Widely known Gibbs' relationship predicting a difference of chemical potentials in a small solid particle and in a surrounding fluid phase at equilibrium is shown to refer to a real or imaginary bulk phase inside the particle. A similar relationship derived for the real surface monolayer of a nanoparticle exhibits the equality of chemical potentials at equilibrium, which allows for experimental...

Liquid crystal modal lenses are switchable lenses with a continuous phase variation across the lens. A critical issue for such lenses is the minimization of phase aberrations. In this paper we present results of a simulation of control signals that have a range of harmonics. Experimental results using optimal sinusoidal and rectangular voltages are presented. A lack of uniqueness in the specifi...

Synthetic nanomotors powered by chemical reactions have potential uses as cargo transport vehicles in both in vivo and in vitro applications. In many situations, motors will have to operate in out-of-equilibrium complex chemically reacting media, which supply fuel to the motors and remove the products they produce. Using molecular simulation and mean-field theory, this paper describes some of t...

A droplet placed in a liquid-liquid solution is expected to grow, or shrink, in time as approximately t;{1/2}. In this Letter, we report experimental evidence that when the composition in the interface is far from thermodynamic equilibrium due to the nonideality of the mixture, a droplet shrinks as approximately t. This scaling is due to the coupling between mass and momentum transfer known as ...

Ultrafast 2D NMR replaces the time-domain parametrization usually employed to monitor the indirect-domain spin evolution, with an equivalent encoding along a spatial geometry. When coupled to a gradient-assisted decoding during the acquisition, this enables the collection of complete 2D spectra within a single transient. We have presented elsewhere two strategies for carrying out the spatial en...

The global minima of clusters bound by a Dzugutov potential form non-compact polytetrahedral clusters mainly composed of interpenetrating and face-sharing 13-atom icosahedra. As the size increases, these icosahedral units first form linear arrays, then two-dimensional rings, then three-dimensional networks. Characterization of the energy landscapes of these clusters shows that they are particul...

A density functional theory (DFT) in the framework of cell model is proposed to calculate the structural and thermodynamic properties of aqueous DNA-electrolyte solution with finite DNA concentrations. The hard-sphere contribution to the excess Helmholtz energy functional is derived from the modified fundamental measure theory, and the electrostatic interaction is evaluated through a quadratic ...

For development of the French Laser Integration Line and the Laser Megajoule, we describe the design and the control of a first 383 mm x 398 mm continuous phase-plate prototype. Extensively used in laser fusion facilities for beam smoothing, this optical component was manufactured by deep etching onto a fused-silica substrate, which led to a phase plate engraved directly onto fused silica, with...

A large deviation technique is used to calculate the microcanonical entropy function s(v,m) of the mean-field φ4-model as a function of the potential energy v and the magnetization m. As in the canonical ensemble, a continuous phase transition is found. An analytical expression is obtained for the critical energy vc(J) as a function of the coupling parameter J .

A new binary compound, Zn(8)Sb(7), has recently been prepared in nanoparticulate form via solution synthesis. No such phase is known in the bulk phase diagram; instead, one would expect phase separation to the good thermoelectric semiconductors ZnSb and Zn(4)Sb(3). Here, density functional calculations are employed to determine the free energies of formation, including effects from vibrations a...