Hydrophobicity-induced drying transition in alkanethiol self-assembled monolayer—water interface

During the course of our investigation of the electron transfer properties of some redox species through highly hydrophobic long chain alkanethiol molecules on gold in aqueous and non-aqueous solvents, we obtained some intriguing results such as unusually low interfacial capacitance, very high values of impedance and film resistance, all of which pointed to the possible existence of a nanometer size interfacial gap between the hydrophobic monolayer and aqueous electrolyte. We explain this phenomenon by a model for the alkanethiol monolayer—aqueous electrolyte interface, in which the extremely hydrophobic alkanethiol film repels water molecules adjacent to it and in the process creates a shield between the monolayer film and water. This effectively increases the overall thickness of the dielectric layer that is manifested as an abnormally low value of interfacial capacitance. This behaviour is very much akin to the ‘drying transition’ proposed by Lum, Chandler and Weeks in their theory of length scale dependent hydrophobicity. For small hydrophobic units consisting of apolar solutes, the water molecules can reorganize around them without sacrificing their hydrogen bonds. Since for an extended hydrophobic unit, the existence of hydrogen bonded water structure close to it is geometrically unfavourable, there is a net depletion of water molecules in the vicinity leading to the possible creation of a hydrophobic interfacial gap.     

Experimental observation of quantum corrections to electrical resistivity in nanocrystalline soft magnetic alloys

X-ray diffraction patterns of nanocrystalline Fe-Cu-Nb-Si-B (FINEMET) alloys reveal that bcc α-Fe/α-FeSi crystallites with the average grain size of 20(5) nm are dispersed in amorphous matrix. Enhanced electron—electron interaction (EEI) and quantum interference (QI) effects as well as electron-magnon (and/or electron-spin fluctuation) scattering turn out to be the main mechanisms that govern the temperature dependence of resistivity. Of all the inelastic scattering processes, inelastic electron-phonon scattering is the most effective mechanism to destroy phase coherence of electron wave functions. The diffusion constant, density of states at the Fermi level and the inelastic scattering time have been estimated, for the first time, for the alloys in question Article presented at the International Symposium on Advances in Superconductivity and Magnetism: Materials, Mechanisms and Devices, ASMM2D-2001, 25–28 September 2001, Mangalore, India.     

Energy loss effect in high energy nuclear Drell-Yan process

The energy loss effect in nuclear matter, which is a nuclear effect apart from the nuclear effect on the parton distribution as in deep-inelastic scattering process, can be measured best by the nuclear dependence of the high energy nuclear Drell-Yan process. By means of the nuclear parton distribution studied only with lepton deep-inelastic scattering experimental data, the measured Drell-Yan production cross sections for 800 GeV proton incident on a variety of nuclear targets are analyzed within the Glauber framework which takes into account the energy loss of the beam proton. It is shown that the theoretical results with considering the energy loss effect are in good agreement with the FNAL E866 data.Arrival of the final proofs: 24 June 2003     

Physics of the insulating phase in dilute two-dimensional electron gas

We propose to use the radiofrequency single-electron transistor as an extremely sensitive probe to detect the time-periodic ac signal generated by a sliding electron lattice in the insulating state of the two-dimensional electron gas. We also propose to use the optically-pumped NMR technique to probe the electron spin structure of the insulating state. We show that the electron effective mass and spin susceptibility are strongly enhanced by critical fluctuations of the electron lattice in the vicinity of the metal-insulator transition, as observed in experiment.     

CdSe和ZnO量子点的拉曼光谱研究

本文介绍了用拉曼光谱研究CdSe和ZnO两种Ⅱ Ⅳ族量子点材料的结果,对拉曼峰进行了指认。观察到的光学声子峰位的移动被认为是由量子限制效应引起。     

Analysis of tunable diode-laser spectra of Q(J,0) lines in CH3F near 1475 cm using a multispectrum fitting technique

We have analyzed the methyl fluoride ^RQ(J,0)Q branch lines located near 1475 cm⁻¹ using a simultaneous multi-spectrum fitting technique. In this analysis we have used previously recorded diode-laser data in which we collected many data points covering only one or two Q branch lines in a particular run. The analysis consists of simultaneously fitting 57 spectra collected with numerous pressure and path length conditions for all absorption lines. The data are concatenated to create one continuous spectrum of the Q branch. We have determined the intensity and self-broadened widths at 296 K for 23 ^RQ(J,0) lines.     

Matrix perturbation theory for driven three‐level systems with damping

We investigate the dynamics of the Λ system driven by two resonant laser fields in presence of dissipation for coupling strengths where the rotating‐wave approximation starts to break down. This regime is characterised by Rabi frequencies being approximately equal or smaller than the field frequencies. A systematic procedure to obtain an expansion for the solution of the Bloch evolution equations of the system is presented. The lowest contribution results to be the well‐known rotating‐wave approximation. The method is based on a semi‐classical treatment of the problem, and its predictions are interpreted fully quantum mechanically. The theory is illustrated by a detailed study of the disappearance of coherent population trapping as the intensities of the fields increase.     

Destruction of a solid film under the action of ultrashort laser pulse

Molecular-dynamics (MD) simulation of the destruction of a crystal film heated by a femtosecond laser pulse was carried out. Heating is assumed to be instantaneous, because there is no time for the material to be displaced during the pulse. Film destruction is caused by the interaction of unloading waves. It can be considered as a model of a more complex process of splitting out of a thin surface layer from a massive target in the case where the layer remains solid after heating. It was found that the crystal order is broken due to the stretching strains and to the strong anisotropy of residual stress, resulting in a bipartition of the layer separating from the target. The lattice stretching and the formation of anisotropic stresses are due to the expansion of a heated lattice.     

To the Jubilee of Vsevolod Alekseevich Solonnikov

Bibliography: 42 titles.__________Translated from Zapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov POMI, Vol. 306, 2003, pp. 7–15.