2020 New's Items

Quantitative understanding of nanoscale interactions is a prerequisite for harnessing the remarkable collective properties of nanoparticle systems. Here, we report the combined use of liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy and electron beam lithography to elucidate the interactions between charged nanorods in a predefined potential energy landscape. In situ site-selective lift-off of surface-functionalized lithographed gold nanorods is achieved by patterning them with adhesion layer materials that undergo etching at different rates. Analysis of the subsequent nanorod motion,...

Protection of photosystem II against damage from excess light by nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) includes responses on a wide range of timescales. The onset of the various phases of NPQ overlap in time making it difficult to discern if they influence each other or involve different photophysical mechanisms. To unravel the complex relationship of the known actors in NPQ, we perform fluorescence lifetime snapshot measurements throughout multiple cycles of alternating 2 min periods of high light and darkness. By comparing the data with an empirically based mathematical model that...

Predicting the band structure and optical absorption spectra of narrow band gap semiconductors is challenging for electronic structure methods. Here, it is shown shown that density functional theory can yield accurate band structures and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) can yield accurate optical absorption spectra for these systems. This is achieved by using a screened range-separated hybrid (SRSH) functional with a single empirical parameter, fit to reproduce the experimental band gap. By comparing TDDFT results based on the SRSH approach with those obtained based...

Optical interconnects transmit signals between different parts of integrated circuits using light and have lower power consumption and latency than the conventional metal interconnects. The modulation frequency of the on-chip light sources in optical interconnects determines the signal transmission speed. In principle, on-chip lasers relying on stimulated emission can have high modulation frequency but also have high fabrication complexity and energy consumption. Thus, it is desirable to use light-emitting devices that operate through spontaneous emission as the on-chip light source...