Measurement-induced disturbance and thermal negativity in 1D optical lattice chain

We study the measurement-induced disturbance (MID) in a 1D optical lattice chain with nonlinear coupling. Special attention is paid to the difference between the thermal entanglement and MID when considering the influences of the linear coupling constant, nonlinear coupling constant and external magnetic field. It is shown that MID is more robust than thermal entanglement against temperature T$T$ and external magnetic field B$B$, and MID may reveal more properties about quantum correlations of the system, which can be seen from the point of view that MID can be nonzero when there is no thermal entanglement and MID can detect the critical point of quantum phase transition at finite temperature.     

Role of Regulatory Peptide in Pathogenesis of Shock

The present study evaluated the pathogenetic roles of three kinds of regulatory peptide. The results showed that (i) plasma endothelin(ET) level elevated significantly in septic shock rats, persistent intravenous drip of low doses ET caused development of shock state in normal rats and the irreversible outcome of light hemorrhagic shock. Furthermore, i. v. administration of specific ET-antiserum was significantly effective to septic shock rats, (Ⅱ) Plasma calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) increased by 260% in septic shock rats, i. v. drip of low doses CGRP both in early and late sepsis were effective to shock rats, (Ⅱi) An-giotensin-Ⅱ (ANG-Ⅱ) contents of heart and aorta increased dramatically both in early and late septic shock, and inhibiting its increase with Captopril in late sepsis significantly improved the shock state, but results were inverse in early sepsis. It could be concluded that ET was one of the most important factors participating in the pathogenesis of shock, CGRP had a compens     

Mechanical and electrical properties of CdTe tetrapods studied by atomic force microscopy

The mechanical and electrical properties of CdTe tetrapod-shaped nanocrystals have been studied with atomic force microscopy. Tapping mode images of tetrapods deposited on silicon wafers revealed that they contact the surface with three of its arms. The length of these arms was found to be 130+/-10 nm. A large fraction of the tetrapods had a shortened vertical arm as a result of fracture during sample preparation. Fracture also occurs when the applied load is a few nanonewtons. Compression experiments with the atomic force microscope tip indicate that tetrapods with the shortened vertical arm deform elastically when the applied force was less than 50 nN. Above 90 nN additional fracture events occurred that further shortened the vertical arm. Loads above 130 nN produced irreversible damage to the other arms as well. Current-voltage characteristics of tetrapods deposited on gold revealed a semiconducting behavior with a current gap of approximately 2 eV at low loads (<50 nN) and a narrowing to about 1 eV at loads between 60 and 110 nN. Atomistic force field calculations of the deformation suggest that the ends of the tetrapod arms are stuck during compression so that the deformations are due to bending modes. Empirical pseudopotential calculation of the electron states indicates that the reduction of the current gap is due to electrostatic effects, rather than strain deformation effects inside the tetrapod.     

Stability of the DX- center in GaAs quantum dots

Using a first-principles band structure method, we study how the size of quantum dots affects the stability and transition energy levels of defects in GaAs. We show that, although a negatively charged DX- center is unstable in bulk GaAs:Si with respect to the tetrahedral coordinated Si(-)(Ga), it becomes stable when the dot size is small enough. The critical size of the dot is about 14.5 nm in diameter. The reason for the stabilization is the strong quantum-confinement effect, which increases the formation energy of Si(-)(Ga) more than that of the DX- defect center. Our studies show that defect properties in quantum dots could be significantly different from those in bulk semiconductors.     

Pseudopotential theory of Auger processes in CdSe quantum dots

Auger rates are calculated for CdSe colloidal quantum dots using atomistic empirical pseudopotential wave functions. We predict the dependence of Auger electron cooling on size, on correlation effects (included via configuration interaction), and on the presence of a spectator exciton. Auger multiexciton recombination rates are predicted for biexcitons as well as for triexcitons. The results agree quantitatively with recent measurements and offer new predictions.     

Cadmium selenide quantum wires and the transition from 3D to 2D confinement

Soluble CdSe quantum wires are prepared by the solution-liquid-solid mechanism, using monodisperse bismith nanoparticles to catalyze wire growth. The quantum wires have micrometer lengths, diameters in the range of 5-20 nm, and diameter distributions of +/-10-20%. Spectroscopically determined wire band gaps compare closely to those calculated by the semiemipirical pseudopotential method, confirming 2D quantum confinement. The diameter dependence of the quantum wire band gaps is compared to that of CdSe quantum dots and rods. Quantum rod band gaps are shown to be delimited by the band gaps of dots and wires of like diameter, for short and long rods, respectively. The experimental data suggest that a length of ca. 30 nm is required for the third dimension of quantum confinement to fully vanish in CdSe rods. That length is about six times the bulk CdSe exciton Bohr radius.     

Furfuraldehyde hydrogenation on titanium oxide-supported platinum nanoparticles studied by sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy: Acid-base catalysis explains the molecular origin of strong metal-support interactions

This work describes a molecular-level investigation of strong metal-support interactions (SMSI) in Pt/TiO(2) catalysts using sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy. This is the first time that SFG has been used to probe the highly selective oxide-metal interface during catalytic reaction, and the results demonstrate that charge transfer from TiO(2) on a Pt/TiO(2) catalyst controls the product distribution of furfuraldehyde hydrogenation by an acid-base mechanism. Pt nanoparticles supported on TiO(2) and SiO(2) are used as catalysts for furfuraldehyde hydrogenation. As synthesized, the Pt nanoparticles are encapsulated in a layer of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP). The presence of PVP prevents interaction of the Pt nanoparticles with their support, so identical turnover rates and reaction selectivity is observed regardless of the supporting oxide. However, removal of the PVP with UV light results in a 50-fold enhancement in the formation of furfuryl alcohol by Pt supported on TiO(2), while no change is observed for the kinetics of Pt supported on SiO(2). SFG vibrational spectroscopy reveals that a furfuryl-oxy intermediate forms on TiO(2) as a result of a charge transfer interaction. This furfuryl-oxy intermediate is a highly active and selective precursor to furfuryl alcohol, and spectral analysis shows that the Pt/TiO(2) interface is required primarily for H spillover. Density functional calculations predict that O-vacancies on the TiO(2) surface activate the formation of the furfuryl-oxy intermediate via an electron transfer to furfuraldehyde, drawing a strong analogy between SMSI and acid-base catalysis.     

On the size-dependent behavior of nanocrystal-ligand bonds

Recent experiments have indicated that 3-mercapto-1-propanol ligands display a size-dependent binding energy of attachment to the surface of II-VI semiconductor nanocrystals. Using semiempirical calculations, we exhaustively calculate the energy of this bond at each surface site, for CdSe and CdSe/CdS core/shell nanocrystals ranging from 1.8 to 4.1 nm in diameter. Our results suggest that the experimentally observed changes in binding energy are due to the distribution of surface facets on the nanocrystals, and not related to the band gap, as proposed in the experimental paper.     

Microscopic dielectric response functions in semiconductor quantum dots

We calculate and model the microscopic dielectric response function for quantum dots using first principle methods. We find that the response is bulklike inside the quantum dots, and the reduction of the macroscopic dielectric constants is a surface effect. We present a model for the microscopic dielectric function which reproduces well the directly calculated results and can be used to solve the Poisson equation in a nanosystem.     

Synthesis of cadmium telluride quantum wires and the similarity of their effective band gaps to those of equidiameter cadmium telluride quantum dots

High-quality colloidal CdTe quantum wires having purposefully controlled diameters in the range 5-11 nm are grown by the solution-liquid-solid (SLS) method, using Bi nanoparticle catalysts, cadmium octadecylphosphonate and trioctylphosphine telluride as precursors, and a TOPO solvent. The wires adopt the wurtzite structure and grow along the [002] direction (parallel to the c axis). The size dependence of the effective band gaps in the wires is determined from the absorption spectra and compared to the experimental results for high-quality CdTe quantum dots. In contrast to the predictions of an effective-mass approximation, particle-in-a-box model, and previous experimental results from CdSe and InP dot-wire comparisons, the effective band gaps of CdTe dots and wires of like diameter are found to be experimentally indistinguishable. The present results are analyzed using density functional theory under the local-density approximation by implementing a charge-patching method. The higher-level theoretical analysis finds the general existence of a threshold diameter, above which dot and wire effective band gaps converge. The origin and magnitude of this threshold diameter are discussed.