We employ the concepts of band theory to describe the behavior of electromagnetic waves in three-dimensionally periodic face-centered-cubic (fcc) dielectric structures. This can produce a "photonic band gap" in which optical modes, spontaneous emission, and zero point fluctuations are all absent. In the course of a broad experimental survey, we have found that most fcc dielectric structures hav...

Li oxide garnets are among the most promising candidates for solid-state electrolytes in novel Li ion and Li metal based battery concepts. Cubic Li7La3Zr2O12 stabilized by a partial substitution of Zr4+ by Bi5+ has not been the focus of research yet, despite the fact that Bi5+ would be a cost-effective alternative to other stabilizing cations such as Nb5+ and Ta5+. In this study, Li7-xLa3Zr2-xB...

We report on a ternary isothermal system consisting of a poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(propylene oxide) (PEO/PPO) amphiphilic block copolymer, “water”, and “oil” (where “water” and “oil” are selective solvents for the different blocks), which exhibits the richest structural polymorphism ever observed (in equilibrium) inmixtures containing amphiphiles (such as block copolymers, surfactants, or lipid...

Controlled actuation of electroactive polymers with embedded high dielectric nanoparticles is theoretically analyzed. If the inclusions are placed randomly in the elastomer body, the composite always contracts along the direction of the applied field. For a simple cubic distribution of inclusions, contraction occurs if the applied field is directed along the [001] direction of the lattice. For ...

Controlled actuation of electroactive polymers with embedded high dielectric nanoparticles is theoretically analyzed. If the inclusions are placed randomly in the elastomer body, the composite always contracts along the direction of the applied field. For a simple cubic distribution of inclusions, contraction occurs if the applied field is directed along the [001] direction of the lattice. For ...

We present an ab initio full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave (FLAPW) study of the structural and electronic properties of the two bulk unstable compounds FeSi (CsCl structure) and FeSi2 (CaF2 structure) which have recently been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Si(111). We obtain equilibrium bulk lattice constants of 2.72 Å and 5.32 Å for FeSi and FeSi2, respectively. The density of ...

The epitaxial growth of zinc-blende (cubic) GaN and InGaN on GaAs with a common cleavage plane and readily high-quality, low-cost wafers may be considered as an alternative approach for the future realization of cleaved laser cavities. To obtain detailed information about the potential of cubic GaN and InGaN for device applications we performed optical gain spectroscopy accompanied by time-inte...

Although silicon clusters (Sin) exhibit a diversity of 3-dimensional shapes, a cubic form has not been found to be stable in their small size of 8 Si atoms. While the cubane C8H8 is wellknown for chemists, the octasilacubane Si8H8 possessing a cubic structure has never been synthesized. Using quantum chemical computations we find that doping can lead to stable cubic silicon clusters such as Be@...

Minimal Lagrangian submanifolds of a Kähler manifold represent a very interesting class of submanifolds as they are Lagrangian with respect to the symplectic structure of the ambient space, while minimal with respect to the Riemannian structure. In this paper we study minimal Lagrangian immersions of the universal cover of closed surfaces (of genus g ≥ 2) in CH, with prescribed data (σ, tq), wh...