Excitation dependent quenching of luminescence in LED phosphors

Droop, the decrease of efficiency with increased power density, became a major topic with InGaN LEDs, after its introduction in 2007. This paper provides insight into droop in localized center luminescence phosphors, exemplified here by Eu²⁺ doped materials. This topic is of increasing importance, as high brightness blue LEDs have reached outputs >1 W/mm². The nonlinearities in phosphor quantum efficiency result in drive‐dependent color point shift and reduction of overall efficiency of phosphor converted white LEDs which utilize Eu²⁺ activated phosphors. The efficiency quenching can be traced back to two processes, well‐known in laser physics, excited state absorption or/and cross relaxation by Foerster/Dexter transfer. Both processes lead to reduction in phosphor efficiency, but they can be differentiated. Understanding the root cause of efficiency quenching opens ways to minimize the practical consequences. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Pressure-induced two-color photoluminescence in MnF(2) at room temperature

A novel two-color photoluminescence (PL) is found in MnF(2) at room temperature under high pressure. Contrary to low-temperature PL, PL at room temperature is unusual in transition-metal concentrated materials like MnF(2), since the deexcitation process at room temperature is fully governed by energy transfer to nonradiative centers. We show that room-temperature PL in MnF(2) originates from two distinct Mn(2+) emissions in the high-pressure cotunnite phase. The electronic structure and the excited-state dynamics are investigated by time-resolved emission and excitation spectroscopy at high pressure.     

Black hole entropy quantization

Ever since the pioneering works of Bekenstein and Hawking, black hole entropy has been known to have a quantum origin. Furthermore, it has long been argued by Bekenstein that entropy should be quantized in discrete (equidistant) steps given its identification with horizon area in (semi-)classical general relativity and the properties of area as an adiabatic invariant. This lead to the suggestion that the black hole area should also be quantized in equidistant steps to account for the discrete black hole entropy. Here we shall show that loop quantum gravity, in which area is not quantized in equidistant steps, can nevertheless be consistent with Bekenstein's equidistant entropy proposal in a subtle way. For that we perform a detailed analysis of the number of microstates compatible with a given area and show consistency with the Bekenstein framework when an oscillatory behavior in the entropy-area relation is properly interpreted.     

Observation of resonant behavior in the energy velocity of diffused light

In this Letter we demonstrate Mie resonances mediated transport of light in randomly arranged, monodisperse dielectric spheres packed at high filling fractions. By means of both static and dynamic optical experiments we show resonant behavior in the key transport parameters and, in particular, we find that the energy transport velocity, which is lower than the group velocity, also displays a resonant behavior.     

Oscillatory persistent currents in self-assembled quantum rings

We report the direct measurement of the persistent current carried by a single electron by means of magnetization experiments on self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum rings. We measured the first Aharonov-Bohm oscillation at a field of 14 T, in perfect agreement with our model based on the structural properties determined by cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy measurements. The observed oscillation magnitude of the magnetic moment per electron is remarkably large for the topology of our nanostructures, which are singly connected and exhibit a pronounced shape asymmetry.     

Ordering in spatially anisotropic triangular antiferromagnets

We investigate the phase diagram of the anisotropic spin-1/2 triangular lattice antiferromagnet, with interchain diagonal exchange J' much weaker than the intrachain exchange J. We find that fluctuations lead to a competition between (commensurate) collinear antiferromagnetic and (zigzag) dimer orders. Both states differ in symmetry from the spiral order known to occur for larger J', and are therefore separated by quantum phase transitions from it. The zero-field collinear antiferromagnet is succeeded in a magnetic field by magnetically ordered spin-density-wave and cone phases, before reaching the fully polarized state. Implications for the anisotropic triangular magnet Cs2CuCl4 are discussed.     

Gamow-Teller strength in the exotic odd-odd nuclei 138La and 180Ta and its relevance for neutrino nucleosynthesis

The Gamow-Teller strength distributions below the particle threshold in 138La and 180Ta, deduced from high-resolution measurements of the (3He,t) reaction at 0 degrees, allow us to evaluate the role of charged-current reactions for the production of these extremely rare nuclides in neutrino-nucleosynthesis models. The analysis suggests that essentially all 138La in the Universe can be made that way. Neutrino nucleosynthesis also contributes significantly to the abundance of 180Ta but the magnitude depends on the unknown branching ratio for population of the long-lived isomer.     

Lie symmetries and solitons in nonlinear systems with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearities

Using Lie group theory and canonical transformations, we construct explicit solutions of nonlinear Schr?dinger equations with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearities. We present the general theory, use it to show that localized nonlinearities can support bound states with an arbitrary number solitons, and discuss other applications of interest to the field of nonlinear matter waves.     

Spectral-fluctuations test of the quark-model baryon spectrum

We study the low-lying baryon spectrum (up to 2.2 GeV) provided by experiments and different quark models using statistical tools which allow us to postulate the existence of missing levels in spectra. We confirm that the experimental spectrum is compatible with random matrix theory, the paradigmatic model of quantum chaos, and we find that the quark models are more similar to a Poisson distribution, which is not compatible with what should be expected in a correlated spectrum. From our analysis it stems that the spectral fluctuation properties of quark-model spectra are incompatible with experimental data. This result can be used to enlighten the problem of missing resonances.     

Role of nuclear motion in double ionization of molecular hydrogen by a single photon

We examine the origin of recently observed variations with internuclear distance (R) of the fully differential cross sections for double ionization of aligned H2 by absorption of a single photon. Using the results of fully converged numerical solutions of the Schr?dinger equation, we show that these variations arise primarily from pronounced differences in the R dependence of the parallel and perpendicular components of the ionization amplitude. We also predict that R dependences should be readily observable in the asymmetry parameter for photodouble ionization, even in experimental measurements that are not differential in the energy sharings between ejected photoelectrons.