Optical trapping force reduction and manipulation of nanoporous beads

We studied the interaction of infrared optical traps with controlled-pore glass (CPG) beads in aqueous medium. The lateral optical trapping force and stiffness were experimentally found considerably smaller than those of their solid counterparts. The simulation using an average refractive index revealed significant losses of effective trapping efficiency, which quantitatively agreed well with experimentally fitted curves. This effect was ascribed to the reduced relative refractive index of medium-filled CPG beads with respect to the medium. Combining optical trapping with mechanical confinements, we demonstrated a microfluidic platform allowing for the synthesis of multiple DNA oligonucleotide sequences on individual beads of interest.     

Simultaneous high-speed visualization of soot luminosity and OH1 chemiluminescence of alternative-fuel combustion in a HSDI diesel engine under realistic operating conditions

Crude-oil independent liquid fuels are currently being developed for future HSDI diesel engines. Thus, it is the primary objective of the present study to characterize the combustion of selected reference fuels under realistic conditions, in particular with regard to flame lift-off and soot formation. The experiments are conducted in an optically-accessible and a comparable all-metal HSDI engine at part load, using n-decane, n-heptane, 1-decanol, and conventional diesel, respectively, as the fuel. Two image-intensified, high-speed CMOS cameras are employed simultaneously, in order to visualize the highly unsteady combustion process in terms of OH¹ radicals and soot, respectively, with relatively high temporal resolution and data throughput.The results demonstrate the influence of the fuel properties, in particular cetane number and volatility, on mixture formation, ignition, combustion, soot formation, and emissions. Relatively high soot emissions for n-decane can basically be explained by its short ignition delay, small lift-off length, and lack of fuel-bound oxygen. The soot formation process seems to be more important for the relative engine-out emissions than soot oxidation under the investigated conditions. Furthermore, a very strong correlation between the ignition delay and the flame lift-off length (during injection) is found. This indicates that lift-off stabilization is essentially determined by autoignition.     

Application of the electrochemical microcapillary technique to study intergranular stress corrosion cracking of austenitic stainless steel on the micrometre scale

The electrochemical microcapillary technique was applied for the first time to study the electrochemical dissolution signals from single growing cracks due to stress corrosion cracking of thermally sensitised AISI 304 stainless steel in potassium tetrathionate solution. Potentiostatic current measurements on initiating cracks along grain boundaries were performed. Typical current signals of potentiostatic and potentiodynamic measurements consisted of a series of current peaks showing fast rise and exponential decay, sometimes interrupted by passive phases. The results indicate that stress corrosion crack growth is a discontinuous process of passive and active phases, which might be explained by the film rupture model.     

Decision support for rehabilitation hospital scheduling

We present a detailed analysis of the patient and resource scheduling problem in rehabilitation hospitals. In practice, the predominantly therapeutical treatments and activities which are prescribed for the patients are typically scheduled manually. This leads to rigid and inefficient schedules which can have negative effects on the quality of care and the patients’ satisfaction. We outline the conceptual framework of a decision support system for the scheduling process that is based on formal optimization models. To this end, we first develop a large-scale monolithic optimization model. Then we derive a numerically tractable hierarchical model system in order to deal with problem instances of realistic sizes. We report numerical results with respect to solution times, model sizes and solution quality.     

Surface properties of aromatic polymer film during thermal treatment

Aromatic polyimide films are processed from polyamic acid solutions. This process involved the simultaneous loss of solvent and chemical conversion of polyamic acid to polyimide, and implied structural reorganization which led to changed physical properties. Polymer films generated from benzophenonetetracarboxylic dianhydride and 4,4′-diamino-3,3′-dimethyl diphenylmethane have been investigated at different stages of thermal treatment. The surface polarity, which was determined by the presence of polar COOH and CONH groups, changed during polyamic acid thermal treatment. These polar groups were removed step by step by imidization process leading to the modification of the physical properties of the polymer film.     

A 3D optical metamaterial made by self-assembly

Optical metamaterials have unusual optical characteristics that arise from their periodic nanostructure. Their manufacture requires the assembly of 3D architectures with structure control on the 10-nm length scale. Such a 3D optical metamaterial, based on the replication of a self-assembled block copolymer into gold, is demonstrated. The resulting gold replica has a feature size that is two orders of magnitude smaller than the wavelength of visible light. Its optical signature reveals an archetypal Pendry wire metamaterial with linear and circular dichroism.     

Measurement of the Docking Time of a DNA Molecule onto a Solid-State Nanopore

We present measurements of the change in ionic conductance due to double-stranded (ds) DNA translocation through small (6 nm diameter) nanopores at low salt (100 mM KCl). At both low (<200 mV) and high (>600 mV) voltages we observe a current enhancement during DNA translocation, similar to earlier reports. Intriguingly, however, in the intermediate voltage range, we observe a new type of composite events, where within each single event the current first decreases and then increases. From the voltage dependence of the magnitude and timing of these current changes, we conclude that the current decrease is caused by the docking of the DNA random coil onto the nanopore. Unexpectedly, we find that the docking time is exponentially dependent on voltage (t ∝ e(-V/V(0))). We discuss a physical picture where the docking time is set by the time that a DNA end needs to move from a random location within the DNA coil to the nanopore. Upon entrance of the pore, the current subsequently increases due to enhanced flow of counterions along the DNA. Interestingly, these composite events thus allow to independently measure the actual translocation time as well as the docking time before translocation.     

Multiresonant broadband optical antennas as efficient tunable nanosources of second harmonic light

We report the experimental realization of efficient tunable nanosources of second harmonic light with individual multiresonant log-periodic optical antennas. By designing the nanoantenna with a bandwidth of several octaves, simultaneous enhancement of fundamental and harmonic fields is observed over a broad range of frequencies, leading to a high second harmonic conversion efficiency, together with an effective second order susceptibility within the range of values provided by widespread inorganic crystals. Moreover, the geometrical configuration of the nanoantenna makes the generated second harmonic signal independent from the polarization of the fundamental excitation. These results open new possibilities for the development of efficient integrated nonlinear nanodevices with high frequency tunability.