Interparticle interactions:Energy potentials, energy transfer, and nanoscale mechanical motion in response to optical radiation

In the interactions between particles of material with slightly different electronic levels, unusually large shifts in the pair potential can result from photoexcitation, and on subsequent electronic excitation transfer. To elicit these phenomena, it is necessary to understand the fundamental differences between a variety of optical properties deriving from dispersion interactions, and processes such as resonance energy transfer that occur under laser irradiance. This helps dispel some confusion in the recent literature. By developing and interpreting the theory at a deeper level, one can anticipate that in suitable systems, light absorption and energy transfer will be accompanied by significant displacements in interparticle separation, leading to nanoscale mechanical motion

Surface optical vortices

It is shown how the total internal reflection of orbital-angular-momentum-endowed light can lead to the generation of evanescent light possessing rotational properties in which the intensity distribution is firmly localized in the vicinity of the surface. The characteristics of these surface optical vortices depend on the form of the incident light and on the dielectric mismatch of the two media. The interference of surface optical vortices is shown to give rise to interesting phenomena, including pattern rotation akin to a surface optical Ferris wheel. Applications are envisaged to be in atom lithography, optical surface tweezers, and spanners

Development of a flight software testing methodology

The research to develop a testing methodology for flight software is described. An experiment was conducted in using assertions to dynamically test digital flight control software. The experiment showed that 87% of typical errors introduced into the program would be detected by assertions. Detailed analysis of the test data showed that the number of assertions needed to detect those errors could be reduced to a minimal set. The analysis also revealed that the most effective assertions tested program parameters that provided greater indirect (collateral) testing of other parameters. In addition, a prototype watchdog task system was built to evaluate the effectiveness of executing assertions in parallel by using the multitasking features of Ada

Optical Surface Vortices and Their Use in Nanoscale Manipulation

Following a brief overview of the physics underlying the interaction of twisted light with atoms at near-resonance frequencies, the essential ingredients of the interaction of atoms with surface optical vortices are described. It is shown that surface optical vortices can offer an unprecedented potential for the nanoscale manipulation of absorbed atoms congregating at regions of extremum light intensity on the surface

On the interactions between molecules in an off-resonant laser beam:Evaluating the response to energy migration and optically induced pair forces

Electronically excited molecules interact with their neighbors differently from their ground-state counterparts. Any migration of the excitation between molecules can modify intermolecular forces, reflecting changes to a local potential energy landscape. It emerges that throughput off-resonant radiation can also produce significant additional effects. The context for the present analysis of the mechanisms is a range of chemical and physical processes that fundamentally depend on intermolecular interactions resulting from second and fourth-order electric-dipole couplings. The most familiar are static dipole-dipole interactions, resonance energy transfer (both second-order interactions), and dispersion forces (fourth order). For neighboring molecules subjected to off-resonant light, additional forms of intermolecular interaction arise in the fourth order, including radiation-induced energy transfer and optical binding. Here, in a quantum electrodynamical formulation, these phenomena are cast in a unified description that establishes their inter-relationship and connectivity at a fundamental level. Theory is then developed for systems in which the interplay of these forms of interaction can be readily identified and analyzed in terms of dynamical behavior. The results are potentially significant in Förster measurements of conformational change and in the operation of microelectromechanical and nanoelectromechanical devices. © 2009 American Institute of Physics

Laser-controlled fluorescence in two-level systems

The ability to modify the character of fluorescent emission by a laser-controlled, optically nonlinear process has recently been shown theoretically feasible, and several possible applications have already been identified. In operation, a pulse of off-resonant probe laser beam, of sufficient intensity, is applied to a system exhibiting fluorescence, during the interval of excited- state decay following the initial excitation. The result is a rate of decay that can be controllably modified, the associated changes in fluorescence behavior affording new, chemically specific information. In this paper, a two-level emission model is employed in the further analysis of this all-optical process; the results should prove especially relevant to the analysis and imaging of physical systems employing fluorescent markers, these ranging from quantum dots to green fluorescence protein. Expressions are presented for the laser-controlled fluorescence anisotropy exhibited by samples in which the fluorophores are randomly oriented. It is also shown that, in systems with suitably configured electronic levels and symmetry properties, fluorescence emission can be produced from energy levels that would normally decay nonradiatively. © 2010 American Chemical Society