Far-infrared magneto-optics of electrons in low dimensional semiconductor systems

Contains fulltext : mmubn000001_101759029.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Promotores : H. van Kempen, P. Wyder en J. Perenboom111 p

Far-infrared magneto-optics of electrons in low dimensional semiconductor systems

In the last few decades, childhood allergy has alarmingly increased to epidemic levels in industrialized countries. Conversely, chronic helminth infections, which are highly prevalent in developing countries, are negatively associated with allergic disorders. The work in this thesis revealed that, using B-cell IL-10-deficient mice, Schistosoma mansoni-mediated protection against experimental ovalbumin-induced allergic airway inflammation (AAI) was specifically dependent on splenic IL-10-producing CD1dhi regulatory B (Breg) cells. Furthermore, we demonstrated that another B cell subset, located in the lungs, provided protection against AAI, by showing a reduced capacity to initiate Th2 cytokine responses. Markedly, we found a similarly elevated population of IL-10-producing CD1dhi B cells in peripheral blood of Schistosoma haematobium-infected Gabonese children compared to uninfected children. We observed that schistosome-induced Breg cells reduced effector T-cell cytokines and induced more Treg cells. What is interesting in this aspect, is that we found that the Breg cell compartment of patients with allergic asthma is impairment in number and activity. Therefore, the identification of the mechanisms that underlying Breg cell induction by helminths, and the identification the helminth-derived molecules involved, may open novel avenues for the treatment of allergic disease disorders by driving potent Breg cell

Subband-Landau-level spectroscopy in GaAs-AlxGa1-xAs heterojunctions

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High-field magnetotransport in a two-dimensional electron gas in quantizing magnetic fields and intense terahertz laser fields

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of interactions between two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) and terahertz (THz) free-electron lasers in the presence of quantizing magnetic fields. It is found both experimentally and theoretically that when an intense THz field and a quantizing magnetic field are applied simultaneously to a GaAs-based 2DEG in the Faraday geometry, a strong cyclotron resonance (CR) effect on top of the magnetophonon resonances can be observed by transport measurements at relatively high temperatures. With increasing radiation intensity and/or decreasing temperature, the peaks of the CR are broadened and split due to magnetophoton-phonon scatterin

A novel mechanism for parallel conduction in GaAs-(Ga,Al)As heterojunctions

Contains fulltext : 112799.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access