SUBLETHAL FREEZING EFFECTS ON NITROGEN UPTAKE AND GROWTH IN POA PRATENSIS

In northern temperate regions, climate warming is predicted to increase the frequency of soil freeze-thaw cycles (FTC) and reduce plant cold acclimation in late fall and early spring. To test if FTC inhibit plant nitrogen (N) uptake, I exposed Poa pratensis tillers to FTC in late fall, mid winter, and early spring, then used a 15N tracer to assess N uptake from a hydroponic solution. To assess the direct effects of FTC on plant growth, I exposed P. pratensis tillers to FTC on the same dates, then measured plant biomass the following summer. Freezing of short duration at -10 °C and longer freezing a t - 5 °C in fall and spring decreased N uptake significantly. Plant growth decreased the most after spring FTC. Reduced plant cold acclimation in fall and spring must thus be coupled with extreme soil freezing to hinder plant N acquisition and growth

Condition for resonant optical bistability

We address a two-level system in an environment interacting with an electromagnetic field in the dipole approximation. The resonant optical bistability induced by local-field effects is studied by considering the relationship between the population difference and the excitation field. The diversity of various systems is included by accounting for system self-action via the surface part of Green's dyadic in the general form. The bistability condition and the exact solution of the steady-state optical Bloch equations at the absolute bistability threshold are derived analytically

Warming Events Advance or Delay Spring Phenology by Affecting Bud Dormancy Depth in Trees

The frequency of sudden, strong warming events is projected to increase in the future. The effects of such events on spring phenology of trees might depend on their timing because spring warming has generally been shown to advance spring budburst while fall and winter warming have been shown to delay spring phenology. To understand the mechanism behind timing-specific warming effects on spring phenology, I simulated warming events during fall, mid-winter and at the end of winter and quantified their effects on bud dormancy depth and subsequently on spring leaf out. The warming events were carried out in climate chambers on tree seedlings of Betula pendula and Fagus sylvatica in October, January, and February. Control seedlings were kept at photoperiod and temperature matching the daily fluctuating field conditions. Warmed seedlings were kept 10°C warmer than the control seedlings for 10 days during the respective warming periods. Warming in October increased bud dormancy depth and decreased spring leaf-out rate only for F. sylvatica, whereas warming in February reduced bud dormancy depth and advanced spring leaf-out rate only for B. pendula. Neither bud dormancy depth nor spring leaf out rate were affected by January warming. The results indicate that warming-induced changes in bud dormancy depth may explain species- and timing-specific warming effects on spring phenology. The extent to which the timing of bud dormancy phases is species-specific will influence among-species variation in future spring leaf out times

Nonlinear optical dynamics of 2D super-crystals of quantum Λ-emitters

We study theoretically the optical response of a 2D super-crystal of quantum Λ-emitters which are coupled by their secondary dipole field. The latter introduces a feedback into the system, the interplay of which with the intrinsic nonlinearity of emitters results in an exotic behavior of the system's optical response, such as periodic or quasi-periodic self-oscillations and chaotic dynamics. We argue therefore that these predicted features can be promising for various nanophotonic applications

Quantum metasurfaces of arrays of Λ-emitters for photonic nano-devices

We address exotic optical response of a planar metasurface comprising a monolayer of regularly spaced quantum three-level emitters with a doublet in the ground state (the so-called Λ-emitters). All emitters are coupled by the retarded dipole field which depends on the current state of all emitters. This coupling introduces a feedback into the system. Complex interplay of the latter with the intrinsic nonlinearity of a three-level system results in several remarkable effects in the monolayer's optical response, such as multistability, self-oscillations, and chaos. The peculiarity of the considered system is that some of the predicted nonlinear effects manifest themselves at very low excitation field intensities (on the order of 1 W/cm2), which is advantageous for possible applications: the monolayer can operate as a perfect reflector, a bistable mirror, and a THz or noise generator. It is argued therefore that the proposed system is a promising candidate for a building block for various photonic nano-devices

Theory of acceptor-ground-state description and hot photoluminescence in cubic semiconductors

An approach to the theory of the acceptor ground state in cubic semiconductors is presented. The model has been developed within the framework of the four-band effective Luttinger Hamiltonian and is applicable for both Coulomb and non-Coulomb accepters. The system of integral equations for the ground-state wave functions has been derived and its solution has been numerically computed. We present the general form of the acceptor-ground-state wave function. The wave functions for a set of acceptor dopants in GaAs are calculated with an accuracy of 2%. The obtained wave functions have been used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of the hot photoluminescence (HPL) spectra and linear polarization in GaAs crystals. Analytical expressions for the line shape and anisotropy of the linear polarization degree have been derived. The dependencies of the HPL characteristics on the excitation energy as well as on the acceptor binding energy have been analyzed. The HPL theory presented allows us to describe the wide spectrum of available experimental data