Classical in-plane negative magnetoresistance and quantum positive magnetoresistance in undoped InSb thin films on GaAs (1 0 0) substrates

Magnetoresistance (MR) effects have been investigated in perpendicular and parallel magnetic fields at 300, 80 K and liquid He temperatures for undoped InSb thin films 0.1–2.3 μm thick grown on GaAs(1 0 0) substrates by MBE. At high temperatures, the intrinsic carriers show the parabolic negative MR observable only in magnetic fields parallel to the film. The skipping-orbit effect due to surface boundary scattering in the classical orbits in the plane vertical to the film has been argued to be responsible for the negative MR. At low temperatures (T=80 K), the transport is dominated by the two-dimensional (2D) electrons in the accumulation layers at the InSb/GaAs(1 0 0) hetero interface; MR is positive and shows a logarithmic increase with anisotropy between parallel and perpendicular field orientation, arising from the 2D weak anti-localization (WAL) that reflects the interplay between the spin-Zeeman effect and strong spin–orbit interaction caused by the asymmetric potential at the interface (Rashba term). The zero-field spin splitting energy of Δ₀13 meV, the electron effective mass of m^*0.10m₀ seven times of the band edge mass in bulk InSb and the effective g-factor of |g^*|15 in the accumulation layer have been inferred from fits of MR for the 0.1 μm thick film to the 2D WL theory.     

Status of heavy element research using a gas-filled recoil separator at RIKEN

A gas-filled type of recoil separator for heavy element research was installed at an experimental hall of RIKEN Linear Accelerator facility to realize getting higher intensity of primary beam and long beam time. Performance of the separator was studied using target recoils and various nuclear reactions. The results show the high performance of the separator for heave element research. As an application of the GARIS, production and identification of an isotope of the 110th element ²⁷¹[110] have been performed using the ²⁰⁸Pb(⁶⁴Ni,1n)²⁷¹[110] reaction. Three decay chains coincide well both in decay times and energies with the ones reported by the group of SHIP experiment at GSI, Germany. Our results provide a confirmation of the synthesis of an isotope ²⁷¹[110] of element 110.     

A new luciferase reporter gene assay for the detection of androgenic and antiandrogenic effects based on a human prostate specific antigen promoter and PC3/AR human prostate cancer cells.

We developed a new mammalian cell-based luciferase reporter gene assay for androgenic and antiandrogenic activities of chemicals and environmental samples. Environmental samples usually have a complex matrix that may contain the constituents acting as androgen receptor (AR) agonists, AR antagonists or aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) agonists. AhR agonists are known to elicit the antiandrogenic effect through cross-talk between AR and AhR signal transduction pathways. In this study, PC3/AR human prostate carcinoma cells were transiently transfected with a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) promoter-driven luciferase expression plasmid. The cells were treated with a test compound or an environmental sample for 24 h at 37 degrees C and then measured for luciferase activity. The luciferase activity was induced by dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in a concentration-dependent manner in a concentration range from 10 fM to 1 nM. R1881, a synthetic androgen receptor agonist, induced luciferase activity and its inductive effects was additive to that of DHT. The luciferase activity was not induced by cortisol, a glucocorticoid, progesterone, a progestin, and 17beta-estradiol, an estrogen in a concentration range of up to 1 microM. DHT-induced luciferase activity was reduced by bicalutamide and cyproterone acetate, AR antagonists, and also by benzo[a]pyrene, an aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonist, through AhR-mediated pathways. All of these findings indicate that the present assay system correctly responds to AR agonists, AR antagonists and AhR agonist and, therefore, it is a powerful tool for the sensitive and selective screening of chemicals and environmental samples for their androgenic and antiandrogenic activities. We developed the first assay system, in which the expression of luciferase was driven by the promoter of a prostate-specific antigen gene, a typical human androgen-regulated gene.     

Cerasome as an Organic-Inorganic Vesicular Nanohybrid: Characterization of Cerasome-Forming Lipids having a Single or a Dual Trialkoxysilyl Head

Morphological characterization of the organic-inorganic vesicular nanohybrids, Cerasomes, was performed in aqueous media from two aspects. Firstly, a novel Cerasome-forming lipid having two triethoxysilyl groups in the head moiety was synthesized and the physical property of the Cerasome was investigated. While the morphological stability of the Cerasomes, as evaluated from the vesicular collapse behavior against a micelle-forming nonionic surfactant, Triton-X 100, was extremely higher than that of the conventional phospholipid liposome, the stabilities were comparable to each other for the Cerasomes derived from the dual- and single-head lipids. On the other hand, the surface property of the Cerasome formed with the dual-head lipid more closely resembled the colloidal silica particles rather than that derived from the single-head lipid, as suggested by zeta-potential measurements. Secondly, the effect of the media pH on the morphological stability of the Cerasome formed with the single-head lipid was evaluated and appeared as a time difference in obtaining the morphological stability of the Cerasome. These morphological characteristics of the Cerasomes could be mainly owing to the development of the siloxane network on the vesicular surface.     

Development of high-speed video cameras for Dynamic PIV

The most promising next generation Image Velocimtry (IV) is the high-speed Dynamic PIV. It requires the development of innovative high-speed video camera sensors. We started by specifying the required performance of these new sensors, for measurements in air and water flows. These criteria founded on the most recent developments in PIV algorithms and incorporate results from a large questionnaire survey of users of high-speed video cameras in Japan. The results suggest that the followings are required: (1) frame rate of 1,000,000 fps, (2) pixel count of 1,000,000 pixels, (3) frame storage capacity of 100–200 frames for tracing a single event and 10,000 frames for turbulent measurements, (4) gray levels of 4–8 bits for PTV; 12 bits for observation. Finally, we reviewed the state of the art of high-speed video-image sensors. Currently the standard parallel-readout sensors can operate at 1 Kfps with a pixel count of approximately 1 Kpixels. The In-situ Storage Image Sensor (ISIS) developed by the authors has recently achieved frame rates of 1 Mfps.     

A system for measuring absolute frequencies of up to 4.25 THz using a Josephson point contact

A system for measuring the absolute frequency of a far-infrared (FIR) laser is described. Josephson point contacts have been utilized in the system as a frequency harmonic mixer connecting microwaves and optically pumped CH₃OH laser lines. The Josephson point contacts are capable of generating beat signals of 90 GHz microwaves and FIR waves of up to 4.25 THz. To measure the frequency of the beat signals from the Josephson junction with a frequency counter, tracking oscillators have been developed, which tracks the beat signals by phase locking and regenerate clean signals for frequency counting. It is shown that the absolute frequency can be measured to an accuracy of about 100 Hz by using the tracking oscillators.     

Self-Restoration Properties of VWP Networks by Spare Wavelength Optimization

The self-restoration properties in VWP networks are investigated with optimization about spare wavelength by simulations. Rapid restoration can be achieved by selection of rerouting path with long delay and no delay-limitation for new routes.     

Degree Sums and Covering Cycles

It is shown that if in a simple graph G of order n the sum of degrees of any three pairwise non-adjacent vertices is at least n, then there are two cycles (or one cycle and an edge or a vertex) of GF that contain all the vertices. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Magnetic pole pinning at rectangular defects on MnAs/GaAs(0 0 1)

Strong magnetic poles at characteristic rectangular defects have been observed using a magnetic force microscope on a MnAs(  1 0 0) thin film with the thickness of 30 nm. The MnAs thin film was epitaxially grown on a GaAs(0 0 1) substrate. The magnetic poles were in one-arranging direction, being independent of the magnetization direction of the film. The poles were pinned at the edges of the rectangular defects until just below the Curie temperature, and formed a stable magnetic-field loop on the MnAs surface. The stability of the magnetic pole pinning shows the distinctive feature of the magnetic domain structure on the surface with a strong anisotropy, which was built in the heterostructure of MnAs and GaAs.