6,273 research outputs found
Nonequilibrium nuclear-electron spin dynamics in semiconductor quantum dots
We study the spin dynamics in charged quantum dots in the situation where the
resident electron is coupled to only about 200 nuclear spins and where the
electron spin splitting induced by the Overhauser field does not exceed
markedly the spectral broadening. The formation of a dynamical nuclear
polarization as well as its subsequent decay by the dipole-dipole interaction
is directly resolved in time. Because not limited by intrinsic nonlinearities,
almost complete nuclear polarization is achieved, even at elevated
temperatures. The data suggest a nonequilibrium mode of nuclear polarization,
distinctly different from the spin temperature concept exploited on bulk
semiconductorsComment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Modelization of Thermal Fluctuations in G Protein-Coupled Receptors
We simulate the electrical properties of a device realized by a G protein
coupled receptor (GPCR), embedded in its membrane and in contact with two
metallic electrodes through which an external voltage is applied. To this
purpose, recently, we have proposed a model based on a coarse graining
description, which describes the protein as a network of elementary impedances.
The network is built from the knowledge of the positions of the C-alpha atoms
of the amino acids, which represent the nodes of the network. Since the
elementary impedances are taken depending of the inter-nodes distance, the
conformational change of the receptor induced by the capture of the ligand
results in a variation of the network impedance. On the other hand, the
fluctuations of the atomic positions due to thermal motion imply an impedance
noise, whose level is crucial to the purpose of an electrical detection of the
ligand capture by the GPCR. Here, in particular, we address this issue by
presenting a computational study of the impedance noise due to thermal
fluctuations of the atomic positions within a rhodopsin molecule. In our model,
the C-alpha atoms are treated as independent, isotropic, harmonic oscillators,
with amplitude depending on the temperature and on the position within the
protein (alpha-helix or loop). The relative fluctuation of the impedance is
then calculated for different temperatures.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Proceeding of the 18-th International Conference
on Fluctuations and Noise, 19-23 September 2005, Salamanca, Spain -minor
proofreadings
Modulation of a surface plasmon-polariton resonance by sub-terahertz diffracted coherent phonons
Coherent sub-THz phonons incident on a gold grating that is deposited on a
dielectric substrate undergo diffraction and thereby induce an alteration of
the surface plasmon-polariton resonance. This results in efficient
high-frequency modulation (up to 110 GHz) of the structure's reflectivity for
visible light in the vicinity of the plasmon-polariton resonance. High
modulation efficiency is achieved by designing a periodic nanostructure which
provides both plasmon-polariton and phonon resonances. Our theoretical analysis
shows that the dynamical alteration of the plasmon-polariton resonance is
governed by modulation of the slit widths within the grating at the frequencies
of higher-order phonon resonances.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Coherent magnetization precession in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As induced by picosecond acoustic pulses
We show that the magnetization of a thin ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As layer can be
modulated by picosecond acoustic pulses. In this approach a picosecond strain
pulse injected into the structure induces a tilt of the magnetization vector M,
followed by the precession of M around its equilibrium orientation. This effect
can be understood in terms of changes in magneto-crystalline anisotropy induced
by the pulse. A model where only one anisotropy constant is affected by the
strain pulse provides a good description of the observed time-dependent
response.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
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