Kinetics and dynamic properties of equilibrium polymers

The statistical mechanics and scission-recombination mechanism of self-assembling linear micelles are investigated by Brownian dynamics using a newly proposed mesoscopic model representing the micelles as equilibrium polymer chains. A semidilute concentration regime, yet dynamically unentangled, is considered over a wide range of scission/recombination rates. We focus on the analysis of short and long time behaviors of the scission and recombination mechanisms. Our results show that at time scales larger than the life time of the average chain length, the kinetics is in agreement with the mean-field kinetic model proposed by Cates and Candau [J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 2, 6869 (1990)] provided the kinetic constants are estimated as effective ones. These values do take into account through a transmission coefficient that a fraction of scission/recombination events is correlated over a short time (diffusion controlled mechanism) and thus turn out to be ineffective reactive events by annihilation effects. By studying macroscopic relaxation phenomena such as the average micelle length evolution after a T jump, the monomer diffusion, and the zero shear stress relaxation function, we confirm that the effective kinetic constants found are indeed the relevant parameters when macroscopic relaxation is coupled to the kinetics of micelles.     

Enhanced all-optical tuning of leaky eigenmodes in photonic crystal waveguides

We demonstrate all-optical switching in an active two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide, observing as large as 16 nm blueshifts of a leaky eigenmode at 839 nm and switching ratios of almost 70%. These results are larger than those previously observed in similar experiments performed on passive photonic crystal waveguides; the enhancement is due to resonant photogeneration of carriers by In(0.12)Al(0.2)Ga(0.68)As quantum wells in the core of the waveguide. The effective change in the refractive index of the structure is approximately10(-2), with a rise time of approximately1 ps and a decay time of approximately10 ps, potentially allowing high-speed switching and fast modulation rates.     

Utilisation of on-line acoustic irradiation as a means to counter-effect catalyst deactivation in heterogeneous catalysis

The effect of power ultrasound has been studied in the hydrogenation of 1-phenyl-1,2-propanedione (enantioselective hydrogenation) and linoleic acid (fat hardening). Furthermore the hydrogenation of d-xylose to xylitol and citral to citronellal and citronellol were studied under the influence of acoustic irradiation. We have investigated the effect of on-line acoustic irradiation of these heterogeneously catalysed liquid-gas-solid systems in which it was found to counter-effect catalyst deactivation, increase the reaction velocity and to enhance the selectivity of various heterogeneously catalysed reactions.     

Ultrafast laser spectroscopy and control of atmospheric aerosols

We review applications of ultrafast laser pulses for aerosol analysis via linear and non-linear spectroscopy, including the most advanced techniques like coherent control of molecular excited states. We also discuss the capability of such pulses to influence the nucleation of atmospheric aerosols by assisting condensation of water in air.     

Expansion and relaxation of magnetic mirror domains in a Pt/Co/Pt/Co/Pt multilayer with antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling

We detail measurements of field-driven expansion and zero-field relaxation of magnetic mirror domains in antiferromagnetically coupled perpendicularly magnetized ultrathin Co layers. The zero-field stability of aligned ('mirror') domains in such systems results from non-homogeneous dipolar stray fields which exist in the vicinity of the domain walls. During field-driven domain expansion, we evidence a separation of the domain walls which form the mirror domain boundary. However, the walls realign, thereby reforming a mirror domain, if their final separation is below a critical distance at the end of the field pulse. This critical distance marks the point at which the effective net interaction between the walls changes from attractive to repulsive.     

Three Dimensionality and Orbital Characters of the Fermi Surface in (Tl,Rb)_{y}Fe_{2-x}Se_{2}

We report a comprehensive angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study of the tridimensional electronic bands in the recently discovered Fe selenide superconductor (Tl,Rb)_{y}Fe_{2-x}Se_{2} (T_{c}=32 K). We determined the orbital characters and the k_{z} dependence of the low energy electronic structure by tuning the polarization and the energy of the incident photons. We observed a small 3D electron Fermi surface pocket near the Brillouin zone center and a 2D like electron Fermi surface pocket near the zone boundary. The photon energy dependence, the polarization analysis and the local-density approximation calculations suggest a significant contribution from the Se 4p_{z} and Fe 3d_{xy} orbitals to the small electron pocket. We argue that the emergence of Se 4p_{z} states might be the cause of the different magnetic properties between Fe chalcogenides and Fe pnictides.     

Irradiation-induced formation of nanocrystallites with C15 Laves phase structure in bcc iron

A three-dimensional periodic structure is proposed for self-interstitial clusters in body-centered-cubic metals, as opposed to the conventional two-dimensional loop morphology. The underlying crystal structure corresponds to the C15 Laves phase. Using density functional theory and interatomic potential calculations, we demonstrate that in α-iron these C15 aggregates are highly stable and immobile and that they exhibit large antiferromagnetic moments. They form directly in displacement cascades, and they can grow by capturing self-interstitials. They thus constitute an important new element to account for when predicting the microstructural evolution of iron base materials under irradiation.     

New precision limit on the strange vector form factors of the proton

The parity-violating cross-section asymmetry in the elastic scattering of polarized electrons from unpolarized protons has been measured at a four-momentum transfer squared Q2 = 0.624 GeV2 and beam energy E(b) = 3.48 GeV to be A(PV) = -23.80 ± 0.78(stat) ± 0.36(syst) parts per million. This result is consistent with zero contribution of strange quarks to the combination of electric and magnetic form factors G(E)(s) + 0.517G(M)(s) = 0.003 ± 0.010(stat) ± 0.004(syst) ± 0.009(ff), where the third error is due to the limits of precision on the electromagnetic form factors and radiative corrections. With this measurement, the world data on strange contributions to nucleon form factors are seen to be consistent with zero and not more than a few percent of the proton form factors.     

Implementation of renormalized excitonic method at ab initio level

The renormalized excitonic method [Hajj et al., Phys Rev B 2005, 72, 224412], in which the excited state of the whole system may be described as a linear combination of local excitations, has been implemented at ab initio level. Its performance is tested on the ionization potential and the energy gap between singlet ground state and lowest triplet for linear molecular hydrogen chains and more realistic systems, such as polyenes and polysilenes, using full configuration interaction (FCI) wave functions with a minimal basis set. The influence of different block sizes and the extent of interblock interactions are investigated. It has been demonstrated that satisfactory results can be obtained if the near degeneracies between the model space and the outer space are avoided and if interactions between the next-nearest neighbor blocks are considered. The method can be used with larger basis sets and other accurate enough ab initio evaluations (instead of FCI) of local excited states, from blocks, or from dimers or trimers of blocks. It provides a new possibility to accurately and economically describe the low-lying delocalized excited states of large systems, even inhomogeneous ones.