A new numerical method for quasi-particle spectroscopy around a pair of vortices in triplet superconductors

Triplet superconductors such as Sr₂RuO₄ and Na_xCoO₂·yH₂O are now found to be p-wave (p_x±ip_y) or f-wave ((p_x±ip_y)coscp_z) superconductors. In conventional singlet superconductors, vortices are quantized because phase of order parameter must rotate by 2π around a vortex. But triplet superconductors have a degree of freedom of spin, which is described by d-vector. The d-vector and phase can rotate by π around a vortex, separately. Therefore appearance of HQVs is predicted. Theoretically, it is found that a pair of HQVs is more stable than a singly quantized vortex, for several parameter regions.In this study, in order to investigate quasi-particle bound states around two vortices in s-wave superconductors, we have developed a new numerical method to solve the BdG equation for two vortices state, using Mathieu functions. We confirmed the validity of this method for two vortices state and applied it in case of a pair of vortices. And we solved it.     

Facile Synthesis of Hydroxy‐Modified MOF‐5 for Improving the Adsorption Capacity of Hydrogen by Lithium Doping

A facile synthesis of partially hydroxy‐modified MOF‐5 and its improved H₂‐adsorption capacity by lithium doping are reported. The reaction of Zn(NO₃)₂ ? 6 H₂O with a mixture of terephthalic acid (H₂BDC) and 2‐hydroxyterephthalic acid (H₂BDC‐OH) in DMF gave hydroxy‐modified MOF‐5 (MOF‐5‐OH‐x), in which the molar fraction (x) of BDC‐OH^2? was up to 0.54 of the whole ligand. The MOF‐5‐OH‐x frameworks had high BET surface areas (about 3300 m² g^?1), which were comparable to that of MOF‐5. We suggest that the MOF‐5‐OH‐x frameworks are formed by the secondary growth of BDC^2?‐rich MOF‐5 seed crystals, which are nucleated during the early stage of the reaction. Subsequent Li doping into MOF‐5‐OH‐x results in increased H₂ uptake at 77 K and 0.1 MPa from 1.23 to 1.39 wt. % and an increased isosteric heat of H₂ adsorption from 5.1–4.2 kJ mol^?1 to 5.5–4.4 kJ mol^?1.     

Proposal of Rip up & Re allocate Algorithm for Optical Layer 2 Switch Network

We are developing an optical layer-2s witch network that uses both wavelength-division multiplexing and time-division multiplexing technologies for efficient traffic aggregation in metro networks.For efficient traffic aggregation,path bandwidth control is key because it strongly affects bandwidth efficiency.For this paper,we propose a dynamic time-slot allocation method that uses periodic information of difference values of traffic variation.This method can derive near-optimal allocation with lower computational cost,which enlarges the maximum available network size compared with conventional time-slot allocation methods.Numerical results show that the proposed method enables dynamic path control in 1K-node-scale optical layer-2s witch network,which leads to cost-effective metro networks.     

Chemoselective conjugate addition of dimethylzinc-mediated ether and acetal radicals to alkylidenemalonates and asymmetric reactions

Cyclic and acyclic ether or acetal radicals were generated directly from ethers or acetals by the action of dimethylzinc-air, and their subsequent conjugate addition reaction with alkylidenemalonates afforded the corresponding conjugate adducts in reasonably high yields. The reaction with benzylidenemalonates bearing formyl and imino groups gave chemoselectively the conjugate addition products. The asymmetric reaction of bis(8-phenylmenthyl) benzylidenemalonate proceeded diastereoselectively to provide the adduct with 93:7 dr.     

Contrasteric Diels-Alder reactions of 5-methyl-5-phenylcyclopentadiene

The frontier molecular orbital of 5-phenylcyclopentadiene was predicted on the basis of the orbital mixing rule to deform to favor the Diels-Alder reaction in a syn contrasteric manner. The prediction was substantiated experimentally by the reactions of 5-methyl-5-phenylcyclopentadiene with dienophiles to afford the syn attack products, exclusively.     

Total Synthesis of Aculenes B and D

The first total synthesis of aculene D, a structurally rare nordaucane-type natural product exhibiting quorum sensing inhibitory activity, has been accomplished from a known five-membered hydroxy carboxylic acid. Nucleophilic addition of methallylzinc bromide to a β-keto aldehyde intermediate under Barbier conditions to install the secondary hydroxy group on the seven-membered ring of aculene D gave the corresponding alcohol with an undesired configuration predominantly. On the other hand, the protection of its keto group as the ethylene acetal induced a reversal of diastereoselectivity, affording a desired diastereomer in a selective manner. The construction of the seven-membered ring was realized by ring-closing metathesis using a triethylsilyl-protected monocyclic diene ester precursor. An additional five-step manipulation on the cyclization product including the installation of an ethyl group on the five-membered ring completed the synthesis of aculene D, whose esterification with an N-protected l -proline followed by deprotection also achieved the first total synthesis of aculene B.     

Etching characteristics of GaN by plasma chemical vaporization machining

A high‐quality bulk gallium nitride (GaN) substrate, which is suitable for high‐quality homoepitaxial growth, is indispensable for realizing high‐performance GaN devices. With improvement in the quality of the bulk GaN substrate, the removal of subsurface damage induced during surface polishing has become increasingly necessary. To remove the subsurface damage from the bulk GaN substrate, a chemical finishing method that does not produce further damage is required. We applied plasma chemical vaporization machining (CVM) to remove the subsurface damage from the bulk GaN substrate. In this study, we investigated the etching characteristics of GaN by plasma CVM applying atmospheric pressure Cl₂/He plasma. The maximum removal rate in the depth direction by plasma CVM was 9100 nm/min, which is seven times greater than that of reactive ion etching (RIE). The activation energy in plasma CVM was estimated to be 2.1 kcal/mol, which is 1.75 times greater than that in RIE. It is supposed that some of the energy required for the removal reaction in RIE is supplied by ion bombardment, but plasma CVM depends on only a chemical reaction without high‐energy ion collision. This result suggests that plasma CVM is a finishing method that causes less subsurface damage than RIE. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gene transfer device utilizing micron-spiked electrodes produced by the self-organization phenomenon of Fe-alloy

In the diffusional phase transformation of two-phase alloys, the new phase precipitates form the matrix phase at specific temperatures, followed by the formation of a mixed microstructure comprising the precipitate and the matrix. It has been found that by specific chemical-etching treatment, the precipitate in Fe-25Cr-6Ni alloy projects substantially and clusters at the surface. The configuration of the precipitate has an extremely high aspect ratio: it is several microns in width and several tens of microns in length (known as micron-spiked). This study targets the development of a gene transfer device with a micro-spike produced based on the self-organization phenomenon of the Fe-25Cr-6Ni alloy. With this spike-projected device, we tried to efficiently transfer plasmid DNA into adherent cells by electric pulse-triggered gene transfer using a plasmid-loaded electrode (electroporation-based reverse transfection). The spiked structure was applied to a substrate of the device to allow efficient gene transfer into adherent cells, although the general substrate was flat and had a smooth surface. The results suggest that this unique spike-projected device has potential applications in gene transfer devices for the analysis of the human genome in the post-genome period.     

Rotational dynamics of benzene and water in an ionic liquid explored via molecular dynamics simulations and NMR T1 measurements

The rotational dynamics of benzene and water in the ionic liquid (IL) 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride are studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and NMR T(1) measurements. MD trajectories based on an effective potential are used to calculate the (2)H NMR relaxation time, T(1) via Fourier transform of the relevant rotational time correlation function, C(2R)(t). To compensate for the lack of polarization in the standard fixed-charge modeling of the IL, an effective ionic charge, which is smaller than the elementary charge is employed. The simulation results are in closest agreement with NMR experiments with respect to the temperature and Larmor frequency dependencies of T(1) when an effective charge of ±0.5e is used for the anion and the cation, respectively. The computed C(2R)(t) of both solutes shows a bi-modal nature, comprised of an initial non-diffusive ps relaxation plus a long-time ns tail extending to the diffusive regime. Due to the latter component, the solute dynamics is not under the motional narrowing condition with respect to the prevalent Larmor frequency. It is shown that the diffusive tail of the C(2R)(t) is most important to understand frequency and temperature dependencies of T(1) in ILs. On the other hand, the effect of the initial ps relaxation is an increase of T(1) by a constant factor. This is equivalent to an "effective" reduction of the quadrupolar coupling constant (QCC). Thus, in the NMR T(1) analysis, the rotational time correlation function can be modeled analytically in the form of aexp (-t/τ) (Lipari-Szabo model), where the constant a, the Lipari-Szabo factor, contains the integrated contribution of the short-time relaxation and τ represents the relaxation time of the exponential (diffusive) tail. The Debye model is a special case of the Lipari-Szabo model with a = 1, and turns out to be inappropriate to represent benzene and water dynamics in ILs since a is as small as 0.1. The use of the Debye model would result in an underestimation of the QCC by a factor of 2-3 as a compensation for the neglect of the Lipari-Szabo factor.