3,859 research outputs found
Tunable Functionality and toxicity studies of Titanium Dioxide Nanotube Layers
In this work, we have developed economic process to elaborate scalable
titanium dioxide nanotube layers which show a tunable functionality. The
titanium dioxide nanotube layers was prepared by electrochemical anodization of
Ti foil in 0.4 wt% hydrofluoric acid solution. The nanotube layers structure
and morphology were characterized using x-ray diffraction and scanning electron
microscopy. The surface topography and wettability was studied according to the
anodization time. The sample synthesized while the current density reached a
local minimum displayed higher contact angle. Beyond this point, the contact
angles decrease with the anodization time. Photo-degradation of acid orange 7
in aqueous solution was used as a probe to assess the photo-catalytic activity
of titanium dioxide nanotube layers under UV irradiation. We obtained better
photocatalitic activity for the sample elaborate at higher current density.
Finally we use the Ciliated Protozoan T. pyriformis, an alternative cell model
used for in vitro toxicity studies, to predict the toxicity of titanium dioxide
nanotube layers in biological system. We did not observe any characteristic
effect in the presence of the titanium dioxide nanotube layers on two
physiological parameters related to this organism, non-specific esterases
activity and population growth rate
Storage and Retrieval of a Microwave Field in a Spin Ensemble
We report the storage and retrieval of a small microwave field from a
superconducting resonator into collective excitations of a spin ensemble. The
spins are nitrogen-vacancy centers in a diamond crystal. The storage time of
the order of 30 ns is limited by inhomogeneous broadening of the spin ensemble.Comment: 4 pages + supplementary material. Submitted to PR
Positivity constraints for lepton polarization in neutrino deep inelastic scattering
We consider the spin polarization of leptons produced in neutrino and
antineutrino nucleon deep inelastic scattering, via charged currents, and we
study the positivity constraints on the spin components in a model independent
way. These results are very important, in particular in the case of
leptons, because the polarization information is crucial in all
future neutrino oscillation experiments.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
Enhancing single-molecule photostability by optical feedback from quantum-jump detection
We report an optical technique that yields an enhancement of single-molecule
photostability, by greatly suppressing photobleaching pathways which involve
photoexcitation from the triplet state. This is accomplished by dynamically
switching off the excitation laser when a quantum-jump of the molecule to the
triplet state is optically detected. This procedure leads to a lengthened
single-molecule observation time and an increased total number of detected
photons. The resulting improvement in photostability unambiguously confirms the
importance of photoexcitation from the triplet state in photobleaching
dynamics, and may allow the investigation of new phenomena at the
single-molecule level
Signal transducer and activator of transcription 2 deficiency is a novel disorder of mitochondrial fission
Defects of mitochondrial dynamics are emerging causes of neurological disease. In two children presenting with severe neurological deterioration following viral infection we identified a novel homozygous STAT2 mutation, c.1836C4A (p.Cys612Ter), using whole exome sequencing. In muscle and fibroblasts from these patients, and a third unrelated STAT2-deficient patient, we observed extremely elongated mitochondria. Western blot analysis revealed absence of the STAT2 protein and that the mitochondrial fission protein DRP1 (encoded by DNM1L) is inactive, as shown by its phosphorylation state. All three patients harboured 15 decreased levels of DRP1 phosphorylated at serine residue 616 (P-DRP1S616), a post-translational modification known to activate DRP1, and increased levels of DRP1 phosphorylated at serine 637 (P-DRP1S637), associated with the inactive state of the DRP1 GTPase. Knockdown of STAT2 in SHSY5Y cells recapitulated the fission defect, with elongated mitochondria and decreased PDRP1 S616 levels. Furthermore the mitochondrial fission defect in patient fibroblasts was rescued following lentiviral transduction with wild-type STAT2 in all three patients, with normalization of mitochondrial length and increased P-DRP1S616 levels. Taken 20 together, these findings implicate STAT2 as a novel regulator of DRP1 phosphorylation at serine 616, and thus of mitochondrial fission, and suggest that there are interactions between immunity and mitochondria. This is the first study to link the innate immune system to mitochondrial dynamics and morphology. We hypothesize that variability in JAK-STAT signalling may contribute to the phenotypic heterogeneity of mitochondrial disease, and may explain why some patients with underlying mitochondrial disease decompensate after seemingly trivial viral infections. Modulating JAK-STAT activity may represent a novel 25 therapeutic avenue for mitochondrial diseases, which remain largely untreatable. This may also be relevant for more common neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases, in which abnormalities of mitochondrial morphology have been implicated in disease pathogenesis
Strong Coupling of a Spin Ensemble to a Superconducting Resonator
We report the realization of a quantum circuit in which an ensemble of
electronic spins is coupled to a frequency tunable superconducting resonator.
The spins are Nitrogen-Vacancy centers in a diamond crystal. The achievement of
strong coupling is manifested by the appearance of a vacuum Rabi splitting in
the transmission spectrum of the resonator when its frequency is tuned through
the NV center electron spin resonance.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Competition between electric field and magnetic field noise in the decoherence of a single spin in diamond
We analyze the impact of electric field and magnetic field fluctuations in
the decoherence of the electronic spin associated with a single
nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond by engineering spin eigenstates
protected either against magnetic noise or against electric noise. The
competition between these noise sources is analyzed quantitatively by changing
their relative strength through modifications of the environment. This study
provides significant insights into the decoherence of the NV electronic spin,
which is valuable for quantum metrology and sensing applications.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, including supplementary information
Multi-mode storage and retrieval of microwave fields in a spin ensemble
A quantum memory at microwave frequencies, able to store the state of
multiple superconducting qubits for long times, is a key element for quantum
information processing. Electronic and nuclear spins are natural candidates for
the storage medium as their coherence time can be well above one second.
Benefiting from these long coherence times requires to apply the refocusing
techniques used in magnetic resonance, a major challenge in the context of
hybrid quantum circuits. Here we report the first implementation of such a
scheme, using ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond coupled to
a superconducting resonator, in a setup compatible with superconducting qubit
technology. We implement the active reset of the NV spins into their ground
state by optical pumping and their refocusing by Hahn echo sequences. This
enables the storage of multiple microwave pulses at the picoWatt level and
their retrieval after up to s, a three orders of magnitude improvement
compared to previous experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures + Supplementary information (text and 6 figures
Electron spin resonance detected by a superconducting qubit
A new method for detecting the magnetic resonance of electronic spins at low
temperature is demonstrated. It consists in measuring the signal emitted by the
spins with a superconducting qubit that acts as a single-microwave-photon
detector, resulting in an enhanced sensitivity. We implement this new type of
electron-spin resonance spectroscopy using a hybrid quantum circuit in which a
transmon qubit is coupled to a spin ensemble consisting of NV centers in
diamond. With this setup we measure the NV center absorption spectrum at 30mK
at an excitation level of \thicksim15\,\mu_{B} out of an ensemble of 10^{11}
spins.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
- …