Comprehensive experimental test of quantum erasure

In an interferometer, path information and interference visibility are incompatible quantities. Complete determination of the path will exclude any possibility of interference, rendering the visibility zero. However, if the composite object and probe state is pure, it is, under certain conditions, possible to trade the path information for improved (conditioned) visibility. Such a procedure is called quantum erasure. We have performed such experiments with polarization entangled photon pairs. Using a partial polarizer we could vary the degree of entanglement between object and probe. We could also vary the interferometer splitting ratio and thereby vary the a priori path predictability. We have tested quantum erasure under a number of different experimental conditions and found good agreement between experiments and theory.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, REVTe

Effects of Sequence Disorder on DNA Looping and Cyclization

Effects of sequence disorder on looping and cyclization of the double-stranded DNA are studied theoretically. Both random intrinsic curvature and inhomogeneous bending rigidity are found to result in a remarkably wide distribution of cyclization probabilities. For short DNA segments, the range of the distribution reaches several orders of magnitude for even completely random sequences. The ensemble averaged values of the cyclization probability are also calculated, and the connection to the recent experiments is discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX; accepted to Physical Review E; v2: a substantially revised version; v3: references added, conclusions expanded, minor editorial corrections to the text; v4: a substantially revised and expanded version (total number of pages doubled); v5: new Figure 4, captions expanded, minor editorial improvements to the tex

Correlative light and electron microscopy using cathodoluminescence from nanoparticles with distinguishable colours

Correlative light and electron microscopy promises to combine molecular specificity with nanoscale imaging resolution. However, there are substantial technical challenges including reliable co-registration of optical and electron images, and rapid optical signal degradation under electron beam irradiation. Here, we introduce a new approach to solve these problems: imaging of stable optical cathodoluminescence emitted in a scanning electron microscope by nanoparticles with controllable surface chemistry. We demonstrate well-correlated cathodoluminescence and secondary electron images using three species of semiconductor nanoparticles that contain defects providing stable, spectrally-distinguishable cathodoluminescence. We also demonstrate reliable surface functionalization of the particles. The results pave the way for the use of such nanoparticles for targeted labeling of surfaces to provide nanoscale mapping of molecular composition, indicated by cathodoluminescence colour, simultaneously acquired with structural electron images in a single instrument.Physic

Simultaneous minimum-uncertainty measurement of discrete-valued complementary observables

We have made the first experimental demonstration of the simultaneous minimum uncertainty product between two complementary observables for a two-state system (a qubit). A partially entangled two-photon state was used to perform such measurements. Each of the photons carries (partial) information of the initial state thus leaving a room for measurements of two complementary observables on every member in an ensemble.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, REVTeX, submitted to PR

Complementarity and the uncertainty relations

We formulate a general complementarity relation starting from any Hermitian operator with discrete non-degenerate eigenvalues. We then elucidate the relationship between quantum complementarity and the Heisenberg-Robertson's uncertainty relation. We show that they are intimately connected. Finally we exemplify the general theory with some specific suggested experiments.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, REVTeX, uses epsf.sty and multicol.st

Helical coherence of DNA in crystals and solution

The twist, rise, slide, shift, tilt and roll between adjoining base pairs in DNA depend on the identity of the bases. The resulting dependence of the double helix conformation on the nucleotide sequence is important for DNA recognition by proteins, packaging and maintenance of genetic material, and other interactions involving DNA. This dependence, however, is obscured by poorly understood variations in the stacking geometry of the same adjoining base pairs within different sequence contexts. In this article, we approach the problem of sequence-dependent DNA conformation by statistical analysis of X-ray and NMR structures of DNA oligomers. We evaluate the corresponding helical coherence length—a cumulative parameter quantifying sequence-dependent deviations from the ideal double helix geometry. We find, e.g. that the solution structure of synthetic oligomers is characterized by 100–200 Å coherence length, which is similar to ∼150 Å coherence length of natural, salmon-sperm DNA. Packing of oligomers in crystals dramatically alters their helical coherence. The coherence length increases to 800–1200 Å, consistent with its theoretically predicted role in interactions between DNA at close separations