887 research outputs found
Poole-Frenkel Effect and Phonon-Assisted Tunneling in GaAs Nanowires
We present electronic transport measurements of GaAs nanowires grown by
catalyst-free metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Despite the nanowires
being doped with a relatively high concentration of substitutional impurities,
we find them inordinately resistive. By measuring sufficiently high
aspect-ratio nanowires individually in situ, we decouple the role of the
contacts and show that this semi-insulating electrical behavior is the result
of trap-mediated carrier transport. We observe Poole-Frenkel transport that
crosses over to phonon-assisted tunneling at higher fields, with a tunneling
time found to depend predominantly on fundamental physical constants as
predicted by theory. By using in situ electron beam irradiation of individual
nanowires we probe the nanowire electronic transport when free carriers are
made available, thus revealing the nature of the contacts
Wind measurement system
A system for remotely measuring vertical and horizontal winds present in discrete volumes of air at selected locations above the ground is described. A laser beam is optically focused in range by a telescope, and the output beam is conically scanned at an angle about a vertical axis. The backscatter, or reflected light, from the ambient particulates in a volume of air, the focal volume, is detected for shifts in wavelength, and from these, horizontal and vertical wind components are computed
Insect-induced daidzein, formononetin and their conjugates in soybean leaves.
In response to attack by bacterial pathogens, soybean (Gylcine max) leaves accumulate isoflavone aglucones, isoflavone glucosides, and glyceollins. In contrast to pathogens, the dynamics of related insect-inducible metabolites in soybean leaves remain poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed the biochemical responses of soybean leaves to Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) herbivory and also S. litura gut contents, which contain oral secretion elicitors. Following S. litura herbivory, soybean leaves displayed an induced accumulation of the flavone and isoflavone aglycones 4',7-dihyroxyflavone, daidzein, and formononetin, and also the isoflavone glucoside daidzin. Interestingly, foliar application of S. litura oral secretions also elicited the accumulation of isoflavone aglycones (daidzein and formononetin), isoflavone 7-O-glucosides (daidzin, ononin), and isoflavone 7-O-(6'-O-malonyl-β-glucosides) (malonyldaidzin, malonylononin). Consistent with the up-regulation of the isoflavonoid biosynthetic pathway, folair phenylalanine levels also increased following oral secretion treatment. To establish that these metabolitic changes were the result of de novo biosynthesis, we demonstrated that labeled (13C9) phenylalanine was incorporated into the isoflavone aglucones. These results are consistent with the presence of soybean defense elicitors in S. litura oral secretions. We demonstrate that isoflavone aglycones and isoflavone conjugates are induced in soybean leaves, not only by pathogens as previously demonstrated, but also by foliar insect herbivory
Amplitude dependent frequency, desynchronization, and stabilization in noisy metapopulation dynamics
The enigmatic stability of population oscillations within ecological systems
is analyzed. The underlying mechanism is presented in the framework of two
interacting species free to migrate between two spatial patches. It is shown
that that the combined effects of migration and noise cannot account for the
stabilization. The missing ingredient is the dependence of the oscillations'
frequency upon their amplitude; with that, noise-induced differences between
patches are amplified due to the frequency gradient. Migration among
desynchronized regions then stabilizes a "soft" limit cycle in the vicinity of
the homogenous manifold. A simple model of diffusively coupled oscillators
allows the derivation of quantitative results, like the functional dependence
of the desynchronization upon diffusion strength and frequency differences. The
oscillations' amplitude is shown to be (almost) noise independent. The results
are compared with a numerical integration of the marginally stable
Lotka-Volterra equations. An unstable system is extinction-prone for small
noise, but stabilizes at larger noise intensity
Effects of elevated [CO2 ] on maize defence against mycotoxigenic Fusarium verticillioides.
Maize is by quantity the most important C4 cereal crop; however, future climate changes are expected to increase maize susceptibility to mycotoxigenic fungal pathogens and reduce productivity. While rising atmospheric [CO2 ] is a driving force behind the warmer temperatures and drought, which aggravate fungal disease and mycotoxin accumulation, our understanding of how elevated [CO2 ] will effect maize defences against such pathogens is limited. Here we report that elevated [CO2 ] increases maize susceptibility to Fusarium verticillioides proliferation, while mycotoxin levels are unaltered. Fumonisin production is not proportional to the increase in F. verticillioides biomass, and the amount of fumonisin produced per unit pathogen is reduced at elevated [CO2 ]. Following F. verticillioides stalk inoculation, the accumulation of sugars, free fatty acids, lipoxygenase (LOX) transcripts, phytohormones and downstream phytoalexins is dampened in maize grown at elevated [CO2 ]. The attenuation of maize 13-LOXs and jasmonic acid production correlates with reduced terpenoid phytoalexins and increased susceptibility. Furthermore, the attenuated induction of 9-LOXs, which have been suggested to stimulate mycotoxin biosynthesis, is consistent with reduced fumonisin per unit fungal biomass at elevated [CO2 ]. Our findings suggest that elevated [CO2 ] will compromise maize LOX-dependent signalling, which will influence the interactions between maize and mycotoxigenic fungi
Excess noise in GaAs and AlGaAs avalanche photodiodes with GaSb absorption regions—composite structures grown using interfacial misfit arrays
Interfacial misfit arrays were embedded within two avalanche photodiode (APD) structures. This allowed GaSb absorption layers to be combined with wide-bandgap multiplication regions, consisting of GaAs and Al0.8Ga0.2As, respectively. The GaAs APD represents the simplest case. The Al0.8Ga0.2As APD shows reduced dark currents of 5.07 μAcm−2 at 90% of the breakdown voltage, and values for effective below 0.2. Random-path-length modeled excess noise is compared with experimental data, for both samples. The designs could be developed further, allowing operation to be extended to longer wavelengths, using other established absorber materials which are lattice matched to GaSb
Focused laser Doppler velocimeter
A system for remotely measuring velocities present in discrete volumes of air is described. A CO2 laser beam is focused by a telescope at such a volume, a focal volume, and within the focusable range, near field, of the telescope. The back scatter, or reflected light, principally from the focal volume, passes back through the telescope and is frequency compared with the original frequency of the laser, and the difference frequency or frequencies represent particle velocities in that focal volume
Characterization of the Association of Nitrate Reductase with Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Root Membranes
Room Temperature Continuous Wave Lasing in Nanopillar Photonic Crystal Cavities
We demonstrate room temperature continuous wave lasing in bottom-up photonic crystal cavities formed by patterned III-V nanopillars. Single-cell high-Q photonic crystal cavities are formed with nanopillars by selective-area epitaxy. Control of the nanopillar geometry and heterostructures allows for high-Q and large confinement factor, resulting in a low threshold power density of 75 W/cm^2 at 1040 nm emission wavelength
- …