244 research outputs found
Force sensing with nanowire cantilevers
Nanometer-scale structures with high aspect ratio such as nanowires and
nanotubes combine low mechanical dissipation with high resonance frequencies,
making them ideal force transducers and scanning probes in applications
requiring the highest sensitivity. Such structures promise record force
sensitivities combined with ease of use in scanning probe microscopes. A wide
variety of possible material compositions and functionalizations is available,
allowing for the sensing of various kinds of forces with optimized sensitivity.
In addition, nanowires possess quasi-degenerate mechanical mode doublets, which
has allowed the demonstration of sensitive vectorial force and mass detection.
These developments have driven researchers to use nanowire cantilevers in
various force sensing applications, which include imaging of sample surface
topography, detection of optomechanical, electrical, and magnetic forces, and
magnetic resonance force microscopy. In this review, we discuss the motivation
behind using nanowires as force transducers, explain the methods of force
sensing with nanowire cantilevers, and give an overview of the experimental
progress and future prospects of the field
Nonlinear motion and mechanical mixing in as-grown GaAs nanowires
We report nonlinear behavior in the motion of driven nanowire cantilevers.
The nonlinearity can be described by the Duffing equation and is used to
demonstrate mechanical mixing of two distinct excitation frequencies.
Furthermore, we demonstrate that the nonlinearity can be used to amplify a
signal at a frequency close to the mechanical resonance of the nanowire
oscillator. Up to 26 dB of amplitude gain are demonstrated in this way
Impedance model for the polarization-dependent optical absorption of superconducting single-photon detectors
We measured the single-photon detection efficiency of NbN superconducting
single photon detectors as a function of the polarization state of the incident
light for different wavelengths in the range from 488 nm to 1550 nm. The
polarization contrast varies from ~5% at 488 nm to ~30% at 1550 nm, in good
agreement with numerical calculations. We use an optical-impedance model to
describe the absorption for polarization parallel to the wires of the detector.
For lossy NbN films, the absorption can be kept constant by keeping the product
of layer thickness and filling factor constant. As a consequence, we find that
the maximum possible absorption is independent of filling factor. By
illuminating the detector through the substrate, an absorption efficiency of
~70% can be reached for a detector on Si or GaAs, without the need for an
optical cavity.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Journal of Applied Physic
In vivo longitudinal monitoring of blood flow alterations in TG2576 mouse model of Alzheimer's Disease
Solid state NMR/Biophysical Organic Chemistr
In vivo localized two dimensional MR spectroscopy to compare the neurochemical profile in wild-type and transgenic mouse of Alzheimer’s disease
Solid state NMR/Biophysical Organic Chemistr
Strong spin-orbit interaction and -factor renormalization of hole spins in Ge/Si nanowire quantum dots
The spin-orbit interaction lies at the heart of quantum computation with spin
qubits, research on topologically non-trivial states, and various applications
in spintronics. Hole spins in Ge/Si core/shell nanowires experience a
spin-orbit interaction that has been predicted to be both strong and
electrically tunable, making them a particularly promising platform for
research in these fields. We experimentally determine the strength of
spin-orbit interaction of hole spins confined to a double quantum dot in a
Ge/Si nanowire by measuring spin-mixing transitions inside a regime of
spin-blockaded transport. We find a remarkably short spin-orbit length of
65 nm, comparable to the quantum dot length and the interdot distance. We
additionally observe a large orbital effect of the applied magnetic field on
the hole states, resulting in a large magnetic field dependence of the
spin-mixing transition energies. Strikingly, together with these orbital
effects, the strong spin-orbit interaction causes a significant enhancement of
the -factor with magnetic field.The large spin-orbit interaction strength
demonstrated is consistent with the predicted direct Rashba spin-orbit
interaction in this material system and is expected to enable ultrafast Rabi
oscillations of spin qubits and efficient qubit-qubit interactions, as well as
provide a platform suitable for studying Majorana zero modes
MRI assessment of blood flow artifacts in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease
Solid state NMR/Biophysical Organic Chemistr
The compositional and evolutionary logic of metabolism
Metabolism displays striking and robust regularities in the forms of
modularity and hierarchy, whose composition may be compactly described. This
renders metabolic architecture comprehensible as a system, and suggests the
order in which layers of that system emerged. Metabolism also serves as the
foundation in other hierarchies, at least up to cellular integration including
bioenergetics and molecular replication, and trophic ecology. The
recapitulation of patterns first seen in metabolism, in these higher levels,
suggests metabolism as a source of causation or constraint on many forms of
organization in the biosphere.
We identify as modules widely reused subsets of chemicals, reactions, or
functions, each with a conserved internal structure. At the small molecule
substrate level, module boundaries are generally associated with the most
complex reaction mechanisms and the most conserved enzymes. Cofactors form a
structurally and functionally distinctive control layer over the small-molecule
substrate. Complex cofactors are often used at module boundaries of the
substrate level, while simpler ones participate in widely used reactions.
Cofactor functions thus act as "keys" that incorporate classes of organic
reactions within biochemistry.
The same modules that organize the compositional diversity of metabolism are
argued to have governed long-term evolution. Early evolution of core
metabolism, especially carbon-fixation, appears to have required few
innovations among a small number of conserved modules, to produce adaptations
to simple biogeochemical changes of environment. We demonstrate these features
of metabolism at several levels of hierarchy, beginning with the small-molecule
substrate and network architecture, continuing with cofactors and key conserved
reactions, and culminating in the aggregation of multiple diverse physical and
biochemical processes in cells.Comment: 56 pages, 28 figure
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