The kinetics of the light-induced defect creation in hydrogenated amorphous silicon – Stretched exponential relaxation

Our model for light-induced defect creation in hydrogenated amorphous silicon is applied to its kinetics, i.e., the growing curve of light-induced dangling bond density as a function of illumination time, which is fitted to a stretched exponential function. Two parameters β and τ involved in the function are estimated as functions of saturated dangling bond density in terms of our model. These are compared with two experimental results, i.e., our results obtained from ESR measurements and Shimakawa et al.’s results obtained from photoconductivity measurements. The saturated dangling bond density is also measured as a function of the generation rate of free carriers. The experimental results are compared with calculated results and discussed.     

Catalytic property of Europium supported on alumina from its ammoniacal solution

Europium supported on alumina (Eu/Al₂O₃) was prepared by impregnation from an ammoniacal solution of the metal. The catalytic activity of Eu/Al₂O₃ for the isomerization of 2,3-dimethylbut-1-ene to 2,3-dimethylbut-2-ene was examined. Eu/Al₂O₃ showed the highest catalytic activity for the isomerization when heated under a vacuum at 523 K, the yield of 2,3-dimethylbut-2-ene in 20 min being 81.6% at 314 K. IR spectrum shows the presence of two kinds of Eu amides. The change of the IR spectra and the catalytic activities with evacuation temperature suggest that only one of the two Eu amides is catalytically active for this base-catalyzed isomerization.     

Microchip-based immunoassay system with branching multichannels for simultaneous determination of interferon-gamma

A bead-bed immunoassay system suitable for simultaneous assay of multiple samples was constructed on a microchip. The chip had branching multichannels and four reaction and detection regions; the constructed system could process four samples at a time with only one pump unit. Interferon gamma was assayed by a 3-step sandwich immunoassay with the system coupled to a thermal lens microscope as a detector. The biases of the signal intensities obtained from each channel were within 10%, and coefficients of variation were almost the same level as the single straight channel assay. The assay time for four samples was 50 min instead of 35 min for one sample in the single-channel assay; hence higher throughput was realized with the branching structure chip.     

Aggregation states and surface wettability in films of poly(styrene-block-2-perfluorooctyl ethyl acrylate) diblock copolymers synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization

Well-defined poly(styrene-block-2-perfluorooctyl ethyl acrylate) [P(St-b-PFA)] copolymers with various chemical compositions were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization. Films of P(St-b-PFA) were structurally characterized, from bulk to surface, on the basis of transmittance electron microscopic observation and small-angle X-ray scattering, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic, and contact angle measurements. For a comparison, poly(styrene-random-2-perfluorooctyl ethyl acrylate) [P(St-ran-PFA)] copolymers were also synthesized by conventional free radical polymerization. While P(St-b-PFA) with the 2-perfluorooctyl ethyl acrylate (PFA) content higher than 18.7 mol % formed a typical phase-separated cylinder structure, P(St-b-PFA) with a lower PFA content and P(St-ran-PFA) were in a miscible state. Since the perfluoroalkyl groups possess extremely low surface energy, they were preferentially segregated at the film surface, resulting in the formation of the PFA surface layer. This was the case for all P(St-b-PFA) films examined, although the aggregation state at the surface was strongly dependent on the PFA content. In the case of the P(St-b-PFA) with the PFA content higher than 18.7 mol %, both advancing and receding contact angles for water were 120 degrees and even larger with almost no hysteresis. In addition, extremely excellent oil-repellent surface properties such as advancing and receding contact angles for dodecane of 76 degrees and 75 degrees were also observed. However, these intriguing liquid-repellent properties were not observed for the films of miscible P(St-b-PFA) and P(St-ran-PFA). Therefore, it can be concluded that the internal structure beneath the surface as well as the surface itself should be deeply considered to design excellent and stable liquid-repellent materials.     

Mössbauer spectroscopic study of photo-sensitive organic–inorganic hybrid system, (SP)[Fe(II)Fe(III)(dto)3](dto = C2O2S2, SP = spiropyran)

A photo-sensitive organic–inorganic hybrid system (SP)[Fe^IIFe^III(dto)₃] (SP = spiropyran, dto = C₂O₂S₂), has recently been developed, where the photo-isomerization of the intercalated spiropyran in solid state triggers the change of the magnetic properties, including the ferromagnetic transition temperature from 5 to 22 K. We performed ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer measurement in order to probe the microscopic states of iron ions in (SP)[Fe^IIFe^III(dto)₃] and have investigated the photo-induced effect on them. The sample without UV-irradiation shows the charge transfer phase transition between 200 and 70 K and the higher and lower temperature phases coexist below 70 K, whereas the UV-irradiated sample does not undergo the charge transfer phase transition and the higher temperature phase is stable between 200 and 6 K.     

Gas by-products of CF3I under AC partial discharge

This paper presents the decomposition by-products of trifluro-iodo-methane and their relative proportions in the gas phase under the occurrence of partial discharge. The experiment was performed in the presence of water vapor from 250 to 400 ppm under a non-uniform electric field configuration. The experimental results reveal that the by-products of C₂F₆, C₂F₄, C₂F₅I with the amount of 1300, 200, and 55 (CH₃I) ppm, respectively, were produced for a cumulative charge of 161 mC. Other by-products, such as C₃F₈, CHF₃, C₃F₆ CH₃I were obtained at less than 30 ppm C₂F₆ was the dominant gas by-product of trifluro-iodo-methane suffering partial discharge.     

Affine Springer fibers of type A and combinatorics of diagonal coinvariants

We calculate the Borel–Moore homology of affine Springer fibers of type A   associated with some regular semisimple nil elliptic elements. As a result, we obtain bigraded _Sn${\mathfrak{S}}_n$-modules whose bigraded Frobenius series are a generalization of the symmetric functions introduced by Haglund, Haiman, Loehr, Remmel, and Ulyanov.     

Singular values of some modular functions

For an integer N greater than 5 and a triple \({\mathfrak{a}}=[a_{1},a_{2},a_{3}]\) of integers with the properties 0<a _i ≤N/2 and a _i ≠a _j for i≠j, we consider a modular function \(W_{\mathfrak{a}}(\tau)=\frac{\wp (a_{1}/N;L_{\tau})-\wp (a_{3}/N;L_{\tau})}{\wp (a_{2}/N;L_{\tau})-\wp(a_{3}/N;L_{\tau})}\) for the modular group Γ ₁(N), where ?(z;L _τ ) is the Weierstrass ?-function relative to the lattice L _τ generated by 1 and a complex number τ with positive imaginary part. For a pair of such triples \({\mathfrak{A}}=[{\mathfrak{a}},{\mathfrak{b}}]\) and a pair of non-negative integers F=[m,n], we define a modular function \(T_{{\mathfrak{A}},F}\) for the group Γ ₀(N) as the trace of the product \(W_{\mathfrak{a}}^{m}W_{\mathfrak{b}}^{n}\) to the modular function field of Γ ₀(N). In this article, we study the integrality of singular values of the functions \(W_{\mathfrak{a}}\) and \(T_{{\mathfrak{A}},F}\) by using their modular equations. We prove that the functions \(T_{{\mathfrak{A}},F}\) for suitably chosen \({\mathfrak{A}}\) and F generate the modular function field of Γ ₀(N), and from Shimura reciprocity and Gee–Stevenhagen method we obtain that singular values \(T_{{\mathfrak{A}},F}(\tau)\) for suitably chosen \({\mathfrak{A}}\) and F generate ring class fields. Further, we study the class polynomial of \(T_{{\mathfrak{A}},F}\) for Schertz N-system.     

Light-induced defect creation in hydrogenated polymorphous silicon during repeated cycles of illumination and annealing

We have examined how the intensity of the ESR signal associated with dangling bonds in hydrogenated polymorphous silicon is affected by repeating light-soaking (LS) and 100°C annealing cycles. It was found that the light-induced degradation efficiency decreases with repeated LS–100°C annealing cycles. This result is accounted for in terms of the termination of dangling bonds by mobile hydrogen, i.e. the termination is enhanced by more mobile hydrogen as a result of modification of the amorphous network by the LS–annealing cycles, and consequently the net light-induced defect creation rate is reduced. This is in contrast with previous models in which the decrease in the light-induced degradation efficiency on repeated LS–annealing cycles is attributed to an increase in the amount of hydrogen being ineffective for light-induced defect creation.