Beyond nanosizing: an approach to shape analysis of fluorescent nanostructures by SMI-microscopy

Using spatially modulated illumination (SMI) light microscopy it is possible to measure the sizes of fluorescent structures that have an extension far below the conventional optical resolution limit (“subresolution size”). Presently, the sizes are determined as the object extension along the optical axis of the SMI microscope. For this, however, “a priori” assumptions on the fluorochrome distribution (“shape”) within the examined fluorescent structure have to be made. Usually it is assumed that the fluorochrome follows a Gauss-distribution or a spherical distribution. In this report we overcome the necessity to make an assumption on the shape of the fluorochrome distribution. We introduce two new experimentally obtained parameters which allow the determination of a shape measure to describe the spatial distribution of the fluorescent dye. This becomes possible by independent measurements with different excitation wavelengths. As an example, we present shape parameter measurements on individual fluorescent microspheres with a nominal geometrical diameter (“size”) of 190 nm. In the case investigated, the experimental shape correlated well with a homogeneous fluorochrome distribution (“spherical shape”) but not with a variety of other “shapes”.     

Trovacenchemie. 13 [1] Weg und Irrweg zu Di([5]trovacenyl)keton

Trovacene Chemistry. 13 [1] On Being Lead and Mislead in the Synthesis of Di([5]trovacenyl)ketone Di([5]trovacenyl)ketone ( 3¨ ) has been prepared from lithio‐[5]trovacene and dimethylcarbamoyl chloride and studied by X‐ray diffraction, cyclic voltammetry, magnetic susceptometry and EPR spectroscopy. Slight variation of the synthetic protocol affords an unusual trinuclear complex 5 ? that is also fully characterized. Spin‐spin exchange interaction is smaller in 3¨ than in 1,1‐di([5]trovacenylethene ( 2¨ ), which differs from 3¨ by a replacement of O for CH₂. The novel trinuclear complex 5 ? , however, displays exchange coupling very similar to that observed in 1‐methoxy‐2,5,6‐tri([5]trovacenyl)benzene ( 7 ? ). In both cases, an unsymmetrical triangular arrangement of S = 1/2 centers is encountered. These findings are discussed in terms of the nature of the respective spacers.     

Fabrication of material-independent morphology gradients for high-throughput applications

Gradient surfaces allow rapid, high-throughput investigations and systematic studies in many disparate fields, including biology, tribology and adhesion. We describe a novel method for the fabrication of material-independent morphology gradients, involving a two-step process of particle erosion followed by a chemical polishing procedure that preferentially removes features with a small radius of curvature as a function of time. Gradients are fabricated on aluminium surfaces, but they may be readily transferred to other materials via a replication technique, which allows for the production of identical roughness gradient samples with any chosen surface chemistry. The gradients have been characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy and optical profilometry. Standard roughness parameters (Ra, Rq, Rz, Sm and Sk) were calculated from optical profilometry data. The roughness has also been assessed over different wavelength windows by means of a fast Fourier transformation approach.     

A note on a theorem of Raubenheimer and Rode

We prove the converse of Raubenheimer and Rode's Banach algebra version of the Perron-Frobenius Theorem.

     

Killing spinors on Lorentzian manifolds

The aim of this paper is to describe some results concerning the geometry of Lorentzian manifolds admitting Killing spinors. We prove that there are imaginary Killing spinors on simply connected Lorentzian Einstein–Sasaki manifolds. In the Riemannian case, an odd-dimensional complete simply connected manifold (of dimension n≠7) is Einstein–Sasaki if and only if it admits a non-trivial Killing spinor to . The analogous result does not hold in the Lorentzian case. We give an example of a non-Einstein Lorentzian manifold admitting an imaginary Killing spinor. A Lorentzian manifold admitting a real Killing spinor is at least locally a codimension one warped product with a special warping function. The fiber of the warped product is either a Riemannian manifold with a real or imaginary Killing spinor or with a parallel spinor, or it again is a Lorentzian manifold with a real Killing spinor. Conversely, all warped products of that form admit real Killing spinors.     

Exciton-exciton interaction in coupled quantum wells

The exciton-exciton interaction is investigated for spatially indirect excitons in coupled quantum wells. The Hartree-Fock and Heitler-London approaches are improved by a full two-exciton calculation including the van der Waals effect. Using these potentials for the singlet and triplet channel, the two-body scattering matrix is calculated and employed to derive a modified relation between exciton density and blue shift. Such a relation is of central importance for gauging exciton densities on the way toward Bose condensation.     

Die Tate-Vermutungen für Hilbert-Blumenthal-Flächen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Structural changes in discotic samples during transition from crystal to discotic mesophase as revealed by electron microscopy and diffraction

Classical methods of structural analysis cannot be applied to liquid crystals because higher order reflections disappear during the transition from crystal to liquid crystal due to the reduction in long range orientational and translational correlations. However, in order to relate physical properties to the molecular architecture, it is essential to have information about molecular positions and orientations in the crystalline state as well as in the liquid crystalline state. In this work, the transition from crystalline to liquid crystalline phase is carefully monitored and the relationship between the original lattice and the new molecular positions found using electron diffraction. In addition to this, a new high resolution electron-microscopic technique is described in which the positions of molecules in the crystalline and the quenched discotic phase are directly imaged and the defects observed in the crystalline and LC phase compared and quantitatively analysed.