Design Consideration for a Two-Distributed-Junction Tuning Circuit

We describe a novel method of designing a tuning circuit with two half-wave distributed junctions separated by a half-wavelength microstripline, which analytically determines the circuit parameters such as the minimum current density of the junctions and the characteristic impedances of the distributed junctions and the microstripline. The tuning circuit was approximated by simple transmission theory and then simplified with ideal circuit components for analysis. We applied Chebyshevs band-pass filter theory, in part, to optimize the circuit design. The analytical results revealed that a high characteristic-impedance ratio between the distributed junctions and the microstripline is necessary to obtain broadband matching using low-current-density junctions. The experimental results for all-NbN SIS mixers we designed with this method demonstrated double-sideband (DSB) receiver-noise temperatures of 6–10 quanta from 710 to 810 GHz for a mixer with a current density of only 4 kA/cm² (estimated C_JR_N product of 37 at 750 GHz). The RF bandwidth was broader than that of a conventional full-wave distributed SIS mixer with the same current density.     

Isolable anion radical of blue disilene (tBu2MeSi)2Si=Si(SiMetBu2)2 formed upon one-electron reduction: synthesis and characterization

The highly twisted tetrakis(di-tert-butylmethylsilyl)disilene 4 was prepared and reacted with (t)BuLi in THF, producing disilene anion radical 5 upon one-electron reduction. The anion radical 5 was isolated in the form of its lithium salt as extremely air- and moisture-sensitive red crystals. The molecular structure of 5 was established by X-ray crystallography, which showed a nearly orthogonal structure (twisting angle of 88 degrees ) along the central Si-Si bond, with a length of 2.341(5) A, which is 3.6% elongated relative to that of 4. The interesting feature of 5 is that one of the central Si atoms has radical character, whereas the other Si atom has silyl anion character. An electron spin resonance (ESR) study of the hyperfine coupling constants of the (29)Si nuclei indicates that rapid spin exchange occurs between these central Si atoms on the ESR time scale.     

Ruthenium-catalyzed hydrogenation of alkynylstannanes with migration of the stannyl group

Molecular hydrogen adds to aliphatic and aromatic alkynylstannanes in the presence of a ruthenium catalyst, pushing the stannyl group to the adjacent carbon atom to give alpha-substituted vinylstannanes. This is the first achievement of hydrogenation of alkynylstannanes, which is applicable also to the deuteration affording precursors for an important class of deuterium-labeled compounds.     

Reduction of propagation and bending losses of heterostructured photonic crystal waveguides by use of a high-delta structure

We describe the fabrication and evaluation of a low-loss, high-delta optical waveguide consisting of heterostructured photonic crystals. The waveguide is composed of a multilayer stack of Ta2O5/SiO2 and is prepared by use of the autocloning technique. Light is guided in the waveguide by the difference in the effective refractive indices of the constituent photonic crystals. By improving the design of the core region so that is has a flat multilayer structure, we achieve delta = 3.09% for the in-plane direction and net propagation loss of 0.56 dB/mm at lambda = 1.6 microm. Experiments also suggest that the bending loss of the waveguide can be reduced to less than 0.1 dB if the curvature radius is larger than 700 microm.     

Itinerant memory dynamics and global bifurcations in chaotic neural networks

We have considered itinerant memory dynamics in a chaotic neural network composed of four chaotic neurons with synaptic connections determined by two orthogonal stored patterns as a simple example of a chaotic itinerant phenomenon in dynamical associative memory. We have analyzed a mechanism of generating the itinerant memory dynamics with respect to intersection of a pair of alpha branches of periodic points and collapse of a periodic in-phase attracting set. The intersection of invariant sets is numerically verified by a novel method proposed in this paper.     

Real three-dimensional microstructures fabricated by photopolymerization of resins through two-photon absorption

Effective energy windows for two-photon absorption (TPA) photopolymerization of resins were investigated and, with a properly selected laser pulse energy, exquisite three-dimensional (3D) microstructures with submicrometer spatial resolution were achieved. The results show the inherent utility of TPA in the fabrication of real 3D patterns. In particular, we propose and utilize a resin pre-exposure technique by which freely movable components affixed to an axle are built, demonstrating a new application of TPA in laser microfabrication.     

Theoretical studies on magnetic interactions between Cu(II) ions in hydroxypyridone nucleobases

The origin of a ferromagnetic interaction between Cu²⁺ ions in the Cu²⁺–DNA system which reported by Tanaka et al. is examined by using DFT calculations. In order to consider effects of an entanglement and a dis-entanglement of the double helix chain, three types of structural disorders i.e. distance, rotation angle and discrepancy in XY-plane, are considered in the model dimer structure. All calculated results show that J_ab values are weak anti-ferromagnetic couplings. Boltzmann distribution simulation indicates that the high spin (HS) species exist 21% at 1.5 K by thermal excitation within the model structure.     

An N-protection free ligation of the peptide thioester and the peptide with an N-alkoxy- or N-aryloxyamino group at its N-terminus

Peptides with an N-alkoxy or N-aryloxy amino acid at their N-terminus were synthesized and successfully ligated with a peptide thioester by silver ion activation under a slightly acidic condition without requiring protection of the side chain amino groups. The N-methoxy group was easily cleaved by the SmI₂ reduction in CH₃OH aq. to obtain the desired peptide with a native peptide bond. This method was successfully applied to the synthesis of the human atrial natriuretic peptide showing the efficiency of the novel ligation.