2,888 research outputs found
Origin of spectral broadening in pi-conjugated amorphous semiconductors
We present a study of the picosecond fluorescence dynamics of pi-conjugated semiconducting organic dendrimers in the solid state. By varying the degree of branching within the dendrons, referred to as the dendrimer generation, a control of intermolecular spacing of the emissive core and therefore of the lattice parameter for Forster-type energy transfer is achieved. This allows a distinction between spectral diffusion and excimer formation as the two main sources of spectral broadening in organic semiconductors. Whereas Forster-type dispersive spectral relaxation is independent of temperature but strongly dependent on the interchromophore distance, excimer formation is also strongly thermally activated due to temperature-dependent conformational changes and the influence of thermally activated dynamic disorder. The rapid spectral diffusion allows a determination of the excimer rise in the emission, which is shown to have a profound impact on the steady state luminescence properties of dendrimer films. We show that the dendrimer generation not only allows a microscopic control of intermolecular interactions but also a direct control of the rate of spectral diffusion. Implications for the design of novel materials for optoelectronic devices are discussed
Crossover from non-thermal to thermal photoluminescence from metals excited by ultrashort light pulses
Photoluminescence from metal nanostructures following intense ultrashort
illumination is a fundamental aspect of light-matter interactions.
Surprisingly, many of its basic characteristics are under ongoing debate. Here,
we resolve the majority of these debates by providing the most complete
theoretical framework to date that describes this phenomenon, and support it by
experimental confirmation. Specifically, we identify aspects of the emission
that are characteristic to either non-thermal or thermal emission, in
particular, differences in the spectral and electric field-dependence of these
two contributions to the emission. Overall, non-thermal emission is
characteristic of the early stages of light emission, while the later stages
show thermal characteristics. The former dominate only for moderately high
illumination intensities for which the electron temperature reached after
thermalization is close to room temperature. The theory is then complemented by
experimental evidence that demonstrates the novel aspects of our
considerations
Rethinking place and the social work office in the delivery of children's social work services
Limited attention has been given to the concept of place in social work research and practice. This paper draws on the national evaluation of social work practices (SWPs) in England undertaken between 2009 and 2012. SWPs were pilot organisations providing independent social work services for children in out-of-home care in five sites. One factor distinguishing some of these pilots was their attention to place. The evaluation employed a mixed methods approach and we use data from interviews with 121 children and young people in out-of-home care, 19 birth parents and 31 interviews with SWP staff which explored their views and experiences of the SWP offices. Children and young people
were alert to the stigma which could attach to social work premises and appreciated offices which were planned and furnished to appear less institutional and more ‘normal’. Daily interactions with staff which conveyed a sense of recognition and value to service users also contributed to a view of some SWP offices as accessible and welcoming places. Both children and parents appreciated offices that provided fun activities that positioned them as active rather than passive. Staff valued opportunities for influencing planning decisions about offices and place
was seen to confer a value on them as well as on service users. However, not all the SWPs were able to achieve these aspects of place, and engaging children and families in place was less likely when the service user population was widely dispersed. Recognising the importance of place and how place is constructed through relationships between people as well as through the physical environment appeared to be key to creating offices that combated the stigma attached to out-of-home care.
Those leading and managing children’s services should explore ways of involving local communities in planning social work offices and turn attention to making these offices accessible, welcoming, places
Control of mobility in molecular organic semiconductors by dendrimer generation
Conjugated dendrimers are of interest as novel materials for light-emitting diodes. They consist of a luminescent chromophore at the core with highly branched conjugated dendron sidegroups. In these materials, light emission occurs from the core and is independent of generation. The dendron branching controls the separation between the chromophores, We present here a family of conjugated dendrimers and investigate the effect of dendron branching on light emission and charge transport. We apply a number of transport measurement techniques to thin films of a conjugated dendrimer in a light-emitting diode configuration to determine the effect of chromophore spacing on charge transport. We find that the mobility is reduced by two orders of magnitude as the size of the molecule doubles with increased branching or dendrimer generation. The degree of branching allows a unique control of mobility by molecular structure. An increase in chromophore separation also results in a reduction of intermolecular interactions, which reduces the red emission tail in film photoluminescence. We find that the steady-state charge transport is well described by a simple device model incorporating the effect of generation, and use the materials to shed light on the interpretation of transient electroluminescence data. We demonstrate the significance of the ability to tune the mobility in bilayer devices, where a more balanced charge transport can be achieved
Spin relaxation dynamics of radical-pair processes at low magnetic fields
We report measurements of room-temperature spin-relaxation times and
of charge-carrier spins in a -conjugated polymer thin film under
bipolar injection and low (1\mbox{ mT}\lesssim B_0\lesssim 10\mbox{ mT})
static magnetic fields, using electrically detected magnetic resonant Hahn-echo
and inversion-recovery pulse sequences. The experiments confirm the correlation
between the magnetic-field sensitive observables of radical-pair processes,
which include both the spin-dependent recombination currents in organic
semiconductors and the associated spin-relaxation times when random local
hyperfine fields and external magnetic fields compete in magnitude. Whereas a
striking field dependence of spin-lattice relaxation exists in the low-field
regime, the apparent spin decoherence time remains field independent as the
distinction between the two is lifted at low fields.Comment: Manuscript: 14 pages, 4 figures; Supplemental Material: 13 pages, 7
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Discovery of Four Gravitationally Lensed Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
We present the discovery of four gravitationally lensed quasars selected from
the spectroscopic quasar catalog of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We describe
imaging and spectroscopic follow-up observations that support the lensing
interpretation of the following four quasars: SDSS J0832+0404 (image separation
\theta=1.98", source redshift z_s=1.115, lens redshift z_l=0.659); SDSS
J1216+3529 (\theta=1.49", z_s=2.012); SDSS J1322+1052 (\theta=2.00",
z_s=1.716); and SDSS J1524+4409 (\theta=1.67", z_s=1.210, z_l=0.320). Each
system has two lensed images. We find that the fainter image component of SDSS
J0832+0404 is significantly redder than the brighter component, perhaps because
of differential reddening by the lensing galaxy. The lens potential of SDSS
J1216+3529 might be complicated by the presence of a secondary galaxy near the
main lensing galaxy.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in A
Three-photon electron spin resonances
We report the observation of a three-photon resonant transition of
charge-carrier spins in an organic light-emitting diode using electrically
detected magnetic resonance (EDMR) spectroscopy at room temperature. Under
strong magnetic-resonant drive (drive field ~ static magnetic field
), a -field swept EDMR line emerges when is approximately
threefold the one-photon resonance field. Ratios of drive-induced shifts of
this line to those of two- and one-photon shifts agree with analytical
expressions derived from the Floquet Hamiltonian and confirm the nature of
these three-photon transitions, enabling access of spin physics to a hitherto
inaccessible domain of quantum mechanics.Comment: 32 pages, 18 figure
The Optical, Infrared and Radio Properties of Extragalactic Sources Observed by SDSS, 2MASS and FIRST Surveys
We positionally match sources observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS), the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), and the Faint Images of the
Radio Sky at Twenty-cm (FIRST) survey. Practically all 2MASS sources are
matched to an SDSS source within 2 arcsec; ~11% of them are optically resolved
galaxies and the rest are dominated by stars. About 1/3 of FIRST sources are
matched to an SDSS source within 2 arcsec; ~80% of these are galaxies and the
rest are dominated by quasars. Based on these results, we project that by the
completion of these surveys the matched samples will include about 10^7 stars
and 10^6 galaxies observed by both SDSS and 2MASS, and about 250,000 galaxies
and 50,000 quasars observed by both SDSS and FIRST. Here we present a
preliminary analysis of the optical, infrared and radio properties for the
extragalactic sources from the matched samples. In particular, we find that the
fraction of quasars with stellar colors missed by the SDSS spectroscopic survey
is probably not larger than ~10%, and that the optical colors of radio-loud
quasars are ~0.05 mag. redder (with 4-sigma significance) than the colors of
radio-quiet quasars.Comment: 10 pages, 6 color figures, presented at IAU Colloquium 184. AGN
Survey
The Whole is Greater than the Sum of the Parts: Optimizing the Joint Science Return from LSST, Euclid and WFIRST
The focus of this report is on the opportunities enabled by the combination
of LSST, Euclid and WFIRST, the optical surveys that will be an essential part
of the next decade's astronomy. The sum of these surveys has the potential to
be significantly greater than the contributions of the individual parts. As is
detailed in this report, the combination of these surveys should give us
multi-wavelength high-resolution images of galaxies and broadband data covering
much of the stellar energy spectrum. These stellar and galactic data have the
potential of yielding new insights into topics ranging from the formation
history of the Milky Way to the mass of the neutrino. However, enabling the
astronomy community to fully exploit this multi-instrument data set is a
challenging technical task: for much of the science, we will need to combine
the photometry across multiple wavelengths with varying spectral and spatial
resolution. We identify some of the key science enabled by the combined surveys
and the key technical challenges in achieving the synergies.Comment: Whitepaper developed at June 2014 U. Penn Workshop; 28 pages, 3
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