peak Acceleration for a Yielding Mass-Spring System Subjected to a Triangular Base Acceleration Pulse

The use of bounding scenarios is a common practice which greatly simplifies the design and qualification of structures. However, this approach implicitly assumes that the quantities of interest increase monotonically with the input to the structure, which is not necessarily true for nonlinear structures. This paper surveys the literature for observations of nonmonotonic behavior of nonlinear systems, and finds such observations in both the earthquake engineering and applied mechanics literature. Numerical simulations of a single degree of freedom mass-spring system with an elastic-plastic spring subjected to a triangular base acceleration pulse are then presented, and it is shown that the relative acceleration of this system scales nonmonotonically with the input magnitude in some cases. The equation of motion for this system is solved symbolically and an approximate expression for the relative acceleration is developed, which qualitatively agrees with the nonmonotonic behavior seen in the numerical results. The nonmonotonicity is investigated and found to be a result of dynamics excited by the discontinuous derivative of the base acceleration pulse, the magnitude of which scales nonmonotonically with the input magnitude due to the fact that first yield of the spring occurs earlier as the input magnitude is increased. The relevance of this finding within the context of defining bounding scenarios is discussed and it is recommended that modeling be used to perform a survey of the full range of possible inputs prior to defining bounding scenarios.

Superlubric Polycrystalline Graphene Interfaces

The effect of corrugated grain boundaries on the frictional properties of extended graphitic contacts incorporating a polycrystalline surface are investigated. The friction is found to be dominated by shear induced buckling and unbuckling of corrugated grain boundary dislocations, leading to a nonmonotonic behavior of friction with normal load and temperature. The underlying mechanism involves two competing effects, where an increase of dislocation buckling probability is accompanied by a decrease of the dissipated energy per buckling event. These effects are well captured by a phenomenological two-state model, that allows for characterizing the tribological properties of any large-scale polycrystalline layered interface, while circumventing the need for demanding atomistic simulations. The resulting negative differential friction coefficients obtained in the high-load regime can reduce the expected linear scaling of grain-boundary friction with surface area and restore structural superlubricity at increasing length-scales.

Влияние толщины субмикронных пленок электроактивных полимеров на токи термостимулированной деполяризации

The results of studying the thermally stimulated depolarization currents in thin films of polydiphenylenephthalide (PDP) with a thickness of 20 nm to 1.4 μm under a constant stress in a structure with an insulating dielectric layer are presented. Nonmonotonic behavior of the dependence of the activation energy of charge carrier trapping sites and the relaxation of the space charge on the thickness of PDP polymer films is found. A correlation between the change in the supramolecular structure of the films and the above parameters is established. The obtained results are interpreted using the theory of thermally stimulated discharge in short-circuit heterogeneous structures.

Dissipative Frustration in a One Dimensional Josephson Junction Chain

We study the influence of dissipative frustration on the one dimensional Josephson junction chain. In particular we analyze the dissipative quantum phase transition between the chain being superconducting or insulating, the purity as a measure of quantum—environment correlation and the logarithmic negativity as an entanglement measure. The dissipative frustration is provided by coupling two non-commuting operators to the environment. A possible realization of these environmental couplings are shunt resistances between the superconducting islands and resistances to the ground. Using a self-consistent harmonic approximation we determine the critical line separating superconducting and insulating phases and find a nonmonotonic behavior as a function of the dissipative strength. The interplay between both environmental couplings is also reflected in the purity and the logarithmic negativity. We find a change in their behavior depending whether a second bath is present or not.

Transport coherence and diffusion in a temporal asymmetric rocked ratchet model

We study the overdamped Brownian dynamics of a particle in a sawtooth potential along with a temporal asymmetric driving force. We observe that in the deterministic limit, the transport coherence which is determined by a dimensionless quantity, called Peclet number Pe, is quite high under certain circumstances. For all the regime of parameter space of this model, Pe in our model shows similar features of current like Stokes efficiency. Diffusion as a function of driving amplitude shows a nonmonotonic behavior and results a minimum exactly at which the current shows a maximum. Unlike the previously studied models, Pe in our model shows a peaking behavior with temperature. Moreover, the diffusion shows a nonlinear dependence of temperature in the long-time limit and it is sensitive to the potential asymmetry parameter.