University of California, Santa Barbara

About: University of California, Santa Barbara is a education organization based out in Santa Barbara, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Laser. The organization has 30281 authors who have published 80852 publications receiving 4626827 citations. The organization is also known as: UC Santa Barbara & UCSB.

Ultrafast Long-Range Charge Separation in Organic Semiconductor Photovoltaic Diodes

Abstract: Understanding the charge-separation mechanism in organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) could facilitate optimization of their overall efficiency. Here we report the time dependence of the separation of photogenerated electron hole pairs across the donor-acceptor heterojunction in OPV model systems. By tracking the modulation of the optical absorption due to the electric field generated between the charges, we measure ~200 millielectron volts of electrostatic energy arising from electron-hole separation within 40 femtoseconds of excitation, corresponding to a charge separation distance of at least 4 nanometers. At this separation, the residual Coulomb attraction between charges is at or below thermal energies, so that electron and hole separate freely. This early time behavior is consistent with charge separation through access to delocalized π-electron states in ordered regions of the fullerene acceptor material.

Ecological consequences of phenotypic plasticity.

Abstract: Phenotypic plasticity is widespread in nature, and often involves ecologically relevant behavioral, physiological, morphological and life-historical traits. As a result, plasticity alters numerous interactions between organisms and their abiotic and biotic environments. Although much work on plasticity has focused on its patterns of expression and evolution, researchers are increasingly interested in understanding how plasticity can affect ecological patterns and processes at various levels. Here, we highlight an expanding body of work that examines how plasticity can affect all levels of ecological organization through effects on demographic parameters, direct and indirect species interactions, such as competition, predation, and coexistence, and ultimately carbon and nutrient cycles.

Larval retention and recruitment in an island population of a coral-reef fish

Abstract: For close to a century, recruitment of larvae to a local population has been widely accepted as a primary determinant of marine population dynamics1,2. However, progress in elucidating the causes of recruitment variability has been greatly impeded by our ignorance of the sources of recruits. Although it is often assumed that recruitment is independent of local reproduction3,4,5,6, there is increasing circumstantial evidence that physical7,8 and behavioural9,10 mechanisms could facilitate larval retention near source populations. To develop a direct method for reconstructing the dispersal history of recruiting larvae, we put forward the hypothesis that differences in nutrient and trace-element concentrations between coastal and open oceans could result in quantifiable differences in growth rate and elemental composition between larvae developing in coastal waters (locally retained) and larvae developing in open ocean waters (produced in distant locations). Using this method, we show that recruitment to an island population of a widely distributed coral-reef fish may often result from local retention on leeward reefs. This result has implications for fisheries management and marine reserve design, because rates of dispersal between marine populations—and thus recruitment to exploited populations—could be much lower than currently assumed.

Kepler-16: A Transiting Circumbinary Planet

Abstract: We report the detection of a planet whose orbit surrounds a pair of low-mass stars. Data from the Kepler spacecraft reveal transits of the planet across both stars, in addition to the mutual eclipses of the stars, giving precise constraints on the absolute dimensions of all three bodies. The planet is comparable to Saturn in mass and size and is on a nearly circular 229-day orbit around its two parent stars. The eclipsing stars are 20 and 69% as massive as the Sun and have an eccentric 41-day orbit. The motions of all three bodies are confined to within 0.5° of a single plane, suggesting that the planet formed within a circumbinary disk.