Size Effect of the Immediate Surround for the Border between the Natural and Unnatural Object Color Appearance

The border luminance of the test stimulus between the natural and unnatural object color, y_ynB_u was obtained for different spatial sizes of the immediate surround to prove that _nB_u can be determined based on a new recognized visual space of illumination (RVSI) that is assumed to be constructed for the immediate surround separately from the RVSI for the subjects room itself. The _nB_u of five test stimuli were determined for six different sizes covering from zero to 1866 cm² with four different lightnesses, N4, N6 and N8, while keeping the room illuminance constant at 100 or 600 lx. The results showed that luminance of the border _nB_u gradually decreased as the size of the immediate surround was increased and that the decrease was larger for immediate surround with lower lightness. The results were interpreted as showing a new RVSI constructed for the spatial extent of the immediate surround of the test stimulus, and the RVSI was more completely constructed for larger spatial size of the immediate surround. © 2005 The Optical Society of Japan     

Electroluminescence properties of In-doped Zn2SiO4 thin films prepared by sol–gel process

The effect of In doping on the electroluminescence (EL) properties of Zn₂SiO₄:In thin films was investigated. In-doped Zn₂SiO₄ thin films were deposited on BaTiO₃ substrates and their EL properties were characterized in this study. X-ray powder diffraction patterns of In-doped Zn₂SiO₄ powders revealed a single phase of Zn₂SiO₄ for In concentrations up to approximately 1.5 mol%, whereas a secondary phase of In₂O₃ was observed for In concentrations in the range of 2–10 mol%. The maximum luminance of thin film electroluminescent (TFEL) devices varied significantly with the amount of In doping. The highest luminance with blue emission was obtained when 2 mol% In was doped. The blue emission of In-doped Zn₂SiO₄ thin film may be related to the In substitution for Zn. The 2 mol% In-doped Zn₂SiO₄ thin film exhibited blue emission with CIE color coordinates of x=0.208 and y=0.086.     

Effects produced by metal-coated near-field probes on the performance of silicon waveguides and resonators

We study the effects of metal-coated fiber near-field probes on the performance of nanophotonic devices. Employing a heterodyne near-field scanning optical microscope and analyzing transmission characteristics, we find that a metal-coated probe can typically introduce a 3 dB intensity loss and a 0.2 rad phase shift during characterization of a straight waveguide made in a silicon-on-insulator system. In resonant nanophotonic structures such as a 5 mum radius microring resonator, we demonstrate that the probe induces a 1 nm shift in resonant wavelength and decreases the resonator quality factor, Q, from 1100 to 480.     

Proton magnetic resonance studies of quantum mechanical tunnelling of ammonium ions in several ammonium salts

Proton magnetic resonance spectra were measured at 1·8 K for the compounds NH₄Br, NH₄I, NH₄SCN, (NH₄)₂CrO₄, and NH₄NO₃. The observed derivative curves cannot be explained on the basis only of the dipolar interactions between protons in the NH₄ ⁺ ion held rigidly in the crystal lattices. We considered the effect of quantum mechanical tunnelling on the rotation of an NH₄ ⁺ ion about its C₃-axis and calculated the theoretical lineshapes for various assumed values of the tunnelling splitting constants. Comparison between experiment and theory is quite satisfactory, and the tunnelling splitting constants, Δ, in the librational ground state of the ammonium ion in these salts are determined. It is found that there is a linear relation between the Δ values and the potential barrier to reorientation.     

Visual Acuity Depends on Perceived Size

Increasing (or decreasing) the convergence angle can shrink (or expand) the perceived size of an object without changing its retinal size. The present report deals with the question of whether such a change in perceived size affects visual acuity. We investigated the effects of perceived size on the legibility of letters, using a telestereoscope which can control the observer’s convergence angle while keeping the size of the retinal image constant. We demonstrated that letters do become more legible (illegible) as perceived size expands (shrinks), although their retinal size stays constant. Then, we measured the ‘threshold’ size of the convergence angle, at which letters became legible from illegible, for several retinal sizes (0.1 to 0.2 deg) of letters. The result shows that the threshold decreases as the retinal size of letters decreases, so that the minimum retinal size of legible letters depends on the convergence angle. This implicates contributions from the size perception at higher levels of the visual system to the determination of visual acuity.     

Analysis of labor productivity using large-scale data of firm’s financial statements

We investigated labor productivity distribution by analyzing large-scale financial statement data consisting of listed and unlisted Japanese firms to clarify the characteristics of the Japanese labor market. Both high and low productivity sides of the labor productivity distribution follows the power-law distribution. Large inequality in the low productivity side was observed only for the manufacturing sectors in Japan fiscal year (JFY) 1999 and observed for both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors in JFY 2002. The decline in the Japanese GDP in JFY 1999 and JFY 2002 were coincided with the large inequality in the low productivity side of the distribution. A lower peak was found for all non-manufacturing sectors. This might be the origin of the low productivity of the non-manufacturing sectors reported in recent economic studies.     

UHV-SEM observations of cleaning process and step formation on silicon (111) surfaces by annealing

The cleaning process and step formation by high temperature annealing up to 1250°C on the Si(111) surface are observed by an ultra-high-vacuum scanning electron microscope (UHV-SEM). The clean surface is composed of alternate planes of terraces and step bands with widths of several μm and 1 μm, respectively, in the 〈1?1?2〉 direction. Both planes are inclined by about 10° to each other. The surface steps are not only monolayer steps, but also higher steps comprising several monolayers. Monolayer steps join to form a high step, and 70–80 steps of several monolayers high form a step band by bunching in an average distance of several hundred A toward the 〈1?10〉 direction. The step structure depends on the annealing temperature and on the angle at which the cutting plane is off from the exact 〈111〉 orientation. In several studies of high energy reflection electron microscopy under small grazing angle incidence monolayer steps were observed on the terrace, but no rough structures like the step bands and high steps could be discerned. The step structure observed by the present experiment is compared with those observed by previous workers.     

Anisotropic optical properties of pure and doped polyacetylene

Optical absorption and reflection measurements have been carried out on pure and doped polyacetylene films. The absorption data are consistent with a model of (CH)_X as a direct gap quasi-l d semiconductor; doping with AsF₅ or iodine introduces absorption within the gap, but appears to leave the interband transition intact. The anisotropic reflectance from partially aligned films and the increased optical anisotropy upon doping provide evidence of quasi-l d behavior of the semiconducting pure polymer and the metallic doped polymer.     

The electronic structures of cis-polyacetylene

The electronic structures of two possible forms of the so-called $\text{cis}$-skeletal polyacetylene ($\text{cis}$-polyacetylene) are investigated on the basis of the tight-binding LCAO-SCF-MO method under the CNDO/2 version. The analyses of the total energies per unit cell, the π bond orders and the interatomic interaction energies as to the both forms predict the $\text{cis}$-transoid backbone for the $\text{cis}$-polyacetylene. The examination of the patterns of particular molecular orbitals of the hypothetical $\text{cis}$-polymer with equal C-C bond lengths also supports the $\text{cis}$-transoid form.     

A differential geometrical consideration on a “nonlocal” field

In this paper, the concept of “nonlocality”, which is carried by the internal variable (ω) ascribed to each point (x), is first investigated generally in connection with the concept of “unified” gauge field. Next, as a typical example, a Finslerian “nonlocal” field is considered, which is obtained by taking for ω a vector (ξ), and two examples are proposed: one is a unified field with Randers metric and the other is a micro-gravitational field endowed with space-time fluctuation.