Control of Dephasing and Phonon Emission in Coupled Quantum Dots

We predict that phonon subband quantization can be detected in the non-linear electron current through double quantum dot qubits embedded into nano-size semiconductor slabs, acting as phonon cavities. For particular values of the dot level splitting $\Delta$, piezo-electric or deformation potential scattering is either drastically reduced as compared to the bulk case, or strongly enhanced due to phonon van Hove singularities. By tuning $\Delta$ via gate voltages, one can either control dephasing, or strongly increase emission into phonon modes with characteristic angular distributions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication as Rapid Comm. in Phys. Rev.

Steering of a Bosonic Mode with a Double Quantum Dot

We investigate the transport and coherence properties of a double quantum dot coupled to a single damped boson mode. Our numerically results reveal how the properties of the boson distribution can be steered by altering parameters of the electronic system such as the energy difference between the dots. Quadrature amplitude variances and the Wigner function are employed to illustrate how the state of the boson mode can be controlled by a stationary electron current through the dots.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Direct Observation of Propagating Gigahertz Coherent Guided Acoustic Phonons in Free Standing Single Copper Nanowires

We report on gigahertz acoustic phonon waveguiding in free-standing single copper nanowires studied by femtosecond transient reflectivity measurements. The results are discussed on the basis of the semianalytical resolution of the Pochhammer and Chree equation. The spreading of the generated Gaussian wave packet of two different modes is derived analytically and compared with the observed oscillations of the sample reflectivity. These experiments provide a unique way to independently obtain geometrical and material characterization. This direct observation of coherent guided acoustic phonons in a single nano-object is also the first step toward nanolateral size acoustic transducer and comprehensive studies of the thermal properties of nanowires

Secular sea level change in the Russian sector of the Arctic Ocean

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 109 (2004): C03042, doi:10.1029/2003JC002007.Sea level is a natural integral indicator of climate variability. It reflects changes in practically all dynamic and thermodynamic processes of terrestrial, oceanic, atmospheric, and cryospheric origin. The use of estimates of sea level rise as an indicator of climate change therefore incurs the difficulty that the inferred sea level change is the net result of many individual effects of environmental forcing. Since some of these effects may offset others, the cause of the sea level response to climate change remains somewhat uncertain. This paper is focused on an attempt to provide first-order answers to two questions, namely, what is the rate of sea level change in the Arctic Ocean, and furthermore, what is the role of each of the individual contributing factors to observed Arctic Ocean sea level change? In seeking answers to these questions we have discovered that during the period 1954–1989 the observed sea level over the Russian sector of the Arctic Ocean is rising at a rate of approximately 0.123 cm yr−1 and that after correction for the process of glacial isostatic adjustment this rate is approximately 0.185 cm yr−1. There are two major causes of this rise. The first is associated with the steric effect of ocean expansion. This effect is responsible for a contribution of approximately 0.064 cm yr−1 to the total rate of rise (35%). The second most important factor is related to the ongoing decrease of sea level atmospheric pressure over the Arctic Ocean, which contributes 0.056 cm yr−1, or approximately 30% of the net positive sea level trend. A third contribution to the sea level increase involves wind action and the increase of cyclonic winds over the Arctic Ocean, which leads to sea level rise at a rate of 0.018 cm yr−1 or approximately 10% of the total. The combined effect of the sea level rise due to an increase of river runoff and the sea level fall due to a negative trend in precipitation minus evaporation over the ocean is close to 0. For the Russian sector of the Arctic Ocean it therefore appears that approximately 25% of the trend of 0.185 cm yr−1, a contribution of 0.048 cm yr−1, may be due to the effect of increasing Arctic Ocean mass.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant 0136432

Phonons in Slow Motion: Dispersion Relations in Ultra-Thin Si Membranes

We report the changes in dispersion relations of hypersonic acoustic phonons in free-standing silicon membranes as thin as \sim 8 nm. We observe a reduction of the phase and group velocities of the fundamental flexural mode by more than one order of magnitude compared to bulk values. The modification of the dispersion relation in nanostructures has important consequences for noise control in nano and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) as well as opto-mechanical devices.Comment: 5 page

Molecular Characterization of Podoviral Bacteriophages Virulent for Clostridium perfringens and Their Comparison with Members of the Picovirinae

Clostridium perfringens is a Gram-positive, spore-forming anaerobic bacterium responsible for human food-borne disease as well as non-food-borne human, animal and poultry diseases. Because bacteriophages or their gene products could be applied to control bacterial diseases in a species-specific manner, they are potential important alternatives to antibiotics. Consequently, poultry intestinal material, soil, sewage and poultry processing drainage water were screened for virulent bacteriophages that lysed C. perfringens. Two bacteriophages, designated ΦCPV4 and ΦZP2, were isolated in the Moscow Region of the Russian Federation while another closely related virus, named ΦCP7R, was isolated in the southeastern USA. The viruses were identified as members of the order Caudovirales in the family Podoviridae with short, non-contractile tails of the C1 morphotype. The genomes of the three bacteriophages were 17.972, 18.078 and 18.397 kbp respectively; encoding twenty-six to twenty-eight ORF's with inverted terminal repeats and an average GC content of 34.6%. Structural proteins identified by mass spectrometry in the purified ΦCP7R virion included a pre-neck/appendage with putative lyase activity, major head, tail, connector/upper collar, lower collar and a structural protein with putative lysozyme-peptidase activity. All three podoviral bacteriophage genomes encoded a predicted N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidase and a putative stage V sporulation protein. Each putative amidase contained a predicted bacterial SH3 domain at the C-terminal end of the protein, presumably involved with binding the C. perfringens cell wall. The predicted DNA polymerase type B protein sequences were closely related to other members of the Podoviridae including Bacillus phage Φ29. Whole-genome comparisons supported this relationship, but also indicated that the Russian and USA viruses may be unique members of the sub-family Picovirinae