Small-active-area germanium avalanche photodiode for single-mode fibre at 1.3 ?m wavelength

A germanium avalanche photodiode of 30 ?m active area diameter has been fabricated and tested. The multiplied dark current is as low as 5 nA at room temperature. A module using this diode and a spherical lens has been assembled and coupled with a single-mode fibre of core diameter 10 ?m. The quantum efficiency of the module is 90% at 1.3 ?m. The sensitivity is measured at 45 Mbit/s and at 1.3 ?m. Minimum detectable powers obtained for 10?11 error rate are ?51.9 dBm and ?50.7 dBm at 25°C and 50°C, respectively.     

InGaAsP double-channel- planar-buried-heterostructure laser diode (DC-PBH LD) with effective current confinement

A new high-performance 1.3-μm InGaAsP semiconductor laser is described, in which effective current confinement into the active region has been realized. A p-n-p-n current blocking structure is made by liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) on both sides of the active-stripe mesa which is defined by a pair of channels in the double-heterostructure wafer. The double-channel-planar-buried-heterostructure laser diodes (DC-PBH LD's) exhibit high-laser performances, such as a high differential quantum efficiency of 78-percent maximum, which results in high electrical to optical power conversion efficiency 43 percent, and high light output power of over 50 mW, as a result of the improvement in the current blocking structure. The threshold current temperature sensitivity is found experimentally to be reduced remarkably by increasing the doping concentration in the p-cladding layer. Characteristic temperature as high as 100 K has been obtained. CW operation is possible up to 130°C.     

Rate enhancement of Diels-Alder reactions in aqueous perfluorinated emulsions

A marked acceleration property for the Diels-Alder reaction was observed in an aqueous micellar system composed of perfluorohexane and lithium perfluorooctanesulfonate. The reaction rate increased with the concentration of the equimolar mixture of PFH and LiFOS, and the rate in 500 mM PFH and 500 mM LiFOS was about 100-fold greater than that in water without the fluorous field. After completion of the reaction, the products were simply extracted from the aqueous reaction mixture using n-hexane. [reaction: see text].     

Pressure viscosity behavior of various fluids

Abstract

Many works have been published on the pressure viscosity dependence of liquids. The difficulty to fit experimental results with a simple and universal law has been often put in evidence. According to our experimental results, we show that a power law is an acceptable alternative to the common Barus law.     

Ground-state properties of the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model at half filling

The density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) technique is used to study the ground-state properties of the one-dimensional half-filled Hubbard model with on-site (nearest-neighbor) repulsive interaction U (V) and nearest-neighbor hopping t. We calculate the static spin structure factor to consider the spin degrees of freedom. We notice a striking difference of the static spin structure factor among the spin-density-wave, charge-density-wave (CDW), and bond-order-wave (BOW) phases. Based on the results, we identify the BOW-CDW transition at small (large) U value as continuous (of first order). We also calculate the double occupancy to consider the charge degrees of freedom. For large U, the double occupancy show a discontinuous jump at the BOW-CDW critical point and it implies first-order transition. With decreasing U, the jump becomes smaller and vanishes at the tricritical point U_t≈5.961t. This value is close to our previous estimation U_t=5.89t obtained with other quantities. Consequently, the results of static spin structure factor and double occupancy support the accuracy of our ground-state phase diagram.     

The pH effect on the naphthoquinone-photosensitized oxidation of 5-methylcytosine

The pH effect on the one-electron photooxidation of 5-methyl-2'-deoxycytidine (d(m)C) by sensitization with 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone (NQ) was investigated. Photoirradiation of an aqueous solution containing d(m)C and NQ under slightly acidic conditions of pH 5.0 efficiently produced 5-formyl-2'-deoxycytidine, whereas similar NQ-photosensitized oxidation of d(m)C proceeded to a lesser extent under more acidic or basic conditions. Fluorescence-quenching experiments revealed that the less-efficient photooxidation at pH values below 4.5 is attributed to the decreased rate of one-electron oxidation of d(m)C owing to protonation at the N(3)-position. The NQ-photosensitized oxidation of an N(4)-dimethyl-substituted d(m)C derivative under various pH conditions also suggests that the pH change in the range of 5.0 to 8.0 may be responsible for a reversible deprotonation-protonation equilibrium at the N(4)-exocyclic amino group of the d(m)C radical cation. In accord with the photochemical reactivity of monomeric d(m)C, the 5-methylcytosine residue in oligodeoxynucleotides was oxidized efficiently by photoexcited NQ-tethered oligodeoxynucleotides under slightly acidic conditions to form an alkali-labile 5-formylcytosine residue.     

One-electron photooxidation and site-selective strand cleavage at 5-methylcytosine in DNA by sensitization with 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone-tethered oligonucleotides

Photosensitized one-electron oxidation was applied to discriminate a specific base site of 5-methylcytosine (mC) generated in DNA possessing a partial sequence of naturally occurring p53 gene, using a sensitizing 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone (NQ) chromophore tethered to an interior of oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) strands. Photoirradiation and subsequent hot piperidine treatment of the duplex consisting of mC-containing DNA and NQ-tethered complementary ODN led to oxidative strand cleavage selectively at the mC site, when the NQ chromophore was arranged so as to be in close contact with the target mC. The target mC is most likely to be one-electron oxidized into the radical cation intermediate by the sensitization of NQ. The resulting mC radical cation may undergo rapid deprotonation and subsequent addition of molecular oxygen, thereby leading to its degradation followed by strand cleavage at the target mC site. In contrast to mC-containing ODN, ODN analogs with replacement of normal cytosine, thymine, adenine, or guanine at the mC site underwent less amount of such an oxidative strand cleavage at the target base site, presumably due to occurrence of charge transfer and charge recombination processes between the base radical cation and the NQ radical anion. Furthermore, well designed incorporation of the NQ chromophore into an interior of ODN could suppress a competitive strand cleavage at consecutive guanines, which occurred as a result of positive charge transfer. Thus, photosensitization by an NQ-tethered ODN led to one-electron oxidative strand cleavage exclusively at the target mC site, providing a convenient method of discriminating mC in naturally occurring DNA such as human p53 gene as a positive band on a sequencing gel.     

Open spaces and molecular motions of polyether-based network polymers probed by positron annihilation

The lifetimes of positrons have been measured for network polymers based on polyethers. From the temperature dependence of the lifetime of ortho-positronium (o-Ps), τ₃, for the network polymer of poly(ethylene oxide-co-propylene oxide) [P(EO/PO)], an onset temperature for limited local motions of molecules, T_γ, and the glass transition temperature, T_g, were determined to be 57 and 201 K, respectively. For the network polymer of poly[EO-co-2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethyl glycidyl ether] [P(EO/MEEGE)], T_γ and T_g were determined to be 57 and 185 K, respectively. For both specimens, above 270 K, the observed linear temperature dependence of τ₃ was attributed to the thermal expansion of open spaces in a liquid state. In the temperature range between T_γ and 270 K, for the P(EO/MEEGE) network, τ₃ was longer and its intensity was smaller than those for the P(EO/PO) network. These results were attributed to the increase in the size of open spaces for the P(EO/MEEGE) network polymer and the blocking of these regions by motions of side chains and chain ends. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 36: 1919–1925, 1998