16 research outputs found
Unexpected features of branched flow through high-mobility two-dimensional electron gases
GaAs-based two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) show a wealth of remarkable
electronic states, and serve as the basis for fast transistors, research on
electrons in nanostructures, and prototypes of quantum-computing schemes. All
these uses depend on the extremely low levels of disorder in GaAs 2DEGs, with
low-temperature mean free paths ranging from microns to hundreds of microns.
Here we study how disorder affects the spatial structure of electron transport
by imaging electron flow in three different GaAs/AlGaAs 2DEGs, whose mobilities
range over an order of magnitude. As expected, electrons flow along narrow
branches that we find remain straight over a distance roughly proportional to
the mean free path. We also observe two unanticipated phenomena in
high-mobility samples. In our highest-mobility sample we observe an almost
complete absence of sharp impurity or defect scattering, indicated by the
complete suppression of quantum coherent interference fringes. Also, branched
flow through the chaotic potential of a high-mobility sample remains stable to
significant changes to the initial conditions of injected electrons.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Ge/Si nanowire mesoscopic Josephson junctions
The controlled growth of nanowires (NWs) with dimensions comparable to the
Fermi wavelengths of the charge carriers allows fundamental investigations of
quantum confinement phenomena. Here, we present studies of proximity-induced
superconductivity in undoped Ge/Si core/shell NW heterostructures contacted by
superconducting leads. By using a top gate electrode to modulate the carrier
density in the NW, the critical supercurrent can be tuned from zero to greater
than 100 nA. Furthermore, discrete sub-bands form in the NW due to confinement
in the radial direction, which results in stepwise increases in the critical
current as a function of gate voltage. Transport measurements on these
superconductor-NW-superconductor devices reveal high-order (n = 25) resonant
multiple Andreev reflections, indicating that the NW channel is smooth and the
charge transport is highly coherent. The ability to create and control coherent
superconducting ordered states in semiconductor-superconductor hybrid
nanostructures allows for new opportunities in the study of fundamental
low-dimensional superconductivity
Prenatal exposures and exposomics of asthma
This review examines the causal investigation of preclinical development of childhood asthma using exposomic tools. We examine the current state of knowledge regarding early-life exposure to non-biogenic indoor air pollution and the developmental modulation of the immune system. We examine how metabolomics technologies could aid not only in the biomarker identification of a particular asthma phenotype, but also the mechanisms underlying the immunopathologic process. Within such a framework, we propose alternate components of exposomic investigation of asthma in which, the exposome represents a reiterative investigative process of targeted biomarker identification, validation through computational systems biology and physical sampling of environmental medi
Scanning-Probe Electronic Imaging of Lithographically Patterned Quantum Rings
Quantum rings patterned from two-dimensional semiconductor heterostructures exhibit a wealth of quantum transport phenomena at low temperature and in a magnetic field that can be mapped in real space thanks to dedicated scanning probe techniques. Here, we summarize our studies of GaInAs- and graphene-based quantum rings by means of scanning-gate microscopy both at low magnetic field, where Aharonov-Bohm interferences and the electronic local density-of-states are imaged, and at high magnetic field and very low temperatures, where the scanning probe can image Coulomb islands in the quantum Hall regime. This allows decrypting the apparent complexity of the magneto-resistance of a mesoscopic system in this regime. Beyond imaging and beyond a strict annular shape of the nanostructure, we show that this scanning-probe technique can also be used to unravel a new counter-intuitive behavior of branched-out rectangular quantum rings, which turns out to be a mesoscopic analog of the Braess paradox, previously known for road or other classical networks only
Chromosome breakage and cellular death are induced in oral epithelial cells of hairdressers: a preliminary study
Altered functions of alveolar macrophages and NK cells involved in asbestos-related diseases
Organic compounds present in airborne particles stimulate superoxide production and DNA fragmentation: role of NOX and xanthine oxidase in animal tissues
ERCC1 and ERCC2 Haplotype Modulates Induced BPDE-DNA Adducts in Primary Cultured Lymphocytes
BACKGROUND: Benzo[a]pyrene(B[a]P), and its ultimate metabolite Benzo[a]pyrene 7,8-diol 9,10-epoxide (BPDE), are classic DNA damaging carcinogens. DNA damage caused by BPDE is normally repaired by Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER), of which ERCC1 and ERCC2/XPD exert an indispensable role. Genetic variations in ERCC1 and ERCC2 have been related to DNA repair efficiency. In this study we used lymphocytes from healthy individuals to show that polymorphisms in ERCC1 and ERCC2 are directly associated with decreased DNA repair efficiency. METHODS: ERCC1 (rs3212986 and rs11615) and ERCC2 (rs13181, rs1799793 and rs238406) were genotyped in 818 healthy Han individuals from the northeast of China. BPDE induced DNA adducts in lymphocytes were assessed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in 282 randomly selected participants. The effect of ERCC1 rs3212986 and ERCC2 rs238406 on DNA damage caused by B[a]P was assessed with a modified comet assay. RESULTS: We found that the variant genotypes of ERCC1 rs3212986 and ERCC2 rs238406 were associated with the high levels of BPDE-DNA adducts. Especially ERCC1 rs3212986 A-allele variant was significantly associated with the high BPDE-DNA adducts. Haplotype analysis showed that the ERCC1 haplotype AC (ORâ=â2.36, 95% CIâ=â1.84â2.97), ERCC2 haplotype AGA (ORâ=â1.51, 95% CIâ=â1.06â2.15) and haplotype block AGAAC (ORâ=â5.28, 95% CIâ=â2.95â9.43), AGCAC (ORâ=â1.35 95% CIâ=â1.13â1.60) were linked with high BPDE-DNA adducts. In addition, we found that the combined minor alleles of ERCC1 rs3212986 and ERCC2 rs238406 were associated with a reduced DNA repair capacity. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the variant genotypes of ERCC1 rs3212986 and ERCC2 rs238406 are associated with decreased repair efficiency of BPDE induced DNA damage, and may be predictive for an individualâs DNA repair capacity in response to environmental carcinogens