Search

International audience; Snow interception drives spatial heterogeneity of snow under forest canopies and displays significant differencesbetween forested, open and alpine areas at a variety of scales. Beyond giving a first order control on snow accu-mulation, interception by canopy drives other processes. A prime example is canopy albedo, as large differencesare readily visible between forest canopy albedo with and without intercepted snow. As such a correct parameteri-zation of interception is necessary as it drives many physical processes important for snow hydrology, climatologyand meteorology studies. However, current parameterizations of snow interception have not always beenable to preserve the large variance of snow beneath canopies at all scales. Various snow interception parameter-izations are applied in land surface models but are generally not validated for different snow climates and/or scales.Here, we developed parameterizations for spatial mean and standard deviation of interception over horizon-tal scales of 50 m. They were developed from a comparison of (1) computed forest structure metrics (sky viewfactor and standard deviation) from a high-resolution Lidar derived digital terrain model and (2) an existingdataset of several thousand interception measurements collected after nine storm events in a coniferous forest inthe Eastern Swiss Alps. By scaling open area snow precipitation with the calculated forest structure metrics, wecomputed spatial mean and standard deviation of forest canopy interception. We obtained similar performancestatistics compared to previously suggested parameterizations, i.e. a RMSE of 1.3 cm (1 mm SWE) for spatialmean and 0.6 cm (0.4 mm SWE) for the standard deviation of canopy interception.Furthermore, we then validated both new interception parameterizations with data from two different geo-graphic regions and snow climates, namely from a study site in Utah, U.S. and one in the French Alps. Thiscomparison suggests that our sub-grid parameterizations for snow interception are applicable in models to describesnow depth heterogeneities for different snow climates and mountain forest environments

The relative contributions of eight nitrated aromatic compounds (NACs: nitrophenols and nitrated salicylic acids) to the light absorption of aqueous particle extracts and particulate brown carbon were determined from aerosol particle samples collected in Germany and China.High-volume filter samples were collected during six campaigns, performed at five locations in two seasons: (I) two campaigns with strong influence of biomass-burning (BB) aerosol at the TROPOS institute (winter, 2014, urban background, Leipzig, Germany) and the Melpitz research site (winter, 2014, rural background); (II) two campaigns with strong influence from biogenic emissions at Melpitz (summer, 2014) and the forest site Waldstein (summer, 2014, Fichtelgebirge, Germany); and (III) two CAREBeijing-NCP campaigns at Xianghe (summer, 2013, anthropogenic polluted background) and Wangdu (summer, 2014, anthropogenic polluted background with a distinct BB episode), both in the North China Plain. The filter samples were analyzed for NAC concentrations and the light absorption of aqueous filter extracts was determined. Light absorption properties of particulate brown carbon were derived from a seven-wavelength aethalometer during the campaigns at TROPOS (winter) and Waldstein (summer). The light absorption of the aqueous filter extracts was found to be pH dependent, with larger values at higher pH. In general, the aqueous light absorption coefficient (Abs370) ranged from 0.21 to 21.8 Mm−1 under acidic conditions and 0.63 to 27.2 Mm−1 under alkaline conditions, over all campaigns. The observed mass absorption efficiency (MAE370) was in a range of 0.10–1.79 m2 g−1 and 0.24–2.57 m2 g−1 for acidic and alkaline conditions, respectively. For MAE370 and Abs370, the observed values were higher in winter than in summer, in agreement with other studies. The lowest MAE was observed for the Waldstein (summer) campaign (average of 0.17 ± 0.03 m2 g−1), indicating that freshly emitted biogenic aerosols are only weakly absorbing. In contrast, a strong relationship was found between the light absorption properties and the concentrations of levoglucosan, corroborating findings from other studies. Regarding the particulate light absorption at 370 nm, a mean particulate light absorption coefficient babs, 370 of 54 Mm−1 and 6.0 Mm−1 was determined for the TROPOS (winter) and Waldstein (summer) campaigns, respectively, with average contributions of particulate brown carbon to babs, 370 of 46 % at TROPOS (winter) and 15 % at Waldstein (summer). Thus, the aethalometer measurements support the findings from aqueous filter extracts of only weakly absorbing biogenic aerosols in comparison to the more polluted and BB influenced aerosol at TROPOS (winter). The mean contribution of NACs to the aqueous extract light absorption over all campaigns ranged from 0.10 to 1.25 % under acidic conditions and 0.13 to 3.71 % under alkaline conditions. The high variability among the measurement sites showed that the emission strengths of light-absorbing compounds and the composition of brown carbon were very different for each site. The mean contribution of NACs to the particulate brown carbon light absorption was 0.10 ± 0.06 % (acidic conditions) and 0.13 ± 0.09 % (alkaline conditions) during the Waldstein (summer) campaign and 0.25 ± 0.21 % (acidic conditions) and 1.13 ± 1.03 % (alkaline conditions) during the TROPOS (winter) campaign. The average contribution of NACs to the aqueous extract light absorption over all campaigns was found to be 5 times higher than their mass contribution to water-soluble organic carbon indicating that even small amounts of light-absorbing compounds can have a disproportionately high impact on the light absorption properties of particles.

In this work we have experimentally and numerically studied the non-radiative intersubband (ISB) relaxation in n-type Ge/SiGe quantum well (QW) systems. Relaxation times have been probed by means of pump-probe experiments. An energy balance model has been employed to interpret the experimental differential transmission spectra and to assess the relevance in the non-radiative relaxation dynamics of both electron and lattice temperature as well as of the carrier density. The comparison between experimental data and theoretical simulation allowed us to calibrate the interaction parameters which describe the electron-optical phonon scattering in 2D Ge systems. Characteristic relaxation times has been calculated and compared with those of GaAs QWs as a function of the 2D electron density, of the subband energy separation, and of the lattice and electronic temperature. We found that ISB relaxation times for the Ge/SiGe systems are generally shorter than what previously calculated when the electron distribution was neglected. Nonetheless, our main result is thatthe relaxation time in Ge/SiGe QW systems is longer than 10 ps, also for transition energies above the Ge optical phonon energy, up to 300 K. Furthermore, we obtained that the relaxation times are at least one order of magnitude longer than in GaAs-based systems.

We observe all-optical switching (AOS) in ferrimagnetic Fe100-xTbx alloy films below, above, and in samples without a magnetic compensation point. AOS is linked to a low remanent magnetization MR and associated with laser heating up to the Curie temperature. Above MR = 220 emu/cc AOS is replaced by pure thermal demagnetization.

In this paper, we have experimentally and numerically studied the nonradiative intersubband (ISB) relaxation in n-type Ge/SiGe quantum well (QW) systems. Relaxation times have been probed by means of pump-probe experiments. An energy balance model has been used to interpret the experimental differential transmission spectra and to assess the relevance in the nonradiative relaxation dynamics of both electron and lattice temperature as well as of the carrier density. The comparison between experimental data and theoretical simulation allowed us to calibrate the interaction parameters which describe the electron-optical phonon scattering in two-dimensional (2D) Ge systems. Characteristic relaxation times has been calculated and compared with those of GaAs QWs as a function of the 2D electron density, of the subband energy separation, and of the lattice and electronic temperature. We found that ISB relaxation times for the Ge/SiGe systems are generally shorter than that previously calculated when the electron distribution was neglected. Nonetheless, our main result is that the relaxation time in Ge/SiGe QW systems is longer than 10 ps, also for transition energies above the Ge optical phonon energy, up to 300 K. Furthermore, we obtained that the relaxation times are at least one order of magnitude longer than in GaAs-based systems.

The free-electron laser facility FELBE in Dresden, a unique source of intense, quasi-cw, nearly transform-limited ps pulses in the mid-infrared and terahertz (THz) regimes, provides unique research opportunities. In high-quality semiconductor quantum wells, we investigate the dynamics of excitons, i.e. two-dimensional, hydrogen-like electron-hole quasi-atoms. Tuning FELBE in resonance with the transition between the excitonic 2s and 2p states (at ca. 2 THz) allows us to study the dynamics of intra-excitonic population transfer. Moreover, strong terahertz pumping results in a characteristic Rabi splitting of the 1s exciton state, which is a manifestation of the intra-excitonic Autler-Townes effect. In semiconductor quantum dots, resonant THz excitation between different sublevels is shown to produce an absorption contrast in aperture-less scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM). This effect allows us to obtain functional s-SNOM images with deep sub-wavelength resolution, where the contrast originates from far-infrared absorption by single electrons. Quantum dots are also known to have very long electronic relaxation times caused by a reduced phase space for optical phonon scattering. We will report on THz four-wave mixing experiments demonstrating that the associated electronic coherence times approximately equal the population relaxation time at low temperatures. This property makes quantum dots promising for quantum optical applications at THz frequencies.