Computed terahertz near-field mapping of molecular resonances of lactose stereo-isomer impurities with sub-attomole sensitivity

Terahertz near-field microscopy (THz-NFM) could locally probe low-energy molecular vibration dynamics below diffraction limits, showing promise to decipher intermolecular interactions of biomolecules and quantum matters with unique THz vibrational fingerprints. However, its realization has been impeded by low spatial and spectral resolutions and lack of theoretical models to quantitatively analyze near-field imaging. Here, we show that THz scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (THz s-SNOM) with a theoretical model can quantitatively measure and image such low-energy molecular interactions, permitting computed spectroscopic near-field mapping of THz molecular resonance spectra. Using crystalline-lactose stereo-isomer (anomer) mixtures (i.e., alpha-lactose (>= 95%, w/w) and beta-lactose (<= 4%, w/w)), THz s-SNOM resolved local intermolecular vibrations of both anomers with enhanced spatial and spectral resolutions, yielding strong resonances to decipher conformational fingerprint of the trace beta-anomer impurity. Its estimated sensitivity was similar to 0.147 attomoles in similar to 8 x 10(-4) mu m(3) interaction volume. Our THz s-SNOM platform offers a new path for ultrasensitive molecular fingerprinting of complex mixtures of biomolecules or organic crystals with markedly enhanced spatio-spectral resolutions. This could open up significant possibilities of THz technology in many fields, including biology, chemistry and condensed matter physics as well as semiconductor industries where accurate quantitative mappings of trace isomer impurities are critical but still challenging.11Ysciescopu

Core-Level X-Ray Photoemission Satellites in Ruthenates: A New Mechanism Revealing the Mott Transition

Ru 3d core-level x-ray photoemission spectra of various ruthenates are examined. They show in general two-peak structures, which can be assigned as the screened and unscreened peaks. The screened peak is absent in a Mott insulator, but develops into a main peak in the metallic regime. This spectral behavior is well explained by the dynamical mean-field theory calculation for the single-band Hubbard model with on-site core-hole potential using the exact diagonalization method. The new mechanism of the core-level photoemission satellite can be utilized to reveal the Mott transition phenomenon in various strongly correlated electron systems, especially in nano-scale devices and phase-separated materials.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Radius-dependent gauge unification in AdS5

We examine the relation of the 4-dimensional low energy coupling of bulk gauge boson in a slice of AdS5 to the 5-dimensional fundamental couplings as a function of the orbifold radius R. This allows us to address the gauge coupling unification in AdS5 by means of the radius running as well as the conventional momentum running. We then compute the radius dependence of 1-loop low energy couplings in generic AdS5 theory with 4-dimensional supersymmetry, and discuss the low energy predictions when the 5-dimensional couplings are assumed to be unified.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, revtex, v3: analysis was generalized to S^1/Z_2*Z_2 orbifoldin

Inflation and Gauge Hierarchy in Randall-Sundrum Compactification

We obtain the general inflationary solutions for the slab of five-dimensional AdS spacetime where the fifth dimension is an orbifold $S^1/Z_2$ and two three-branes reside at its boundaries, of which the Randall-Sundrum model corresponds to the static limit. The investigation of the general solutions and their static limit reveals that the RS model recasts both the cosmological constant problem and the gauge hierarchy problem into the balancing problem of the bulk and the brane cosmological constants.Comment: 9 pages, revtex, minor changes and more references adde

A Note on Non-compact Cauchy surface

It is shown that if a space-time has non-compact Cauchy surface, then its topological, differentiable, and causal structure are completely determined by a class of compact subsets of its Cauchy surface. Since causal structure determines its topological, differentiable, and conformal structure of space-time, this gives a natural way to encode the corresponding structures into its Cauchy surface

Dynamical solution to the μ\mu problem at TeV scale

We introduce a new confining force (\mu-color) at TeV scale to dynamically generate a supersymmetry preserving mass scale which would replace the \mu parameter in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). We discuss the Higgs phenomenology and also the pattern of soft supersymmetry breaking parameters allowing the correct electroweak symmetry breaking within the \mu-color model, which have quite distinctive features from the MSSM and also from other generalizations of the MSSM.Comment: 12 pages, REVte

Gauge coupling renormalization in orbifold field theories

We investigate the gauge coupling renormalization in orbifold field theories preserving 4-dimensional N=1 supersymmetry in the framework of 4-dimensional effective supergravity. As a concrete example, we consider the 5-dimensional Super-Yang-Mills theory on a slice of AdS_5. In our approach, one-loop gauge couplings can be determined by the loop-induced axion couplings and the tree level properties of 4-dimensional effective supergravity which are much easier to be computed.Comment: 18 pages, JHEP style; 1-loop corrections to gauge kinetic functions are fully computed, references are adde

X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of diluted magnetic semiconductors: Zn1-xMxSe (M = Mn, Fe, Co) and Zn1-xMnxY (Y = Se, Te)

We have investigated 3d electronic states of doped transition metals in II-VI diluted magnetic semiconductors, Zn1-xMxSe (M = Mn, Fe, Co) and Zn1-xMnxY (Y = Se, Te), using the transition-metal L2,3-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements. In order to explain the XAS spectra, we employed a tetragonal cluster model calculation, which includes not only the full ionic multiplet structure but also configuration interaction (CI). The results show that CI is essential to describe the experimental spectra adequately, indicating the strong hybridization between the transition metal 3d and the ligand p orbitals. In the study of Zn1-xMnxY (Y = Se, Te), we also found considerable spectral change in the Mn L2,3-edge XAS spectra for different ligands, confirming the importance of the hybridization effects in these materials.Comment: This paper consists of 22 pages including 4 figures. This paper is submitted to Physical Review

Contrast enhancement behavior of hydrogen silsesquioxane in a salty developer

The authors investigated a contrast enhancement behavior of hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) in a salty development system (NaOH/NaCl). Time-resolved analysis of contrast curves and line-grating patterns were carried out to investigate the unique properties of a salty development process. In NaOH developer without salt, the development process was saturated beyond a certain development time. On the other hand, the addition of salt enabled a continuous development, which was not observed in the pure NaOH development. The continuous thinning process enhances the contrast of HSQ in the salty developer, which allows a fast collapsing behavior in HSQ line-grating patterns. During development process, salt seems to have the role of modifying HSQ by breaking network bonds preferentially, leading to a continuous development rate

Effects of hydrogen plasma treatment on the electrical behavior of solution-processed ZnO transistors

The effects of hydrogen plasma treatment on the active layer of top-contact zinc oxide thin film transistors are reported. The transfer characteristics of the reference devices exhibited large hysteresis effects and an increasing positive threshold voltage (VTH) shift on repeated measurements. In contrast, following the plasma processing, the corresponding characteristics of the transistors exhibited negligible hysteresis and a very small VTH shift; the devices also possessed higher field effect carrier mobility values. These results were attributed to the presence of functional groups in the vicinity of the semiconductor/gate insulator interface, which prevents the formation of an effective channel