Facile non‐lithographic route to highly aligned silica nanopatterns using unidirectionally aligned polystyrene‐block‐polydimethylsiloxane films

Thin films (monolayer and bilayer) of cylinder forming polystyrene‐block‐polydimethylsiloxane (PS‐b‐PDMS) were shear aligned by the swelling and deswelling of a crosslinked PDMS pad that was physically adhered to the film during solvent vapor annealing. The nanostructures formed by self‐assembly were exposed to ultraviolet‐ozone to partially oxidize the PDMS, followed by calcination in air at 500 °C. In this process, the PS segments were fully decomposed, while the PDMS yielded silica nanostructures. The highly aligned PDMS cylinders were thus deposited as silica nanolines on the silicon substrate. Using a bilayer film, the center‐to‐center distance of these features were effectively halved from 38 to 19 nm. Similarly, by sequential shear‐alignment of two distinct layers, a rhombic array of silica nanolines was fabricated. This methodology provides a facile route to fabricating complex topographically patterned nanostructures. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 1058–1064     

Finite Element Solution of Conical Diffraction Problems

This paper is devoted to the numerical study of diffraction by periodic structures of plane waves under oblique incidence. For this situation Maxwell's equations can be reduced to a system of two Helmholtz equations in R ² coupled via quasiperiodic transmission conditions on the piecewise smooth interfaces between different materials. The numerical analysis is based on a strongly elliptic variational formulation of the differential problem in a bounded periodic cell involving nonlocal boundary operators. We obtain existence and uniqueness results for discrete solutions and provide the corresponding error analysis.     

Compactness in fuzzy convergence spaces

Lowen and Lowen [Applications of category theory to fuzzy subsets (Kluwer, 1992) p. 153] and Lowen et al. [Fuzzy Sets and Systems 40 (1991) 347] recently introduced the category FCS of fuzzy convergence spaces, a topological quasitopos which is a supercategory of FTS, the category of fuzzy topological spaces. In this paper, compactness in FCS is examined. Doing so we found that to define compactness as an absolute property we had to generalize the definition of fuzzy convergence space to fuzzy subsets. All basic theorems are proved including the Tychonoff product theorem. Based on the theory developed here, in a following publication, a Richardson compactification for fuzzy convergence spaces will be given.     

Probing for electrical inclusions with complex spherical waves

Let a physical body Ω in ?² or ?³ be given. Assume that the electric conductivity distribution inside Ω consists of conductive inclusions in a known smooth background. Further, assume that a subset Γ ? ?Ω is available for boundary measurements. It is proved using hyperbolic geometry that certain information about the location of the inclusions can be exactly recovered from static electric measurements on Γ. More precisely: given a ball B with center outside the convex hull of Ω and satisfying (B? ∩ ?Ω) ? Γ, boundary measurements on Γ with explicitly given Dirichlet data are enough to determine whether B intersects the inclusion. An approximate detection algorithm is introduced based on the theory. Numerical experiments in dimension two with simulated noisy data suggest that the algorithm finds the inclusion‐free domain near Γ and is robust against measurement noise. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Morphological and elemental characterisation with the high-energy ion-nanoprobe LIPSION

This contribution deals with the morphological and elemental characterisation with high-energy (MeV) focused ion beams (in particular protons) with special emphasis on high spatial resolution in the sub-micrometer regime and very low minimum detection limits (sub-ppm) in trace element analysis. The most important methods like particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE), Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), as well as scanning transmission ion microscopy (STIM) and STIM-tomography will be illustrated by examples from material and life sciences.     

The fluorite-related anion-excess structure of CeN0.222O0.667F1.333: Ordering of defect clusters

This investigation presents the preparation of CeN_0.222O_0.667F_1.333 by a solid-state reaction from a mixture of CeN:CeF₃:CeO₂ = 1:2:1.5 and its structural investigation. The samples were annealed at 900°C in platinum tubes for different times. The basic structure found by powder neutron diffraction is anion-excess fluorite-related. The unit cell is an orthorhombic distortion of the cubic fluorite cell and has the space group Abm2. The lattice constants are a = 577.71(2) pm, B = 572.76(5) pm, and c = 573.32(6) pm. The structure refined by Rietveld analysis shows that [1:0:2]- defect clusters are present. In samples prepared by longer annealing times an ordering of these clusters to larger aggregates, i.e., toward the vernier phases, was observed. This was deduced from full profile analysis without refining a structural model by comparing the instrumental resolution curves of several models.     

AUTOMATED MECHANICAL STIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT OF BIOLUMINESCENCE IN MARINE DINOFLAGELLATES

A new integrated system for reproducible, automated mechanical stimulation and measurement of bioluminescence (BL) in multiple samples of marine dinoflagellate cell suspensions is described. The system was designed to allow the application of standardized experimental routines to parallel test vials for the purpose of toxicity testing. A sample tray delivered test vials to the position of mechanical stimulation and BL measurement. Mechanical stimulation of BL was applied as sharp rotation-onset of the test vial about its vertical axis. Thus, any direct chemical or physical perturbation of the cell suspension was avoided. A silicon photovoltaic cell measured the emitted light. Stimulation, measurement and recording of BL were integrated and controlled by specially developed software, which runs on a personal computer in the graphic environment of MS-Windows. Precise scheduling, flexible programming and identical repetition of experimental routines are possible in practice. For Gonyaulax polyedra, details of BL, as stimulated and measured with the new system, are presented and discussed. We conclude that the system exhibits specific features that offer wide potential of application in several fields of research on dinoflagellate BL, particularly for toxicity testing.