Synthesis of crescent aromatic oligoamides

[structures: see text] This article describes the synthetic procedures for the preparation of crescent (and helical) aromatic oligoamides developed in recent years in our laboratory. The large-scale preparation of a variety of monomers derived from various tetrasubstituted benzenes is presented. Three different strategies for constructing various oligomers consisting of meta- and meta/para-linked benzene residues are discussed. Factors affecting coupling efficiency and yields are analyzed. The developed synthetic methods have provided the basis for the preparation of longer oligomers and for the development of solid-phase synthesis.     

Laser cooling of atoms, ions, or molecules by coherent scattering

We point out a laser cooling method for atoms, molecules, or ions at low saturation and large detuning from the particles' resonances. The moving particle modifies the field inside a cavity with a time delay characteristic of the cavity linewidth, while the field acts on the particle via the light shift. The dissipative mechanism can be interpreted as Doppler cooling based on preferential scattering rather than preferential absorption. It depends on particle properties only through the coherent scattering rate, opening new possibilities for optically cooling molecules or interacting atoms.     

An extended interaction oscillator based on a complex resonatorstructure

We report experimental investigation of a novel scheme for efficient interaction between a linear electron beam and an electromagnetic wave in a complex extended interaction structure. The structure of interest consists of a high R/Q, five-gap, coupled-cavity resonator that incorporates a coaxial section of a quarter plasma wavelength placed between the first and second cavities. In the coaxial section, beam and wave propagate in separate channels. The first cavity, strongly coupled to the other cavities through the wave channel of the coaxial section, serves as a buncher cavity. An inner channel running through the center conductor of the coaxial section provides a cutoff drift space for ballistic bunching of electrons, an effect that is shown to significantly enhance the interaction efficiency. Oscillation power of 2.2 kW at 16.6 GHz was demonstrated with an interaction efficiency of 30%. The total efficiency was further increased to 41% by incorporation of a two-stage depressed collector     

Filter synthesis for periodically coupled microring resonators

The theory of filter synthesis using periodically coupled microring resonators is developed as a means to overcome the fabrication sensitivities inherent in conventional higher-order filters, while still achieving desirable spectral characteristics. Each resonator in the array can compensate for deficiencies in any of the others. These filters exhibit a boxlike shape and very high extinction ratios.     

Nurses allocation models for maternal and child health services

Maternal and Child Health (MCH) centres in Hong Kong offer, for children aged below six and women of childbearing age, a comprehensive range of health services regularly performed by nurses of different ranks. While each rank has its specific duties, nurses of a higher rank can step down to the work of a more junior rank when necessary. However, cross-regional deployments of nurses occur less frequently. We develop goal programming models of ‘optimal’ MCH nurses allocation. The presence and absence of nurses’ ‘cross-over’ of work functions are explicitly considered. The results show that more equitable manpower levelling can be achieved, with flexibility (in the longer term) on cross-regional deployment of nurses as a possible way of operational improvement when the entire MCH service is taken as a whole.     

Sol-gel-derived pyroelectric barium strontium titanate thin films for infrared detector applications

Quality pyroelectric Ba_0.8Sr_0.2TiO₃ films have been successfully fabricated by a sol-gel processing using a highly diluted precursor solution. The remnant polarization of the films decreases with the temperature increasing, which results in a large pyroelectric coefficient at room temperature. Infrared response measured using a 500-K chopped blackbody at room temperature exhibits a typical pyroelectric response waveform. Frequency dependence of the infrared response measurement for a pixel with area of 2.5×10^-3 cm² showed that the maximum response output voltage of 3.2 mV was obtained at 6 Hz. Better infrared response can be expected by the improvement in thermal isolation of the pixels and electrode materials. Received: 26 April 2000 / Accepted: 9 May 2000 / Published online: 9 August 2000     

Synthesis of faceted and cubic Ag2S nanocrystals in aqueous solutions

With thiourea (Tu) as sulfur source and the assistance of CTAB, faceted and cubic Ag2S nanocrystals have been synthesized successfully via a simple hydrothermal route by modulating the ratio of Tu and AgNO3, respectively. It is the first report that the fabrication of faceted and cubic Ag2S nanocrystals takes place in aqueous medium, which makes the synthesis environmentally benign, user-friendly, economical and practicable to industry production. It is also found that the cooperation effect of CTAB and Tu should be responsible for the formation of the as-obtained Ag2S nanocrystals. The UV-vis absorption spectrum of the products shows obvious blue shift.     

Oxygen vacancy density-dependent transformation from infrared to Raman active vibration mode in SnO2 nanostructures

Raman spectra acquired from spherical, cubic, and cuboid SnO2 nanocrystals (NCs) reveal a morphologically independent Raman mode at ～302?cm(-1). The frequency of this mode is slightly affected by the NC size, but the intensity increases obviously with decreasing NC size. By considering the dipole changes induced by oxygen vacancies and derivation based on the density functional theory and phonon confinement model, an oxygen vacancy density larger than 6% is shown to be responsible for the transformation of the IR to Raman active vibration mode, and the intensity enhancement is due to strong phonon confinement.     

A study of capacitance-voltage characteristics of lead zirconate titanate ferroelectric thin films and their usage to investigate polarization and coercive field

Capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films with a thickness of 130 nm were measured between 300 and 533 K. The transition between ferroelectric and paraelectric phases was revealed to be of second order in our case, with a Curie temperature at around 450 K. A linear relationship was found between the measured capacitance and the inverse square root of the applied voltage. It was shown that such a relationship could be fitted well by a universal expression of C/A = k(V+V(0))(-1/2) and that this expression could be derived by expanding the Landau-Devonshire free energy at an effective equilibrium position of the Ti/Zr ion in a PZT unit cell. By using the derived equations in this work, the free energy parameters for an individual material can be obtained solely from the corresponding C-V data, and the temperature dependences of both remnant polarization and coercive voltage are shown to be in quantitative agreement with the experimental data.     

Observation of two new N* peaks in J/psi-->ppi-n and ppi+n decays

The decay J/psi-->NNpi provides an effective isospin 1/2 filter for the piN system due to isospin conservation. Using 58x10(6) J/psi decays collected with the Beijing Electromagnetic Spectrometer at the Beijing Electron Positron Collider, more than 100 thousand J/psi-->ppi-n+c.c. events are obtained. Besides the two well-known N* peaks at around 1500 MeV/c2 and 1670 MeV/c2, there are two new, clear N* peaks in the ppi invariant mass spectrum around 1360 MeV/c2 and 2030 MeV/c2 with statistical significance of 11sigma and 13sigma, respectively. We identify these as the first direct observation of the N*(1440) peak and a long-sought missing N* peak above 2 GeV/c2 in the piN invariant mass spectrum.