1,486 research outputs found
Ultrafast spectroscopy of single molecules
We present a single-molecule study on femtosecond dynamics in multichromophoric systems, combining fs pump-probe, emission-spectra and fluorescence-lifetime analysis. At the single molecule level a wide range of exciton delocalisation lengths and energy redistribution times is revealed. Next, two color pump-probe experiments are presented as a step to addressing ultrafast energy transfer in individual complexes
Three-dimensional nanoscopy of colloidal crystals.
We demonstrate the direct three-dimensional imaging of densely packed colloidal nanostructures using stimulated emission depletion microscopy. A combination of two de-excitation patterns yields a resolution of 43 nm in the lateral and 125 nm in the axial direction and an effective focal volume that is by 126-fold smaller than that of a corresponding confocal microscope. The mapping of a model system of spheres organized by confined convective assembly unambiguously identified face-centered cubic, hexagonal close-packed, random hexagonal close-packed, and body-centered cubic structures. An increasing need for noninvasive visualization on the nanoscale has fueled the development of far-field optical microscopy with resolution far below the wavelength of light.1,2 In materials science, structural studies with length scales of interest in the (sub-) micrometer range have typically been conducted either by collective scattering-based techniques or electron and scanning probe microscopes. Far-field optical methods however retain the advantage of simultaneously providing local, dynamic, and noninvasiv
Designing chromatic optical retarder stacks for segmented next-generation easySTED phase plates
Fluorescence nanoscopy methods based on the RESOLFT principle, such as beam-scanning STED nanoscopy, require the co-alignment of optical beams for molecular state (on/off) switching and fluorescence excitation. The complexity and stability of the beam alignment can be drastically simplified and improved by using a single-mode fibre as the sole light source for all required laser beams. This in turn then requires a chromatic optical element for shaping the off-switching beam into a focal-plane donut while simultaneously leaving the focal intensity distributions at other wavelengths shaped as regular focal spots. Here we describe novel designs of such so-called âeasySTED phase platesâ and provide a rationale how to find the desired spectral signature for combinations of multiple wavelengths
Fluorescence assisted capillary electrophoresis of glycans enabled by the negatively charged auxochromes in 1-Aminopyrenes
A compact and negatively charged acceptor group, N-(cyanamino)sulfonyl, is introduced for dye design and its influence on the absorption and emission spectra of the âpushâpullâ chromophores is demonstrated with 1,3,6-tris[(cyanamino)sulfonyl]-8-aminopyrene. The new sulfonamides, including O-phosphorylated (3-hydroxyazetidine)-N-sulfonyl, are negatively charged electron acceptors and auxochromes. 1-Aminopyrenes decorated with the new sulfonamides have three or six negative charges (pH â„8), low m/z ratios, high mobilities in an electric field, and yellow to orange emission. We labeled maltodextrin oligomers by reductive amination, separated the products by electrophoresis, and demonstrated their high brightness in a commercial DNA analyzer and the distribution of the emission signal among the detection channels
Hybridization of sub-gap states in one-dimensional superconductor/semiconductor Coulomb islands
We present measurements of one-dimensional superconductor-semiconductor
Coulomb islands, fabricated by gate confinement of a two-dimensional InAs
heterostructure with an epitaxial Al layer. When tuned via electrostatic side
gates to regimes without sub-gap states, Coulomb blockade reveals Cooper-pair
mediated transport. When sub-gap states are present, Coulomb peak positions and
heights oscillate in a correlated way with magnetic field and gate voltage, as
predicted theoretically, with (anti) crossings in (parallel) transverse
magnetic field indicating Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling. Overall results are
consistent with a picture of overlapping Majorana zero modes in finite wires
Autonomous bioluminescence imaging of single mammalian cells with the bacterial bioluminescence system.
Bioluminescence-based imaging of living cells has become an important tool in biological and medical research. However, many bioluminescence imaging applications are limited by the requirement of an externally provided luciferin substrate and the low bioluminescence signal which restricts the sensitivity and spatiotemporal resolution. The bacterial bioluminescence system is fully genetically encodable and hence produces autonomous bioluminescence without an external luciferin, but its brightness in cell types other than bacteria has, so far, not been sufficient for imaging single cells. We coexpressed codon-optimized forms of the bacterial luxCDABE and frp genes from multiple plasmids in different mammalian cell lines. Our approach produces high luminescence levels that are comparable to firefly luciferase, thus enabling autonomous bioluminescence microscopy of mammalian cells
Anharmonicity of a Gatemon Qubit with a Few-Mode Josephson Junction
Coherent operation of gate-voltage-controlled hybrid transmon qubits
(gatemons) based on semiconductor nanowires was recently demonstrated. Here we
experimentally investigate the anharmonicity in epitaxial InAs-Al Josephson
junctions, a key parameter for their use as a qubit. Anharmonicity is found to
be reduced by roughly a factor of two compared to conventional metallic
junctions, and dependent on gate voltage. Experimental results are consistent
with a theoretical model, indicating that Josephson coupling is mediated by a
small number of highly transmitting modes in the semiconductor junction
Enhanced incorporation of subnanometer tags into cellular proteins for fluorescence nanoscopy via optimized genetic code expansion
With few-nanometer resolution recently achieved by a new generation of fluorescence nanoscopes (MINFLUX and MINSTED), the size of the tags used to label proteins will increasingly limit the ability to dissect nanoscopic biological structures. Bioorthogonal (click) chemical groups are powerful tools for the specific detection of biomolecules. Through the introduction of an engineered aminoacylâtRNA synthetase/tRNA pair (tRNA: transfer ribonucleic acid), genetic code expansion allows for the site-specific introduction of amino acids with âclickableâ side chains into proteins of interest. Welldefined label positions and the subnanometer scale of the protein modification provide unique advantages over other labeling approaches for imaging at molecular-scale resolution. We report that, by pairing a new N-terminally optimized pyrrolysylâtRNA synthetase (chPylRS2020) with a previously engineered orthogonal tRNA, clickable amino acids are incorporated with improved efficiency into bacteria and into mammalian cells. The resulting enhanced genetic code expansion machinery was used to label ÎČ-actin in U2OS cell filopodia for MINFLUX imaging with minimal separation of fluorophores from the protein backbone. Selected data were found to be consistent with previously reported high-resolution information from cryoelectron tomography about the cross-sectional filament bundling architecture. Our study underscores the need for further improvements to the degree of labeling with minimal-offset methods in order to fully exploit molecularscale optical three-dimensional resolution
Optimal General Matchings
Given a graph and for each vertex a subset of the
set , where denotes the degree of vertex
in the graph , a -factor of is any set such that
for each vertex , where denotes the number of
edges of incident to . The general factor problem asks the existence of
a -factor in a given graph. A set is said to have a {\em gap of
length} if there exists a natural number such that and . Without any restrictions the
general factor problem is NP-complete. However, if no set contains a gap
of length greater than , then the problem can be solved in polynomial time
and Cornuejols \cite{Cor} presented an algorithm for finding a -factor, if
it exists. In this paper we consider a weighted version of the general factor
problem, in which each edge has a nonnegative weight and we are interested in
finding a -factor of maximum (or minimum) weight. In particular, this
version comprises the minimum/maximum cardinality variant of the general factor
problem, where we want to find a -factor having a minimum/maximum number of
edges.
We present an algorithm for the maximum/minimum weight -factor for the
case when no set contains a gap of length greater than . This also
yields the first polynomial time algorithm for the maximum/minimum cardinality
-factor for this case
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