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Leaves of the two new chlorophyll b-less rice mutants VG28-1, VG30-5 and the wild type rice cv. Zhonghua 11 were subjected to temperatures 28, 36, 40, 44 and 48°C in the dark for 30 min or gradually elevated temperature from 30°C to 80°C at 0.5°C/min. The thermostability of photosynthetic apparatus was estimated by the changes in chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, photosynthetic rate and pigment content, chloroplast ultrastructure and tissue location of H2O2 accumulation. There were different patterns of Fo-temperature curves between the Chl b-less mutants and the wild type plant, and the temperature of Fo rising threshold was shifted 3°C lower in the Chl b-less mutants (48°C) than in the wild type (51°C). At temperature up to about 45°C, chloroplasts were swollen and thylakoid grana became misty accompanied with the complete loss of photosynthetic oxygen evolution in the two Chl b-less mutants, but chloroplast ultrastructure in the wild type showed no obvious alteration. After 55°C exposure, the disordered thylakoid and significant H2O2 accumulation in leaves were found in the two Chl b-less mutants, whereas in the wild type plant, less H2O2 was accumulated and the swollen thylakoid still maintained a certain extent of stacking. A large extent of the changes in qP, NPQ and Fv/Fm was consistent with the Pn decreasing rate in the Chl b-less mutants during high temperature treatment as compared with the wild type. The results indicated that the Chl b-less mutants showed a tendency for higher thermosensitivity, and loss of Chl b in LHC II could lead to less thermostability of PSII structure and function. Heat damage to photosynthetic apparatus might be partially attributed to the internal oxidative stress produced at severely high temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lattice Boltzmann method is proposed to simulate the two-dimensional membrane. Numerical simulation shows that at a critical value of membrane tension, the pattern of the membrane at transient state behaves like a standing wave with a node staying at rest. In addition, when the membrane is relatively soft or stiff, it will evolve into a steady-state close to its initial straight pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the reflection properties of multilayer containing a slab of uniaxially anisotropic materials with negative refractive index. The conditions are discussed under which the omnidirectional reflection can occurs in a certain frequency region. In addition, we also investigate the photonic band gaps (PBGs) of the one-dimensional layered stack that consists of uniaxially anisotropic slabs. It is found that the PBGs is invariant upon a change of scale length and is insensitive to disorder of the layer thickness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In photonic systems, bilayer or multilayer systems exhibit numerous exciting phenomena induced by twisting. Thus, it is highly desired to explore the twisting effect by engineering the light-matter interactions. Optical torque, an important means in optical micromanipulation, can rotate micro-objects in various ways, enabling a wide range of promising applications. In this study, we present an interesting phenomenon called "pure optical twist" (POT), which emerges when a bilayer structure with specific symmetry is illuminated by counter-propagating lights with opposite spin and/or orbital angular momentum. Remarkably, this leads to zero net optical torque but yet possesses an interesting mechanical effect of bilayer system twisting. The crucial determinant of this phenomenon is the rotational symmetries of each layer, which govern the allowed azimuthal channels of the scattered wave. When the rotational symmetries do not allow these channels to overlap, no resultant torque is observed. Our work will encourage further exploration of the twisting effect through engineered light-matter interactions. This opens up the possibility of creating twisted bilayer systems using optical means, and constructing a stable bilayer optical motor that maintains identical rotation frequencies for both layers.

Harvesting light for optical torque is of significant importance, owing to its ability to rotate nano- or micro-objects. Nevertheless, applying a strong optical torque remains a challenging task: angular momentum must conserve but light is limited. A simple argument shows the tendency for two objects with strong mutual scattering or light exchange to exhibit a conspicuously enhanced optical torque without large extinction or absorption cross section. The torque on each object is almost equal but opposite, which we called optical twist. The effect is quite significant for plasmonic particle cluster, but can also be observed in structures with other morphologies. Such approach exhibits an unprecedentedly large torque to light extinction or absorption ratio, enabling limited light to exert a relatively large torque without severe heating. Our work contributes to the understanding of optical torque and introduces a novel way to manipulate the internal degrees of freedom of a structured particle cluster.

Graphene is an excellent multi-functional platform for electrons, photons, and phonons due to exceptional electronic, photonic, and thermal properties. When combining its extraordinary mechanical characteristics with optical properties, graphene-based nanostructures can serve as an appealing platform for optomechanical applications at the nanoscale. Here, we demonstrate, using full-wave simulations, the emergence of extremely strong bipolar optical forces, or, optical binding and anti-binding, between a pair of coupled graphene nanoribbons, due to the remarkable confinement and enhancement of optical fields arising from the large effective mode indices. In particular, the binding and anti-binding forces, which are about two orders of magnitude stronger than that in metamaterials and high-Q resonators, can be tailored by selective excitation of either the even or the odd optical modes, achievable by tuning the relative phase of the lightwaves propagating along the two ribbons. Based on the coupled mode theory, we derive analytical formulae for the bipolar optical forces, which agree well with the numerical results. The attractive optical binding force F(y)(b) and the repulsive anti-binding force F(y)(a) exhibit a remarkably different dependence on the gap distance g between the nanoribbons and the Fermi energy E(F), in the forms of F(y)(b) ∝ 1/√(g³E(F)) and F(y)(a) ∝ 1/E(F)(2). With E(F) dynamically tunable by bias voltage, the bipolar forces may provide a flexible handle for active control of the nanoscale optomechanical effects, and also, might be significant for optoelectronic and optothermal applications as well.

We demonstrate that a lateral optical force (LOF) can be induced on paired chiral nanoparticles with opposite handedness under the illumination of a linearly polarized plane wave. The LOFs on both chiral particles are equal and thus can move the pair sideways, with the direction depending on the separation between two particles, as well as the handedness of particle chirality. Analytical theory reveals that the LOF comes largely from the optical potential gradient established by the multiple scattering of light between the paired particles with asymmetric chirality. In addition, it is weakly dependent on the material loss of a particle, a feature of gradient force, while heavily dependent on the magnitude and handedness of particle chirality. The effect is expected to find applications in sorting and separating chiral dimers of different handedness.

We demonstrate theoretically that Fano resonance can induce a negative optical scattering force acting on plasmonic nanoparticles in the visible light spectrum when an appropriate manipulating laser beam is adopted. Under the illumination of a zeroth-order Bessel beam, the plasmonic nanoparticle at its Fano resonance exhibits a much stronger forward scattering than backward scattering and consequently leads to a net longitudinal backward optical scattering force, termed Fano resonance-induced negative optical scattering force. The extinction spectra obtained based on the Mie theory show that the Fano resonance arises from the interference of simultaneously excited multipoles, which can be either a broad electric dipole mode and a narrow electric quadrupole mode, or a quadrupole and an octupole mode mediated by the broad electric dipole. Such Fano resonance-induced negative optical scattering force is demonstrated to occur for core-shell, homogeneous, and hollow metallic particles and can therefore be expected to be universal for many other nanostructures exhibiting Fano resonance, adding considerably to the flexibility of optical micromanipulation on the plasmonic nanoparticles. More interestingly, the flexible tunability of the Fano resonance by particle morphology opens up the possibility of tailoring the optical scattering force accordingly, offering an additional degree of freedom to optical selection and sorting of plasmonic nanoparticles.

Laser induced stress on spherical water droplets is studied. At mechanical equilibrium, the body stress vanishes therefore we consider only the surface stress. The surface stress on sub-wavelength droplets is slightly weaker along the light propagation direction. For larger droplets, due to their light focusing effect, the forward stress is significantly enhanced. For a particle roughly 3 micron in radius, when it is excited at whispering gallery mode with Q ∼ 10⁴ by a 1 Watt Gaussian beam, the stress can be enhanced by two orders of magnitude, and can be comparable with the Laplace pressure.

We discuss a new kind of optical vortex with the angular momentum perpendicular to the flow direction and entangled in that it is a coherent combination of different orbital angular momentum states of the same sign. This entangled state exhibits many unexpected physical properties. The transverse optical vortex can be generated from the reflection of an electromagnetic wave off an array of ferrite rods. Its vorticity can be reversed by switching the direction of the magnetization of the rods, which usually takes only a nanosecond.

Optical forces are calculated for a dielectric spherical particle illuminated by a zero-order Bessel beam based on both the generalized Lorenz-Mie theory (GLMT) and the ray optics method (ROM). Particles with positive and negative refractive indices are examined. The peculiar characteristics of the Bessel beam allow for analytical expressions for the beam shape coefficients required in the GLMT as well as a decomposition of optical force into the gradient and the scattering forces irrespective of the particle size, which enable respective comparisons for the gradient and scattering forces between the results obtained from the GLMT and the ROM. Our results demonstrate that the discrepancy between the results obtained from the GLMT and the ROM depends on the particle refractive index n p , the particle size, and, also, the particle location in the beam field. As the particle size increases, the difference between the results from the GLMT and the ROM shows a general tendency of decreasing, as can be expected, but the change may exhibit oscillatory rather than monotonic behavior. A phase diagram is presented that displays the regime for particle size and refractive index where a specified accuracy can be achieved for optical force by the ROM.

Light carries angular momentum, and as such it can exert torques on material objects. Applications of these opto-mechanical effects were limited initially due to their smallness in magnitude, but later becomes powerful and versatile after the invention of laser. Novel and practical approaches for harvesting light for particle rotation have since been demonstrated, where the structure is always subjected to a positive optical torque along a certain axis if the incident angular momentum has a positive projection on the same axis. We report here an interesting phenomenon of "negative optical torque", meaning that incoming photons carrying angular momentum rotate an object in the opposite sense. Surprisingly this can be realized quite straightforwardly in simple planar structures. Field retardation is a necessary condition and discrete rotational symmetry of material object plays an important role. The optimal conditions are explored and explained.

It is known that core-shell subwavelength nanoparticles consisting of a dielectric shell and a metallic core can simultaneously support electric and magnetic dipolar resonances, which enhance forward scattering and suppress backward scattering. This creates favorable conditions for optical tractor beam applications. Using the generalized Lorenz-Mie theory and Maxwell stress tensor formulation, we demonstrate how optical pulling forces can be induced and optimized by first-order Bessel beams with appropriate polarization. The transverse stability of the core-shell nanoparticle under ambient damping is also verified by linear stability analysis and dynamical simulation.

Previous research has focused on the involvement of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cell wall loosening and cell extension in plant vegetative growth, but few studies have investigated ROS functions specifically in plant reproductive organs. In this study, ROS levels and antioxidant enzyme activities were assessed in Pisum sativum and Brassica chinensis pods at five developmental stages. In juvenile pods, the high levels of O2.- and .OH indicates that they had functions in cell wall loosening and cell elongation. In later developmental stages, high levels of .OH were also related to increases in cell wall thickness in lignified tissues. Throughout pod development, most of the O2.- was detected on plasma membranes of parenchyma cells and outer epidermis cells of the mesocarp, while most of the H2O2 was detected on plasma membranes of most cells throughout the mesocarp. This suggests that these sites are presumably the locations of ROS generation. The antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) apparently contributed to ROS accumulation in pod wall tissues. Furthermore, specifically SOD and POD were found to be associated with pod growth through the regulation of ROS generation and transformation. Throughout pod development, O2.- decreases were associated with increased SOD activity, while changes in H2O2 accumulation were associated with changes in CAT and POD activities. Additionally, high POD activity may contribute to the generation of(.)OH in the early development of pods. It is concluded that the ROS are produced in different sites of plasma membranes with the regulation of antioxidant enzymes, and that substantial ROS generation and accumulation are evident in cell elongation and cell wall loosening in pod wall cells.

We demonstrate a remarkable enhancement of isotropic radiation via radially anisotropic zero-index metamaterial (RAZIM). The radiation power can be enhanced by an order of magnitude when a line source and a dielectric particle is enclosed by a RAZIM shell. Based on the extended Mie theory, we illustrate that the basic physics of this isotropic radiation enhancement lies in the confinement of higher order anisotropic modes by the RAZIM shell. The confinement results in some high field regions within the RAZIM shell and thus enables strong scattering from the dielectric particle therein, giving rise to a giant amplification of isotropic radiation out of the system. The influence of the loss inherent in the RAZIM shell is also examined. It is found that the attenuation of omnidirectional power enhancement due to the loss in the RAZIM can be compensated by gain particles.

We show both analytically and numerically that there is an infinite number of flat bands with different Chern numbers in a two-dimensional magnetic photonic crystal at nearly the same frequency determined by the condition that the effective magnetic permeability μ_{eff}≈-1. This opens the door to explore the physics involving higher order topological invariants in this system. The frequency of these states can be flexibly tuned by an external magnetic field.

The current study evaluated the toxicity of three heavy metals to aerial roots of the Chinese banyan (Ficus microcarpa), which is a tree species native to China. In a laboratory experiment, segments of aerial roots cut from trees were treated with 0, 25, 50, 100, and 200 μM of lead, cadmium, or copper (Cu). The contents of these heavy metals in cells increased and root cell viability decreased with increases in treatment concentration. High levels of reactive oxygen species accumulated in the aerial root sections after heavy metal treatment. Both biochemical assay and histochemical localization showed that O(2) (•-), which is a precursor of H(2)O(2) accumulated in root sections and that the amount accumulated was positively related to heavy metal concentration, especially for Cu-treated samples. Histochemical staining with diaminobenzidine (DAB) and a fluorometric scopoletin oxidation assay indicated that the amount of H(2)O(2) accumulated was positively related to heavy metal concentration in the treatments; the scopoletin fluorescence assay was more sensitive and efficient than DAB staining for detection and quantification of H(2)O(2). The results indicate that aerial roots are sensitive to heavy metal-induced oxidative damage and that aerial roots have the potential to be used as indicators of heavy metal pollution in urban areas.

Based on the effective medium theory, we designed a simplified transformation media bending waveguide by use of only three kinds of isotropic material in an alternating layered structure. The design can be used to guide incoming waves smoothly along the bending part of a waveguide with slight distortions. Numerical simulations are performed to illustrate its functionality.

In the leaf of rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivar Yunnan purple rice, the anthocyanins with an obvious absorption peak at 530nm were distributed in the cells of upper and lower epidermis, bulliform tissue and bristle. The maximal photosynthetic oxygen evolution rate and chlorophyll content in flag leaves were 28% and 23%, respectively, more than the common green leaf rice cultivar Chijiaoruanzhan. Higher chlorophyll content is probably one of the physiological adaptations for enhancing light harvesting capacity of the antenna in photosystems in this cyanic leaves species. Upon the photooxidation of leaf segments mediated by methyl viologen in weak light for 3 days, the distinct bleaching of anthocyanins in purple rice was associated with the reduction of scavenging ability to DPPH * free radical ability and the increase in membrane leakage rate. But almost no changes in contents of flavonoids and total phenolics were observed. Chlorophyll fluorescence parameters Fv/Fo, qP and phi(PSII) decreased with the increase in NPQ and DES of xanthophylls cycle after photooxidation treatment. Green rice leaves showed more decrease in DPPH * scavenging rate and more increase in cell membrane leakage rate but showed a trace of anthocyanins during photooxidation. It is suggested that anthocyanin may be a beneficial and primary antioxidant in sun cyanic rice leaves against oxidative stress induced by environmental adversity. And photooxidation could induce different changing patterns of anthocyanins between the tested purple and green rice leaves.

An efficient technique for computing photonic band structure and defect modes is proposed based on the lattice Boltzmann model. Physically, it is a scheme based on the kinetics of the virtual microscopic process, rather than a solution of the macroscopic Maxwell equations. The method has significant advantages of being naturally suited for massively parallel machine, as well as speed and convenience, providing another methodology for photonic band gap materials and, also, for general electromagnetic scattering problems in open region when incorporated with the perfectly matched layer technique.