Dissipative squeezed vacuum in non-equilibrium thermo field dynamics

Degenerate parametric amplification accompanied by dissipation is analyzed within the canonical operator formalism for quantum dissipative systems named non-equilibrium thermo field dynamics. The vacuum of the system is subject to both dissipation and breaking of phase symmetry due to squeezing. The annihilation-creation operators for the vacuum are derived and the structure of the vacuum is examined. The effects of dissipation on squeezing and uncertainty relation are estimated.     

Interplay of cleaning and de-doping in oxygen plasma treated high work function indium tin oxide (ITO)

Indium tin oxide (ITO) is extensively used as a transparent electrode in photovoltaic cells and organic light emitting diodes. High surface work function (WF) of ITO is a crucial parameter for enhanced device performance. The ITO WF is usually around 4.3 eV without any surface treatment. With surface treatments ITO WF, as high as 5.4 eV has been reported. We designed a surface treatment method with which we achieved substantially high ITO surface work function of over 6.1 eV. We observed changes in valence electronic structure and core levels, apart from surface cleaning. We also investigated interface formation of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) on the high WF ITO. In the proximity of the interface the highest occupied energy level of CuPc was observed to be almost pinned to the Fermi level. We fabricated three simple devices with no to high treatment. The device results were observed to be consistent with the findings of electronic energy level alignment.     

Ordered nanopore boring in silicon: Metal-assisted etching using a self-aligned block copolymer Au nanoparticle template and gravity accelerated etching

Metal-assisted etching into Si (1 0 0) surfaces can be performed in a highly defined and regular arrangement using self-organized patterns of single-size gold catalyst particles that are block polymer templated on Si surfaces. We show that small size catalyst particles (diameter ≈10 nm) can be forced to maintain straight etch tracks perpendicular to the surface using adequate centrifugal gravity force. This allows the creation of highly ordered uniform and synchronized pore boring into the substrate with single pore diameters in the 10 nm range.     

Fusaric acid as a novel proton-affinitive derivatizing reagent for highly sensitive quantification of hydroxysteroids by LC-ESI-MS/MS

A highly sensitive derivatization method for liquid chromatography (LC)-electrospray ionization (ESI) tandem mass spectrometry of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), testosterone (T), pregnenolone (P5), and 17α-OH-pregnenolone (17-OHP5) was developed based on the use of fusaric acid as a reagent. DHEA, P5, and 17-OHP5 were rapidly and quantitatively converted to the 3-fusarate esters by treatment with fusaric acid and 2-methyl-6-nitrobenzoic anhydride. The positive ESI-mass spectra of the fusarate esters of each steroid were dominated by the appearance of [M + H]⁺ as base peaks. The fusarate derivatization of these steroids showed 17.6-fold (DHEA), 11.9-fold (P5), 3.3-fold (17-OHP5), and 1.8-fold (T) higher sensitivity to those of the corresponding picolinate derivatives in LC-selected reaction monitoring.     

Argentivorous Molecules: Structural Evidence for Ag(+)-π Interactions in Solution

Tetra-armed cyclens bearing aromatic side arms were prepared by the reductive amination of cyclen with substituted benzaldehydes. When equimolar amounts of Ag(+) ions were added to the ligands, the aromatic rings covered the Ag(+) ions incorporated in the ligand cavities, as if the aromatic ring "petals" caught the Ag(+) ions in the way an insectivorous plant (Venus flytrap) catches insects. The ligands are called "argentivorous molecules". Evidence of intramolecular Ag(+)-π interactions in solution and in the solid state is reported.     

Six-rayed star-like nanostructures in prospective plasmonic devices

A six-rayed star-like nanostructure was prepared by a combination of colloidal self-assembly, thermal sintering and chemical etching, which enables the tuning of both size of the particles and neck diameter. In this nanostructure, six nanotips are arrayed in a symmetric and planar arrangement on a spherical particle. Localized surface plasmon resonance characteristics were also clarified.     

Global existence of weak solutions to quasilinear degenerate Keller–Segel systems of parabolic–parabolic type

This paper deals with the quasilinear degenerate Keller–Segel system (KS) of parabolic–parabolic type. The global existence of weak solutions to (KS) is established when $q<m+\frac{2}{N}$ (m denotes the intensity of diffusion and q denotes the nonlinearity) without restriction on the size of initial data; note that $q=m+\frac{2}{N}$ corresponds to generalized Fujita?s exponent. The result improves both Sugiyama (2007) [14, Theorem 1] and Sugiyama and Kunii (2006) [15, Theorem 1] in which it is assumed that $q?m$.     

Photoinduced intramolecular electron-transfer reactions of reconstituted met- and zinc-myoglobins appending acridine and methylacridinium ion as DNA-binders

Three types of reconstituted met- and zinc-myoglobin (metMb and ZnMb) dyads, ZnMbAc(4)Me+, ZnMbAc(6)Me+, and metMbAc(6) have been prepared by incorporating chemically modified metalloporphyrin cofactor appending an acridine (Ac) or a methylacridinium ion ([AcMe]+) into apo-Mb. In the bimolecular system between ZnMb and [AcMe]+, the photoexcited triplet state of ZnMb, 3(ZnMb)*, was successfully quenched by [AcMe]+ to form the radical pair of ZnMb cation (ZnMb*+) and reduced methylacridine ([AcMe]*), followed by a thermal back ET reaction. The rate constants for the intermolecular quenching ET (kq) and the back ET reaction (kb) at 25 degrees C were successfully obtained as kq = (8.8 +/- 0.4) x 10(7) M(-1) s(-1) and kb = (1.2 +/- 0.1) x 10(8) M(-1) s(-1), respectively. On the other hand, in case of the intramolecular photoinduced ET reactions of ZnMbAc(4)Me+ and ZnMbAc(6)Me+ dyads, the first-order quenching rate constants (kET) of 3(ZnMb)* by [AcMe]+ moiety were determined to be kET = 2.6 x 10(3) and 2.5 x 10(3) s(-1), respectively. When such ET occurs along the alkyl spacer via through-bond mechanism at the surface of Mb, the obtained kET is reasonable to provide decay constant of beta (1.0-1.3 A(-1)). Upon photoirradiation of [AcMe]+ moiety, kinetic studies also presented the intramolecular quenching reactions from the excited singlet state, 1([AcMe]+)*, whose likely process is the photoinduced energy-transfer reaction. For metMbAc(6) dyad, steady-state fluorescence was almost quenched, while the signal around 440 nm gradually appeared in the presence of various concentrations of DNA. Our study implies that synthetic manipulation at the Mb surface, by using an artificial DNA-binder coupled with photoinduced reaction, may provide valuable information to construct new Mb-DNA complex and sensitive fluorescent for DNA.     

An application of EGA-MS with skimmer interface to pyrolysis behavior of DHTAM, an antibacterial and antifungal material with thermostability

An application of evolved gas analysis-mass spectrometry (EGA-MS) with skimmer interface was carried out to investigate the pyrolysis mechanism of an antibacterial and antifungal material that is expected with thermostability. The skimmer interface between a furnace and a vacuum chamber with a mass spectrometer transmitted the gaseous species, which were trapped by a general capillary interface. As a result, it became clear that the thermostability of antimicrobial activity was limited by the heat resistance of the coordinate bond between nitrogen and silver in the silver chelate.