Thermoelectric imaging of structural disorder in epitaxial graphene.

Heat is a familiar form of energy transported from a hot side to a colder side of an object, but not a notion associated with microscopic measurements of electronic properties. A temperature difference within a material causes charge carriers, electrons or holes to diffuse along the temperature gradient inducing a thermoelectric voltage. Here we show that local thermoelectric measurements can yield high-sensitivity imaging of structural disorder on the atomic and nanometre scales. The thermopower measurement acts to amplify the variations in the local density of states at the Fermi level, giving high differential contrast in thermoelectric signals. Using this imaging technique, we uncovered point defects in the first layer of epitaxial graphene, which generate soliton-like domain-wall line patterns separating regions of the different interlayer stacking of the second graphene layer.

Finite-temperature hydrogen adsorption and desorption thermodynamics driven by soft vibration modes.

It has been widely accepted that enhanced dihydrogen adsorption is required for room-temperature hydrogen storage on nanostructured porous materials. Here we report, based on results of first-principles total energy and vibrational spectrum calculations, finite-temperature adsorption and desorption thermodynamics of hydrogen molecules that are adsorbed on the metal center of metal-porphyrin-incorporated graphene. We have revealed that the room-temperature hydrogen storage is achievable not only with the enhanced adsorption enthalpy, but also with soft-mode driven vibrational entropy of the adsorbed dihydrogen molecule. The soft vibration modes mostly result from multiple orbital coupling between the hydrogen molecule and the buckled metal center, for example, in Ca-porphyrin-incorporated graphene. Our study suggests that the current design strategy for room-temperature hydrogen storage materials should be modified with explicitly taking the finite-temperature vibration thermodynamics into account.

Spiral waves in a coupled network of sine-circle maps.

A coupled two-dimensional lattice of sine-circle maps is investigated numerically as a simple model for coupled network of nonlinear oscillators under a spatially uniform, temporally periodic, external forcing. Various patterns, including quasiperiodic spiral waves, periodic, banded spiral waves in several different polygonal shapes, and domain patterns, are observed. The banded spiral waves and domain patterns match well with the results of earlier experimental studies. Several transitions are analyzed. Among others, the source-sink transition of a quasiperiodic spiral wave and the cascade of "side-doubling" bifurcations of polygonal spiral waves are of great interest.

Nucleation, drift, and decay of phase bubbles in period-2 oscillatory wave trains in a reaction-diffusion system.

This is a report on experimental observations of phase bubbles, simply closed boundaries between domains oscillating 2pi out of phase, associated with period-2 oscillatory traveling waves in a Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction-diffusion system. The bubbles nucleate spontaneously through a fast localized phase slip, drift radially away from a neighboring spiral wave core in an oscillatory fashion, and gradually shrink to disappear. Their oscillatory drift along the radial direction is a consequence of "period adaptation," while their lateral shrinkage is an attribute of local curvature. Similar dynamic structures can be reproduced in a simple, three-species reaction-diffusion model that supports period-2 oscillatory wave trains.

Cardiac beat-to-beat alternations driven by unusual spiral waves.

Alternans, a beat-to-beat temporal alternation in the sequence of heartbeats, is a known precursor of the development of cardiac fibrillation, leading to sudden cardiac death. The equally important precursor of cardiac arrhythmias is the rotating spiral wave of electro-mechanical activity, or reentry, on the heart tissue. Here, we show that these two seemingly different phenomena can have a remarkable relationship. In well controlled in vitro tissue cultures, isotropic populations of rat ventricular myocytes sustaining a temporal rhythm of alternans can support period-2 oscillatory reentries and vice versa. These reentries bear "line defects" across which the phase of local excitation slips rather abruptly by 2pi, when a full period-2 cycle of alternans completes in 4pi. In other words, the cells belonging to the line defects are period-1 oscillatory, whereas all of the others in the bulk medium are period-2 oscillatory. We also find that a slowly rotating line defect results in a quasi-periodic like oscillation in the bulk medium. Some key features of these phenomena can be well reproduced in computer simulations of a nonlinear reaction-diffusion model.

Transverse instability of line defects of period-2 spiral waves.

Spiral waves that arise in period-2 oscillatory media extended in space generically bear "line defects" along which the local kinetics exhibits a period-1 oscillation. Locally, these defect structures can be viewed as a front separating two period-2 oscillatory domains oscillating 2pi out of phase. Here we show that their shape can become sinusoidal with a transverse instability as in bistable fronts. This instability eventually leads to a line-defect filled spatiotemporal chaotic state having erratic proliferations, annihilations, and regenerations of line defects. The same sequence of phenomena is observed in a model reaction-diffusion system as well as in an experimental system.