951 research outputs found
DNA electrophoresis in designed channels
We present a simple description on the electrophoretic dynamics of
polyelectrolytes going through designed channels with narrow constrictions of
slit geometry. By analyzing rheological behaviours of the stuck chain, which is
coupled to the effect of solvent flow, three critical electric fields
(permeation field , deformation field and injection field , with polymerization
index) are clarified. Between and , the chain migration
is dictated by the driven activation process. In particular, at ,
the stuck chain at the slit entrance is strongly deformed, which enhances the
rate of the permeation. From these observations, electrophoretic mobility at a
given electric field is deduced, which shows non-monotonic dependence on .
For long enough chains, mobility increases with , in good agreement with
experiments. An abrupt change in the electrophoretic flow at a threshold
electric field is formally regarded as a nonequilibrium phase transition.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure
Unifying model of driven polymer translocation
We present a Brownian dynamics model of driven polymer translocation, in
which non-equilibrium memory effects arising from tension propagation (TP)
along the cis side subchain are incorporated as a time-dependent friction. To
solve the effective friction, we develop a finite chain length TP formalism,
expanding on the work of Sakaue [Sakaue, PRE 76, 021803 (2007)]. The model,
solved numerically, yields results in excellent agreement with molecular
dynamics simulations in a wide range of parameters. Our results show that
non-equilibrium TP along the cis side subchain dominates the dynamics of driven
translocation. In addition, the model explains the different scaling of
translocation time w.r.t chain length observed both in experiments and
simulations as a combined effect of finite chain length and pore-polymer
interactions.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Length-dependent translocation of polymers through nanochannels
We consider the flow-driven translocation of single polymer chains through
nanochannels. Using analytical calculations based on the de Gennes blob model
and mesoscopic numerical simulations, we estimate the threshold flux for the
translocation of chains of different number of monomers. The translocation of
the chains is controlled by the competition between entropic and hydrodynamic
effects, which set a critical penetration length for the chain before it can
translocate through the channel. We demonstrate that the polymers show two
different translocation regimes depending on how their length under confinement
compares to the critical penetration length. For polymer chains longer than the
threshold, the translocation process is insensitive to the number of monomers
in the chain as predicted in Sakaue {\it et al.}, {\it Euro. Phys. Lett.}, {\bf
72} 83 (2005). However, for chains shorter than the critical length we show
that the translocation process is strongly dependent on the length of the
chain. We discuss the possible relevance of our results to biological
transport.Comment: To appear in Soft Matter. 10 pages 9 Figure
Feedback-free optical cavity with self-resonating mechanism
We demonstrated the operation of a high finesse optical cavity without
utilizing an active feedback system to stabilize the resonance. The effective
finesse, which is a finesse including the overall system performance, of the
cavity was measured to be , and the laser power stored in
the cavity was kW, which is approximately 187,000 times greater
than the incident power to the cavity. The stored power was stabilized with a
fluctuation of , and we confirmed continuous cavity operation for more
than two hours. This result has the potential to trigger an innovative
evolution for applications that use optical resonant cavities such as compact
photon sources with laser-Compton scattering or cavity enhanced absorption
spectroscopy.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure
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