Intensity-Dependent Enhancement of Saturable Absorption in PbS-Au4 Nanohybrid Composites: Evidence for Resonant Energy Transfer by Auger Recombination

Intensity-dependent enhancement of saturable absorption in a film of PbS-Au4 nanohybrid composites has been observed by femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption measurement at 780 nm. The nonlinear absorption coefficient of saturable absorption in PbS-Au4 nanohybrid composites is found to be dependent on excitation irradiance and it is determined to be -2.9 cm/GW at 78 GW/cm2, an enhancement of nearly fourfold in comparison with that of pure PbS quantum dots (QDs). The enhancement is attributed to excitation of surface plasmon by resonant energy transfer between PbS QDs and Au nanoparticles through Auger recombination.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures. Accepted in Appl. Phys. Lett. (2008

Collective excitation of quantum wires and effect of spin-orbit coupling in the presence of a magnetic field along the wire

The band structure of a quantum wire with the Rashba spin-orbit coupling develops a pseudogap in the presence of a magnetic field along the wire. In such a system spin mixing at the Fermi wavevectors $-k_F$ and $k_F$ can be different. We have investigated theoretically the collective mode of this system, and found that the velocity of this collective excitation depends sensitively on the strength of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction and magnetic field. Our result suggests that the strength of the spin-orbit interaction can be determined from the measurement of the velocity.Comment: RevTeX 4 file, 4pages, 6 eps figures. To appear in Physical Review

Random walk approach to spin dynamics in a two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit coupling

We introduce and solve a semi-classical random walk (RW) model that describes the dynamics of spin polarization waves in zinc-blende semiconductor quantum wells. We derive the dispersion relations for these waves, including the Rashba, linear and cubic Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions, as well as the effects of an electric field applied parallel to the spin polarization wavevector. In agreement with fully quantum mechanical calculations [Kleinert and Bryksin, Phys. Rev. B \textbf{76}, 205326 (2007)], the RW approach predicts that spin waves acquire a phase velocity in the presence of the field that crosses zero at a nonzero wavevector, $q_0$. In addition, we show that the spin-wave decay rate is independent of field at $q_0$ but increases as $(q-q_0)^2$ for $q\neq q_0$. These predictions can be tested experimentally by suitable transient spin grating experiments

Soluble species in aerosol and snow and their relationship at Glacier 1, Tien Shan, China

Simultaneous sampling of aerosol (n = 20) and snow (n = 114) was made at Glacier 1, Tien Shan, between May 19 and June 29, 1996. Similar temporal patterns of some major ion (calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, chloride, and sulfate) concentrations between snow and aerosol show that snow chemistry basically reflects changes in the chemistry of the atmosphere. This gives us confidence in the reconstruction of past atmospheric change using some snow data. There are no significant correlations between aerosol and snow samples for ammonium and nitrate. This suggests that post-depositional and/or post-collection processes may alter ammonium and nitrate concentrations in snow. The fact that the measured cations in aerosol and snow always exceed the measured anions suggests that the atmosphere is alkaline over Glacier 1, Tien Shan. In aerosol and snow samples, calcium is the dominant cationic species, with sulfate and presumed carbonate being the dominant anions. There is a very good inverse relationship (r = 0.96) between the equivalence ratio of calcium to sulfate and the ratio of ammonium to sulfate in aerosols, but this relationship does not hold for snow. This further suggests that post depositional and/or post collection processes exert important controls on ammonium concentrations in snow. Although melt-freeze cycles might increase the concentration of all crustal species through progressive dissolution of dust, these cycles seem most important for magnesium and carbonate