A new 3,4-dihydronaphthalen-1(2H)-one from the leaves of Cinnamomum philippinense

Investigation of the leaves extract of Cinnamomum philippinense (Merr.) Chang (Lauraceae) led to the isolation of one novel compound, cinnamophilin D. Its structure was determined through in-depth spectroscopic and mass-spectrometric analyses.     

Low-noise fiber optics receiver with super-beta bipolar transistors

Abstract

A low-noise wideband optical fiber receiver has been successfully designed using super-beta bipolar transistors (BJTs) at the front end. Even with commercially available super-beta devices, which are not optimized for our application, the obtainable input sensitivity for medium- and high-bandwidth optical receivers is comparable or superior to the best FET design. To demonstrate this concept, a 10-MHz analog receiver was built with a super-beta BJT at the input stage. This receiver achieved an expected average input noise current density of less than 0.4 PA/√Hz over the full bandwidth for a transresistance of 500 kΩ. Detailed design procedures are given in this paper. The noise characteristics of a 50-MHz receiver using super-beta BJTs are also obtained.     

Ultra-broadband amplified spontaneous emission source by using heterogeneous optical amplifier

In this work, we propose and experimentally investigate an ultra-broadband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) light source with 113.8 nm bandwidth (1446.2 to 1560.0 nm) by using a cascaded two-stage optical amplifier, which is consisted of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA, 1st stage) and erbiumdoped fiber amplifier (EDFA, 2nd stage), when the output intensity is above ?35 dBm/0.01 nm. And, the EDFA only uses a 3 m long erbium-doped fiber (EDF) with a 27 mW pumping power and SOA is driven at 200 mA bias current. Moreover, the proposed amplifier also can provide a broadband gain amplification of 114 nm in the wavelengths of 1464.0 and 1578.0 nm with the noise figure distribution of 6.8 to 8.1 dB.     

An energy-efficient tie-type architecture for stable and wavelength-tunable SOA-based fiber laser

A new and energy-efficient tie-type architecture for stable and wavelength-tunable semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based fiber ring laser is proposed and experimentally investigated. Here, the tie-type laser configuration is constructed by two Sagnac fiber loops. The proposed laser also can extend the lasing wavelength to longer wavelength (L-band) even only the C-band SOA is used. The proposed tie-type architecture has >5 dB higher output optical power at bias current of 80 mA when compared with the single ring SOA-based fiber laser. In this measurement, the output power, wavelength tuning range, side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) and output stability of proposed fiber laser have also been analyzed and discussed.     

Phantom investigation of phase-inversion-based dual-frequency excitation imaging for improved contrast display

Objective

The goal of this work is to examine the effects of pulse-inversion (PI) technique in combination with dual-frequency (DF) excitation method to separate the high-order nonlinear responses from microbubble contrast agents for improvement of image contrast. DF excitation method has been previously developed to induce the low-frequency ultrasound nonlinear responses from bubbles by using the composition of two high-frequency sinusoids (f₁ and f₂).

Motivation

Although the simple filtering was conventionally utilized to provide signal separation, the PI approach is better in the sense that it minimizes the mutual interferences among these high-order nonlinear responses in the presence of spectral overlap. The novelty of the work is that, in addition to the common PI summation, the PI subtraction was also applied in DF excitation method.

Methods

DF excitation pulses having an envelope frequency of 3 MHz (i.e., f₁ = 8.5 MHz and f₂ = 11.5 MHz) with pulse lengths of 3-10 μs and the pressure amplitudes from 0.5 to 1.5 MPa were used to interrogate the nonlinear responses of SonoVue™ microbubbles in the phantom experiments. The high-order nonlinear responses in the DF excitation were extracted for contrast imaging using PI summation for even-order nonlinear components or PI subtraction for odd-order nonlinear ones.

Results

Our results indicated that, as compared to the conventional filtering technique, the PI processing effectively increases the contrast-to-tissue ratio (CTR) of the third-order nonlinear response at 5.5 MHz and the fourth-order nonlinear response at 6 MHz by 2-5 dB. For these high-order nonlinear components, the CTR increase varies with the transmission pressures from 0.5 to 1.5 MPa due to the microbubbles’ displacement induced by the radiation force of DF excitation.

Conclusions

For DF excitation technique, the PI processing can help to extract either the odd-order or the even-order nonlinear components for higher CTR estimates.     

Synthesis of new nanocrystal-polymer nanocomposite as the electron acceptor in polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells

A hydroxyl-coated CdSe nanocrystal (CdSe-OH) and a CdSe-polymer nanocomposite were synthesized and used as the electron acceptors in polymer solar cells (PSCs). The CdSe-polymer composite was prepared via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of N-vinylcarbazole on functionalized CdSe quantum dots. Physical properties and photovoltaic characteristics of the CdSe-poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (CdSe-PVK) nanocomposite have been investigated. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results displayed higher thermal stability for CdSe-PVK nanohybrid in comparison with the linear-type PVK polymer. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies indicated that CdSe-PVK had a lower glass-transition temperature (T_g) in comparison with PVK due to the branch effect of the star-shaped polymer hybrid. Cyclic voltammetric (CV) measurements were performed to obtain HOMO and LUMO values of PVK and CdSe-PVK. TEM and SEM micrographs exhibited CdSe nanoparticles were well coated with PVK polymer. Both CdSe-OH and CdSe-PVK were blended with poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and used as the active layer in bulk heterojunction solar cells. Polymer solar cell based on CdSe-PVK as acceptor revealed that the photovoltaic properties can be significantly improved when PVK polymer chains were grafted on surfaces of CdSe nanocrystals. In comparison with the P3HT:CdSe-OH system, PSC based on P3HT:CdSe-PVK showed an improved power conversion efficiency (0.02% vs. 0.001%). Film topography studied by AFM further confirmed the better device performance was due to the enhanced compatibility between P3HT and CdSe-PVK.     

Hydrogen etching on the surface of GaN for producing patterned structures

The morphology of GaN etched in hydrogen atmosphere is investigated. It is found that GaN surfaces have different profiles after being etched at different pressures. The profile resembles a surface that has been decorated with columns or mooring posts at high pressure and with deep cavities at low pressure. Etch pit density (EPD) experiment shows all dislocations have been etched to form cavities at low pressure, but not all the cavities result from etched dislocations. A model has been developed to explain the mechanism of H₂ etching. Patterned structure with a flat surface and porous inside has been produced by two-step etching which is designed according to the model.