Superconductors can host quantized magnetic flux tubes surrounded by supercurrents, called Abrikosov vortices. Vortex penetration into a superconducting film is usually limited to its edges and triggered by external magnetic fields or local electrical currents. With a view to novel research directions in quantum computation, the possibility to generate and control single flux quanta in situ is thus challenging. We introduce a far-field optical method to sculpt the magnetic flux or generate permanent single vortices at any desired position in a superconductor. It is based on a fast quench following the absorption of a tightly focused laser pulse that locally heats the superconductor above its critical temperature. We achieve ex-nihilo creation of a single vortex pinned at the center of the hotspot, while its counterpart opposite flux is trapped tens of micrometers away at its boundaries. Our method paves the way to optical operation of Josephson transport with single flux quanta.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c02166 | DOI Listing |
J Membr Biol
January 2025
Crystallography and Molecular Biology Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India.
Inward rectifying potassium (Kir) channels play a critical role in maintaining the resting membrane potential and cellular homeostasis. The high-resolution crystal structure of homotetrameric KirBac1.1 in detergent micelles provides a snapshot of the closed state.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Chem Chem Phys
January 2025
Section on Molecular Transport, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
One of the most subtle steps in the single-molecule approach to the flux through the membrane channel, which uses the one-dimensional Smoluchowski equation, is to describe the molecule's "behavior" at the contacts between the channel openings and the bulk. Earlier, to handle this issue, we introduced the so-called "radiation boundary conditions" that account for the interplay between the two types of trajectories of the molecules starting at the openings, specifically, the ones that eventually return to the channel and the ones that escape to infinity. The latter trajectories represent the true translocation events on the condition that initially the molecule entered the channel from the opposite side.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAngew Chem Int Ed Engl
January 2025
Fuzhou University, Chemistry, 523 Gongye Rd, Gulou, 350000, Fuzhou, CHINA.
Conjugated polymers, represented by polymeric carbon nitrides (PCNs), have risen to prominence as new-generation photocatalysts for overall water splitting (OWS). Despite considerable efforts, achieving highly crystalline PCNs with minimal structural defects remains a great challenge, and it is also difficult to examine the exact impact of complex defect states on OWS process, which largely limits their quantum efficiency. Herein, we devise a 'in-situ salt flux' assisted copolymerization protocol by using nitrogen-rich and nitrogen-deficient monomers to precisely manipulate the structural defects of poly (triazine imide) (PTI) single crystals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInvest Ophthalmol Vis Sci
January 2025
State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangzhou, China.
Purpose: Eyelid infiltrative basal cell carcinoma (iBCC) is the most common malignant tumor affecting the ocular adnexa, but studies on metabolic changes within its microenvironment and heterogeneity at the tumor invasive area are limited. This study aims to analyze metabolic differences among iBCC cell types using single-cell and spatial metabolomics analysis and to examine metabolic environment at the tumor invasive area.
Methods: Single-cell transcriptomic data of human basal cell carcinoma (BCC) were clustered and visualized using Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection.
Nutrients
December 2024
Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Importance: Although prolonged fasting has become increasingly popular, the favourable biological adaptations and possible adverse effects in humans have yet to be fully elucidated.
Objective: To investigate the effects of a three-day water-only fasting, with or without exercise-induced glycogen depletion, on autophagy activation and the molecular pathways involved in cellular damage accumulation and repair in healthy humans.
Design: A randomised, single-centre, two-period, two-sequence crossover trial.
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