Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in a four-hole As2S5 chalcogenide microstructured optical fiber

We demonstrate the supercontinuum (SC) generation in a four-hole As₂S₅ chalcogenide microstructured optical fiber (MOF) experimentally. The As₂S₅ glass has better property of transmission than As₂S₃ glass in the visible range. The four-hole As₂S₅ MOF is fabricated by a rod-in-tube method. The SCs generated by different pump wavelengths at 2,000, 2,300 and 2,500 nm in the MOF whose length is from 2.3 to 20 cm are demonstrated. Those pump wavelengths correspond to the chromatic dispersion wavelength in the normal chromatic dispersion region, the anomalous chromatic dispersion region close to zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) and the anomalous chromatic dispersion region far from ZDW, respectively. Wider SCs can be obtained when pumped at a wavelength in the anomalous dispersion region close to ZDW. The widest SC range of 4,280 nm (from 1,370 to 5,650 nm) covering two octaves was obtained in a 4.8-cm-long fiber pumped at 2,300 nm.     

Aromaticity and π-bond covalency: prominent intermolecular covalent bonding interaction of a Kekulé hydrocarbon with very significant singlet biradical character

An anthracene-linked bisphenalenyl Kekulé molecule with very significant singlet biradical character has shown a prominent covalent bonding interaction between molecules in a molecular aggregate. High aromatic stabilization energy in the anthracene linker is responsible for the significant singlet biradical character.     

Iridium-Catalyzed Reductive (3+2) Annulation of Lactams Enabling the Rapid Total Synthesis of (±)-Eburnamonine

A reductive (3+2) annulation of lactams through iridium-catalyzed hydrosilylation and photoredox coupling with α-bromoacetic acid was developed. The iridium-catalyzed hydrosilylation of the lactam carbonyl group and subsequent elimination provide a transient cyclic enamine, which undergoes iridium-catalyzed photoredox coupling with α-bromoacetic acid in a one-pot process. The developed conditions show high functional-group tolerance and provide cyclic N,O-acetals containing a quaternary carbon center. The resulting N,O-acetals undergo a variety of acid-mediated nucleophilic addition reactions via iminium ions to give substituted cyclic amines. The developed sequence including reductive (3+2) annulation and acid-mediated nucleophilic addition was successfully applied to the four-step total synthesis of (±)-eburnamonine.     

Production of high-current large-area H- beams by abucket-type ion source equipped with a magnetic filter

A negative-ion-based neutral beam injection (NBI) system is planned for plasma heating of the Large Helical Device (LHD). We have developed a negative ion source, which is 1/3 the scale of the source for the NBI. A magnetic filter held was generated by external permanent magnets to lower the electron temperature in a large-area bucket plasma source (35 cm×62 cm) for efficient H^- production. We investigated the magnetic field configuration and found a low electron temperature high density plasma (<1 eV, 10¹²/cm³) could be achieved with an optimized configuration, The filter strength (B_max=70 G, line-integral flux=780 G cm at the center axis of the source) was proved to be enough to lower the electron temperature below 1 eV at high arc discharge power (100 kW) and low pressure (0.4 Pa). We injected cesium vapor into the plasma source to enhance H^- production efficiency and obtained a 16.2-A H^- beam current (31 mA/cm², 47 kV) using a large-area, four-grid electrostatic extraction system (25 cm×50 cm). This satisfied the development target (>15 A: 1/3 current of LHD ion source). Based on the results, we are designing a negative ion source for the LHD     

Spin frustration in Y(Sc)Mn2

The relaxation rate of muon polarization of Y_0.97Sc_0.03Mn₂ with a magnetic lattice composed of corner‐shared tetrahedrons shows a broad peak around 2.5 K indicating a random spin freezing at low temperatures. The substitution by nonmagnetic Al atoms for 10% Mn atoms raises the spin freezing temperature to 45 K. The present work shows clearly that due to the strong geometrical frustration, the ground state of the system is singlet tetrahedrons mixed with frozen paramagnetic tetrahedrons. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Coupling of an atmospheric-samling ion source with an ion-trap mass spectrometer

An atomospheric-sampling glow-discharge ionization source has been interfaced with an ion-trap mass spectrometer. Under optimum conditions, the efficiency of ion injection is 1–5%. Several factors have a significant effect on the ion injection efficiency, including the voltages on the three-element lens system situated between the ion-source exit and the ion-trap entrance end-cap, the pressure of the bath gas present in the ion-trap vacuum housing, the nature of the bath gas and the amplitude of the radiofrequency voltage applied to the ring electrode during ion injection. Collision-induced dissociation (and electron detachment from anions) is also observed for some ions on injection, depending on the conditions. The most important experimental variables in determining the extent to which dissociation (or electron detachment) occurs are the nature of the bath gas, the bath gas presure and the radiofrequency voltage applied to the ring electrode during injection. These effects are illustrated with data obtained for polyatomic anions injected from the golw-discharge ion source.     

Linear Separability of Positive Self-Dual Logical Filters

The threshold logic filter is an important nonlinear filter class, which is defined by a threshold logic function of binary input values. It is proved in this paper that not all positive self-dual logical functions are threshold functions if the number of input variables is 5 or more. The positive self-dual logical filter is a limited class but includes almost all filters for noise removal. Our result means that not all positive self-dual filters can be expressed by one operation of the threshold logic filters. In the sense of the filter expression by neural networks, the two-layer network cannot always optimize even this limited class.