Local pressure-induced metallization of a semiconducting carbon nanotube in a crossed junction

The electronic and vibrational density of states of a semiconducting carbon nanotube in a crossed junction was investigated by elastic and inelastic scanning tunneling spectroscopy. The strong radial compression of the nanotube at the junction induces local metallization spatially confined to a few nm. The local electronic modifications are correlated with the observed changes in the radial breathing and G-band phonon modes, which react very sensitively to local mechanical deformation. In addition, the experiments reveal the crucial contribution of the image charges to the contact potential at nanotube-metal interfaces

Uterine NK cells are critical in shaping DC immunogenic functions compatible with pregnancy progression.

Dendritic cell (DC) and natural killer (NK) cell interactions are important for the regulation of innate and adaptive immunity, but their relevance during early pregnancy remains elusive. Using two different strategies to manipulate the frequency of NK cells and DC during gestation, we investigated their relative impact on the decidualization process and on angiogenic responses that characterize murine implantation. Manipulation of the frequency of NK cells, DC or both lead to a defective decidual response characterized by decreased proliferation and differentiation of stromal cells. Whereas no detrimental effects were evident upon expansion of DC, NK cell ablation in such expanded DC mice severely compromised decidual development and led to early pregnancy loss. Pregnancy failure in these mice was associated with an unbalanced production of anti-angiogenic signals and most notably, with increased expression of genes related to inflammation and immunogenic activation of DC. Thus, NK cells appear to play an important role counteracting potential anomalies raised by DC expansion and overactivity in the decidua, becoming critical for normal pregnancy progression

Absolute frequency measurement of the magnesium intercombination transition 1S0→3P1^1S_0 \to ^3P_1

We report on a frequency measurement of the $(3s^2)^1S_0\to(3s3p)^3P_1$ clock transition of $^{24}$Mg on a thermal atomic beam. The intercombination transition has been referenced to a portable primary Cs frequency standard with the help of a femtosecond fiber laser frequency comb. The achieved uncertainty is $2.5\times10^{-12}$ which corresponds to an increase in accuracy of six orders of magnitude compared to previous results. The measured frequency value permits the calculation of several other optical transitions from $^1S_0$ to the $^3P_J$-level system for $^{24}$Mg, $^{25}$Mg and $^{26}$Mg. We describe in detail the components of our optical frequency standard like the stabilized spectroscopy laser, the atomic beam apparatus used for Ramsey-Bord\'e interferometry and the frequency comb generator and discuss the uncertainty contributions to our measurement including the first and second order Doppler effect. An upper limit of $3\times10^{-13}$ in one second for the short term instability of our optical frequency standard was determined by comparison with a GPS disciplined quartz oscillator.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Tuning the electronic structures of armchair graphene nanoribbons through chemical edge modification: A theoretical study

We report combined first-principle and tight-binding (TB) calculations to simulate the effects of chemical edge modifications on structural and electronic properties. The C-C bond lengths and bond angles near the GNR edge have considerable changes when edge carbon atoms are bounded to different atoms. By introducing a phenomenological hopping parameter $t_{1}$ for nearest-neighboring hopping to represent various chemical edge modifications, we investigated the electronic structural changes of nanoribbons with different widths based on the tight-binding scheme. Theoretical results show that addends can change the band structures of armchair GNRs and even result in observable metal-to-insulator transition.Comment: 4 pages and 4 figure

Fram Strait Studies (FRAMZY 2002 and ACSYS-ABSIS 2003) ice drifter data evaluation for sea ice kinematics and dynamics studies - technical report

Sisältää myös toisen artikkelin: Johanna Ikävalko: Review of oil spill effects on Arctic marine ecosystem

Interface-Induced Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism in Hydrogenated Epitaxial Graphene

Quantum Matter and Optic

Interface-Induced Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism in Hydrogenated Epitaxial Graphene

Quantum Matter and Optic

Probing Quantum Confinement of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes by Resonant Soft-X-Ray Emission Spectroscopy

[[abstract]]We report the band-structure changes near Fermi level for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with diameters down to 1 nm from the study of soft-x-ray absorption and resonant emission spectroscopy. The observed quantum confinement of SWNTs affects both pi and sigma bands and bandgap through the rehybridization of pi and sigma orbitals. The significant changes of electronic structure are proved to be a measure for the mean diameter of the macroscopic amounts of SWNTs. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.[[notice]]補正完畢[[booktype]]紙