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At least 73 records · Page 4

Absorption of Far-Infrared Radiation in Ge/Si Quantum Dots

The experimental and theoretical results of studies of optical absorption in doped Ge/Si quantumdot structures in the far-infrared region, corresponding to the energies of transitions of holes from the ground state to the lowest excited size-quantization state, are reported. An analytical theory of the size quantization of holes in a lens-shaped quantum dot is developed in the context of the adiabatic approximation with consideration for pair Coulomb interaction. It is shown that the interaction has no effect on the frequencies of lower interlevel resonances. This fact is representative of generalized Kohn’s theorem satisfied due to the specific geometric shape of the quantum dot. The experimental and theoretical values of the transition energies are in good agreement.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Communication: The influence of vibrational parity in chiral photoionization dynamics

A pronounced vibrational state dependence of photoelectron angular distributions observed in chiral photoionization experiments is explored using a simple, yet realistic, theoretical model based upon the transiently chiral molecule H{sub 2}O{sub 2}. The adiabatic approximation is used to separate vibrational and electronic wavefunctions. The full ionization matrix elements are obtained as an average of the electronic dipole matrix elements over the vibrational coordinate, weighted by the product of neutral and ion state vibrational wavefunctions. It is found that the parity of the vibrational Hermite polynomials influences not just the amplitude, but also the phase of the transition matrix elements, and the latter is sufficient, even in the absence of resonant enhancements, to account for enhanced vibrational dependencies in the chiral photoionization dynamics.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Nuclear velocity perturbation theory for vibrational circular dichroism: An approach based on the exact factorization of the electron-nuclear wave function

The nuclear velocity perturbation theory (NVPT) for vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) is derived from the exact factorization of the electron-nuclear wave function. This new formalism offers an exact starting point to include correction terms to the Born-Oppenheimer (BO) form of the molecular wave function, similar to the complete-adiabatic approximation. The corrections depend on a small parameter that, in a classical treatment of the nuclei, is identified as the nuclear velocity. Apart from proposing a rigorous basis for the NVPT, we show that the rotational strengths, related to the intensity of the VCD signal, contain a new contribution beyond-BO that can be evaluated with the NVPT and that only arises when the exact factorization approach is employed. Numerical results are presented for chiral and non-chiral systems to test the validity of the approach.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Quantum-mechanical approach to predissociation of water dimers in the vibrational adiabatic representation: Importance of channel interactions

The results of application of the quantum-mechanical adiabatic theory to vibrational predissociation (VPD) of water dimers, (H{sub 2}O){sub 2} and (D{sub 2}O){sub 2}, are presented. We consider the VPD processes including the totally symmetric OH mode of the dimer and the bending mode of the fragment. The VPD in the adiabatic representation is induced by breakdown of the vibrational adiabatic approximation, and two types of nonadiabatic coupling matrix elements are involved: one provides the VPD induced by the low-frequency dissociation mode and the other provides the VPD through channel interactions induced by the low-frequency modes. The VPD rate constants were calculated using the Fermi golden rule expression. A closed form for the nonadiabatic transition matrix element between the discrete and continuum states was derived in the Morse potential model. All of the parameters used were obtained from the potential surfaces of the water dimers, which were calculated by the density functional theory procedures. The VPD rate constants for the two processes were calculated in the non-Condon scheme beyond the so-called Condon approximation. The channel interactions in and between the initial and final states were taken into account, and those are found to increase the VPD rates by 3(1) orders of magnitude for the VPD processes in (H{sub 2}O){sub 2} ((D{sub 2}O){sub 2}). The fraction of the bending-excited donor fragments is larger than that of the bending-excited acceptor fragments. The results obtained by quantum-mechanical approach are compared with both experimental and quasi-classical trajectory calculation results.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Tunneling splitting in double-proton transfer: Direct diagonalization results for porphycene

Zero-point and excited level splittings due to double-proton tunneling are calculated for porphycene and the results are compared with experiment. The calculation makes use of a multidimensional imaginary-mode Hamiltonian, diagonalized directly by an effective reduction of its dimensionality. Porphycene has a complex potential energy surface with nine stationary configurations that allow a variety of tunneling paths, many of which include classically accessible regions. A symmetry-based approach is used to show that the zero-point level, although located above the cis minimum, corresponds to concerted tunneling along a direct trans − trans path; a corresponding cis − cis path is predicted at higher energy. This supports the conclusion of a previous paper [Z. Smedarchina, W. Siebrand, and A. Fernández-Ramos, J. Chem. Phys. 127, 174513 (2007)] based on the instanton approach to a model Hamiltonian of correlated double-proton transfer. A multidimensional tunneling Hamiltonian is then generated, based on a double-minimum potential along the coordinate of concerted proton motion, which is newly evaluated at the RI-CC2/cc-pVTZ level of theory. To make it suitable for diagonalization, its dimensionality is reduced by treating fast weakly coupled modes in the adiabatic approximation. This results in a coordinate-dependent mass of tunneling, which is included in a unique Hermitian form into the kinetic energy operator. The reduced Hamiltonian contains three symmetric and one antisymmetric mode coupled to the tunneling mode and is diagonalized by a modified Jacobi-Davidson algorithm implemented in the Jadamilu software for sparse matrices. The results are in satisfactory agreement with the observed splitting of the zero-point level and several vibrational fundamentals after a partial reassignment, imposed by recently derived selection rules. They also agree well with instanton calculations based on the same Hamiltonian.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Photodissociation of HCN and HNC isomers in the 7-10 eV energy range

The ultraviolet photoabsorption spectra of the HCN and HNC isomers have been simulated in the 7-10 eV photon energy range. For this purpose, the three-dimensional adiabatic potential energy surfaces of the 7 lowest electronic states, and the corresponding transition dipole moments, have been calculated, at multireference configuration interaction level. The spectra are calculated with a quantum wave packet method on these adiabatic potential energy surfaces. The spectra for the 3 lower excited states, the dissociative electronic states, correspond essentially to predissociation peaks, most of them through tunneling on the same adiabatic state. The 3 higher electronic states are bound, hereafter electronic bound states, and their spectra consist of delta lines, in the adiabatic approximation. The radiative lifetime towards the ground electronic states of these bound states has been calculated, being longer than 10 ns in all cases, much longer that the characteristic predissociation lifetimes. The spectra of HCN is compared with the available experimental and previous theoretical simulations, while in the case of HNC there are no previous studies to our knowledge. The spectrum for HNC is considerably more intense than that of HCN in the 7-10 eV photon energy range, which points to a higher photodissociation rate for HNC, compared to HCN, in astrophysical environments illuminated by ultraviolet radiation.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Ionisation of a quantum dot by electric fields

We have derived analytical formulas for differential and total ionisation probabilities of a two-dimensional quantum dot by a constant electric field. In the adiabatic approximation, we have calculated the probability of this process in the field of a plane electromagnetic wave and in a superposition of constant and alternating electric fields. The imaginary-time method is used to obtain the momentum distribution of the ionisation probability of a bound system by an intense field generated by a superposition of parallel constant and alternating electric fields. The total probability of the process per unit time is calculated with exponential accuracy. The dependence of the results obtained on the characteristic parameters of the problem is investigated. (laser applications and other topics in quantum electronics)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Critical stability of almost adiabatic convection in a rapidly rotating thick spherical shell

In this work, the convection equations in the almost adiabatic approximation is studied for which the choice of physical parameters is primarily based on possible applications to the hydrodynamics of the deep interiors of the Earth and planets and moons of the terrestrial group. The initial system of partial differential equations (PDEs) was simplified to a single second-order ordinary differential equation for the pressure or vertical velocity component to investigate the linear stability of convection. The critical frequencies, modified Rayleigh numbers, and distributions of convection are obtained at various possible Prandtl numbers and in different thick fluid shells. An analytical WKB-type solution was obtained for the case when the inner radius of the shell is much smaller than the outer radius and convective sources are concentrated along the inner boundary.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Response calculations based on an independent particle system with the exact one-particle density matrix: Polarizabilities

Recently, we have demonstrated that the problems finding a suitable adiabatic approximation in time-dependent one-body reduced density matrix functional theory can be remedied by introducing an additional degree of freedom to describe the system: the phase of the natural orbitals [K. J. H. Giesbertz, O. V. Gritsenko, and E. J. Baerends, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 013002 (2010); K. J. H. Giesbertz, O. V. Gritsenko, and E. J. Baerends, J. Chem. Phys. 133, 174119 (2010)]. In this article we will show in detail how the frequency-dependent response equations give the proper static limit (ω → 0), including the perturbation in the chemical potential, which is required in static response theory to ensure the correct number of particles. Additionally we show results for the polarizability for H{sub 2} and compare the performance of two different two-electron functionals: the phase-including Löwdin–Shull functional and the density matrix form of the Löwdin–Shull functional.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

On the Two-Phonon Relaxation of Excited States of Boron Acceptors in Diamond

The relaxation of holes from excited states of boron acceptors in diamond with the emission of two optical phonons is studied theoretically. To describe the wave function of acceptor states, an electron-like Hamiltonian with an isotropic effective mass is used. The wave function of the ground state is determined by the quantum-defect method. The probability of the transition is calculated in the adiabatic approximation. It is assumed that the phonon dispersion law is isotropic and the phonon frequency is quadratically dependent on the wave-vector modulus, with the maximum and minimum frequencies ω{sub max} and ω{sub min} at the center and boundary of the Brillouin zone, respectively. A high sensitivity of the probability of the transition to the characteristic of phonon dispersion ω{sub max} – ω{sub min} is revealed, especially for the transition with the energy E{sub T} in the range 2ℏω{sub min} ≤ E{sub T} < ℏω{sub min} + ℏω{sub max}. Depending on the energy of the transition and on the phonon dispersion, the two-phonon relaxation rate at the low-temperature limit varies from extremely small values (<10{sup 8} s{sup –1}) near the threshold E{sub T} = 2ℏω{sub min} to extremely large values (>10{sup 12} s{sup –1}) in the “resonance” range ℏω{sub min} + ℏω{sub max} ≤ E{sub T} ≤ 2ℏω{sub max}.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Spontaneous Exciton Collapse in a Strongly Flattened Ellipsoidal InSb Quantum Dot

Abstract Electronic and excitonic states in an InSb strongly flattened ellipsoidal quantum dot (QD) with complicated dispersion law are theoretically investigated within the framework of the geometric adiabatic approximation in the strong, intermediate, and weak quantum confinement regimes. For the lower levels of the spectrum, the square root dependence of energy on QD sizes is revealed in the case of Kane’s dispersion law. The obtained results are compared to the case of a parabolic (standard) dispersion law of charge carriers. The possibility of the accidental exciton instability is revealed for the intermediate quantum confinement regime. For the weak quantum confinement regime, the motion of the exciton's center-of-gravity is quantized, which leads to the appearance of additional Coulomb-like sub-levels. It is revealed that in the case of the Kane dispersion law, the Coulomb levels shift into the depth of the forbidden band gap, moving away from the quantum confined level, whereas in the case of the parabolic dispersion law, the opposite picture is observed. The corresponding selection rules of quantum transitions for the interband absorption of light are obtained. New selection rules of quantum transitions between levels conditioned by 2D exciton center of mass vertical motion quantization in a QD are revealed. The absorption threshold behavior characteristics depending on the QDs geometrical sizes are also revealed.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

WE-FG-206-06: Dual-Input Tracer Kinetic Modeling and Its Analog Implementation for Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced (DCE-) MRI of Malignant Mesothelioma (MPM)

Purpose: To use dual-input tracer kinetic modeling of the lung for mapping spatial heterogeneity of various kinetic parameters in malignant MPM Methods: Six MPM patients received DCE-MRI as part of their radiation therapy simulation scan. 5 patients had the epitheloid subtype of MPM, while one was biphasic. A 3D fast-field echo sequence with TR/TE/Flip angle of 3.62ms/1.69ms/15° was used for DCE-MRI acquisition. The scan was collected for 5 minutes with a temporal resolution of 5-9 seconds depending on the spatial extent of the tumor. A principal component analysis-based groupwise deformable registration was used to co-register all the DCE-MRI series for motion compensation. All the images were analyzed using five different dual-input tracer kinetic models implemented in analog continuous-time formalism: the Tofts-Kety (TK), extended TK (ETK), two compartment exchange (2CX), adiabatic approximation to the tissue homogeneity (AATH), and distributed parameter (DP) models. The following parameters were computed for each model: total blood flow (BF), pulmonary flow fraction (γ), pulmonary blood flow (BF-pa), systemic blood flow (BF-a), blood volume (BV), mean transit time (MTT), permeability-surface area product (PS), fractional interstitial volume (vi), extraction fraction (E), volume transfer constant (Ktrans) and efflux rate constant (kep). Results: Although the majority of patients had epitheloid histologies, kinetic parameter values varied across different models. One patient showed a higher total BF value in all models among the epitheloid histologies, although the γ value was varying among these different models. In one tumor with a large area of necrosis, the TK and ETK models showed higher E, Ktrans, and kep values and lower interstitial volume as compared to AATH and DP and 2CX models. Kinetic parameters such as BF-pa, BF-a, PS, Ktrans values were higher in surviving group compared to non-surviving group across most models. Conclusion: Dual-input tracer kinetic modeling is feasible in determining micro-vascular characteristics of MPM. This project was supported from Cycle for Survival and MSK Imaging and radiation science (IMRAS) grants.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Simple expressions of the nuclear relaxation rate enhancement due to quadrupole nuclei in slowly tumbling molecules

For slowly tumbling entities or quasi-rigid lattices, we derive very simple analytical expressions of the quadrupole relaxation enhancement (QRE) of the longitudinal relaxation rate R{sub 1} of nuclear spins I due to their intramolecular magnetic dipolar coupling with quadrupole nuclei of arbitrary spins S ≥ 1. These expressions are obtained by using the adiabatic approximation for evaluating the time evolution operator of the quantum states of the quadrupole nuclei S. They are valid when the gyromagnetic ratio of the spin S is much smaller than that of the spin I. The theory predicts quadrupole resonant peaks in the dispersion curve of R{sub 1} vs magnetic field. The number, positions, relative intensities, Lorentzian shapes, and widths of these peaks are explained in terms of the following properties: the magnitude of the quadrupole Hamiltonian and the asymmetry parameter of the electric field gradient (EFG) acting on the spin S, the S-I inter-spin orientation with respect to the EFG principal axes, the rotational correlation time of the entity carrying the S–I pair, and/or the proper relaxation time of the spin S. The theory is first applied to protein amide protons undergoing dipolar coupling with fast-relaxing quadrupole {sup 14}N nuclei and mediating the QRE to the observed bulk water protons. The theoretical QRE agrees well with its experimental counterpart for various systems such as bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor and cartilages. The anomalous behaviour of the relaxation rate of protons in synthetic aluminium silicate imogolite nano-tubes due to the QRE of {sup 27}Al (S = 5/2) nuclei is also explained.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Communication: Vibrational and vibronic coherences in the two dimensional spectroscopy of coupled electron-nuclear motion

We theoretically investigate the photon-echo spectroscopy of coupled electron-nuclear quantum dynamics. Two situations are treated. In the first case, the Born-Oppenheimer (adiabatic) approximation holds. It is then possible to interpret the two-dimensional (2D) spectra in terms of vibrational motion taking place in different electronic states. In particular, pure vibrational coherences which are related to oscillations in the time-dependent third-order polarization can be identified. This concept fails in the second case, where strong non-adiabatic coupling leads to the breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer-approximation. Then, the 2D-spectra reveal a complicated vibronic structure and vibrational coherences cannot be disentangled from the electronic motion.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Electron-Affinity Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory: Formalism and Applications to Core-Excited States

The lack of particle-hole attraction and orbital relaxation within time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) lead to extreme errors in the prediction of K-edge X-ray absorption spectra (XAS). We derive a linear-response formalism that uses optimized orbitals of the n - 1-electron system as the reference, building orbital relaxation and a proper hole into the initial density. Here, our approach is an exact generalization of the static-exchange approximation that ameliorates the particle-hole interaction error associated with the adiabatic approximation and reduces errors in TDDFT XAS by orders of magnitude. With a statistical performance of just 0.5 eV root-mean-square error and the same computational scaling as TDDFT under the core-valence separation approximation, we anticipate that this approach will be of great utility in XAS calculations of large systems.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Multiphonon Intracenter Relaxation of Boron Acceptor States in Diamond

The relaxation rates are calculated in the adiabatic approximation, in which the steady-state impurity states are taken to be electronic-vibrational (vibronic) states. The probabilities of transitions between these states with the emission (or absorption) of one or several phonons are calculated in first-order perturbation theory on the assumption that the transitions are a result of the violation of adiabaticity. The electron part of the wave function of the vibronic state is described by a simple Hamiltonian with an isotropic effective mass. The wave function of the ground state is determined by the quantum defect method. According to the calculations, a hole relaxes from the excited boron acceptor state, whose energy is 304 meV higher than the energy of the ground state, to the ground state with the emission of two optical phonons with a rate of ~10{sup 11} s{sup –1}. This value is an estimate from above, since the model of nondispersive optical phonons used in the study overestimates the number of phonon modes, whose participation in relaxation is allowed by the energy conservation law. However, despite the rough approximation, it can be concluded that the multiphonon relaxation of boron acceptor states in diamond is a fast process.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Thresholded quantum sensing with a frustrated Kitaev trimer

We investigate the response of a Ramsey interferometric quantum sensor based on a frustrated, three-spin system (a Kitaev trimer) to a classical time-dependent field (signal). The system eigenspectrum is symmetric about a critical point, |𝒃| = 0, with four of the spectral components varying approximately linearly with the magnetic field and four exhibiting a nonlinear dependence. Under the adiabatic approximation and for appropriate initial states, we show that the sensor's response to a zero-mean signal is such that below a threshold, |𝒃| <⁢ 𝑏 th , the sensor does not respond to the signal, whereas above the threshold, the sensor acts as a detector that the signal has occurred. This thresholded response is approximately omnidirectional. Moreover, when deployed in an entangled multisensor configuration, the sensor achieves sensitivity at the Heisenberg limit. Such detectors could be useful both as stand-alone units for signal detection above a noise threshold and in two- or three-dimensional arrays, analogous to a quantum bubble chamber, for applications such as particle track detection and long-baseline telescopy.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Water dissociation on Ni(100), Ni(110), and Ni(111) surfaces: Reaction path approach to mode selectivity

We performed a comparative study of mode-selectivity of water dissociation on Ni(100), Ni(110), and Ni(111) surfaces at the same level of theory using a fully quantum approach based on the reaction path Hamiltonian. Calculations show that the barrier to water dissociation on the Ni(110) surface is significantly lower compared to its close-packed counterparts. Transition states for this reaction on all three surfaces involve the elongation of one of the O–H bonds. Furthermore, a significant decrease in the symmetric stretching and bending mode frequencies near the transition state is observed in all three cases and in the vibrational adiabatic approximation, excitation of these softened modes results in a significant enhancement in reactivity. Inclusion of non-adiabatic couplings between modes results in the asymmetric stretching mode showing a similar enhancement of reactivity as the symmetric stretching mode. Dissociation probabilities calculated at a surface temperature of 300 K showed higher reactivity at lower collision energies compared to that of the static surface case, underlining the importance of lattice motion in enhancing reactivity. Mode selective behavior is similar on all the surfaces. Molecules with one-quantum of vibrational excitation in the symmetric stretch, at lower energies (up to 0.45 eV), are more reactive on Ni(110) than the Ni(100) and Ni(111) surfaces. But, the dissociation probabilities approach saturation on all the surfaces at higher incident energy values. Ultimately, Ni(110) is found to be highly reactive toward water dissociation among the low-index nickel surfaces owing to a low reaction barrier resulting from the openness and corrugation of the surface. These results show that the mode-selective behavior does not vary with different crystal facets of Ni qualitatively, but there is a significant quantitative effect.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗