Spontaneous two-photon emission from a single quantum dot

Spontaneous two-photon emission from a solid-state single quantum emitter is observed. We investigated photoluminescence from the neutral biexciton in a single semiconductor quantum dot coupled with a high Q photonic crystal nanocavity. When the cavity is resonant to the half energy of the biexciton, the strong vacuum field in the cavity inspires the biexciton to simultaneously emit two photons into the mode, resulting in clear emission enhancement of the mode. Meanwhile, the suppression of other single photon emission from the biexciton was observed, as the two-photon emission process becomes faster than the others at the resonance.     

Improved phase hologram design for generating symmetric light spots and its application for laser writing of waveguides

The improved method for calculation of a phase hologram and its application to laser writing of waveguides with a spatial light modulator are presented. It was found that the amplitude and phase distributions of light spots generated by a phase hologram can be distorted compared to those of a focused single beam. The distortion of light spots could be reduced by adding a simple constraint, in which light intensities around a light spot should be as small as possible, to the conventional calculation method of a phase hologram. It was also demonstrated that the improved calculation method can be considered essential for laser writing of waveguides.     

Possibility of QCD critical point sweep during black hole formation

We discuss the possibility to probe the QCD critical point during the dynamical black hole formation from a gravitational collapse of a massive star, where the temperature and the baryon chemical potential become as high as T∼90 MeV and μB∼1300 MeV. Comparison with the phase boundary in chiral effective models suggests that quark matter is likely to be formed before the horizon is formed. Furthermore, the QCD critical point may be probed during the black hole formation. The critical point is found to move in the lower temperature direction in asymmetric nuclear matter, and in some of the chiral models it is found to be in the reachable region during the black hole formation processes.     

Establishment of a confluent cardiomyocyte culture in a cylindrical microchannel

We established a confluent cardiomyocyte culture method using an 800-μm diameter cylindrical microchannel in this report. This was realized by introducing cardiomyocytes 2 times before and after turning over a microchip. The optimum condition was starting the flowing medium 2.0 h after seeding and flowing the medium at 1.0 μL/min. By applying this technology to a cardiomyocyte-based spherical heart pump device, one may develop self-fluid regulated devices that could be applied for implantable or circulation analysis device on a chip.     

Microchip-based plasma separation from whole blood via axial migration of blood cells

Highly efficient cell-free plasma separation from 200 μL of human whole blood was realized via axial migration of blood cells and cross-flow filtration in a microchip. Although various analyses of small volumes of blood have been reported, a large volume of blood is necessary for obtaining blood cells and plasma for the conventional plasma separation technique of centrifugation. A highly efficient plasma separation method using small volumes of blood without hemolysis is an important issue. We developed a plasma separation method based on a microchip with a filter, which utilizes the axial migration of blood cells observed in blood vessels. Clogging and hemolysis on the filter can be prevented by the axial migration of the blood cells. Using this method, 65% of the plasma from 200 μL of whole blood was successfully separated without hemolysis. When the plasma separation microchip interfaced with a micro-ELISA system was applied to C-reactive protein (CRP) analysis, the CRP concentration obtained by the microchip showed good correlation with that obtained by conventional centrifugation. Total analysis time, including plasma separation, was achieved in only 25 min.     

Synthesis and modification of silicon nanosheets and other silicon nanomaterials

Silicon nanomaterials and nanostructures exhibit different properties from those of bulk silicon materials based on quantum confinement effects. They are expected to lead to the development of new applications of silicon, in addition to wide use in semiconductor devices. Aside from industrial interest, intriguing issues of academic interest still remain with respect to the origins of their characteristic properties. Zero- and one-dimensional crystalline silicon nanomaterials have been synthesized, to date, by using many methods and there has been rapid progress in size control and modification procedures. However, there have been only a few examples of silicon nanomaterials with atomic-order thickness akin to carbon nanomaterials, such as two-dimensional silicon nanosheets. Moreover, mass production of silicon nanomaterials with relatively low cost is not easily achievable, due to the typically severe conditions required for fabrication, such as high temperature and ultralow pressure. Recently, we have developed a soft synthetic method for silicon nanosheets with chemical surface modification in a solution process. This review provides methods for the synthesis and modification of silicon nanosheets and other silicon nanomaterials with examples of their potential applications.     

Ab-initio study of long-period superstructures and anti-phase boundaries in Al-rich γ-TiAl (L10)-based alloys

In this work, we report first-principles investigation of structural stability of all experimentally observed ordered long-period superstructures (LPSs), viz., r-Al₂Ti, h-Al₂Ti, Al₅Ti₃ along with Al₅Ti₃′, Al₁₁Ti₇ and Al₃Ti₂ LPSs, which are observed only as short-range ordered clusters at nanoscale level in Al-rich TiAl-based alloys. We adopt a procedure based on space-filling tiling arrangement of ordered Ti₂Al, Ti₃Al, Ti₄Al motifs and their combination along with a symmetry analysis programme to determine the unit cell and the crystallographic information of Al₅Ti₃′, Al₁₁Ti₇ and Al₃Ti₂ LPSs in terms of L1₀ fcc unit cell. First-principles calculations are performed to further refine these crystallographic parameters (Wyckoff positions and lattice parameters) obtained from the above procedure. Moreover, it is found that the family of five LPSs have subgroup–supergroup relationships with γ-TiAl (Sp. gr. P4/mmm) and among themselves. Further, we find the inherent stability of r-Al₂Ti?+?γ-TiAl and 2Al₅Ti₃?+?γ-TiAl phase mixtures at 0?K compared to isomolecular Al₃Ti₂ and Al₁₁Ti₇ LPSs at their respective concentrations. The calculations of single-crystal elastic constants of Al₅Ti₃, Al₁₁Ti₇, Al₃Ti₂ and Al₅Ti₃′ LPSs show all these four structures are mechanically stable. We also calculate antiphase boundary (APB) formation energies for two types of APBs, viz., type-A and type-C in ordered Al₅Ti₃ LPS using the supercell approach. The relaxed APB energies for type-A and type-C APBs are 15.44 and 124.16?mJ/m², respectively.     

1H MAS, 13C CP/MAS, and 2H NMR spectra studies of piperidinium {\emph{p}}-chlorobenzoate

Anomalous H/D isotope effects were detected in the ¹H MAS NMR spectra of piperidinium p-chlorobenzoate (C₅H₁₀NH $_{2}{^{+}}\cdot $ ClC₆H₄COO^???) upon deuterium substitution of hydrogen atoms which form two kinds of N-H?O H-bonds in the crystal; in contrast to these spectra, only slight chemical shifts were recorded in ¹³C CP/MAS NMR spectra. ²H NMR spectrum of the deuterated sample show quadrupole coupling constants of 148 and 108 kHz, and reveal that there are a few motions contributing to the electric-field modulation of the ²H nucleus. The ¹H MAS NMR spectra of piperidinium p-chlrobenzoate-d ₁₆ (C₅D₁₀ND $_{2}{^{+}}\cdot $ ClC₆D₄COO^???) and -d ₁₄ (C₅D₁₀NH $_{2}{^{+}}\cdot $ ClC₆D₄COO^???) revealed that the change in the envelope is caused by chemical shifts of each signal upon deuteration. Calculations based on the density-functional-theory showed that the N-H distance along the crystallographic a-axis mainly contributes to the anomalous isotope effects on ¹H MAS NMR envelopes.