1,036 research outputs found
Particle-stabilized oscillating diver: a self-assembled responsive capsule
We report the experimental discovery of a self-assembled capsule, with
density set by interfacial glass beads and an internal bubble, that
automatically performs regular oscillations up and down a vial in response to a
temperature gradient. Similar composites featuring interfacial particles and
multiple internal compartments could be the solution to a variety of
application challenges.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Electric-field control of interfering transport pathways in a single-molecule anthraquinone transistor
It is understood that molecular conjugation plays an important role in charge
transport through single-molecule junctions. Here, we investigate electron
transport through an anthraquinone based single-molecule three-terminal device.
With the use of an electric-field induced by a gate electrode, the molecule is
reduced resulting into a ten-fold increase in the off-resonant differential
conductance. Theoretical calculations link the change in differential
conductance to a reduction-induced change in conjugation, thereby lifting
destructive interference of transport pathways.Comment: Nano Letters (2015
Oxygen enhanced atomic chain formation
We report experimental evidence for atomic chain formation during stretching
of atomic-sized contacts for gold and silver, that is strongly enhanced due to
oxygen incorporation. While gold has been known for its tendency to form atomic
chains, for silver this is only observed in the presence of oxygen. With oxygen
the silver chains are as long as those for gold, but the conductance drops with
chain length to about 0.1 conductance quantum. A relation is suggested with
previous work on surface reconstructions for silver (110) surfaces after
chemisorption of oxygen.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Formation and properties of metal-oxygen atomic chains
Suspended chains consisting of single noble metal and oxygen atoms have been
formed. We provide evidence that oxygen can react with and be incorporated into
metallic one-dimensional atomic chains. Oxygen incorporation reinforces the
linear bonds in the chain, which facilitates the creation of longer atomic
chains. The mechanical and electrical properties of these diatomic chains have
been investigated by determining local vibration modes of the chain and by
measuring the dependence of the average chain-conductance on the length of the
chain. Additionally, we have performed calculations that give insight in the
physical mechanism of the oxygen-induced strengthening of the linear bonds and
the conductance of the metal-oxygen chains.Comment: 10 pages, 9 fig
An optical linewidth study of a chromoprotein-C-phycocyanin in a low-temperature glass
The temperature dependence of spectral holes burnt into a phycocyanin-doped ethylene glycol/water glass is investigated in the temperature range between 1.5 and 15 K. The data are well described by a power law with an exponent of 1.16 ± 0.1. Chromoproteins thus behave very much the same as glasses doped with small impurity molecules
Vibrationally Induced Two-Level Systems in Single-Molecule Junctions
Single-molecule junctions are found to show anomalous spikes in dI/dV
spectra. The position in energy of the spikes are related to local vibration
mode energies. A model of vibrationally induced two-level systems reproduces
the data very well. This mechanism is expected to be quite general for
single-molecule junctions. It acts as an intrinsic amplification mechanism for
local vibration mode features and may be exploited as a new spectroscopic tool.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Role of an intermediate state in homogeneous nucleation
We explore the role of an intermediate state (phase) in homogeneous
nucleation phenomenon by examining the decay process through a doubly-humped
potential barrier. As a generic model we use the fourth- and sixth-order Landau
potentials and analyze the Fokker-Planck equation for the one-dimensional
thermal diffusion in the system characterized by a triple-well potential. In
the low temperature case we apply the WKB method to the decay process and
obtain the decay rate which is accurate for a wide range of depth and curvature
of the middle well. In the case of a deep middle well, it reduces to a
doubly-humped-barrier counterpart of the Kramers escape rate: the barrier
height and the curvature of an initial well in the Kramers rate are replaced by
the arithmetic mean of higher(or outer) and lower(or inner) partial barriers
and the geometric mean of curvatures of the initial and intermediate wells,
respectively. It seems to be a universal formula. In the case of a
shallow-enough middle well, Kramers escape rate is alternatively evaluated
within the standard framework of the mean-first-passage time problem, which
certainly supports the WKB result. The criteria whether or not the existence of
an intermediate state can enhance the decay rate are revealed.Comment: 9pages, 11figure
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