A Comparison of the Optical Emission Spectra of Insulating Gases During Pulsed Discharge
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Here, we present an experimental and theoretical study of the absorption and emission spectra of Yb atoms in a solid Ne matrix at a resolution of 0.025 nm. Five absorption bands were identified as due to transitions from the 4 f 14 5 d 0 6 s 2 1 S 0 ground-state configuration to 4 f 14 5 d 0 6 s 6 p and 4 f 13 5 d 1 6 s 2 configurations. The two lowest-energy bands were assigned to outer-shell transitions to 6 s 6 p 3 P 1 and 1 P 1 atomic states and displayed the structure of a broad doublet and an asymmetric triplet, respectively. The remaining three higher-frequency bands were assigned to inner-shell transitions to distinct J = 1 states arising from the 4 f 13 5 d 1 6 s 2 configuration and were highly structured with narrow linewidths. A classical simulation was performed to identify the stability and symmetry of possible trapping sites in the Ne crystal. It showed that the overarching 1 + 2 structure of the high-frequency bands could be predominantly ascribed to crystal-field splitting in the axial field of a 10-atom vacancy of C 4 v symmetry. Their prominent substructures were shown to be manifestations of phonon sidebands associated with the zero-phonon lines on each crystal-field state. Unprecedented for a metal–rare-gas system, resolution of individual phonon states on an allowed electronic transition was possible under excitation spectroscopy which reflects the semiquantum nature of solid Ne. In contrast to the absorption spectra, emission spectra produced by steady-state excitation into the 1 P 1 absorption band consisted of simple, unstructured fluorescence bands.
In monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides bubbles-nanoscale deformations typically exhibiting a dome-like shape-Excitons are confined by the strain effect, which exhibits extraordinary emission properties, such as single photon generation, enhanced light emission, and spectrally tunable excitonic states. While the strain profiles of these bubbles are extensively studied, this work provides an approach 1) to directly visualize the associated exciton properties in bubbles formed in WSe2 monolayer, revealing an intrinsic emission wavelength shift of ≈40 nm, and 2) actively modify local strain, enabling further exciton emission tuning over a range of 50 nm. These are achieved by emission mapping and nanoindentation using a dielectric near-field probe, which enables the detection of local emission spectra and emission lifetimes within individual bubbles. Statistical analysis of 67 bubbles uncovers an emission wavelength distribution centered around 780 nm. Furthermore, saturation behavior in the power-dependent studies and the associated lifetime change reveal the localized nature of the strain-induced states. These findings provide direct insights into the strain-localized emission dynamics in bubbles and establish a robust framework for non-destructive, reversible, and predictable nanoscale emission control, presenting a potential avenue for developing next-generation tunable quantum optical sources.
We report that the optical anticounterfeiting tags utilize the photoluminescent properties of materials to encode unique patterns, enabling identification and validation of important items and assets. These tags must combine optical complexity with ease of production and authentication to both prevent counterfeiting and to remain practical for widespread use. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) based on polynuclear, rare earth clusters are ideal materials platforms for this purpose, combining fine control over structure and composition, with tunable, complex energy transfer mechanisms via both linker and metal components. Here we report the design and synthesis of a set of heterometallic MOFs based on combinations of Eu, Nd, and Yb with the tetratopic linker 1,3,6,8-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)pyrene. The energetics of this linker facilitate the intentional concealment of the visible emissions from Eu while retaining the infrared emissions of Nd and Yb, creating an optical tag with multiple covert elements. Unique to the materials system reported herein, we document the occurrence of a previously not observed 11-metal cluster correlated with the presence of Yb in the MOFs, coexisting with a commonly encountered 9-metal cluster. We demonstrate the utility of these materials as intricate optical tags with both rapid and in-depth screening techniques, utilizing orthogonal identifiers across composition, emission spectra, and emission decay dynamics. This work highlights the important effect of linker selection in controlling the resulting photoluminescent properties in MOFs and opens an avenue for the targeted design of highly complex, multifunctional optical tags.
In this work, we study the emission power spectrum of a molecular emitter with multiple vibrational modes in the framework of macroscopic quantum electrodynamics. The theory we present is general for a molecular spontaneous emission spectrum in the presence of arbitrary inhomogeneous, dispersive, and absorbing media. Moreover, the theory shows that the molecular emission power spectra can be decomposed into the electromagnetic environment factor and lineshape function. In order to demonstrate the validity of the theory, we investigate the lineshape function in two limits. In the incoherent limit (single molecules in a vacuum), the lineshape function exactly corresponds to the Franck–Condon principle. In the coherent limit (single molecules strongly coupled with single polaritons or photons) together with the condition of high vibrational frequency, the lineshape function exhibits a Rabi splitting, the spacing of which is exactly the same as the magnitude of exciton–photon coupling estimated by our previous theory [S. Wang et al., J. Chem. Phys. 151, 014105 (2019)]. Finally, we explore the influence of exciton–photon and electron–phonon interactions on the lineshape function of a single molecule in a cavity. The theory shows that the vibronic structure of the lineshape function does not always disappear as the exciton–photon coupling increases, and it is related to the loss of a dielectric environment.
A family of Li-containing garnet compounds, extensively investigated for Li-ion solid electrolyte applications, show great potential to be developed into transparent ceramic dual-mode scintillators. In particular, Li 5 La 3 Ta 2 O 12 (LLTaO) shows promise as an efficient dual-mode scintillator due to its high Li content, high density, non-hygroscopicity, and high effective-Z. Often the synthesis of LLTaO ceramics involves solid state processing techniques starting with oxide and carbonate powders, calcining, sintering for the removal of residual porosity, and post-processing. This study focuses on two objectives: (1) establishing thermal processing boundary conditions for a flexible alkoxide-based sol-gel method for synthesizing fine-grained powders; and (2), consolidating powders via hot-pressing to form high-density ceramics. In this study, near single-phase ceramics were achieved by hot-pressing sol-gel powders with varying amounts of excess Li. Rietveld refinements were used to analyze X-ray diffraction data and provide a quantitative evaluation of the phases present in the hot pressed ceramics. Some of the diffraction data showed large low angle peak asymmetry, suggesting the presence of two cubic Li 5 La 3 Ta 2 O 12 garnet phases with different lattice parameters. Depending on the synthesis and processing conditions, the refinement revealed ~ 90 wt% concentration of a phase with a ≈ 12.8 Å and ~ 10 wt% concentration of a phase with a ≈ 12.9 Å, indicating a remaining excess of Li in the hot pressed ceramics in the large lattice parameter phase. These synthesis experiments allowed for the determination of a baseline for Li loss during hot-pressing. X-ray excited radioluminescence and photoluminescence excitation and emission spectra were obtained from the hot pressed ceramics. In conclusion, the measured emission spectra featured broad tantalate emission and line emissions likely from a rare-earth impurity.
We analyze the transmission and emission spectra of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-76 b, observed with the G141 grism of the Hubble Space Telescope’s (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). We reduce and fit the raw data for each observation using the open-source software Iraclis before performing a fully Bayesian retrieval using the publicly available analysis suite TauREx 3. Previous studies of the WFC3 transmission spectra of WASP-76 b found hints of titanium oxide (TiO) and vanadium oxide (VO) or non-gray clouds. Accounting for a fainter stellar companion to WASP-76, we reanalyze this data and show that removing the effects of this background star changes the slope of the spectrum, resulting in these visible absorbers no longer being detected, eliminating the need for a non-gray cloud model to adequately fit the data but maintaining the strong water feature previously seen. However, our analysis of the emission spectrum suggests the presence of TiO and an atmospheric thermal inversion, along with a significant amount of water. Given the brightness of the host star and the size of the atmospheric features, WASP-76 b is an excellent target for further characterization with HST, or with future facilities, to better understand the nature of its atmosphere, to confirm the presence of TiO and to search for other optical absorbers.
ABSTRACT This study introduces a computational protocol for modeling the emission spectra of exciplexes using excited‐state ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations. The protocol is applied to a model exciplex formed by oligo‐p‐phenylenes (OPPs) and triethylamine (TEA), which is of interest in the context of photocatalytic reduction of . AIMD facilitates efficient sampling of the conformational space of OPP3 and OPP4 exciplexes with TEA, offering a dynamic alternative to previously employed static methods. The AIMD‐based protocol successfully reproduces experimental emission spectra for OPP‐TEA exciplexes, agreeing with previous computational and experimental findings. The results show that AIMD simulations provide an efficient means of sampling the conformational space of these exciplexes, requiring less user input and, in some instances, fewer computational resources than multiple excited‐state optimizations initiated from user‐specified initial structures. The study also evaluates the yield of intersystem crossing (ISC) using AIMD and Landau‐Zener probability. The results suggest that ISC is a minor decay channel for OPP3 and OPP4. This work provides new insights into the structural flexibility and emission characteristics of OPP‐TEA photoredox catalyst systems, potentially contributing to improved design strategies for organic chromophores in reduction applications.
With a temperature akin to an M dwarf, WASP-33b is among the hottest Jupiters known, making it an ideal target for high-resolution optical spectroscopy. By analyzing both transmission and emission spectra, we aim to substantiate previous reports of atmospheric TiO and a thermal inversion within the planet’s atmosphere. We observed two transits and six arcs of the phase curve with the Echelle SpectroPolarimetric Device for the Observation of Stars (ESPaDOnS) on the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope and High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) on the Keck telescope, which provide high spectral resolution and ample wavelength coverage. We employ the Doppler cross-correlation technique to search for the molecular signatures of TiO and H{sub 2}O in these spectra, using models based on the TiO line list of Plez. Though we cannot exclude line-list-dependent effects, our data do not corroborate previous indications of a thermal inversion. Instead we place a 3σ upper limit of 10{sup −9} on the volume mixing ratio of TiO for the T–P profile we consider. While we are unable to constrain the volume mixing ratio of water, our strongest constraint on TiO comes from dayside emission spectra. This apparent absence of a stratosphere sits in stark contrast to previous observations of WASP-33b as well as theoretical predictions for the atmospheres of highly irradiated planets. The discrepancy could be due to variances between line lists, and we stress that detection limits are only as good as the line list employed, and are only valid for the specific T–P profile considered due to the strong degeneracy between lapse rate (dT/dlogP) and molecular abundance.
Accurate simulation of electronic excitations and deexcitations are critical for complementing complex spectroscopic experiments and can provide validation to theoretical approaches. Here, using a generalized framework, we contrast the accuracy and validity of orbital-constrained and linear-response approaches that build upon Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT) to simulate emission spectra of electronic origin and propose an efficient approximation, named many-body x-ray emission spectroscopy or MBXES, for simulating such processes. We show analytically as well as with computed examples that for electronic (de)excitation leading to an appreciable change in polarization (i.e., density rearrangement), the adiabatic approximation in a response-based formalism will be inadequate for the calculation of oscillator strength. Thus, such a change (e.g., in the net electrostatic dipole moment of a finite system) can be used as a metric for evaluating the applicability of the adiabatic response-based approach and can be particularly valuable in x-ray emission spectroscopy. On the other hand, MBXES, the flexible method introduced in this paper, can compute oscillator strengths accurately at a much lower computational expense on the basis of two DFT-based self-consistent field calculations. Using illustrative examples of emission spectra, the efficacy of the MBXES method is demonstrated by comparison with its parent theory, orbital-optimized DFT, and with experiments.
The intrinsic fluorescence of bacterial samples has a proven potential for label-free bacterial characterization, monitoring bacterial metabolic functions, and as a mechanism for tracking the transport of relevant components through vesicles. The reduced scattering and axial confinement of the excitation offered by multiphoton imaging can be used to overcome some of the limitations of single-photon excitation (e.g., scattering and out-of-plane photobleaching) to the imaging of bacterial communities. In this work, we demonstrate in vivo multi-photon microscopy imaging of Streptomyces bacterial communities, based on the excitation of blue endogenous fluorophores, using an ultrafast Yb-fiber laser amplifier. Its parameters, such as the pulse energy, duration, wavelength, and repetition rate, enable in vivo multicolor imaging with a single source through the simultaneous two- and three-photon excitation of different fluorophores. Three-photon excitation at 1040 nm allows fluorophores with blue and green emission spectra to be addressed (and their corresponding ultraviolet and blue single-photon excitation wavelengths, respectively), and two-photon excitation at the same wavelength allows fluorophores with yellow, orange, or red emission spectra to be addressed (and their corresponding green, yellow, and orange single-photon excitation wavelengths). We demonstrate that three-photon excitation allows imaging over a depth range of more than 6 effective attenuation lengths to take place, corresponding to an 800 micrometer depth of imaging, in samples with a high density of fluorescent structures.
Composite phosphor ceramics for warm white LED lighting were fabricated with K 2 SiF 6 :Mn 4+ (KSF) as both a narrowband red phosphor and a translucent matrix in which yellow-emitting Y 3 Al 5 O 12 :Ce 3+ (YAG) particles were dispersed. The emission spectra of these composites under blue LED excitation were studied as a function of YAG loading and thickness. Warm white light with a color temperature of 2716 K, a high CRI of 92.6, and an R9 of 77.6 was achieved. A modest improvement in the thermal conductivity of the KSF ceramic of up to 9% was observed with the addition of YAG particles. In addition, a simple model was developed for predicting the emission spectra based on several parameters of the composite ceramics and validated with the experimental results. The emission spectrum can be tuned by varying the dopant concentrations, thickness, YAG loading, and YAG particle size. This work demonstrates the utility of KSF/YAG composite phosphor ceramics as a means of producing warm white light, which are potentially suitable for higher-drive applications due to their increased thermal conductivity and reduced droop compared with silicone-dispersed phosphor powders.
We report bent uranyl complexes can be formed with chloride ligands and 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) ligands bound to the equatorial and axial planes of the uranyl(VI) moiety, as revealed by the crystal structures, IR and Raman spectroscopy, and quantum-chemical calculations. With the goal of probing the influence of chloride and phenanthroline coordination enforcing the bending on the absorption and emission spectra of this complex, spin–orbit time-dependent density functional theory calculations for the bare uranyl complexes as well as for the free UO 2 Cl 2 subunit and the UO 2 Cl 2 (phen) 2 complex were performed. The emission spectra have been fully simulated by ab initio methods and compared to experimental photoluminescence spectra, recorded for the first time for UO 2 Cl 2 (phen) 2 . Notably, the bending of uranyl in UO2Cl2 and UO 2 Cl 2 (phen) 2 triggers excitations of the uranyl bending mode, yielding a denser luminescence spectrum.
Recently, III-V quantum dots (QDs) emerged as an environmentally friendly alternative to CdSe; however, they exhibit broader emission spectra and inferior photoluminescence quantum yield. Here, we report a computational study of the optoelectronic properties of InxPz and InxGayPz QDs interfaced with zinc chalcogenide shells. Using density functional theory, we show that fine-tuning the composition of the core is critical to achieving narrow emission lines. We show that core-shell nanoparticles, where the core has the same diameter but different stoichiometries, may absorb and emit at different wavelengths, leading to broad absorption and emission spectra. The value of the fundamental gap of the core-shell particles depends on the ratio between the number of group III and P atoms in the core and is maximized for the 1:1 composition. We also show that the interplay between quantum confinement and strain determines the difference in the electronic properties of III-V QDs interfaced with ZnS or ZnSe shells.
Two-dimensional lead halide perovskites offer numerous attractive features for optoelectronics owing to their soft, deformable lattices and high degree of chemical tunability. While alteration of the metal and halide ions gives rise to significant modification of the bandgap energy, the organic spacer cations offer in-roads to tuning phase behavior and more subtle functionalities in ways that remain to be understood. Here, we study six variations of 2D perovskites changing only the organic spacer cations and demonstrate that these components intrinsically impact material response in important ways such as altering crystallographic structure, temperature-induced phase transitions, and photoluminescence emission. Two-dimensional perovskites containing commonly utilized aliphatic linear spacers, such as butylammonium, undergo phase transitions near room temperature. These transitions and temperature changes induce spacer-dependent variations in the emission spectra. Conversely, 2D perovskites comprising cyclic aliphatic spacers, such as cyclobutylammonium, are found to lack first-order phase transitions. These cyclic molecules are more sterically hindered within the crystal lattice, leading to temperature-induced contraction or expansion along certain crystallographic planes but no other significant thermal effects; additionally, they undergo changes in their emission spectra that cannot be explained by simple thermal expansion. Finally, given the similarities in the dielectric and chemical makeup of this set of six alkylammonium molecules, these results are unexpected and suggest a large structural and thermal phase space via spacer manipulation that could lead to improved 2D perovskite functionalization.
The utilization of machine learning techniques has become commonplace in the analysis of optical emission spectra. These methods are often limited to variants of principal components analysis (PCA), partial-least squares (PLS), and artificial neural networks (ANNs). A plethora of other techniques exist and are well established in the world of data science, yet are seldom investigated for their use in spectroscopic problems. In this study, machine learning techniques were used to analyze optical emission spectra of laser-induced plasma from ceria pellets doped with silicon in order to predict silicon content. Additionally, a boosted regression ensemble model was created, and its predictive accuracy was compared to that of traditional PCA, PLS, and ANN regression models. Boosted regression tree ensembles yielded fits with R-squared (R2) values as high as 0.964 and mean-squared errors of prediction (MSEPs) as low as 0.074, providing the most accurate predictive model. Neural networks performed with slightly lower R2 values and higher MSEPs compared to the ensemble methods, thus indicating susceptibility to overfitting.
This presentation discusses the experimental, simulation, and nuclear data methods that were validated for the RPI γ-Multiplicity Detector. When the neutron capture γ-cascade data is well-known, the γ-emission spectra can be accurately calculated using the modified simulation tools. The RPI γ-Multiplicity Detector system is now ready for analysis and recommendations for isotopes with deficiencies in γ-ray data. The presentation also discusses future work which includes developing a method for analyzing and adjusting nuclear data for 59 Co, 55 Mn and other measured isotopes including 181 Ta. Additionally, future work includes comparing experimental γ-emission spectra with MCNP-6.2/DICEBOX simulations for 238 U and 235 U. In summation, new capture and transmission measurements for 54 Fe will help improve resonance parameter evaluation. Neutron capture gamma cascade spectra and yields were measured in the resolved resonance region and compared to evaluations. In addition, the pulsed neutron die-away method was developed as a tool to provide data for validation of TSLs.
From the late 1960s to about 1985, LLNL undertook a series of ‘pulsed sphere’ experiments for 31 materials involving 148 different experiments using 75 different spheres. The purpose was to measure the neutron leakage spectra for different materials from 14-MeV neutrons generated by 3 H(d,n) 4 He reactions induced by an incident D+ beam from the Insulated Core Transfer (ICT) accelerator at LLNL. This deuteron beam was focused to impinge upon tritium loaded onto a titanium substrate within a low mass target assembly placed within the center of a spherical shell constructed from the material of interest. COG is a three-dimensional, continuous energy, Monte Carlo code, developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Recent additions to COG include alpha and deuteron particle transport in order to directly calculate (α,n) and 3 H(d,n) 4 He reactions, and resulting neutron emission spectra. Results of the direct deuteron transport calculation for the 0.8 MFP (mean free path) polyethylene sphere with PILOT B detector was previously published. The purpose of this paper is to present expanded COG results showing the neutron peak from deuterium buildup ( 2 H(d,n) 3 He) due to tritium decay in the target. Cross section data libraries used are ENDF/B-VIII.0 for neutrons and ENDF/B-VII.1 for deuterons, respectively.