Nanoscale imaging of buried structures with elemental specificity using resonant x-ray diffraction microscopy

We report the first demonstration of resonant x-ray diffraction microscopy for element specific imaging of buried structures with a pixel resolution of approximately 15 nm by exploiting the abrupt change in the scattering cross section near electronic resonances. We performed nondestructive and quantitative imaging of buried Bi structures inside a Si crystal by directly phasing coherent x-ray diffraction patterns acquired below and above the Bi M5 edge. We anticipate that resonant x-ray diffraction microscopy will be applied to element and chemical state specific imaging of a broad range of systems including magnetic materials, semiconductors, organic materials, biominerals, and biological specimens.     

Comparing continuous wave progressive saturation EPR and time domain saturation recovery EPR over the entire motional range of nitroxide spin labels

The measurement of spin-lattice relaxation rates from spin labels, such as nitroxides, in the presence and absence of spin relaxants provides information that is useful for determining biomolecular properties such as nucleic acid dynamics and the interaction of proteins with membranes. We compare X-band continuous wave (CW) and pulsed or time domain (TD) EPR methods for obtaining spin-lattice relaxation rates of spin labels across the entire range of rotational motion to which relaxation rates are sensitive. Model nitroxides and spin-labeled biological species are used to illustrate the potential complications that arise in extracting relaxation data under conditions typical to biological experiments. The effect of super hyperfine (SHF) structure is investigated for both CW and TD spectra. First and second harmonic absorption and dispersion CW spectra of the nitroxide spin label, TEMPOL, are all fit simultaneously to a model of SHF structure over a range of microwave amplitudes. The CW spectra are novel because all harmonics and microwave phases were acquired simultaneously using our homebuilt CW/TD spectrometer. The effect of the SHF structure on the pulsed free induction decay (FID) and pulsed saturation recovery spectrum is shown for both protonated and deuterated TEMPOL. We present novel pulsed saturation recovery measurements on biological molecules, including spin-lattice relaxation rates of spin-labeled proteins and spin-labeled double-stranded DNA. The impact of structure and dynamics on relaxation rates are discussed in the context of each of these examples. Collisional relaxation rates with oxygen and transition metal paramagnetic relaxants are extracted using both continuous wave and time domain methods. The extent of the errors inherent in the CW method and the advantages of pulsed methods for unambiguously measuring collisional relaxation rates are discussed. Spin-lattice relaxation rates, determined by both CW and pulsed methods, are used to determine the electrostatic potential on the surface of a protein.     

The role of electron scattering in the surface enhanced Raman effect on AgAu alloys

We have observed SERS from AgAu alloys using incident photon energies above and below the onset for interband transitions. Below the onset, electron scattering processes due to alloying cause a decrease in SERS intensity below that observed on either pure metal. This behavior is most easily explained by theories which are based on the optical properties of the substrate.     

Operation of the Faddeev Kernel in Configuration Space

We present a practical method to solve Faddeev three-body equations at energies above the three-body breakup threshold as integral equations in coordinate space. This is an extension of a previously used method for bound states and scattering states below three-body breakup threshold energy. We show that breakup components in three-body reactions produce long-range effects on Faddeev integral kernels in coordinate space, and propose numerical procedures to treat these effects. Using these techniques, we solve Faddeev equations for neutron-deuteron scattering to compare with benchmark solutions.     

Chaotic scattering on a double well: Periodic orbits,symbolic dynamics,and scaling

We investigate classical scattering of particles by a double-well potential. Irregularity in the scattering functions, such as scattering angle and escape time, appears when the collision energy is lowered below a threshold value. This threshold is closely related to the appearance of periodic orbits with energies above the potential maxima. We study the scattering as a function of the energy and impact parameter. In this initial parameter space the scattering functions consist of regular regions interlaced with chaotic rivers. A symbolic dynamics has been developed to organize these structures and used to reveal their scaling properties.     

Polariton parametric amplifier pump dynamics in the coherent regime

We studied the pump coherent dynamics in a II-VI microcavity parametric amplifier, using angle-resolved four-wave mixing. The polariton parametric amplification is found to result in a strong quenching and saturation of the pump coherence lifetime above the threshold. For the polariton scattering processes that remain below the amplification threshold, we find an angle-dependent collision broadening associated with the efficiency of the polariton scattering towards the excitonic reservoir.     

Relaxation processes in supercooled confined water and implications for protein dynamics

We show that the viscosity-related main (alpha) relaxation of confined water vanishes at a temperature where the volume required for the cooperative alpha relaxation becomes larger than the size of the geometrically confined water cluster. This occurs typically around 200 K, implying that above this temperature we observe a merged alpha-beta relaxation, whereas below it only a local (beta) relaxation remains. This also means that such confined supercooled water does not exhibit any true glass transition, in contrast to other liquids in similar confinements. Furthermore, it implies that deeply supercooled water in biological systems, such as membranes and proteins, generally shows only a local beta relaxation, a finding of importance for low temperature properties of biological materials.     

Specific features of depolarized and polarized light scattering in a solution with a layering isolated region

Intensities of depolarized and polarized light scattering in guaiacol-glycerin solutions with layering isolated regions are measured. It is shown that (a) the depolarized scattering intensity is the same above the higher critical point (HCP) and below the lower critical point (LCP), and (b) the polarized scattering intensity below LCP is higher, the higher the HCP. An empirical formula is offered to describe the polarized scattered light intensity. No increase in the single depolarized scattering intensity is found approaching LCP and HCP.     

Multiscale modeling of electronic excitations in branched conjugated molecules using an exciton scattering approach

The exciton scattering (ES) approach attributes excited electronic states in quasi-1D branched polymer molecules to standing waves of quantum quasiparticles (excitons) scattered at the molecular vertices. We extract their dispersion and frequency-dependent scattering matrices at termini, ortho, and meta joints for pi-conjugated phenylacetylene-based molecules from atomistic time-dependent density-functional theory (TD DFT) calculations. This allows electronic spectra for any structure of arbitrary size within the considered molecular family to be obtained with negligible numerical effort. The agreement is within 10-20 meV for all test cases, when comparing the ES results with the reference TD DFT calculations.     

Inelastic shadowing effects in multiple scattering

The projectile-nucleon scattering amplitudes used as input into multiple scattering theories of projectile-nucleus scattering naturally include the effects of coupling to inelastic (i.e., production) channels. We employ a multichannel separable potential to describe the projectile-nucleon interaction and show that within the fixed nucleon framework we can obtain the nuclear elastic scattering amplitude. This includes terms outside the conventional formalisms, corresponding to intermediate propagation in the inelastic channels both above and below inelastic threshold. We refer to this as inelastic shadowing. In a two-channel approximation, we show that knowledge of the projectile-nucleon elastic scattering phase shifts plus specification of the inelastic threshold energy are sufficient to determine the off-shell coupled-channel transition matrix, implying that the nuclear amplitude can be calculated within this model without any detailed information about the inelastic channels. We study this solution quantitatively for some model problems and for pion scattering, with the general result that inelastic shadowing can be significant whenever the elementary interaction has important channel coupling. For pion scattering in the energy regime characterized by strongly absorptive resonances, we find, for example, that the effect of inelastic shadowing is much more important than that due to two-nucleon correlations.     

Discrete Time and Intrinsic Length in Quantum Mechanics

We consider the possibility that simultaneously time and intrinsic length can be regarded as discrete real parameters. We study the dynamics of the free particle. For both scattering and bound states there are configurations where the energy is bounded from above and from below even for positive wave-function solutions. For the case of continuous evolution we show that the wave equation with a linear scalar coupling describes an oscillator that has built-in hidden supersymmetry.     

Proton momentum distribution in a protein hydration shell

The momentum distribution of protons in the hydration shell of a globular protein has been measured through deep inelastic neutron scattering at 180 and 290 K, below and above the crossover temperature Tc=1.23Tg, where Tg=219 K is the glass transition temperature. It is found that the mean kinetic energy of the water hydrogens shows no temperature dependence, but the measurements are accurate enough to indicate a sensible change of momentum distribution and effective potential felt by protons, compatible with the transition from a single to a double potential well. This could support the presence of tunneling effects even at room temperature, playing an important role in biological function.     

Vortices formation induced by femtosecond laser filamentation in a cloud chamber filled with air and helium

We report on the experimental observation of the airflow motion induced by an 800 nm, 1 k Hz femtosecond filament in a cloud chamber filled with air and helium. It is found that vortex pairs with opposite rotation directions always form both below and above the filaments. We do not observe that the vortices clearly formed above the filament in air just because of the formation of smaller particles with weaker Mie scattering.Simulations of the airflow motion in helium are conducted by using the laser filament as a heat source, and the simulated pattern of vortices and airflow velocity agree well with the experimental results.     

Direct Detection of Dark Matter with Resonant Annihilation

In the scenario where the dark matter (DM) particles χχ pair annihilate through a resonance particle R, the constraint from DM relic density makes the corresponding cross section for DM-nuclei elastic scattering extremely small, and can be below the neutrino background induced by the coherent neutrino-nuclei scattering, which makes the DM particle beyond the reach of the conventional DM direct detection experiments. We present an improved analytical calculation of the DM relic density in the case of resonant DM annihilation for s- and p-wave cases and invesitgate the condition for the DM-nuclei scattering cross section to be above the neutrino background. We show that in Higgs-portal type models, for DM particles with s-wave annihilation, the spin-independent DM-nucleus scattering cross section is proportional to Γ_R/m_R, the ratio of the decay width and the mass of R. For a typical DM particle mass ～50 GeV, the condition leads to Γ_R/m_R ≥O(10^-4). In p-wave annihilation case, the spin-independent scattering cross section is insensitive to Γ_R/m_R, and is always above the neutrino background, as long as the DM particle is lighter than the top quark. The real singlet DM model is discussed as a concrete example.     

The effect of multiple electron-electron scattering on the energy distribution of electrons in a correlated pair

A unit event of electron-electron scattering in LiF layers is studied by correlation spectroscopy of scattered electrons. The energy distribution of electrons in a correlated pair when a 15-to 55-eV free electron is scattered by a valence electron of LiF is studied. It is shown that single electron-electron scattering prevails and the distribution is uniform when the energy of the primary electron is below 25 eV. As the energy of the primary electron increases, the formation of correlated pairs of electrons with equal energies becomes the most probable. With the energy of the primary electron above 40 eV, the pairs with substantially different electron energies dominate. Such evolution of the energy distribution of the electrons in the pair stems from the fact that first one and then the other electron of the pair successively takes part in electron-electron scattering. A phenomenological model for the single scattering and double scattering of primary electrons in LiF films is considered. Results obtained indicate that the strengths of single scattering and double scattering channels become comparable at electron energies above 25 eV.     

Noninvasive determination of tissue optical properties based on radiative transfer theory

We present a feasibility study of a new method for determining the tissue optical properties, including the absorption and scattering coefficients and the scattering asymmetry factor. A state-of-the-art radiative transfer model for the coupled air/tissue system, based on rigorous radiative transfer theory, is used in our forward modeling simulations. The concept of the effective photon penetration depth is introduced and used to help determine the depth below, which information about the tissue will not be available through noninvasive imaging of a biological tissue using reflected diffuse light. Simulation results show that for accurate determination of tissue optical properties, one can use radiative transfer theory in conjunction with measurements of reflected radiances as well as other existing techniques.     

Decoherence of excitons in multichromophore systems: thermal line broadening and destruction of superradiant emission

We study the temperature-dependent dephasing rate of excitons in chains of chromophores, accounting for scattering on static disorder as well as acoustic phonons in the host matrix. From this we find a power-law temperature dependence of the absorption linewidth, in excellent quantitative agreement with experiments on dye aggregates. We also propose a relation between the linewidth and the exciton coherence length imposed by the phonons. The results indicate that the much debated steep rise of the fluorescence lifetime of pseudoisocyanine aggregates above 40 K results from the fact that this coherence length drops below the localization length imposed by static disorder.     

Non-conservation of k in photoemission into electrolytes

Recent measurements of the photoemission yield from copper single crystals into electrolyte revealed unexplained polarization and crystallographic anisotropies. It is shown that these anisotropies indicate a breakdown of parallel momentum conservation at the interface due to scattering by water molecules. The similarity between the experimental results above and below the interband transition threshold suggests the involvement of evanescent states in photoemission below threshold.     

Analysis of the pion formfactor in the time-like region

We perform a model independent analysis of the pion electromagnetic formfactor using the available space like and time-like data. Our aim is to obtain information on the structure in the time-like region above the πω threshold. The phase below is assumed to be known from ππ scattering. In the process of analytic continuation we use as stabilizing lever different types of bounds on the derivative of the formfactor.     

Charge-orbital ordering and Verwey transition in magnetite measured by resonant soft X-ray scattering

We report experimental evidence for the charge-orbital ordering in magnetite below the Verwey transition temperature T(V). Measurements of O K-edge resonant x-ray scattering on magnetite reveal that the O 2p states in the vicinity of the Fermi level exhibit a charge-orbital ordering along the c axis with a spatial periodicity of the doubled lattice parameter of the undistorted cubic phase. Such a charge-orbital ordering vanishes abruptly above T(V) and exhibits a thermal hysteresis, correlating closely with the Verwey transition in magnetite.