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We experimentally study the controllable generation of a beating signal using stored light pulses based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a solid medium. The beating signal relies on an asymmetric procedure of light storage and retrieval. After storing the probe pulse into the spin coherence under the EIT condition, two-color control fields with opposite detunings instead of the initial control field are used to scatter the stored spin coherence. The controllable beating signal is generated due to alternative constructive and destructive interferences in the retrieved signal intensities. The beating of the two-color control fields is mapped into the beating of weak probe fields by using atomic spin coherence. This beating signal will be important in precise atomic spectroscopy and fast quantum limited measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical simulation results are presented for a drift-diffusion rate equation model which describes electronic transport due to sequential tunneling between adjacent quantum wells in weakly coupled semiconductor superlattices (SLs). The electron dynamics is dependent on the external magnetic field perpendicular to the electron motion direction, and a detailed explanation is given. Using different parameters, the system shows different dynamic behaviors, and three distinct phenomena are observed and controlled by increasing magnetic field. (i) For a lower doping density, the system state transfers from stable state to oscillationary state. (ii) An opposite result is obtained to that in the case (i) for an intermediate value of the doping density, and the state changes from oscillationary to stationary. (iii) The state varies between oscillationary and stationary when doping density is large. Then, a detailed theoretical analysis is given to explain these surprise phenomena. The distribution of the electric-field domain along the SLs is plotted. We find the structure of the domain is almost uniform for a lower doping density, and no domain occurs in the SLs. By adding an external ac signal, complex nonlinear behaviors are observed from the Poincaré map and the corresponding phase diagrams when the driving frequency changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gd-doped HfO2 has drawn worldwide interest for its interesting features. It is considered to be a suitable material for N-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices due to a negative flatband voltage (Vfb) shift caused by the Gd doping. In this work, an anomalous positive shift was observed when Gd was doped into HfO2. The cause for such a phenomenon was systematically investigated by distinguishing the effects of different factors, such as Fermi level pinning (FLP), a dipole at the dielectric/SiO2 interface, fixed interfacial charge, and bulk charge, on Vfb. It was found that the FLP and interfacial dipole could make Vfb negatively shifted, which is in agreement with the conventional dipole theory. The increase in interfacial fixed charge resulting from Gd doping plays a major role in positive Vfb shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces an average contraction analysis for nonlinear switched systems and applies it to investigating the synchronization of complex networks of coupled systems with switching topology. For a general nonlinear system with a time-dependent switching law, a basic convergence result is presented according to average contraction analysis, and a special case where trajectories of a distributed switched system converge to a linear subspace is then investigated. Synchronization is viewed as the special case with all trajectories approaching the synchronization manifold, and is thus studied for complex networks of coupled oscillators with switching topology. It is shown that the synchronization of a complex switched network can be evaluated by the dynamics of an isolated node, the coupling strength and the time average of the smallest eigenvalue associated with the Laplacians of switching topology and the coupling fashion. Finally, numerical simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report a systematic investigation of the crystal structure and superconducting properties of iron-based superconductors Eu1-xNaxFe2As2 (x = 0-0.5). X-ray diffraction patterns indicate that the compounds form the ThCr2Si2-type structure with space group I4/mmm. The systematic evolution of the lattice constant demonstrates that the Eu ions are successfully replaced by Na. The use of alkali metal substitution into the Eu site allows us to suppress the magnetic/structural phase transition in the parent compounds and superconductivity reaches as high as 35K with a doping level of x = 0.5. In addition, single crystals of Eu1-xNaxFe2As2 (x = 0, 0.5) have been successfully synthesized using the self-flux method. The upper critical fields have been determined with the magnetic field along the ab-plane and the c-axis, yielding an anisotropy of 1.7. The high upper critical fields and the low superconducting anisotropy of the Na-doped EuFe2As2 compounds indicate a potential for applications such as the generation of high magnetic fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Varian's new digital linear accelerator (LINAC), TrueBeamTM STx, is equipped with a high dose rate flattening filter free (FFF) mode (6 MV and 10 MV), a high definition multileaf collimator (2.5 mm leaf width), as well as onboard imaging capabilities. A series of end-to-end phantom tests were performed, TrueBeam-based image guided radiation therapy (IGRT), to determine the geometric accuracy of the image-guided setup and dose delivery process for all beam modalities delivered using intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and RapidArcTM. In these tests, an anthropomorphic phantom with a Ball Cube II insert and the analysis software (FilmQATM (3cognition)) were used to evaluate the accuracy of TrueBeamTM image-guided setup and dose delivery. Laser cut EBT2 films with 0.15 mm accuracy were embedded into the phantom. The phantom with the film inserted was first scanned with a GE Discovery-ST CT scanner, and the images were then imported to the planning system. Plans with steep dose fall off surrounding hypothetical targets of different sizes were created using RapidArc and IMRT with FFF and WFF (with flattening filter) beams. Four RapidArc plans (6 MV and 10 MV FFF) and five IMRT plans (6 MV and 10 MV FFF; 6 MV, 10 MV and 15 MV WFF) were studied. The RapidArc plans with 6 MV FFF were planned with target diameters of 1 cm (0.52 cc), 2 cm (4.2 cc) and 3 cm(14.1 cc), and all other plans with a target diameter of 3 cm. Both onboard planar and volumetric imaging procedures were used for phantom setup and target localization. The IMRT and RapidArc plans were then delivered, and the film measurementswere compared with the original treaTMent plans using a gamma criteria of 3%/1 mm and 3%/2 mm. The shifts required in order to align the film measured dose with the calculated dose distributions was attributed to be the targeting error. Targeting accuracy of image-guided treaTMent using TrueBeamTM was found to be within 1 mm. For irradiation of the 3 cm target, the gammas (3%, 1 mm) were found to be above 90% in all plan deliveries. For irradiations of smaller targets (2 cmand 1 cm), similar accuracy was achieved for 6 MV and 10 MV beams. Slightly degraded accuracy was observed for irradiations with higher energy beam (15 MV). In general, gammas (3%, 2 mm) were found to be above 97% for all the plans. Our end-to-end tests showed an excellent relative dosimetric agreement and sub-millimeter targeting accuracy for 6 MV and 10 MV beams, using both FFF and WFF delivery methods. However, increased deviations in spatial and dosimetric accuracy were found when treating lesions smaller than 2 cm or with 15 MV beam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new criterion for judging zero quantum discord for arbitrary bipartite states. A bipartite quantum state has zero quantum discord if and only if all the blocks of its density matrix are normal matrices and commute with each other. Given a bipartite state with zero quantum discord, the question of how to find the set of local projectors that do not disturb the whole state after being imposed on one subsystem is also presented. A class of two-qubit X-state is used to test the criterion, and an experimental scheme is proposed for realizing it. Consequently, we prove that the positive operator-valued measurement cannot extinguish the quantum correlation of a bipartite state with nonzero quantum discord. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tunneling between double wells of atom in crossed electromagnetic fields is investigated by a one-dimensional Hamiltonian model. The crossed fields induced outer well is apart from the nuclear origin and it is very difficult to access by means of spectroscopy but it will be possible if there exists the tunneling of the electron between the outer well and the Coulomb potential predominated well at the nuclear origin. A one-dimensional quantum calculation with B-spline basis has been performed for hydrogen atom in crossed fields accessible in our laboratory, at B = 0.8 T and F = [?]220 V*cm[?]1. The calculation shows that the wavefunctions of some excited states close to the Stark saddle point in the outer well extend over to the Coulomb potential well, making it possible to penetrate the quantum information of the outer well. However, the tunneling rate is very small and the spectral measurement of the transitions from the ground state should be of a high resolution and high sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a general random pseudofractal network model by assigning fitness to each edge. In this model, continuous growth and attachment, determined by their fitness of already existing edges, are the two ingredients. We obtain the analytical results that our model exhibits a power-law degree distribution with exponent g = 2 + m(1 + am)[?]1, where m and a are tunable parameters. We also show that a general random pseudofractal network has a large clustering coefficient and a small average distance leading to a small-world effect. These theoretical results agree well with numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose general principles to construct two-dimensional (2D) single-atom-thick carbon allotropes. They can be viewed as the generalization of patterning Stone–Walse defects (SWDs) by manipulating bond rotation and of patterning inverse SWDs by adding (or removing) carbon pairs on the pristine graphene, respectively. With these principles, numerous 2D allotropes of carbon can be systematically constructed. Using 20 constructed 2D allotropes as prototypical and benchmark examples, besides nicely reproducing all well-known ones, such as pentaheptites, T-graphene, OPGs, etc, we still discover 13 new allotropes. Their structural, thermodynamic, dynamical, and electronic properties are calculated by means of first-principles calculations. All these allotropes are metastable in energy compared with that of graphene and, except for OPG-A and C3-10-H allotropes, the other phonon spectra of 18 selected allotropes are dynamically stable. In particular, the proposed C3-11 allotrope is energetically favorable than graphene when the temperature is increased up to 1043 K according to the derived free energies. The electronic band structures demonstrate that (i) the C3-8 allotrope is a semiconductor with an indirect DFT band gap of 1.04 eV, (ii) another unusual allotrope is C3-12 which exhibits a highly flat band just crossing the Fermi level, (iii) four allotropes are Dirac semimetals with the appearance of Dirac cones at the Fermi level in the lattices without hexagonal symmetry, and (vi) without the spin–orbit coupling (SOC) effect, the hexagonal C3-11 allotrope exhibits two Dirac cones at K and K′ points in its Brillouin zone in similarity with graphene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multifunctional theranostic agents are widely applied in cancer diagnosis and treatment. These agents can significantly improve therapeutic outcomes and reduce adverse effects in current cancer therapy. Here, we have designed and synthesized iron-doped copper sulfide nanoparticles with polyvinylpyrollidone (FCS@PVP NPs) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guided photothermal therapy. The biocompatible FCS@PVP NPs with strong near-infrared absorption could be used as the photothermal agent and the magnetic characteristic of Fe3+ ions could be applied to T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The T1-weighted MRI, high photothermal performance, and the biodistribution of FCS@PVP NPs were investigated in mice after intravenous administration. The data showed that there was a high accumulation of FCS@PVP NPs in the tumor sites because of the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. This result also indicated that the tumors in tumor-bearing mice were effectively suppressed after FCS@PVP NPs treatment under 808 nm laser irradiation. More importantly, FCS@PVP NPs show low cytotoxicity and few side effects because of the quick and safe elimination through the hepatobiliary/fecal route. This work provided a foundation for the clinical application of FCS@PVP NPs as a promising multifunctional theranostic agent for the MRI guided photothermal therapy of cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most commonly in radiation therapy, treatments are delivered in a co-planar geometry. Numerous advantages have been reported of adding non-coplanar beams to the treatment plan. The aim of this study was to compare current state-of-the-art VMAT and CyberKnife treatment plans to that of a novel linac design developed at Stanford which utilizes a static conical beam arrangement that allows the inclusion of a full ring diagnostic CT with shared isocenter with the treatment beams. Four clinical cases, prostate, lung, head/neck, and pediatric brain, were selected and treatment plans were generated with 45° or 60° (to the longitudinal axis of the patient) conical beam IMRT and compared with co-planar 90° VMAT plans. Double cone, with beams entering from both superior and inferior directions, and single cone geometries were evaluated. Plans were optimized in RayStation using an in-house developed script to minimize operator bias between the different techniques. Non-coplanar CyberKnife IMRT plans for the pediatric and prostate case were optimized separately in MultiPlan and compared to conical geometry plans. In the prostate case, increased mean dose to the rectum (2.3–3.7 Gy) and bladder (9.5–14.5 Gy) but decreased dose to the femoral heads (femurs) (7.1–10 Gy) were found with the conical arrangement compared to 90° VMAT. Only minor dosimetric differences were found in the lung case, while selective sparing of organs at risk was found with 45° or 60° conical arrangement in the pediatric brain and head/neck cases. For the prostate case, a reduction in mean doses to the bladder and rectum of 6% (2 Gy) and 18% (5.2 Gy), respectively, was found when comparing the CyberKnife to the 60° conical plan, in favor of the CyberKnife plan, but with an increase in integral dose and reduced conformity. An increase in integral dose and reduced conformity was also found for the pediatric brain case when comparing CyberKnife and 60° conical plan. Minor benefits were found with double cone compared to single cone geometry. Comparable treatment plan quality could be achieved between conical beam arrangement and 90° (coplanar) VMAT and CyberKnife (non-coplanar) IMRT, demonstrating the promise of this novel beam geometry. The use of this beam geometry allows volumetric image-guidance with full ring imaging and a common isocenter for simultaneous treatment and imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By curving a rectangular diamondene, an sp2/sp3 composite carbon film, a diamondene nanotube (DNT) can be formed when the two straight edges are sewn together. In this study, thermal stabilities of DNTs are investigated using molecular dynamics simulation approaches. An interesting thermal shrinkage of damaged DNTs is discovered. Results indicate that DNTs have critical temperatures between 320 K and 350 K. At temperatures higher than the critical value, the interlayer bonds, i.e., the sp3–sp3 bonds, may break. The broken ratio of the interlayer bonds mainly depends on the temperature. For the DNT with a high broken ratio of interlayer bonds, it has thermal shrinkage in both the cross section and tube axis. The sp2–sp3 bonds in either the inner or the outer surface are much more stable. Even at 900 K, only a few sp2–sp3 bonds break. These properties can be used in the design of metamaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to analyze the uniaxial tensile deformation behaviors of nanotwinned copper bulk containing pre-existing multiple spherical/ellipsoidal voids. The effects of twin-boundary spacing, initial void size, void fraction, void shape, void orientation angle and loading orientation on the mechanical properties are examined by considering the stress-strain response and dislocation activity. Results illuminate that the coherent twin boundary can significantly enhance the strength of bulk copper. The critical stress for dislocation emission in the copper specimen depends mainly on the size of voids, which can influence the yield stress of nanotwinned copper. Less stress is required to emit dislocations from larger voids than smaller ones. In general, the larger initial void porosity is accompanied by smaller elastic modulus and critical stress. Furthermore, it is found that different dislocation patterns can be triggered under different loading orientations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phase-change probe memory is considered as one of the most promising means for next-generation mass storage devices. However, the achievable storage density of phase-change probe memory is drastically affected by the resulting thermal cross-talk effect while previously lacking detailed study. Therefore, a three dimensional model that couples electrical, thermal, and phase-change processes of the Ge2Sb2Te5 media is developed, and subsequently deployed to assess the thermal cross-talk effect based on a Si/TiN/ Ge2Sb2Te5/diamond-like carbon (DLC) structure by appropriately tailoring the electro-thermal and geometrical properties of the storage media stack for a variety of external excitations. The modeling results show that the DLC capping with a thin thickness, a high electrical conductivity, and a low thermal conductivity is desired to minimize the thermal cross-talk, while the TiN underlayer has a slight impact on the thermal cross-talk. Combining the modeling findings with the previous film deposition experience, an optimized phase-change probe memory architecture is presented, and its capability of providing ultra-high recording density simultaneously with a sufficiently low thermal cross-talk is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose and investigate a novel metal/SiO2/Si3N4/SiO2/SiGe charge trapping flash memory structure (named as MONOS), utilizing SiGe as the buried channel. The fabricated memory device demonstrates excellent program-erasable characteristics attributed to the fact that more carriers are generated by the smaller bandgap of SiGe during program/erase operations. A flat-band voltage shift 2.8 V can be obtained by programming at +11 V for 100 μs. Meanwhile, the memory device exhibits a large memory window of ∼7.17 V under ±12 V sweeping voltage, and a negligible charge loss of 18% after 104 s’ retention. In addition, the leakage current density is lower than 2.52 × 10−7 A·cm−2 below a gate breakdown voltage of 12.5 V. Investigation of leakage current-voltage indicates that the Schottky emission is the predominant conduction mechanisms for leakage current. These desirable characteristics are ascribed to the higher trap density of the Si3N4 charge trapping layer and the better quality of the interface between the SiO2 tunneling layer and the SiGe buried channel. Therefore, the application of the SiGe buried channel is very promising to construct 3D charge trapping NAND flash devices with improved operation characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We derive an N-fold Darboux transformation for the nonlinear Schrödinger equation coupled to a multiple self-induced transparency system, which is applicable to optical fiber communications in the erbium-doped medium. The N-soliton, N-breather and Nth-order rogue wave solutions in the compact determinant representations are derived using the Darboux transformation and limit technique. Dynamics of such solutions from the first- to second-order ones are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a test structure for simultaneously determining thermal conductivity and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of polysilicon thin film is proposed. The test structure consists of two double-clamped beams with different lengths. A theoretical model for extracting thermal conductivity and CTE based on electrothermal analysis and resonance frequency approach is developed. Both flat and buckled beams are considered in the theoretical model. The model is confirmed by finite element software ANSYS. The test structures are fabricated by surface micromachined fabrication process. Experiments are carried out in our atmosphere. Thermal conductivity and CTE of polysilicon thin film are obtained to be (29.96  ±  0.92) W · m · K−1 and (2.65  ±  0.03)  ×  10−6 K−1, respectively, with temperature ranging from 300–400 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel high-κ Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3 nanolaminate charge trapping memory capacitor structure based on SiGe substrates with low interface densities is successfully fabricated and investigated. The memory capacitor exhibits excellent program-erasable characteristics. A large memory window of ∼4 V, a small leakage current density of ∼2 × 10−6 Acm−2 at a gate voltage of 7 V, a high charge trapping density of 1.42 × 1013 cm−2 at a working voltage of ±10 V and good retention characteristics are observed. Furthermore, the programming (at 10 V for 10 μs) and erasing speeds (at −10 V for 10 μs) of the fabricated capacitor based on SiGe substrates are significantly improved as compared with counterparts reported earlier. It is concluded that the high-κ Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3 nanolaminate charge trapping capacitor structure based on SiGe substrates is a promising candidate for future nano-scaled nonvolatile flash memory applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time behavior of an atmospheric pressure planar discharge sustained in He gas was investigated experimentally and through two dimensional (2D) discharge simulation. The 30 mm long uniform α-mode discharge was observed at radio frequency (RF) input power below 35 W. The gas temperature of 375 ± 50 K in the discharge core was estimated by emission spectroscopy of OH(A–X) emission. A sheath region of about 100–150 μm width near both electrodes was observed during the whole RF cycle. However, there were differences in emission dynamics among various species detected in the discharge. OH(A) emission does not follow the RF voltage temporal variation. Strong He emission was always detected near the cathode, which was consistent with the 2D discharge simulation results. He-excited species production was found mainly due to the electron impact process. The simulation showed that both the electron and ion density vary from 1.88 × 1017 m−3 to 1.92 × 1017 m−3, and the electron temperature was about 1.85 eV in the plasma bulk. The ion temperature stayed close to the rotational temperature of OH radicals, and only increased near the sheath region to 0.65 eV. It was found that the mechanism of the sheath formation in atmospheric pressure discharge strongly correlates with the dynamics of the electron density and electron temperature variation in the gap, and the process is similar to low pressure RF capacitively coupled discharges. The high uniformity of the discharge and the upscale possibility to any desirable size are considered beneficial for industrial applications of the source, which is key for processes of thin coating deposition and polymer modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A promising technology named epitaxy on nano-scale freestanding fin (ENFF) is firstly proposed for hetero-epitaxy. This technology can effectively release total strain energy and then can reduce the probability of generating mismatch dislocations. Based on the calculation, dislocation defects can be eliminated completely when the thickness of the Si freestanding fin is less than 10 nm for the epitaxial Ge layer. In addition, this proposed ENFF process can provide sufficient uniaxial stress for the epitaxy layer, which can be the major stressor for the SiGe or Ge channel fin field-effect transistor or nanowire at the 10 nm node and beyond. According to the results of technology computer-aided design simulation, nanowires integrated with ENFF show excellent electrical performance for uniaxial stress and band offset. The ENFF process is compatible with the state of the art mainstream technology, which has a good potential for future applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a low-temperature annealed ohmic contact process was proposed on AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistors (HFETs) with the assistance of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) surface treatment. The effect of ICP treatment process on the 2DEG channel as well as the formation mechanism of the low annealing temperature ohmic contact was investigated. An appropriate residual AlGaN thickness and a plasma-induced damage are considered to contribute to the low-temperature annealed ohmic contact. By using a single Al layer to replace the conventional Ti/Al stacks, ohmic contact with a contact resistance of 0.35 Ω·mm was obtained when annealed at 575 °C for 3 min. Good ohmic contact was also obtained by annealing at 500 °C for 20 min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the fabrication of the 10-mm-long lithium niobate ridge waveguide and its supercontinuum generation at near-visible wavelengths (around 800 nm). The waveguides are fabricated by a combination of MeV copper ion implantation followed by wet etching in a proton exchanged lithium niobate planar waveguide. Using a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser with a central wavelength of 800 nm, the generated broadest supercontinuum through the ridge waveguides spans 302 nm (at −30 dB points), from 693 to 995 nm. Temporal coherence properties of the supercontinuum are experimentally studied by a Michelson interferometer and the coherence length of the broadest supercontinuum is measured to be 5.2μm. Our results offer potential for a compact and integrated supercontinuum source for applications including bio-imaging, spectroscopy and optical communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional multiple breath-hold two-dimensional (2D) balanced steady-state free precession (SSFP) presents many difficulties in cardiac cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Recently, a self-gated free-breathing three-dimensional (3D) SSFP technique has been proposed as an alternative in many studies. However, the accuracy and effectiveness of self-gating signals have been barely studied before. Since self-gating signals are crucially important in image reconstruction, a systematic study of self-gating signals and comparison with external monitored signals are needed.Previously developed self-gated free-breathing 3D SSFP techniques are used on twenty-eight healthy volunteers. Both electrocardiographic (ECG) and respiratory bellow signals are also acquired during the scan as external signals. Self-gating signal and external signal are compared by trigger and gating window. Gating window is proposed to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of respiratory self-gating signal. Relative deviation of the trigger and root-mean-square-deviation of the cycle duration are calculated. A two-tailed paired t-test is used to identify the difference between self-gating and external signals. A Wilcoxon signed rank test is used to identify the difference between peak and valley self-gating triggers.The results demonstrate an excellent correlation (P = 0, R > 0.99) between self-gating and external triggers. Wilcoxon signed rank test shows that there is no significant difference between peak and valley self-gating triggers for both cardiac (H = 0, P > 0.10) and respiratory (H = 0, P > 0.44) motions. The difference between self-gating and externally monitored signals is not significant (two-tailed paired-sample t-test: H = 0, P > 0.90).The self-gating signals could demonstrate cardiac and respiratory motion accurately and effectively as ECG and respiratory bellow. The difference between the two methods is not significant and can be explained. Furthermore, few ECG trigger errors appear in some subjects while these errors are not found in self-gating signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transdermal drug delivery (TDD) can effectively bypass the first-pass effect. In this paper, ultrasound-facilitated TDD on fresh porcine skin was studied under various acoustic parameters, including frequency, amplitude, and exposure time. The delivery of yellow–green fluorescent nanoparticles and high molecular weight hyaluronic acid (HA) in the skin samples was observed by laser confocal microscopy and ultraviolet spectrometry, respectively. The results showed that, with the application of ultrasound exposures, the permeability of the skin to these markers (e.g., their penetration depth and concentration) could be raised above its passive diffusion permeability. Moreover, ultrasound-facilitated TDD was also tested with/without the presence of ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs). When the ultrasound was applied without UCAs, low ultrasound frequency will give a better drug delivery effect than high frequency, but the penetration depth was less likely to exceed 200 μm. However, with the help of the ultrasound-induced microbubble cavitation effect, both the penetration depth and concentration in the skin were significantly enhanced even more. The best ultrasound-facilitated TDD could be achieved with a drug penetration depth of over 600 μm, and the penetration concentrations of fluorescent nanoparticles and HA increased up to about 4–5 folds. In order to get better understanding of ultrasound-facilitated TDD, scanning electron microscopy was used to examine the surface morphology of skin samples, which showed that the skin structure changed greatly under the treatment of ultrasound and UCA. The present work suggests that, for TDD applications (e.g., nanoparticle drug carriers, transdermal patches and cosmetics), protocols and methods presented in this paper are potentially useful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social force model has been widely used to simulate pedestrian evacuation by analyzing attractive, repulsive, driving, and fluctuating forces among pedestrians. Many researchers have improved its limitations in simulating behaviors of large-scale population. This study modifies the well-accepted social force model by considering the impacts of interaction among companions and further develops a comprehensive model by combining that with a multi-exit utility function. Then numerical simulations of evacuations based on the comprehensive model are implemented in the waiting hall of the Wulin Square Subway Station in Hangzhou, China. The results provide safety thresholds of pedestrian density and panic levels in different operation situations. In spite of the operation situation and the panic level, a larger friend-group size results in lower evacuation efficiency. Our study makes important contributions to building a comprehensive multi-exit social force model and to applying it to actual scenarios, which produces data to facilitate decision making in contingency plans and emergency treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the bichromatic coherent random lasing actions from the dye-doped polymer stabilized blue phase liquid crystals. Two groups of lasing peaks, of which the full widith at half maximum is about 0.3 nm, are clearly observed. The shorter- and longer-wavelength modes are associated with the excitation of the single laser dye (DCM) monomers and dimers respectively. The experimental results show that the competition between the two groups of the lasing peaks can be controlled by varying the polarization of the pump light. When the polarization of the pump light is rotated from 0° to 90°, the intensity of the shorter-wavelength lasing peak group reduces while the intensity of the longer-wavelength lasing peak group increases. In addition, a red shift of the longer-wavelength modes is also observed and the physical mechanisms behind the red-shift phenomenon are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metamaterial-based absorbers play a significant role in applications ranging from energy harvesting and thermal emitters to sensors and imaging devices. The middle dielectric layer of conventional metamaterial absorbers has always been solid. Researchers could not detect the near field distribution in this layer or utilize it effectively. Here, we use anisotropic liquid crystal as the dielectric layer to realize electrically fast tunable terahertz metamaterial absorbers. We demonstrate strong, position-dependent terahertz near-field enhancement with sub-wavelength resolution inside the metamaterial absorber. We measure the terahertz far-field absorption as the driving voltage increases. By combining experimental results with liquid crystal simulations, we verify the near-field distribution in the middle layer indirectly and bridge the near-field and far-field observations. Our work opens new opportunities for creating high-performance, fast, tunable, terahertz metamaterial devices that can be applied in biological imaging and sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-aligned-gate heterostructure field-effect transistor (HFET) is fabricated using a wet-etching method. Titanium nitride (TiN) is one kind of thermal stable material which can be used as the gate electrode. A Ti/Au cap layer is fixed on the gate and acts as an etching mask. Then the T-shaped gate is automatically formed through over-etching the TiN layer in 30% H2O2 solution at 95 °C. After treating the ohmic region with an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) method, an Al layer is sputtered as an ohmic electrode. The ohmic contact resistance is approximately 0.3 Ω·mm after annealing at a low-temperature of 575 °C in N2 ambient for 1 min. The TiN gate leakage current is only 10−8 A after the low-temperature ohmic process. The access region length of the self-aligned-gate (SAG) HFET was reduced from 2 μm to 0.3 μm compared with that of the gate-first HFET. The output current density and transconductance of the device which has the same gate length and width are also increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Al-based ohmic process assisted by an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) recess treatment is proposed for AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors (HFETs) to realize ohmic contact, which is only needed to anneal at 500 °C. The recess treatment was done with SiCl4 plasma with 100 W ICP power for 20 s and annealing at 575 °C for 1 min. Under these conditions, contact resistance of 0.52 Ωmm was confirmed. To suppress the ball-up phenomenon and improve the surface morphology, an Al/TiN structure was also fabricated with the same conditions. The contact resistance was further improved to 0.30 Ωmm. By using this plasma-assisted ohmic process, a gate-first HFET was fabricated. The device showed high drain current density and high transconductance. The leakage current of the TiN-gate device decreased to 10−9 A, which was 5 orders of magnitude lower than that of the device annealed at 800 °C. The results showed that the low-temperature ohmic contact process assisted by ICP treatment is promising for the fabrication of gate-first and self-aligned gate HFETs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is highly desirable to develop smart nanocarriers with stimuli-responsive drug-releasing and diagnostic-imaging functions for cancer theranostics. Herein, we develop a reduction and pH dual-responsive tumor theranostic platform based on degradable manganese dioxide (MnO2) nanosheets. The MnO2 nanosheets with a size of 20–60 nm were first synthesized and modified with (3-Aminopropyl) trimethoxysilane (APTMS) to get amine-functionalized MnO2, and then functionalized by NH2-PEG2000-COOH (PEG). The tumor-targeting group, folic acid (FA), was finally conjugated with the PEGylated MnO2 nanosheets. Then, doxorubicin (DOX), a chemotherapeutic agent, was loaded onto the modified nanosheets through a physical adsorption, which was designated as MnO2-PEG-FA/DOX. The prepared MnO2-PEG-FA/DOX nanosheets with good biocompatibility can not only efficiently deliver DOX to tumor cells in vitro and in vivo, leading to enhanced anti-tumor efficiency, but can also respond to a slightly acidic environment and high concentration of reduced glutathione (GSH), which caused degradation of MnO2 into manganese ions enabling magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The longitudinal relaxation rate r1 was 2.26 mM−1 s−1 at pH 5.0 containing 2 mM GSH. These reduction and pH dual-responsive biodegradable nanosheets combining efficient MRI and chemotherapy provide a novel and promising platform for tumor-targeting theranostic application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Zn(NO3)2, H2SeO3 and graphene oxide as precursors, the zinc oxide/selenium/reduced graphene oxide (ZnO/Se/RGO) composite was facilely electrodeposited on the surface of indium tin oxide glass. The conditions for electrochemical synthesis such as electrodeposition potential and electrolyte composition were studied. The morphology and crystallization of the products as-prepared were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray diffractometry (XRD) respectively. The light absorption and conductivity of the products were studied by UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Based on a series of experimental results, the photoelectrical conversion mechanism and effect factors of the products were explored. By means of synergistic action of n-type ZnO, p-type Se and conductive RGO, the ZnO/Se/RGO composite showed excellent photoelectric conversion under visible light irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypergraph states as real equally weighted pure states are important resources for quantum codes of non-local stabilizers. Using local Pauli equivalence and permutational symmetry, we reduce the 32 768 four-qubit real equally weighted pure states to 28 locally inequivalent hypergraph states and several graph states. The calculation of geometric entanglement supplemented with entanglement entropy confirms that further reduction is impossible for true hypergraph states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spinless fermions on a honeycomb lattice provide a minimal realization of lattice Dirac fermions. Repulsive interactions between nearest neighbors drive a quantum phase transition from a Dirac semimetal to a charge-density-wave state through a fermionic quantum critical point, where the coupling of the Ising order parameter to the Dirac fermions at low energy drastically affects the quantum critical behavior. Encouraged by a recent discovery (Huffman and Chandrasekharan 2014 Phys. Rev. B 89 111101) of the absence of the fermion sign problem in this model, we study the fermionic quantum critical point using the continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method with a worm-sampling technique. We estimate the transition point with the critical exponents and . Compatible results for the transition point are also obtained with infinite projected entangled-pair states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first-principles calculations are employed to investigate the stability, magnetic, and electrical properties of the oxide heterostructure of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (110). By comparing their interface energies, it is obtained that the buckled interface is more stable than the abrupt interface. This result is consistent with experimental observation. At the interface of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (110) heterostructure, the Ti—O octahedron distortions cause the Ti t2g orbitals to split into the two-fold degenerate dxz/dyz and nondegenerate dxy orbitals. The former has higher energy than the latter. The partly filled two-fold degenerate t2g orbitals are the origin of two-dimensional electron gas, which is confined at the interface. Lattice mismatch between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 leads to ferroelectric-like lattice distortions at the interface, and this is the origin of spin-splitting of Ti 3d electrons. Hence the magnetism appears at the interface of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (110). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of spike frequency adaptation (SFA) on the synchronous behavior of population neurons are investigated in electrically coupled networks with a scale-free property. By a computational approach, we corroborate that pairwise correlations between neurons would decrease if neurons exhibit the feature of SFA, which is similar to previous experimental observations. However, unlike the case of pairwise correlations, population activities of neurons show a rather complex variation mode: compared with those of non-adapted neurons, neurons in the networks having weak-degrees of SFA will impair population synchronizations; while neurons exhibiting strong-degrees of SFA will enhance population synchronizations. Moreover, a variation of coupling strength between neurons will not alter this phenomenon significantly, unless the coupling strength is too weak. Our results suggest that synchronous activity of electrically coupled population neurons is adaptation-dependent, and this adaptive feature may imply some coding strategies of neuronal populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to electro-optical sampling theory, we propose a new method to detect the spatiotemporal field of a single-shot terahertz pulse by spectral holography for the first time. The single-shot terahertz pulse is coupled into a broadened chirped femtosecond pulse according to electro-optical sampling theory in the detecting system. Then the reference wave and the signal wave are split by Dammann grating and spread into the interference band-pass filter. The filtered sub-waves are at different central-frequencies because of the different incident angles. These sub-waves at different central-frequencies interfere to form sub-holograms, which are recorded in a single frame of a charge coupled device (CCD). The sub-holograms are numerically processed, and the spatiotemporal field distribution of the original terahertz pulse is reconstructed. The computer simulations verify the feasibility of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The behavior of wafers and solar cells from the border of a multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) ingot, which contain deteriorated regions, is investigated. It is found that the diffusion length distribution of minority carriers in the cells is uniform, and high efficiency of the solar cells (about 16%) is achieved. It is considered that the quality of the deteriorated regions could be improved to be similar to that of adjacent regions. Moreover, it is indicated that during general solar cell fabrication, phosphorus gettering and hydrogen passivation could significantly improve the quality of deteriorated regions, while aluminum gettering by RTP could not. Therefore, it is suggested that the border of a mc-Si ingot could be used to fabricate high efficiency solar cells, which will increase mc-Si utilization effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a simple and efficient method for measuring the atomic lifetimes in order of tens of microseconds and demonstrate it in the lifetime determination of barium Rydberg states. This method extracts the lifetime information from the time-of-flight spectrum directly, which is much more efficient than other methods such as the time-delayed field ionization and the traditional laser induced fluorescence. The lifetimes determined with our method for barium Rydberg 6snp (n=37-59) series are well coincident with the values deduced from the absolute oscillator strengths of barium which were given in the literature [J. Phys. B 14 (1981) 4489, 29 (1996) 655] on experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the fabrication of Ta-sheathed superconducting SmFeAsO1[?]xFx wires by the powder-in-tube method for the first time. The transition temperature of the SmFeAsO0.65F0.35 wires was confirmed to be as high as 52 K. High critical fields Hc2(0)[?]120 T as well as current density Jc of 3900 A cm[?]2 at 5 K were also demonstrated. It should be noted that the Jc exhibits a very weak field dependence behavior, indicating a very encouraging prospect for application of the new superconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the problem of controlling a complex dynamical network by means of pinning. We point out that the synchronization criterion given in the form of matrix eigenvalues can be equivalent to a linear matrix inequality criterion. We further investigate network synchronization via pinning and prove several linear matrix inequality theorems. In particular, we theoretically provide two typical pinning strategies based on whether the graph which is made up of unpinned nodes and edges between them is irreducible or not. Numerical simulations including k-regular networks, star-shaped networks and BA scale-free networks, are shown for illustration and verification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Well-separated silicon nanoparticles (Si-NPs) were deposited on Si wafer and amorphous carbon micro-grids at room temperature by magnetron sputtering through a nanocluster source. With the introduction of He as a carrier gas in Ar sputtering atmosphere, well-separated Si-NPs with narrow size distribution can be observed by transmission electron microscopy. High resolution transmission electron microscopy study reveals that the average size of the Si-NPs is about 5 nm in diameter. Furthermore, well-crystallized Si-NPs without oxidized layer are of strong photoluminescence with a double-peak structure at the positions of 380 and 398 nm at room temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have performed first principles calculations of Fe-doped BaTiO3 and SrTiO3. Dopant formation energy, structure distortion, band structure and density of states have been computed. The dopant formation energy is found to be 6.8 eV and 6.5 eV for Fe-doped BaTiO3 and SrTiO3 respectively. The distances between Fe impurity and its nearest O atoms and between Fe atom and Ba or Sr atoms are smaller than those of the corresponding undoped bulk systems. The Fe defect energy band is obtained, which mainly originates from Fe 3d electrons. The band gap is still an indirect one after Fe doping for both BaTiO3 and SrTiO3, but the gap changes from Γ–R point to Γ–X point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A group of symmetric operators are introduced to carry out the separability criterion for bipartite and multipartite quantum states. All the symmetric operators, represented by a symmetric matrix with only two nonzero elements, and their arbitrary linear combinations are found to be entanglement witnesses. By using these symmetric operators, Wootters' separability criterion for two-qubit states can be generalized to bipartite and multipartite systems in arbitrary dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft mold imprinting has been widely used to improve quality and uniformity in large area nano-imprint processes because of its flexibility. However, the aspect ratio of soft mold imprinting is limited because of its physical properties. In this paper, a multi-mask layers transfer process was demonstrated to realize a high aspect ratio in the soft mold imprint process. In this process, a thin hard mask was used as an intermediate mask for a high aspect ratio mask layer fabrication. Based on this, a 60 nm line width gratings mask, whose aspect ratio is higher than 4, was fabricated; we also realized a uniform photonic crystal (PC) pattern on large and rough gallium nitride (GaN) epitaxial wafers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report the superconductivity above 40 K in the electron doping single crystals Ca1−xRxFe2As2 (R = La, Ce, Pr). The x-ray diffraction patterns indicate high crystalline quality and c-axis orientation. The resistivity anomaly in the parent compound CaFe2As2 is completely suppressed by partial replacement of Ca with rare-earth elements and the superconducting transition reaches as high as 46 K, which is higher than the value in electron doping FeAs-122 compounds formed by substituting Fe ions with transition metal, and even surpasses the highest value observed in hole doping systems with a transition temperature up to 38 K. The upper critical fields have been determined with the magnetic field along the ab-plane and c-axis, yielding an anisotropy of 2–3. Hall effect measurements indicate that the conduction in this material is dominated by electron-like charge carriers. Our results confirm the feasibility of inducing superconductivity in Ca122 compounds via electron doping using aliovalent rare-earth substitution into the alkaline earth site, which should add more ingredients to the underlying physics of the iron-based superconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report the superconductivity above 40 K in the electron doping single crystals Ca1-xRxFe2As2 (R D La, Ce, Pr). The x-ray diffraction patterns indicate high crystalline quality and c-axis orientation. The resistivity anomaly in the parent compound CaFe2As2 is completely suppressed by partial replacement of Ca with rare-earth elements and the superconducting transition reaches as high as 46 K, which is higher than the value in electron doping FeAs-122 compounds formed by substituting Fe ions with transition metal, and even surpasses the highest value observed in hole doping systems with a transition temperature up to 38 K. The upper critical fields have been determined with the magnetic field along the ab-plane and c-axis, yielding an anisotropy of 2-3. Hall effect measurements indicate that the conduction in this material is dominated by electron-like charge carriers. Our results confirm the feasibility of inducing superconductivity in Ca122 compounds via electron doping using aliovalent rare-earth substitution into the alkaline earth site, which should add more ingredients to the underlying physics of the iron-based superconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EuFe2As2 is a member of the ternary iron arsenide family. Similar to BaFe2As2 and SrFe2As2, EuFe2As2 exhibits a clear anomaly in resistivity near 200 K. Here, we report the discovery of superconductivity in Eu0.7Na0.3Fe2As2 by partial substitution of the europium site with sodium. ThCr2Si2 tetragonal structure, as expected for EuFe2As2, is formed as the main phase for the composition Eu0.7Na0.3Fe2As2. Resistivity measurements reveal that the transition temperature Tc as high as 34.7K is observed in this compound. The rate of Tc suppression with the applied magnetic field is 3.87 TK-1, giving an extrapolated zero-temperature upper critical field of 100 T. It demonstrates a very encouraging application of the new superconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

x-cut Nd : MgO : LiNbO3 wafers are implanted with 3 MeV O+ ions at a dose of 6 × 1014 cm[?]2, directly using a photoresist mask consisting of a series of open stripes of width 10 µm. The extraordinary refractive index (RI) experiences positive changes with respect to the bulk after ion bombardment and post-implantation annealing; therefore, channel waveguide structures are formed in the implanted regions. The near field intensity distributions of the transverse-electric modes are obtained by an end-fire coupling arrangement. The modal simulation result shows the reasonableness of the reconstructed RI profiles, which is helpful in designing practical waveguide devices produced by the ion implantation technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we demonstrate that the near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) between two graphene sheets can be modulated effectively, when the suspended sheets are subjected to mechanical strain. In this system, the isotropic optical properties of graphene dramatically change to be the in-plane anisotropy due to existence of the strain. The results suggest that the enhancement of NFRHT arises from the coupling of quasi-elliptic surface waves across the interfaces. We find that, by tuning the strain modulus or the stretching direction, the spectra of the heat transfer coefficient and the contour of energy transmission coefficient in k space are changed remarkably. These results indicate that the NFRHT is tunable. In a system whose strain is fixed at 23% and separation is 50 nm, a large change of NFRHT about 60% is achieved by tuning the stretching direction monotonously. Furthermore, we investigate the strain-induced modulation of the NFRHT under the different separations and carrier mobilities. This work provides a method to manipulate thermal radiation in a well controllable mode, and may have a potential impact on the development of micro/nano thermal management devices and systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]