Carbon nanotube—chalcogenide glass composite

This article describes the preparation of multi-walled carbon nanotube—chalcogenide glass composite by direct synthesis and the melt-quenching method. The carbon nanotubes—chalcogenide glass composite was characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), TEM/energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, low energy electron excited X-ray spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, microhardness, and impedance spectroscopy. CNTs-AgAsS₂ glass composite possess highly increased ionic conductivity, from σ_25 °C=4.38±0.0438×10⁻⁶ to σ_25 °C=6.57±0.0657×10⁻⁶ S cm⁻¹ and decreased refractive index from n=2.652 to 2.631 at the wavelength λ=1.55 μm.     

Valence photoelectron spectroscopy of N2 and CO: recoil-induced rotational excitation, relative intensities, and atomic orbital composition of molecular orbitals

Recoil-induced rotational excitation accompanying photoionization has been measured for the X, A, and B states of N(2)(+) and CO(+) over a range of photon energies from 60 to 900 eV. The mean recoil excitation increases linearly with the kinetic energy of the photoelectron, with slopes ranging from 0.73×10(-5) to 1.40×10(-5). These slopes are generally (but not completely) in accord with a simple model that treats the electrons as if they were emitted from isolated atoms. This treatment takes into account the atom from which the electron is emitted, the molecular-frame angular distribution of the electron, and the dependence of the photoelectron cross section on photon energy, on atomic identity, and on the type of atomic orbital from which the electron is ejected. These measurements thus provide a tool for investigating the atomic orbital composition of the molecular orbitals. Additional insight into this composition is obtained from the relative intensities of the various photolines in the spectrum and their variation with photon energy. Although there are some discrepancies between the predictions of the model and the observations, many of these can be understood qualitatively from a comparison of atomic and molecular wavefunctions. A quantum-mechanical treatment of recoil-induced excitation predicts an oscillatory variation with photon energy of the excitation. However, the predicted oscillations are small compared with the uncertainties in the data, and, as a result, the currently available results cannot provide confirmation of the quantum-mechanical theory.     

Specific fragmentation of the K‐shell excited/ionized pyridine derivatives studied by electron impact: 2‐, 3‐ and 4‐methylpyridine

Fragmentation of the pyridine ring upon K‐shell excitation/ionization has been studied with gaseous 2‐, 3‐ and 4‐methylpyridine by the electron‐impact method. Ab initio molecular orbital (MO) calculations were also carried out to explore electronic states correlating with specific fragments. Some specific fragmentation channels were identified from the ionic fragments enhanced characteristically at the N 1s edge. Yields of the C₂HN⁺ and C₅H₅⁺/C₅H₆⁺ ions show that the fission of the N? C2 and C4? C5/C5? C6 bonds of the ring is likely to occur after the N 1s excitation and ionization. Ab initio MO calculations for the 2‐methylpyridine molecule indicate that the dissociation channels to produce these ions are only accessible through the excited states of the parent molecular dication, which can be formed by Auger decays after the N 1s ionization. Fragment ions via hydrogen rearrangement are produced as well, but the rearrangement is not a phenomenon specific to the K‐shell excitation/ionization. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High-density carrier dynamics in Ge/Si quantum dots studied by time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy

We studied the temperature dependence of high-density carrier dynamics in as-grown and thermally annealed Ge quantum dots (QDs) in silicon crystals. In as-grown and thermally annealed samples, photoluminescence (PL) intensity exhibited a power-law dependence on the excitation intensity and its power-law index was ~ 0.7 at low temperatures. With increasing measurement temperature, PL intensity decreased and the index of the power-law function increased up to ~ 1.5, in which carrier recombination dynamics is dominated by a single carrier trapping. Moreover, in thermally annealed QDs, the index of the power law increased more rapidly than as-grown QDs, suggesting that the carrier recombination dynamics drastically changed in thermally annealed QDs. Effects of Ge/Si interface on high-density carrier recombination process are discussed.     

Molecular assembly composed of a dendrimer template and block polypeptides through stereocomplex formation

A 2nd generation polyamideamine (PAMAM) dendrimer bearing right-handed helices to its eight terminals was shown to accommodate eight left-handed helices via stereocomplex formation to generate molecular assemblies of disk structure with 13-14 nm diameter and 6 nm thickness.     

Charge-order driven proton arrangement in a hydrogen-bonded charge-transfer complex based on a pyridyl-substituted TTF derivative

A unique N(+)-HN hydrogen-bonded (H-bonded) dimer motif based on partially oxidized pyridyl-substituted TTF was constructed in the charge-transfer complex. The charge ordering in the TTF column by the charge disproportionation in the dimer regulates the arrangement of the H-bonded proton, evidencing the proton-electron coupled state.     

Evidence for Geometry-Dependent Universal Fluctuations of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang Interfaces in Liquid-Crystal Turbulence

We provide a comprehensive report on scale-invariant fluctuations of growing interfaces in liquid-crystal turbulence, for which we recently found evidence that they belong to the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class for 1+1 dimensions [Takeuchi and Sano in Phys. Rev. Lett. 104:230601, 2010; Takeuchi et al. in Sci. Rep. 1:34, 2011]. Here we investigate both circular and flat interfaces and report their statistics in detail. First we demonstrate that their fluctuations show not only the KPZ scaling exponents but beyond: they asymptotically share even the precise forms of the distribution function and the spatial correlation function in common with solvable models of the KPZ class, demonstrating also an intimate relation to random matrix theory. We then determine other statistical properties for which no exact theoretical predictions were made, in particular the temporal correlation function and the persistence probabilities. Experimental results on finite-time effects and extreme-value statistics are also presented. Throughout the paper, emphasis is put on how the universal statistical properties depend on the global geometry of the interfaces, i.e., whether the interfaces are circular or flat. We thereby corroborate the powerful yet geometry-dependent universality of the KPZ class, which governs growing interfaces driven out of equilibrium.     

Ultrafast photoisomerization and its single-shot pump pulse efficiency of trans-azobenzene derivative: Compound for photosensitive DNA

The femtosecond photoisomerization processes of trans (T) 4-carboxy-2′,6′-dimethylazobenzen, which has been employed recently as an efficient photoregulator of DNA hybridization, were clarified by the rate equation analysis of measured transient absorbance changes with (350 nm) and without (380 nm) ground-state absorption of both the reactant (T) and photoproduct (cis: C) isomers under S₂^T-band excitation (360 nm, 150 fs pump): after excitation to the S₂^T state with a 450-fs lifetime, ~ 1.5% of the T-molecules in the S₂^T state are isomerized to the C-form within ~ 6 ps through the intermediate state (so called bottleneck state), but most of those return back to the T ground-state S₂^T via the internal conversion processes with an ultrafast kinetic rate of 2.2 × 10¹² s^? 1. Moreover, the rate equation analysis enables us to determine the T-to-C photoisomerization rate η^T,C per pump pulse to be 0.0011 at the pump energy of 80 nJ from the amplitude A_3,350 of the offset component in the 350-nm probe signal, and to obtain the photoisomerization quantum yield Φ^T,C = 0.094. The latter value is slightly lower than that of T-azobenzene, and well agrees with that (Φ^T,C = 0.097) measured by the conventional CW irradiation method using a photostationary state.     

Global Complexity Bound Analysis of the Levenberg–Marquardt Method for Nonsmooth Equations and Its Application to the Nonlinear Complementarity Problem

We investigate a global complexity bound of the Levenberg–Marquardt Method (LMM) for nonsmooth equations. The global complexity bound is an upper bound to the number of iterations required to get an approximate solution that satisfies a certain condition. We give sufficient conditions under which the bound of the LMM for nonsmooth equations is the same as smooth cases. We also show that it can be reduced under some regularity assumption. Furthermore, by applying these results to nonsmooth equations equivalent to the nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP), we get global complexity bounds for the NCP. In particular, we give a reasonable bound when the mapping involved in the NCP is a uniformly P-function.