Cloaking and imaging effects in plasmonic checkerboards of negative and and dielectric photonic crystal checkerboards

Negative refractive index materials are known to be able to support a host of surface plasmon states for both polarizations of light. This makes possible unique effects such as a perfect lens. Checkerboards consisting of alternating cells of positive and negative refractive index represent a very singular situation in which the density of modes diverges at the corners. This raises the question as to whether such effects will still be observed in a real dissipative system of finite size. We have considered several aspects of such structures including these and symmetry aspects (rectangular against triangular checkerboards). We have also studied silver checkerboards whose transverse extent is finite. Negative refractive index checkerboards bring new electromagnetic paradigms both through the intriguing possibilities they appear to offer, and the challenges they present to our understanding of the diffraction process. Most intriguing of all is the possibility of a triangular checkerboard lens whose resolution is limited not by wavelength, but only by the losses in the constituent materials, while a ray picture suggests it behaves as a perfect mirror. The resolution of this lens increases without limit as the losses tend to zero as shown by the generalized lens theorem. We finally show that light confinement can be achieved to certain extent using dielectric triangular photonic crystal (PC) checkerboards displaying the all-angle-negative-refraction (AANR) within the Bragg regime in p polarization. Effectively even a single rectangular or triangular PC can act as an open resonator that confines light in its neighborhood. This cloaking effect has been previously observed in PC slabs displaying the AANR effect. We show that the cloaking is enhanced for three triangular PC wedges sharing a vertex and further improved for 12 triangular PC wedges arranged in a checkerboard fashion.     

A metamaterial for directive emission

In this paper we present the first results on emission in metamaterial. We show how the specific properties of metallic composite material can modify the emission of an embedded source. We show that under proper conditions the energy radiated by a source embedded in a slab of metamaterial will be concentrated in a narrow cone in the surrounding media. An experimental demonstration of this effect is given in the microwave domain, and the constructed antenna has a directivity equivalent to the best reported results with photonic-crystal-based antennas but using a completely different physical principle [B. Temelkuaran, J. Appl. Phys. 87, 603 (2000)]].     

Omitting types and AF algebras

We prove that the classes of UHF algebras and AF algebras, while not axiomatizable, can be characterized as those C*-algebras that omit certain types in the logic of metric structures.     

Interaction of Coumarin 7 and Coumarin 314 with C-hexylpyrogallol[4]arene

We report in this paper the different modes of interaction of coumarin 7 and coumarin 314 with the cavity-containing molecule C-hexylpyrogallol[4]arene. The stoichiometry and the binding constant of coumarin 7 for its binding with C-hexylpyrogallol[4]arene are reported. The analysis is done with UV–Vis absorption, steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence, and 2D ROESY spectroscopy. The fluorescence quenching of the two coumarins is analyzed and the Stern–Volmer constants are reported. The mode of binding of coumarin 7 with the host molecule is optimized with 2D ROESY. Coumarin 314 does not form an inclusion complex and this result is supported by the spectral data. The ground and the excited state pK _a values for the coumarins, in the presence of C-hexylpyrogallol[4]arene, are reported.     

Functional Analysis of Ribonucleotide Reductase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cordyceps militaris</Emphasis> Expressed in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis>

Cordyceps militaris produces cordycepin (3′-deoxyadenosine), which has various activities, including anti-oxidant, anti-tumoral, anti-viral, and anti-inflammatory. Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) seems to be a candidate to produce cordycepin in C. militaris because RNR catalyzes the reduction of nucleotides to 2′-deoxynucleotides, whose structures are similar to that of cordycepin. However, the role of RNR has not been confirmed yet. In this study, complementary DNAs (cDNAs) of C. militaris RNR (CmRNR) large and small subunits (CmR1 and CmR2) were cloned from C. militaris NBRC9787 to investigate the function of CmRNR for its cordycepin production. C. militaris NBRC9787 began to produce cordycepin when grown in a liquid surface culture in medium composed of glucose and yeast extract for 15 days. CmR1 cDNA and CmR2 cDNA were obtained from its genomic DNA and from total RNA extracted from its mycelia after cultivation for 21 days, respectively. Recombinant CmR1 and CmR2 were expressed individually in Escherichia coli and purified. Purified recombinant CmR1 and CmR2 showed RNR activity toward adenosine diphosphate (ADP) only when two subunits were mixed but only show the reduction of ADP to 2′-deoxyADP. These results indicate that the pathway from ADP to 3′deoxyADP via CmRNR does not exist in C. militaris and cordycepin production in C. militaris may be mediated by other enzymes.     

Numerical analysis of three-dimensional acoustic cloaks and carpets

We start by a review of the chronology of mathematical results on the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map which paved the way toward the physics of transformational acoustics. We then rederive the expression for the (anisotropic) density and bulk modulus appearing in the pressure wave equation written in the transformed coordinates. A spherical acoustic cloak consisting of an alternation of homogeneous isotropic concentric layers is further proposed based on the effective medium theory. This cloak is characterized by a low reflection and good efficiency over a large bandwidth for both near and far fields, which approximates the ideal cloak with an inhomogeneous and anisotropic distribution of material parameters. The latter suffers from singular material parameters on its inner surface. This singularity depends upon the sharpness of corners, if the cloak has an irregular boundary, e.g. a polyhedron cloak becomes more and more singular when the number of vertices increases if it is star shaped. We thus analyze the acoustic response of a non-singular spherical cloak designed by blowing up a small ball instead of a point, as proposed in [Kohn, Shen, Vogelius, Weinstein, Inverse Problems 24, 015016, 2008]. The multilayered approximation of this cloak requires less extreme densities (especially for the lowest bound). Finally, we investigate another type of non-singular cloaks, known as invisibility carpets [Li and Pendry, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 203901, 2008], which mimic the reflection by a flat ground.     

Hydrogenolysis of β-O-4 lignin model dimers by a ruthenium-xantphos catalyst

Hydrogenolysis reactions of so-called lignin model dimers using a Ru-xantphos catalyst are presented (xantphos = 4,5-bis(diphenylphosphino)-9,9-dimethylxanthene). For example, of some nine models studied, the alcohol, 2-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-1-phenylethanol (), with 5 mol% Ru(H)(2)(CO)(PPh(3))(xantphos) () in toluene-d(8) at 135 °C for 20 h under N(2), gives in ～95% yield the C-O cleavage hydrogenolysis products, acetophenone () and guaiacol (), and a small amount (<5%) of the ketone, 2-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-1-phenylethanone (), as observed by (1)H NMR spectroscopy. The in situ Ru(H)(2)(CO)(PPh(3))(3)/xantphos system gives similar findings, confirming a recent report (J. M. Nichols et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2010, 132, 12554). The active catalyst is formulated 'for convenience' as 'Ru(CO)(xantphos)'. The hydrogenolysis mechanism proceeds by initial dehydrogenation to give the ketone , which then undergoes hydrogenolysis of the C-O bond to give and . Hydrogenolysis of to and also occurs using the Ru catalyst under 1 atm H(2); in contrast, use of 3-hydroxy-2-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-1-phenyl-1-propanone (), for example, where the CH(2) of has been changed to CHCH(2)OH, gives a low yield (≤15%) of hydrogenolysis products. Similarly, the diol substrate, 2-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-1-phenyl-1,3-propanediol (), gives low yields of hydrogenolysis products. These low yields are due to formation of the catalytically inactive complexes Ru(CO)(xantphos)[C(O)C(OC(6)H(4)OMe)[double bond, length as m-dash]C(Ph)O] () and/or Ru(CO)(xantphos)[C(O)CH[double bond, length as m-dash]C(Ph)O] (), where the organic fragments result from dehydrogenation of CH(2)OH moieties in and . Trace amounts of Ru(CO)(xantphos)(OC(6)H(4)O), a catecholate complex, are isolated from the reaction of with . Improved syntheses of and lignin models are also presented.     

Dual Fluorescence and Photoprototropic Characteristics of 2-Aminodiphenylsulphone-β-Cyclodextrin Inclusion Complex

The absorption and fluorescence spectral characteristics of 2-aminodiphenylsulphone (2ADPS) have been investigated in the presence of β-cyclodextrin (β-CDx) in water. Dual emission is observed upon the complexation of 2ADPS in β-CDx. The stoichiometry of the host:guest inclusion complex is found to be 2:1. Steady state and time-resolved fluorescence spectral analysis support the formation of 2:1 complex between β-CDx and 2ADPS. The large enhancement in fluorescence intensity of twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) band in aqueous β-CDx solution is due to the decrease in non-radiative processes. The ground and the excited state pK _a values for the monocation-neutral equilibrium of 2ADPS in β-CDx are found to be different from the pK _a values in aqueous solution. In the presence of β-CDx, 2ADPS is found to be less basic in the ground and the excited states.