Ac Field Research Articles

New insight into the colossal dielectric permittivity and AC conductivity behavior of polycrystalline non-ferroelectric ceramics

The correlation of polarization with AC conductivity behavior of polycrystalline non-ferroelectric ceramics is more satisfied to be interpreted by three zones indicated in permittivity and AC conductivity spectra. These three zones concerning the dielectric and conductivity processes governing the response to an AC field have been identified in terms of the cluster model within the framework of percolation theory. Colossal dielectric permittivity of non-ferroelectric materials can be attributed to hopping polarization aligned via developing percolation clusters with high electron concentrations. The physical origin of the correlation between dielectric permittivity and AC conductivity of polycrystalline ceramics with respect to the effect of grain boundary has been clarified.

Low-Frequency Dynamic Magnetic Susceptibility of Antiferromagnetic Nanoparticles with Superparamagnetic Properties

As is known, the multi-sublattice structure of antiferromagnets (AFMs) entails that, under size diminution to the nanoscale, compensation of the sublattice magnetizations becomes incomplete. Due to that, the nanoparticles acquire small, but finite permanent magnetic moments. An AC field applied to such particles induces their magnetic response, the measurement of which is well within the sensitivity range of the experimental technique. Given the small size of the particles, their magnetodynamics is strongly affected by thermal fluctuations, so that their response bears a considerable superparamagnetic contribution. This specific feature is well-known, but usually is accounted for at the estimation accuracy level. Herein, a kinetic model is proposed to account for the magnetic relaxation of AFM nanoparticles, i.e., the processes that take place in the frequency domain well below the magnetic resonance band. Assuming that the particles possess uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, the expressions for the principal components of the both linear static and dynamic susceptibilities are derived, yielding simple analytical expressions, including those for the case of a random distribution of the particle axes.

Manipulating the non-Hermitian skin effect via electric fields

In non-Hermitian systems, the phenomenon that the bulk-band eigenstates are accumulated at the boundaries of the systems under open boundary conditions is called non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE), which is one of the most iconic and important features of a non-Hermitian system. In this work, we investigate the fate of NHSE in the presence of electric fields by analytically calculating the dynamical evolution of an initial bulk state and numerically computing the spectral winding number, the distributions of eigenstates, as well as the dynamical evolutions. We show abundant manipulation effects of dc and ac fields on the NHSE, and that the physical mechanism behind these effects is the interplay between the Stark localization, dynamic localization and the NHSE. In addition, the finite size analysis of the non-Hermitian system with a pure dc field shows the phenomenon of size-dependent NHSE. We further propose a scheme to realize the discussed model based on an electronic circuit. The results will help to deepen the understanding of NHSE and its manipulation.

Active colloids in harmonic optical potentials (a) (a)Contribution to the Focus Issue Statistical Physics of Self-Propelled Colloids edited by Hartmut Löwen, Sabine Klapp and Holger Stark.

We study the motion of active Janus colloids in an optical trap using experiments, theory and numerical simulations. To achieve isotropic and harmonic confinement, we prototype microparticles with a nearly uniform refractive index and verify that, in the absence of activity, the confined motion is identical to that of optically homogeneous Brownian particles. If the activity is turned on by means of vertical AC fields, the density distributions are described by Boltzmann-like statistics (Gaussian with effective temperature) only for strongly confining traps, whereas weaker potentials give rise to non-Gaussian distributions with a bimodal shape. Our results showcase a simple way to study active soft matter in optical potential landscapes eliminating the optical torque.

Modeling of core-shell magneto-electric nanoparticles for biomedical applications: Effect of composition, dimension, and magnetic field features on magnetoelectric response.

The recent development of core-shell nanoparticles which combine strain coupled magnetostrictive and piezoelectric phases, has attracted a lot of attention due to their ability to yield strong magnetoelectric effect even at room temperature, thus making them a promising tool to enable biomedical applications. To fully exploit their potentialities and to adapt their use to in vivo applications, this study analyzes, through a numerical approach, their magnetoelectric behavior, shortly quantified by the magnetoelectric coupling coefficient (αME), thus providing an important milestone for the characterization of the magnetoelectric effect at the nanoscale. In view of recent evidence showing that αME is strongly affected by both the applied magnetic field DC bias and AC frequency, this study implements a nonlinear model, based on magnetic hysteresis, to describe the responses of two different core-shell nanoparticles to various magnetic field excitation stimuli. The proposed model is also used to evaluate to which extent realistic variables such as core diameter and shell thickness affect the electric output. Results prove that αME of 80 nm cobalt ferrite-barium titanate (CFO-BTO) nanoparticles with a 60:40 ratio is equal to about 0.28 V/cm∙Oe corresponding to electric fields up to about 1000 V/cm when a strong DC bias is applied. However, the same electric output can be obtained even in absence of DC field with very low AC fields, by exploiting the hysteretic characteristics of the same composites. The analysis of core and shell dimension is as such to indicate that, to maximize αME, larger core diameter and thinner shell nanoparticles should be preferred. These results, taken together, suggest that it is possible to tune magnetoelectric nanoparticles electric responses by controlling their composition and their size, thus opening the opportunity to adapt their structure on the specific application to pursue.

Single-Molecule Magnetism in Linear Fe(I) Complexes with Aufbau and Non-Aufbau Ground States.

With the ongoing efforts on synthesizing mononuclear single-ion magnets (SIMs) with promising applications in high-density data storage and spintronics devices, the linear or quasi-linear Fe(I) complexes emerge as the enticing candidates possessing large unquenched angular momentum. Herein, we have studied five experimentally synthesized linear Fe(I) complexes to uncover the origin of single-molecule magnetic behavior of these complexes. To begin with, we benchmarked the methodology on the experimentally and theoretically well-studied complex [Fe(C(SiMe3)3)2]-1 (1) (SiMe3 = trimethylsilyl), which is characterized with a large spin-reversal barrier of 226 cm-1. Subsequently, the spin-phonon coupling coefficients are calculated for the low-frequency vibrational modes to understand the relaxation mechanism of the complex. Furthermore, the two Fe(I) complexes, that is, [Fe(cyIDep)2]+1 (2) (cyIDep = 1,3-bis(2',6'-diethylphenyl)-4,5-(CH2)4-imidazole-2-ylidene) and [Fe(sIDep)2]+1 (3) (sIDep = 1,3-bis(2',6'-diethylphenyl)-imidazolin-2-ylidene), are studied that are experimentally reported with no SIM behavior under ac or dc magnetic fields; however, they exhibit large opposite axial zero field splitting (-62.4 and +34.0 cm-1, respectively) from ab initio calculations. We have unwrapped the origin of this contrasting observation between experiment and theory by probing their magnetic relaxation pathways and the pattern of d orbital splitting. Additionally, the two experimentally synthesized Fe(I) complexes, that is, [(η6-C6H6)FeAr*-3,5-Pr2i] (4) (Ar*-3,5-Pr2i = C6H-2,6-(C6H2-2,4,6-Pr3i)2-3,5-Pr2i) and [(CAAC)2Fe]+1 (5) (CAAC = cyclic (alkyl) (amino)carbene), are investigated for SIM behavior, since there is no report on their magnetic anisotropy. To this end, complex 4 presents itself as the possible candidate for SIM.

Quantum nonlinear spectroscopy of single nuclear spins

Conventional nonlinear spectroscopy, which use classical probes, can only access a limited set of correlations in a quantum system. Here we demonstrate that quantum nonlinear spectroscopy, in which a quantum sensor and a quantum object are first entangled and the sensor is measured along a chosen basis, can extract arbitrary types and orders of correlations in a quantum system. We measured fourth-order correlations of single nuclear spins that cannot be measured in conventional nonlinear spectroscopy, using sequential weak measurement via a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. The quantum nonlinear spectroscopy provides fingerprint features to identify different types of objects, such as Gaussian noises, random-phased AC fields, and quantum spins, which would be indistinguishable in second-order correlations. This work constitutes an initial step toward the application of higher-order correlations to quantum sensing, to examining the quantum foundation (by, e.g., higher-order Leggett-Garg inequality), and to studying quantum many-body physics.

Thermal Behavior Modelling of a Fast AC Field Controlled HTS Switch

When a type II superconductor carrying a direct current is subjected to a perpendicular AC magnetic field, a DC voltage can be observed, commonly referred to as “dynamic resistance effect”. This dc voltage appears in a very short time when AC field is applied and disappears quickly when AC field is removed. These advantages make the type II superconductors to be a fast AC-field-actuated HTS switch, which plays an important role in many potential high-temperature superconducting (HTS) applications, especially for HTS flux pumps or HTS magnetic energy storage systems. However, the temperature in the superconductor varies due to this dc voltage and may result in quench for the superconductor. Therefore, it is important to investigate the thermal behavior of an AC-field-actuated HTS switch. In this paper, we build and experimentally verified a 2D electromagnetic-thermal coupled model to investigate the electromagnetic-thermal characteristics of HTS switches in different working conditions. This model can estimate the dynamic voltage rise and the temperature rise of the superconductor. This work is indicative for designing an AC-field-actuated HTS switch in terms of increasing the dc voltage, and enhancing the safety and stability.

AC Loss Evaluation of NI REBCO Pancake Coils in External Low-Frequency Magnetic Field

No-insulation (NI) rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) pancake coils have attracted much attention because of their high thermal stability. It is, therefore, expected to apply NI REBCO pancake coils to various applications. In recent years, there have been discussions on the possibility of applying NI REBCO pancake coils to field coils of synchronous motors for ship and aircraft propulsion. NI REBCO field coils would be exposed to an AC magnetic field of ∼1 Hz. The AC losses must be discussed because a current is induced in an NI REBCO coil under externa AC field. AC losses in NI REBCO pancake coils exposed to changing magnetic fields should be investigated in detail. In this paper, the AC Joule loss of the NI-REBCO pancake coils is investigated by simulation using a partial element equivalent circuit (PEEC) model. The magnetization loss is also investigated based on the Bean model when a low-frequency AC magnetic field is applied to the NI REBCO pancake coil. From the simulation results, we concluded a high contact resistivity can sufficiently reduce the Joule loss.

Integrable quantum many-body sensors for AC field sensing

Quantum sensing is inevitably an elegant example of the supremacy of quantum technologies over their classical counterparts. One of the desired endeavors of quantum metrology is AC field sensing. Here, by means of analytical and numerical analysis, we show that integrable many-body systems can be exploited efficiently for detecting the amplitude of an AC field. Unlike the conventional strategies in using the ground states in critical many-body probes for parameter estimation, we only consider partial access to a subsystem. Due to the periodicity of the dynamics, any local block of the system saturates to a steady state which allows achieving sensing precision well beyond the classical limit, almost reaching the Heisenberg bound. We associate the enhanced quantum precision to closing of the Floquet gap, resembling the features of quantum sensing in the ground state of critical systems. We show that the proposed protocol can also be realized in near-term quantum simulators, e.g. ion-traps, with a limited number of qubits. We show that in such systems a simple block magnetization measurement and a Bayesian inference estimator can achieve very high precision AC field sensing.

The negative dielectric permittivity of polycrystalline barium titanate nanofilms under high-strength kHz-AC fields

Unlike the conventional high-frequency dielectric behavior for which the amplitude of the applied field is too small to cause polarization switching, the dynamically-driven polarization reorientation brings remarkable frequency dependence to the nonlinear electromechanical behaviors of ferroelectric nanofilms. In this study, we developed a thermodynamically consistent phase-field model with an introduced second-order kinetic equation to investigate the dynamics of polarization switching in polycrystalline barium titanate nanofilms under high-strength AC fields. The newly introduced kinetic equation consists of an additional dynamic inertial term that brings about collective resonance of polarization within a certain frequency range. Negative dielectric permittivity is observed in a certain frequency band as the applied frequency varies from 30 to 80 kHz, and the maximum absolute value is reached around 40 kHz. It was demonstrated through microstructure-based analysis that such negative dielectric behavior is inherited from the frequency-dependent polarization switching in the nanograins. It also serves as the mechanism for other observed frequency-dependent physical properties, e.g., the remnant polarization, the piezoelectric coefficient at zero electric field and the coercive field. In addition, we further explored the influence of the damping coefficient in the kinetic equation and the influence of the in-plane strain to such frequency-dependent behaviors. It was found that a higher damping coefficient or applied in-plane strain tends to weaken the occurrence of negative permittivity.

Controlling the electrostatic Faraday instability using superposed electric fields

We present an experimental study of the electrostatic Faraday instability at the interface between a dielectric and a conducting liquid. We study the response of the interface to an ac electric field, which is superposed by either a second ac field of different frequency, or by a dc field. An important control parameter is the mixing ratio, which denotes the relative amplitudes of the different components of the driving signal. For ac/ac driving, gradual variations of the mixing ratio can induce a jump of the pattern wavelength, and for ac/dc driving, the response wavelength can be tuned continuously by adjusting the mixing ratio.

Comparative study of energy harvesting performance of magnetoelectric composite-based piezoelectric beams subject to varying magnetic field

Magnetostrictive materials with good mechanical properties can effectively convert the alternating magnetic energy in the environment into mechanical vibrations via the magnetostriction effect. Few studies exist on the working mechanism and the effect on the performance of magnetoelectric (ME) composite components in complex magnetic field environments. This work first investigated the magnetoelectric conversion process of two types of ME composite components under the action of DC magnetic field alone and the DC–AC coupled magnetic field using COMSOL simulation. When coupled with AC magnetic field, the DC bias magnetic field can enhance the magnetization by AC field for the Galfenol alloy component and negate the magnetization for the nickel component. Then, two types of ME composite components made from Galfenol alloy and nickel bonded with piezoelectric transducer are prototyped and tested for energy harvesting. The experimental results show that, under a harmonic excitation of 3 Oe magnetic field, the DC bias magnetic field of 120 Oe can increase the open-circuit voltage of the Galfenol alloy based harvester from 0.495 V to 10.68 V, and the output power from 1.6 μW to 42 μW by 2525% with a matched external resistance of 50 kΩ. Under the same amplitude of AC magnetic field, the DC bias magnetic field increases the open-circuit voltage of the nickel based harvester from 0.117 V to 0.837 V, and the output power from 2.6 μW to 23 μW by 784.6% with a matched resistance of 1000 kΩ. The findings of this work reveal the effect of the coupled magnetic field for the magnetostriction for different magnetostrictive materials and provide the guideline for the design of magnet electric energy harvesters.

Activity of AC electrokinetically immobilized horseradish peroxidase.

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is an AC electrokinetic effect mainly used to manipulate cells. Smaller particles, like virions, antibodies, enzymes, and even dye molecules can be immobilized by DEP as well. In principle, it was shown that enzymes are active after immobilization by DEP, but no quantification of the retained activity was reported so far. In this study, the activity of the enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP) is quantified after immobilization by DEP. For this, HRP is immobilized on regular arrays of titanium nitride ring electrodes of 500nm diameter and 20nm widths. The activity of HRP on the electrode chip is measured with a limit of detection of 60fg HRP by observing the enzymatic turnover of Amplex Red and H2 O2 to fluorescent resorufin by fluorescence microscopy. The initial activity of the permanently immobilized HRP equals up to 45% of the activity that can be expected for an ideal monolayer of HRP molecules on all electrodes of the array. Localization of the immobilizate on the electrodes is accomplished by staining with the fluorescent product of the enzyme reaction. The high residual activity of enzymes after AC field induced immobilization shows the method's suitability for biosensing and research applications.

Frequency-controlled electrophoretic mobility of a particle within a porous, hollow shell

The unique properties of yolk-shell or rattle-type particles make them promising candidates for applications ranging from switchable photonic crystals, to catalysts, to sensors. To realize many of these applications it is important to gain control over the dynamics of the core particle independently of the shell. HypothesisThe core particle may be manipulated by an AC electric field with rich frequency-dependent behavior. ExperimentsHere, we explore the frequency-dependent dynamic electrophoretic mobility of a charged core particle within a charged, porous shell in AC electric fields both experimentally using liquid-phase electron microscopy and numerically via the finite-element method. These calculations solve the Poisson-Nernst-Planck-Stokes equations, where the core particle moves according to the hydrodynamic and electric forces acting on it. FindingsIn experiments the core exhibited three frequency-dependent regimes of field-driven motion: (i) parallel to the field, (ii) diffusive in a plane orthogonal to the field, and (iii) unbiased random motion. The transitions between the three observed regimes can be explained by the level of matching between the time required to establish ionic gradients in the shell and the period of the AC field. We further investigated the effect of shell porosity, ionic strength, and inner-shell radius. The former strongly impacted the core’s behavior by attenuating the field inside the shell. Our results provide physical understanding on how the behavior of yolk-shell particles may be tuned, thereby enhancing their potential for use as building blocks for switchable photonic crystals.

Influence of AC fields and electrical conduction mechanisms on the flash-onset temperature: Electronic (BiFeO3) vs. ionic conductors (8YSZ)

This work aims to clarify the influence of AC (up to 50 kHz) vs DC fields on the flash-onset temperature, emphasizing the role of the electrical conduction mechanism. BiFeO3 (BFO) is used as an example of electronic conductor while 8-mol % Yttria-stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) is used as an example of ionic conductor. For 8YSZ, a frequency dependence of the flash-onset temperature and flash-induced heating is observed. This is consistent with the different contributions found in the total electrical response of 8YSZ as characterized by impedance spectroscopy measurements. Estimations based on the blackbody radiation model suggest that 8YSZ samples attain higher temperatures under AC fields due to a more efficient heating. Moreover, a noticeable decrease in the activation energy for the electrical conduction after the flash is triggered is attributed to electronic conduction. Meanwhile, the lack of frequency response and insensitiveness to the type of electrical field found in the case of BFO can be attributed to its mainly electronic bulk conduction.

An Approximate Analytical Model of Surface Cracks in AC Field Measurement Technique

An appropriate modeling technique is critical for the quick analysis of alternating current (ac) field measurements destined for qualitative or quantitative studies of surface defects in conductive materials. Traditional modeling techniques often use the finite-difference method to solve the governing Laplace equation in the crack region, which gives a closed-form solution in the Fourier domain for regions outside the crack. However, these models are complex and only useful for cracks with extremely narrow openings. This article proposes an approximate analytical model that is based on current shunting of parallel circuits and the Biot–Savart law. We assume that the current induced by a high-frequency current-carrying coil is evenly distributed within a very thin layer at the surface of a conductor. In the presence of a defect, the current flows only along the edges and the bottom of the defect. Under these assumptions, the model simplifies the induced current by treating it as due to many current sources of equal amplitude. The magnetic field above the defect can be mathematically described by the linear superposition of these current sources. The proposed model can thus be used to analyze cracks with wider openings. We compare the magnetic-field signals of flat-bottomed cracks of various sizes as obtained by the proposed model and the finite-element method and also explore cracks with complex bottom profiles. The results show that the proposed model produces accurate quantitative and qualitative results for a wider range of defects.

Effect of thulium impurity on the dielectric properties of barium strontium niobate single crystals

This paper presents the results of a study of the dielectric response in single crystals of barium strontium niobate doped with thulium of various concentrations. It is shown that the dielectric permittivity increases with increasing concentration of thulium. For as-grown samples the dispersion of the permittivity is observed in the frequency region of 106 Hz. The dependence is not observed for the samples polarized under DC field. For all the samples studied, the switched polarization increases and the coercive field decreases under action of an AC field.

AC field modulated DC magnetic field sensor based on optical whispering gallery mode microcapillary resonator.

A sensitive DC magnetic field sensor is constructed by measuring the signal-to-noise ratio of an AC-modulated magnetic field at a particular frequency from an optical whispering gallery mode microcapillary resonator. The sensing element consists of an optical whispering gallery mode microcapillary resonator bonded to a magnetostrictive material that enables it to respond to external magnetic fields. A DC magnetic field sensitivity of 0.1703dB/Oe and a linear detection range from 4.8Oe to 65.7Oe are realized under an AC modulation field of 168.1kHz in the unshielded environment at room temperature. To our best knowledge, this sensitivity is about 2.3 times of the maximum sensitivity of other DC magnetic field sensors based on magnetic fluid or magnetostrictive material integrated fiber systems that use the dissipative sensing scheme. Furthermore, the sensor can operate at a stable temperature in the range of [-11∼45]°C, as long as the modulation frequency of the AC-modulation field is adjusted according to the ambient temperature. This sensor provides us with a novel DC magnetic field sensing scheme, which may play a role in industrial fields related to current and position detection in the future.

Sensing of Arbitrary-Frequency Fields Using a Quantum Mixer

Quantum sensors such as spin defects in diamond have achieved excellent performance by combining high sensitivity with spatial resolution. Unfortunately, these sensors can only detect signal fields with frequency in a few accessible ranges, typically low frequencies up to the experimentally achievable control field amplitudes and a narrow window around the sensors’ resonance frequency. Here, we develop and demonstrate a technique for sensing arbitrary-frequency signals by using the sensor qubit as a quantum frequency mixer, enabling a variety of sensing applications. The technique leverages nonlinear effects in periodically driven (Floquet) quantum systems to achieve quantum frequency mixing of the signal and an applied bias ac field. The frequency-mixed field can be detected using well-developed sensing techniques such as Rabi and CPMG with the only additional requirement of the bias field. We further show that the frequency mixing can distinguish vectorial components of an oscillating signal field, thus enabling arbitrary-frequency vector magnetometry. We experimentally demonstrate this protocol with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond to sense a 150-MHz signal field, proving the versatility of the quantum mixer sensing technique.2 MoreReceived 28 December 2021Revised 8 April 2022Accepted 5 May 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.12.021061Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasQuantum controlQuantum information architectures & platformsQuantum metrologyQuantum sensingPhysical SystemsFloquet systemsQuantum InformationAtomic, Molecular & OpticalGeneral Physics