Spectroscopic studies of fractal aggregates of silver nanospheres undergoing local restructuring

We present an experimental spectroscopic study of large random colloidal aggregates of silver nanoparticles undergoing local restructuring. We argue that such well-known phenomena as strong fluctuation of local electromagnetic fields, appearance of "hot spots" and enhancement of nonlinear optical responses depend on the local structure on the scales of several nanosphere diameters, rather that the large-scale fractal geometry of the sample.Comment: 3.5 pages, submitted to J. Chem. Phy

The first light of Mini-MegaTORTORA wide-field monitoring system

Here we describe the first light of the novel 9-channel wide-field optical monitoring system with sub-second temporal resolution, Mini-MegaTORTORA, which is being tested now at Special Astrophysical Observatory on Russian Caucasus. The system is able to observe the sky simultaneously in either wide (~900 square degrees) or narrow (~100 square degrees) fields of view, either in clear light or with any combination of color (Johnson B, V or R) polarimetric filters installed, with exposure times ranging from 100 ms to 100 s. The primary goal of the system is the detection of rapid -- with sub-second characteristic time-scales -- optical transients, but it may be also used for studying the variability of the sky objects on longer time scales.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, based on the talk presented on "Modern stellar astronomy-2014" (Rostov-on-Don

Local anisotropy and giant enhancement of local electromagnetic fields in fractal aggregates of metal nanoparticles

We have shown within the quasistatic approximation that the giant fluctuations of local electromagnetic field in random fractal aggregates of silver nanospheres are strongly correlated with a local anisotropy factor S which is defined in this paper. The latter is a purely geometrical parameter which characterizes the deviation of local environment of a given nanosphere in an aggregate from spherical symmetry. Therefore, it is possible to predict the sites with anomalously large local fields in an aggregate without explicitly solving the electromagnetic problem. We have also demonstrated that the average (over nanospheres) value of S does not depend noticeably on the fractal dimension D, except when D approaches the trivial limit D=3. In this case, as one can expect, the average local environment becomes spherically symmetrical and S approaches zero. This corresponds to the well-known fact that in trivial aggregates fluctuations of local electromagnetic fields are much weaker than in fractal aggregates. Thus, we find that, within the quasistatics, the large-scale geometry does not have a significant impact on local electromagnetic responses in nanoaggregates in a wide range of fractal dimensions. However, this prediction is expected to be not correct in aggregates which are sufficiently large for the intermediate- and radiation-zone interaction of individual nanospheres to become important.Comment: 9 pages 9 figures. No revisions from previous version; only figure layout is change

Thermodynamics of second phase conductive filaments

We present a theory of second phase conductive filaments in phase transformable systems; applications include threshold switches, phase change memory, and shunting in thin film structures. We show that the average filament parameters can be described thermodynamically. In agreement with the published data, the predicted filament current voltage characteristics exhibit negative differential resistance vanishing at high currents where the current density becomes a bulk material property. Our description is extendible to filament transients and allows for efficient numerical simulation

Photon losses depending on polarization mixedness

We introduce a quantum channel describing photon losses depending on the degree of polarization mixedness. This can be regarded as a model of quantum channel with correlated errors between discrete and continuous degrees of freedom. We consider classical information over a continuous alphabet encoded on weak coherent states as well as classical information over a discrete alphabet encoded on single photons using dual rail representation. In both cases we study the one-shot capacity of the channel and its behaviour in terms of correlation between losses and polarization mixedness

Purity and Gaussianity bounded uncertainty relation

Bounded uncertainty relations provide the minimum value of the uncertainty assuming some additional information on the state. We derive analytically an uncertainty relation bounded by a pair of constraints, those of purity and Gaussianity. In a limiting case this uncertainty relation reproduces the purity-bounded derived by V I Man'ko and V V Dodonov and the Gaussianity-bounded one [Phys. Rev. A 86, 030102R (2012)].Comment: Major changes in the presentation of the results but also in the proofs which have become more compact. Submitted to Journal of Physics