Sulfur doping of AlN and AlGaN for improved n‐type conductivity

Achieving high levels of n‐type conductivity in AlN and high Al‐content nitride alloys is a long standing problem; significant decreases in conductivity are observed as the Al content is increased, a phenomenon that has been attributed to donors such as oxygen or silicon forming DX centers. We address this problem through a comprehensive first‐principles hybrid density functional study of potential n‐type dopants, identifying S_N and Se_N as two elements which are potential shallow donors because they do not undergo a DX transition. In particular, S_N is highly promising as an n‐type dopant because it also has a low formation energy and hence a high solubility. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Optical Thin-Film Sensors for the Determination of Aqueous Halide Ions

Fourteen thin-film optical sensors in which halide-sensitive fluorophores are immobilized in a thin copolymer film (50 m, dry) have been developed and characterized. The sensor films use rhodamine, 6-methoxyquinoline, and harmane dyes which have been functionalized and bound to a hydrophilic copolymer. The sensor films are reversibly capable of determining aqueous bromide and iodide with 4 and 2% accuracy, respectively, at concentrations of around 10^–3 mol dm^–3, and are more sensitive than previous plastic sensor fabrications. The 90% response time to molar iodide is 30–60 s. A combination of sensor films allows the simultaneous determination of both I^– and Br^– in a mixed-halide solution. The interference of several ions, including pseudo-halides, on the sensor films has been studied.     

Measurement of angular distribution of soft X‐ray radiation from thin targets in the tabletop storage ring MIRRORCLE‐20SX

The only available tabletop electron storage rings are the machines from the MIRRORCLE series. The electrons are accelerated in a microtron and injected into the storage ring. During its circulation, each electron passes through a tiny target many times, emitting a photon beam. Both the spectrum and the angular distribution of the radiation depend on the material, the thickness and the shape of the target. In this paper measured angular distributions of the radiation from several different targets in the magnetic field of the 20 MeV storage ring MIRRORCLE‐20SX are presented. The detector comprises a 3 mm × 3 mm × 8.5 µm plastic scintillator (PS) coupled to a photomultiplier by a bundle of optical fibers. The output of the photomultiplier is digitized by an IF converter. This detector is sensitive mostly to soft X‐ray radiation, and its PS is moved by a mechanical system in a plane perpendicular to the radiation axis. The measured angular distributions for Mo and Sn targets contain an annulus which is attributed to transition radiation. The angular distributions for Al, carbon nanotube and diamond‐like carbon (DLC) targets show some suppression of the radiation along the magnetic field. This is the first evidence of observation of the angular distribution of synchrotron Cherenkov radiation, which represents Cherenkov radiation in a magnetic field. The power radiated from the DLC target is estimated.     

Carbon K‐edge spectra of carbonate minerals

Carbon K‐edge X‐ray spectroscopy has been applied to the study of a wide range of organic samples, from polymers and coals to interstellar dust particles. Identification of carbonaceous materials within these samples is accomplished by the pattern of resonances in the 280–320 eV energy region. Carbonate minerals are often encountered in the study of natural samples, and have been identified by a distinctive resonance at 290.3 eV. Here C K‐edge and Ca L‐edge spectra from a range of carbonate minerals are presented. Although all carbonates exhibit a sharp 290 eV resonance, both the precise position of this resonance and the positions of other resonances vary among minerals. The relative strengths of the different carbonate resonances also vary with crystal orientation to the linearly polarized X‐ray beam. Intriguingly, several carbonate minerals also exhibit a strong 288.6 eV resonance, consistent with the position of a carbonyl resonance rather than carbonate. Calcite and aragonite, although indistinguishable spectrally at the C K‐edge, exhibited significantly different spectra at the Ca L‐edge. The distinctive spectral fingerprints of carbonates provide an identification tool, allowing for the examination of such processes as carbon sequestration in minerals, Mn substitution in marine calcium carbonates (dolomitization) and serpentinization of basalts.     

Voltage-Gated Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence II: Effects of Fluorophore Concentration on the Magnitude of the Gated-Current

In this letter we report further findings on the ability of an applied direct current to modulate Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF). Fluorophores in close-proximity to just-continuous silver films (JCS) show significantly enhanced fluorescence intensities. However, when a current is applied to the films, the enhanced fluorescence can be gated in a manner that depends on both the fluorophore concentration, the magnitude of the applied current and the extent of the protein mono to multi-layer surface coverage. Our results are consistent and indeed further support our previous hypothesis and model that fluorophore-metal near-field interactions can be influenced by an applied direct current.     

Intuitionistic Quantum Logic of an <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-level System

A decade ago, Isham and Butterfield proposed a topos-theoretic approach to quantum mechanics, which meanwhile has been extended by Döring and Isham so as to provide a new mathematical foundation for all of physics. Last year, three of the present authors redeveloped and refined these ideas by combining the C*-algebraic approach to quantum theory with the so-called internal language of topos theory (Heunen et al. in arXiv:0709.4364). The goal of the present paper is to illustrate our abstract setup through the concrete example of the C*-algebra M _n (?) of complex n×n matrices. This leads to an explicit expression for the pointfree quantum phase space Σ _n and the associated logical structure and Gelfand transform of an n-level system. We also determine the pertinent non-probabilisitic state-proposition pairing (or valuation) and give a very natural topos-theoretic reformulation of the Kochen–Specker Theorem.In our approach, the nondistributive lattice ?(M _n (?)) of projections in M _n (?) (which forms the basis of the traditional quantum logic of Birkhoff and von Neumann) is replaced by a specific distributive lattice \(\mathcal{O}(\Sigma_{n})\) of functions from the poset \(\mathcal{C}(M_{n}(\mathbb{C}))\) of all unital commutative C*-subalgebras C of M _n (?) to ?(M _n (?)). The lattice \(\mathcal{O}(\Sigma_{n})\) is essentially the (pointfree) topology of the quantum phase space Σ _n , and as such defines a Heyting algebra. Each element of \(\mathcal{O}(\Sigma_{n})\) corresponds to a “Bohrified” proposition, in the sense that to each classical context \(C\in\mathcal{C}(M_{n}(\mathbb{C}))\) it associates a yes-no question (i.e. an element of the Boolean lattice ?(C) of projections in C), rather than being a single projection as in standard quantum logic. Distributivity is recovered at the expense of the law of the excluded middle (Tertium Non Datur), whose demise is in our opinion to be welcomed, not just in intuitionistic logic in the spirit of Brouwer, but also in quantum logic in the spirit of von Neumann.     

Multiwavelength pulse generator using time-lens compression

We demonstrate a novel method of generating a multiwavelength pulse train by use of time-lens compression. In addition to pulse compression, this time lens simultaneously displaces the pulses according to their center wavelengths, resulting in a temporally evenly spaced multiwavelength pulse train. We further demonstrate a new aberration-correction technique based on the temporal analog of a spatial correction lens to improve the quality of the compressed pulses. Through the use of cw distributed-feedback lasers and electro-optic phase modulators, the all-fiber system allows complete tunability of temporal spacing, spectral profile, and repetition rate.