Mating success of resident versus non-resident males in a territorial butterfly

Male–male competition over territorial ownership suggests that winning is associated with considerable benefits. In the speckled wood butterfly, Pararge aegeria, males fight over sunspot territories on the forest floor; winners gain sole residency of a sunspot, whereas losers patrol the forest in search of females. It is currently not known whether residents experience greater mating success than non-residents, or whether mating success is contingent on environmental conditions. Here we performed an experiment in which virgin females of P. aegeria were allowed to choose between a resident and a non-resident male in a large enclosure containing one territorial sunspot. Resident males achieved approximately twice as many matings as non-residents, primarily because matings were most often preceded by a female being discovered when flying through a sunspot. There was no evidence that territorial residents were more attractive per se, with females seen to reject them as often as non-residents. Furthermore, in the cases where females were discovered outside of the sunspot, they were just as likely to mate with non-residents as residents. We hypothesize that the proximate advantage of territory ownership is that light conditions in a large sunspot greatly increase the male's ability to detect and intercept passing receptive females

Large work function reduction by adsorption of a molecule with a negative electron affinity: Pyridine on ZnO(10-10)

Using thermal desorption and photoelectron spectroscopy to study the adsorption of pyridine on ZnO(10-10), we find that the work function is significantly reduced from 4.5 eV for the bare ZnO surface to 1.6 eV for one monolayer of adsorbed pyridine. Further insight into the interface morphology and binding mechanism is obtained using density functional theory. Although semilocal density functional theory provides unsatisfactory total work functions, excellent agreement of the work function changes is achieved for all coverages. In a closed monolayer, pyridine is found to bind to every second surface Zn atom. The strong polarity of the Zn-pyridine bond and the molecular dipole moment act cooperatively, leading to the observed strong work function reduction. Based on simple alignment considerations, we illustrate that even larger work function modifications should be achievable using molecules with negative electron affinity. We expect the application of such molecules to significantly reduce the electron injection barriers at ZnO/organic heterostructures

Milliwatt terahertz harmonic generation from topological insulator metamaterials

Achieving efficient, high-power harmonic generation in the terahertz spectral domain has technological applications, for example in sixth generation (6G) communication networks. Massless Dirac fermions possess extremely large terahertz nonlinear susceptibilities and harmonic conversion efficiencies. However, the observed maximum generated harmonic power is limited, because of saturation effects at increasing incident powers, as shown recently for graphene. Here, we demonstrate room-temperature terahertz harmonic generation in a Bi$_2$Se$_3$ topological insulator and topological-insulator-grating metamaterial structures with surface-selective terahertz field enhancement. We obtain a third-harmonic power approaching the milliwatt range for an incident power of 75 mW - an improvement by two orders of magnitude compared to a benchmarked graphene sample. We establish a framework in which this exceptional performance is the result of thermodynamic harmonic generation by the massless topological surface states, benefiting from ultrafast dissipation of electronic heat via surface-bulk Coulomb interactions. These results are an important step towards on-chip terahertz (opto)electronic applications

Longitudinal Analysis of Quality of Life, Clinical, Radiographic, Echocardiographic, and Laboratory Variables in Dogs with Myxomatous Mitral Valve Disease Receiving Pimobendan or Benazepril: The QUEST Study

Peer reviewe

Local aspects of hydrogen-induced metallization of the ZnO(10-10) surface

Deinert, J. C.; Hofmann, O. T.; Meyer, M.; Rinke, P.; Stähler, J. This study combines surface-sensitive photoemission experiments with density functional theory to give a microscopic description of H-adsorption-induced modifications of the ZnO(1010) surface electronic structure. We find a complex adsorption behavior caused by a strong coverage dependence of the H adsorption energies: Initially, O-H bond formation is energetically favorable and H acting as an electron donor leads to the formation of a charge accumulation layer and to surface metallization. The increase of the number of O-H bonds leads to a reversal in adsorption energies such that Zn-H bonds become favored at sites close to existing O-H bonds, which results in a gradual extenuation of the metallization. The corresponding surface potential changes are localized within a few nanometers both laterally and normal to the surface. This localized character is experimentally corroborated by using subsurface bound excitons at the ZnO(1010) surface as a local probe. The pronounced and comparably localized effect of small amounts of hydrogen at this surface strongly suggests metallic character of ZnO surfaces under technologically relevant conditions and may, thus, be of high importance for energy level alignment at ZnO-based junctions in general. Local aspects of hydrogen-induced metallization of the ZnO(10-10) surfac

Local aspects of hydrogen-induced metallization of the ZnO(10-10) surface

This study combines surface-sensitive photoemission experiments with density functional theory to give a microscopic description of H-adsorption-induced modifications of the ZnO(101¯0) surface electronic structure. We find a complex adsorption behavior caused by a strong coverage dependence of the H adsorption energies: Initially, O-H bond formation is energetically favorable and H acting as an electron donor leads to the formation of a charge accumulation layer and to surface metallization. The increase of the number of O-H bonds leads to a reversal in adsorption energies such that Zn-H bonds become favored at sites close to existing O-H bonds, which results in a gradual extenuation of the metallization. The corresponding surface potential changes are localized within a few nanometers both laterally and normal to the surface. This localized character is experimentally corroborated by using subsurface bound excitons at the ZnO(101¯0) surface as a local probe. The pronounced and comparably localized effect of small amounts of hydrogen at this surface strongly suggests metallic character of ZnO surfaces under technologically relevant conditions and may, thus, be of high importance for energy level alignment at ZnO-based junctions in general.Peer reviewe