Vacancy-Mediated Magnetism in Pure Copper Oxide Nanoparticles

Room temperature ferromagnetism (RTF) is observed in pure copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles which were prepared by precipitation method with the post-annealing in air without any ferromagnetic dopant. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) result indicates that the mixture valence states of Cu1+ and Cu2+ ions exist at the surface of the particles. Vacuum annealing enhances the ferromagnetism (FM) of CuO nanoparticles, while oxygen atmosphere annealing reduces it. The origin of FM is suggested to the oxygen vacancies at the surface/or interface of the particles. Such a ferromagnet without the presence of any transition metal could be a very good option for a class of spintronics

Single-Molecule Thermometry Yoctoliter Thermometry for Single-Molecule Investigations: A Generic Bead-on-a-Tip Temperature-Control Module**

Abstract: A new temperature-jump (T-jump) strategy avoids photo-damage of individual molecules by focusing a lowintensity laser on a black microparticle at the tip of a capillary. The black particle produces an efficient photothermal effect that enables a wide selection of lasers with powers in the milliwatt range to achieve a T-jump of 65 8C within milliseconds. To measure the temperature in situ in single-molecule experiments, the temperature-dependent mechanical unfolding of a single DNA hairpin molecule was monitored by optical tweezers within a yoctoliter volume. Using this bead-on-a-tip module and the robust single-molecule thermometer, full thermodynamic landscapes for the unfolding of this DNA hairpin were retrieved. These approaches are likely to provide powerful tools for the microanalytical investigation of dynamic processes with a combination of T-jump and single-molecule techniques