Effect of ionic strength and type of ions on the structure of water swollen polyelectrolyte multilayers

This study addresses the effect of ionic strength and type of ions on the structure and water content of polyelectrolyte multilayers. Polyelectrolyte multilayers of poly(sodium-4-styrene sulfonate) (PSS) and poly(diallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) prepared at different NaF, NaCl and NaBr concentrations have been investigated by neutron reflectometry against vacuum, H(2)O and D(2)O. Both thickness and water content of the multilayers increase with increasing ionic strength and increasing ion size. Two types of water were identified, "void water" which fills the voids of the multilayers and does not contribute to swelling but to a change in scattering length density and "swelling water" which directly contributes to swelling of the multilayers. The amount of void water decreases with increasing salt concentration and anion radius while the amount of swelling water increases with salt concentration and anion radius. This is interpreted as a denser structure in the dry state and larger ability to swell in water (sponge) for multilayers prepared from high ionic strengths and/or salt solution of large anions. No exchange of hydration water or replacement of H by D was detected even after eight hours incubation time in water of opposing isotopic composition.     

Kinetics of indirect electron-hole recombination in a wide single quantum well in a strong electric field

The kinetics of the indirect recombination of electrons and holes in wide single quantum wells in a strong electric field has been analyzed. It has been shown that the recombination time increases exponentially up to 20 μs due to the spatial separation of oppositely charged particles. The results of a theoretical model predicting the behavior of the recombination time as a function of the applied field are in good agreement with experimental data.     

Spatial correlations of recombination radiation intensities of two-dimensional electrons under the conditions of the quantum Hall effect

Correlations have been studied between the recombination radiation intensities of a two-dimensional electron gas measured at different points of the sample with giant luminescence fluctuations in the quantum Hall effect regime. It has been found that the correlation of the radiation intensities measured under these conditions at different points of the sample separated by a distance of 1–3 mm is close to unity and disappeared in a threshold way with increasing temperature. It is shown that macroscopic spatial correlations also disappear if the electron system is artificially divided into two subsystems not connected with each other.     

Imaging of the dissipation in quantum-Hall-effect experiments

The spatial distribution of heat dissipation in quantum-Hall-effect devices was imaged utilizing the fountain pressure effect of superfluid helium. This was done by observing visually the local thickness of a helium film covering the sample. We found that dissipation takes place only in two opposite corners at the current contacts. Unexpected asymmetries between the two corners were observed if the Hall currents exceeded a threshold value. A new and striking dissipative effect was found when current is passed from narrow to wide 2 DEG areas which also was asymmetric upon current reversal.     

Magnetophonon oscillations in tellurium under hot carrier conditions

The magnetoresistance of undoped tellurium crystals was measured at lattice temperatures below 4.2 K and magnetic fields up to 15 T. Under hot carrier conditions two series of magnetophonon oscillations in the longitudinal magnetoresistance with the c-axis perpendicular to the magnetic field direction were observed. On the basis of the known band parameters and an impurity binding energy of 1.4 meV, the results are explained with the capture of warm carriers at impurity sites under optical phonon emission.     

Detection of the electron spin resonance of two-dimensional electrons at large wave vectors

We have investigated the electron spin resonance at nonzero wave vector in GaAs single quantum wells by combining the virtues of high frequency surface acoustic wave generation to produce excitations with large wave numbers with a sensitive optical scheme to detect resonant absorption. The observed large deviations from the single particle Zeeman energy are attributed to the exchange interaction. The enhancement of the electronic g* factor is, however, substantially smaller compared with theoretical predictions for spin waves when adopting a bare Coulomb interaction potential.     

Internal structure of polyelectrolyte multilayer assemblies

The paper deals with the correlation between the internal structure and dynamics of polyelectrolyte multilayers on one hand and their functional properties on the other hand. It considers different concepts of multilayer formation like driving forces, adsorption kinetics, mode of growth and stability aspects. A further focus is the control of internal structure and dynamics which is of high impact with respect to the design of stimuli-responsive material.     

Reversible activation of diblock copolymer monolayers at the interface by pH modulation, 2: Membrane interactions at the solid/liquid interface

A monolayer of the pH-responsive poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate-block-methyl methacrylate] diblock copolymer [PDMAEMA-PMMA] was transferred from the air/water interface to a silicon substrate for evaluation as a tunable interlayer between biological material and solid substrates. Specular neutron reflectivity experiments revealed that the weak polyelectrolyte PDMAEMA chains at the solid/liquid interface can be reversibly activated by pH modulation. The thickness, scattering length density, and surface roughness of the polymer film can be systematically controlled by pH titration. As a simple model of plasma membranes, a lipid bilayer was deposited onto the polymer film. The membrane-substrate interaction was characterized by neutron reflectivity experiments, demonstrating that the membrane-substrate distance could be reversibly regulated by pH titration. These results confirm the potential of stimuli-responsive polymers for precise control of cell-surface interactions.     

Correlated electron tunneling through two separate quantum dot systems with strong capacitive interdot coupling

A system consisting of two independently contacted quantum dots with a strong electrostatic interaction shows an interdot Coulomb blockade when the dots are weakly tunnel coupled to their leads. How the blockade can be overcome by correlated tunneling when tunnel coupling to the leads increases is studied experimentally. The experimental results are compared with numerical renormalization group calculations using predefined (measured) parameters. Combining our experimental and theoretical results we identify transport through Kondo correlations due to the electrostatic interaction between the two dots.     

Screening of excitonic states by low-density 2D charge carriers in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells

Screening of excitonic states by a system of 2D electrons (or holes) in GaAs/AlGaAs single quantum wells is studied. With increasing concentration of 2D charge carriers, a threshold-type disappearance of excitonic states is observed in both luminescence and reflectance spectra. The higher the quality of the 2D system, the lower the corresponding threshold concentration. In the best systems, the collapse of excitonic states occurs at unexpectedly low electron densities n _e =5×10⁹ cm^?2, which correspond to the mean dimensionless distance between the particles r _s =8. This value far exceeds the threshold values observed for 3D systems (r _s ≈2), as well as the values obtained for quantum wells in previous studies. The problem of measuring the concentration of low-density 2D charge carriers in photoexcitation conditions is solved by applying the method of optical detection of the dimensional magnetoplasma resonance. This method provides reliable measurements of the density of a 2D system to the values about 10⁹ cm^?2.