Rapid Detection of Five Estrogens Added Illegally to Dietary Supplements by Combining TLC with Raman Imaging Microscope

Estrogens added illegally to dietary supplements are hazardous to human health. Traditional detection and analysis methods have many limitations, and we have developed an assay that combines thin-layer chromatography with Raman imaging microscopy (TLC-RIM). The five estrogens (estrone, estradiol, estriol, ethinyl estradiol, and diethylstilbestrol) were initially separated by TLC, then detected by area scanning Raman imaging with a 532 nm laser under a microscope. Raman spectra were obtained for each estrogen, which were used for detecting estrogen illegally added to botanical dietary supplements. The LOD of each estrogen was 0.4, 1.0, 0.8, 0.2, and 0.2 mg/mL, respectively. The matrix in the real sample did not interfere with the detection of estrogens. The method was fast, sensitive, stable, specific, and reliable.     

Surface-anchoring zwitterionic antioxidant enables efficient,stable,and scalable all-perovskite tandem solar cells

Lead-halide perovskite photovoltaics(PVs)have achieved impressive progress in power conversion efficiencies(PCEs)over the past ten years,accelerating their step forward to next-generation commercial PV technologies[1].As a leading candidate for perovskite PVs,monolithic all-perovskite tandem solar cells(PTSCs)have achieved the best24.8%for small-area devices(0.049 cm^2)in 2019。     

Theoretical study of (e, 2e) triple differential cross sections of pyrimidine and tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol molecules using multi-center distorted-wave method

We report theoretical studies of electron impact triple differential cross sections of two bio-molecules,pyrimidine and tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol,in the coplanar asymmetric kinematic conditions with the impact energy of 250 eV and ejected electron energy of 20 eV at three scattering angles of-5°,-10°,and-15°.Present multi-center distorted-wave method well describes the experimental data,which was obtained by performing(e,2e)experiment.The calculations show that the secondary electron produced by the primary impact electron is strongly influenced by the molecular ionic multi-center potential,which must be considered when the low energy electron interacts with DNA analogues.     

A quantum circuit design of AES requiring fewer quantum qubits and gate operations

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is one of the most widely used block ciphers nowadays, and has been established as an encryption standard in 2001. Here we design AES-128 and the sample-AES (S-AES) quantum circuits for deciphering. In the quantum circuit of AES-128, we perform an affine transformation for the SubBytes part to solve the problem that the initial state of the output qubits in SubBytes is not the |0>^⊗8 state. After that, we are able to encode the new round sub-key on the qubits encoding the previous round sub-key, and this improvement reduces the number of qubits used by 224 compared with Langenberg et al.’s implementation. For S-AES, a complete quantum circuit is presented with only 48 qubits, which is already within the reach of existing noisy intermediate-scale quantum computers.     

Majorana fermions induced fast- and slow-light in a hybrid semiconducting nanowire/superconductor device

We investigate theoretically Rabi-like splitting and Fano resonance in absorption spectra of quantum dots(QDs)based on a hybrid QD-semiconducting nanowire/superconductor(SNW/SC)device mediated by Majorana fermions(MFs).Under the condition of pump on-resonance and off-resonance,the absorption spectrum experiences the conversion from Fano resonance to Rabi-like splitting in different parametric regimes.In addition,the Fano resonances are accompanied by the rapid normal phase dispersion,which will indicate the coherent optical propagation.The results indicate that the group velocity index is tunable with controlling the interaction between the QD and MFs,which can reach the conversion between the fast-and slow-light.Fano resonance will be another method to detect MFs and our research may indicate prospective applications in quantum information processing based on the hybrid QD-SNW/SC devices.     

Enhancement of feasibility of macroscopic quantum superposition state with the quantum Rabi-Stark model

We propose an efficient scheme to generate a macroscopical quantum superposition state with a cavity optomechanical system, which is composed of a quantum Rabi-Stark model coupling to a mechanical oscillator. In a low-energy subspace of the Rabi-Stark model, the dressed states and then the effective Hamiltonian of the system are given. Due to the coupling of the mechanical oscillator and the atom-cavity system, if the initial state of the atom-cavity system is one of the dressed states, the mechanical oscillator will evolve into a corresponding coherent state. Thus, if the initial state of the atom-cavity system is a superposition of two dressed states, a coherent state superposition of the mechanical oscillator can be generated. The quantum coherence and their distinguishable properties of the two coherent states are exhibited by Wigner distribution. We show that the Stark term can enhance significantly the feasibility and quantum coherence of the generated macroscopic quantum superposition state of the oscillator.     

First-principles study of structural and opto-electronic characteristics of ultra-thin amorphous carbon films

Most amorphous carbon(a-C)applications require films with ultra-thin thicknesses;however,the electronic structure and opto-electronic characteristics of such films remain unclear so far.To address this issue,we developed a theoretical model based on the density functional theory and molecular dynamic simulations,in order to calculate the electronic structure and opto-electronic characteristics of the ultra-thin a-C films at different densities and temperatures.Temperature was found to have a weak influence over the resulting electronic structure and opto-electronic characteristics,whereas density had a significant influence on these aspects.The volume fraction of sp3 bonding increased with density,whereas that of sp2 bonding initially increased,reached a peak value of 2.52 g/cm³,and then decreased rapidly.Moreover,the extinction coefficients of the ultra-thin a-C films were found to be density-sensitive in the long-wavelength regime.This implies that switching the volume ratio of sp2 to sp3 bonding can effectively alter the transmittances of ultra-thin a-C films,and this can serve as a novel approach toward photonic memory applications.Nevertheless,the electrical resistivity of the ultra-thin a-C films appeared independent of temperature.This implicitly indicates that the electrical switching behavior of a-C films previously utilized for non-volatile storage applications is likely due to an electrically induced effect and not a purely thermal consequence.     

High efficiency giant magnetoresistive device based on two-dimensional MXene (Mn2NO2)

Due to the unique electronic structure of half-metals, characterized by the conductivity of majority-spin and the band gap of minority-spin, these materials have emerged as suitable alternatives for the design of efficient giant magnetoresistive (GMR) devices. Based on the first-principles calculations, an excellent GMR device has been designed by using two-dimensional (2D) half-metal Mn₂NO₂. The results show that Mn₂NO₂ has sandwiched between the Au/nMn₂NO₂ (n = 1, 2, 3)/Au heterojunction and maintains its half-metallic properties. Due to the half-metallic characteristics of Mn₂NO₂, the total current of the monolayer device can reach up to 1500 nA in the ferromagnetic state. At low voltage, the maximum GMR is observed to be 1.15 × 10³¹ %. Further, by increasing the number of layers, the ultra-high GMR at low voltage is still maintained. The developed device is a spintronic device exhibiting the highest magnetoresistive ratio reported theoretically so far. Simultaneously, a significant negative differential resistance (NDR) effect is also observed in the heterojunction. Owing to its excellent half-metallic properties and 2D structure, Mn₂NO₂ is an ideal energy-saving GMR material.     

Efficient and stable wireless power transfer based on the non-Hermitian physics

As one of the most attractive non-radiative power transfer mechanisms without cables,efficient magnetic resonance wireless power transfer(WPT)in the near field has been extensively developed in recent years,and promoted a variety of practical applications,such as mobile phones,medical implant devices and electric vehicles.However,the physical mechanism behind some key limitations of the resonance WPT,such as frequency splitting and size-dependent efficiency,is not very clear under the widely used circuit model.Here,we review the recently developed efficient and stable resonance WPT based on non-Hermitian physics,which starts from a completely different avenue(utilizing loss and gain)to introduce novel functionalities to the resonance WPT.From the perspective of non-Hermitian photonics,the coherent and incoherent effects compete and coexist in the WPT system,and the weak stable of energy transfer mainly comes from the broken phase associated with the phase transition of parity-time symmetry.Based on this basic physical framework,some optimization schemes are proposed,including using nonlinear effect,using bound states in the continuum,or resorting to the system with high-order parity-time symmetry.Moreover,the combination of non-Hermitian physics and topological photonics in multi-coil system also provides a versatile platform for long-range robust WPT with topological protection.Therefore,the non-Hermitian physics can not only exactly predict the main results of current WPT systems,but also provide new ways to solve the difficulties of previous designs.     

Local stability analysis of a low-dissipation cyclic refrigerator*

We study the local stability near the maximum figure of merit for the low-dissipation cyclic refrigerator,where the irreversible dissipation occurs not only in the thermal contacts but also the adiabatic strokes.We find that the bounds of the coefficient of performance at a maximum figure of merit or maximum cooling rate in the presence of internal dissipation are identical to those in the corresponding absence of internal dissipation.Using two different scenarios,we prove the existence of a single stable steady state for the refrigerator,and clarify the role of internal dissipation on the stability of the thermodynamic steady state,showing that the speed of system evolution to the steady state decreases due to internal dissipation.