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We give an overview of the science objectives and mission design of the Spectroscopic Time-Resolving Observatory for Broadband Energy X-rays (STROBE-X) observatory, which has been proposed as a NASA probe-class (~$1.5B) mission in response to the Astro2020 recommendation for an X-ray probe., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in JATIS

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) began observations in July 2014. It pursues three core programs: APOGEE-2, MaNGA, and eBOSS. In addition, eBOSS contains two major subprograms: TDSS and SPIDERS. This paper describes the first data release from SDSS-IV, Data Release 13 (DR13), which contains new data, reanalysis of existing data sets and, like all SDSS data releases, is inclusive of previously released data. DR13 makes publicly available 1390 spatially resolved integral field unit observations of nearby galaxies from MaNGA, the first data released from this survey. It includes new observations from eBOSS, completing SEQUELS. In addition to targeting galaxies and quasars, SEQUELS also targeted variability-selected objects from TDSS and X-ray selected objects from SPIDERS. DR13 includes new reductions of the SDSS-III BOSS data, improving the spectrophotometric calibration and redshift classification. DR13 releases new reductions of the APOGEE-1 data from SDSS-III, with abundances of elements not previously included and improved stellar parameters for dwarf stars and cooler stars. For the SDSS imaging data, DR13 provides new, more robust and precise photometric calibrations. Several value-added catalogs are being released in tandem with DR13, in particular target catalogs relevant for eBOSS, TDSS, and SPIDERS, and an updated red-clump catalog for APOGEE. This paper describes the location and format of the data now publicly available, as well as providing references to the important technical papers that describe the targeting, observing, and data reduction. The SDSS website, http://www.sdss.org, provides links to the data, tutorials and examples of data access, and extensive documentation of the reduction and analysis procedures. DR13 is the first of a scheduled set that will contain new data and analyses from the planned ~6-year operations of SDSS-IV., Comment: Full information on DR13 available at http://www.sdss.org. Comments welcome to spokesperson@sdss.org. To be published in ApJS

Indigenous Knowledge is important for Indigenous communities across the globe and for the advancement of our general scientific knowledge. In particular, Indigenous astronomical knowledge integrates many aspects of Indigenous Knowledge, including seasonal calendars, navigation, food economics, law, ceremony, and social structure. We aim to develop innovative ways of capturing, managing, and disseminating Indigenous astronomical knowledge for Indigenous communities and the general public for the future. Capturing, managing, and disseminating this knowledge in the digital environment poses a number of challenges, which we aim to address using a collaborative project involving experts in the higher education, library, and industry sectors. Using Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope and Rich Interactive Narratives technologies, we propose to develop software, media design, and archival management solutions to allow Indigenous communities to share their astronomical knowledge with the world on their terms and in a culturally sensitive manner., Comment: Australian Academic & Research Libraries, Vol. 45(2), pp. 101-110

We measure simultaneously the in-plane electron g-factor and spin relaxation rate in a series of undoped inversion-asymmetric (001)-oriented GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells by spin-quantum beat spectroscopy. In combination the two quantities reveal the absolute values of both the Rashba and the Dresselhaus coefficients and prove that the Rashba coefficient can be negligibly small despite huge conduction band potential gradients which break the inversion symmetry. The negligible Rashba coefficient is a consequence of the 'isomorphism' of conduction and valence band potentials in quantum systems where the asymmetry is solely produced by alloy variations.

We fabricate a highly efficient colour conversion light emitting diode consisting of surface-patterned blue emitters and semiconductor colloidal nanocrystal quantum dots (NQDs). Electrically injected carriers in the blue emitter (donor) are efficiently transferred to the NQDs (acceptor) via nonradiative energy transfer in addition to conventional radiative energy transfer. The existence of nonradiative energy transfer is verified by the simultaneous observation of increased donor emission decay rate, the transient transfer of carriers at the acceptor and a 2-fold enhancement of the NQD electroluminescence.

To an electron moving in free space an electric field appears as a magnetic field which interacts with and can reorient the electron spin. In semiconductor quantum wells this spin-orbit interaction seems to offer the possibility of gate-voltage control in spintronic devices but, as the electrons are subject to both ion-core and macroscopic structural potentials, this over-simple picture has lead to intense debate. For example, an externally applied field acting on the envelope of the electron wavefunction determined by the macroscopic potential, underestimates the experimentally observed spin-orbit field by many orders of magnitude while the Ehrenfest theorem suggests that it should actually be zero. Here we challenge, both experimentally and theoretically, the widely held belief that any inversion asymmetry of the macroscopic potential, not only electric field, will produce a significant spin-orbit field for electrons. This conclusion has far-reaching consequences for the design of spintronic devices while illuminating important fundamental physics., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figs

Measurements of spin dynamics of electrons in a degenerate two dimensional electron gas, where the Dyakonov-Perel mechanism is dominant, have been used to investigate the electron scattering time (tp*) as a function of energy near the Fermi energy. Close to the Fermi energy the spin evolution is oscillatory, indicating a quasi-collision-free regime of spin dynamics. As the energy is increased a transition to exponential, collision-dominated, spin decay occurs. The frequency and the value of tp* are extracted using a Monte Carlo simulation method. At the Fermi energy tp* is very close to the ensemble momentum relaxation time (tp) obtained from the electron mobility. For higher energies tp* falls quadratically, consistent with theoretical expectations for the onset of electron-electron scattering which is inhibited by the Pauli principle at the Fermi energy., Comment: 9 pages 3 figures

Non-radiative optical energy transfer from a GaAs quantum well to a thin overlayer of an infrared organic semiconductor dye is unambiguously demonstrated. The dynamics of exciton transfer are studied in the time-domain using pump-probe spectroscopy at the donor site and fluorescence spectroscopy at the acceptor site. The effect is observed as simultaneous increase of the population decay rate at the donor and of the rise time of optical emission at the acceptor sites. The hybrid configuration under investigation provides an alternative non-radiative, non-contact pumping route to electrical carrier injection that overcomes the losses imposed by the associated low carrier mobility of organic emitters.

We perform an all-optical spin-dynamic measurement of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction in (110)-oriented GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells. The crystallographic direction of quantum confinement allows us to disentangle the contributions to spin-orbit coupling from the structural inversion asymmetry (Rashba term) and the bulk inversion asymmetry. We observe an unexpected temperature dependence of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction strength that signifies the importance of the usually neglected higher-order terms of the Rashba coupling.

Optical pump-probe measurements of spin-dynamics at temperatures down to 1.5K are described for a series of (001)-oriented GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well samples containing high mobility two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs). For well widths ranging from 5 nm to 20 nm and 2DEG sheet densities from 1.75x1011cm-2 to 3.5x1011cm-2 the evolution of a small injected spin population is found to be a damped oscillation rather than exponential relaxation, consistent with the quasi-collision-free regime of D'yakonov-Perel spin dynamics. A Monte Carlo simulation method is used to extract the spin-orbit-induced electron spin precession frequency |W(kF)| and electron momentum scattering time tp* at the Fermi wavevector. The spin decay time passes through a minimum at a temperature corresponding to the transition from collision-free to collision-dominated regimes and tp* is found to be close to the ensemble momentum scattering time tp obtained from Hall measurements of electron mobility. The values of |W(kF)| give the Dresselhaus (BIA) coefficient of spin-orbit interaction as a function of electron confinement energy in the quantum show, qualitatively, the behaviour expected from k.p theory.

We present a detailed experimental and theoretical analysis of the spin dynamics of two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) in a series of n-doped GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells. Picosecond-resolution polarized pump-probe reflection techniques were applied in order to study in detail the temperature-, concentration- and quantum-well-width- dependencies of the spin relaxation rate of a small photoexcited electron population. A rapid enhancement of the spin life-time with temperature up to a maximum near the Fermi temperature of the 2DEG was demonstrated experimentally. These observations are consistent with the D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation mechanism controlled by electron-electron collisions. The experimental results and theoretical predictions for the spin relaxation times are in good quantitative agreement., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

Time-resolved optical measurements in (110)-oriented GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells show a ten-fold increase of the spin-relaxation rate as a function of applied electric field from 20 to 80 kV cm-1 at 170 K and indicate a similar variation at 300 K, in agreement with calculations based on the Rashba effect. Spin relaxation is almost field-independent below 20 kV cm-1 reflecting quantum well interface asymmetry. The results indicate the achievability of voltage-gateable spin-memory time longer than 3 ns simultaneously with high electron mobility., Comment: 4 pages, 4 EPS figures, REVTeX

The D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation mechanism in n-doped GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells (QWs) has been studied both theoretically and experimentally. The temperature dependence of the spin relaxation time has been calculated for arbitrary degeneracy of the 2D electron gas. The comparison between theory and experiment shows that, in high-mobility n-doped QWs, the studied spin decoherence is controlled by electron-electron collisions., Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, accepted to Proc. Int. Symp. "Nanostructures: Physics and Technology" (St-Petersburg, Russia, 2003)

The significance of nuclear spin polarisation in time-resolved optical studies of III-V semiconductors is addressed. Electron Larmor beats in pump-probe reflectivity from a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well show Overhauser shift of 0.7 T due to accumulated nuclear polarisation /I=0.065. This leads to precision values of electron g-factor, elucidates nuclear spin pumping and diffusion mechanisms in quantum wells and informs discussion of implications for spin-electronics and transport., Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures