Inhibition of the photoinduced structural phase transition in the excitonic insulator Ta2_2NiSe5_5

Femtosecond time-resolved mid-infrared reflectivity is used to investigate the electron and phonon dynamics occurring at the direct band gap of the excitonic insulator Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ below the critical temperature of its structural phase transition. We find that the phonon dynamics show a strong coupling to the excitation of free carriers at the \Gamma\ point of the Brillouin zone. The optical response saturates at a critical excitation fluence $F_C = 0.30~\pm~0.08$~mJ/cm$^2$ due to optical absorption saturation. This limits the optical excitation density in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ so that the system cannot be pumped sufficiently strongly to undergo the structural change to the high-temperature phase. We thereby demonstrate that Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ exhibits a blocking mechanism when pumped in the near-infrared regime, preventing a nonthermal structural phase transition

Ultrafast Electronic Band Gap Control in an Excitonic Insulator

We report on the nonequilibrium dynamics of the electronic structure of the layered semiconductor Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ investigated by time- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. We show that below the critical excitation density of $F_{C} = 0.2$ mJ cm$^{-2}$, the band gap $narrows$ transiently, while it is $enhanced$ above $F_{C}$. Hartree-Fock calculations reveal that this effect can be explained by the presence of the low-temperature excitonic insulator phase of Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$, whose order parameter is connected to the gap size. This work demonstrates the ability to manipulate the band gap of Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ with light on the femtosecond time scale

Inhibition of the photoinduced structural phase transition in the excitonic insulator Ta2NiSe5{\mathrm{Ta}}_{2}{\mathrm{NiSe}}_{5}

Femtosecond time-resolved midinfrared reflectivity is used to investigate the electron and phonon dynamics occurring at the direct band gap of the excitonic insulator Ta2NiSe5 below the critical temperature of its structural phase transition. We find that the phonon dynamics show a strong coupling to the excitation of free carriers at the Γ point of the Brillouin zone. The optical response saturates at a critical excitation fluence FC=0.30±0.08 mJ/cm2 due to optical absorption saturation. This limits the optical excitation density in Ta2NiSe5 so that the system cannot be pumped sufficiently strongly to undergo the structural change to the high-temperature phase. We thereby demonstrate that Ta2NiSe5 exhibits a blocking mechanism when pumped in the near-infrared regime, preventing a nonthermal structural phase transition

Capture of MicroRNA–Bound mRNAs Identifies the Tumor Suppressor miR-34a as a Regulator of Growth Factor Signaling

A simple biochemical method to isolate mRNAs pulled down with a transfected, biotinylated microRNA was used to identify direct target genes of miR-34a, a tumor suppressor gene. The method reidentified most of the known miR-34a regulated genes expressed in K562 and HCT116 cancer cell lines. Transcripts for 982 genes were enriched in the pull-down with miR-34a in both cell lines. Despite this large number, validation experiments suggested that ∼90% of the genes identified in both cell lines can be directly regulated by miR-34a. Thus miR-34a is capable of regulating hundreds of genes. The transcripts pulled down with miR-34a were highly enriched for their roles in growth factor signaling and cell cycle progression. These genes form a dense network of interacting gene products that regulate multiple signal transduction pathways that orchestrate the proliferative response to external growth stimuli. Multiple candidate miR-34a–regulated genes participate in RAS-RAF-MAPK signaling. Ectopic miR-34a expression reduced basal ERK and AKT phosphorylation and enhanced sensitivity to serum growth factor withdrawal, while cells genetically deficient in miR-34a were less sensitive. Fourteen new direct targets of miR-34a were experimentally validated, including genes that participate in growth factor signaling (ARAF and PIK3R2) as well as genes that regulate cell cycle progression at various phases of the cell cycle (cyclins D3 and G2, MCM2 and MCM5, PLK1 and SMAD4). Thus miR-34a tempers the proliferative and pro-survival effect of growth factor stimulation by interfering with growth factor signal transduction and downstream pathways required for cell division

Integrative Annotation of 21,037 Human Genes Validated by Full-Length cDNA Clones

The human genome sequence defines our inherent biological potential; the realization of the biology encoded therein requires knowledge of the function of each gene. Currently, our knowledge in this area is still limited. Several lines of investigation have been used to elucidate the structure and function of the genes in the human genome. Even so, gene prediction remains a difficult task, as the varieties of transcripts of a gene may vary to a great extent. We thus performed an exhaustive integrative characterization of 41,118 full-length cDNAs that capture the gene transcripts as complete functional cassettes, providing an unequivocal report of structural and functional diversity at the gene level. Our international collaboration has validated 21,037 human gene candidates by analysis of high-quality full-length cDNA clones through curation using unified criteria. This led to the identification of 5,155 new gene candidates. It also manifested the most reliable way to control the quality of the cDNA clones. We have developed a human gene database, called the H-Invitational Database (H-InvDB; http://www.h-invitational.jp/). It provides the following: integrative annotation of human genes, description of gene structures, details of novel alternative splicing isoforms, non-protein-coding RNAs, functional domains, subcellular localizations, metabolic pathways, predictions of protein three-dimensional structure, mapping of known single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), identification of polymorphic microsatellite repeats within human genes, and comparative results with mouse full-length cDNAs. The H-InvDB analysis has shown that up to 4% of the human genome sequence (National Center for Biotechnology Information build 34 assembly) may contain misassembled or missing regions. We found that 6.5% of the human gene candidates (1,377 loci) did not have a good protein-coding open reading frame, of which 296 loci are strong candidates for non-protein-coding RNA genes. In addition, among 72,027 uniquely mapped SNPs and insertions/deletions localized within human genes, 13,215 nonsynonymous SNPs, 315 nonsense SNPs, and 452 indels occurred in coding regions. Together with 25 polymorphic microsatellite repeats present in coding regions, they may alter protein structure, causing phenotypic effects or resulting in disease. The H-InvDB platform represents a substantial contribution to resources needed for the exploration of human biology and pathology

A spectroscopic-imaging scanning tunneling microscope in vector magnetic field

Funding: This work was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. A.W.R. acknowledges support by EPSRC Grant No. EP/P024564/1.Cryogenic scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS) performed in a high vector magnetic field provide unique possibilities for imaging surface magnetic structures and anisotropic superconductivity and exploring spin physics in quantum materials with atomic precision. Here, we describe the design, construction, and performance of a low-temperature, ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) spectroscopic-imaging STM equipped with a vector magnet capable of applying a field of up to 3 T in any direction with respect to the sample surface. The STM head is housed in a fully bakeable UHV compatible cryogenic insert and is operational over variable temperatures ranging from ∼300 down to 1.5 K. The insert can be easily upgraded using our home-designed 3He refrigerator. In addition to layered compounds, which can be cleaved at a temperature of either ∼300, ∼77, or ∼4.2 K to expose an atomically flat surface, thin films can also be studied by directly transferring using a UHV suitcase from our oxide thin-film laboratory. Samples can be treated further with a heater and a liquid helium/nitrogen cooling stage on a three-axis manipulator. The STM tips can be treated in vacuo by e-beam bombardment and ion sputtering. We demonstrate the successful operation of the STM with varying the magnetic field direction. Our facility provides a way to study materials in which magnetic anisotropy is a key factor in determining the electronic properties such as in topological semimetals and superconductors.PostprintPeer reviewe

Mapping the unoccupied state dispersions in Ta2NiSe5{\mathrm{Ta}}_{2}{\mathrm{NiSe}}_{5} with resonant inelastic x-ray scattering

The transition metal chalcogenide Ta2NiSe5 undergoes a second-order phase transition at Tc=328K involving a small lattice distortion. Below Tc, a band gap at the center of its Brillouin zone increases up to about 0.35 eV. In this work, we study the electronic structure of Ta2NiSe5 in its low-temperature semiconducting phase, using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Ni L3 edge. In addition to a weak fluorescence response, we observe a collection of intense Raman-like peaks that we attribute to electron-hole excitations. Using density functional theory calculations of its electronic band structure, we identify the main Raman-like peaks as interband transitions between valence and conduction bands. By performing angle-dependent RIXS measurements, we uncover the dispersion of these electron-hole excitations that allows us to extract the low-energy boundary of the electron-hole continuum. From the dispersion of the valence band measured by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we derive the effective mass of the lowest unoccupied conduction band