Optical transitions, temperature dependence

At elevated temperatures the RNase molecule undergoes a transition from a folded to an unfolded state (5). This can be shown by optical and viscosity measurements. The transition temperature depends on pH and ionic strength. Above this temperature the tertiary structure is destroyed but the covalent disulfide bonds remain intact. The unfolding is reversible since on lowering the temperature the native conformation is regained. 

The introduction of a polymer network into an FLC dramatically changes phase and electro-optic behavior. Upon addition of monomer to the FLC, the phase transitions decrease and after polymerization return to values close to that observed in the neat FLC. The phase behavior is similar for the amorphous monomers, HDD A and PPDA. The electro-optic properties, on the other hand, are highly dependent on the monomer used to form the polymer/FLC composite. The ferroelectric polarization decreases for both HDDA and PPDA/FLC systems, but the values for each show extremely different temperature dependence. Further evidence illustrating the different effects of each of the two polymers is found upon examining the polarization as both the temperature and LC phase of polymerization are changed. In PPDA systems the polarization remains fairly independent of the polymerization temperature. On the other hand, the polarization increases steadily as the polymerization temperature of HDDA systems is increased in the ordered LC phases. 

Measurements of the optical properties in this range of wavelengths can probe the fundamental electronic transitions in these nanostructures. Some of the aforementioned effects have in fact been experimentally revealed in this series of experiments (90). As mentioned above, the IF nanoparticles in this study were prepared by a careful sulfidization of oxide nanoparticles. Briefly, the reaction starts on the surface of the oxide nanoparticle and proceeds inward, and hence the number of closed (fullerene-like) sulfide layers can be controlled quite accurately during the reaction. Also, the deeper the sulfide layer in the nanoparticle, the smaller is its radius and the larger is the strain in the nanostructure. Once available in sufficient quantities, the absorption spectra of thin films of the fullerene-like particles and nanotubes were measured at various temperatures (4-300 K). The excitonic nature of the absorption of the nanoparticles was established, which is a manifestation of the semiconducting nature of the material. Furthermore, a clear red shift in the ex-citon energy, which increased with the number of sulfide layers of the nanoparticles, was also observed (see Fig. 21). The temperature dependence of the exciton... 

Recoilless Optical Absorption in Alkali Halides. Recently Fitchen et al (JO) have observed zero phonon transitions of color centers in the alkali halides using optical absorption techniques. They have measured the temperature dependence of the intensity of the zero phonon line, and from this have determined the characteristic temperatures for the process. In contrast to the Mossbauer results, they have found characteristic temperatures not too different from the alkali halide Debye temperatures. 

The mechanisms of luminescence decay from an optical center are of critical importance. In particular we have to know if there are any processes internal to the center or external to it, which reduce the luminescence efficiency. It is possible to define two decay times, ir, the true radiative decay time which a transition would have in absence of all non-radiative processes, and r, the actual observed decay time, which maybe temperature dependent, as will usually occur when there are internal non-radiative channels, and which may also be specimen dependent, as when there is energy transfer to other impurities in the mineral. The quantum yield may be close to unity if the radiationless decay rate is much smaller than the radiative decay. 

Poly(19-< (9-15) and poly(19 -co-2 )) undergo helix-helix transition upon temperature change. All the co-polymers exhibit no optical activity at certain temperatures, which depends on the co-polymer composition. The helical structure of poly(19-/ o-15) carrying long alkyl chains is much affected compared to poly(19-/ o-20). The thermodynamic parameters of helix transition also depend on solvent. 

The fact that the order parameter vanishes above does not mean that Nature does not have an inkling of things to come well below (or above) T. Such indicators are indeed found in many instances in terms of the behaviour of certain vibrational modes. As early as 1940, Raman and Nedungadi discovered that the a-) transition of quartz was accompanied by a decrease in the frequency of a totally symmetric optic mode as the temperature approached the phase transition temperature from below. Historically, this is the first observation of a soft mode. Operationally, a soft mode is a collective excitation whose frequency decreases anomalously as the transition point is reached. In Fig. 4.4, we show the temperature dependence of the soft-mode frequency. While in a second-order transition the soft-mode frequency goes to zero at T, in a first-order transition the change of phase occurs before the mode frequency is able to go to zero. 

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