Biomedical subjects

Petr Král

Publications and source records attributed to Petr Král.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Current-induced rotation of helical molecular wires.

We show that electric current running through a nanojunction with a biased helical molecule can induce unidirectional rotation of the molecular component. In an electric field, conduction electrons injected into the molecule are accelerated along the helical path going through its body, thereby gaining directed angular momentum. Conservation laws require that an angular momentum of the same size but opposite sense is imparted to the rigid-body rotation of the helix. We describe the angular momentum exchange processes that underlie the operation of the nanorotor, discuss factors limiting its efficiency, and propose potential applications.

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PubMed2005

Reentrant onset of chaos in tubular image states.

We investigate the reentrant onset of chaos in "tubular image states," which are loosely bound states of electrons formed in the vicinity (20-40 nm) of conducting nanotubes. Chaos is shown to arise when an electron is placed in the vicinity of two metallic nanotubess with a magnetic field applied along the tubes. At stronger magnetic fields B approximately 10 T, we observe the formation of Landau-like states encircling the two-tube system, which wipe out the chaos. We can reinstall the chaos by charging oppositely the nanotubes, thus breaking the symmetry of the system and correspondingly the shape of the Landau-like states. Detailed analysis of the onset of chaos is done by studying the statistical properties of the eigenvalues spectrum and by investigating the spatial autocorrelation functions of individual eigenstates.

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PubMed2005

Tunable bands of electronic image states in nanowire lattices.

We demonstrate that suspended arrays of parallel nanowires support bound electron image states with rich band structures. Surprisingly, these Bloch states can be highly detached from the surfaces of the nanowires, similar to the single-tube wave functions. This is because an electron hovering in such a periodic lattice of nanowires is influenced by a Coulombic-like attraction and a centrifugal repulsion, which are both central symmetric around each wire. These novel states could be used in building of waveguides, mirrors, and storage places for Rydberg-like electrons.

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PubMed2004

Complete control of population transfer between clusters of degenerate states.

We present an analytic solution to the "degenerate quantum control problem," which enables the transfer of any desired fraction of population between arbitrary initial and final pure wave packets, made up of nearly degenerate energy eigenstates. It consists of two two-photon adiabatic passage steps, in which the population of the initial wave packet is first transferred, via a number of nondegenerate intermediate states, to a single eigenstate and then returned to a different target superposition state. We demonstrate the approach by executing a stepwise isomerization of three Jahn-Teller states of the Al3O molecule, where a proper optical coupling can easily be established.

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PubMed2003

Two-step enantio-selective optical switch.

We present an optical "enantio-selective switch" that, in two steps, turns a ("racemic") mixture of left-handed and right-handed chiral molecules into the enantiomerically pure state of interest. The optical switch is composed of an "enantio-discriminator" and an "enantio-converter" acting in tandem. The method is robust, insensitive to decay processes, and does not require molecular preorientation. We demonstrate the method on the purification of a racemate of (transiently chiral) D2S2 molecules, performed on the nanosecond time scale.

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PubMed2002

Highly extended image states around nanotubes.

We predict that freely suspended, linear molecular conductors or dielectrics, such as carbon nanotubes, can support electronic states that are localized far from the surface. These "tubular image states" are formed in extended potential wells resulting from the tug of war between the external electron's attraction to its image charge in the nanotube, and its repulsion from the tube due to its transverse angular momentum. The displacement of these states (>10 nm) away from the surface prevents their wave functions from collapsing, resulting in long lifetimes at low temperatures. We predict that tubular image states with binding energies of 1-10 meV can be formed via radiative recombination.

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PubMed2002

Analytic solution for the nondegenerate quantum control problem.

We present an analytic solution for the nondegenerate quantum control problem, i.e., the transfer of a deliberate amount of population, 0%-100%, between arbitrary initial Psi(t)> and final Psi'(t)> states, which can be expanded in terms of nondegenerate energy eigenstates k>. The solution constitutes a robust two-photon multicomponent adiabatic passage, via an intermediate eigenstate 0>, which relies on three types of "null states."

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PubMed2002

Electric polarization of heteropolar nanotubes as a geometric phase.

The threefold symmetry of planar boron nitride (BN), the III-V analog to graphene, prohibits an electric polarization in its ground state, but this symmetry is broken when the sheet is wrapped to form a BN nanotube. We show that this leads to an electric polarization along the nanotube axis which is controlled by the quantum mechanical boundary conditions on its electronic states around the tube circumference. Thus the macroscopic dipole moment has an intrinsically nonlocal quantum mechanical origin from the wrapped dimension. We formulate this novel phenomenon using the Berry's phase approach and discuss its experimental consequences.

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