Low-temperature specific heat spectra considering nonextensive long-range correlated quasiperiodic DNA molecules

We consider the low-temperature specific heat spectra of long-range correlated quasiperiodic DNA molecules using a q-gaussian distribution, and compare them with those considering the Boltzmann-Gibbs distribution. The energy spectra are calculated using the one-dimensional Schrödinger equation in a tight-binding approximation with the on-site energy exhibiting long-range disorder and non-random hopping amplitudes. We focus our attention at the low temperature region, where the specific heat spectra presents a logarithmic-periodic oscillations as a function of the temperature T around a mean value given by a characteristic dimension of the energy spectrum.     

Increased Si NMR sensitivity in glasses with a Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill echotrain

The use of a Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) echotrain to increase the ²⁹Si NMR sensitivity in glasses was investigated. The echo intensity decay follows a stretched exponential behavior M(t) = M₀ exp[−(t/t2)^β] with values for the exponent β in the range of 0.41-0.65. The signal to noise in the spectra can be increased by a factor of up to 4 by taking the weighted sum of the spectra obtained from the individual echoes. However, differential T2 relaxation for the different Qⁿ species is observed, with a shorter relaxation time for Q⁴ than Q³. Thus, summing of the echoes leads to distorted spectral intensities and quantitative information can no longer be obtained from the spectra. To circumvent the problem with differential T2 relaxation, an alternative approach is developed in which the spectral intensity for each chemical shift value is determined from the stretched exponential fit to its echo decay. With this approach, the sensitivity can be increased by a factor of up to 2.4, while quantitative information can still be obtained from the spectra. The increased sensitivity permitted the detection of five-coordinated silicon in a potassium silicate glass with natural ²⁹Si abundance at ambient pressure.     

Hybrid Deconvolution of Adaptive Optics Retinal Images from Wavefront Sensing

Adaptive optics can be used to compensate for the wave aberration of the human eyes to achieve high-resolution imaging in real time. However the correction ＆ partial due to the limitation of hardware. We propose a kind of hybrid image post-processing method, which uses the blind deconvolution combined with the residual data in wavefront sensor to restore the partially adaptive optics corrected retinal image. This method is applied in the image restoration of the vivid human retinal images. The results show that it is effective to improve the retinal image quality.     

Absorption and emission properties of Bi-doped Mg–Al–Si oxide glass system

A new Bi-doped Mg–Al–silicate glass is suggested and investigated. It can be fabricated by moderate-temperature routine technology. The characteristic relaxation time of 300–800 μs in combination with the high quantum yield (up to 85%) and wide excitation spectrum makes this glass a promising laser material. The obtained quadratic dependence of the visible absorption intensity is an argument in favor of the hypothesis that the absorption and infrared luminescence in Bi-doped glasses are caused by Bi₂ dimers.     

Non-extensive approach to quark matter

We review the idea of generating non-extensive stationary distributions based on aaabstract composition rules of the subsystem energies, in particular the parton cascade method, using a Boltzmann equation with relativistic kinematics and modified two-body energy composition rules. The thermodynamical behavior of such model systems is investigated. As an application hadronic spectra with power law tails are analyzed in the framework of a quark coalescence model. This paper is part of the Topical Issue Statistical Power Law Tails in High-Energy Phenomena.     

Dynamical origin of power spectra

We discuss a possible origin of Tsallis’ statistics from the correlation among constituents which reduces the phase space of the system. We also show that a system of coupled linear harmonic oscillators can exhibit a Tsallis-type behavior. This paper is part of the Topical Issue Statistical Power Law Tails in High-Energy Phenomena.     

Waveguiding and photoluminescence in Er-doped Ta2O5 planar waveguides

The optimization of erbium-doped Ta₂O₅ thin film waveguides deposited by magnetron sputtering onto thermally oxidized silicon wafer is described. Optical constants of the film were determined by ellipsometry. For the slab waveguides, background losses below 0.4 dB/cm at 633 nm have been obtained before post-annealing. The samples, when pumped at 980 nm yielded a broad photoluminescence spectrum (FWHM∼50 nm) centred at 1534 nm, corresponding to ⁴I_13/2-⁴I_15/2 transition of Er³⁺ ion. The samples were annealed up to 600 °C and both photoluminescence power and fluorescence lifetime increase with post-annealing temperature and a fluorescence lifetime of 2.4 ms was achieved, yielding promising results for compact waveguide amplifiers.     

Spectroscopy of infrared transitions of Pr ions in Ga-Ge-Sb-Se glasses

Electronic transitions of Pr³⁺ ions in Ga-Ge-Sb-Se glasses corresponding to emissions in the infrared region were studied by means of absorption and emission spectroscopies and fluorescence lifetimes measurements. Transition probabilities, radiative lifetimes, branching ratios, and quantum efficiencies of most of the emission transitions including the infrared ones occurring around 1.3, 1.7, and 2.4 μm were estimated based on a standard Judd-Ofelt analysis.     

Wormlike lipid/DNA micelles in a non-polar solvent

The phase behavior of DOPE/DOTAP-DNA complexes in phase-separated oil(dodecane)/water mixtures was explored using Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) and Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS). Inverse micelles of DNA with cationic-lipid coating were found in the oil phase. Varying the ratio between cationic and neutral lipids a transition from wormlike to spherical structures is observed for both long ( ≈ 75000bp) and short (30-1246bp) DNA. In contrast to lipid/DNA complexes in the water phase, there is no indication of condensed liquid-crystalline structures in the non-polar phase. In fact, FCS measurements on short DNA oligomers complexed with cationic lipid in alkane give clear evidence for monomeric inverse micelles of DNA. Dilution series revealed a critical lower concentration of lipids and DNA for observing lipid/DNA micelles.     

Glass formation in the MoO3-CuO-PbO system

Glasses in the MoO₃-CuO-PbO system are obtained at high cooling rates (10⁴-10⁵ K/s) and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA), infrared (IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Two glass formation regions are determined: one with compositions having a high MoO₃ content (50-80 mol%) and the other in the PbO-rich compositions (65-80 mol%). In the region of MoO₃-rich compositions the building units of the amorphous network are МоО₆, МоО₄ and CuO₄ groups. For these high MoO₃ contents and respectively low PbO concentrations, the lead oxide is supposed to act as a network modifier while at high content PbO is found to be the main glass network former. In latter case the structure of glasses is formed by chains of PbO_n (n = 3, 4) polyhedra, between which there are isolated MoO₄ and CuO₄ complexes. IR and XPS data reveal the existence of Mo-O-Mo, Mo-O-Me(Me’) (where Me = Cu²⁺, Cu¹⁺ and Me’ = Pb) and Me(Me’)-O-Me(Me’) bonds in the amorphous network. Surprising result is found for low PbO content (10 mol%) where the lead oxide acts as glass network modifier: the actual MoO₃ content drops strongly which is accompanied with a significant increase of the actual CuO content with respect to their nominal MoO₃-CuO composition. Such effect is not observed in PbO-rich composition (70 mol%) where PbO has a role of network former.