Related papers: Mineral bridges in nacre revisited
Surface probes such as scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) have detected complex patterns at the nanoscale, indicative of electronic inhomogeneity, in a variety of high temperature superconductors. In cuprates, the pattern formation is…
We study the properties of graphene wormholes in which a short nanotube acts as a bridge between two graphene sheets, where the honeycomb carbon lattice is curved from the presence of 12 heptagonal defects. By taking the nanotube bridge…
Generic intermediate phases with anomalous properties exist over narrow composition ranges adjacent to connectivity transitions. Analysis of both simple classical and complex quantum percolation shows how topological concepts can be used to…
Graphene-metal nanoparticle hybrid materials potentially display not only the unique properties of metal nanoparticles and those of graphene, but also additional novel properties due to the interaction between graphene and nanoparticles.…
Surface plasmons at metal interfaces are collective excitations of the conduction electrons and the electromagnetic field. They exist in "curved three-dimensional space-times" defined by the shape of the metal surface and the spatial…
From transportation networks to complex infrastructures, and to social and communication networks, a large variety of systems can be described in terms of multiplexes formed by a set of nodes interacting through different networks (layers).…
The assembly of banana-shaped rodlike proteins on membranes, and the associated membrane shape transformations, are investigated by analytical theory and coarse-grained simulations. The membrane-mediated interactions between two…
The structure of the transient layer at the interface between air and the aqueous solution of silica nanoparticles with the size distribution of particles that has been determined from small-angle scattering has been studied by the X-ray…
Gap plasmonics deals with the properties of surface plasmons in the narrow region between two metallic nanoparticles forming the gap. For sub-nanometer gap distances electrons can tunnel between the nanoparticles leading to the emergence of…
Topological metals with protected band-crossing points have been attracting great interest. Here we report novel topological band features in a family of metal diboride materials. Using first- principles calculations, we show that these…
We have studied the effect of small amounts of added liquid on the dynamic behavior of a granular system consisting of a mixture of glass beads of two different sizes. Segregation of the large beads to the top of the sample is found to…
We present a first-principles study of the electronic properties of silicon clathrate nanowires intercalated with various types of alkali or alkaline-earth atoms. We find that the band structure of the nanowires can be tuned by varying the…
Recent high resolution spectropolarimetric observations from Hinode detected the presence of supersonic downflows in a sunspot light bridge (Louis et al. 2009). These downflows occurred in localized patches, close to regions where the field…
The formation of sintering bridges in amorphous powders affects both flow behavior and perceived material quality. When sintering is driven by surface tension, bridges emerge sequentially, favoring contacts between smaller particles first.…
Recently, it has been found experimentally that hydrated nacre exhibits a nonlinear mechanical response. While mechanical nonlinearity has been shown to be important in other biological structures, such as spider webs, the implications of…
Penumbral filaments and light bridges are prominent structures inside sunspots and are important for understanding the nature of sunspot magnetic fields and magneto-convection underneath. We investigate an interesting event where several…
The formation of gold nanowires in vacuum at room temperature reveals a periodic spectrum of exceptionally stable diameters. This is identified as shell structure similar to that which was recently discovered for alkali metals at low…
Existence of strongly bound water molecules on silicate surfaces, above the desorption temperature of water ice, has been first predicted by computational studies and recently demonstrated by laboratory experiments. Such trapped water may…
Recently, level crossings in the energy bands of crystals have been identified as a key signature for topological phase transitions. Using realistic models we show that the parameter space controlling the occurrence of level coincidences in…
We identify putative load-bearing structures (bridges) in experimental colloidal systems studied by confocal microscopy. Bridges are co-operative structures that have been used to explain stability and inhomogeneous force transmission in…