Solid-state NMR study of bioactive binary borosilicate glasses

A series of binary borosilicate glasses prepared by the sol-gel method are shown to be bioactive. Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and trimethylborate (TMB) in acidic medium are used to prepare xB(2)O(3)center dot(1-x)SiO2 glass systems for x = 0.045-0.167. The formation of a layer of apatite-like mineral on the glass surface becomes apparent after soaking in simulated body fluid for 48 h. We have measured the B-11-B-11 homonuclear second moments of the borosilicate glasses and inferred that no macroscopic phase separation occurred in our glasses. The B-11 chemical shift data also show that the formation of clustered boroxol rings is negligible in our glass system. Although the bioactivity of our borosilicate glasses is less than that of CaO-SiO2 sol-gel glasses, these simple binary systems could be taken as reference glass systems for the search of new bioactive borosilicate glasses. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transparent and Light-Emitting Epoxy Super-Nanocomposites Containing ZnO-QDs/SiO2 Nanocomposite Particles as Encapsulating Materials for Solid-State Lighting

In this article, the ZnO quantum dots-SiO2 (Z-S) nanocomposite particles were first synthesized. Transparent Z-S/epoxy super-nanocomposites were then prepared by introducing calcined Z-S nanocomposite particles with a proper ratio of ZnO to SiO2 into a transparent epoxy matrix in terms of the filler-matrix refractive index matching principle. It was shown that the epoxy super-nanocomposites displayed intense luminescence with broad emission spectra. Moreover, the epoxy super-nanocomposites showed the interesting afterglow phenomenon with a long phosphorescence lifetime that was not observed for ZnO-QDs/epoxy nanocomposites. Finally, the transparent and light-emitting Z-S/epoxy super-nanocomposites were successfully employed as encapsulating materials for synthesis of highly bright LED lamps.

Reduced dynamics with renormalization in solid-state charge qubit measurement

Quantum measurement will inevitably cause backaction on the measured system, resulting in the well-known dephasing and relaxation. In this paper, in the context of solid-state qubit measurement by a mesoscopic detector, we show that an alternative backaction known as renormalization is important under some circumstances. This effect is largely overlooked in the theory of quantum measurement.

Ultrafast dynamics of four-state magnetization reversal in (Ga,Mn)As

The ultrafast dynamics of in-plane four-state magnetization reversal from compressively strained (Ga,Mn)As film was investigated by magneto-optical Kerr rotation measurement. The magnetization reversal signal was dramatically suppressed upon pumping, and recovered slowly with time evolution. The low switching field H-c1 increased abruptly from 30 to 108 G on the first several picoseconds and recovered back to the value before optical pumping within about 500 ps, whereas the high switching field H-c2 did not change obviously upon pumping, implying a domain-wall nucleation/propagation at low fields and coherent magnetization rotation at high fields in the magnetization reversal process.

A broadband external cavity tunable InAs/GaAs quantum dot laser by utilizing only the ground state emission

A broadband external cavity tunable laser is realized by using a broad-emitting spectral InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) gain device. A tuning range of 69 nm with a central wavelength of 1056 nm, is achieved at a bias of 1.25 kA/cm(2) only by utilizing the light emission from the ground state of QDs. This large tunable range only covers the QD ground-state emission and is related to the inhomogeneous size distribution of QDs. No excited state contributes to the tuning bandwidth. The application of the QD gain device to the external cavity tunable laser shows its immense potential in broadening the tuning bandwidth. By the external cavity feedback, the threshold current density can be reduced remarkably compared with the free-running QD gain device.

Self-Heating Effect on the Two-State Lasing Behaviors in 1.3-mu m InAs-GaAs Quantum-Dot Lasers

Experimental and theoretical study of the self-heating effect on the two-state lasing behaviors in 1.3-mu m self-assembled InAs-GaAs quantum dot (QD) lasers is presented. Lasing spectra under different injected currents, light-current (L-I) curves measured in continuous and pulsed regimes as well as a rate-equation model considering the current heating have been employed to analyze the ground-state (GS) and excited-state (ES) lasing processes. We show that the self-heating causes the quenching of the GS lasing and the ES lasing by the increased carrier escape rate and the reduced maximum modal gain of GS and ES.

Ground state energy of He isoelectronic sequence treated variationally via Hylleraas-like wavefunction

In this study, the energy for the ground state of helium and a few helium-like ions (Z=1-6) is computed variationally by using a Hylleraas-like wavefunction. A four-parameters wavefunction, satisfying boundary conditions for coalescence points, is combined with a Hylleraas-like basis set which explicitly incorporates r12 interelectronic distance. The main contribution of this work is the introduction of modified correlation terms leading to the definition of integral transforms which provide the calculation of expectation value of energy to be done analytically over single-particle coordinates instead of Hylleraas coordinates.

Fermi-Level Pinning at Metal/High-k Interface Influenced by Electron State Density of Metal Gate

The Fermi-level pinning (FLP) at the metal/high-k interface and its dependence on the electron state density of the metal gate are investigated. It is found that the FLP is largely determined by the distortion of the vacuum level of the metal which is quantitatively ruled by the electron state density of the metal. The physical origin of the vacuum level distortion of the metal is attributed to an image charge of the interface charge in the metal. Such results indicate that the effective work function of the metal/high-k stack is also governed by the electron state density of the metal.

Formation of an fcc phase through a bcc metastable state in crystallization of charged colloidal particles

By in situ monitoring structural changes with the reflection spectrometer during the colloidal crystallization, we present direct experimental evidence of liquid-bcc-fcc phase transition in crystallization of charged colloidal particles, as a manifestation of the Ostwald's step rule. In addition, the lifetime of the bcc metastable structure in this system decreases significantly with increasing particle volume fraction, offering a possible explanation for "exceptions" to the step rule.

Hot Nuclear Matter Equation of State and Finite Temperature Kaon Condensation

We perform a systematic calculation of the equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter at finite temperature within the framework of the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach with a microscopic three-body force. When applying it to the study of hotka on condensed matter, we find that the thermal effect is more profound in comparison with normal matter, in particular around the threshold density. Also, the increase of temperature makes the equation of state slightly stiffer through suppression of kaon condensation.

Electron impact excitation of xenon from the metastable state to the excited states

The electron impact excitation cross sections from the lowest metastable state 5p(5)6sJ = 2 to the six lowest excited states of the 5p(5)6p configuration of xenon are calculated systematically by using the fully relativistic distorted wave method. In order to discuss the effects of target state descriptions on the electron impact excitation cross sections, two correlation models are used to describe the target states based on the multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock (MCDF) method. It is found that the correlation effects play a very important role in low energy impact. For high energy impact, however, the cross sections are not sensitive to the description of the target states, but many more partial waves must be included.

STUDIES FOR THE EQUATION OF STATE IN THE ISOSPIN ASYMMETRICAL NUCLEAR INTERACTIONS

In order to determine the equation of state in the isospin asymmetrical nuclear interactions, we have found the observables for extracting the information of them within the isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics in recent years. The several sensitive probes for extracting the information of the in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section and the symmetry potential have found; meanwhile, their mechanisms are investigated in more details. The main point in this paper gives the summary for above probes and their outlook in the future.

Configuration-dependent diffusion can shift the kinetic transition state and barrier height of protein folding

We show that diffusion can play an important role in protein-folding kinetics. We explicitly calculate the diffusion coefficient of protein folding in a lattice model. We found that diffusion typically is configuration- or reaction coordinate-dependent. The diffusion coefficient is found to be decreasing with respect to the progression of folding toward the native state, which is caused by the collapse to a compact state constraining the configurational space for exploration. The configuration- or position-dependent diffusion coefficient has a significant contribution to the kinetics in addition to the thermodynamic free-energy barrier. It effectively changes (increases in this case) the kinetic barrier height as well as the position of the corresponding transition state and therefore modifies the folding kinetic rates as well as the kinetic routes. The resulting folding time, by considering both kinetic diffusion and the thermodynamic folding free-energy profile, thus is slower than the estimation from the thermodynamic free-energy barrier with constant diffusion but is consistent with the results from kinetic simulations. The configuration- or coordinate-dependent diffusion is especially important with respect to fast folding, when there is a small or no free-energy barrier and kinetics is controlled by diffusion.Including the configurational dependence will challenge the transition state theory of protein folding.