Dark-state mechanism for the long-time transfer of excitations in a donor–acceptor system

The excitation energy transfer between a donor–acceptor pair with fixed distance apart through energy exchanging with environment is investigated. The total system is modeled as two two-level systems (TLSs) interacting with many harmonic oscillators. The pair behaves coherently or incoherently, depending on whether the dipolar coupling is stronger or weaker than the TLS–environment coupling. The environmental linear dispersion relation gives an analytical solution to the pair?s probability involving all the retardation times. We found that the long-time trapping of energy within the pair is caused by the inhibiting dark-state radiative decay when two TLSs are at half a resonant wavelength.     

Characterization of internal structure of hydrated agar and gelatin matrices by cryo‐SEM

There has been a considerable interest in recent years in developing polymer gel matrices for many important applications such as 2DE for quantization and separation of a variety of proteins and drug delivery system to control the release of active agents. However, a well‐defined knowledge of the ultrastructures of the gels has been elusive. In this study, we report the characterization of two different polymers used in 2DE: Gelatin, a naturally occurring polymer derived from collagen (protein) and agar, a polymer of polysaccharide (sugar) origin. Low‐temperature SEM is used to examine the internal structure of these gels in their frozen natural hydrated states. Results of this study show that both polymers have an array of hollow cells that resembles honeycomb structures. While agar pores are almost circular, the corresponding Gaussian curve is very broad exhibiting a range of radii from nearly 370 to 700 nm. Gelatin pores are smaller and more homogeneous reflecting a narrower distribution from nearly 320 to 650 nm. Overall, these ultrastructural findings could be used to correlate with functions of the polymers.