Nickel/nickel oxide coatings for fiber batteries

A Nickel–Cadmium fiber micro–battery design consisting of a nickel/nickel oxide coated glass capillary tube, cadmium micro–wire, and polyimide micro–tube was evaluated in this paper. The nickel/nickel oxide thin films were deposited via electrolysis and the quality was evaluated via the effect of the sulfate concentration, plating temperature, plating solution pH, and heat treatment. The maximum voltage range of the fiber batteries ranged from 0.68–1.2 V, while the maximum current supplied by battery ranged from 0.6–1.0 mA. The results of this work demonstrate the feasibility of fiber batteries that can be readily adapted to random or ordered hole fibers and readily integrated into all-fiber optoelectronic devices.     

Accessible new acrylic monomers and polymers as highly transparent organic materials

Theoretical studies of intrinsic absorption phenomena in organic compounds in a range of wavelengths from visible to near-infrared (NIR), led us to synthesize acrylic monomers with variable molar number of CH per cubic centimeter, N_CH. Thus, halogenoalkyl or aryl α-chloroacrylates, α-fluoroacrylates, and methacrylates are prepared. The corresponding homo- and copolymers exhibit good thermal (T_g from 120 to 160°C) and optical properties.     

半导体量子器件物理讲座第七讲半导体异质结光电探测器

光电探测器是一类用于接收光波并转变为电信号的专门器件，文章描述了PIN光电二极`管雪崩光电二极管、MSM（金属－半导体－金属）光电二极管的器件结构和工作原理，并对它们的响应度、噪声、带宽等特性进行了讨论，这类器件已在光通信、光信息处理等许多系统中得到广泛的应用。     

Four channel Mach–Zehnder demultiplexer using multimode interferometers in InP/InGaAsP

1 × 4 and 4 × 4 wavelength demultiplexers using multimode interferometer (MMI) were successfully demonstrated in InP/InGaAsP. Optical transmission characteristics were measured for each input to output for transverse electric (TE)/transverse magnetic (TM) modes. Reduced polarization sensitivity less than 0.3 nm was achieved in 1 × 4 MMI-MZ demultiplexer with –15 dB channel-to-channel cross talk. For 4 × 4 MMI-MZ demultiplexer, the optical crosstalk was well below –16 dB in TM mode for all input to output measurements.     

Fiber grating prism for true time delay beamsteering

This article presents theoretical designs for a beamsteerer that uses one laser source whose wavelength is electrically tuned. Transmit/receive beamsteering of a phased-array antenna is obtained with prism-shaped arrays of fiber Bragg gratings or with waveguided gratings integrated in a semiconductor chip. An analysis of chirped and uniform grating requirements is given.     

Commercialization of metallocene produced polyolefins in Japan

A recent trend in the Japanese polyolefin industry is reviewed focusing on the commercialization of metallocene produced polyolefins. The potential applications of these polyolefins will also be described.     

Control of the Structure and Functions of Biomaterials by Light

Vision and other light-triggered biochemical transformations in plants and living organisms represent a sophisticated biological processes in which optical signals are recorded and transduced as (physico)chemical events. Photoswitchable biomaterials are a new class of substances in which optical signals generate discrete “On” and “Off” states of biological functions, resembling logic gates that flip between 0 and 1 states in response to the changes in electric currents in computers. The (photo)chemistry of photochromic materials has been extensively developed in the past four decades. These materials isomerize reversibly upon light absorption, and the discrete photoisomeric states exhibit distinct spectral and chemical features. Integration of photoisomerizable (or photochromic) units into biomaterials allow their secondary functions such as biocatalysis, binding, and electron transfer to be tailored so that they can be switched on or off. This can be accomplished by chemical modification of the biomaterial by photoisomerizable units and by integration of biomaterials in photoisomerizable microenvironments such as monolayers or polymers. The photoswitchable properties of chemically modified biomaterials originate from the light-induced generation or perturbation of the biologically active site, whereas in photoisomerizable matrices they depend upon the regulation of the physical or chemical features of the photoisomerizable assemblies of polymers, monolayers, or membranes. Light-triggered activation of catalytic biomaterials provides a means of amplifying the recorded optical signal by biochemical transformations, and photostimulated biochemical redox switches allow its electrochemical transduction and amplification. The field of photoswitches based on biomaterials has developed extensively in the past few years within the general context of molecular switching devices and micromachinery. The extensive knowledge on the manipulation of biomaterials through genetic engineering and the fabrication of surfaces modified by biologically active materials enables us to prepare biomaterials with improved optical-switching features. Their application in optoelectronic or bioelectronic devices has been transformed from fantasy to reality. The use of photoswitchable biomaterials in information storage and processing devices (biocomputers), sensors, reversible immunosensors, and biological amplifiers of optical signals has already been demonstrated, but still leaves important future challenges.     

Recent advances in optical bistability

In this paper, recent advances in optical bistability and gating of semiconductors will be reviewed. Nonlinear mechanisms responsible for switching will be described. The advantages of nonlinear etalons for massive parallelism and current problems in performing such operations will be mentioned.