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Low-energy As+-ion implantation followed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) was utilized to modify exciton transition energies of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells (QW). A variety of structures were irradiated at an energy low enough that the disordered region was spatially separated from the QWs. After RTA, exciton energies showed large increases which were dependent on QW widths and the implantation fluence with no significant increases in peak linewidths. The observed energy shifts were interpreted as resulting from the modification of the shapes of the as-grown QWs due to enhanced Ga and Al interdiffusion at heterointerfaces in irradiated areas. These results are consistent with the model of enhanced intermixing of Al and Ga atoms in depth of the material due to diffusion of vacancies generated near the surface.

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are Category A agents on the NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) priority pathogen list owing to their extreme toxicity and the relative ease of production. These deadly toxins, in minute quantities (estimated human i.v. lethal dose LD50 of 1–2 ng/kg body weight), cause fatal flaccid paralysis by blocking neurotransmitter release. The current gold standard detection method, the mouse-bioassay, often takes days to confirm botulism. Furthermore, there are no effective antidotes known to reverse the symptoms of botulism, and as a result, patients with severe botulism often require meticulous care during the prolonged paralytic illness. To combat potential bio-terrorism incidents of botulinum neurotoxins, their rapid detection is paramount. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a very sensitive technique to examine bio-molecular interactions. The label-free, real-time analysis, with high sensitivity and low sample consumption makes this technology particularly suitable for detection of the toxin. In this study, we demonstrated the feasibility in an assay with a newly designed SPR instrument for the rapid detection of botulinum neurotoxins. The LOD (limit of detection) of the Newton Photonics (NP) SPR based assay is 6.76 pg/mL for Botulinum Neurotoxin type A Light Chain (BoNT/A LC). We established that the detection sensitivity of the system is comparable to the traditional mouse LD50 bioassay in BoNT/A using this SPR technology.

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Recent optical nonlinearities in GaAs/Ga1−xAlxAs quantum well structures have been attributed to the screening of the electron-hole interaction in such structures by the free carriers generated. In this paper, we perform a variational calculation of the binding energy of the exciton confined in a two-dimensional structure, taking into account the screening of the Coulomb interaction between the electron-hole pair due to the free carriers. The screened potential used is that obtained by Stern and Howard for hydrogenic impurities in semiconducting inversion layers. We find that, although the binding energy of the exciton is reduced because of the presence of screening, the exciton remains bound even for fairly strong screening. This is in contrast to the 3-D case which occurs in bulk semiconductors where the presence of screening can prevent the electron-hole pair from forming an exciton. We have found that the optical absorption at the exciton peak also decreases as the screening increases.