Single-molecule DNA sequencing of widely varying GC-content using nucleotide release, capture and detection in microdroplets.

Despite remarkable progress in DNA sequencing technologies there remains a trade-off between short-read platforms, having limited ability to sequence homopolymers, repeated motifs or long-range structural variation, and long-read platforms, which tend to have lower accuracy and/or throughput. Moreover, current methods do not allow direct readout of epigenetic modifications from a single read. With the aim of addressing these limitations, we have developed an optical electrowetting sequencing platform that uses step-wise nucleotide triphosphate (dNTP) release, capture and detection in microdroplets from single DNA molecules. Each microdroplet serves as a reaction vessel that identifies an individual dNTP based on a robust fluorescence signal, with the detection chemistry extended to enable detection of 5-methylcytosine. Our platform uses small reagent volumes and inexpensive equipment, paving the way to cost-effective single-molecule DNA sequencing, capable of handling widely varying GC-bias, and demonstrating direct detection of epigenetic modifications.

CF2 -Bridged C60 Fullerene Dimers and their Optical Transitions.

Fullerene dyads bridged with perfluorinated linking groups have been synthesized through a modified arc-discharge procedure. The addition of Teflon inside an arc-discharge reactor leads to the formation of dyads, consisting of two C60 fullerenes bridged by CF2 groups. The incorporation of bridging groups containing electronegative atoms lead to different energy levels and to new features in the photoluminescence spectrum. A suppression of the singlet oxygen photosensitization indicated that the radiative decay from singlet-to-singlet state is favoured against the intersystem crossing singlet-to-triplet transition.

Distinctive signature of indium gallium nitride quantum dot lasing in microdisk cavities.

Low-threshold lasers realized within compact, high-quality optical cavities enable a variety of nanophotonics applications. Gallium nitride materials containing indium gallium nitride (InGaN) quantum dots and quantum wells offer an outstanding platform to study light-matter interactions and realize practical devices such as efficient light-emitting diodes and nanolasers. Despite progress in the growth and characterization of InGaN quantum dots, their advantages as the gain medium in low-threshold lasers have not been clearly demonstrated. This work seeks to better understand the reasons for these limitations by focusing on the simpler, limited-mode microdisk cavities, and by carrying out comparisons of lasing dynamics in those cavities using varying gain media including InGaN quantum wells, fragmented quantum wells, and a combination of fragmented quantum wells with quantum dots. For each gain medium, we use the distinctive, high-quality (Q ∼ 5,500) modes of the cavities, and the change in the highest-intensity mode as a function of pump power to better understand the dominant radiative processes. The variations of threshold power and lasing wavelength as a function of gain medium help us identify the possible limitations to lower-threshold lasing with quantum dot active medium. In addition, we have identified a distinctive lasing signature for quantum dot materials, which consistently lase at wavelengths shorter than the peak of the room temperature gain emission. These findings not only provide better understanding of lasing in nitride-based quantum dot cavity systems but also shed insight into the more fundamental issues of light-matter coupling in such systems.

Ultrafast, Polarized, Single-Photon Emission from m-Plane InGaN Quantum Dots on GaN Nanowires.

We demonstrate single-photon emission from self-assembled m-plane InGaN quantum dots (QDs) embedded on the side-walls of GaN nanowires. A combination of electron microscopy, cathodoluminescence, time-resolved microphotoluminescence (µPL), and photon autocorrelation experiments give a thorough evaluation of the QD structural and optical properties. The QD exhibits antibunched emission up to 100 K, with a measured autocorrelation function of g(2)(0) = 0.28(0.03) at 5 K. Studies on a statistically significant number of QDs show that these m-plane QDs exhibit very fast radiative lifetimes (260 ± 55 ps) suggesting smaller internal fields than any of the previously reported c-plane and a-plane QDs. Moreover, the observed single photons are almost completely linearly polarized aligned perpendicular to the crystallographic c-axis with a degree of linear polarization of 0.84 ± 0.12. Such InGaN QDs incorporated in a nanowire system meet many of the requirements for implementation into quantum information systems and could potentially open the door to wholly new device concepts.

A programmable and automated optical electrowetting-on-dielectric (oEWOD) driven platform for massively parallel and sequential processing of single cell assay operations.

Recently, there has been an increasing emphasis on single cell profiling for high-throughput screening workflows in drug discovery and life sciences research. However, the biology underpinning these screens is often complex and is insufficiently addressed by singleplex assay screens. Traditional single cell screening technologies have created powerful sets of 'omic data that allow users to bioinformatically infer biological function, but have as of yet not empowered direct functional analysis at the level of each individual cell. Consequently, screening campaigns often require multiple secondary screens leading to laborious, time-consuming and expensive workflows in which attrition points may not be queried until late in the process. We describe a platform that harnesses droplet microfluidics and optical electrowetting-on-dielectric (oEWOD) to perform highly-controlled sequential and multiplexed single cell assays in massively parallelised workflows to enable complex cell profiling during screening. Soluble reagents or objects, such as cells or assay beads, are encapsulated into droplets of media in fluorous oil and are actively filtered based on size and optical features ensuring only desirable droplets (e.g. single cell droplets) are retained for analysis, thereby overcoming the Poisson probability distribution. Droplets are stored in an array on a temperature-controlled chip and the history of individual droplets is logged from the point of filter until completion of the workflow. On chip, droplets are subject to an automated and flexible suite of operations including the merging of sample droplets and the fluorescent acquisition of assay readouts to enable complex sequential assay workflows. To demonstrate the broad utility of the platform, we present examples of single-cell functional workflows for various applications such as antibody discovery, infectious disease, and cell and gene therapy.

Unravelling the key role of surface features behind facet-dependent photocatalysis of anatase TiO2.

The high activity of nanocrystallites is commonly attributed to the terminal high-energy facets. However, we demonstrate that the high activity of the anatase TiO2(001) facet in photocatalytic H2 evolution is not due to its high intrinsic surface energy, but local electronic effects created by surface features on the facet.

Linearly polarized photoluminescence of InGaN quantum disks embedded in GaN nanorods.

We have investigated the emission from InGaN/GaN quantum disks grown on the tip of GaN nanorods. The emission at 3.21 eV from the InGaN quantum disk doesn't show a Stark shift, and it is linearly polarized when excited perpendicular to the growth direction. The degree of linear polarization is about 39.3% due to the anisotropy of the nanostructures. In order to characterize a single nanostructure, the quantum disks were dispersed on a SiO2 substrate patterned with a metal reference grid. By rotating the excitation polarization angle from parallel to perpendicular relative to the nanorods, the variation of overall PL for the 3.21 eV peak was recorded and it clearly showed the degree of linear polarization (DLP) of 51.5%.

Long Stokes shifts and vibronic couplings in perfluorinated polyanilines.

We report the effect of surfactant addition on the optical properties of perfluorinated polyanilines synthesized through liquid-liquid interfaces. We obtained very long Stokes shifts, 205 nm, for oligomers derived from a hydrofluoroether-water system in the presence of Triton X-100 as a surfactant, and vibronic fine features from a toluene-water system.

Deterministic optical polarisation in nitride quantum dots at thermoelectrically cooled temperatures.

We report the successful realisation of intrinsic optical polarisation control by growth, in solid-state quantum dots in the thermoelectrically cooled temperature regime (≥200 K), using a non-polar InGaN system. With statistically significant experimental data from cryogenic to high temperatures, we show that the average polarisation degree of such a system remains constant at around 0.90, below 100 K, and decreases very slowly at higher temperatures until reaching 0.77 at 200 K, with an unchanged polarisation axis determined by the material crystallography. A combination of Fermi-Dirac statistics and k·p theory with consideration of quantum dot anisotropy allows us to elucidate the origin of the robust, almost temperature-insensitive polarisation properties of this system from a fundamental perspective, producing results in very good agreement with the experimental findings. This work demonstrates that optical polarisation control can be achieved in solid-state quantum dots at thermoelectrically cooled temperatures, thereby opening the possibility of polarisation-based quantum dot applications in on-chip conditions.

Two-Dimensional Excitonic Photoluminescence in Graphene on a Cu Surface.

Despite having outstanding electrical properties, graphene is unsuitable for optical devices because of its zero band gap. Here, we report two-dimensional excitonic photoluminescence (PL) from graphene grown on a Cu(111) surface, which shows an unexpected and remarkably sharp strong emission near 3.16 eV (full width at half-maximum ≤3 meV) and multiple emissions around 3.18 eV. As temperature increases, these emissions blue shift, displaying the characteristic negative thermal coefficient of graphene. The observed PL originates from the significantly suppressed dispersion of excited electrons in graphene caused by hybridization of graphene π and Cu d orbitals of the first and second Cu layers at a shifted saddle point 0.525(M+K) of the Brillouin zone. This finding provides a pathway to engineering optoelectronic graphene devices, while maintaining the outstanding electrical properties of graphene.

Effect of Threading Dislocations on the Quality Factor of InGaN/GaN Microdisk Cavities.

In spite of the theoretical advantages associated with nitride microcavities, the quality factors of devices with embedded indium gallium nitride (InGaN) or gallium nitride (GaN) optical emitters still remain low. In this work we identify threading dislocations (TDs) as a major limitation to the fabrication of high quality factor devices in the nitrides. We report on the use of cathodoluminescence (CL) to identify individual TD positions within microdisk lasers containing either InGaN quantum wells or quantum dots. Using CL to accurately count the number, and map the position, of dislocations within several individual cavities, we have found a clear correlation between the density of defects in the high-field region of a microdisk and its corresponding quality factor (Q). We discuss possible mechanisms associated with defects, photon scattering, and absorption, which could be responsible for degraded device performance.