Shear-induced ordering of lamellar and gyroid structures observed in a nonionic surfactant/water system

The shear-induced ordering of lamellar and gyroid structures of a nonionic surfactant C₁₆E₇/D₂O system in a Couette shear cell ( 0.001 < < 10 s^-1, : shear rate) has been investigated by using a small angle neutron scattering technique. In the lamellar phase, the steady shear flow having > 0.01 s^-1 suppresses undulation fluctuations of lamellae (Maxwell effect). This suppression of fluctuations brings two effects; 1) shear-induced lamellae ordering toward a parallel orientation and 2) obstruction of a lamellar↦gyroid transition. It is quite interesting to note that there is a characteristic shear rate range ( 0.01 < < 0.3 s^-1), where both effects take place. We have also investigated the shear effects on the gyroid phase. Below the characteristic shear rate range, the gyroid structure keeps three-dimensional network lattice, while above the characteristic shear rate range, the gyroid structure transforms to the parallel orientation lamellae (shear-induced gyroid-lamellar transition). Thus the shear flow having the characteristic shear rate plays very important roles in shear ordering phenomena. Received 26 June 2000 and Received in final form 12 January 2001     

Simple and efficient quantum key distribution with parametric down-conversion

We propose an efficient quantum key distribution protocol based on the photon-pair generation from parametric down-conversion (PDC). It uses the same experimental setup as the conventional protocol, but a refined data analysis enables detection of photon-number splitting attacks by utilizing information from a built-in decoy state. Assuming the use of practical detectors, we analyze the unconditional security of the new scheme and show that it improves the secure key generation rate by several orders of magnitude at long distances, using a high intensity PDC source.     

Crystal growth of cyclodextrin‐based metal‐organic framework with inclusion of ferulic acid

The crystallization of γ‐cyclodextrin‐based metal‐organic framework (CD‐MOF) with inclusion of ferulic acid (FA) was carried out through vapor diffusion of methanol to the aqueous solution of γ‐cyclodextrin (γ‐CD), KOH and FA. Although the crystallization of pure CD was limited in highly basic solution of KOH (pH>13.0), the CD‐MOF with inclusion of FA (FA/CD‐MOF) was able to be formed at pH 6.8 after the neutralization of KOH by FA. The inclusion behavior of FA in CD‐MOF was studied by using differential scanning calorimetry. The data indicate the formation of the stable association between FA and γ‐CD in FA/CD‐MOF.     

Mechano-ions produced by mechanical fracture of solid polymers

It is said that the free radical caused by C-C-bond scission, homogeneous scission, is produced by mechanical degradation. In addition to free radicals, ionic species are produced due to the mechanical destruction of the polymers. Studies in our group concerning this problem are summarized. When the polymers were ground with tetracyanoethylene (TCNE) powder in a vibration glass ball mill in vacuum in the dark at 77 K, the TCNE anion radical (TCNE$ \bar . $) was detected by electron spin resonance (ESR) method. The TCNE$ \bar . $ is formed by the abstraction of electrons by TCNE from the anion produced by a heterogeneous bond scission of carboncarbon bonds in the polymer main chain. The identification of TCNE$ \bar . $ was carried out by the spectral simulation on the basis of an anisotropic hyperfine tensor including a forbidden transition term. Several polymers were examined; polyethylene, polypropylene, poly(tetrafluoroethylene) and poly(vinylidene fluoride). The ratio of ionic species and free radicals is discussed.     

Wavelet processing and digital interferometric contrast to improve reconstructions from X‐ray Gabor holograms

In this work, the application of an undecimated wavelet transformation together with digital interferometric contrast to improve the resulting reconstructions in a digital hard X‐ray Gabor holographic microscope is shown. Specifically, the starlet transform is used together with digital Zernike contrast. With this contrast, the results show that only a small set of scales from the hologram are, in effect, useful, and it is possible to enhance the details of the reconstruction.     

Hierarchic Natures and Dynamics of Photoinduced Structural Phase Transition in Non-Degenerate Charge Density Wave States Via Successive Photoexcitations

We investigate the adiabatic and dynamical natures of the lattice relaxation of excitons in strongly coupled electron-phonon (e-ph) systems using the extended Peierls-Hubbard model, so as to clarify the possible mechanisms of the photoinduced structural phase transition (PISPT) via multi-photon. Focusing on the growth process of relaxed domains that is induced by multi-photoexcitation, we calculate the adiabatic potential energy surfaces relevant to the nonlinear lattice relaxations of excitons in this process. Calculated potentials lead to an essential model of a multi-stepwise potential-crossing (MSPC) system that is composed of many displaced harmonic oscillators as an elementary process of the domain growth in the strongly coupled e-ph systems. We also investigate the dynamical natures in such MSPC systems calculating the time-developments the excited wave packet in this system using the density operator. It is concluded from calculated results that the system possibly develops from the lowest-energy potential state to the higher ones by the effect of the photoexcitations followed by the lattice relaxations.