Design and fabrication of an optimum holographic optical element lens for a femtosecond laser pulse using a hologram computer-aided design tool

Design and fabrication of an optimum holographic optical element (HOE) lens for a femtosecond laser pulse using a hologram computer-aided design (CAD) tool is presented. The hologram CAD tool, which the authors have developed can design, analyze, and evaluate holograms fabricated by interferometrical technique. The function of the tool is extended to design and analyze a HOE lens illuminated with a femtosecond laser pulse. An optimum HOE lens for a laser pulse, which has 130 fs duration, 720 nm central wavelength, and 10 nm spectrum bandwidth, is designed by the tool. The optimum HOE lens gives both high diffraction efficiency and small amount of aberration. The designed HOE lens is fabricated and its optical characteristics have been experimentally evaluated. The reconstructed point images agree with the results of the numerical simulations by the tool. The tool demonstrates the capability of designing the optimum HOE lens for a femtosecond laser pulse.     

Synthesis of Biodegradable Hydrogel by Radical Ring‐Opening Polymerization of 2‐Methylene‐1,3,6‐Trioxocane

2‐Methylene‐1,3,6‐trioxocane (MTC), maleic anhydride (MA), and poly(ethylene glycol diacrylate) 400 (PEGD) or divinyl adipate (DVA) were terpolymerized in the presence of a radical initiator. Though the obtained gels did not absorb deionized water, the gels could absorb deionized water and saline after hydrolyzing the MA carboxylate anhydride functionality. The absorbing ratios of deionized water and saline were high. The biodegradability of the hydrogels after hydrolysis was found to be good by a biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)‐tester using soil.     

Poly(L‐lactide)‐Degrading Activity in Various Actinomycetes

The poly(L ‐lactide) (PLA)‐degrading ability of actinomycetes obtained from culture collections was examined by the formation of clear zones on PLA‐emulsified agar plates. Using 41 genera (105 strains) of actinomycetes with phylogenetic affiliations based on 16S rRNA sequences, PLA degraders were found to be limited to members of the family Pseudonocardiaceae and related genera. They included Amycolatopsis, Saccharothrix, Lentzea, Kibdelosporangium, and Streptoalloteichus. A large number of PLA degraders were widely distributed within the genus Saccharothrix. Most strains forming clear zones on PLA‐emulsified agar plates also formed clear zones on silk fibroin agar plates. Saccharothrix species showed an ability to degrade PLA films and assimilate degradation products in liquid cultures. No significant change of the molecular weight and polydispersity (M _w/M _n) of the remaining film fragments was confirmed. After cultivation for two weeks, many irregular holes/pits on the surface of the film due to the colonization of microorganisms were observed by scanning electron microscopy.

Scanning electron micrograph of the surface of PLA film: A. orientalis subsp. orientalis IFO 12362 after 14 d.     

Preparation and Water Droplet Sliding Properties of Transparent Hydrophobic Polymer Coating by Molecular Design for Self-Organization

Transparent hydrophobic polymer coating was prepared from methacrylate copolymer with molecular modeling in order to improve hydrophobicity and durability. Organic-inorganic hybridization improved the durability of the thin films. Furthermore the control of hydrophobicity and water droplet sliding properties of the flat coating was successfully performed. Water droplet sliding angle depended on the chemical structure of the materials, not on the hydrophobicity, while sliding motion simply depended on the hydrophobicity.     

Development and application of a method to investigate drug-metabolizing enzyme inhibitors using sparteine for probe of cytochrome P450 2D6 and tris(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II)-electrogenerated chemiluminescence detection

We studied the detection of drug-metabolizing enzyme inhibitiors using column-switching high performance liquid chromatography with tris(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) (Ru(bpy)(3)(2+))-electrogenerated chemiluminescence detection. This can be applied to evaluate the genetic diversity concerning the ability of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 to metabolize drug in vitro. We demonstrated the ability of CYP2D6 to enable us to examine drugs metabolizing enzyme inhibition with high performance and sensitivity. This method can be applied to investigate metabolite inhibitors of CYP2D6 in vitro and in vivo. Thus, Metixene was found to be a potential CYP2D6 inhibitor.     

Effect of chain length on thermal conversion of alkoxy-substituted copper phthalocyanine precursors

A series of dialkoxy-substituted copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) precursors (4a-4d) have been prepared by treating phthalonitrile with the corresponding lithium alkoxide under mild conditions. The precursors exhibited high solubilities in common organic solvents, including acetone, toluene, tetrahydrofuran (THF), CH(2)Cl(2), and CHCl(3). Elongation of the alkoxy chains improved the solubilities of the precursors effectively, and accordingly, the butoxy-substituted derivative (4d) showed the highest solubility among 4a-4d. X-ray crystallography clarified that the conjugated skeletons of 4a-4d are all isostructural, and have two alkoxy groups in a syn-conformation fashion, leading to highly bent structures. Thermal conversions of the precursors examined by thermogravimetry (TG) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) demonstrate that 4a was converted into CuPc via two distinct exothermic processes in the 200-250 °C temperature range, while 4d exhibits only one exothermic signal in the DTA. In the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) images of 4a, the presence of two types of distinct crystal morphology (prismatic and plate-like crystals) can be recognized, implying that the two observed exothermic processes in the DTA can be attributed to the different crystal morphologies of the samples rather than the step-by-step elimination of the alkoxy groups. The thermal formation of CuPc from the precursors has been unambiguously confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction, UV-vis spectroscopy, and elemental analysis. The precursors were converted into CuPc at lower temperature with increasing chain length, presumably because of the increased void volume in the crystals. Thermal conversion performed in the solution phase results in a bright blue-colored solution with prominent absorption bands in the 650-700 nm region, strongly supporting the formation of CuPc.     

Atomic surface structures on multi-layered cuprate superconductor Ba2Ca4Cu5O10(O1−xFx)2 observed by STM

We investigate the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) on the multi-layered cuprate superconductor Ba₂Ca₄Cu₅O₁₀(O_1?xF_x)₂ (F0245, T_c = 79 K, x = 0.72).The STM images show clear atomic lattice structures and large random spot structures. Among the regular square-lattice atomic corrugation with the period of the lattice constant a ～ 0.38 nm, another kind of atomic spots arranged into the fourfold cross shaped clusters is clearly observed along the diagonal direction with the period of 0.26 nm. These clusters are being distributed inhomogeneously, which are due to the charge imbalance associated with the apical O/F rate. The apical O and F sites are also identified from the positions of such clusters in the STM topographic images.     

Anisotropic effect of Cd and Hg doping on the Pauli limited superconductor CeCoIn5

We studied the effect of impurity on the first order superconducting (SC) transition and the high field-low temperature (HFLT) SC state of CeCoIn5 by measuring the specific heat of CeCo(In1-xCdx)_{5} with x=0.0011, 0.0022, and 0.0033 and CeCo(In1-xHgx)_{5} with x=0.000 16, 0.000 32, and 0.000 48 at temperatures down to 0.1 K and fields up to 14 T. Cd substitution rapidly suppresses the crossover temperature T0, where the SC transition changes from second to first order, to T=0 K with x=0.0022 for H parallel[100], while it remains roughly constant up to x=0.0033 for H parallel[001]. The associated anomaly of the proposed FFLO state in Hg-doped samples is washed out by x=0.000 48, while remaining at the same temperature, indicating high sensitivity of that state to impurities. We interpret these results as supporting the nonmagnetic, possibly FFLO, origin of the HFLT state in CeCoIn5.