632 research outputs found
Diversity of Arctic pelagic <i>Bacteria</i> with an emphasis on photoheterotrophs: a review
The Arctic Ocean is a unique marine environment with respect to seasonality
of light, temperature, perennial ice cover, and strong stratification. Other
important distinctive features are the influence of extensive continental
shelves and its interactions with Atlantic and Pacific water masses and
freshwater from sea ice melt and rivers. These characteristics have major
influence on the biological and biogeochemical processes occurring in this
complex natural system. Heterotrophic bacteria are crucial components of
marine food webs and have key roles in controlling carbon fluxes in the
oceans. Although it was previously thought that these organisms relied on
the organic carbon in seawater for all of their energy needs, several recent
discoveries now suggest that pelagic bacteria can depart from a strictly
heterotrophic lifestyle by obtaining energy through unconventional
mechanisms that are linked to the penetration of sunlight into surface
waters. These photoheterotrophic mechanisms may play a significant role in
the energy budget in the euphotic zone of marine environments. Modifications
of light and carbon availability triggered by climate change may favor the
photoheterotrophic lifestyle. Here we review advances in our knowledge of
the diversity of marine photoheterotrophic bacteria and discuss their
significance in the Arctic Ocean gained in the framework of the Malina
cruise
Semimetalic antiferromagnetism in the half-Heusler compound CuMnSb
The half-Heusler compound CuMnSb, the first antiferromagnet (AFM) in the
Mn-based class of Heuslers and half-Heuslers that contains several conventional
and half metallic ferromagnets, shows a peculiar stability of its magnetic
order in high magnetic fields. Density functional based studies reveal an
unusual nature of its unstable (and therefore unseen) paramagnetic state, which
for one electron less (CuMnSn, for example) would be a zero gap semiconductor
(accidentally so) between two sets of very narrow, topologically separate bands
of Mn 3d character. The extremely flat Mn 3d bands result from the environment:
Mn has four tetrahedrally coordinated Cu atoms whose 3d states lie well below
the Fermi level, and the other four tetrahedrally coordinated sites are empty,
leaving chemically isolated Mn 3d states. The AFM phase can be pictured
heuristically as a self-doped CuMnSb compensated semimetal
with heavy mass electrons and light mass holes, with magnetic coupling
proceeding through Kondo and/or antiKondo coupling separately through the two
carrier types. The ratio of the linear specific heat coefficient and the
calculated Fermi level density of states indicates a large mass enhancement
, or larger if a correlated band structure is taken as the
reference
Enhancement of vaccinia virus based oncolysis with histone deacetylase inhibitors
Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDI) dampen cellular innate immune response by decreasing interferon production and have been shown to increase the growth of vesicular stomatitis virus and HSV. As attenuated tumour-selective oncolytic vaccinia viruses (VV) are already undergoing clinical evaluation, the goal of this study is to determine whether HDI can also enhance the potency of these poxviruses in infection-resistant cancer cell lines. Multiple HDIs were tested and Trichostatin A (TSA) was found to potently enhance the spread and replication of a tumour selective vaccinia virus in several infection-resistant cancer cell lines. TSA significantly decreased the number of lung metastases in a syngeneic B16F10LacZ lung metastasis model yet did not increase the replication of vaccinia in normal tissues. The combination of TSA and VV increased survival of mice harbouring human HCT116 colon tumour xenografts as compared to mice treated with either agent alone. We conclude that TSA can selectively and effectively enhance the replication and spread of oncolytic vaccinia virus in cancer cells. © 2010 MacTavish et al
Polarization Control of the Non-linear Emission on Semiconductor Microcavities
The degree of circular polarization () of the non-linear emission in
semiconductor microcavities is controlled by changing the exciton-cavity
detuning. The polariton relaxation towards \textbf{K} cavity-like
states is governed by final-state stimulated scattering. The helicity of the
emission is selected due to the lifting of the degeneracy of the spin
levels at \textbf{K} . At short times after a pulsed excitation
reaches very large values, either positive or negative, as a result of
stimulated scattering to the spin level of lowest energy ( spin for
positive/negative detuning).Comment: 8 pages, 3 eps figures, RevTeX, Physical Review Letters (accepted
Waveguide-coupled detector in zero-change complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor
We report a waveguide-coupled photodetector realized in a standard CMOS foundry without requiring changes to the process flow (zero-change CMOS). The photodetector exploits carrier generation in the silicon-germanium normally utilized as stressor in pFETs. The measured responsivity and 3 dB bandwidth are of 0.023 A/W at a wavelength of 1180 nm and 32 GHz at −1 V bias (18 GHz at 0 V bias). The dark current is less than 10 pA and the dynamic range is larger than 60 dB.United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Photonically Optimized Embedded Microprocessors Program (Award HR0011-11-C-0100)United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Photonically Optimized Embedded Microprocessors Program (Contract HR0011-11-9-0009
Hybrid III-V/Silicon photonic circuits embedding generation and routing of entangled photon pairs
The demand for integrated photonic chips combining the generation and
manipulation of quantum states of light is steadily increasing, driven by the
need for compact and scalable platforms for quantum information technologies.
While photonic circuits with diverse functionalities are being developed in
different single material platforms, it has become crucial to realize hybrid
photonic circuits that harness the advantages of multiple materials while
mitigating their respective weaknesses, resulting in enhanced capabilities.
Here, we demonstrate a hybrid III-V/Silicon quantum photonic device combining
the strong second-order nonlinearity and compliance with electrical pumping of
the III-V semiconductor platform with the high maturity and CMOS compatibility
of the silicon photonic platform. Our device embeds the spontaneous parametric
down-conversion (SPDC) of photon pairs into an AlGaAs source and their
subsequent routing to a silicon-on-insulator circuitry, within an evanescent
coupling scheme managing both polarization states. This enables the on-chip
generation of broadband telecom photons by type 0 and type 2 SPDC from the
hybrid device, at room temperature and with internal pair generation rates
exceeding for both types, while the pump beam is strongly
rejected. Two-photon interference with 92% visibility (and up to 99% upon 5 nm
spectral filtering) proves the high energy-time entanglement quality
characterizing the produced quantum state, thereby enabling a wide range of
quantum information applications on-chip, within an hybrid architecture merging
the assets of two mature and highly complementary platforms in view of
out-of-the-lab deployment of quantum technologies
Solving thermal issues in tensile-strained Ge microdisks
International audienceWe propose to use a Ge-dielectric-metal stacking to allow one to address both thermal management with the metal as an efficient heat sink and tensile strain engineering with the buried dielectric as a stressor layer. This scheme is particularly useful for the development of Ge-based optical sources. We demonstrate experimentally the relevance of this approach by comparing the optical response of tensile-strained Ge microdisks with an Al heat sink or an oxide pedestal. Photoluminescence indicates a much reduced temperature rise in the microdisk (16 K with Al pedestal against 200 K with SiO 2 pedestal under a 9 mW continuous wave optical pumping). An excellent agreement is found with finite element modeling of the temperature rise. This original stacking combining metal and dielectrics is promising for integrated photonics where thermal management is an issue
Enhancement of Rabi Splitting in a Microcavity with an Embedded Superlattice
We have observed a large coupling between the excitonic and photonic modes of
an AlAs/AlGaAs microcavity filled with an 84-({\rm {\AA}})/20({\rm {\AA}})
GaAs/AlGaAs superlattice. Reflectivity measurements on the coupled
cavity-superlattice system in the presence of a moderate electric field yielded
a Rabi splitting of 9.5 meV at T = 238 K. This splitting is almost 50% larger
than that found in comparable microcavities with quantum wells placed at the
antinodes only. We explain the enhancement by the larger density of optical
absorbers in the superlattice, combined with the quasi-two-dimensional binding
energy of field-localized excitons.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
ID-HALL, a new double stage Hall thruster design. I. Principle and hybrid model of ID-HALL
International audienceIn Hall thrusters, ions are extracted from a quasineutral plasma by the electric field induced by the local drop of electron conductivity associated with the presence of a magnetic barrier. Since the electric field is used both to extract and accelerate ions and to generate the plasma, thrust and specific impulse are not independent in a Hall thruster. There is a need for versatile thrusters that can be used for a variety of maneuvers, i.e., that can operate either at high thrust or at high specific impulse for a given power. The double stage Hall thruster (DSHT) design could allow a separate control of ionization and acceleration, and hence separate control of thrust and specific impulse. In the DSHT configuration, a supplementary plasma source (ionization stage), independent of the applied voltage, is added and placed upstream of the magnetic barrier (acceleration stage). The DSHT concept is also well adapted to the use of alternative propellants, lighter and with a less efficient ionization than xenon. Several designs of double stage Hall thrusters have been proposed in the past, but these attempts were not really successful. In this paper, we present a brief review of the main DSHT designs described in the literature, we discuss the relevance of the DSHT concept, and, on the basis of simple physics arguments and simulation results, we propose a new design, called ID-HALL (Inductive Double stage HALL thruster). In this design, the ionization stage is a magnetized inductively coupled RF plasma. The inductive coil is inside the central cylinder of the thruster and located nearby the acceleration stage. Preliminary modeling results of this DSHT are described. Published by AIP Publishing. https://doi
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