847 research outputs found
Experimental observation of negative differential resistance from an InAs/GaSb interface
We have observed negative differential resistance at room temperature from devices consisting of a single interface between n-type InAs and p-type GaSb. InAs and GaSb have a type II staggered band alignment; hence, the negative differential resistance arises from the same mechanism as in a p+-n+ tunnel diode. Room-temperature peak current densities of 8.2×10^4 A/cm^2 and 4.2×10^4 A/cm^2 were measured for structures with and without undoped spacer layers at the heterointerface, respectively
Liquid Metal-Based Multifunctional Micropipette for 4D Single Cell Manipulation.
A novel manufacturing approach to fabricate liquid metal-based, multifunctional microcapillary pipettes able to provide electrodes with high electrical conductivity for high-frequency electrical stimulation and measurement is proposed. 4D single cell manipulation is realized by applying multifrequency, multiamplitude, and multiphase electrical signals to the microelectrodes near the pipette tip to create 3D dielectrophoretic trap and 1D electrorotation, simultaneously. Functions such as single cell trapping, patterning, transfer, and rotation are accomplished. Cell viability and multiday proliferation characterization has confirmed the biocompatibility of this approach. This is a simple, low-cost, and fast fabrication process that requires no cleanroom and photolithography step to manufacture 3D microelectrodes and microchannels for easy access to a wide user base for broad applications
Over-expression of the CHS gene enhances resistance of Arabidopsis leaves to high light
Previous studies have suggested that high light (HL) stress causes photoinhibition in plants, while anthocyanins could protect the photosynthetic apparatus against photoinhibition. However, the photoprotection mechanism of anthocyanins is still ambiguous. We studied physiological responses and molecular changes for CHS-overexpression lines (CHS1, CHS2, CHS3), Arabidopsis thaliana ecotype Columbia (Col), and T-DNA insertion lines of CHS (tt4) under HL (200 μmol m−2 s−1) to explore the photoprotection mechanism of anthocyanins. The results showed that HL induced anthocyanin synthesis and accumulation. The leaves of CHS-overexpression lines turned reddest and the genes, including CHS, DFR, ANS, were expressed at highest levels. Thus, the CHS-overexpression lines maintained the highest photosynthetic capacity and suffered the least damage from HL of the three phenotypes. However, the CHS enzyme and anthocyanins were undetectable in tt4 during the experiment. Correspondingly, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters of tt4 declined greatly. The photosynthetic apparatus and cell membranes were also impaired dramatically. The physiological characteristics of Col were compared between CHS-overexpression lines and tt4. Together, the results suggest that over-expression of CHS gene enhances HL resistance by synthesizing more anthocyanins, that anthocyanins enhance the adaptability of plants to HL and that they maintain photosynthetic capacity via both antioxidation and attenuation of light.This work was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1200105)
and Guangdong Province Natural Science Foundation (2017A030313167, 2015A030311023).
The study was also supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31570398),
Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou (20170701257) and Yang Cheng Scholar
Program (10A040G)
Modeling of novel heterojunction tunnel structures
We have implemented a simple model that allows realistic yet rapid simulation of conventional as well as interband resonant tunneling devices. Using this model we have studied GaAs/AlAs asymmetric triple barrier structures and found that coherence between the quasibound states in the two quantum wells should be observable in the I–V characteristics of the devices. We have also examined InAs–GaSb–InAs broken-gap interband tunnel devices and found that, despite the absence of classically forbidden barrier regions, a resonant tunneling process is involved in producing the observed negative differential resistance. Furthermore, we have found that maximum peak current densities should be found in devices with GaSb layer thicknesses corresponding to a single, rather than a multiple transmission resonance peak in the broken-gap region
Vertical transport and electroluminescence in InAs/GaSb/InAs structures: GaSb thickness and hydrostatic pressure studies
We have measured the current-voltage (I-V) of type II InAs/GaSb/InAs double
heterojunctions (DHETs) with 'GaAs like' interface bonding and GaSb thickness
between 0-1200 \AA. A negative differential resistance (NDR) is observed for
all DHETs with GaSb thickness 60 \AA below which a dramatic change in the
shape of the I-V and a marked hysteresis is observed. The temperature
dependence of the I-V is found to be very strong below this critical GaSb
thickness. The I-V characteristics of selected DHETs are also presented under
hydrostatic pressures up to 11 kbar. Finally, a mid infra-red
electroluminescence is observed at 1 bar with a threshold at the NDR valley
bias. The band profile calculations presented in the analysis are markedly
different to those given in the literature, and arise due to the positive
charge that it is argued will build up in the GaSb layer under bias. We
conclude that the dominant conduction mechanism in DHETs is most likely to
arise out of an inelastic electron-heavy-hole interaction similar to that
observed in single heterojunctions (SHETs) with 'GaAs like' interface bonding,
and not out of resonant electron-light-hole tunnelling as proposed by Yu et al.
A Zener tunnelling mechanism is shown to contribute to the background current
beyond NDR.Comment: 8 pages 12 fig
VI-Band Follow-Up Observations of Ultra-Long-Period Cepheid Candidates in M31
The ultra-long period Cepheids (ULPCs) are classical Cepheids with pulsation
periods exceeding days. The intrinsic brightness of ULPCs are ~1
to ~3 mag brighter than their shorter period counterparts. This makes them
attractive in future distance scale work to derive distances beyond the limit
set by the shorter period Cepheids. We have initiated a program to search for
ULPCs in M31, using the single-band data taken from the Palomar Transient
Factory, and identified eight possible candidates. In this work, we presented
the VI-band follow-up observations of these eight candidates. Based on our
VI-band light curves of these candidates and their locations in the
color-magnitude diagram and the Period-Wesenheit diagram, we verify two
candidates as being truly ULPCs. The six other candidates are most likely other
kinds of long-period variables. With the two confirmed M31 ULPCs, we tested the
applicability of ULPCs in distance scale work by deriving the distance modulus
of M31. It was found to be mag. The large error
in the derived distance modulus, together with the large intrinsic dispersion
of the Period-Wesenheit (PW) relation and the small number of ULPCs in a given
host galaxy, means that the question of the suitability of ULPCs as standard
candles is still open. Further work is needed to enlarge the sample of
calibrating ULPCs and reduce the intrinsic dispersion of the PW relation before
re-considering ULPCs as suitable distance indicators.Comment: 13 pages, with 14 Figures and 4 Tables (one online table). AJ
accepte
Asteroid Spin-Rate Study using the Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory
Two dedicated asteroid rotation-period surveys have been carried out using
data taken on January 6-9 and February 20-23 of 2014 by the Intermediate
Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) in the ~band with -min cadence.
The total survey area covered 174~deg in the ecliptic plane. Reliable
rotation periods for 1,438 asteroids are obtained from a larger data set of
6,551 mostly main-belt asteroids, each with ~detections. Analysis of
1751, PTF based, reliable rotation periods clearly shows the "spin barrier" at
~hours for "rubble-pile" asteroids. We also found a new large-sized
super-fast rotator, 2005 UW163 (Chang et al., 2014), and other five candidates
as well. Our spin-rate distributions of asteroids with ~km shows
number decrease when frequency greater than 5 rev/day, which is consistent to
that of the Asteroid Light Curve Database (LCDB, Warner et al., 2009) and the
result of (Masiero et al., 2009). We found the discrepancy in the spin-rate
distribution between our result and (Pravec et al., 2008, update 2014-04-20) is
mainly from asteroids with mag that might be primarily due to
different survey strategies. For asteroids with ~km, we found a
significant number drop at rev/day. The YORP effect timescale for
small-sized asteroid is shorter that makes more elongate objets spun up to
reach their spin-rate limit and results in break-up. The K-S test suggests a
possible difference in the spin-rate distributions of C- and S-type asteroids.
We also find that C-type asteroids have a smaller spin-rate limit than the
S-type, which agrees with the general sense that the C-type has lower bulk
density than the S-type.Comment: Submitted to ApJ (Jan, 2015). Accepted by ApJ (June, 2015). The whole
set of the folded lightcurves will be available on the published articl
313 new asteroid rotation periods from Palomar Transient Factory observations
A new asteroid rotation period survey have been carried out by using the
Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). Twelve consecutive PTF fields, which covered
an area of 87 deg in the ecliptic plane, were observed in band with a
cadence of 20 min during February 15--18, 2013. We detected 2500 known
asteroids with a diameter range of 0.5 km 200 km. Of these, 313
objects had highly reliable rotation periods and exhibited the "spin barrier"
at hours. In contrast to the flat spin rate distribution of the
asteroids with 3 km 15 km shown by Pravec et al. (2008), our
results deviated somewhat from a Maxwellian distribution and showed a decrease
at the spin rate greater than 5 rev/day. One super-fast-rotator candidate and
two possible binary asteroids were also found in this work.Comment: 18 pages, 20 figures and 2 very long table
The Palomar Transient Factory and RR Lyrae: The Metallicity–Light Curve Relation Based on ab-type RR Lyrae in the Kepler Field
The wide-field synoptic sky surveys, known as the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) and the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF), will accumulate a large number of known and new RR Lyrae. These RR Lyrae are good tracers to study the substructure of the Galactic halo if their distance, metallicity, and galactocentric velocity can be measured. Candidates of halo RR Lyrae can be identified from their distance and metallicity before requesting spectroscopic observations for confirmation. This is because both quantities can be obtained via their photometric light curves, because the absolute V-band magnitude for RR Lyrae is correlated with metallicity, and the metallicity can be estimated using a metallicity–light curve relation. To fully utilize the PTF and iPTF light-curve data in related future work, it is necessary to derive the metallicity–light curve relation in the native PTF/iPTF R-band photometric system. In this work, we derived such a relation using the known ab-type RR Lyrae located in the Kepler field, and it is found to be [Fe/H]_(PTF) = -4.089-7.346P + 1.280φ_(31) (where P is pulsational period and φ_(31) is one of the Fourier parameters describing the shape of the light curve), with a dispersion of 0.118 dex. We tested our metallicity–light curve relation with new spectroscopic observations of a few RR Lyrae in the Kepler field, as well as several data sets available in the literature. Our tests demonstrated that the derived metallicity–light curve relation could be used to estimate metallicities for the majority of the RR Lyrae, which are in agreement with the published values
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