Surface-enhanced Raman scattering effect of gold nanoparticle arrays: The influence of annealing temperature,excitation power and array thickness

Gold nanoparticle arrays are fabricated for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and the effect of the annealing temperature, the thickness of nanoparticle array and the exciting power on the SERS signals are investigated. The particle distribution and particle size are dense and uniform on the glass substrate when the 10 nm gold film was annealed at 250 °C and strong SERS signals for Rhodamine 6G were achieved via a 532 nm excitation with a 10 mW power. The SERS signal at 1650 cm⁻¹ is enhanced more than 10 times as compared to that of the gold film without annealing. The strong SERS behavior of gold nanoparticle arrays may broaden the SERS applications in biomedical and analytical chemistry.     

Sparsity-constrained SENSE reconstruction: An efficient implementation using a fast composite splitting algorithm

Parallel imaging and compressed sensing have been arguably the most successful and widely used techniques for fast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Recent studies have shown that the combination of these two techniques is useful for solving the inverse problem of recovering the image from highly under-sampled k-space data. In sparsity-enforced sensitivity encoding (SENSE) reconstruction, the optimization problem involves data fidelity (L2-norm) constraint and a number of L1-norm regularization terms (i.e. total variation or TV, and L1 norm). This makes the optimization problem difficult to solve due to the non-smooth nature of the regularization terms. In this paper, to effectively solve the sparsity-regularized SENSE reconstruction, we utilize a new optimization method, called fast composite splitting algorithm (FCSA), which was developed for compressed sensing MRI. By using a combination of variable splitting and operator splitting techniques, the FCSA algorithm decouples the large optimization problem into TV and L1 sub-problems, which are then, solved efficiently using existing fast methods. The operator splitting separates the smooth terms from the non-smooth terms, so that both terms are treated in an efficient manner. The final solution to the SENSE reconstruction is obtained by weighted solutions to the sub-problems through an iterative optimization procedure. The FCSA-based parallel MRI technique is tested on MR brain image reconstructions at various acceleration rates and with different sampling trajectories. The results indicate that, for sparsity-regularized SENSE reconstruction, the FCSA-based method is capable of achieving significant improvements in reconstruction accuracy when compared with the state-of-the-art reconstruction method.     

Berry phase and Hannay’s angle in the Born–Oppenheimer hybrid systems

In this paper, we investigate the Berry phase and Hannay’s angle in the Born–Oppenheimer (BO) hybrid systems and obtain their algebraic expressions in terms of one form connection. The semiclassical relation of Berry phase and Hannay’s angle is discussed. We find that, besides the usual connection term, the Berry phase of quantum BO composite system also contains a novel term brought forth by the coupling induced effective gauge potential. This quantum modification can be viewed as an effective Aharonov–Bohm effect. Moreover, the similar phenomenon is founded in Hannay’s angle of classical BO composite system, which indicates that the Berry phase and Hannay’s angle possess the same relation as the usual one. An example is used to illustrate our theory. This scheme can be used to generate artificial gauge potentials for neutral atoms. Besides, the quantum–classical hybrid BO system is also studied to compare with the results in full quantum and full classical composite systems.     

胆囊癌的傅里叶变换红外光谱研究

运用衰减全反射(attenuated total reflection,ATR)探头与傅里叶变换红外(Fourier transform infra-red,FTIR)光谱仪,测定并分析了新鲜离体的胆囊癌组织18例和良性组织139例的FTIR光谱。结果表明:(1)胆囊癌的1 167和1 123 cm-1谱带的峰位显著地向低波数移动(P0.05),而1 309 cm-1谱带的峰位显著地向高波数移动(P0.05)。(2)胆囊癌组织光谱多个峰的相对强度I2 856/I1 461,I1 167/I1 461,I1 123/I1 461和I1 082/I1 461明显升高(P0.05)。(3)1 167和1 082 cm-1谱带的半高宽显著升高(P0.05),谱带1 461 cm-1的半高宽则显著降低(P0.05)。(4)癌组织1 750 cm-1谱带的出现几率明显增加(P0.05)。与胆囊良性组织相比较,癌组织光谱中与脂类、糖和核酸相关的谱带均发生了明显的变化。     

Investigations of the optical spectra and spin-Hamiltonian parameters for the rhombic Yb centers in garnets

Two complete diagonalization (of energy matrix) methods (CDM-I and CDM-II) are used to calculate the six optical spectral band positions and nine spin-Hamiltonian (SH) parameters (g factors g_i and hyperfine structure constants ¹⁷¹A_i, ¹⁷³A_i, where i=x, y, z) for Yb³⁺ ions in the rhombic dodecahedral sites of garnets Y₃Al₅O₁₂, Lu₃Al₅O₁₂ and Y₃Ga₅O₁₂. In CDM-I, the Hamiltonian concerning energy matrix does not contain the Zeeman and hyperfine interaction terms, whereas in CDM-II, it does. So, in CDM-I, the SH parameters are obtained by first-order perturbation method or the equivalence between SH and Zeeman term (or hyperfine interaction term) and in CDM-II, the SH parameters and optical spectral band positions are calculated together. The results obtained from both methods are not only close to each other, but also in reasonable agreement with the observed values. So the second-order perturbation formulas of SH parameters developed recently are incorrect and unnecessary.     

Coordinates problem of Hawking radiation derivation in a Kerr–Newman black hole using Hamilton–Jacobi equation

Hawking radiation from a Kerr–Newman black hole is investigated using Hamilton–Jacobi method more deeply. A direct computation will lead to a wrong result via Hamilton–Jacobi method. However, when the well-behaved Painleve coordinate system and Eddington coordinate system are considered, we can get the correct result. The reason of the discrepancy between naive coordinate and well-behaved coordinates is also discussed.     

Synergistic effect of silver seeds and organic modifiers on the morphology evolution mechanism of silver nanoparticles

Triangular, truncated triangular, quadrangular, hexagonal, and net-structured silver nanoplates as well as decahedral silver nanoparticles were manipulatively prepared starting from silver nitrate and silver seeds in the presence of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP), and Tween 80 at room temperature, respectively. UV-vis spectroscopy, XRD, HRTEM, SAED, and FTIR were used to illustrate the crystal growth process and to characterize the resultant silver nanoparticles. It was found that the silver seeds and organic modifiers synergistically affected the morphology evolution of the silver nanoparticles. The co-presence of silver seeds and PEG was beneficial to the formation of triangular and truncated triangular silver nanoplates; the silver seeds and PVP favored the formation of polygonal silver nanoplates; the silver seeds and Tween 80 preferred to the formation of net-structured silver plates. The morphology evolution of the resultant silver nanoparticles was correlated with the crystallinity of the silver seeds and the adsorption ability of the organic modifiers on the crystal surfaces.     

Detection of source inhomogeneity through event-by-event two-pion Bose–Einstein correlations

We develop a method for detecting the inhomogeneity of the pion-emitting sources produced in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions, through event-by-event two-pion Bose–Einstein correlations. The root-mean-square of the error-inverse-weighted fluctuations between the two-pion correlation functions of single and mixed events are useful observables for the detection. By investigating the root-mean-square of the weighted fluctuations for different impact parameter regions people may hopefully determine the inhomogeneity of the particle-emitting in the coming Large Hadron Collider (LHC) heavy ion experiments.     

Comparison of shear banding in BMGs due to thermal-softening and free volume creation

This paper reports a comparative study of shear banding in BMGs resulting from thermal softening and free volume creation. Firstly, the effects of thermal softening and free volume creation on shear instability are discussed. It is known that thermal softening governs thermal shear banding, hence it is essentially energy related. However, compound free volume creation is the key factor to the other instability, though void-induced softening seems to be the counterpart of thermal softening. So, the driving force for shear instability owing to free volume creation is very different from the thermally assisted one. In particular, long wave perturbations are always unstable owing to compound free volume creation. Therefore, the shear instability resulting from coupled compound free volume creation and thermal softening may start more like that due to free volume creation. Also, the compound free volume creation implies a specific and intrinsic characteristic growth time of shear instability. Finally, the mature shear band width is governed by the corresponding diffusions (thermal or void diffusion) within the band. As a rough guide, the dimensionless numbers: Thermal softening related number B, Deborah number (denoting the relation of instability growth rate owing to compound free volume and loading time) and Lewis number (denoting the competition of different diffusions) show us their relative importance of thermal softening and free volume creation in shear banding. All these results are of particular significance in understanding the mechanism of shear banding in bulk metallic glasses (BMGs). Supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences under the project “Multi-Scale Complex System” (Grant No. KJCX-SW-L08), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10725211 and 10721202), and the Doctorial Start-up Fund of Hunan University of Science and Technology (Grant No. E50840)