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We report a novel method adopting two RF fields to simultaneously excite 85Rb and 87Rb isotopes for an MZ type atomic magnetometer. The MZ magnetometer adopts a 6 mm3 microfabricated vapor cell with natural abundance rubidium and 0.74 amagat nitrogen as buffer gas inside. The excessively broadened magnetic resonance signals of the two rubidium isotopes overlap with each other and cause deterioration in accuracy and sensitivity performance. To solve this problem, a Double-RF Field Method (DRFM) is proposed, which adopts two RF fields with a central frequency ratio of 2:3. Compared with traditional Single-RF Field Method (SRFM), the DRFM reduces the detection error by over 50% and improves the sensitivity by more than 10%. The experiments are conducted at three temperatures and under various static magnetic fields. Theoretical models are also built to discuss the performance improvement of the magnetometer by the DRFM against the SRFM. This method provides a way to improve the performance of chip-scale MZ atomic magnetometers with low cost natural abundance rubidium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For ultra-thin gas lubrication, the surface-to-volume ratio increases dramatically when the flow geometry is scaled down to the micro/nano-meter scale, where surface roughness, albeit small, may play an important role in gas slider bearings. However, the effect of surface roughness on the pressure and load capacity (force) in gas slider bearings has been overlooked. In this paper, on the basis of the generalized Reynolds equation, we investigate the behavior of a gas slider bearing, where the roughness of the slider surface is characterized by the Weierstrass-Mandelbrot fractal function, and the mass flow rates of Couette and Poiseuille flows are obtained by deterministic solutions to the linearized Bhatnager-Gross-Krook equation. Our results show that the surface roughness reduces the local mass flow rate as compared to the smooth channel, but the amount of reduction varies for Couette and Poiseuille flows of different Knudsen numbers. As a consequence, the pressure rise and load capacity in the rough bearing become larger than the ones in the smooth bearing in the slip and early transition flow regimes, e.g., a 6% roughness could lead to an increase of 20% more bearing load capacity. However, this situation is reversed in the free-molecular flow regime, as the ratio of the mass flow rates between Couette and Poiseuille flows is smaller than that in the smooth channel. Interestingly, between the two extremes, we have found a novel "rarefaction cloaking" effect, where the load capacity of a rough bearing equals to that of a smooth bearing at a certain range of Knudsen numbers, as if the roughness does not exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A non-volatile four-state magnetic memory is achieved in a Co/(011)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3) O3-PbTiO3 heterostructure. The in-plane magnetization of ferromagnetic Co film in the heterostructure can be controlled both electrically and magnetically. Electric field mediated magnetism is caused by piezostrain effect, which displays a stable non-volatile remnant magnetization vs electric field looplike behavior. In-plane strain-electric field (S-E) behavior under different temperatures reveals a nonvolatile strain switching effect, which is responsible for the non-volatile remnant magnetization switching through piezostrain mediated magnetoelectric effect. Further investigations on temperature dependence of S-E behavior suggest that the absent of the second non-180° domain switching may be responsible for the asymmetry in strain curves that causes the non-volatile strain switching, and therefore causes the non-volatile remanent magnetization switching, which is crucial for the four-state magnetoelectric memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex oxide heterostructures are fabricated by growing La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 films on ferroelectric 0.71Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.29PbTiO3 (011) single-crystal substrates. The nonvolatile or pulsed resistive switching behaviors induced by an electric field are achieved simultaneously. Further analyses indicate that the different resistive switching behaviors are resulted from co-control of piezostrain and polarization current effects. With decreasing in-plane read current from 0.1mA to 0.001 mA, the polarization current effect gradually begins to play a more important role than the piezostrain effect. Consequently, the nonvolatile resistive switching behavior is converted to pulse resistive switching behavior. The results further enhance the application of complex oxides in multifunctional memory devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Boltzmann equation with an arbitrary intermolecular potential is solved by the fast spectral method. As examples, noble gases described by the Lennard-Jones potential are considered. The accuracy of the method is assessed by comparing both transport coefficients with variational solutions and mass/heat flow rates in Poiseuille/thermal transpiration flows with results from the discrete velocity method. The fast spectral method is then applied to Fourier and Couette flows between two parallel plates, and the influence of the intermolecular potential on various flow properties is investigated. It is found that for gas flows with the same rarefaction parameter, differences in the heat flux in Fourier flow and the shear stress in Couette flow are small. However, differences in other quantities such as density, temperature, and velocity can be very large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]