Continuous variable entanglement using cold atoms

We present an experimental demonstration of both quadrature and polarization entanglement generated via the interaction between a coherent linearly polarized field and cold atoms in a high finesse optical cavity. The nonlinear atom-field interaction produces two squeezed modes with orthogonal polarizations which are used to generate a pair of nonseparable beams, the entanglement of which is demonstrated by checking the inseparability criterion for continuous variables recently derived by Duan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2722 (2000)]] and calculating the entanglement of formation [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 107901 (2003)]].     

Self‐Immolative Spacers: Kinetic Aspects,Structure–Property Relationships,and Applications

Self‐immolative spacers are covalent assemblies tailored to correlate the cleavage of two chemical bonds after activation of a protective part in a precursor: Upon stimulation, the protective moiety is removed, which generates a cascade of disassembling reactions leading to the temporally sequential release of smaller molecules. Originally introduced to overcome limitations for drug delivery, self‐immolative spacers have gained wide interest in medicinal chemistry, analytical chemistry, and material science. For most applications, the kinetics of the disassembly of the activated self‐immolative spacer governs functional properties. This Review addresses kinetic aspects of self‐immolation. It provides information for selecting a particular self‐immolative motif for a specific demand. Moreover, it should help researchers design kinetic experiments and fully exploit the rich perspectives of self‐immolative spacers.     

Reflection and transmission coefficients for guided waves reflected by defects in viscoelastic material plates

The paper presents a Fourier transform-based signal processing procedure for quantifying the reflection and transmission coefficients and mode conversion of guided waves diffracted by defects in plates made of viscoelastic materials. The case of the S(0) Lamb wave mode incident on a notch in a Perspex plate is considered. The procedure is applied to numerical data produced by a finite element code that simulates the propagation of attenuated guided modes and their diffraction by the notch, including mode conversion. Its validity and precision are checked by the way of the energy balance computation and by comparison with results obtained using an orthogonality relation-based processing method.     

Amorphous silica modeled with truncated and screened Coulomb interactions: a molecular dynamics simulation study

We show that finite-range alternatives to the standard long-range pair potential for silica by van Beest et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 1955 (1990)] might be used in molecular dynamics simulations. We study two such models that can be efficiently simulated since no Ewald summation is required. We first consider the Wolf method, where the Coulomb interactions are truncated at a cutoff distance rc such that the requirement of charge neutrality holds. Various static and dynamic quantities are computed and compared to results from simulations using Ewald summations. We find very good agreement for rc approximately 10 A. For lower values of rc, the long-range structure is affected which is accompanied by a slight acceleration of dynamic properties. In a second approach, the Coulomb interaction is replaced by an effective Yukawa interaction with two new parameters determined by a force fitting procedure. The same trend as for the Wolf method is seen. However, slightly larger cutoffs have to be used in order to obtain the same accuracy with respect to static and dynamic quantities as for the Wolf method.     

Palladium-mediated N-arylation of heterocyclic diamines: insights into the origin of an unusual chemoselectivity

The chemoselectivity of the palladium-mediated reaction of bromobenzene with various heterocyclic diamines was studied. Whatever the ligand used, 3-aminopyrrolidine underwent arylation of the secondary amine function (>82%), whereas the more flexible 3-aminoazepinine was arylated on its primary function (>70%). The ratio "arylation of primary amine versus arylation of secondary amine" of 3-aminopiperidine with bromobenzene varied from 90:10 (BINAP, electron-enriched and hindered biphenyls L2 or L3) to 32:68 with the Josiphos-type ligand L10. The same trend was observed when 4-aminopiperidine was used (82:18 with L2 and 17:83 with L10). This selectivity can be tuned by the choice of aryl halide partners having different steric and electronic properties. A cooperative effect of both nitrogens of diamines during the reaction was deduced from competitive experiments. Finally, 13C and 31P NMR experiments, carried out with 3-aminopyrrolidine at room temperature, support a fast coordination of the primary amine to the metal. Indeed, a palladium complex resulting from the unusual displacement of one phosphane group of the intermediate ArPdX(BINAP) by the primary amino group was characterized.     

Reactive hydrogels grafted on gold surfaces

Three different strategies for the fixation of stable hydrogel coatings on gold surfaces, by the grafting‐to and grafting‐from techniques, are described. Monomeric or polymeric disulfide initiators are employed to start the photopolymerization of N‐[tris(hydroxy‐methyl)methyl]acrylamide 1 via decomposition of azo compounds or via a photoredox system. Different approaches, based on the post functionalization of the poly(1) films or on copolymerization of reactive monomers with 1 , are employed to bind potential receptor molecules bearing amino or thiol groups as anchor to the hydrogel. Thus, the functionalized coatings should allow the selective binding of particular analyzates. The overall goal is focused on hydrogel films for the preparation of biochips used in analytical devices such as Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), though our approach seems to be generally useful for related purposes.     

Effective mass in quantum effects of radiation pressure

We study the quantum effects of radiation pressure in a high-finesse cavity with a mirror coated on a mechanical resonator. We show that the optomechanical coupling can be described by an effective susceptibility which takes into account every acoustic modes of the resonator and their coupling to the light. At low frequency this effective response is similar to a harmonic response with an effective mass smaller than the total mass of the mirror. For a plano-convex resonator the effective mass is related to the light spot size and becomes very small for small optical waists, thus enhancing the quantum effects of optomechanical coupling.