321 research outputs found
Bundle formation in parallel aligned polymers with competing interactions
Aggregation of like-charged polymers is widely observed in biological and
soft matter systems. In many systems, bundles are formed when a short-range
attraction of diverse physical origin like charge-bridging, hydrogen-bonding or
hydrophobic interaction, overcomes the longer- range charge repulsion. In this
Letter, we present a general mechanism of bundle formation in these systems as
the breaking of the translational invariance in parallel aligned polymers with
competing interactions of this type. We derive a criterion for finite-sized
bundle formation as well as for macroscopic phase separation (formation of
infinite bundles).Comment: accepted for publication in Europhys Let
Long-Range Interaction between Heterogeneously Charged Membranes
Despite their neutrality, surfaces or membranes with equal amounts of positive and negative charge can exhibit long-range electrostatic interactions if the surface charge is heterogeneous; this can happen when the surface charges form finite-size domain structures. These domains can be formed in lipid membranes where the balance of the different ranges of strong but short-ranged hydrophobic interactions and longer-ranged electrostatic repulsion result in a finite, stable domain size. If the domain size is large enough, oppositely charged domains in two opposing surfaces or membranes can be strongly correlated by the elecrostatic interactions; these correlations give rise to an attractive interaction of the two membranes or surfaces over separations on the order of the domain size. We use numerical simulations to demonstrate the existence of strong attractions at separations of tens of nanometers. Large line tensions result in larger domains but also increase the charge density within the domain. This promotes correlations and, as a result, increases the intermembrane attraction. On the other hand, increasing the salt concentration increases both the domain size and degree of domain anticorrelation, but the interactions are ultimately reduced due to increased screening. The result is a decrease in the net attraction as salt concentration is increased
Ultrafast spectroscopy of propagating coherent acoustic phonons in GaN/InGaN heterostructures
We show that large amplitude, coherent acoustic phonon wavepackets can be
generated and detected in InGaN/GaN epilayers and heterostructures
in femtosecond pump-probe differential reflectivity experiments. The amplitude
of the coherent phonon increases with increasing Indium fraction and unlike
other coherent phonon oscillations, both \textit{amplitude} and \textit{period}
are strong functions of the laser probe energy. The amplitude of the
oscillation is substantially and almost instantaneously reduced when the
wavepacket reaches a GaN-sapphire interface below the surface indicating that
the phonon wavepackets are useful for imaging below the surface. A theoretical
model is proposed which fits the experiments well and helps to deduce the
strength of the phonon wavepackets. Our model shows that localized coherent
phonon wavepackets are generated by the femtosecond pump laser in the epilayer
near the surface. The wavepackets then propagate through a GaN layer changing
the local index of refraction, primarily through the Franz-Keldysh effect, and
as a result, modulate the reflectivity of the probe beam. Our model correctly
predicts the experimental dependence on probe-wavelength as well as epilayer
thickness.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figure
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