321 research outputs found
Spin dynamics in p-doped semiconductor nanostructures subject to a magnetic field tilted from the Voigt geometry
We develop a theoretical description of the spin dynamics of resident holes
in a p-doped semiconductor quantum well (QW) subject to a magnetic field tilted
from the Voigt geometry. We find the expressions for the signals measured in
time-resolved Faraday rotation (TRFR) and resonant spin amplification (RSA)
experiments and study their behavior for a range of system parameters. We find
that an inversion of the RSA peaks can occur for long hole spin dephasing times
and tilted magnetic fields. We verify the validity of our theoretical findings
by performing a series of TRFR and RSA experiments on a p-modulation doped
GaAs/Al_{0.3}Ga_{0.7}As single QW and showing that our model can reproduce
experimentally observed signals.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures; corrected typo
Spin dephasing and photoinduced spin diffusion in high-mobility 110-grown GaAs-AlGaAs two-dimensional electron systems
We have studied spin dephasing and spin diffusion in a high-mobility
two-dimensional electron system, embedded in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well grown
in the [110] direction, by a two-beam Hanle experiment. For very low excitation
density, we observe spin lifetimes of more than 16 ns, which rapidly decrease
as the pump intensity is increased. Two mechanisms contribute to this decrease:
the optical excitation produces holes, which lead to a decay of electron spin
via the Bir-Aranov-Pikus mechanism and recombination with spin-polarized
electrons. By scanning the distance between the pump and probe beams, we
observe the diffusion of spin-polarized electrons over more than 20 microns.
For high pump intensity, the spin polarization in a distance of several microns
from the pump beam is larger than at the pump spot, due to the reduced
influence of photogenerated holes.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Engineering ultralong spin coherence in two-dimensional hole systems at low temperatures
For the realisation of scalable solid-state quantum-bit systems, spins in
semiconductor quantum dots are promising candidates. A key requirement for
quantum logic operations is a sufficiently long coherence time of the spin
system. Recently, hole spins in III-V-based quantum dots were discussed as
alternatives to electron spins, since the hole spin, in contrast to the
electron spin, is not affected by contact hyperfine interaction with the
nuclear spins. Here, we report a breakthrough in the spin coherence times of
hole ensembles, confined in so called natural quantum dots, in narrow
GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells at temperatures below 500 mK. Consistently,
time-resolved Faraday rotation and resonant spin amplification techniques
deliver hole-spin coherence times, which approach in the low magnetic field
limit values above 70 ns. The optical initialisation of the hole spin
polarisation, as well as the interconnected electron and hole spin dynamics in
our samples are well reproduced using a rate equation model.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure
Color processing in the early visual system of Drosophila
Color vision extracts spectral information by comparing signals from photoreceptors with different visual pigments. Such comparisons are encoded by color-opponent neurons that are excited at one wavelength and inhibited at another. Here, we examine the circuit implementation of color-opponent processing in the Drosophila visual system by combining two-photon calcium imaging with genetic dissection of visual circuits. We report that coloropponent processing of UVshort/blue and UVlong/green is already implemented in R7/R8 inner photoreceptor terminals of "pale'' and "yellow'' ommatidia, respectively. R7 and R8 photoreceptors of the same type of ommatidia mutually inhibit each other directly via HisCl1 histamine receptors and receive additional feedback inhibition that requires the second histamine receptor Ort. Color-opponent processing at the first visual synapse represents an unexpected commonality between Drosophila and vertebrates; however, the differences in the molecular and cellular implementation suggest that the same principles evolved independently
Follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone increase Ca2+ in the granulosa cells of mouse ovarian follicles
In mammalian ovarian follicles, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) signal primarily through the G-protein G(s) to elevate cAMP, but both of these hormones can also elevate Ca2+ under some conditions. Here, we investigate FSH- and LH-induced Ca2+ signaling in intact follicles of mice expressing genetically encoded Ca2+ sensors, Twitch-2B and GCaMP6s. At a physiological concentration (1 nM), FSH elevates Ca2+ within the granulosa cells of preantral and antral follicles. The Ca2+ rise begins several minutes after FSH application, peaks at similar to 10 min, remains above baseline for another similar to 10 min, and depends on extracellular Ca2+. However, suppression of the FSH-induced Ca2+ increase by reducing extracellular Ca2+ does not inhibit FSH-induced phosphorylation ofMAP kinase, estradiol production, or the acquisition of LH responsiveness. Like FSH, LH also increases Ca2+, when applied to preovulatory follicles. At a physiological concentration (10 nM), LH elicits Ca2+ oscillations in a subset of cells in the outer mural granulosa layer. These oscillations continue for at least 6 h and depend on the activity of G(q) family G-proteins. Suppression of the oscillations by G(q) inhibition does not inhibit meiotic resumption, but does delay the time to 50% ovulation by about 3 h. In summary, both FSH and LH increase Ca2+ in the granulosa cells of intact follicles, but the functions of these Ca2+ rises are only starting to be identified. Summary Sentence Both FSH and LH increase Ca2+ in the granulosa cells of intact ovarian follicles from mice expressing genetically encoded sensors
Cyclotron effect on coherent spin precession of two-dimensional electrons
We investigate the spin dynamics of high-mobility two-dimensional electrons
in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells grown along the and directions by
time-resolved Faraday rotation at low temperatures. In measurements on the
-grown structures without external magnetic fields, we observe coherent
oscillations of the electron spin polarization about the effective spin-orbit
field. In non-quantizing magnetic fields applied normal to the sample plane,
the cyclotron motion of the electrons rotates the effective spin-orbit field.
This rotation leads to fast oscillations in the spin polarization about a
non-zero value and a strong increase in the spin dephasing time in our
experiments. These two effects are absent in the -grown structure due to
the different symmetry of its effective spin-orbit field. The measurements are
in excellent agreement with our theoretical model.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Dynamic tuning of FRET in a green fluorescent protein biosensor.
Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) between mutants of green fluorescent protein is widely used to monitor protein-protein interactions and as a readout mode in fluorescent biosensors. Despite the fundamental importance of distance and molecular angles of fluorophores to each other, structural details on fluorescent protein FRET have been missing. Here, we report the high-resolution x-ray structure of the fluorescent proteins mCerulean3 and cpVenus within the biosensor Twitch-2B, as they undergo FRET and characterize the dynamics of this biosensor with B-0(2)-dependent paramagnetic nuclear magnetic resonance at 900 MHz and 1.1 GHz. These structural data provide the unprecedented opportunity to calculate FRET from the x-ray structure and to compare it to experimental data in solution. We find that interdomain dynamics limits the FRET effect and show that a rigidification of the sensor further enhances FRET
Spin and orbital mechanisms of the magneto-gyrotropic photogalvanic effects in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well structures
We report on the study of the linear and circular magneto-gyrotropic
photogalvanic effect (MPGE) in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well structures. Using the
fact that in such structures the Land\'e-factor g* depends on the quantum well
(QW) width and has different signs for narrow and wide QWs, we succeeded to
separate spin and orbital contributions to both MPGEs. Our experiments show
that, for most quantum well widths, the PGEs are mainly driven by spin-related
mechanisms, which results in a photocurrent proportional to the g* factor. In
structures with a vanishingly small g* factor, however, linear and circular
MPGE are also detected, proving the existence of orbital mechanisms.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
Anisotropic spin relaxation revealed by resonant spin amplification in (110) GaAs quantum wells
We have studied spin dephasing in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron
system (2DES), confined in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well grown in the [110]
direction, using the resonant spin amplification (RSA) technique. From the
characteristic shape of the RSA spectra, we are able to extract the spin
dephasing times (SDT) for electron spins aligned along the growth direction or
within the sample plane, as well as the factor. We observe a strong
anisotropy in the spin dephasing times. While the in-plane SDT remains almost
constant as the temperature is varied between 4 K and 50 K, the out-of-plane
SDT shows a dramatic increase at a temperature of about 25 K and reaches values
of about 100 ns. The SDTs at 4 K can be further increased by additional, weak
above-barrier illumination. The origin of this unexpected behavior is
discussed, the SDT enhancement is attributed to the redistribution of charge
carriers between the electron gas and remote donors.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
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