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A spin valve is a prototype of spin-based electronic devices found on ferromagnets, in which an antiferromagnet plays a supporting role. Recent findings in antiferromagnetic spintronics show that an antiferromagnetic order in single-phase materials solely governs dynamic transport, and antiferromagnets are considered promising candidates for spintronic technology. In this work, we demonstrated antiferromagnet-based spintronic functionality on an itinerant Ising antiferromagnet of Ca0.9Sr0.1Co2As2 by integrating nanoscale spin-valve-type structure and investigating anisotropic magnetic properties driven by spin-flips. Multiple stacks of 1 nm thick spin-valve-like unit are intrinsically embedded in the antiferromagnetic spin structure. In the presence of a rotating magnetic field, a new type of the spin-valve-like operation was observed for large anomalous Hall conductivity and anisotropic magnetoresistance, whose effects are maximized above the spin-flip transition. In addition, a joint experimental and theoretical study provides an efficient tool to read out various spin states, which scheme can be useful for implementing extensive spintronic applications.

We have theoretically studied a graphene-based plasmonic waveguide, which can gate the transmission of a surface plasmon polariton (SPP) localized at the graphene-semiconductor interface. When a gate voltage is applied above a certain critical value, the charge density modulation in the quasi two-dimensional electron gas formed in the inversion layer can induce a local plasma resonance. Since the local plasma resonance is strongly coupled to the SPP, it can suppress the transmission of the SPP. By calculating the propagation length of the SPP with varying gate voltage, we have obtained the sharp switching line shape. We have demonstrated that the wavelength of the SPP can be reduced below ~1/100 of that of an incident light and the propagation length of the SPP can be significantly reduced by a factor of ~15 upon switching. This ensures that our plasmonic waveguide can operate effectively as a plasmonic switch for the SPP., 10 pages, 9 figures

We have studied a random walk model based on majority rule. At a given instant, the moving direction of a cargo is determined by motor coordination mediated by a tug-of-war mechanism between two kinds of competing motor proteins. We have demonstrated that the probability distribution $P(t)$ for unidirectional run time $t$ of a cargo can be remarkably described by Levy walk for $t\gamma_u^{-1}$. By considering the correlation effect in binding of a motor protein to microtubule, we have shown that Levy walk behavior of $P(t)\propto t^{-{3/2}}$ persists robustly against correlations only adding an effective cutoff time $\gamma_b/\gamma_c^2$ with $\gamma_c$ representing the amount of correlations.

We have studied a random walk model based on majority rule. At a given instant, the moving direction of a cargo is determined by motor coordination mediated by a tug-of-war mechanism between two kinds of competing motor proteins. We have demonstrated that the probability distribution $P(t)$ for unidirectional run time $t$ of a cargo can be remarkably described by Levy walk for $t��_u^{-1}$. By considering the correlation effect in binding of a motor protein to microtubule, we have shown that Levy walk behavior of $P(t)\propto t^{-{3/2}}$ persists robustly against correlations only adding an effective cutoff time $��_b/��_c^2$ with $��_c$ representing the amount of correlations.

Starting with a Chern-Simons theory, we derive an effective action for interacting quantum Hall skyrmions that takes into account both large-distance physics and short-distance details as well. We numerically calculate the classical static skyrmion profile from this action and find excellent agreement with other, microscopic calculations over a wide range of skyrmion sizes including the experimentally relevant one. This implies that the essential physics of this regime might be captured by a continuum classical model rather than resorting to more microscopic approaches. We also show that the skyrmion energy closely follows the formula suggested earlier by Sondhi et al. for a broad parameter range of interest as well., Comment: 13 pages (Revtex) + 3 ps-figures

We study numerically the motion of vortices in dirty type II superconductors. In two dimensions at strong driving currents, vortices form highly correlated ``static channels''. The static structure factor exhibits convincing scaling behaviour, demonstrating quasi long range translational order in the transverse direction. However order in the longitudinal direction is only short range. We clearly establish the existence of a finite transverse critical current, suggesting strong barriers against small transverse driving forces. These results are most consistently interpreted in terms of the recently proposed moving glass picture, modified to account for the strong anisotropy., submitted to Physical Review Letters