Acoustic phonon impact on the inter-Coulombic decay process in charged quantum dot pairs

ABSTRACT

Recently, highly accurate multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree electron dynamics calculations demonstrated the efficient long-range energy transfer inter-Coulombic decay (ICD) process to happen in charged semiconductor quantum dot (QD) pairs. ICD is initiated by intraband photoexcitation of one of the QDs and leads to electron emission from the other within a duration of about 150 ps. On the same time scale electronically excited states are reported to relax due to the coupling of electrons to acoustic phonons. Likewise, phonons promote ionisation. Here, the QDs' acoustic breathing mode is implemented in a frozen-phonon approach. A detailed comparison of the phonon effects on electron relaxation and emission as well as on the full ICD process is presented, which supports the previous empirical finding of ICD being the dominant decay channel in paired QDs. In addition the relative importance of phonon–phonon, phonon–electron and electron–electron interaction is analysed.     

Observation of field induced anomalous quantum criticality in Ce0.6Y0.4NiGe2 compound

We report the results of our investigation of magnetization and heat capacity on a series of compounds Ce${}_{1?x}$Y_xNiGe₂ ($x=0.1,0.2\text{ and }0.4$) under the influence of external magnetic field. Our studies of the thermodynamic quantity $?\mathrm{d}M/\mathrm{d}T$ on these compounds indicate that magnetic frustration persists in Ce_0.9Y_0.1NiGe₂, as also reported for the parent compound CeNiGe₂. The weak signature of this frustration is also noted in Ce_0.8Y_0.2NiGe₂, whereas, it is suppressed in Ce_0.6Y_0.4NiGe₂. Heat capacity studies on Ce_0.9Y_0.1NiGe₂ and Ce_0.8Y_0.2NiGe₂ indicate the presence of a new magnetic anomaly at high field which indicates that quantum criticality is absent in these compounds. However, for Ce_0.6Y_0.4NiGe₂ such an anomaly is not noted. For this later compound, the magnetic field (H) and temperature (T) dependence of heat capacity and magnetization obey $H/T$ scaling above critical fields. However, the obtained scaling critical parameter (δ) is 1.6, which is away from mean field value of 3. This deviation suggests the presence of unusual fluctuations and anomalous quantum criticality in these compounds. This unusual fluctuation may arise from disorderness induced by Y-substitution.     

Electron transport of a quantum wire with spatially periodic spin–orbit coupling

Electron transport properties of an ideal one-dimensional (1D) quantum wire are studied including spatially periodic Rashba spin–orbit coupling (SOC) and Dresselhaus SOC. By comparing with the previous work [S.J. Gong, Z.Q. Yang, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 19 (2007) 446209], two transmission gaps appear in the transmission probability of electrons and their widths are also broadened dramatically. Moreover, it is found that their widths are sensitive not only to the strength of SOCs but also to the length ratio of SOCs segment and non-SOCs segment. In addition, a ‘circle-type’ transmission behavior has been found by tuning the strength of SOCs continuously. Our results may extend the previous work and provide an more effective method to manipulate the current in nanoelectric devices.     

Some results on the dynamics and transition probabilities for non self-adjoint hamiltonians

We discuss systematically several possible inequivalent ways to describe the dynamics and the transition probabilities of a quantum system when its hamiltonian is not self-adjoint. In order to simplify the treatment, we mainly restrict our analysis to finite dimensional Hilbert spaces. In particular, we propose some experiments which could discriminate between the various possibilities considered in the paper. An example taken from the literature is discussed in detail.     

Wave-packet continuum discretization for quantum scattering

A general approach to a solution of few- and many-body scattering problems based on a continuum-discretization procedure is described in detail. The complete discretization of continuous spectrum is realized using stationary wave packets which are the normalized states constructed from exact non-normalized continuum states. Projecting the wave functions and all scattering operators like t$t$-matrix, resolvent, etc. on such a wave-packet basis results in a formulation of quantum scattering problem entirely in terms of discrete elements and linear equations with regular matrices. It is demonstrated that there is a close relation between the above stationary wave packets and pseudostates which are employed often to approximate the scattering states with a finite L₂$L_2$ basis. Such a fully discrete treatment of complicated few- and many-body scattering problems leads to significant simplification of their practical solution. Also we get finite-dimensional approximations for complicated operators like effective interactions between composite particles constructed via the Feshbach-type projection formalism. As illustrations to this general approach we consider several important particular problems including multichannel scattering and scattering in the three-nucleon system within the Faddeev framework.     

Design of Sensitive Biocompatible Quantum‐Dots Embedded in Mesoporous Silica Microspheres for the Quantitative Immunoassay of Human Immunodeficiency Virus‐1 Antibodies

A novel sandwich‐type electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunosensor was developed to enable the sensitive detection of HIV‐1 antibodies. This system incorporated mesoporous silica (mSiO₂) complexed with quantum dots (QDs) and nano‐gold particles, which were assembled to enhance signal detection. Magnetic beads were used by immobilizing the secondary anti‐IgG antibody. This was first employed to capture HIV‐1 antibody (Ab) to form a Fe₃O₄/anti‐IgG/Ab complex. A high loading and signal‐enhanced nanocomposite (hereafter referred to as Au‐mSiO₂‐CdTe) was used as a HIV‐1 antigen label. The Au‐mSiO₂‐CdTe nanocomposite was conjugated with the Fe₃O₄/anti‐IgG/Ab complex to form an immunocomplex (hereafter referred to as Fe₃O₄/anti‐IgG/Ab/HIV‐1/CdTe‐mSiO₂‐Au). This complex could be further separated by an external magnetic field to produce ECL signals. Due to the large specific surface area and pore volume of mSiO₂, the loading of the CdTe QDs was markedly increased. Thus, the loaded QDs released a powerful chemiluminescent signal with a concordantly increased sensitivity of the immunosensor. The immunosensor was highly sensitive, and displayed a linear range of responses for HIV‐1 antibody across a dilution range of 1 : 1500 through 1 : 50 with the detection limit of 1 : 4500. The immunoassay can be a promising candidate in early diagnosis of HIV infection.     

Quantum McKay Correspondence for Disc Invariants of Toric Calabi–Yau 3-orbifolds

We announce a result on quantum McK ay correspondence for disc invariants of outer legs in toric Calabi–Yau 3-orbifolds, and illustrate our method in a special example [C3/Z5(1, 1, 3)].     

Enhanced in vitro anticancer activity of quercetin mediated by functionalized CdTe QDs

We report in this study the effects of red-emitting CdTe QDs capped with cysteamine(Cys-CdTe) on the in vitro anticancer activity of the well-known flavenoid quercetin(Qu). Various techniques, including the methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide assay, the real-time cell electronic sensing system, the optical and fluorescence imaging, and electrochemical methods have been utilized to study the potential interactions of Cys-CdTe QDs with Qu. The observations demonstrate that the safe-dosage Cys-CdTe QDs can greatly improve the drug uptake and enhance the inhibition efficiency of Qu towards the proliferation of cancer cells such as HepG2 cells. This study implies that Cys-CdTe QDs may be used for cancer therapy and that they exert a synergic anticancer effect when bound to drug molecules.     

Reprint of : Measuring the Luttinger liquid parameter with shot noise

We explore the low-frequency noise of interacting electrons in a one-dimensional structure (quantum wire or interaction-coupled edge states) with counterpropagating modes, assuming a single channel in each direction. The system is driven out of equilibrium by a quantum point contact (QPC) with an applied voltage, which induces a double-step energy distribution of incoming electrons on one side of the device. A second QPC serves to explore the statistics of outgoing electrons. We show that measurement of a low-frequency noise in such a setup allows one to extract the Luttinger liquid constant K which is the key parameter characterizing an interacting 1D system. We evaluate the dependence of the zero-frequency noise on K and on parameters of both QPCs (transparencies and voltages).