Control over the localised conductance recently observed at ferroelectric domain walls is key for their integration into potential nanoelectronics devices. Using a combination of piezoresponse force microscopy and local conductance mapping, we demonstrate switching between conducting and insulating behavior at 180° domain walls in epitaxial Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 thin films subjected to ultrahigh vacuum thermal annealing or exposed to ambient conditions, respectively. The reversibility of this behavior is demonstrated in repeated annealing-exposure cycles. To explain these observations, we propose a mechanism based on changes in electrostatic and chemical boundary conditions through oxygen vacancy redistribution and the removal of surface adsorbates.

We present measurements of time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in neutral B decays to several CP eigenstates. The measurement uses a data sample of 23x10(6) Upsilon(4S)-->BbarB decays collected by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we find events in which one neutral B meson is fully reconstructed in a CP eigenstate containing charmonium and the flavor of the other neutral B meson is determined from its decay products. The amplitude of the CP-violating asymmetry, which in the standard model is proportional to sin2beta, is derived from the decay time distributions in such events. The result is sin2beta = 0.34+/-0.20 (stat)+/-0.05 (syst).

BABAR, the detector for the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric e+e- B Factory operating at the γ(4S) resonance, was designed to allow comprehensive studies of CP-violation in B-meson decays. Charged particle tracks are measured in a multi-layer silicon vertex tracker surrounded by a cylindrical wire drift chamber. Electromagnetic showers from electrons and photons are detected in an array of CsI crystals located just inside the solenoidal coil of a superconducting magnet. Muons and neutral hadrons are identified by arrays of resistive plate chambers inserted into gaps in the steel flux return of the magnet. Charged hadrons are identified by dE/dx measurements in the tracking detectors and by a ring-imaging Cherenkov detector surrounding the drift chamber. The trigger, data acquisition and data-monitoring systems, VME- and network-based, are controlled by custom-designed online software. Details of the layout and performance of the detector components and their associated electronics and software are presented. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

The BaBar detector operated successfully at the PEP-II asymmetric e +e- collider at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory from 1999 to 2008. This report covers upgrades, operation, and performance of the collider and the detector systems, as well as the trigger, online and offline computing, and aspects of event reconstruction since the beginning of data taking. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.