Hydrothermal stability of Ru/SiO2-C: A promising catalyst for biomass processing through liquid-phase reactions

In this work, structural and morphological properties of SiO2-C composite material to be used as support for catalysts in the conversion of biomass-derived oxygenated hydrocarbons, such as glycerol, were investigated in liquid water under various temperatures conditions. The results show that this material does not lose surface area, and the hot liquid water does not generate changes in the structure. Neither change in relative concentrations of oxygen functional groups nor in Si/C ratio due to hydrothermal treatment was revealed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. Raman analysis showed that the material is made of a disordered graphitic structure in an amorphous silica matrix, which remains stable after hydrothermal treatment. Results of the hydrogenolysis of glycerol using a Ru/SiO2-C catalyst indicate that the support gives more stability to the active phase than a Ru/SiO2 consisting of commercial silica

Development and optimization of a method for analyzing biodiesel mixtures with non-aqueous reversed phase liquid chromatography

Biodiesel (a mixture of fatty acid esters) is normally analyzed using gas chromatography/flame ionization detection, as specified by the ASTM D6584 and EN14105 standards. This paper proposes a binary gradient method for analyzing biodiesel mixtures using non-aqueous reverse phase HPLC with a UV detector capable of overcoming the drawbacks of the gas chromatographic technique normally used. The new analytical method was developed by means of a statistical sensitivity analysis applied to the main parameters influencing the recording, using the full factorial design method combined with the Yates algorithm and the steepest ascent optimization procedure. The present study shows the influence of the main biodiesel mixture separation analysis parameters. The resulting tool proved valid for analyzing not only biodiesel but also any traces of unreacted oil

Time-resolved spectroscopy of multi-excitonic decay in an InAs quantum dot

The multi-excitonic decay process in a single InAs quantum dot is studied through high-resolution time-resolved spectroscopy. A cascaded emission sequence involving three spectral lines is seen that is described well over a wide range of pump powers by a simple model. The measured biexcitonic decay rate is about 1.5 times the single-exciton decay rate. This ratio suggests the presence of selection rules, as well as a significant effect of the Coulomb interaction on the biexcitonic wavefunction.Comment: one typo fixe

Sub-microsecond correlations in photoluminescence from InAs quantum dots

Photon correlation measurements reveal memory effects in the optical emission of single InAs quantum dots with timescales from 10 to 800 ns. With above-band optical excitation, a long-timescale negative correlation (antibunching) is observed, while with quasi-resonant excitation, a positive correlation (blinking) is observed. A simple model based on long-lived charged states is presented that approximately explains the observed behavior, providing insight into the excitation process. Such memory effects can limit the internal efficiency of light emitters based on single quantum dots, and could also be problematic for proposed quantum-computation schemes.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Quantum filter for non-local polarization properties of photonic qubits

We present an optical filter that transmits photon pairs only if they share the same horizontal or vertical polarization, without decreasing the quantum coherence between these two possibilities. Various applications for entanglement manipulations and multi-photon qubits are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, including one figure, short discussion of error sources adde

Spin-flip and spin-conserving optical transitions of the nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond

We map out the first excited state sublevel structure of single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) colour centres in diamond. The excited state is an orbital doublet where one branch supports an efficient cycling transition, while the other can simultaneously support fully allowed optical Raman spin-flip transitions. This is crucial for the success of many recently proposed quantum information applications of the NV defects. We further find that an external electric field can be used to completely control the optical properties of a single centre. Finally, a group theoretical model is developed that explains the observations and provides good physical understanding of the excited state structure

Production of oriented nitrogen-vacancy color centers in synthetic diamond

The negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV-) center in diamond is an attractive candidate for applications that range from magnetometry to quantum information processing. Here we show that only a fraction of the nitrogen (typically < 0.5 %) incorporated during homoepitaxial diamond growth by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) is in the form of undecorated NV- centers. Furthermore, studies on CVD diamond grown on (110) oriented substrates show a near 100% preferential orientation of NV- centers along only the [111] and [-1-11] directions, rather than the four possible orientations. The results indicate that NV centers grow in as units, as the diamond is deposited, rather than by migration and association of their components. The NV unit of the NVH- is similarly preferentially oriented, but it is not possible to determine whether this defect was formed by H capture at a preferentially aligned NV center or as a complete unit. Reducing the number of NV orientations from 4 orientations to 2 orientations should lead to increased optically-detected magnetic resonance contrast and thus improved magnetic sensitivity in ensemble-based magnetometry.Comment: 13 Pages (inlcuding suplementary information), 4 figure