The formation process of Al magic clusters on the Si(111)-7 x 7 surface was investigated by means of a variable-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) in situ and was interpreted using density-functional theory (DFT) calculations. At a growth temperature of 450 degrees C, Al atoms hopped among the corner, center, and T4 sites and also across the dimer rows on the Si(111)-7 x 7 surface. At low coverage below 0.08 ML, a single Al atom was adsorbed on the corner or center site. When the coverage was increased to 0.08 ML, Al dimers and trimers appeared, and Al magic clusters were also observed. However, no Al tetramers or pentamers were experimentally confirmed. Careful analysis of STM images suggests that Al trimers could be key precursors for the formation of Al magic clusters, and DFT calculations verified this interpretation. Total-energy calculation results using DFT reveal that this is due to the small energy gain from Al trimer to Al tetramer. These results are important for understanding the atomic structure and the formation mechanism of the magic clusters on the Si(111)-7 x 7 surface.

Adsorption of C-60 onto Si(111)root 3 x root 3-In surface presents a fascinating example of interplay between molecular adsorbate and surface structural defects. It has been found that adsorbing C-60 molecules are trapped by the substitutional Si-defects. In turn, the group of a few adsorbed C-60 can act as a trap for the mobile vacancies of the root 3 x root 3-In reconstruction. Namely, adsorbed C-60 induces a strain in the indium layer, and when a mobile vacancy happens to get into the surface area surrounded by fullerenes, the In atoms between the C-60 and the vacancy shift from the T-4 to the H-3 sites, fixing a vacancy in a given location. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We use a double-passed acousto-optic modulator (AOM), driven by an arbitrary waveform generator to produce multiple frequency components for a laser with arbitrary frequency spacings. A programmed sequence containing various sections of radio-frequency sinusoidal signal at different frequency is applied to drive the AOM. The diffracted light is used to injection-lock a diode laser. The combined techniques allow us to generate the multi-line spectra for the diode laser with arbitrary frequency spacings in the range of 100 MHz at a relatively high output power of 80 mW and a small power variation of 2%. Such a light source can be used in the application for laser cooling of molecules. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3626903]

A twisted graphene bilayer consists of two graphene monolayers rotated by an angle. with respect to each other. Theory predicts that charge-neutral twisted graphene bilayers display a drastic reduction of their Fermi velocity v(F) for 0 less than or similar to 0 less than or similar to 20 degrees and 40 less than or similar to 0 less than or similar to 60 degrees. In this paper we present evidence for an additional anisotropic reduction of v(F) in the presence of external electrostatic fields. We also discuss in quantitative detail velocity renormalization for other relevant bands in the vicinity of the K point. Except for a rigid energy shift, electrostatic fields and doping by metal atoms give rise to similar renormalization of the band structure of twisted graphene bilayers.

Depositing particles randomly on a 1D lattice is expected to result in an equal number of particle pairs separated by even or odd lattice units. Unexpectedly, the even-odd symmetry is broken in the self-selection of distances between indium magic-number clusters on a Si(100)-2 x 1 reconstructed surface. Cluster pairs separated by even units are less abundant because they are linked by silicon atomic chains carrying topological solitons, which induce local strain and create localized electronic states with higher energy. Our findings reveal a unique particle-particle interaction mediated by the presence or absence of topological solitons on alternate lattices.

We report the experimental demonstration of electromagnetically-induced-transparency-based cross-phase-modulation at attojoule or, equivalently, few-hundred-photon levels. A phase shift of 0.005 rad of a probe pulse modulated by a signal pulse with an energy of similar to 100 aJ, equivalent to similar to 400 photons, was observed in a four-level system of cold (87)Rb atoms.