Extremely thin perfect absorber by generalized multipole bianisotropic effect

Symmetry breaking plays a crucial role in understanding the fundamental physics underlying numerous physical phenomena, including the electromagnetic response in resonators, giving rise to intriguing effects such as directional light scattering, supercavity lasing, and topologically protected states. In this work, we demonstrate that adding a small fraction of lossy metal (as low as $1\times10^{-6}$ in volume), to a lossless dielectric resonator breaks inversion symmetry thereby lifting its degeneracy, leading to a strong bianisotropic response. In the case of the metasurface composed of such resonators, this effect leads to unidirectional perfect absorption while maintaining nearly perfect reflection from the opposite direction. We have developed more general Onsager-Casimir relations for the polarizabilities of particle arrays, taking into account the contributions of quadrupoles, which shows that bianisotropy is not solely due to dipoles, but also involves high-order multipoles. Our experimental validation demonstrates an extremely thin terahertz-perfect absorber with a wavelength-to-thickness ratio of up to 25,000, where the material thickness is only 2% of the theoretical minimum thickness dictated by the fundamental limit. Our findings have significant implications for a variety of applications, including energy harvesting, thermal management, single-photon detection, and low-power directional emission

Activation of Dopamine 4 Receptor Subtype Enhances Gamma Oscillations in Hippocampal Slices of Aged Mice

Aim: Neural network oscillation at gamma frequency band (γ oscillation, 30–80 Hz) is synchronized synaptic potentials important for higher brain processes and altered in normal aging. Recent studies indicate that activation of dopamine 4 receptor (DR4) enhanced hippocampal γ oscillation of young mice and fully recovered the impaired hippocampal synaptic plasticity of aged mice, we determined whether this receptor is involved in aging-related modulation of hippocampal γ oscillation. Methods: We recorded γ oscillations in the hippocampal CA3 region from young and aged C57bl6 mice and investigated the effects of dopamine and the selective dopamine receptor (DR) agonists on γ oscillation. Results: We first found that γ oscillation power (γ power) was reduced in aged mice compared to young mice, which was restored by exogenous application of dopamine (DA). Second, the selective agonists for different D1- and D2-type dopamine receptors increased γ power in young mice but had little or small effect in aged mice. Third, the D4 receptor (D4R) agonist PD168077 caused a large increase of γ power in aged mice but a small increase in young mice, and its effect is blocked by the highly specific D4R antagonist L-745,870 or largely reduced by a NMDAR antagonist. Fourth, D3R agonist had no effect on γ power of either young or aged mice. Conclusion: This study reveals DR subtype-mediated hippocampal γ oscillations is aging-related and DR4 activation restores the impaired γ oscillations in aged brain, and suggests that D4R is the potential target for the improvement of cognitive deficits related to the aging and aging-related diseases

Quantitative Model for the Surface-related Electron Transfer in CdS Quantum Dots

The influence of surface S2- dangling bonds and surface doped ions(Se2-, Cu2+, and Hg2+) on the photoluminescence of Cd2+-rich CdS QDs was investigated. A quantitative model was proposed to understand the complex transfer processes of excited electrons in CdS QDs. The transfer of excited electrons from either the conduction band or the Cd2+-related trap-state to the surface S2--related shallow hole trap-state is effective. However, the trap of excited electrons by surface doped ion trap-states from the Cd2+-related trap-state is more effective than that from the conduction band. The efficiency of trapping electrons from both the conduction band and the Cd2+-related trap-state can be quantitatively understood with the help of the proposed model. The results show that the transfer efficiency of excited electrons is dependent on the location of the energy-level of the relevant surface-related trap-state. The trap of excited electrons by the surface trap-state with energy-level closer to that of the conduction band is more effective, especially for the trap of excited electrons from Cd2+-related trap-state.Measurement and Testing Center of Zhejiang Province, China [02079