Excited-state spectroscopy on an individual quantum dot using atomic force microscopy.

We present a new charge sensing technique for the excited-state spectroscopy of individual quantum dots, which requires no patterned electrodes. An oscillating atomic force microscope cantilever is used as a movable charge sensor as well as gate to measure the single-electron tunneling between an individual self-assembled InAs quantum dot and back electrode. A set of cantilever dissipation versus bias voltage curves measured at different cantilever oscillation amplitudes forms a diagram analogous to the Coulomb diamond usually measured with transport measurements.

Refined tip preparation by electrochemical etching and ultrahigh vacuum treatment to obtain atomically sharp tips for scanning tunneling microscope and atomic force microscope.

A modification of the common electrochemical etching setup is presented. The described method reproducibly yields sharp tungsten tips for usage in the scanning tunneling microscope and tuning fork atomic force microscope. In situ treatment under ultrahigh vacuum (p ≤10(-10) mbar) conditions for cleaning and fine sharpening with minimal blunting is described.

Probing the "dark" fraction of core-shell quantum dots by ensemble and single particle pH-dependent spectroscopy.

The optical properties of core-shell CdSe-ZnS quantum dots (QDs) are characterized by complex photophysics leading to difficulties in interpreting quantitative measurements based on QD emission. By comparing the pH dependence of fluorescence of single QDs to that of an ensemble, we have been able to propose a molecular scale model of how QD surface chemical and physical processes are affected by protons and oxygen. We show that the connection between the ensemble fluorescence intensity and the single QD fluorescence properties such as dark fraction, blinking, particle brightness, and a multiexponential fluorescence lifetime decay is not trivial.

Modeling multiple time scales during glass formation with phase-field crystals.

The dynamics of glass formation in monatomic and binary liquids are studied numerically using a microscopic field theory for the evolution of the time-averaged atomic number density. A stochastic framework combining phase-field crystal free energies and dynamic density functional theory is shown to successfully describe several aspects of glass formation over multiple time scales. Agreement with mode coupling theory is demonstrated for underdamped liquids at moderate supercoolings, and a rapidly growing dynamic correlation length is found to be associated with fragile behavior.

Kubo formulas for second-order hydrodynamic coefficients.

At second order in gradients, conformal relativistic hydrodynamics depends on the viscosity η and on five additional "second-order" hydrodynamical coefficients τ(Π), κ, λ₁, λ₂, and λ₃. We derive Kubo relations for these coefficients, relating them to equilibrium, fully retarded three-point correlation functions of the stress tensor. We show that the coefficient λ₃ can be evaluated directly by Euclidean means and does not in general vanish.

Crystallization of classical multicomponent plasmas.

We develop a method for calculating the equilibrium properties of the liquid-solid phase transition in a classical, ideal, multicomponent plasma. Our method is a semianalytic calculation that relies on extending the accurate fitting formulas available for the one-, two-, and three-component plasmas to the case of a plasma with an arbitrary number of components. We compare our results to those of C.

Phase retrieval from speckle patterns of ordering systems.

The time dependence of the Fourier transform phase of coherently scattered radiation from a system undergoing ordering is studied. Specifically, we derive a simple model that takes into account the known scaling laws for ordering dynamics to predict the statistical behavior of the Fourier transform phase. We consider a two-dimensional system of domains undergoing ordering for both the nonconserved and conserved order-parameter cases (models A and B, respectively).

Determination of the local contact potential difference of PTCDA on NaCl: a comparison of techniques.

There has been increasing focus on the use of Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) for the determination of local electronic structure in recent years, especially in systems where other methods, such as scanning tunnelling microscopy/spectroscopy, may be intractable. We have examined three methods for determining the local apparent contact potential difference (CPD): frequency modulation KPFM (FM-KPFM), amplitude modulation KPFM (AM-KPFM), and frequency shift-bias spectroscopy, on a test system of 3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) on NaCl, an example of an organic semiconductor on a bulk insulating substrate. We will discuss the influence of the bias modulation on the apparent CPD measurement by FM-KPFM compared to the DC-bias spectroscopy method, and provide a comparison of AM-KPFM, AM-slope detection KPFM and FM-KPFM imaging resolution and accuracy.

A radio pulsar/x-ray binary link.

Radio pulsars with millisecond spin periods are thought to have been spun up by the transfer of matter and angular momentum from a low-mass companion star during an x-ray-emitting phase. The spin periods of the neutron stars in several such low-mass x-ray binary (LMXB) systems have been shown to be in the millisecond regime, but no radio pulsations have been detected. Here we report on detection and follow-up observations of a nearby radio millisecond pulsar (MSP) in a circular binary orbit with an optically identified companion star.

A common mechanism underlies the dark fraction formation and fluorescence blinking of quantum dots.

CdSe quantum dots (QDs) are known to exhibit both power-law blinking dynamics and a dark fraction. A complete description of the mechanistic origins of these properties is still lacking. We show that a change in the pH of the QD environment systematically changes both the dark fraction and the blinking statistics.

Comment on 'Temperature dependence of the energy dissipation in dynamic force microscopy'.

A recent article in this journal by Roll et al (2008 Nanotechnology 19 045703) presents experimental results of the temperature dependence of dissipation in dynamic force microscopy which they use to elucidate the mechanisms of such a dissipation signal in the PTCDA on KBr system. We argue here that dissipation results are often highly dependent upon the tip structure, and urge caution in the interpretation of single sets of experimental data.

Simulation of an atomistic dynamic field theory for monatomic liquids: freezing and glass formation.

We examine a phase field crystal model for simple liquid-solid systems consisting of a free energy functional related to the Ramakrishnan-Yussouff free energy of classical density functional theory and an equation of motion capable of describing long-time-scale behavior in the deeply supercooled regime. The thermodynamics and dynamics of freezing and glass formation in this model system are studied through large-scale three-dimensional Langevin simulations. At low cooling rates bcc crystals are formed by nucleation and growth from the melt.

Microscopic mechanism for cold denaturation.

We elucidate the mechanism of cold denaturation through constant-pressure simulations for a model of hydrophobic molecules in an explicit solvent. We find that the temperature dependence of the hydrophobic effect induces, facilitates, and is the driving force for cold denaturation. The physical mechanism underlying this phenomenon is identified as the destabilization of hydrophobic contact in favor of solvent-separated configurations, the same mechanism seen in pressure-induced denaturation.

Model for calcium dependent oscillatory growth in pollen tubes.

Experiments have shown that pollen tubes grow in an oscillatory mode, the mechanism of which is poorly understood. We propose a theoretical growth model of pollen tubes exhibiting such oscillatory behaviour. The pollen tube and the surrounding medium are represented by two immiscible fluids separated by an interface.

Heavy quark diffusion in perturbative QCD at next-to-leading order.

We compute the momentum diffusion coefficient of a heavy quark in a hot QCD plasma, to next-to-leading order in the weak-coupling expansion. Corrections arise at [see formula]; physically they represent interference between overlapping scatterings, as well as soft, electric scale (p approximately gT) gauge field physics, which we treat using the hard thermal loop effective theory. In 3-color, 3-flavor QCD, the momentum diffusion constant of a fundamental representation heavy quark at next-to-leading order is kappa = 16pi/3alpha(s)(2)T(3)(ln1/g(s)+0.

High-aspect ratio metal tips attached to atomic force microscopy cantilevers with controlled angle, length, and radius for electrostatic force microscopy.

We demonstrate a method to fabricate a high-aspect ratio metal tip attached to microfabricated cantilevers with controlled angle, length, and radius, for use in electrostatic force microscopy. A metal wire, after gluing it into a guiding slot that is cut into the cantilever, is shaped into a long, thin tip using a focused ion beam. The high-aspect ratio results in considerable reduction of the capacitive force between tip body and sample when compared to a metal coated pyramidal tip.

Designable structures are easy to unfold.

We study the structural stability of models of proteins for which the selected folds are unusually stable to mutation, that is, designable. A two-dimensional hydrophobic-polar lattice model was used to determine designable folds and these folds were investigated through Langevin dynamics. We find that the phase diagram of these proteins depends on their designability.

Structured surfaces of wide band gap insulators as templates for overgrowth of adsorbates.

Surface structures on wide band gap insulators and their use as templates for the growth of adsorbates are reviewed. Surface structures include evaporation structures, vicinal surfaces, facetted surfaces, epitaxial structures, or structures transferred to or induced by the growth of thin films. Most structures have been realized so far on Al(2)O(3) and on alkali halide crystals.

Diffusive atomistic dynamics of edge dislocations in two dimensions.

The fundamental dislocation processes of glide, climb, and annihilation are studied on diffusive time scales within the framework of a continuum field theory, the phase field crystal model. Glide and climb are examined for single edge dislocations subjected to shear and compressive strain, respectively, in a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice. It is shown that the natural features of these processes are reproduced without any explicit consideration of elasticity theory or ad hoc construction of microscopic Peierls potentials.

Phase separation of a binary fluid in the inertia-dominated regime.

The phase separation kinetics of a binary fluid is studied analytically through an effective one-fluid model with a random force spectrum determined self-consistently: the rate of kinetic energy injection by the random force is consistent with the droplet coalescence rate. Our detailed results for the rates of energy dissipation and kinetic energy decay are consistent with previous numerical studies. We find that simple nontrivial scaling, if any, is associated with a new universality class where the velocity length scale follows .

Detection of single-electron charging in an individual InAs quantum dot by noncontact atomic-force microscopy.

Single-electron charging in an individual InAs quantum dot was observed by electrostatic force measurements with an atomic-force microscope (AFM). The resonant frequency shift and the dissipated energy of an oscillating AFM cantilever were measured as a function of the tip-back electrode voltage, and the resulting spectra show distinct jumps when the tip was positioned above the dot. The observed jumps in the frequency shift, with corresponding peaks in dissipation, are attributed to a single-electron tunneling between the dot and the back electrode governed by the Coulomb blockade effect, and are consistent with a model based on the free energy of the system.

Instabilities and resistance fluctuations in thin accelerated superconducting rings.

The nonequilibrium properties of a driven quasi-one-dimensional superconducting ring subjected to a constant electromotive force (emf) is studied. The emf accelerates the superconducting electrons until the critical current is reached and a dissipative phase slip occurs that lowers the current. The phase-slip phenomena is examined as a function of the strength of the emf, thermal noise, and normal state resistivity.

Lattice Boltzmann method for viscoelastic fluids.

A lattice Boltzmann model for viscoelastic flow simulation is proposed. Elastic effects are taken into account within the framework of a Maxwell model. To test the approach, we estimate the transverse velocity autocorrelation function for a freely evolving system, and find clear manifestations of shear at large frequencies.

Molecular weight effects on chain pull-out fracture of reinforced polymeric interfaces.

Using Brownian dynamics, we simulate the fracture of polymer interfaces reinforced by diblock connector chains. We consider the mushroom regime, where connector chains are grafted with low surface density, for the case of large pulling velocities. We find that for short chains the interface fracture toughness depends linearly on the degree of polymerization N of the connector chains, while for longer chains the dependence becomes N(3/2).