Breaking of symmetry in microfluidic propulsion driven by artificial cilia.

In this Brief Report we investigate biomimetic fluid propulsion due to an array of periodically beating artificial cilia. A generic model system is defined in which the effects of inertial fluid forces and the spatial, temporal, and orientational asymmetries of the ciliary motion can be individually controlled. We demonstrate that the so-far unexplored orientational asymmetry plays an important role in generating flow and that the flow increases sharply with Reynolds number and eventually becomes unidirectional. We introduce the concept of configurational symmetry that unifies the spatial, temporal, and orientational symmetries. The breaking of configurational symmetry leads to fluid propulsion in microfluidic channels.

Evidence for X(5) critical point symmetry in 128Ce

Lifetimes of excited states in 128Ce were measured using the recoil distance Doppler-shift (RDDS) and the Doppler-shift attenuation (DSAM) methods. The experiments were performed at the Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory of Yale University. Excited states of 128Ce were populated in the 100Mo(32Si,4n) reaction at 120 MeV and the nuclear γ decay was measured with an array of eight Clover detectors positioned at forward and backward angles. The deduced yrast transition strengths together with the energies of the levels within the ground-state (gs) band of 128Ce are in agreement with the predicted values for the X(5) critical point symmetry. Thus, we suggest 128Ce as a benchmark X(5) nucleus in the mass A ≈ 130 region. © World Scientific Publishing Company.

Symmetry detection of auxetic behaviour in 2D frameworks

A symmetry-extended Maxwell treatment of the net mobility of periodic bar-and-joint frameworks is used to derive a sufficient condition for auxetic behaviour of a 2D material. The type of auxetic behaviour that can be detected by symmetry has Poisson's ratio -1, with equal expansion/contraction in all directions, and is here termed equiauxetic. A framework may have a symmetry-detectable equiauxetic mechanism if it belongs to a plane group that includes rotational axes of order n = 6, 4, or 3. If the reducible representation for the net mobility contains mechanisms that preserve full rotational symmetry (A modes), these are equiauxetic. In addition, for n = 6, mechanisms that halve rotational symmetry (B modes) are also equiauxetic. © EPLA, 2013.

Symmetry-extended counting rules for periodic frameworks.

A symmetry-adapted version of the Maxwell rule appropriate to periodic bar-and-joint frameworks is obtained, and is further extended to body-and-joint systems. The treatment deals with bodies and forces that are replicated in every unit cell, and uses the point group isomorphic to the factor group of the space group of the framework. Explicit expressions are found for the numbers and symmetries of detectable mechanisms and states of self-stress in terms of the numbers and symmetries of framework components. This approach allows detection and characterization of mechanisms and states of self-stress in microscopic and macroscopic materials and meta-materials. Illustrative examples are described. The notion of local isostaticity of periodic frameworks is extended to include point-group symmetry.

Peak identification for PCDD/Fs in environmental samples at different temperature programs

A method has been developed for peak recognition of 136 polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) at different temperature programs. Their retention behaviours are predicted on the basis of an identification database of retention values (A, B) of gas chromatography. By the retention times of C-13 labelled 2,3,7,8-substituted PCDD/F internal standards, the retentions of all PCDDs and PCDFs can be calculated. After comparison with the retentions of practical environmental samples, the predicted values have been proved to be very accurate. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Computer assisted peak recognition for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF) in environmental samples

A software has been developed for the peak recognition of 136 polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF) after high resolution gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS). Based on the retention times of C-13 labelled 2,3,7,8-substituted PCDD/F internal standards, the retention times of all PCDD and PCDF can be calibrated automatically and accurately. Therefore, it is very convenient to identify the peaks by comparing the retention of samples and the calibrated retention times of their chromatograms. Hence, this approach is very significant because it is impossible to obtain always a standard chromatogram and PCDD/F analysis are very expensive and time consuming. The calibration results can be transferred to Excel for calculation. The approach is a first step to store costly and environmentally relevant data for future application.

Direct detection of the relative strength of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction: Utilizing the SU(2) symmetry

We propose a simple method to detect the relative strength of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions in quantum wells (QWs) without relying on the directional-dependent physical quantities. This method utilizes the two different critical gate voltages that leading to the remarkable signals of SU(2) symmetry, which happens to reflect the intrinsic-structure-inversion asymmetry of the QW. We support our proposal by the numerical calculation of in-plane relaxation times based on the self-consistent eight-band Kane model. We find that the two different critical gate voltages leading to the maximum spin-relaxation times [one effect of the SU(2) symmetry] can simply determine the ratio of the coefficients of Rashba and Dresselhaus terms. Our proposal can also be generalized to extract the relative strengths of the spin-orbit interactions in quantum-wire and quantum-dot structures.

IMPROVED PEAK POWER METHOD FOR MEASURING FREQUENCY RESPONSES OF PHOTODETECTORS IN A SELF-HETERODYNE SYSTEM

An improved peak power method for measuring frequency responses of photodetectors in a self-heterodyne system consisting of a distributed Bragg reflector laser is proposed. The time-resolved spectrum technique is used to measure the peak power of the beat signal and the intrinsic linewidth of heat signal for calibration. The experimental results show that the impact of the thermal-induced frequency drift, which is the main reason for producing an error in measurement by conventional peak power method and spectrum power method, can be removed.

Sixfold symmetry of excitonic transition energies in c-plane for wurtzite GaN

The optical properties of the strained wurtzite GaN are investigated theoretically within the nearest neighbor tight-binding method. The piezoelectric effect is also taken into account. The empirical rule has been used in the strained band-structure calculation. The results show that the excitonic transition energies are anisotropic in the c-plane in a high electronic concentration system and have a 60 degrees periodicity, which is in agreement with experiment. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3001937]

The impact of imperfect symmetry on band edge modes of a two-dimensional photonic crystal with square lattice

A theoretical analysis has been performed by means of the plane-wave expansion method to examine the dispersion properties of photons at high symmetry points of an InP based two-dimensional photonic crystal with square lattice. The Q factors are compared qualitatively. The mechanism of surface-emitting is due to the photon manipulation by periodic dielectric materials in terms of Bragg diffraction. A surface-emitting photonic crystal resonator is designed based on the phenomenon of slow light. Photonic crystal slabs with different unit cells are utilized in the simulation. The results indicate that the change of the air holes can affect the polarization property of the modes. So we can find a way to improve the polarization by reducing the symmetry of the structure.

Correlations between electronic energy bands spin splitting and magnetic profile symmetry of magnetic superlattice

We have theoretically investigated the energy band structures of two typical magnetic superlattices formed by perpendicular or parallel magnetization ferromagnetic stripes periodically deposited on a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), where the magnetic profile in the perpendicular magnetization is of inversion anti-symmetry, but of inversion symmetry in parallel magnetization, respectively. We have shown that the energy bands of perpendicular magnetization display the spin-splitting and transverse wave-vector symmetry, while the energy bands of the parallel magnetization exhibit spin degeneration and transverse wave-vector asymmetry. These distinguishing spin-dependent and transverse wave-vector asymmetry features are essential for future spintronics devices applications. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Photoluminescence energy and fine structure splitting in single quantum dots by uniaxial stress

We report a photoluminescence (PL) energy red-shift of single quantum dots (QDs) by applying an in-plane compressive uniaxial stress along the [110] direction at a liquid nitrogen temperature. Uniaxial stress has an effect not only on the confinement potential in the growth direction which results in the PL shift, but also on the cylindrical symmetry of QDs which can be reflected by the change of the full width at half maximum of PL peak. This implies that uniaxial stress has an important role in tuning PL energy and fine structure splitting of QDs.

Symmetry and optical transition rule for low-dimensional semiconductor system with spin-orbit interaction and magnetic field

Starting from effective mass Hamiltonian, we systematically investigate the symmetry of low-dimensional structures with spin-orbit interaction and transverse magnetic field. The position-dependent potentials are assumed to be space symmetric, which is ever-present in theory and experiment research. By group theory, we analyze degeneracy in different cases. Spin-orbit interaction makes the transition between Zeeman sub-levels possible, which is originally forbidden within dipole approximation. However, a transition rule given in this paper for the first time shows that the transition between some levels is forbidden for space symmetric potentials. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ac gate-induced Fano resonance and peak splitting of conductance in a quantum dot

We have investigated the conductance of a quantum dot system suffering an anti-symmetric ac gate voltage which induces the transition between dot levels in the linear regime at zero temperature in the rotating wave approximation. Interesting Fano resonances appear on one side of the displaced resonant tunnelling peaks for the nonresonant case or the peak splitting for the resonant case. The line shape of conductance (vs Fermi energy) near each level of the quantum dot can be decomposed into two profiles: a Breit-Wigner peak and a Fano profile, or a Breit-Wigner peak and a dip in both cases.