Targeted chemical pressure yields tuneable millimetre-wave dielectric.

Epitaxial strain can unlock enhanced properties in oxide materials, but restricts substrate choice and maximum film thickness, above which lattice relaxation and property degradation occur. Here we employ a chemical alternative to epitaxial strain by providing targeted chemical pressure, distinct from random doping, to induce a ferroelectric instability with the strategic introduction of barium into today's best millimetre-wave tuneable dielectric, the epitaxially strained 50-nm-thick n = 6 (SrTiO3)nSrO Ruddlesden-Popper dielectric grown on (110) DyScO3. The defect mitigating nature of (SrTiO3)nSrO results in unprecedented low loss at frequencies up to 125 GHz. No barium-containing Ruddlesden-Popper titanates are known, but the resulting atomically engineered superlattice material, (SrTiO3)n-m(BaTiO3)mSrO, enables low-loss, tuneable dielectric properties to be achieved with lower epitaxial strain and a 200% improvement in the figure of merit at commercially relevant millimetre-wave frequencies. As tuneable dielectrics are key constituents of emerging millimetre-wave high-frequency devices in telecommunications, our findings could lead to higher performance adaptive and reconfigurable electronics at these frequencies.

Measurements of Nonlinear Polarization Dynamics in the Tens of Gigahertz.

Frequency-dependent linear-permittivity measurements are commonplace in the literature, providing key insights into the structure of dielectric materials. These measurements describe a material's dynamic response to a small applied electric field. However, nonlinear dielectric materials are widely used for their responses to large applied fields, including switching in ferroelectric materials, and field tuning of the permittivity in paraelectric materials. These behaviors are described by nonlinear permittivity. Nonlinear-permittivity measurements are fraught with technical challenges because of the complex electrical coupling between a sample and its environment. Here, we describe a technique for measuring the complex nonlinear permittivity that circumvents many of the difficulties associated with other approaches. We validate this technique by measuring the nonlinear permittivity of a tunable Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin film up to 40 GHz and comparing our results with a phenomenological model. These measurements provide insight into the dynamics of nonlinear dielectric materials down to picosecond timescales.

Complete characterization of the stability of cluster synchronization in complex dynamical networks.

Synchronization is an important and prevalent phenomenon in natural and engineered systems. In many dynamical networks, the coupling is balanced or adjusted to admit global synchronization, a condition called Laplacian coupling. Many networks exhibit incomplete synchronization, where two or more clusters of synchronization persist, and computational group theory has recently proved to be valuable in discovering these cluster states based on the topology of the network. In the important case of Laplacian coupling, additional synchronization patterns can exist that would not be predicted from the group theory analysis alone. Understanding how and when clusters form, merge, and persist is essential for understanding collective dynamics, synchronization, and failure mechanisms of complex networks such as electric power grids, distributed control networks, and autonomous swarming vehicles. We describe a method to find and analyze all of the possible cluster synchronization patterns in a Laplacian-coupled network, by applying methods of computational group theory to dynamically equivalent networks. We present a general technique to evaluate the stability of each of the dynamically valid cluster synchronization patterns. Our results are validated in an optoelectronic experiment on a five-node network that confirms the synchronization patterns predicted by the theory.

Cluster synchronization and isolated desynchronization in complex networks with symmetries.

Synchronization is of central importance in power distribution, telecommunication, neuronal and biological networks. Many networks are observed to produce patterns of synchronized clusters, but it has been difficult to predict these clusters or understand the conditions under which they form. Here we present a new framework and develop techniques for the analysis of network dynamics that shows the connection between network symmetries and cluster formation. The connection between symmetries and cluster synchronization is experimentally confirmed in the context of real networks with heterogeneities and noise using an electro-optic network. We experimentally observe and theoretically predict a surprising phenomenon in which some clusters lose synchrony without disturbing the others. Our analysis shows that such behaviour will occur in a wide variety of networks and node dynamics. The results could guide the design of new power grid systems or lead to new understanding of the dynamical behaviour of networks ranging from neural to social.

Excitation of chaotic spin waves in magnetic film feedback rings through three-wave nonlinear interactions.

This Letter reports experimental results on the three-wave interactions of backward volume spin waves in a magnetic film and the excitation of chaotic waves through such interactions in a magnetic film-based active feedback ring. The three-wave interactions manifest themselves in the power saturation responses of spin waves, and the chaotic excitation manifests itself in chaotic waveforms and broad spectra. The fractal dimensions of the chaotic signals are finite and can be controlled by changing the ring gain.

Excitation of chaotic spin waves through modulational instability.

This Letter reports the first experimental demonstration of chaotic excitations through modulational instability for waves with a repulsive nonlinearity. The experiments were carried out for surface spin waves in a magnetic thin film strip in an active feedback ring configuration. At a low ring gain level, one observes the self-generation of one eigenmode. With an increase in the ring gain, one observes the production of additional modes and the onset and enrichment of chaotic behaviors.