Yunjun Zhou

Lightning activity on the central Tibetan Plateau and its response to convective available potential energy

Lightning flash activities on the central Tibetan Plateau have been studied by using the satellite-based Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) database from January 1998 to July 2002. The lightning activity shows a clear diurnal variation on the central Plateau. The peak lightning activity appears at about 17: 00 which is 3 h earlier than that in Jingzhou, Hubei in the same latitude belt nearby, indicating that the lightning activity is a sensitive indicator of solar heating on the Plateau. The lightning discharge is weaker on the Plateau than Jingzhou, Hubei and other low-altitude continental regions because of the lower convective available potential energy (CAPE) on the Plateau. The CAPE on the Plateau is 12 times lower than that in Jingzhou, Hubei, and 20 times lower than that in the sea-level region, such as Guangzhou and Florida. However, the sensitivity of lightning activity to CAPE changes on the Plateau is up to 30 times more sensitive than other prominent low-altitude regions.

A Review of Atmospheric Electricity Research in China

The importance of atmospheric electricity research has been increasingly recognized in recent decades. Research on atmospheric electricity has been actively conducted since the 1980s in China. Lightning physics and its effects, as important branches of atmospheric electricity, have received more attention because of their significance both in scientific research and lightning protection applications. This paper reviews atmospheric electricity research based primarily on ground-based field experiments at different regions in China in the last decade. The results described in this review include physics and effects of lightning, rocket-triggered lightning and its physical processes of discharge, thunderstorm electricity on the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding areas, lightning activity associated with severe convective storms, the effect and response of lightning to climate change, numerical simulation of thunderstorm electrification and lightning discharge, lightning detection and location techniques, and transient luminous events above thunderstorms.

Weak antilocalization and beating pattern in high electron mobility AlxGa1−xN/GaN two-dimensional electron gas with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling

The weak antilocalization (WAL) effects of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in high mobility AlxGa1−xN/GaN heterostructure as well as beating patterns in the Shubnikov–de Haas (SdH) oscillatory magnetoresistance have been investigated by means of magnetotransport measurements before and after illumination. The zero-field spin splitting mainly arising from the Rashba spin-orbit coupling effect is studied using the weak antilocalization and beating patterns analysis, respectively. The Rashba spin-orbit coupling constant α deduced using the weak antilocalization analysis showed a good agreement with that estimated from the analysis of the beating patterns for the sample before and after illumination. For our sample, the electron motion in the high mobility system is in the ballistic regime, the experimental WAL curves were fitted by a simulated quantum conductance correction according to a model proposed by [Golub [Phys. Rev. B 71, 235310 (2005)].

First principles calculation of the interface state in fcc-Fe/Cu(111)

The interfacial properties of fcc-Fe/Cu(lll) superlattices are investigated by the first principles all-electron Linearized augmented plane wave method in the local spin-density functional approximation. For the paramagnetic phase an interface state located at 2.61 eV below the Fermi level at the (K) over bar point of the two-dimensional Brillouin zone is obtained and it develops extending along the (K) over bar - direction. This is consistent with the experimental observation

Observation of ground potential rise caused by artificially-triggered lightning

Comparative analysis was made between the ground potential rise resulted from an artificially-triggered flash, the channel base current and close magnetic fields. The results indicated that the current peaks of the two strokes in artificially-triggered flash were 41.6 and 29.6 kA. The inferred currents, based on the close magnetic fields, were about 39.8 and 29.1 kA, in agreement with the measured ones. The ground potential rises caused by the two return strokes were about 302.8 and 141.3 kV, respectively. The downtime and half-peak width of the ground potential rise were much longer than that of the corresponding value of the channel base current. Moreover, characteristics of the ground potential rise were studied by using ATP simulation.

Experimental approaches to zero-field spin splitting in a gated high-mobility In0.53Ga0.47As/InP quantum well structure: Weak antilocalization and beating pattern

We report on the strong spin-orbit (SO) interaction in a gated high-mobility In0.53Ga0.47As/InP quantum well two-dimensional electron gas. We establish that the SO interaction is dominated by the Rashba mechanism. The Rashba coupling parameters determined from analysis of both weak antilocalization and the beating pattern in the Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations are in reasonable agreement, and the small difference between them was explained by a magnetic-field-dependent effective g factor. The zero-field spin splitting shows nonmonotonic behavior with a maximum as the electron density is varied with the applied gate voltage. This is related to strong Rashba SO coupling in our sample.