Elasticity transition and loop formation in vibrated bead chains: A simulation of polymer chains

By measuring the distribution function of the end-to-end distance, we find that strongly shaken bead chains exhibit many properties, such as the rigid-rod-to-Gaussian chain transition, scaling, fast drop of loop formation probability in the short-chain regime, and enhancement of loop formation probability for kinked chains, of long-chain polymers. Though there is difference in local details between our chains and the worm-like chains, our results are consistent with recent calculations based on the worm-like chain model in many respects.     

Chalcogen-based thin film transistor using CuInSe2 photo-active layer

We propose chalcogen-based photo-thin film transistor (P-TFT) using CuInSe₂ (CIS) homo-junction. By using a tri-layer process, we fabricated n- and p-type CIS films. Optical and electrical properties of the fabricated CIS films are measured to be suitable for homo-junction. For the fabrication of a P-TFT, n-type CIS generating higher photo current was used for a channel layer whereas p-type CIS with higher carrier density was used for source and drain. The fabricated transistor exhibited typical transistor operation of p-channel enhancement mode and current increase with light.     

Memory characteristics of platinum nanoparticle-embedded MOS capacitors

The capacitance characteristics of platinum nanoparticle (NP)-embedded metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) capacitors with gate Al₂O₃ layers are studied in this work. The capacitance versus voltage (C–V) curves obtained for a representative MOS capacitor exhibit flat-band voltage shifts, demonstrating the presence of charge storages in the platinum NPs. The counterclockwise hysteresis and flat-band voltage shift, observed from the C–V curves imply that electrons are stored in a floating gate layer consisting of the platinum NPs present between the tunneling and control oxide layers in the MOS capacitor and that these stored electrons originate from the Si substrate. Moreover, the charge remains versus time curve for the platinum NP-embedded MOS capacitor is investigated in this work.     

SIM(2)-invariant modifications of electrodynamic theory

In the Cohen–Glashow Very Special Relativity we exhibit possible modifications to the Maxwell theory and to the quantum electrodynamics Lagrangian in some generality, and discuss characteristic features depending on the modifications. Modified gauge transformations in SIM(2)-invariant theories are introduced and the related gauge fields, with two polarization states, can have nonzero mass. Also considered are SIM(2)-covariant modifications to the Proca-type field equations for a massive spin-1 particle.     

Piston error characteristics of the self-phase-controlled stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugate mirrors

It was reported by Kong et al. that the self-phase-controlled stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugate mirror (SBS-PCM) is useful for the beam combination laser amplifier system, which generally introduces a phase delay (piston error) between combined beams along separate optical paths. In this work, we have investigated the piston error characteristics of two schemes for self-phase-controlled SBS-PCMs, a collinear scheme and a triangular scheme. Experimental results show that the piston errors of the reflected beams are 2kδ and kδ for the former and the latter scheme, respectively, where k is the wave number and δ is the optical path difference (OPD) variation introduced into the pass.     

Femtosecond laser embedded grating micromachining of flexible PDMS plates

We report on the femtosecond laser micromachining of photo-induced embedded diffraction grating in flexible Poly (Dimethly Siloxane) (PDMS) plates using a high-intensity femtosecond (130 fs) Ti: sapphire laser (λ_p = 800 nm). The refractive index modifications with diameters ranging from 2 μm to 5 μm were photo-induced after the irradiation with peak intensities of more than 1 × 10¹¹ W/cm². The graded refractive index profile was fabricated to be a symmetric around from the center of the point at which femtosecond laser was focused. The maximum refractive index change (Δn) was estimated to be 2 × 10⁻³. By the X-Y-Z scanning of sample, the embedded diffraction grating in PDMS plate was fabricated successfully using a femtosecond laser.     

Nanoscale formation mechanism of conducting filaments in NiO thin films

We have studied the nanoscale electrical properties of NiO thin films by using conducting atomic force microscopy (CAFM) to understand the mechanism of resistance change of the NiO thin films as we changed the applied voltage. We observed that inhomogeneous conducting filaments were generated by external voltage bias; in addition, some of the inhomogeneous conducting filaments were durable while some of them were not, and they disappeared. We deduced that the resistance change of the NiO thin films was related to inhomogeneous filamentary conducting paths generated by both Ni ions in thermodynamically unstable NiO and the existence of conducting filament segments generated by high voltage bias.     

A fast estimation of sonar cross section of acoustically large and complex underwater targets using a deterministic scattering center model

In this paper, a fast method is proposed to estimate the sonar cross section of acoustically large and complex underwater targets such as submarines and torpedoes. The proposed method is based on a deterministic scattering center model which constructs scattering center database by using a combining method of physical optics and geometric optics and then reconstructs sonar cross section patterns from that database with a polynomial interpolation with respect to the incident angle. The parametric studies to find appropriate intervals of the reference incident angle are systematically carried out for simple targets such as a flat square plate and an orthogonal dihedral. Moreover, to validate the proposed method, sonar cross sections of real-like targets such as a pressure hull and an idealized submarine are calculated. The comparisons show that the results by the proposed method are in good agreement with those by the direct calculation.     

Irreversible structural transformation of Si(1 1 4)-2 × 1 induced by subsurface carbon

Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), it has been found that the reconstruction of Si(1 1 4) is transformed irreversibly from a 2 × 1 structure composed of dimer (D), rebonded atom (R), and tetramer (T) rows (phase A) to a different kind of 2 × 1 structure composed of D, T, and T rows (phase B) by C incorporation. It has been confirmed by high-resolution synchrotron core-level photoemission spectroscopy (PES) that such an irreversible structural transformation is due to stable subsurface C atoms. They induce anisotropic compressive stress on the surface, which results in insertion of Si dimers to an R row to form a T row.