Surface functionalization of nanoscale materials has a significant impact on their properties. We have demonstrated the effect of different passivating ligands on the crystal phase of organometal halide perovskite quantum dots (PQDs). Using static and dynamic spectroscopy, we studied phase transitions in CH3NH3PbBr3 PQDs ligated with either octylaminebromide (P-OABr) or 3-aminopropyl triethoxys...

We report on the experimental observation of the beaming effect in photonic crystals using experimentally mapped spatial field distributions of energy emitted from a subwavelength photonic crystal waveguide into free-space, rendering with crisp clarity the diffractionless beaming of energy. Our experimental data agree well with our numerical studies of the beaming enhancement in photonic crysta...

In the third Cambridge blind test of crystal structure prediction, participants submitted extended lists of up to 100 hypothetical structures. In this paper these lists are analyzed for the two small semi-rigid molecules, hydantoin and azetidine, by performing a new energy minimization using an accurate force field, and grouping these newly minimized structures into clusters of equivalent struc...

Biocatalysts are inherently labile; therefore their operational stability is of paramount importance for any bioprocess. The problem of biocatalyst stability has been tackled from different perspectives, which are reviewed in the present paper. Inherently stable biocatalysts are well appreciated and a systematic effort is being done in the search of new organisms that harbor them. The potential...

We present a double-charge model for the interaction between parallel polarizable hard spherocylinders subject to an external electric field. Using Monte Carlo simulations and free-energy calculations, we predict the phase behaviour for this model as a function of the density and electric field strength, at a fixed length-to-diameter ratio L/D = 5. The resulting phase diagram contains, in addit...