Physics Commons^™

Simulation Of Coherent Remission In Planar Disordered Medium, Pablo Jara-Palacios, Ho Chun Lin, Chia Wei Hsu, Hui Cao, Alexey Yamilov

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Waves remitted from a scattering medium carry information that can be used for non-invasive imaging and sensing. Such techniques are usually limited by a low photon budget. Recent progress in optical wavefront shaping has enabled coherent control with an order-of-magnitude enhancement of remission [1]. This experimental study necessitated increasingly demanding numerical simulations. Extending this line of research requires more sophisticated computational techniques capable of simulating multiple instances of even larger systems. Here, we demonstrate that remission geometry can be efficiently simulated using a novel open-source software package [2] Maxwell's Equations Solver with Thousands of Inputs (MESTI). To verify its numerical …

Nanoscale Hybrid Electrolytes With Viscosity Controlled Using Ionic Stimulus For Electrochemical Energy Conversion And Storage, Sara T. Hamilton, Tony G. Feric, Sahana Bhattacharyya, Nelly M. Cantillo, Steven G. Greenbaum, Thomas A. Zawodzinski, Ah-Hyung Alissa Park

Publications and Research

As renewable energy is rapidly integrated into the grid, the challenge has become storing intermittent renewable electricity. Technologies including flow batteries and CO 2 conversion to dense energy carriers are promising storage options for renewable electricity. To achieve this technological advancement, the development of next generation electrolyte materials that can increase the energy density of flow batteries and combine CO 2 capture and conversion is desired. Liquid-like nanoparticle organic hybrid materials (NOHMs) composed of an inorganic core with a tethered polymeric canopy (e.g., polyetheramine (HPE)) have a capability to bind chemical species of interest including CO 2 and redox-active species. …

Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy Of 3d Orientation And Anisotropic Wobble Using A Polarized Vortex Point Spread Function, Tianben Ding, Matthew D. Lew

Electrical & Systems Engineering Publications and Presentations

Within condensed matter, single fluorophores are sensitive probes of their chemical environments, but it is difficult to use their limited photon budget to image precisely their positions, 3D orientations, and rotational diffusion simultaneously. We demonstrate the polarized vortex point spread function (PSF) for measuring these parameters, including characterizing the anisotropy of a molecule’s wobble, simultaneously from a single image. Even when imaging dim emitters (∼500 photons detected), the polarized vortex PSF can obtain 12 nm localization precision, 4°–8° orientation precision, and 26° wobble precision. We use the vortex PSF to measure the emission anisotropy of fluorescent beads, the wobble dynamics …

Probability Density Of The Fractional Langevin Equation With Reflecting Walls, Thomas Vojta, Sarah Skinner, Ralf Metzler

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We investigate anomalous diffusion processes governed by the fractional Langevin equation and confined to a finite or semi-infinite interval by reflecting potential barriers. As the random and damping forces in the fractional Langevin equation fulfill the appropriate fluctuation-dissipation relation, the probability density on a finite interval converges for long times towards the expected uniform distribution prescribed by thermal equilibrium. In contrast, on a semi-infinite interval with a reflecting wall at the origin, the probability density shows pronounced deviations from the Gaussian behavior observed for normal diffusion. If the correlations of the random force are persistent (positive), particles accumulate at the …

Viscosities, Diffusion Coefficients, And Mixing Times Of Intrinsic Fluorescent Organic Molecules In Brown Limonene Secondary Organic Aerosol And Tests Of The Stokes–Einstein Equation, Dagny A. Ullmann, Mallory L. Hinks, Adrian M. Maclean, Christopher Butenhoff, James W. Grayson, Kelley Barsanti, Jose L. Jimenez, Sergey A. Nizkorodov, Saeid Kamal, Allan K. Bertram

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Viscosities and diffusion rates of organics within secondary organic aerosol (SOA) remain uncertain. Using the bead-mobility technique, we measured viscosities as a function of water activity (a_w) of SOA generated by the ozonolysis of limonene followed by browning by exposure to NH₃ (referred to as brown limonene SOA or brown LSOA). These measurements together with viscosity measurements reported in the literature show that the viscosity of brown LSOA increases by 3–5 orders of magnitude as the aw decreases from 0.9 to approximately 0.05. In addition, we measured diffusion coefficients of intrinsic fluorescent organic molecules within brown …

Imaging The Three-Dimensional Orientation And Rotational Mobility Of Fluorescent Emitters Using The Tri-Spot Point Spread Function, Oumeng Zhang, Jin Lu, Tianben Ding, Matthew D. Lew

Electrical & Systems Engineering Publications and Presentations

Fluorescence photons emitted by single molecules contain rich information regarding their rotational motions, but adapting single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) to measure their orientations and rotational mobilities with high precision remains a challenge. Inspired by dipole radiation patterns, we design and implement a Tri-spot point spread function (PSF) that simultaneously measures the three-dimensional orientation and the rotational mobility of dipole-like emitters across a large field of view. We show that the orientation measurements done using the Tri-spot PSF are sufficiently accurate to correct the anisotropy-based localization bias, from 30 nm to 7 nm, in SMLM. We further characterize the emission anisotropy …

Fractional Brownian Motion With A Reflecting Wall, Alexander H. O. Wada, Thomas Vojta

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Fractional Brownian motion, a stochastic process with long-time correlations between its increments, is a prototypical model for anomalous diffusion. We analyze fractional Brownian motion in the presence of a reflecting wall by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Whereas the mean-square displacement of the particle shows the expected anomalous diffusion behavior (x²) ~ t^α, the interplay between the geometric confinement and the long-time memory leads to a highly non-Gaussian probability density function with a power-law singularity at the barrier. In the superdiffusive case α > 1, the particles accumulate at the barrier leading to a divergence of the …

Analysis Of Residence Time In The Measurement Of Radon Activity By Passive Diffusion In An Open Volume: A Micro-Statistical Approach, Mark P. Silverman

Faculty Scholarship

Residence time in a flow measurement of radioactivity is the time spent by a pre-determined quantity of radioactive sample in the flow cell. In a recent report of the measurement of indoor radon by passive diffusion in an open volume (i.e. no flow cell or control volume), the concept of residence time was generalized to apply to measurement conditions with random, rather than directed, flow. The generalization, leading to a quantity r ∆t , involved use of a) a phenomenological alpha-particle range function to calculate the effective detection volume, and b) a phenomenological description of diffusion by Fick’s law to …

Brownian Motion Of Solitons In A Bose-Einstein Condensate, Lauren M. Aycock, Hilary M. Hurst, Dimitry K. Efimkin, Dina Genkina, Hsin-I Lu, Victor M. Galitski, I. B. Spielman

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

We observed and controlled the Brownian motion of solitons. We launched solitonic excitations in highly elongated ⁸⁷ Rb Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and showed that a dilute background of impurity atoms in a different internal state dramatically affects the soliton. With no impurities and in one-dimension (1D), these solitons would have an infinite lifetime, a consequence of integrability. In our experiment, the added impurities scatter off the much larger soliton, contributing to its Brownian motion and decreasing its lifetime. We describe the soliton's diffusive behavior using a quasi-1D scattering theory of impurity atoms interacting with a soliton, giving diffusion coefficients consistent …

Method To Measure Indoor Radon Concentration In An Open Volume With Geiger-Mueller Counters: Analysis From First Principles, Mark P. Silverman

Faculty Scholarship

A simple method employing a pair of pancake-style Geiger-Mueller (GM) counters for quantitative measurement of radon activity concentration (activity per unit volume) is described and demonstrated. The use of two GM counters, together with the basic theory derived in this paper, permit the detection of alpha particles from decay of 222Rn and progeny ( 218 Po , 214 Po ) and the conversion of the alpha count rate into a radon concentration. A unique feature of this method, in comparison with standard methodologies to measure radon concentration, is the absence of a fixed control volume. Advantages afforded by the reported …

Method To Measure Indoor Radon Concentration In An Open Volume With Geiger-Mueller Counters: Analysis From First Principles, Mark P. Silverman

Faculty Scholarship

A simple method employing a pair of pancake-style Geiger-Mueller (GM) counters for quantitative measurement of radon activity concentration (activity per unit volume) is described and demonstrated. The use of two GM counters, together with the basic theory derived in this paper, permit the detection of alpha particles from decay of 222Rn and progeny ( 218Po , 214 Po ) and the conversion of the alpha count rate into a radon concentration. A unique feature of this method, in comparison with standard methodologies to measure radon concentration, is the absence of a fixed control volume. Advantages afforded by the reported GM …

Gelatin Diffusion Experiment, Jennifer Welborn

Nanotechnology Teacher Summer Institutes

In this activity, nanotech participants will:

- See how food dyes and gelatin are used to model the delivery of nanoscale medicines to cells in the human body - Measure diffusion distances of 3 different colors of food dye by: Eye, photo image on a computer, ADI software (Analyzing Digital Images) Some useful websites:

• http://www.echalk.co.uk/Science/biologyContent.htm Life Processes and Cells
• http://workbench.concord.org/database/activities/321.html Molecular Workbench Database. Diffusion, osmosis, ...

Experiments On Tracer Diffusion In Aqueous And Non-Aqueous Solvent Combinations, Duncan M. Frasch, Daniel Spiegel

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research

Forced Rayleigh scattering is used to study the tracer diffusion of an azobenzene in binary combinations of polar solvents, including water. In the absence of water, the tracer diffusion coefficient D in the mixture lies between the diffusion coefficients within the pure solvents, on a curve that is reasonably close to the prediction of free-volume theory. If water is present, on the other hand, the diffusion coefficient displays a minimum that is less than the smaller of the two pure-solvent values. We attempt to understand the different behavior in water by concentrating on the fairly hydrophobic nature of the solute, …

Position-Dependent Diffusion Of Light In Disordered Waveguides, Alexey Yamilov, Raktim Sarma, Brandon Redding, Ben Payne, Heeso Noh, Hui Cao

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present direct experimental evidence for position-dependent diffusion in open random media. The interference of light in time-reversed paths results in renormalization of the diffusion coefficient, which varies spatially. To probe the wave transport inside the system, we fabricate two-dimensional disordered waveguides and monitor the light intensity from the third dimension. Change the geometry of the system or dissipation limits the size of the loop trajectories, allowing us to control the renormalization of the diffusion coefficient. This work shows the possibility of manipulating wave diffusion via the interplay of localization and dissipation.

Carrier Capture Dynamics Of Single Ingaas/Gaas Quantum-Dot Layers, K. N. Chauhan, D. Mark Riffe, E. A. Everett, D. J. Kim, H. Yang, F. K. Shen

All Physics Faculty Publications

Using 800 nm, 25-fs pulses from a mode locked Ti:Al₂O₃ laser, we have measured the ultrafast opticalreflectivity of MBE-grown, single-layer In_0.4Ga_0.6As/GaAs quantum-dot (QD) samples. The QDs are formed via two-stage Stranski-Krastanov growth: following initial InGaAs deposition at a relatively low temperature, self assembly of the QDs occurs during a subsequent higher temperature anneal. The capture times for free carriers excited in the surrounding GaAs (barrier layer) are as short as 140 fs, indicating capture efficiencies for the InGaAs quantum layer approaching 1. The capture rates are positively correlated with initial InGaAs thickness and …

The Density Factor In The Synthesis Of Carbon Nanotube Forest By Injection Chemical Vapor Deposition, Robert W. Call, C. Read, C Mart, T. C. Shen

Graduate Student Publications

Beneath the seeming straight-forwardness of growing carbon nanotube(CNT) forests by the injection chemical vapor deposition(CVD) method, control of the forest morphology on various substrates is yet to be achieved. Using ferrocene dissolved in xylene as the precursor, we demonstrate that the concentration of ferrocene and the injection rate of the precursor dictate the CNT density of these forests. However, CNT density will also be affected by the substrates and the growth temperature which determine the diffusion of the catalyst adatoms. The CNT growth rate is controlled by the temperature and chemical composition of the gases in the CVD reactor. We …

Co2 Diffusion Through Gelatin Experiment, Jennifer Welborn

STEM Digital

An example of measuring lengths.

Transient Diffraction Grating Measurements Of Molecular Diffusion In The Undergraduate Laboratory, Daniel Spiegel, Santona Tuli

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research

Mass diffusion is a central process in many biological, chemical, and physical systems, and although the mathematics of diffusion has long been an important component of an undergraduate physics education, experimental measurements of diffusion are not very common in the undergraduate laboratory. We describe here an experiment that employs the interference of laser beams to allow measurement of molecular diffusion on micron length scales. The interference fringes of two intersecting “pump” beams within a dye solution create a sinusoidal distribution of long-lived molecular excited states. A third “probe” beam is incident at a wavelength at which the indices of refraction …

Influence Of Functionalized Fullerene Structure On Polymer Photovoltaic Degradation, Brian H. Johnson, Enaanake Allagoa, Robert L. Thomas, Gregory Stettler, Marianne Wallis, Justn H. Peel, Thorsteinn Adalsteinsson, Brian J. Mcnelis, Richard P. Barber Jr.

Physics

The time dependence of device performance has been measured for photocells using blends containing the conjugated polymer, poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV) with two different functionalized C60 electron acceptor molecules: commercially available [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) or [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid octadecyl ester (PCBOD) produced in this laboratory. Performance was characterized by the short-circuit current output of the devices, with the time dependence of PCBM samples typically degrading exponentially. Variations in the characteristic lifetime of the devices were observed to depend on the molar fraction of the electron acceptor molecules (calculated with respect to the MEH-PPV monomer fraction). In comparison …

Study Of The Photoinduced Surface Relief Modulation In Photopolymers Caused By Illumination With A Gaussian Beam Of Light, Tzvetanka Babeva, Dana Mackey, Suzanne Martin, Izabela Naydenova, Vincent Toal

Articles

The formation of surface relief profile in photopolymerisable systems when illuminated with a focused beam of light is simulated numerically using a two-way diffusion model that takes account both for monomer and short polymer chains diffusion. The concentration and spatial distribution dynamics of monomer and short and long polymer chains are calculated. The surface profile is obtained from calculated components concentrations considering different densities of monomer and polymer. The influence of the illumination time, intensity and spot diameter on the surface profiles dynamics is discussed. A good agreement between the calculated and the experimentally measured profiles is observed thus demonstrating …

Simple Approximations For Condensational Growth, A. B. Kostinski

Department of Physics Publications

A simple geometric argument relating to the liquid water content of clouds is given. The phase relaxation time and the nature of the quasi-steady approximation for the diffusional growth of cloud drops are elucidated directly in terms of water vapor concentration. Spatial gradients of vapor concentration, inherent in the notion of quasi-steady growth, are discussed and we argue for an occasional reversal of the traditional point of view: rather than a drop growing in response to a given supersaturation, the observed values of the supersaturation in clouds are the result of a vapor field adjusting to droplet growth. Our perspective …

Surface Relief Profile Of Photopolymerisable Systems In A Single Illuminated Spot, Tsvetanka Babeva, Dana Mackey, Izabela Naydenova, Suzanne Martin, Vincent Toal

Conference Papers

The formation of surface relief profile in photopolymerisable systems when illuminated with a focused beam of light is simulated numerically using a two-way diffusion model that accounts both for monomer and short polymer chains diffusion. The concentration and spatial distribution dynamics of monomer, short and long polymer chains are calculated. It is assumed that the surface profile is a linear combination of monomer and polymer concentration with appropriate coefficients accounting for polymer shrinkage. A good agreement between the calculated and the experimentally measured profiles is observed thus demonstrating the successful application of the two way diffusion in modeling this system.

Compositional Stability Of Fept Nanoparticles On Sio2/Si During Annealing, Richard R. Vanfleet, B. Yao, R. V. Petrova, K. R. Coffey

Faculty Publications

The loss of Fe due to oxidation or diffusion into the substrate can prevent the successful preparation of well-ordered, stoichiometric, FePt nanoparticles. In this work we report the composition changes during annealing observed for small (<10 nm) FePt nanoparticles on thermally grown SiO2 layers on Si wafer substrates. Additionally, we describe the use of a controlled reducing gas mixture, Ar+H2+H2O, to reduce the loss of Fe.

Two Way Diffusion Model For The Recording Mechanism In A Self-Developing Dry Acrylamide Photopolymer, Suzanne Martin, Izabela Naydenova, Raghavendra Jallapuram, Robert Howard, Vincent Toal

Conference Papers

In our most recent study [1] diffusion constants were measured in the simplified monoacrylamide version of a dry acrylamide based photopolymer holographic recording material developed in the Centre for Industrial and Engineering Optics. In this paper we report diffusion constants for the commonly used photopolymer formulation, which also contains the crosslinker bisacrylamide. A physical model for the recording mechanism is proposed which explains the two way diffusion observed in both systems, and is in agreement with much of the previously observed behaviour of the material, particularly in regard to dependence of diffraction efficiency growth on spatial frequency and persistence of …

Adiabatic-Nonadiabatic Transition In The Diffusive Hamiltonian Dynamics Of A Classical Holstein Polaron, Alex A. Silvius, Paul Ernest Parris, Stephan De Bièvre

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We study the Hamiltonian dynamics of a free particle injected onto a chain containing a periodic array of harmonic oscillators in thermal equilibrium. The particle interacts locally with each oscillator, with an interaction that is linear in the oscillator coordinate and independent of the particle's position when it is within a finite interaction range. At long times the particle exhibits diffusive motion, with an ensemble averaged mean-squared displacement that is linear in time. The diffusion constant at high temperatures follows a power law D~T 5/2 for all parameter values studied. At low temperatures particle transport changes to a hopping process …

Investigation Of The Diffusion Processes In Self-Processing Acrylamide-Based Photopolymer System, Izabela Naydenova, Raghavendra Jallapuram, Robert Howard, Suzanne Martin, Vincent Toal

Articles

Results from the investigation of the diffusion processes in a dry acrylamide-based photopolymer system are presented. The investigation is carried out in the context of experimental work on optimization of the high spatial frequency response of the photopolymer. Tracing the transmission holographic grating dynamics at short times of exposure is utilized to measure diffusion coefficients. The results reveal that two different diffusion processes contribute with opposite sign to the refractive index modulation responsible for the diffraction grating build up. Monomer diffusion from dark to bright fringe areas increases the refractive index modulation. It is characterized with diffusion constant D0=1.6E-7 cm2/s. …

The Meyer-Neldel Rule For A Property Determined By Two Transport Mechanisms, Ralf Widenhorn, Armin Rest, Erik Bodegom

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We propose that the Meyer-Neldel rule (MNR) arises naturally for a quantity where both an intrinsic process as well as a process involving impurities contribute. The strength of the latter depends solely on the density of the impurities. This leads to a spread in the apparent activation energy of the measured quantity and the observation of the MNR, even though the intrinsic processes have fixed activation energies. A consequence of the MNR is the occurrence of a temperature T[sub MN] where a measured parameter is independent of the activation energy. For the system studied, the MNR does not accurately predict …

Translational Diffusion Of Small And Large Mesoscopic Probes In Hydroxypropylcellulose-Water In The Solutionlike Regime, Kiril A. Streletzky, George D.J. Phillies

Physics Faculty Publications

Quasi-elastic light scattering spectroscopy was used to study the translational diffusion of monodisperse spheres in aqueous 1 MDa hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) at 25 °C. Probe diameters d spanned 14–455 nm; HPC concentrations were 0⩽c⩽7g/L. Light scattering spectroscopy consistently found spectra having the form g(1)(t)=(1−Af)exp(−θtβ)+Af exp(−θftβf). Here θf and βf refer to the “fast” mode; θ and β describe the “slow” mode. We examine the dependence of θ, β, θf, βf, and Af on d, c, scattering vector q, and viscosity η. β=1 for large probes; elsewise, β and βf are ∈(0,1). The slow mode, with short-lived memory function, is diffusive; for …

An Instantaneous Normal Mode Description Of Relaxation In Supercooled Liquids, T. Keyes, G. V. Vijayadamodar, Ulrich Zurcher

Physics Faculty Publications

Relaxation in supercooled liquids is formulated from the instantaneous normal modes (INM) point of view. The frequency and temperature dependence of the unstable, imaginary frequency lobe of the INM density of states, ⟨ρu(ω,T)⟩ (for simplicity we write ω instead of iω), is investigated and characterized over a broad temperature range, 10⩾T⩾0.42, in the unit density Lennard-Jones liquid. INM theories of diffusion invoke Im-ω modes descriptive of barrier crossing, but not all imaginary frequency modes fall into this category. There exists a cutoff frequency ωc such that modes with ω<ωc correspond to “shoulder potentials,” whereas the potential profiles include barrier-crossing double wells for ω>ωc. Given that only modes with ω>ωc contribute to diffusion, …

A Stochastic Theory Of Inhomogeneously Broadened Linewidths In Solids, Ulrich Zürcher

Physics Faculty Publications

We investigate spectral diffusion decay using a model for solids that consists of two-level-systems (TLSs) interacting via strain fields. For the case when the rate of TLS flips vanishes, we find algebraic decay of correlation functions of the local field. We show that properties of equilibrium fluctuations are in agreement with the hierarchical picture proposed by Basché and Moerner: TLSs far away produce fast fluctuations that are small in magnitude, and close TLSs produce large fluctuations that are less frequent.