Nucleic acid nanotechnology

Abstract:

The fabrication of three-dimensional photonic crystal structures with sub-micron periodicity was performed by holographic lithography. The photonic crystals of titanium dioxide and polymeric materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and optical diffraction measurements. The interference pattern generated at the intersection of four beams from a neodymium laser was employed for the exposure of the photoresist.

Abstract:

Xer site-specific recombination at the psi site from plasmid pSC101 displays topological selectivity, such that recombination normally occurs only between directly repeated sites on the same circular DNA molecule. This intramolecular selectivity is important for the biological role of psi, and is imposed by accessory proteins PepA and ArcA acting at accessory DNA sequences adjacent to the core recombination site. Here we show that the selectivity for intramolecular recombination at psi can be bypassed in multiply interlinked catenanes. Xer site-specific recombination occurred relatively efficiently between antiparallel psi sites located on separate rings of right-handed torus catenanes containing six or more nodes. This recombination introduced one additional node into the catenanes. Antiparallel sites on four-noded right-handed catenanes, the normal product of Xer recombination at psi, were not recombined efficiently. Furthermore, parallel psi sites on right-handed torus catenanes were not substrates for Xer recombination. These findings support a model in which psi sites are plectonemically interwrapped, trapping a precise number of supercoils that are converted to four catenation nodes by Xer strand exchange.

Abstract:

We report a remarkably sensitive optical technique for detecting nuclear magnetic resonance from a single ultra-high mobility two-dimensional electron system at a GaAs heterojunction in the fractional quantum Hall regime. Resonant inter-band optical excitation of the 2DES provides a very high degree of dynamic nuclear polarization, three times greater than that previously achieved; this is detected by using inelastic light scattering to measure the Overhauser shift in the energy of the electron spin wave. Our optical detection scheme is sensitive only to the polarization of nuclei in the illuminated volume at the heterojunction. This factor, together with the highly resonant excitation, increases the sensitivity of the technique and has allowed us to measure Knight-shifted magnetic resonance bands of As and Ga nuclei within a single 2DES at filling Factor v = 1/3 at temperatures <100 mK. These measurements can be made over a wide range of temperatures and filling factors and have great potential for the study of collective spin excitations in the fractional quantum Hall regime. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

We report resonant inelastic light scattering measurements of collective electronic excitations at filling factor v = 1/3 in a high mobility 2DES at temperatures between 50 mK and 3 K. In a narrow range of temperatures near 1 K the intensity of light scattering from the charge density mode, and the exchange enhancement of the energy of a collective spin excitation, fall rapidly to zero. We deduce that the electron correlation characteristic of the spin-polarized electron liquid at v = 1/3 collapses at 1 K: this collapse is triggered by thermal fluctuations of the electron spin. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.