An optical fibre pH sensor based on dye doped mesostructured silica

This paper describes the synthesis and optical pH sensing properties of a pH indicator dye activated mesostructured silica coated optical fibre. The pH-sensitive dye bromothymol blue was incorporated into the mesostructure sol precursor and thin films/coatings were used for pH-sensing applications without prior removal of the surfactant. The pH sensitivity range and operating wavelength were analysed by absorption measurements on layer dip-coated on glass slides. The pH sensing properties of coated optical fibre were tested by evanescent wave method. Experiments were carried out by using a series of solutions of known pH. No leaching was observed (except at very high pH) and an excellent reversibility was obtained between pH=2 and 5.     

Extension of Planck’s law to steady heat flux across nanoscale gaps

Recent experiments report that the radiative heat conductance through a narrow vacuum gap between two flat surfaces increases as the inverse square of the width of the gap. Such a significant increase of thermal conductivity has attracted much interest because of numerous promising applications in nanoscale heat transfer and because of the lack of its theoretical explanation. It is shown here that the radiative heat transport across narrow layers can be described in terms of conventional theory adjusted to non-equilibrium structures with a steady heat flux.     

A Proof of Haag-Swieca's Compactness Property for Elastic Scattering States

 It is proved that in any massive relativistic quantum field theory satisfying two-particle asymptotic completeness, all the bounded energy components in the elastic two-particle range of all subsets of states which are excitations of the vacuum state by uniformly bounded observables localized in a given finite region of spacetime are compact in the Hilbert space of states. This result, which is in agreement with Haag-Swieca's conjecture, is also given a more precise form in terms of the rate of decrease of the ``N–dimensional thickness' (or approximation number) of such sets of states when N tends to infinity. A similar computation, valid at arbitrarily high energies, is also given for the massive free-field case. Received: 7 February 2003 / Accepted: 5 April 2003 Published online: 13 May 2003 Communicated by H. Araki, D. Buchholz and K. Fredenhagen     

Chalcogenide Glass for Passive Infrared Applications

Chalcogenide glass fibers have been successfully used for remote spectroscopy, temperature sensing and CO2 laser power delivery. In bulk form, chalcogenide glass is the most promising candidate for replacing the expensive germanium lenses for thermal imaging.     

Highly sensitive bend sensor with hybrid long-period and tilted fiber Bragg grating

We demonstrate a new type of fiber optic bend sensor with a hybrid structure made up of a long period grating (LPG) and a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG). The sensing mechanism is based on the spectrum of power transfers between the core and cladding modes from a TFBG located downstream from a LPG. We show that the curvature of a beam can be determined by the reflected power difference between the core mode and the recoupled cladding modes. We further provide design rules for the LPG and TFBG to optimize and linearize the sensor response. In addition, the temperature cross-sensitivities of this configuration are also investigated for two different types of fiber.     

Helium- and argon-broadening coefficients of phosphine lines in the ν2 and ν4 bands

Pressure broadening of phosphine lines by helium and argon at room temperature has been experimentally investigated by high-resolution diode-laser spectroscopy. The broadening coefficients are measured for 38 transitions of PH₃ in the ^QR branch of the ν₂ band and in the ^PP and ^RP branches of the ν₄ band. The recorded lines with J values ranging from 3 to 14 and K from 0 to 10 are located between 1062 and 1094 cm⁻¹. The retrieval of the collisional widths is carried out by fitting each spectral line with a Voigt profile, a Rautian profile and a speed-dependent Rautian profile. The latter model provides larger broadening coefficients than the Voigt model. They are also calculated on the basis of a semiclassical model involving the atom-atom Lennard-Jones potential. The theoretical results are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data and reproduce the J and K dependencies of the broadenings.     

The evolution of catalytic function

It is very likely that the main driving force of enzyme evolution is the requirement to improve catalytic and regulatory efficiency which results from the intrinsic performance as well as from the spatial and functional organization of enzymes in living cells.Kinetic co-operativity may occur in simple monomeric proteins if they display “slow” conformational transitions, at the cost of catalytic efficiency. Oligomeric enzymes on the other hand can be both efficient and co-operative. We speculate that the main reason for the emergence of co-operative oligomeric enzymes is the need for catalysts that are both cooperative and efficient. As it is not useful for an enzyme to respond to a change of substrate concentration in a complex kinetic way, the emergence of symmetry has its probable origin in a requirement for “functional simplicity”.In a living cell, enzyme are associated with other macromolecules and membranes. The fine tuning of their activity may also be reached through mutations of the microenvironment. Our hypothesis is that these mutations are related to the vectorial transport of molecules, to achieve the hysteresis loops of enzyme reactions generated by the coupling of reaction and diffusion, through the co-operativity brought about by electric interactions between a charged substrate and a membrane, and last but not least, through oscillations. As the physical origins of these effects are very simple and do not require complex molecular devices, it is very likely that the functional advantage generated by the spatial and functional organization of enzyme molecules within the cell have appeared in prebiotic catalysis or very early during the primeval stages of biological evolution.We shall began this paper by presenting the nature of the probable earliest catalysts in the RNA world.     

Probing Proteins in Solution by Xe NMR Spectroscopy

The interaction of xenon with different proteins in aqueous solution is investigated by ¹²⁹Xe NMR spectroscopy. Chemical shifts are measured in horse metmyoglobin, hen egg white lysozyme, and horse cytochrome c solutions as a function of xenon concentration. In these systems, xenon is in fast exchange between all possible environments. The results suggest that nonspecific interactions exist between xenon and the protein exteriors and the data are analyzed in term of parameters which characterize the protein surfaces. The experimental data for horse metmyoglobin are interpreted using a model in which xenon forms a 1:1 complex with the protein and the chemical shift of the complexed xenon is reported (Locci et al., Keystone Symposia “Frontiers of NMR in Molecular Biology VI”, Jan. 9–15, 1999, Breckenridge, CO, Abstract E216, p. 53; Locci et al., XeMAT 2000 “Optical Polarization and Xenon NMR of Materials”, June 28–30, 2000, Sestri Levante, Italy, p. 46).