Anomalous Phase Transition in Strained SrTiO3_3 Thin Films

We have studied the cubic to tetragonal phase transition in epitaxial SrTiO$_3$ films under various biaxial strain conditions using synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Measuring the superlattice peak associated with TiO$_6$ octahedra rotation in the low temperature tetragonal phase indicates the presence of a phase transition whose critical temperature is a strong function of strain, with T$_C$ as much as 50K above the corresponding bulk temperature. Surprisingly, the lattice constants evolve smoothly through the transition with no indication of a phase change. This signals an important change in the nature of the phase transition due to the epitaxy strain and substrate clamping effect. The internal degrees of freedom (TiO$_6$ rotations) have become uncoupled from the overall lattice shape.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, REVTeX

Quantum measurement of coherence in coupled quantum dots

We describe the conditional and unconditional dynamics of two coupled quantum dots when one dot is subjected to a measurement of its occupation number using a single electron transistor (SET). The measurement is made when the bare tunneling rate though the SET is changed by the occupation number of one of the dots. We show that there is a difference between the time scale for the measurement-induced decoherence between the localized states of the dots and the time scale on which the system becomes localized due to the measurement. A comparison between theory and current experiments is made.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Shaping electron beams for the generation of innovative measurements in the (S)TEM

In TEM, a typical goal consists of making a small electron probe in the sample plane in order to obtain high spatial resolution in scanning transmission electron microscopy. In order to do so, the phase of the electron wave is corrected to resemble a spherical wave compensating for aberrations in the magnetic lenses. In this contribution we discuss the advantage of changing the phase of an electron wave in a specific way in order to obtain fundamentally different electron probes opening up new application in the (S)TEM. We focus on electron vortex states as a specific family of waves with an azimuthal phase signature and discuss their properties, production and applications. The concepts presented here are rather general and also different classes of probes can be obtained in a similar fashion showing that electron probes can be tuned to optimise a specific measurement or interaction

Study of inhomogeneous head model based on conductivity issues

The aim of the study is to testify the effects of different inhomogeneous tissues on computed electrical potential fields associated with the electroencephalograph. The inhomogeneity of head tissues is included in head model using so-called pseudo conductivity created by limited, experimental measured data. Simulations were performed varying the conductivities assigned to the different head compartments in the model. Comparisons of different conductivity combinations followed one of two basic schemes: (1) a piecewise homogeneous multi-layer head serves as the reference against which we compared simulations with a single tissue assigned its pseudo conductivity, and (2) a fully inhomogeneous head serves as the reference and we remove the effect of individual tissue by assigning it the homogeneous conductivity value. The result both in (1) and (2) show that the skull has larger impacts on the head potential distribution than other elements. It also shows that the size of the effect is not neglectable in all tissue. The study suggests that accurate representation of tissue inhomogeneity has a significant effect on the accuracy of the forward solution

The N-Body Problem in LOTOS

It is shown how the classical n-body problem in mechanics can be generalised and formalised in LOTOS. A number of variants are produced by instantiation of the specification framework. These include Newton’s cradle, gas motion, the ‘game of life’, an orrery, a space game, an air traffic simulation and a sailing race. It is shown how these are derived from the generic framework using a configuration tool. The resulting LOTOS specifications are simulated automatically to graphically animate the system behaviour

Effect of low-Raman window position on correlated photon-pair generation in a chalcogenide Ge11.5As24Se64.5 nanowire

We investigated correlated photon-pair generation via spontaneous four-wave mixing in an integrated chalcogenideGe11.5As24Se64.5photonicnanowire. The coincidence to accidental ratio, a key measurement for the quality of correlated photon-pair sources, was measured to be only 0.4 when the photon pairs were generated at 1.9 THz detuning from the pump frequency due to high spontaneous Raman noise in this regime. However, the existence of a characteristic low-Raman window at around 5.1 THz in this material's Raman spectrum and dispersion engineering of the nanowire allowed us to generate photon pairs with a coincidence to accidental ratio of 4.5, more than 10 times higher than the 1.9 THz case. Through comparing the results with those achieved in chalcogenide As2S3waveguides which also exhibit a low Raman-window but at a larger detuning of 7.4 THz, we find that the position of the characteristic low-Raman window plays an important role on reducing spontaneous Raman noise because the phonon population is higher at smaller detuning. Therefore the ultimate solution for Raman noise reduction in Ge11.5As24Se64.5 is to generate photon pairs outside the Raman gain band at more than 10 THz detuning

Transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of Desulfovibrio vulgaris biofilms: carbon and energy flow contribute to the distinct biofilm growth state.

BackgroundDesulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough is a sulfate-reducing bacterium (SRB) that is intensively studied in the context of metal corrosion and heavy-metal bioremediation, and SRB populations are commonly observed in pipe and subsurface environments as surface-associated populations. In order to elucidate physiological changes associated with biofilm growth at both the transcript and protein level, transcriptomic and proteomic analyses were done on mature biofilm cells and compared to both batch and reactor planktonic populations. The biofilms were cultivated with lactate and sulfate in a continuously fed biofilm reactor, and compared to both batch and reactor planktonic populations.ResultsThe functional genomic analysis demonstrated that biofilm cells were different compared to planktonic cells, and the majority of altered abundances for genes and proteins were annotated as hypothetical (unknown function), energy conservation, amino acid metabolism, and signal transduction. Genes and proteins that showed similar trends in detected levels were particularly involved in energy conservation such as increases in an annotated ech hydrogenase, formate dehydrogenase, pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase, and rnf oxidoreductase, and the biofilm cells had elevated formate dehydrogenase activity. Several other hydrogenases and formate dehydrogenases also showed an increased protein level, while decreased transcript and protein levels were observed for putative coo hydrogenase as well as a lactate permease and hyp hydrogenases for biofilm cells. Genes annotated for amino acid synthesis and nitrogen utilization were also predominant changers within the biofilm state. Ribosomal transcripts and proteins were notably decreased within the biofilm cells compared to exponential-phase cells but were not as low as levels observed in planktonic, stationary-phase cells. Several putative, extracellular proteins (DVU1012, 1545) were also detected in the extracellular fraction from biofilm cells.ConclusionsEven though both the planktonic and biofilm cells were oxidizing lactate and reducing sulfate, the biofilm cells were physiologically distinct compared to planktonic growth states due to altered abundances of genes/proteins involved in carbon/energy flow and extracellular structures. In addition, average expression values for multiple rRNA transcripts and respiratory activity measurements indicated that biofilm cells were metabolically more similar to exponential-phase cells although biofilm cells are structured differently. The characterization of physiological advantages and constraints of the biofilm growth state for sulfate-reducing bacteria will provide insight into bioremediation applications as well as microbially-induced metal corrosion

Surface-Dependence of Interfacial Binding Strength between Zinc Oxide and Graphene Investigated from First Principles

There is an increasing interest in hybridized materials for applications such as improving the structural integrity of known and commonly used materials. Recent experiments have suggested that the adhesion of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires with carbon fibers can significantly improve the interfacial shear strength of fiber-reinforced composites. We have carried out a systematic study of the interaction between ZnO and graphene based on density functional theory, with a focus on the effect of the surface orientation and termination of ZnO. The most thermodynamically stable hexagonal phase of ZnO is modeled by a cluster with (001), (100), and (110) facets, and the (001) surface is constructed to have both Zn-rich and O-rich terminations. The interaction has been explored through varying both the orientation and the binding sites of the interacting surfaces. The interfacial binding strength is calculated by scanning the potential energy surface while bringing the ZnO cluster incrementally closer to graphene. Results from these energy scans will be presented and discussed along with simple physical arguments to rationalize the observed behavior