Inversion of exciton level splitting in quantum dots

The demonstration of degeneracy of exciton spin states is an important step toward the production of entangled photon pairs from the biexciton cascade. We measure the fine structure of exciton and biexciton states for a large number of single InAs quantum dots in a GaAs matrix; the energetic splitting of the horizontally and vertically polarized components of the exciton doublet is shown to decrease as the exciton confinement decreases, crucially passing through zero and changing sign. Thermal annealing is shown to reduce the exciton confinement, thereby increasing the number of dots with splitting close to zero

Full coherent control of nuclear spins in an optically pumped single quantum dot

Highly polarized nuclear spins within a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) induce effective magnetic (Overhauser) fields of up to several Tesla acting on the electron spin or up to a few hundred mT for the hole spin. Recently this has been recognized as a resource for intrinsic control of QD-based spin quantum bits. However, only static long-lived Overhauser fields could be used. Here we demonstrate fast redirection on the microsecond time-scale of Overhauser fields of the order of 0.5 T experienced by a single electron spin in an optically pumped GaAs quantum dot. This has been achieved using full coherent control of an ensemble of 10^3-10^4 optically polarized nuclear spins by sequences of short radio-frequency (rf) pulses. These results open the way to a new class of experiments using rf techniques to achieve highly-correlated nuclear spins in quantum dots, such as adiabatic demagnetization in the rotating frame leading to sub-micro K nuclear spin temperatures, rapid adiabatic passage, and spin squeezing

Vortices in polariton OPO superfluids

This chapter reviews the occurrence of quantised vortices in polariton fluids, primarily when polaritons are driven in the optical parametric oscillator (OPO) regime. We first review the OPO physics, together with both its analytical and numerical modelling, the latter being necessary for the description of finite size systems. Pattern formation is typical in systems driven away from equilibrium. Similarly, we find that uniform OPO solutions can be unstable to the spontaneous formation of quantised vortices. However, metastable vortices can only be injected externally into an otherwise stable symmetric state, and their persistence is due to the OPO superfluid properties. We discuss how the currents charactering an OPO play a crucial role in the occurrence and dynamics of both metastable and spontaneous vortices.Comment: 40 pages, 16 figure

Measurement of local optomechanical properties of a direct bandgap 2D semiconductor

Strain engineering is a powerful tool for tuning physical properties of 2D materials, including monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs)—direct bandgap semiconductors with strong excitonic response. Deformation of TMD monolayers allows inducing modulation of exciton potential and, ultimately, creating single-photon emitters at desired positions. The performance of such systems is critically dependent on the exciton energy profile and maximum possible exciton energy shift that can be achieved under local impact until the monolayer rupture. Here, we study the evolution of two-dimensional exciton energy profile induced in a MoSe2 monolayer under incremental local indentation until the rupture. We controllably stress the flake with an atomic force microscope tip and perform in situ spatiospectral mapping of the excitonic photoluminescence in the vicinity of the indentation point. In order to accurately fit the experimental data, we combine numerical simulations with a simple model of strain-induced modification of the local excitonic response and carefully account for the optical resolution of the setup. This allows us to extract deformation, strain, and exciton energy profiles obtained at each indentation depth. The maximum exciton energy shift induced by local deformation achieved at 300 nm indentation reaches the value of 36.5 meV and corresponds to 1.15% strain of the monolayer. Our approach is a powerful tool for in situ characterization of local optomechanical properties of 2D direct bandgap semiconductors with strong excitonic response

The state of the art in the analysis of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis images

Software-based image analysis is a crucial step in the biological interpretation of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis experiments. Recent significant advances in image processing methods combined with powerful computing hardware have enabled the routine analysis of large experiments. We cover the process starting with the imaging of 2-D gels, quantitation of spots, creation of expression profiles to statistical expression analysis followed by the presentation of results. Challenges for analysis software as well as good practices are highlighted. We emphasize image warping and related methods that are able to overcome the difficulties that are due to varying migration positions of spots between gels. Spot detection, quantitation, normalization, and the creation of expression profiles are described in detail. The recent development of consensus spot patterns and complete expression profiles enables one to take full advantage of statistical methods for expression analysis that are well established for the analysis of DNA microarray experiments. We close with an overview of visualization and presentation methods (proteome maps) and current challenges in the field

A review on experimental and clinical genetic associations studies on fear conditioning, extinction and cognitive-behavioral treatment

Fear conditioning and extinction represent basic forms of associative learning with considerable clinical relevance and have been implicated in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders. There is considerable inter-individual variation in the ability to acquire and extinguish conditioned fear reactions and the study of genetic variants has recently become a focus of research. In this review, we give an overview of the existing genetic association studies on human fear conditioning and extinction in healthy individuals and of related studies on cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) and exposure, as well as pathology development after trauma. Variation in the serotonin transporter (5HTT) and the catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) genes has consistently been associated with effects in pre-clinical and clinical studies. Interesting new findings, which however require further replication, have been reported for genetic variation in the dopamine transporter (DAT1) and the pituitary adenylate cyclase 1 receptor (ADCYAP1R1) genes, whereas the current picture is inconsistent for variation in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene. We end with a discussion of the findings and their limitations, as well as future directions that we hope will aid the field to develop further

Neurogenic inflammation after traumatic brain injury and its potentiation of classical inflammation

Background: The neuroinflammatory response following traumatic brain injury (TBI) is known to be a key secondary injury factor that can drive ongoing neuronal injury. Despite this, treatments that have targeted aspects of the inflammatory pathway have not shown significant efficacy in clinical trials. Main body: We suggest that this may be because classical inflammation only represents part of the story, with activation of neurogenic inflammation potentially one of the key initiating inflammatory events following TBI. Indeed, evidence suggests that the transient receptor potential cation channels (TRP channels), TRPV1 and TRPA1, are polymodal receptors that are activated by a variety of stimuli associated with TBI, including mechanical shear stress, leading to the release of neuropeptides such as substance P (SP). SP augments many aspects of the classical inflammatory response via activation of microglia and astrocytes, degranulation of mast cells, and promoting leukocyte migration. Furthermore, SP may initiate the earliest changes seen in blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability, namely the increased transcellular transport of plasma proteins via activation of caveolae. This is in line with reports that alterations in transcellular transport are seen first following TBI, prior to decreases in expression of tight-junction proteins such as claudin-5 and occludin. Indeed, the receptor for SP, the tachykinin NK1 receptor, is found in caveolae and its activation following TBI may allow influx of albumin and other plasma proteins which directly augment the inflammatory response by activating astrocytes and microglia. Conclusions: As such, the neurogenic inflammatory response can exacerbate classical inflammation via a positive feedback loop, with classical inflammatory mediators such as bradykinin and prostaglandins then further stimulating TRP receptors. Accordingly, complete inhibition of neuroinflammation following TBI may require the inhibition of both classical and neurogenic inflammatory pathways.Frances Corrigan, Kimberley A. Mander, Anna V. Leonard and Robert Vin

Inversion of the exciton fine structure splitting in quantum dots

The fine structure splitting of exciton state was measured for a large number of single InAs quantum dots in GaAs. It is shown to decrease as the exciton confinement decreases, crucially passing through zero and changing sign. Degeneracy of the exciton spin states is an important step to producing entangled photons from the biexciton cascade. Thermal annealing reduces the exciton confinement and thereby increases the number of degenerate dots in a particular sample. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Few-second-long correlation times in a quantum dot nuclear spin bath probed by frequency-comb nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

One of the key challenges in spectroscopy is the inhomogeneous broadening that masks the homogeneous spectral lineshape and the underlying coherent dynamics. Techniques such as four-wave mixing and spectral hole-burning are used in optical spectroscopy, and spin-echo in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). However, the high-power pulses used in spin-echo and other sequences often create spurious dynamics obscuring the subtle spin correlations important for quantum technologies. Here we develop NMR techniques to probe the correlation times of the fluctuations in a nuclear spin bath of individual quantum dots, using frequency-comb excitation, allowing for the homogeneous NMR lineshapes to be measured without high-power pulses. We find nuclear spin correlation times exceeding one second in self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots - four orders of magnitude longer than in strain-free III-V semiconductors. This observed freezing of the nuclear spin fluctuations suggests ways of designing quantum dot spin qubits with a well-understood, highly stable nuclear spin bath.This work has been supported by the EPSRC Programme Grant EP/J007544/1, ITN S3NANO. E.A.C. was supported by a University of Sheffield Vice-Chancellor’s Fellowship and a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. I.F. and D.A.R. were supported by EPSRC