250 research outputs found
Exciton dynamics in soluble poly(p-phenylene-vinylene) : Towards an ultrafast excitonic switch
Quasiperiodic Envelope Solitons
We analyse nonlinear wave propagation and cascaded self-focusing due to
second-harmonic generation in Fibbonacci optical superlattices and introduce a
novel concept of nonlinear physics, the quasiperiodic soliton, which describes
spatially localized self-trapping of a quasiperiodic wave. We point out a link
between the quasiperiodic soliton and partially incoherent spatial solitary
waves recently generated experimentally.Comment: Submitted to PRL. 4 pages with 5 figure
Isotropic photonic band gap and anisotropic structures in transmission spectra of two-dimensional 5-fold and 8-fold symmetric quasiperiodic photonic crystals
We measured and calculated transmission spectra of two-dimensional
quasiperiodic photonic crystals (PCs) based on a 5-fold (Penrose) or 8-fold
(octagonal) symmetric quasiperiodic pattern. The photonic crystal consisted of
dielectric cylindrical rods in air placed normal to the basal plane on vertices
of tiles composing the quasiperiodic pattern. An isotropic photonic band gap
(PBG) appeared in the TM mode, where electric fields were parallel to the rods,
even when the real part of a dielectric constant of the rod was as small as
2.4. An isotropic PBG-like dip was seen in tiny Penrose and octagonal PCs with
only 6 and 9 rods, respectively. These results indicate that local multiple
light scattering within the tiny PC plays an important role in the PBG
formation. Besides the isotropic PBG, we found dips depending on the incident
angle of the light. This is the first report of anisotropic structures clearly
observed in transmission spectra of quasiperiodic PCs. Based on rod-number and
rod-arrangement dependence, it is thought that the shapes and positions of the
anisotropic dips are determined by global multiple light scattering covering
the whole system. In contrast to the isotropic PBG due to local light
scattering, we could not find any PBGs due to global light scattering even
though we studied transmission spectra of a huge Penrose PC with 466 rods.Comment: One tex file for manuscript and 12 PNG files for figures consisting
of Fig.1a-d, 2,3, ...
Physical nature of critical wave functions in Fibonacci systems
We report on a new class of critical states in the energy spectrum of general
Fibonacci systems. By introducing a transfer matrix renormalization technique,
we prove that the charge distribution of these states spreads over the whole
system, showing transport properties characteristic of electronic extended
states. Our analytical method is a first step to find out the link between the
spatial structure of these critical wave functions and the quasiperiodic order
of the underlying lattice.Comment: REVTEX 3.0, 11 pages, 2 figures available upon request. To appear in
Phys. Rev. Let
Multi-component optical solitary waves
We discuss several novel types of multi-component (temporal and spatial)
envelope solitary waves that appear in fiber and waveguide nonlinear optics. In
particular, we describe multi-channel solitary waves in bit-parallel-wavelength
fiber transmission systems for high performance computer networks, multi-colour
parametric spatial solitary waves due to cascaded nonlinearities of quadratic
materials, and quasiperiodic envelope solitons due to quasi-phase-matching in
Fibonacci optical superlattices.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures; To be published in: Proceedings of the Dynamics
Days Asia-Pacific: First International Conference on Nonlinear Science
(Hong-Kong, 13-16 July, 1999), Editor: Bambi Hu (Elsevier Publishers, 2000
Trace and antitrace maps for aperiodic sequences, their extensions and applications
We study aperiodic systems based on substitution rules by means of a
transfer-matrix approach. In addition to the well-known trace map, we
investigate the so-called `antitrace' map, which is the corresponding map for
the difference of the off-diagonal elements of the 2x2 transfer matrix. The
antitrace maps are obtained for various binary, ternary and quaternary
aperiodic sequences, such as the Fibonacci, Thue-Morse, period-doubling,
Rudin-Shapiro sequences, and certain generalizations. For arbitrary
substitution rules, we show that not only trace maps, but also antitrace maps
exist. The dimension of the our antitrace map is r(r+1)/2, where r denotes the
number of basic letters in the aperiodic sequence. Analogous maps for specific
matrix elements of the transfer matrix can also be constructed, but the maps
for the off-diagonal elements and for the difference of the diagonal elements
coincide with the antitrace map. Thus, from the trace and antitrace map, we can
determine any physical quantity related to the global transfer matrix of the
system. As examples, we employ these dynamical maps to compute the transmission
coefficients for optical multilayers, harmonic chains, and electronic systems.Comment: 13 pages, REVTeX, now also includes applications to electronic
systems, some references adde
Size constancy in bat biosonar?
Perception and encoding of object size is an important feature of sensory systems. In the visual system object size is encoded by the visual angle (visual aperture) on the retina, but the aperture depends on the distance of the object. As object distance is not unambiguously encoded in the visual system, higher computational mechanisms are needed. This phenomenon is termed "size constancy". It is assumed to reflect an automatic re-scaling of visual aperture with perceived object distance. Recently, it was found that in echolocating bats, the 'sonar aperture', i.e., the range of angles from which sound is reflected from an object back to the bat, is unambiguously perceived and neurally encoded. Moreover, it is well known that object distance is accurately perceived and explicitly encoded in bat sonar. Here, we addressed size constancy in bat biosonar, recruiting virtual-object techniques. Bats of the species Phyllostomus discolor learned to discriminate two simple virtual objects that only differed in sonar aperture. Upon successful discrimination, test trials were randomly interspersed using virtual objects that differed in both aperture and distance. It was tested whether the bats spontaneously assigned absolute width information to these objects by combining distance and aperture. The results showed that while the isolated perceptual cues encoding object width, aperture, and distance were all perceptually well resolved by the bats, the animals did not assign absolute width information to the test objects. This lack of sonar size constancy may result from the bats relying on different modalities to extract size information at different distances. Alternatively, it is conceivable that familiarity with a behaviorally relevant, conspicuous object is required for sonar size constancy, as it has been argued for visual size constancy. Based on the current data, it appears that size constancy is not necessarily an essential feature of sonar perception in bats
Luminescence Properties of a Fibonacci Photonic Quasicrystal
We report the realization of an active one-dimensional Fibonacci photonic
quasi-crystal via spin coating. Manipulation of the luminescence properties of
an organic dye embedded in the quasi-crystal is presented and compared to
theoretical simulations. The luminescence occurs via the pseudo-bandedge mode
and follows the dispersion properties of the Fibonacci crystal. Time resolved
luminescence measurement of the active structure shows faster spontaneous
emission rate, indicating the effect of the large photon densities available at
the bandedge due to the presence of critically localized states. The
experimental results are in excellent agreement with the theoretical
calculations.Comment: PDF file, 14 pages 4 figure
Effect of cyclosporin A on proteinuria in the course of glomerulopathy associated with WT1 mutations
Denys–Drash syndrome (DDS) is characterized by progressive glomerulopathy caused by diffuse mesangial sclerosis (DMS), genitourinary defects, and a higher risk of developing Wilms’ tumor. It is commonly assumed that the DMS is unresponsive to any medications. In this report, we present a patient with Denys–Drash syndrome, in whom the cyclosporine A (CsA) was found to induce total remission. This observation and observations of other authors confirm that in genetic forms of nephrotic syndrome, the proteinuric effect of CsA may be due to a non-immunologic mechanism. We confirm the beneficial effect of CsA treatment in DDS; however, the potential nephrotoxicity of this drug will probably not allow long-term use
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