Abstract: The dissociation of 60degrees and screw dislocations in diamond is modeled in an approach combining isotropic elasticity theory with ab initio-based tight-binding total-energy calculations. Both dislocations are found to dissociate with a substantial lowering of their line energies. For the 60degrees dislocation, however, an energy barrier to dissociation is found. We investigate the core structure of a screw dislocation distinguishing “shuffle,” “mixed,” and “glide” cores. The latter is found to be the most stable undissociated screw dislocation. Further, the glide motion of 90degrees and 30degrees partials is discussed in terms of a process involving the thermal formation and subsequent migration of kinks along the dislocation line. The calculated activation barriers to dislocation motion show that the 30degrees partial is less mobile than the 90degrees partial. Finally, high-resolution electron microscopy is performed on high-temperature, high-pressure annealed natural brown diamond, allowing the core regions of 60degrees dislocations to be imaged. The majority of dislocations are found to be dissociated. However, in some cases, undissociated 60degrees dislocations were also observed.

Abstract: The structural phase transitions with electric-quadrupole long-range order in NpO2 (Fm (3) over barm-->Pn (3) over barm) and UO2 (Fm (3) over barm-->Pa (3) over bar) are analyzed from a group theoretical point of view. In both cases, the symmetry lowering involves three quadrupolar components belonging to the irreducible representation T-2g (Gamma(5)) of O-h and condensing in a triple-q structure at the X point of the Brillouin zone. The Pa (3) over bar structure is close to Pn (3) over barm, but allows for oxygen displacements. The Pa (3) over bar ordering leads to an effective electrostatic attraction between electronic quadrupoles while the Pn (3) over barm ordering results in a repulsion between them. It is concluded that the Pn (3) over barm structure can be stabilized only through some additional process such as strengthening of the chemical bonding between Np and O. We also derive the relevant structure-factor amplitudes for Pn (3) over barm and Pa (3) over bar, and the effect of domains on resonant x-ray scattering experiments.

Abstract: The magnetic coupling between two concentric mesoscopic superconductors with nonzero thickness is studied using the nonlinear Ginzburg-Landau theory. We calculated the free energy, the expelled field, the total field profile, the Cooper-pair density, and the current density distribution. By putting a smaller superconducting disk or ring in the center of a larger ring, the properties change drastically. Extra ground-state transitions are found, where the total vorticity stays the same, but the vorticity of the inner superconductor changes by 1. Due to the magnetic coupling, the current in the external ring exhibits extra jumps at the transition fields where the vorticity of the inner superconductor changes. In this case, for certain temperatures, re-entrant behavior and switching on and off of the superconducting behavior of the rings are found as a function of the magnetic field. A H-T phase diagram is obtained for the situation where the inner ring has a higher critical temperature than the outer ring. An analytic expression for the magnetic coupling is obtained for thin rings and extreme type-II superconductors.