Superconductivity in the intermetallic compound YRhAl

The intermetallic compound, YRhAl, has been prepared and is found to be isomorphic with RRhAl (R=Pr, Nd, Gd, Ho and Tm) compounds crystallizing in the orthorhombic TiNiSi-type structure (space group Pnma). Heat capacity and electrical resistivity measurements in the He-3 temperature range reveal that this compound is superconducting with a transition temperature, T_c, of 0.9 K. The electronic specific heat coefficient, γ, and the Debye temperature are found to be 6.1 mJ/mol K and 197 K, respectively. The specific heat jump at the superconducting transition is found to be consistent with the BCS weak-coupling limit. This combined with the earlier observation of superconductivity in LaRhAl (T_c=2.4 K) having a different structure than that of YRhAl, suggests that the underlying structure is not very crucial for the occurrence of superconductivity in RRhAl series of compounds.     

Enhanced hardness in B-doped ZnO thin films on fused quartz substrates by pulsed-laser deposition

B-doped ZnO thin films have been fabricated on fused quartz substrates using boron-ZnO mosaic target by pulsed-laser deposition technique, and the mechanical properties have been studied by nanoindentation continuous stiffness measurement technique and transmission electron microscope (TEM). Nanoindentation measurement revealed that the hardness of B-doped ZnO films, 9.32 ± 0.90 to 12.10 ± 1.00 GPa, is much greater than that of undoped ZnO films and very close to that of traditional semiconductor Si. The mean transmittance (%) is larger than 81% in the visible range (380-780 nm) for all the films, and the Hall effect measurement showed that the carrier density is around 2 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³ and the resistivity lower than 3 × 10⁻³ Ω cm. TEM characteristics show undoped thin films have more amorphous area between grains while the B-doped ZnO films have thin grain boundaries. We suggest that the grain boundaries act as the strain compensation sites and the decrease in thickness of grain boundaries enhances the hardness of the B-doped ZnO films.     

Design and Fabrication of 1.06 μm Resonant-Cavity Enhanced Reflective Modulator with GaInAs/GaAs Quantum Wells

A resonant-cavity enhanced reflective optical modulator is designed and fabricated, with three groups of three highly strained InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells in the cavity, for low voltage and high contrast ratio operation. The quantum wells are positioned in antinodes of the optical standing wave. The modulator is grown in a single growth step in an molecular beam epitaxy system, using GaAs/AlAs distributed Bragg reflectors as both the top and bottom mirrors. Results show that the reflection device has a modulation extinction of 3 dB at -4.5 V bias.     

Introducing Bt Gene Into Maize With Ovary Injection

It is reported here that Bt toxin gene has been successfully transferred into maize inbred line by ovary injection for the first time both at home and abroad. One transgenic plant (To) has been confirmed by Southern blotting and PCR test, and 71 progenies (T1) from T0 have been obtained through self-pollination. Of these 71 progenies, seven plants demonstrated positive results in the PCR test; four were used to feed Asian corn borer, and certain effect of insect-resistance was observed. The experiments on the ovary injection in Hainan Province have also been repeated, thus providing new chance to the application of genetic engineering to the maize improvement.     

分子生物学手段检测转Bt基因棉花中Cry杀虫蛋白的定性和定量方法

建立了转Bt基因棉花中Cry杀虫蛋白的提取、样品前处理以及酶联免疫(ELISA)定量分析方法,并使用凝胶电泳、普通聚合酶链式反应(PCR)和实时荧光定量PCR等分子生物学手段对转基因棉花中的Bt基因进行定性和定量检测.所建立的苏云金芽孢杆菌杀虫晶体蛋白(Cry1Ab蛋白和Cry1Ac蛋白)标准曲线线性关系良好,相关系数r2均大于0.999,相对标准偏差RSD均小于2.0%.方法简单、快速、重现性和精密度好,可为农业食品行业和环境领域科研人员提供一种简便快速地从转基因棉花中检测Bt毒蛋白的分析方法.     

Spectrally selective organic photodiodes

We report on the fabrication of spectrally selective organic photodiodes (OPDs) and present a green sensitive OPD, whose spectral response peaks in the green region between 470 nm and 560 nm, as well as a red sensitive OPD whose spectral response peaks in the red region between 610 nm to 720 nm. We show that the spectral sensitivity of OPDs can be tuned by either choosing organic semiconductors with the appropriate photoresponse or by utilizing adequate device architectures with integrated optical filters. The results demonstrate the great flexibility of organic semiconductor materials. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Viscoelastic characterization of compacted pharmaceutical excipient materials by analysis of frequency-dependent mechanical relaxation processes

A newly developed method for determining the frequency-dependent complex Young's modulus was employed to analyze the mechanical response of compacted microcrystalline cellulose, sorbitol, ethyl cellulose and starch for frequencies up to 20 kHz. A Debye-like relaxation was observed in all the studied pharmaceutical excipient materials and a comparison with corresponding dielectric spectroscopy data was made. The location in frequency of the relaxation peak was shown to correlate to the measured tensile strength of the tablets, and the relaxation was interpreted as the vibrational response of the interparticle hydrogen and van der Waals bindings in the tablets. Further, the measured relaxation strength, holding information about the energy loss involved in the relaxation processes, showed that the weakest material in terms of tensile strength, starch, is the material among the four tested ones that is able to absorb the most energy within its structure when exposed to external perturbations inducing vibrations in the studied frequency range. The results indicate that mechanical relaxation analysis performed over relatively broad frequency ranges should be useful for predicting material properties of importance for the functionality of a material in applications such as, e.g., drug delivery, drug storage and handling, and also for clarifying the origin of hitherto unexplained molecular processes.     

Evaluation of the cross-polarization modulation impact on the conversion efficiency of a four wave mixing process developed in a bulk-SOA

This paper addresses, theoretically and experimentally, the impact of the cross-polarization modulation (XPolM) phenomenon on the conversion efficiency of a four wave mixing (FWM) process taking place in a bulk-SOA with input signals linearly co-polarized at 0°, 45°, 90°, and −45°. Based on the experimental determination of the output polarization states of the pump and probe signals, a technique is proposed to incorporate the XPolM effect in classic models describing the FWM. It is demonstrated that classic models lacking the inclusion of the XPolM effect can reflect a significant error in the estimation of the conversion efficiency.     

Thermodynamic properties of cubic boron nitride under high pressure from ab initio calculations

The equations of state (EOS) and other thermodynamic properties of cubic boron nitride (C-BN) have been studied by the first-principles method under high pressure. Under ambient conditions, our results are consistent with the available experimental data and those calculated by others. At the same time, the dependences of Young’s modulus and the shear modulus of C-BN on pressure P are successfully obtained. Moreover, the variation of the Poisson ratio, Debye temperature, specific heat, and thermal expansion coefficient with pressure P up to 200 GPa at 300 K have been investigated for the first time by means of a quasi-harmonic Debye model, in which phononic effects are considered.     

Low-Threshold High-Temperature Operation of ～7.4μm Quantum Cascade Lasers

We report low-threshold high-temperature operation of 7.4#m strain-compensated InGaAs/lnAIAs quantum cascade lasers （QCLs）. For an uncoated 22-μm-wide and 2-mm-long laser, the low-threshold current densities, i.e. 0.33kA/cm^2 at 81 K in pulsed mode and 0.64kA/cm^2 at 84K in cw mode, are realized. High-temperature operation of uncoated devices, with a high value of 223K, is achieved in cw mode.