Morphology-dependent photoluminescence property of red-emitting LnOCl:Eu (Ln=La and Gd)

Three different synthetic methods, the liquid phase process in HCl solution, the solvothermal reaction, and the surfactant-assisted solvothermal reaction, were explored to selectively control the particle shape and to enhance the luminescence intensity of the PbFCl-type red-emitting oxychloride phosphors LnOCl:Eu (Ln=La and Gd). The solvothermal pressure facilitated the low-temperature crystallization of the rod-shape particles for both Ln=La and Gd. It is noted that LaOCl:Eu nanorods show highly porous particle surface and quite low photoemission intensity. In contrast, the solvothermal synthesis could highly enhance the red-emission of GdOCl:Eu with no porous surface so as to be comparable to that of commercial Y₂O₃:Eu phosphor. An addition of surfactant material during solvothermal reaction yielded a rhomboidal-shape phosphor particles with no porous surface for both Ln=La and Gd. Interestingly, the elimination of surface porosity by using a surfactant significantly increased the emission intensity of LaOCl:Eu. It is proposed that the application of solvothermal technique for the synthesis of the PbFCl-type oxychloride phosphors is very effective to selectively control the particle shape and consequently to enhance the photoemission intensity if we use an appropriate surfactant material.     

A new mean field SA-SA' critical point in a symmetry breaking field

We consider a S_A-S_A' critical point in the presence of a symmetry-breaking external magnetic (electric) field with a positive magnetic (dielectric) anisotropy or a dislocation layer. Via a renormalization group analysis of the model hamiltonian, we show that the upper critical dimensions below which mean-field theory breaks down is d_c = 2·5. Thus the S_A-S_A' transition in three dimensions becomes mean-field like in the presence of a symmetry-breaking field. We estimate the reduced temperature region where we can expect to see the mean field S_A-S_A' critical point in the presence of a magnetic field or a dislocation layer.     

Beam Combination using Stimulated Brillouin Scattering for the Ultimate High Power-Energy Laser System Operating at High Repetition Rate over 10 Hz for Laser Fusion Driver

After the laser was invented in 1960, a phase conjugation mirror has been respected to be the most fantastic one for the laser resonator composition because it can compensate any distortions of the laser beams occurred by the many inhomogenuities of the laser media and optical components. Among the many phase conjugation configurations, the stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation mirror is the most simple one and many researchers have tried to utilize it to develop high power/energy laser systems. For realizing a high energy/power laser system the thermal problem is the most difficult to solve, and some researchers suggested a beam combination technique to reduce the thermal load of the big laser media to many small sized ones. To accomplish the beam combination using stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation mirrors (SBS-PCMs), it is necessary to lock/control the phases of the SBS-PCMs. And some researchers have developed several ways for it, but they can lock the phases of a limited number of beams overlapped at the foci less than 5, or lock the phases by back-seeding technique but it loses the phase conjugation characteristics. For realization of the laser fusion driver, it is necessary to combine more than 10 or 100 beams. And the authors have developed recently a new phase controlling/locking technique which is isolated and independent totally from other beams and it can be applied to an unlimited number of beams in principle.     

Synthesis and characterization of novel perfluorinated polyimides with 3D‐controlled structures for photonic applications

We have designed and synthesized novel perfluorinated polyimides with 3D controlled structure. At first, we successfully developed the new synthetic routes to diamines with pendant bulky perfluorinated aromatic units in a multi‐step synthetic procedure. Novel perfluorinated polyimides were prepared in a two‐step reaction in N‐methyl‐2‐pyrrolidinone (NMP) solution: The first step was for the synthesis of polyamic acids (PAAs) and the second reaction was for the imidization of PAA. The polymer yield was over 89% and the inherent viscosity of PAAs was in the range of 0.24–0.36 dL/g. The thin films were prepared by spin‐coating the PAA solution in NMP onto various substrates such as a Si wafer or a KBr pellet, dried at 80 °C and further cured at 230 °C. The resultant polyimides are thermally stable over 400 °C. The refractive index and birefringence of the resultant polyimides are 1.5858–1.6452 and 0.01–0.005, respectively. The refractive index of polyimide decreases with increasing the fluorine content. The copolymerization and the ether linkages into the backbone reduce the birefringence of polyimides. Surprisingly, the pendant ether linkage is not a crucial factor in reducing the polyimide birefringence. Their birefringence is comparatively very low, compared with that of previous polyimides. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 1326–1342, 2006     

Synthesis and luminescence characteristics of conjugated dendrimers with 2,4,6‐triaryl‐1,3,5‐triazine periphery

We have synthesized conjugated dendrimer with triazine peripheries, and their luminescence properties were investigated. The dendrimers consist of dendritic triazine wedges for electron transport, distyrylbenzene core as an emitting moiety, and t‐butyl peripheral groups for good processing properties. The dendrimers have LUMO values of about ?2.7 eV possibly because of the triazine moiety with high electron affinity. Photoluminescence study indicates that energy transfer occurs from the triazine wedges to the stilbene bridge, and finally to the core chromophore units due to a cascade decrease of bandgap from the peripheral wedge to core moiety. Therefore, the emission wavelength was determined by the structure of the core unit. The energy transfer efficiency of distyrylbenzene‐cored dendrimers was about 75 and 55% for Trz‐1GD‐DSB and Trz‐2GD‐DSB, respectively. A preliminary electroluminescence property also was investigated. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 254–263, 2006     

Tristimulus colorimetry using a digital still camera and its application to determination of iron and residual chlorine in water samples.

Tristimulus colorimetry using a digital still camera (DSC) as a colorimeter has been developed. A photograph of a sample and standard solutions was taken simultaneously with the DSC, and it was transferred to a PC. On the PC, the colors of the sample and of the standard solutions were analyzed and L* (brightness), a* (red-green component), and b* (yellow-blue component) values were determined with laboratory-made software. A dedicated light-box containing white-color LEDs as light source was made of white acrylic to make constant exposure at each photograph. Various settings of the DSC, such as exposure mode, white balance, and so on, that affect analytical figures, were studied with determination of iron with 1,10-phenanthroline. This method was successfully applied to the determinations of iron in a river water sample and of residual chlorine in tap water samples with N,N-diethylphenylenediamine (DPD).     

Emission characteristics of Cu in Dc voltage modulation applied glow discharge optical emission spectrometry.

In order to obtain the depth profile of a thin film, we investigated the emission characteristics of a voltage modulation glow discharge to optimize the modulation parameters (modulation voltage, offset voltage, and modulation frequency). In this study, a phase-sensitive detection method with a lock-in amplifier to the modulation technique led to a higher sensitivity and a larger signal-to-noise ratio in the emission analysis compared to the normal dc amplification method. Upon increasing the maximum voltage, the emission intensity of the Cu atomic line (CuI 239.34 nm) increased linearly at a modulation voltage of 400 V and an offset voltage of 300 V. On the other hand, the emission intensity was gradually reduced when a modulation frequency increased. It is advantageous for surface analysis that the voltage modulation technique gives a lower sputtering rate rather than the conventional dc discharge.     

Direct single-layered fabrication of 3D concavo–convex patterns in nano-stereolithography

A nano-surfacing process (NSP) is proposed to directly fabricate three-dimensional (3D) concavo–convex-shaped microstructures such as micro-lens arrays using two-photon polymerization (TPP), a promising technique for fabricating arbitrary 3D highly functional micro-devices. In TPP, commonly utilized methods for fabricating complex 3D microstructures to date are based on a layer-by-layer accumulating technique employing two-dimensional sliced data derived from 3D computer-aided design data. As such, this approach requires much time and effort for precise fabrication. In this work, a novel single-layer exposure method is proposed in order to improve the fabricating efficiency for 3D concavo–convex-shaped microstructures. In the NSP, 3D microstructures are divided into 13 sub-regions horizontally with consideration of the heights. Those sub-regions are then expressed as 13 characteristic colors, after which a multi-voxel matrix (MVM) is composed with the characteristic colors. Voxels with various heights and diameters are generated to construct 3D structures using a MVM scanning method. Some 3D concavo–convex-shaped microstructures were fabricated to estimate the usefulness of the NSP, and the results show that it readily enables the fabrication of single-layered 3D microstructures. PACS 85.40.Hp; 81.16.Nd; 42.82.Cr     

Instrumental neutron activation analysis of mass fractions of toxic metals in plastic

It is very challenging to decompose a plastic product for the purpose of analysis of hazardous elements contained. To circumvent such technical problem, it is imperative that an analyst employ a nondestructive analytical method free of any pretreatments. The analytical results of the concentrations of toxic metals such as Cd and Cr in polypropylene for seven samples at two different levels were obtained using the instrumental neutron activation analysis. This work was intended ultimately to establish certified reference materials (CRMs) of these metals in the polypropylene, traceable to the SI. The uncertainties associated with the analytical procedures were estimated in accordance with the ISO guideline. The results were subsequently validated by a comparison with those for CRM-680 and −681 of the Bureau Communautaire de Reference (BCR), which demonstrated acceptable agreement within their uncertainty ranges.     

Proof of semialgebraic covering mapping cylinder conjecture with semialgebraic covering homotopy theorem

In this paper we prove the semialgebraic version of Palais' covering homotopy theorem, and use this to prove Bredon's covering mapping cylinder conjecture positively in the semialgebraic category. Bredon's conjecture was originally stated in the topological category, and a topological version of our semialgebraic proof of the conjecture answers the original topological conjecture for topological G-spaces over “simplicial” mapping cylinders.