327 research outputs found
Helicity sensitive terahertz radiation detection by dual-grating-gate high electron mobility transistors
We report on the observation of a radiation helicity sensitive photocurrent
excited by terahertz (THz) radiation in dual-grating-gate (DGG)
InAlAs/InGaAs/InAlAs/InP high electron mobility transistors (HEMT). For a
circular polarization the current measured between source and drain contacts
changes its sign with the inversion of the radiation helicity. For elliptically
polarized radiation the total current is described by superposition of the
Stokes parameters with different weights. Moreover, by variation of gate
voltages applied to individual gratings the photocurrent can be defined either
by the Stokes parameter defining the radiation helicity or those for linear
polarization. We show that artificial non-centrosymmetric microperiodic
structures with a two-dimensional electron system excited by THz radiation
exhibit a dc photocurrent caused by the combined action of a spatially periodic
in-plane potential and spatially modulated light. The results provide a proof
of principle for the application of DGG HEMT for all-electric detection of the
radiation's polarization state.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Spin polarized electric currents in semiconductor heterostructures induced by microwave radiation
We report on microwave (mw) radiation induced electric currents in
(Cd,Mn)Te/(Cd,Mg)Te and InAs/(In,Ga)As quantum wells subjected to an external
in-plane magnetic field. The current generation is attributed to the
spin-dependent energy relaxation of electrons heated by mw radiation. The
relaxation produces equal and oppositely directed electron flows in the spin-up
and spin-down subbands yielding a pure spin current. The Zeeman splitting of
the subbands in the magnetic field leads to the conversion of the spin flow
into a spin-polarized electric current.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure
Fast detector of the ellipticity of infrared and terahertz radiation based on HgTe quantum well structures
We report a fast, room temperature detection scheme for the polarization
ellipticity of laser radiation, with a bandwidth that stretches from the
infrared to the terahertz range. The device consists of two elements, one in
front of the other, that detect the polarization ellipticity and the azimuthal
angle of the ellipse. The elements respectively utilise the circular
photogalvanic effect in a narrow gap semiconductor and the linear photogalvanic
effect in a bulk piezoelectric semiconductor. For the former we characterized
both a HgTe quantum well and bulk Te, and for the latter, bulk GaAs. In
contrast with optical methods our device is an easy to handle all-electric
approach, which we demonstrated by applying a large number of different lasers
from low power, continuous wave systems to high power, pulsed sources.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
All-electric detectors of the polarization state of terahertz laser radiation (extended version)
Two types of room temperature detectors of terahertz laser radiation have
been developed which allow in an all-electric manner to determine the plane of
polarization of linearly polarized radiation and the ellipticity of
elliptically polarized radiation, respectively. The operation of the detectors
is based on photogalvanic effects in semiconductor quantum well structures of
low symmetry. The photogalvanic effects have sub-nanosecond time constants at
room temperature making a high time resolution of the polarization detectors
possible
Suppression of quantum oscillations and the dependence on site energies in electronic excitation transfer in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson trimer
Energy transfer in the photosynthetic complex of the Green Sulfur Bacteria
known as the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex is studied theoretically taking
all three subunits (monomers) of the FMO trimer and the recently found eighth
bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) molecule into account. We find that in all
considered cases there is very little transfer between the monomers. Since it
is believed that the eighth BChl is located near the main light harvesting
antenna we look at the differences in transfer between the situation when BChl
8 is initially excited and the usually considered case when BChl 1 or 6 is
initially excited. We find strong differences in the transfer dynamics, both
qualitatively and quantitatively. When the excited state dynamics is
initialized at site eight of the FMO complex, we see a slow exponential-like
decay of the excitation. This is in contrast to the oscillations and a
relatively fast transfer that occurs when only seven sites or initialization at
sites 1 and 6 is considered. Additionally we show that differences in the
values of the electronic transition energies found in the literature lead to a
large difference in the transfer dynamics
Interactions between proteins bound to biomembranes
We study a physical model for the interaction between general inclusions
bound to fluid membranes that possess finite tension, as well as the usual
bending rigidity. We are motivated by an interest in proteins bound to cell
membranes that apply forces to these membranes, due to either entropic or
direct chemical interactions. We find an exact analytic solution for the
repulsive interaction between two similar circularly symmetric inclusions. This
repulsion extends over length scales of order tens of nanometers, and contrasts
with the membrane-mediated contact attraction for similar inclusions on
tensionless membranes. For non circularly symmetric inclusions we study the
small, algebraically long-ranged, attractive contribution to the force that
arises. We discuss the relevance of our results to biological phenomena, such
as the budding of caveolae from cell membranes and the striations that are
observed on their coats.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure
Structural Information in Two-Dimensional Patterns: Entropy Convergence and Excess Entropy
We develop information-theoretic measures of spatial structure and pattern in
more than one dimension. As is well known, the entropy density of a
two-dimensional configuration can be efficiently and accurately estimated via a
converging sequence of conditional entropies. We show that the manner in which
these conditional entropies converge to their asymptotic value serves as a
measure of global correlation and structure for spatial systems in any
dimension. We compare and contrast entropy-convergence with mutual-information
and structure-factor techniques for quantifying and detecting spatial
structure.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures,
http://www.santafe.edu/projects/CompMech/papers/2dnnn.htm
Helicity sensitive terahertz radiation detection by field effect transistors
Terahertz light helicity sensitive photoresponse in GaAs/AlGaAs high electron
mobility transistors. The helicity dependent detection mechanism is interpreted
as an interference of plasma oscillations in the channel of the
field-effect-transistors (generalized Dyakonov-Shur model). The observed
helicity dependent photoresponse is by several orders of magnitude higher than
any earlier reported one. Also linear polarization sensitive photoresponse was
registered by the same transistors. The results provide the basis for a new
sensitive, all-electric, room-temperature and fast (better than 1 ns)
characterisation of all polarization parameters (Stokes parameters) of
terahertz radiation. It paves the way towards terahertz ellipsometry and
polarization sensitive imaging based on plasma effects in
field-effect-transistors.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Mucociliary and long-term particle clearance in airways of patients with immotile cilia
Spherical monodisperse ferromagnetic iron oxide particles of 1.9 μm geometric and 4.2 μm aerodynamic diameter were inhaled by seven patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) using the shallow bolus technique, and compared to 13 healthy non-smokers (NS) from a previous study. The bolus penetration front depth was limiting to the phase1 dead space volume. In PCD patients deposition was 58+/-8 % after 8 s breath holding time. Particle retention was measured by the magnetopneumographic method over a period of nine months. Particle clearance from the airways showed a fast and a slow phase. In PCD patients airway clearance was retarded and prolonged, 42+/-12 % followed the fast phase with a mean half time of 16.8+/-8.6 hours. The remaining fraction was cleared slowly with a half time of 121+/-25 days. In healthy NS 49+/-9 % of particles were cleared in the fast phase with a mean half time of 3.0+/-1.6 hours, characteristic of an intact mucociliary clearance. There was no difference in the slow clearance phase between PCD patients and healthy NS. Despite non-functioning cilia the effectiveness of airway clearance in PCD patients is comparable to healthy NS, with a prolonged kinetics of one week, which may primarily reflect the effectiveness of cough clearance. This prolonged airway clearance allows longer residence times of bacteria and viruses in the airways and may be one reason for increased frequency of infections in PCD patients
Origin of Long Lived Coherences in Light-Harvesting Complexes
A vibronic exciton model is developed to investigate the origin of long lived
coherences in light-harvesting complexes. Using experimentally determined
parameters and uncorrelated site energy fluctuations, the model predicts
oscillations in the nonlinear spectra of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex
with a dephasing time of 1.3 ps at 77 K. These oscillations correspond to the
coherent superposition of vibronic exciton states with dominant contributions
from vibrational excitations on the same pigment. Purely electronic coherences
are found to decay on a 200 fs timescale.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
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