Photo-induced flexible semiconductor CdSe/CdS quantum rods alignment

The anisotropic absorption and emission from semiconductor CdSe/CdS quantum rods(QRs)provide extra benefits among other photoluminescence nanocrystals.Using photo-induced alignment technique,the QRs can be oriented in liquid crystal polymer matrix at a large scale.In this article,a 2D Dammann grating pattern,within“SKL”characters domains aligned QRs in composite film,was fabricated by multi-step photo exposure using several photo masks,and a continuous geometric lens profile pattern aligned QRs was realized by the single step polarization converting holographic irradiation method.Both polarized optical microscope and fluorescence microscope are employed to determine the liquid crystal director profiles and QRs anisotropic excitation properties.We have been able to orient the QRs in fine binary and continuous patterns that confirms the strong quantum rod aligning ability of the proposed method.Thus,the proposed approach paves a way for photoinduced flexible QRs alignments to provide a highly specific and difficult-to-replicate security application at a large scale.

Superpenumbral chromospheric flare

We observed a C-class flare at the outer boundary of the superpenumbra of a sunspot. The flare was triggered by an emerging magnetic bipolar region that was obliquely oriented with respect to the superpenumbral fibrils. The flare started due to the low height magnetic reconnection of emerging magnetic flux with a superpenumbral field resulting in hot multi-temperature plasma flows in the inverse Evershed flow channel and its overlying atmosphere. Inverse Evershed flows in the chromosphere start from the superpenumbra towards the sunspot that end at the outer boundary of the penumbra. The hot plasma flow towards the sunspot in the inverse Evershed channels show about 10 km s^(-1) higher velocity in Hα wavelengths compared to the plasma emissions at various temperatures as seen in different AIA filters. Even though these velocities are about seven times higher than the typical inverse Evershed flow speeds, the flow is diminished at the outer boundary of the sunspot's penumbra. This suggests that the superpenumbral field lines that carry inverse Evershed flows are discontinued at the boundary where the penumbral field lines dive into the sun and these two sets of field lines are completely distinct. The discontinuity in the typical magnetic field and plasma properties at the adjoining of these two sets of field lines further leads to discontinuity in the characteristic magnetoacoustic and Alfv′en speeds, thereby stopping the plasma flows further on. The multi-temperature plasma in the inverse Evershed channels exhibits possible longitudinal oscillations initially during the onset of the flare, and later flows towards the sunspot. In the multi-temperature view, the different layers above the flare region have a mixture of supersonic as well as subsonic flows.

Unidirectionally aligned bright quantum rods films,using T-shape ligands,for LCD application

Unidirectionally aligned nanorods(NRs)are of great importance for different applications,including displays,lighting,and photodetectors.Recently,many alignment techniques were studied to align quantum rods(QRs).However,the brightness of these films,due to the limited concentration of aligned quantum rods in the film,is not enough for their implementation as brightness enhancement films(BEFs)in displays.This can be ascribed to the poor miscibility of quantum rods in polymer and strong concentration dependence of the polarized emission.The ligands of NR are very important for the alignment and brightness.In this article,we proposed a ligand combination comprising T-shape promesogenic phosphonic acid,which on being photoaligned provides mutually parallel alignment of the quantum rods.The T-shape ligands enable the fabrication of hybrid films with a QRs concentration as high as 10 wt.%–20 wt.%retaining high brightness and luminescence polarization property.Later,we used these films in the in-plane switching(IPS)display backlight that shows the color gamut up to 121%of national television system committee(NTSC)(CIE1931),liquid-crystal display(LCD)efficiency up to 7.9%,power efficacy 103±2 nits/W,and the high brightness of~550±10 nits.Thus,the proposed ligands can be used for the alignment of a variety of nanorods.