A characterization of quasi-rational polygons

The aim of this paper is to study quasi-rational polygons related to the outer billiard. We compare different notions introduced, and make a synthesis of those.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Preliminary results of the University of California X-ray experiment on the OSO-3

Cosmic and solar X ray data obtained by Orbiting Solar Observatory /OSO-3

Volumetric microvascular imaging of human retina using optical coherence tomography with a novel motion contrast technique

Phase variance-based motion contrast imaging is demonstrated using a spectral domain optical coherence tomography system for the in vivo human retina. This contrast technique spatially identifies locations of motion within the retina primarily associated with vasculature. Histogram-based noise analysis of the motion contrast images was used to reduce the motion noise created by transverse eye motion. En face summation images created from the 3D motion contrast data are presented with segmentation of selected retinal layers to provide non-invasive vascular visualization comparable to currently used invasive angiographic imaging. This motion contrast technique has demonstrated the ability to visualize resolution-limited vasculature independent of vessel orientation and flow velocity

Roughness of tensile crack fronts in heterogenous materials

The dynamics of planar crack fronts in heterogeneous media is studied using a recently proposed stochastic equation of motion that takes into account nonlinear effects. The analysis is carried for a moving front in the quasi-static regime using the Self Consistent Expansion. A continuous dynamical phase transition between a flat phase and a dynamically rough phase, with a roughness exponent $\zeta=1/2$, is found. The rough phase becomes possible due to the destabilization of the linear modes by the nonlinear terms. Taking into account the irreversibility of the crack propagation, we infer that the roughness exponent found in experiments might become history-dependent, and so our result gives a lower bound for $\zeta$.Comment: 7 page

All-Optical Depletion of Dark Excitons from a Semiconductor Quantum Dot

Semiconductor quantum dots are considered to be the leading venue for fabricating on-demand sources of single photons. However, the generation of long-lived dark excitons imposes significant limits on the efficiency of these sources. We demonstrate a technique that optically pumps the dark exciton population and converts it to a bright exciton population, using intermediate excited biexciton states. We show experimentally that our method considerably reduces the DE population while doubling the triggered bright exciton emission, approaching thereby near-unit fidelity of quantum dot depletion.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Numerical simulation of exciton dynamics in Cu2O at ultra low temperatures within a potential trap

We have studied theoretically the relaxation behaviour of excitons in cuprous oxide (Cu2O) at ultra low temperatures when excitons are confined within a potential trap by solving numerically the Boltzmann equation. As relaxation processes, we have included in this paper deformation potential phonon scattering, radiative and non-radiative decay and Auger decay. The relaxation kinetics has been analysed for temperatures in the range between 0.3K and 5K. Under the action of deformation potential phonon scattering only, we find for temperatures above 0.5K that the excitons reach local equilibrium with the lattice i.e. that the effective local temperature is coming down to bath temperature, while below 0.5K a non-thermal energy distribution remains. Interestingly, for all temperatures the global spatial distribution of excitons does not reach the equilibrium distribution, but stays at a much higher effective temperature. If we include further a finite lifetime of the excitons and the two-particle Auger decay, we find that both the local and the global effective temperature are not coming down to bath temperature. In the first case we find a Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) to occur for all temperatures in the investigated range. Comparing our results with the thermal equilibrium case, we find that BEC occurs for a significantly higher number of excitons in the trap. This effect could be related to the higher global temperature, which requires an increased number of excitons within the trap to observe the BEC. In case of Auger decay, we do not find at any temperature a BEC due to the heating of the exciton gas