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We use extensive numerical simulations based on matrix product state methods to study the quantum dynamics of spin chains with strong on-site disorder and power-law decaying ($1/r^\alpha$) interactions. We focus on two spin-$1/2$ Hamiltonians featuring power-law interactions: Heisenberg and XY and characterize their corresponding long-time dynamics using three distinct diagnostics: decay of a staggered magnetization pattern $I(t)$, growth of entanglement entropy $S(t)$, and growth of quantum Fisher information $F_Q(t).$ For sufficiently rapidly decaying interactions $\alpha>\alpha_c$ we find a many-body localized phase, in which $I(t)$ saturates to a non-zero value, entanglement entropy grows as $S(t)\propto t^{1/\alpha}$, and Fisher information grows logarithmically. Importantly, entanglement entropy and Fisher information do not scale the same way (unlike short range interacting models). The critical power $\alpha_c$ is smaller for the XY model than for the Heisenberg model.

Endovascular sealing is a new technique for the repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms. Commercially available in Europe since~2013, it takes a revolutionary approach to aneurysm repair through minimally invasive techniques. Although aneurysm sealing may be thought as more stable than conventional endovascular stent graft repairs, post-implantation movement of the endoprosthesis has been described, potentially leading to late complications. The paper presents for the first time a model, which explains the nature of forces, in static and dynamic regimes, acting on sealed abdominal aortic aneurysms, with references to real case studies. It is shown that elastic deformation of the aorta and of the endoprosthesis induced by static forces and vibrations during daily activities can potentially promote undesired movements of the endovascular sealing structure.

Quantum statistics and symmetrization dictate that identical fermions do not interact via s-wave collisions. However, in the presence of spin-orbit coupling (SOC), fermions prepared in identical internal states with distinct momenta become distinguishable. The resulting strongly interacting system can exhibit exotic topological and pairing behaviors, many of which are yet to be observed in condensed matter systems. Ultracold atomic gases offer a promising pathway for simulating these rich phenomena. Two recent experiments reported the observation of single atom SOC in optical lattice clocks (OLCs) based on alkaline-earth atoms. In these works encoding the effective spin degree of freedom in the long-lived electronic clock states significantly reduced the detrimental effects of spontaneous emission and heating that have thus far hindered the study of interacting SOC with alkali atoms. Beyond first studies of interacting SOC with alkali atoms in a bulk gas and with two particles in a lattice, here we enter a new regime of many-body interacting SOC in an OLC. Using clock spectroscopy, we observe the precession of the collective magnetization and the emergence of spin locking effects arising from an interplay between p-wave and SOC-induced exchange interactions. The many-body dynamics are well captured by a collective XXZ spin model, which describes a broad class of condensed matter systems ranging from superconductors to quantum magnets. Furthermore, our work will aid in the design of next-generation OLCs by offering a route for avoiding the observed large density shifts caused by SOC-induced exchange interactions.

An accurate description of the nonequilibrium dynamics of systems with coupled spin and bosonic degrees of freedom remains theoretically challenging, especially for large system sizes and in higher than one dimension. Phase space methods such as the Truncated Wigner Approximation (TWA) have the advantage of being easily scalable and applicable to arbitrary dimensions. In this work we adapt the TWA to generic spin-boson models by making use of recently developed algorithms for discrete phase spaces [Schachenmayer, PRX 5, 011022 (2015)]. Furthermore we go beyond the standard TWA approximation by applying a scheme based on the Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon (BBGKY) hierarchy of equations [Pucci, PRB 93, 174302 (2016)] to our coupled spin-boson model. This allows in principle to study how systematically adding higher order corrections improves the convergence of the method. To test various levels of approximation we study an exactly solvable spin-boson model which is particularly relevant for trapped-ion arrays. Using TWA and its BBGKY extension we accurately reproduce the time evolution of a number of one- and two-point correlation functions in several dimensions and for arbitrary number of bosonic modes., Comment: 10+5 pages, 5 figures

The Discrete Truncated Wigner Approximation (DTWA) is a semi-classical phase space method useful for the exploration of Many-body quantum dynamics. In this work we investigate Many-Body Localization (MBL) and thermalization using DTWA and compare its performance to exact numerical solutions. By taking as a benchmark case a 1D random field Heisenberg spin chain with short range interactions, and by comparing to numerically exact techniques, we show that DTWA is able to reproduce dynamical signatures that characterize both the thermal and the MBL phases. It exhibits the best quantitative agreement at short times deep in each of the phases and larger mismatches close to the phase transition. The DTWA captures the logarithmic growth of entanglement in the MBL phase, even though a pure classical mean-field analysis would lead to no dynamics at all. Our results suggest the DTWA can become a useful method to investigate MBL and thermalization in experimentally relevant settings intractable with exact numerical techniques, such as systems with long range interactions and/or systems in higher dimensions.

Engineered spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in cold atom systems can aid in the study of novel synthetic materials and complex condensed matter phenomena. Despite great advances, alkali atom SOC systems are hindered by heating from spontaneous emission, which limits the observation of many-body effects, motivating research into potential alternatives. Here we demonstrate that SOC can be engineered to occur naturally in a one-dimensional fermionic 87Sr optical lattice clock (OLC). In contrast to previous SOC experiments, in this work the SOC is both generated and probed using a direct ultra-narrow optical clock transition between two electronic orbital states. We use clock spectroscopy to prepare lattice band populations, internal electronic states, and quasimomenta, as well as to produce SOC dynamics. The exceptionally long lifetime of the excited clock state (160 s) eliminates decoherence and atom loss from spontaneous emission at all relevant experimental timescales, allowing subsequent momentum- and spin-resolved in situ probing of the SOC band structure and eigenstates. We utilize these capabilities to study Bloch oscillations, spin-momentum locking, and Van Hove singularities in the transition density of states. Our results lay the groundwork for the use of OLCs to probe novel SOC phases of matter., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, and Methods section with 3 Extended Data figures. Reformatted from previous version, with reduced length and reduced number of citations to match journal format

The effects on the local structure due to self-irradiation damage of Ga stabilized $\delta$-Pu stored at cryogenic temperatures have been examined using extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) experiments. Extensive damage, seen as a loss of local order, was evident after 72 days of storage below 15 K. The effect was observed from both the Pu and Ga sites, although less pronounced around Ga. Isochronal annealing was performed on this sample to study the annealing processes that occur between cryogenic and room temperature storage conditions, where damage is mostly reversed. Damage fractions at various points along the annealing curve have been determined using an amplitude-ratio method, standard EXAFS fitting, and a spherical crystallite model, and provide information complementary to previous electrical resistivity- and susceptibility-based isochronal annealing studies. The use of a spherical crystallite model accounts for the changes in EXAFS spectra using just two parameters, namely, the crystalline fraction and the particle radius. Together, these results are discussed in terms of changes to the local structure around Ga and Pu throughout the annealing process and highlight the unusual role of Ga in the behavior of the lowest temperature anneals., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures

Theoretical models of spins coupled to bosons provide a simple setting for studying a broad range of important phenomena in many-body physics, from virtually mediated interactions to decoherence and thermalization. In many atomic, molecular, and optical systems, such models also underlie the most successful attempts to engineer strong, long-ranged interactions for the purpose of entanglement generation. Especially when the coupling between the spins and bosons is strong---such that it cannot be treated perturbatively---the properties of such models are extremely challenging to calculate theoretically. Here, exact analytical expressions for nonequilibrium spin-spin correlation functions are derived for a specific model of spins coupled to bosons. The spatial structure of the coupling between spins and bosons is completely arbitrary, and thus the solution can be applied to systems in any number of dimensions. The explicit and nonperturbative inclusion of the bosons enables the study of entanglement generation (in the form of spin squeezing) even when the bosons are driven strongly and near-resonantly, and thus provides a quantitative view of the breakdown of adiabatic elimination that inevitably occurs as one pushes towards the fastest entanglement generation possible. The solution also helps elucidate the effect of finite temperature on spin squeezing. The model considered is relevant to a variety of atomic, molecular, and optical systems, such as atoms in cavities or trapped ions. As an explicit example, the results are used to quantify phonon effects in trapped ion quantum simulators, which are expected to become increasingly important as these experiments push towards larger numbers of ions., Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures

To advance quantum information science a constant pursuit is the search for physical systems that meet the stringent requirements for creating and preserving quantum entanglement. In atomic physics, robust two-qubit entanglement is typically achieved by strong, long-range interactions in the form of Coulomb interactions between ions or dipolar interactions between Rydberg atoms. While these interactions allow fast gates, atoms subject to these interactions must overcome the associated coupling to the environment and cross-talk among qubits. Local interactions, such as those requiring significant wavefunction overlap, can alleviate these detrimental effects yet present a new challenge: To distribute entanglement, qubits must be transported, merged for interaction, and then isolated for storage and subsequent operations. Here we show how, via a mobile optical tweezer, it is possible to prepare and locally entangle two ultracold neutral atoms, and then separate them while preserving their entanglement. While ground-state neutral atom experiments have measured dynamics consistent with spin entanglement, and detected entanglement with macroscopic observables, we are now able to demonstrate position-resolved two-particle coherence via application of a local gradient and parity measurements; this new entanglement-verification protocol could be applied to arbitrary spin-entangled states of spatially-separated atoms. The local entangling operation is achieved via ultracold spin-exchange interactions, and quantum tunneling is used to combine and separate atoms. Our toolset provides a framework for dynamically entangling remote qubits via local operations within a large-scale quantum register.

The preparation of a quantum degenerate gas of heteronuclear molecules has been an outstanding challenge. We use path integral Quantum Monte Carlo simulations to understand the role of interactions and finite temperature effects in the protocol currently employed to adiabatically prepare a low-entropy gas of polar molecules in a lattice starting from an ultracold Bose-Fermi mixture. We find that interspecies interactions affect the final temperature of the mixture after the adiabatic loading procedure and detrimentally limit the molecular peak filling. Our conclusions are in agreement with recent experimental measurements [1] and therefore are of immediate relevance for the myriad experiments that aim to form molecules from dual-species atomic gases., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We demonstrate that ultracold symmetric top molecules loaded into an optical lattice can realize highly tunable and unconventional models of quantum magnetism, such as an XYZ Heisenberg spin model. We show that anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions between molecules can lead to effective spin-spin interactions which exchange spin and orbital angular momentum. This exchange produces effective spin models which do not conserve magnetization and feature tunable degrees of spatial and spin-coupling anisotropy. In addition to deriving pure spin models when molecules are pinned in a deep optical lattice, we show that models of itinerant magnetism are possible when molecules can tunnel through the lattice. Additionally, we demonstrate rich tunability of the effective models' parameters using only a single microwave frequency, in contrast to proposals with $^1\Sigma$ diatomic molecules, which often require many microwave frequencies. Our results are germane not only for experiments with polyatomic symmetric top molecules, such as methyl fluoride (CH$_3$F), but also diatomic molecules with an effective symmetric top structure, such as the hydroxyl radical OH., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures

This article gives an introduction to the realization of effective quantum magnetism with ultracold molecules in an optical lattice, reviews experimental and theoretical progress, and highlights future opportunities opened up by ongoing experiments. Ultracold molecules offer capabilities that are otherwise difficult or impossible to achieve in other effective spin systems, such as long-ranged spin-spin interactions with controllable degrees of spatial and spin anisotropy and favorable energy scales. Realizing quantum magnetism with ultracold molecules provides access to rich many-body behaviors, including many exotic phases of matter and interesting excitations and dynamics. Far-from-equilibrium dynamics plays a key role in our exposition, just as it did in recent ultracold molecule experiments realizing effective quantum magnetism. In particular, we show that dynamical probes allow the observation of correlated many-body spin physics, even in polar molecule gases that are not quantum degenerate. After describing how quantum magnetism arises in ultracold molecules and discussing recent observations of quantum magnetism with polar molecules, we survey prospects for the future, ranging from immediate goals to long-term visions., Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. Review article

We demonstrate that ultracold polyatomic symmetric top molecules, such as methyl fluoride, loaded into an optical lattice and subject to DC electric and microwave field dressing, can display topological order via a self-consistent analog of a proximity effect in the internal state space of the molecule. The non-trivial topology arises from pairwise transitions between internal states induced by dipole-dipole interactions and made resonant by the field dressing. Topological order is explicitly demonstrated by matrix product state simulations on 1D chains. Additionally, we show that in the limit of pinned molecules our description maps onto a long-range and anisotropic XYZ spin model, where Majorana fermions are zero-energy edge excitations in the case of nearest-neighbor couplings., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures

The quantum statistics of atoms is typically observed in the behavior of an ensemble via macroscopic observables. However, quantum statistics modifies the behavior of even two particles, inducing remarkable consequences that are at the heart of quantum science. Here we demonstrate near-complete control over all the internal and external degrees of freedom of two laser-cooled 87Rb atoms trapped in two optical tweezers. This full controllability allows us to implement a massive-particle analog of a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer where atom tunneling plays the role of a photon beamsplitter. We use the interferometer to probe the effect of quantum statistics on the two-atom dynamics under tunable initial conditions, chosen to adjust the degree of atomic indistinguishability. Our work thereby establishes laser-cooled atoms in optical tweezers as a new route to bottom-up engineering of scalable, low-entropy quantum systems., Comment: Updated text and figures

We study the effective dipole-dipole interactions in ultracold quantum gases on optical lattices as a function of asymmetry in confinement along the principal axes of the lattice. In particular, we study the matrix elements of the dipole-dipole interaction in the basis of lowest band Wannier functions which serve as a set of low-energy states for many-body physics on the lattice. We demonstrate that the effective interaction between dipoles in an optical lattice is non-algebraic in the inter-particle separation at short to medium distance on the lattice scale and has a long-range power-law tail, in contrast to the pure power-law behavior of the dipole-dipole interaction in free space. The modifications to the free-space interaction can be sizable; we identify differences of up to 36% from the free-space interaction at the nearest-neighbor distance in quasi-1D arrangements. The interaction difference depends essentially on asymmetry in confinement, due to the d-wave anisotropy of the dipole-dipole interaction. Our results do not depend on statistics, applying to both dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases. Using matrix product state simulations, we demonstrate that use of the correct lattice dipolar interaction leads to significant deviations from many-body predictions using the free-space interaction. Our results are relevant to up and coming experiments with ultracold heteronuclear molecules, Rydberg atoms, and strongly magnetic atoms in optical lattices., Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures

The molecular Hubbard Hamiltonian (MHH) naturally arises for ultracold ground state polar alkali dimer molecules in optical lattices. We show that, unlike ultracold atoms, different molecules display different many-body phases due to intrinsic variances in molecular structure even when the molecular symmetry is the same. We also demonstrate a wide variety of experimental controls on $^1\Sigma$ molecules via external fields, including applied static electric and magnetic fields, an AC microwave field, and the polarization and strength of optical lattice beams. We provide explicit numerical calculations of the parameters of the MHH, including tunneling and direct and exchange dipole-dipole interaction energies, for the molecules {$^{6}$Li$^{133}$Cs}, $^{23}$Na$^{40}$K, $^{87}$Rb$^{133}$Cs, $^{40}$K$^{87}$Rb, and {$^{6}$Li$^{23}$Na} in weak and strong applied electric fields. As case studies of many-body physics, we use infinite-size matrix product state methods to explore the quantum phase transitions from the superfluid phase to half-filled and third-filled crystalline phases in one dimension., Comment: 7 pages

We analyze a system of two-component fermions which interact via a Feshbach resonance in the presence of a three-dimensional lattice potential. By expressing a two-channel model of the resonance in the basis of Bloch states appropriate for the lattice, we derive an eigenvalue equation for the two-particle bound states which is nonlinear in the energy eigenvalue. Compact expressions for the interchannel matrix elements, numerical methods for the solution of the nonlinear eigenvalue problem, and a renormalization procedure to remove ultraviolet divergences are presented. From the structure of the two-body solutions we identify the relevant degrees of freedom which describe the resonance behavior in the lowest Bloch band. These degrees of freedom, which we call dressed molecules, form an effective closed channel in a many-body model of the resonance, the Fermi resonance Hamiltonian (FRH). It is shown how the properties of the FRH can be determined numerically by solving a projected lattice two-channel model at the two-particle level. As opposed to single-channel lattice models such as the Hubbard model, the FRH is valid for general s-wave scattering length and resonance width. Hence, the FRH provides an accurate description of the BEC-BCS crossover for ultracold fermions on an optical lattice., Comment: Published version

Uranium and plutonium's 5f electrons are tenuously poised between strongly bonding with ligand spd-states and residing close to the nucleus. The unusual properties of these elements and their compounds (eg. the six different allotropes of elemental plutonium) are widely believed to depend on the related attributes of f-orbital occupancy and delocalization, for which a quantitative measure is lacking. By employing resonant x-ray emission spectroscopy (RXES) and x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy and making comparisons to specific heat measurements, we demonstrate the presence of multiconfigurational f-orbital states in the actinide elements U and Pu, and in a wide range of uranium and plutonium intermetallic compounds. These results provide a robust experimental basis for a new framework for understanding the strongly-correlated behavior of actinide materials., Comment: 30 pages, concatenated article and supporting information, 10 figures

Theoretical understanding of strongly correlated systems in one spatial dimension (1D) has been greatly advanced by the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm, which is a variational approach using a class of entanglement-restricted states called Matrix Product States (MPSs). However, DRMG suffers from inherent accuracy restrictions when multiple states are involved due to multi-state targeting and also the approximate representation of the Hamiltonian and other operators. By formulating the variational approach of DMRG explicitly for MPSs one can avoid errors inherent in the multi-state targeting approach. Furthermore, by using the Matrix Product Operator (MPO) formalism, one can exactly represent the Hamiltonian and other operators. The MPO approach allows 1D Hamiltonians to be templated using a small set of finite state automaton rules without reference to the particular microscopic degrees of freedom. We present two algorithms which take advantage of these properties: eMPS to find excited states of 1D Hamiltonians and tMPS for the time evolution of a generic time-dependent 1D Hamiltonian. We properly account for time-ordering of the propagator such that the error does not depend on the rate of change of the Hamiltonian. Our algorithms use only the MPO form of the Hamiltonian, and so are applicable to microscopic degrees of freedom of any variety, and do not require Hamiltonian-specialized implementation. We benchmark our algorithms with a case study of the Ising model, where the critical point is located using entanglement measures. We then study the dynamics of this model under a time-dependent quench of the transverse field through the critical point. Finally, we present studies of a dipolar, or long-range Ising model, again using entanglement measures to find the critical point and study the dynamics of a time-dependent quench through the critical point., Comment: 35 pages, 10 figures, submitted to NJP for the focus issue "Out of equilibrium dynamics in strongly interacting 1D systems"

We numerically study the problem of two fermions in a three dimensional optical lattice interacting via a zero-range Feshbach resonance, and display the dispersions of the bound states as a two-particle band structure with unique features compared to typical single-particle band structures. We show that the exact two-particle solutions of a projected Hamiltonian may be used to define an effective two-channel, few-band model for the low energy, low density physics of many fermions at arbitrary s-wave scattering length. Our method applies to resonances of any width, and can be adapted to multichannel situations or higher-$\ell$ pairing. In strong contrast to usual Hubbard physics, we find that pair hopping is significantly altered by strong interactions and the presence of the lattice, and the lattice induces multiple molecular bound states., Comment: 4 pages+3 pages of supplemental material, 5 figures

We present release 2.0 of the ALPS (Algorithms and Libraries for Physics Simulations) project, an open source software project to develop libraries and application programs for the simulation of strongly correlated quantum lattice models such as quantum magnets, lattice bosons, and strongly correlated fermion systems. The code development is centered on common XML and HDF5 data formats, libraries to simplify and speed up code development, common evaluation and plotting tools, and simulation programs. The programs enable non-experts to start carrying out serial or parallel numerical simulations by providing basic implementations of the important algorithms for quantum lattice models: classical and quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) using non-local updates, extended ensemble simulations, exact and full diagonalization (ED), the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) both in a static version and a dynamic time-evolving block decimation (TEBD) code, and quantum Monte Carlo solvers for dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). The ALPS libraries provide a powerful framework for programers to develop their own applications, which, for instance, greatly simplify the steps of porting a serial code onto a parallel, distributed memory machine. Major changes in release 2.0 include the use of HDF5 for binary data, evaluation tools in Python, support for the Windows operating system, the use of CMake as build system and binary installation packages for Mac OS X and Windows, and integration with the VisTrails workflow provenance tool. The software is available from our web server at http://alps.comp-phys.org/., Comment: 18 pages + 4 appendices, 7 figures, 12 code examples, 2 tables

An ultracold gas of heteronuclear alkali dimer molecules with hyperfine structure loaded into a one-dimensional optical lattice is investigated. The \emph{Hyperfine Molecular Hubbard Hamiltonian} (HMHH), an effective low-energy lattice Hamiltonian, is derived from first principles. The large permanent electric dipole moment of these molecules gives rise to long range dipole-dipole forces in a DC electric field and allows for transitions between rotational states in an AC microwave field. Additionally, a strong magnetic field can be used to control the hyperfine degrees of freedom independently of the rotational degrees of freedom. By tuning the angle between the DC electric and magnetic fields and the strength of the AC field it is possible to control the number of internal states involved in the dynamics as well as the degree of correlation between the spatial and internal degrees of freedom. The HMHH's unique features have direct experimental consequences such as quantum dephasing, tunable complexity, and the dependence of the phase diagram on the molecular state.

We present a wide array of quantum measures on numerical solutions of 1D Bose- and Fermi-Hubbard Hamiltonians for finite-size systems with open boundary conditions. Finite size effects are highly relevant to ultracold quantum gases in optical lattices, where an external trap creates smaller effective regions in the form of the celebrated "wedding cake" structure and the local density approximation is often not applicable. Specifically, for the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian we calculate number, quantum depletion, local von-Neumann entropy, generalized entanglement or Q-measure, fidelity, and fidelity susceptibility; for the Fermi-Hubbard Hamiltonian we also calculate the pairing correlations, magnetization, charge-density correlations, and antiferromagnetic structure factor. Our numerical method is imaginary time propagation via time-evolving block decimation. As part of our study we provide a careful comparison of canonical vs. grand canonical ensembles and Gutzwiller vs. entangled simulations. The most striking effect of finite size occurs for bosons: we observe a strong blurring of the tips of the Mott lobes accompanied by higher depletion, and show how the location of the first Mott lobe tip approaches the thermodynamic value as a function of system size., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures

We derive a novel lattice Hamiltonian, the \emph{Molecular Hubbard Hamiltonian} (MHH), which describes the essential many body physics of closed-shell ultracold heteronuclear molecules in their absolute ground state in a quasi-one-dimensional optical lattice. The MHH is explicitly time-dependent, making a dynamic generalization of the concept of quantum phase transitions necessary. Using the Time-Evolving Block Decimation (TEBD) algorithm to study entangled dynamics, we demonstrate that, in the case of hard core bosonic molecules at half filling, the MHH exhibits an emergent time scale over which spatial entanglement grows, crystalline order appears, and oscillations between rotational states self-damp into an asymptotic superposition. We show that this time scale is a non-monotonic function of the physical parameters describing the lattice. We also point out that experimental mapping of the static phase boundaries of the MHH can be used to measure the molecular polarizability tensor., Comment: 31 pages, 13 figures

Using 4-circle x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy we have studied the microstructure and in-plane orientation of the phases present in thin film composite mixtures of YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7) and Y(2)O(3). We see a high degree of in-plane orientation and have verified a previous prediction for the in-plane order of Y(2)BaCuO(5) on (110) MgO. Transmission electron microscopy shows the composite films to be a mixture of two phases, with YBCO grain sizes of 1 micron. We have also compared our observations of the in-plane order to the predictions of a modified near coincidence site lattice model., Comment: To be published in Journal of Materials Research, (4 pages, 4 jpeg figures)

Films of Bi$\rm _2$Sr$\rm _2$CaCu$\rm _2$O$\rm _8$ and Bi$\rm _2$Sr$\rm _2$CuO$\rm _6$ have been grown using Atomic-Layer-by-Layer Molecular Beam Epitaxy (ALL-MBE) on lattice-matched substrates. These materials have been combined with layers of closely-related metastable compounds like Bi$\rm _2$Sr$\rm _2$Ca$\rm _7$Cu$\rm _8$O$\rm _{20}$ (2278) and rare-earth-doped compounds like Bi$\rm _2$Sr$\rm _2$Dy$\rm _x$Ca$\rm _{1-x}$Cu$\rm _2$O$\rm _8$ (Dy:2212) to form heterostructures with unique superconducting properties, including superconductor/insulator multilayers and tunnel junctions. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been used to study the morphology and microstructure of these heterostructures. These TEM studies shed light on the physical properties of the films, and give insight into the growth mode of highly anisotropic solids like Bi$\rm _2$Sr$\rm _2$CaCu$\rm _2$O$\rm _8$., Comment: 17 pages, submitted to J. Materials Research. Email to chaiken@llnl.gov if you want to receive copies of the figures

Ion-beam sputtering has been used to prepare Fe/Si multilayers on a variety of substrates and over a wide range of temperatures. Small-angle x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy experiments show that the layers are heavily intermixed although a composition gradient is maintained. When the spacer layer is an amorphous iron silicide, the magnetic properties of the multilayers are similar to those of bulk Fe. When the spacer layer is a crystalline silicide with the B2 or DO$_3$ structure, the multilayers show antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling like that observed in ferromagnet/paramagnet multilayers such as Fe/Cr and Co/Cu. Depending on the substrate type and the growth temperature, the multilayers grow in either the (011) or (001) texture. The occurrence of the antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling is dependent on the crystallinity of the iron and iron silicide layers, but does not seem to be strongly affected by the perfection of the layering or the orientation of the film. Since the B2- and DO$_3$-structure Fe$\rm _x$Si$\rm _{1-x}$ compounds are known to be metallic, antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling in Fe/Si multilayers probably originates from the same quantum-well and Fermi surface effects as in Fe/Cr and Co/Cu multilayers., Comment: 29 pages, RevTex, 15 figures available by fax. Send email to chaiken@llnl.gov for more info