Poly(p‐phenylenevinylene) presenting pendent pentaphenylene dendron groups for light‐emitting diodes

We have synthesized, using the Gilch method, a novel poly(p‐phenylenevinylene) derivative (PPV‐PP) containing two pendent pentaphenylene dendritic wedges, and have characterized its structure and properties. The incorporated side chain pentaphenylene dendrons serve as solubilizing groups, prevent π‐stacking interactions from occurring between the polymer main chains, and suppress the formation of excimers in the solid state. Photoluminescence studies indicate that efficient intramolecular energy transfer occurred from the photoexcited pentaphenylene groups to the poly(p‐phenylenevinylene) backbone. The polymer film exhibits a maximum emission at 510 nm and had a photoluminescence efficiency of 46%, which is similar to that measured in dilute solution. The photoluminescence spectra remained almost unchanged after thermal annealing at 150 °C for 20 h, and displayed inhibited excimer formation. Polymer light‐emitting diodes that we fabricated in the configuration ITO/PEDOT/PPV‐PP/Mg:Ag/Ag exhibited a maximum emission peak at 513 nm, corresponding to the green region [x = 0.30 and y = 0.62 in the Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinates]. The maximum brightness and maximum luminance efficiency were 1562 cd/m² and 1.93 cd/A, respectively. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 5147–5155, 2005     

Ablation of Transparent Materials Using Excimer Lasers for Photonic Applications

For many years, the development of effective ablation or laser machining techniques for making micro-optical components has been the key factor in the birth of new photonic devices and systems. In this article, the ablation characteristics of two types of the most important transparent materials, transparent polymers and glasses, are studied. Simple shaped microcavities are first machined for studying the fundamental ablation parameters, including threshold fluence, effective absorption coefficient, and ablation rate. In studying polymer ablation, five standard grades and five proprietary polymeric compounds are selected. Ablation techniques using these transparent polymers for making arrayed ferrules and curved microlenses are presented. Applications of these ablated microstructures for optical fiber connectors, optical fiber coupling and alignment, and transparent chip encapsulants, are introduced and demonstrated with emphasis on the quality of the ablated profiles and dimensions to satisfy the required performance. In glass ablation, borosilicate glasses are considered and their associated ablation behaviors are studied. The procedures to ablate glass-based arrayed microstructures with flat and curved surfaces are described. The utilizations of these arrayed microstructures for optical waveguide, wave absorber, and beam guider, are specifically discussed. Finally, concluding remakes for future trends are presented.     

Resistive switching polymer materials based on poly(aryl ether)s containing triphenylamine and 1,2,4‐triazole moieties

A series of poly(aryl ether)s were successfully prepared via aromatic nucleophilic substitution reaction from various bisphenols and a novel bipolar aryl difluoride monomer containing electron‐donor triphenylamine and electron‐acceptor 1,2,4‐triazole moieties. The poly(aryl ether)s exhibited excellent solubility in organic solvents such as dimethylformamide, chloroform, and tetrahydrofuran at room temperature. The poly(aryl ether)s showed high thermal stability with T_d10 higher than 500 °C and glass transition temperatures (T_g) higher than 187 °C. The thin films of the poly(aryl ether)s indicated bistable resistive switching behavior with ON/OFF current ratios as high as 10³. The switching on and switching off bias voltages of the poly(aryl ether)s were affected by the bisphenol moiety. The good resistive switching behavior of the poly(aryl ether)s made them promising candidates for future nonvolatile memory applications. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 6861–6871, 2008     

Finite element technique to solve the elastic strain for Leonov fluid flow

The finite element method is used to find the elastic strain (and thus the stress) for given velocity fields of the Leonov model fluid. With a simple linearization technique and the Galerkin formulation, the quasi-linear coupled first-order hyperbolic differential equations together with a non-linear equality constraint are solved over the entire domain based on a weighted residual scheme. The proposed numerical scheme has yielded efficient and accurate convective integrations for both the planar channel and the diverging radial flows for the Leonov model fluid. Only the strain in the inflow plane is required to be prescribed as the boundary conditions. In application, it can be conveniently incorporated in an existing finite element algorithm to simulate the Leonov viscoelastic fluid flow with more complex geometry in which the velocity field is not known a priori and an iterative procedure is needed.     

The average performance of a parallel stable marriage algorithm

In this paper, Tseng and Lee's parallel algorithm to solve the stable marriage prolem is analyzed. It is shown that the average number of parallel proposals of the algorithm is of ordern by usingn processors on a CREW PRAM, where each parallel proposal requiresO(loglog(n) time on CREW PRAM by applying the parallel selection algorithms of Valiant or Shiloach and Vishkin. Therefore, our parallel algorithm requiresO(nloglog(n)) time. The speed-up achieved is log(n)/loglog(n) since the average number of proposals required by applying McVitie and Wilson's algorithm to solve the stable marriage problem isO(nlog(n)).     

Rapid determination of cobalt-60 in sea water with steel wool adsorption

A rapid adsorption method has been developed to determine the⁶⁰Co content in sea water samples. The⁶⁰Co activity is concentrated by filtering the water sample through an adsorption column of steel work. A 60-liter sample can be processed in 1 h with 95% adsorption efficiency.     

Global linear convergence of a path-following algorithm for some monotone variational inequality problems

We consider a primal-scaling path-following algorithm for solving a certain class of monotone variational inequality problems. Included in this class are the convex separable programs considered by Monteiro and Adler and the monotone linear complementarity problem. This algorithm can start from any interior solution and attain a global linear rate of convergence with a convergence ratio of 1 ?c/√m, wherem denotes the dimension of the problem andc is a certain constant. One can also introduce a line search strategy to accelerate the convergence of this algorithm.     

Instant capture of recoil51Cr(III) from neutron activated K2CrO4

We have recently developed a new method of measuring the initial⁵¹Cr(III) produced from nuclear recoil of K₂CrO₄. In our method, K₂CrO₄ was mixed with MgO in the presence of a small amount of water, and the mixture was irradiated in a nuclear reactor. After irradiation, the mixture was dissolved in water, and MgO precipitate was separated from the solution. The yield of recoil⁵¹Cr(III) could be calculated from the⁵¹Cr activity in the precipitate measured. On the other hand, the yield of retention of⁵¹Cr as chromate could be calcualted from the activity found in the supernatant. The⁵¹Cr(III) yield thus obtained is almost a factor of 2 higher than observed in pure K₂CrO₄ without mixing with MgO, irradiated under the same condition. Another important observation is that the⁵¹Cr(III) yield is independent of irradiation time in the presence of MgO. Without MgO, the observed⁵¹Cr(III) yield decreases with increasing irradiation time, suggesting possible oxidation of Cr(III) to chromate during irradiation. This variation is not observed in the system of K₂CrO₄ containing MgO, indicating that the initial Cr(III) is adsorbed immediately after nuclear recoil by MgO and is protected from oxidation by gamma radiation.