Controlling Excitations Inversion of a Cooper Pair Box Interacting with a Nanomechanical Resonator

We investigate the action of time dependent detunings upon the excitation inversion of a Cooper pair box interacting with a nanomechanical resonator. The method employs the Jaynes-Cummings model with damping, assuming different decay rates of the Cooper pair box and various fixed and t-dependent detunings. It is shown that while the presence of damping plus constant detunings destroy the collapse/revival effects, convenient choices of time dependent detunings allow one to reconstruct such events in a perfect way. It is also shown that the mean excitation of the nanomechanical resonator is more robust against damping of the Cooper pair box for convenient values of t-dependent detunings.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Optical properties of amorphous, erbium-doped yttrium alumino-borate thin films

In this paper, we report on the optical characterizations of erbium-doped yttrium alumino-borate glassy thin films prepared by the polymeric precursor and sol–gel routes and the spin-coating technique. High quality planar waveguides were produced by a multilayer processing of Y1−xErxAl3(BO3)4 compositions with x = 0.02, 0.05, 0.10, 0.30, and 0.50. Their optical properties were investigated using transmission, photoluminescence, and m-lines spectroscopy, whereas high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM) was applied to check film thickness and surface homogeneity. The refractive indices determined from transmission and m-lines spectroscopy are in good agreement just like the film thickness measured by HR-SEM and transmission spectroscopy. We observed low propagation losses, together with efficient photoluminescence emission for polymeric precursor thin films, involving low cost and environment friendly reactants.FAPESPCNPqCAPES-COFECUB Brazil–Franc

Exome sequencing followed by large-scale genotyping suggests a limited role for moderately rare risk factors of strong effect in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder with strong heritability and marked heterogeneity in symptoms, course, and treatment response. There is strong interest in identifying genetic risk factors that can help to elucidate the pathophysiology and that might result in the development of improved treatments. Linkage and genome-wide association studies (GWASs) suggest that the genetic basis of schizophrenia is heterogeneous. However, it remains unclear whether the underlying genetic variants are mostly moderately rare and can be identified by the genotyping of variants observed in sequenced cases in large follow-up cohorts or whether they will typically be much rarer and therefore more effectively identified by gene-based methods that seek to combine candidate variants. Here, we consider 166 persons who have schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and who have had either their genomes or their exomes sequenced to high coverage. From these data, we selected 5,155 variants that were further evaluated in an independent cohort of 2,617 cases and 1,800 controls. No single variant showed a study-wide significant association in the initial or follow-up cohorts. However, we identified a number of case-specific variants, some of which might be real risk factors for schizophrenia, and these can be readily interrogated in other data sets. Our results indicate that schizophrenia risk is unlikely to be predominantly influenced by variants just outside the range detectable by GWASs. Rather, multiple rarer genetic variants must contribute substantially to the predisposition to schizophrenia, suggesting that both very large sample sizes and gene-based association tests will be required for securely identifying genetic risk factors. © 2012 The American Society of Human Genetics

An improved method for preparation of SrTi'O IND.3' nanoparticles

SrTiO3 nanoparticles were synthesized for the first time via a modified polymeric precursor method. The samples were characterized by thermogravimetry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET surface area, micro-Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning and transmission electron microscopy (FE-SEM and FE-STEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and photoluminescence measurements. It is found that calcination atmosphere (air, nitrogen and oxygen) plays an important role of both crystal size and photolumiscence behavior of the SrTiO3 nanocrystallites. Results show that the powders obtained in nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere possess controllable particles size of approximately 11 nm presenting the highest photoluminescence emission.CNPqFAPESPGeneralitat Valenciana (Prometeo/2009/053)MICINN (CTQ2009-14541- C02

Local structure study of vanadium pentoxide 1D-nanostructures

Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5·nH2O) 1D-nanostructures as nanowires and nanorods have been obtained by decomposition of vanadium peroxide in hydrothermal conditions. Electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) were employed to characterize the morphology and the local structure of as-obtained samples. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) revealed that the diameter of the nanowires and nanorods were found to be 10–20 and 30–40 nm, respectively. The results demonstrated that a combination of Raman and XAS techniques allowed the accurate characterization of the local structure of V2O5 1D-nanostructures which are related to different morphologies. Analyses of X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectra reveals that the local structure of V in the as-obtained samples is similar to the bulk V2O5 (in orthorhombic phase), except for a higher degree of local symmetry within the structure of the VO5 square pyramid. Additionally, the nanostructures prepared by this technique present a single crystalline nature and could emit visible light at room temperature which is related to the local order of V atoms of the studied samples.FAPESPCAPESCNP

Photoexpansion and photobleaching effects in oxysulfide thin films of the GeS2+Ga2O3 system

Oxysulfide systems undergo structural transformations upon illumination with laser light of near bandgap energy, as well as chalcogenide materials (glasses and films). In this paper, photoinduced effects such as photoexpansion and photobleaching were observed in GeS2+Ga2O3 (GGSO) films synthesized by electron beam evaporation. A surface expansion of the thin films and a shift to shorter wavelengths of the optical absorption edge were observed as a result of UV laser irradiation (wavelength of 351 nm) and they are dependent on laser power density, exposure time and film composition. These parameters were varied to evaluate and enhance the observed effects. In addition, the irradiated GGSO samples exhibited a decrease in refractive index, measured with a prism-coupling technique, which makes these films suitable candidates for applications as gratings and waveguides in integrated optics.FAPESP (05/58396-0