TY - JOUR A1 - Schaal, Frederik A1 - Rutloh, Michael A1 - Weidenfeld, Susanne A1 - Stumpe, Joachim A1 - Michler, Peter A1 - Pruss, Christof A1 - Osten, Wolfgang T1 - Optically addressed modulator for tunable spatial polarization control JF - Optics express : the international electronic journal of optics N2 - We present an optically addressed non-pixelated spatial light modulator. The system is based on reversible photoalignment of a LC cell using a red light sensitive novel azobenzene photoalignment layer. It is an electrode-free device that manipulates the liquid crystal orientation and consequently the polarization via light without artifacts caused by electrodes. The capability to miniaturize the spatial light modulator allows the integration into a microscope objective. This includes a miniaturized 200 channel optical addressing system based on a VCSEL array and hybrid refractive-diffractive beam shapers. As an application example, the utilization as a microscope objective integrated analog phase contrast modulator is shown. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.26.028119 SN - 1094-4087 VL - 26 IS - 21 SP - 28119 EP - 28130 PB - Optical Society of America CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmälzlin, Elmar Gerd A1 - Moralejo, Benito A1 - Gersonde, Ingo A1 - Schleusener, Johannes A1 - Darvin, Maxim E. A1 - Thiede, Gisela A1 - Roth, Martin M. T1 - Nonscanning large-area Raman imaging for ex vivo/in vivo skin cancer discrimination JF - Journal of biomedical optics N2 - Imaging Raman spectroscopy can be used to identify cancerous tissue. Traditionally, a step-by-step scanning of the sample is applied to generate a Raman image, which, however, is too slow for routine examination of patients. By transferring the technique of integral field spectroscopy (IFS) from astronomy to Raman imaging, it becomes possible to record entire Raman images quickly within a single exposure, without the need for a tedious scanning procedure. An IFS-based Raman imaging setup is presented, which is capable of measuring skin ex vivo or in vivo. It is demonstrated how Raman images of healthy and cancerous skin biopsies were recorded and analyzed. (C) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. KW - Raman spectroscopy KW - cancer diagnosis KW - Raman imaging KW - multichannel KW - astronomy KW - epidermis KW - dermis Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.23.10.105001 SN - 1083-3668 SN - 1560-2281 VL - 23 IS - 10 PB - SPIE CY - Bellingham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Richter, Philipp A1 - Fox, Andrew J. A1 - Wakker, Bart P. A1 - Howk, J. Christopher A1 - Lehner, Nicolas A1 - Barger, Kathleen A. A1 - Lockman, Felix J. T1 - New constraints on the nature and origin of the leading arm of the magellanic stream JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics N2 - We present a new precision measurement of gas-phase abundances of S, O, N, Si, Fe, P, Al, Ca as well as molecular hydrogen (H-2) in the Leading Arm (region II, LA II) of the Magellanic Stream (MS) toward the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3783. The results are based on high-quality archival ultraviolet/optical/radio data from various different instruments (HST/STIS, FUSE, AAT, GBT, GB140 ft, ATCA). Our study updates previous results from lower-resolution data and provides for the first time a self-consistent component model of the complex multiphase absorber, delivering important constraints on the nature and origin of LA II. We derive a uniform, moderate a abundance in the two main absorber groups at +245 and +190 km s(-1) of alpha/H = 0.30 +/- 0.05 solar, a low nitrogen abundance of N/H = 0.05 +/- 0.01 solar, and a high dust content with substantial dust depletion values for Si, Fe, Al, and Ca. These a, N, and dust abundances in LA II are similar to those observed in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). From the analysis of the H2 absorption, we determine a high thermal pressure of P/k approximate to 1680 K cm(-3) in LA II, in line with the idea that LA II is located in the inner Milky Way halo at a z-height of < 20 kpc, where it hydrodynamically interacts with the ambient hot coronal gas. Our study supports a scenario in which LA II stems from the breakup of a metal- and dust-enriched progenitor cloud that was recently (200-500 Myr ago) stripped from the SMC. KW - Galaxy: evolution KW - Galaxy: halo KW - ISM: abundances KW - Magellanic Clouds KW - quasars: absorption lines Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aadd0f SN - 0004-637X SN - 1538-4357 VL - 865 IS - 2 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thapa, Samudrajit A1 - Wyłomańska, Agnieszka A1 - Sikora, Grzegorz A1 - Wagner, Caroline E. A1 - Krapf, Diego A1 - Kantz, Holger A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Leveraging large-deviation statistics to decipher the stochastic properties of measured trajectories JF - New Journal of Physics N2 - Extensive time-series encoding the position of particles such as viruses, vesicles, or individualproteins are routinely garnered insingle-particle tracking experiments or supercomputing studies.They contain vital clues on how viruses spread or drugs may be delivered in biological cells.Similar time-series are being recorded of stock values in financial markets and of climate data.Such time-series are most typically evaluated in terms of time-averaged mean-squareddisplacements (TAMSDs), which remain random variables for finite measurement times. Theirstatistical properties are different for differentphysical stochastic processes, thus allowing us toextract valuable information on the stochastic process itself. To exploit the full potential of thestatistical information encoded in measured time-series we here propose an easy-to-implementand computationally inexpensive new methodology, based on deviations of the TAMSD from itsensemble average counterpart. Specifically, we use the upper bound of these deviations forBrownian motion (BM) to check the applicability of this approach to simulated and real data sets.By comparing the probability of deviations fordifferent data sets, we demonstrate how thetheoretical bound for BM reveals additional information about observed stochastic processes. Weapply the large-deviation method to data sets of tracer beads tracked in aqueous solution, tracerbeads measured in mucin hydrogels, and of geographic surface temperature anomalies. Ouranalysis shows how the large-deviation properties can be efficiently used as a simple yet effectiveroutine test to reject the BM hypothesis and unveil relevant information on statistical propertiessuch as ergodicity breaking and short-time correlations. KW - diffusion KW - anomalous diffusion KW - large-deviation statistic KW - time-averaged mean squared displacement KW - Chebyshev inequality Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/abd50e SN - 1367-2630 VL - 23 PB - Dt. Physikalische Ges. ; IOP CY - Bad Honnef ; London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolf, Thomas A1 - Gühr, Markus T1 - Photochemical pathways in nucleobases measured with an X-ray FEL JF - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series A : Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences N2 - The conversion of light energy into other molecular energetic degrees of freedom is often dominated by ultrafast, non-adiabatic processes. Femtosecond spectroscopy with optical pulses has helped in shaping our understanding of crucial processes in molecular energy-conversion. The advent of new, ultrashort and bright X-ray free electron laser sources opens the possibility to use X-ray-typical element and site sensitivity for ultrafast molecular research. We present two types of spectroscopy, ultrafast Auger and ultrafast X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and discuss their sensitivity to molecular processes. While Auger spectroscopy is able to monitor bond distance changes in the vicinity of an X-ray created core hole, near-edge absorption spectroscopy can deliver high-fidelity information on non-adiabatic transitions involving lone-pair orbitals. We demonstrate these features on the example of the UV-excited nucleobase thymine, investigated at the oxygen K-edge. We find a C-O bond elongation in the Auger data in addition to pi pi*/n pi* non-adiabatic transition in X-ray near-edge absorption. We compare the results from both methods and draw a conclusive scenario of non-adiabatic molecular relaxation after UV excitation. KW - nucleobase KW - time-resolved X-ray probing KW - Auger decay KW - femtosecond laser spectroscopy Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0473 SN - 1364-503X SN - 1471-2962 VL - 377 IS - 2145 PB - Royal Society CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stange, Maike A1 - Hintsche, Marius A1 - Sachse, Kirsten A1 - Gerhardt, Matthias A1 - Valleriani, Angelo A1 - Beta, Carsten T1 - Analyzing the spatial positioning of nuclei in polynuclear giant cells JF - Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics N2 - How cells establish and maintain a well-defined size is a fundamental question of cell biology. Here we investigated to what extent the microtubule cytoskeleton can set a predefined cell size, independent of an enclosing cell membrane. We used electropulse-induced cell fusion to form giant multinuclear cells of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Based on dual-color confocal imaging of cells that expressed fluorescent markers for the cell nucleus and the microtubules, we determined the subcellular distributions of nuclei and centrosomes in the giant cells. Our two- and three-dimensional imaging results showed that the positions of nuclei in giant cells do not fall onto a regular lattice. However, a comparison with model predictions for random positioning showed that the subcellular arrangement of nuclei maintains a low but still detectable degree of ordering. This can be explained by the steric requirements of the microtubule cytoskeleton, as confirmed by the effect of a microtubule degrading drug. KW - Dictyostelium KW - cell nucleus KW - positioning KW - imaging KW - spatial poisson distribution Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aa8da0 SN - 0022-3727 SN - 1361-6463 VL - 50 IS - 46 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Robrade, Jan A1 - Oskinova, Lida A1 - Schmitt, J. H. M. M. A1 - Leto, Paolo A1 - Trigilio, C. T1 - Outstanding X-ray emission from the stellar radio pulsar CU Virginis JF - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal N2 - Context. Among the intermediate-mass magnetic chemically peculiar (MCP) stars, CU Vir is one of the most intriguing objects. Its 100% circularly polarized beams of radio emission sweep the Earth as the star rotates, thereby making this strongly magnetic star the prototype of a class of nondegenerate stellar radio pulsars. While CU Vir is well studied in radio, its high-energy properties are not known. Yet, X-ray emission is expected from stellar magnetospheres and confined stellar winds. Aims. Using X-ray data we aim to test CU Vir for intrinsic X-ray emission and investigate mechanisms responsible for its generation. Methods. We present X-ray observations performed with XMM-Newton and Chandra and study obtained X-ray images, light curves, and spectra. Basic X-ray properties are derived from spectral modelling and are compared with model predictions. In this context we investigate potential thermal and nonthermal X-ray emission scenarios. Results. We detect an X-ray source at the position of CU Vir. With LX approximate to 3 x 10(28) erg s(-1) it is moderately X-ray bright, but the spectrum is extremely hard compared to other Ap stars. Spectral modelling requires multi-component models with predominant hot plasma at temperatures of about T-X = 25MK or, alternatively, a nonthermal spectral component. Both types of model provide a virtually equivalent description of the X-ray spectra. The Chandra observation was performed six years later than those by XMM-Newton, yet the source has similar X-ray flux and spectrum, suggesting a steady and persistent X-ray emission. This is further confirmed by the X-ray light curves that show only mild X-ray variability. Conclusions. CU Vir is also an exceptional star at X-ray energies. To explain its full X-ray properties, a generating mechanism beyond standard explanations, like the presence of a low-mass companion or magnetically confined wind-shocks, is required. Magnetospheric activity might be present or, as proposed for fast-rotating strongly magnetic Bp stars, the X-ray emission of CU Vir is predominantly auroral in nature. KW - individual: CU Vir KW - stars: activity KW - stars: chemically peculiar KW - stars: magnetic field KW - X-rays: stars Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201833492 SN - 1432-0746 VL - 619 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Shen, Z. A1 - Diercke, Andrea A1 - Denker, Carsten T1 - Calibration of full-disk He i 10 830 angstrom filtergrams of the Chromospheric Telescope JF - Astronomische Nachrichten = Astronomical notes N2 - The Chromospheric Telescope (ChroTel) is a small 10-cm robotic telescope at Observatorio del Teide on Tenerife (Spain), which observes the entire sun in Hα, Ca ii K, and He i 10 830 Å. We present a new calibration method that includes limb-darkening correction, removal of nonuniform filter transmission, and determination of He i Doppler velocities. Chromospheric full-disk filtergrams are often obtained with Lyot filters, which may display nonuniform transmission causing large-scale intensity variations across the solar disk. Removal of a 2D symmetric limb-darkening function from full-disk images results in a flat background. However, transmission artifacts remain and are even more distinct in these contrast-enhanced images. Zernike polynomials are uniquely appropriate to fit these large-scale intensity variations of the background. The Zernike coefficients show a distinct temporal evolution for ChroTel data, which is likely related to the telescope's alt-azimuth mount that introduces image rotation. In addition, applying this calibration to sets of seven filtergrams that cover the He i triplet facilitates the determination of chromospheric Doppler velocities. To validate the method, we use three datasets with varying levels of solar activity. The Doppler velocities are benchmarked with respect to cotemporal high-resolution spectroscopic data of the GREGOR Infrared Spectrograph (GRIS). Furthermore, this technique can be applied to ChroTel Hα and Ca ii K data. The calibration method for ChroTel filtergrams can be easily adapted to other full-disk data exhibiting unwanted large-scale variations. The spectral region of the He i triplet is a primary choice for high-resolution near-infrared spectropolarimetry. Here, the improved calibration of ChroTel data will provide valuable context data. KW - methods: Data analysis KW - methods: Observational KW - Sun: Chromosphere KW - techniques: Image processing Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/asna.201813536 SN - 0004-6337 SN - 1521-3994 VL - 339 IS - 9-10 SP - 661 EP - 671 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rychkov, Dmitry A1 - Altafim, Ruy Alberto Pisani T1 - Template-based fluoroethylenepropylene ferroelectrets with enhanced thermal stability of piezoelectricity JF - Journal of applied physics N2 - In ferroelectrets, the piezoelectricity stems from the charges of both polarities trapped on the inner surfaces of the cavities in the material, so that its thermal stability is defined by the stability of the respective charges. In the present work, a template-based lamination technique has been employed to fabricate tubular-channel ferroelectrets from fluoroethylenepropylene (FEP) films. It has been shown that the piezoelectricity in FEP ferroelectrets decays at relatively low temperatures due to the inherently lower thermal stability of the positive charge. In order to improve charge trapping, we have treated both FEP films and inner surfaces of the ferroelectret cavities with titanium-tetrachloride vapor, using the atomic-layer-deposition technique. Using surface-potential-decay measurements on FEP films, we have found that the charge-decay curves shift by more than 100 degrees C to the higher temperatures as a result of the surface treatment. Direct measurements of piezoelectric d(33) coefficients as a function of temperature have shown that the piezoelectric stability is likewise improved with the d(33)-decay curves shifted by 60 degrees C to the right. The improvement of electret/ferroelectret properties can be attributed to the formation of the deeper traps on the chemically modified FEP surface. SEM micrographs and EDS analysis reveal island-like structures with titanium- and oxygen-containing species that can be responsible for the deeper trapping of the electret charges. Published by AIP Publishing. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5041374 SN - 0021-8979 SN - 1089-7550 VL - 124 IS - 17 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sposini, Vittoria A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - First passage statistics for diffusing diffusivity JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - A rapidly increasing number of systems is identified in which the stochastic motion of tracer particles follows the Brownian law < r(2)(t)> similar or equal to Dt yet the distribution of particle displacements is strongly non-Gaussian. A central approach to describe this effect is the diffusing diffusivity (DD) model in which the diffusion coefficient itself is a stochastic quantity, mimicking heterogeneities of the environment encountered by the tracer particle on its path. We here quantify in terms of analytical and numerical approaches the first passage behaviour of the DD model. We observe significant modifications compared to Brownian-Gaussian diffusion, in particular that the DD model may have a faster first passage dynamics. Moreover we find a universal crossover point of the survival probability independent of the initial condition. KW - diffusion KW - superstatistics KW - first passage Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/aaf6ff SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 52 IS - 4 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER -