Durable Ultraflexible Organic Photovoltaics with Novel Metal‐Oxide‐Free Cathode

Flexible and stretchable organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are promising as a power source for wearable devices with multifunctions ranging from sensing to locomotion. Achieving mechanical robustness and high power conversion efficiency for ultraflexible OPVs is essential for their successful application. However, it is challenging to simultaneously achieve these features by the difficulty to maintain stable performance under a microscale bending radius. Ultraflexible OPVs are proposed by employing a novel metal‐oxide‐free cathode that consists of a printed ultrathin metallic transparent electrode and an organic electron transport layer to achieve high electron‐collecting capabilities and mechanical robustness. In fact, the proposed ultraflexible OPV achieves a power conversion efficiency of 9.7% and durability with 74% efficiency retention after 500 cycles of deformation at 37% compression through buckling. The proposed approach can be applied to active layers with different morphologies, thus suggesting its universality and potential for high‐performance ultraflexible OPV devices.     

A Dendritic Nickel Cobalt Sulfide Nanostructure for Alkaline Battery Electrodes

A uniform dendritic NiCo₂S₄@NiCo₂S₄ hierarchical nanostructure of width ≈100 nm is successfully designed and synthesized. From kinetic analysis of the electrochemical reactions, those electrodes function in rechargeable alkaline batteries (RABs). The dendritic structure exhibited by the electrodes has a high discharge‐specific capacity of 4.43 mAh cm^?2 at a high current density of 240 mA cm^?2 with a good rate capability of 70.1% after increasing the current densities from 40 to 240 mA cm^?2. At low scan rate of 0.5 mV s^?1 in cyclic voltammetry test, the semidiffusion controlled electrochemical reaction contributes ≈92% of the total capacity, this value decreases to ≈43% at a high scan rate of 20 mV s^?1. These results enable a detailed analysis of the reaction mechanism for RABs and suggest design concepts for new electrode materials.     

The structure and maximal gain of CW-pumped GaP-AlGaP semiconductor Raman amplifier with tapers on both sides

GaP-AlGaP waveguide semiconductor Raman amplifiers (SRAs) tapered on both sides were fabricated by high-quality GaP-AlGaP liquid phase epitaxial growth using the temperature difference method with controlled vapor pressure (TDM-CVP), photolithography patterning, and reactive ion etching with PCl/sub 3/ gas. Although the finesse of the both-sides-tapered waveguide SRA is lower than previous values for straight or one-side-tapered waveguides, the CW-pumped gain was maximized, and a maximal gain of 4.2 dB was obtained. This letter presents the effect of tapered structures in SRA with CW pumping amplification.     

Dark-field transmission electron microscopy for a tilt series of ordering alloys: toward electron tomography

Here we show a technique to obtain a tilt series of dark-field (DF) transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images in ordering alloys for tomographic three-dimensional (3D) observations. A tilt series of DF TEM images of D1a-ordered Ni4Mo precipitates in a Ni-Mo alloy was successfully obtained by adjusting a diffraction condition for a superlattice reflection from the Ni4Mo precipitates. Since the superlattice reflection usually has a long extinction distance, dynamic diffraction effects such as thickness fringes can be suppressed to some extent with precise realignment of the diffraction condition. By using the tilt series of the DF TEM images, we attempted a computed TEM tomography to visualize 3D shapes and positions of the precipitates.     

Block Copolymer Permeable Membrane with Visualized High‐Density Straight Channels of Poly(ethylene oxide)

A simple fabrication, scalable to centimeter scale, of a permeable membrane made of block copolymer containing molecular transport channels is demonstrated by coating photo‐crosslinkable liquid‐crystalline block copolymer, consisting of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(methacrylate) (PMA) bearing stilbene (Stb) mesogens in the side chains (PEO₁₁₄‐b‐PMA(Stb)₅₂), onto a sacrificial cellulose acetate film substrate. After thermal annealing, perpendicularly aligned and hexagonally arranged PEO cylindrical domains with a surface density of 10¹¹ cm^?2 were formed and then fixed efficiently by photo‐crosslinking the stilbene moieties in the PMA(Stb) domains by [2 + 2] dimerization. The fully penetrating straight PEO cylindrical domains across the 480‐nm‐thick membrane were well‐defined and visualized as molecule‐transport channels. After exfoliated by removal of the cellulose acetate layer, the membrane could be transferred onto another substrate by either scooping or a horizontal lifting method. Throughout the processes, the fully penetrating PEO channels across the membrane are preserved to open at both ends. A simple permeation experiment demonstrates that rhodamine dyes permeate efficiently through the PEO cylindrical channels of the annealed membrane but not across a non‐annealed one.     

Time division multiplexed OTDR system

A new technique to increase the effective sampling rate of an optical time-domain reflectometer using a time division multiplexing digital sampling averaging procedure is proposed. This permits an increase in distance measuring accuracy of an optical time-domain reflectometer.     

New method to measure scattering and total losses of optical fibres

The direct measurement of scattering and total losses of very good uniform optical fibres has been proposed and verified for the first time by analysing the scattering light with the variation of input launching power of an He-Ne laser by an optical attenuator. The scattered light has been detected by the cubic detector at different positions along the fibre.     

Transmission characteristics of optical waveguides with multiquantum-well structures

The fundamental modes in an optical waveguide with multiquantum-well structure are analysed by the matrix method. It is found that the separation between the propagation constants of the TE and TM waves is relatively large and that the equivalent planar slab guide approximation is available only for TE waves.     

Influence of side chain length on fluorescence intensity of ROMP-based polymeric nanoparticles and their tumor specificity in in-vivo tumor imaging

In this study, amphiphilic brush-like copolymers conjugated with short alkyl or long polymeric chains of various lengths are synthesized using ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of substituted norbornadiene monomers followed by chemical transformations. These amphiphilic copolymers form spherical self-assemblies in aqueous media with diameters of 132-244 nm. The low critical aggregation concentration of these assemblies (2.5 × 10(-3) -1.4 × 10(-5) g/L) indicates that they are quite stable in dilute conditions. An appropriate length of polymer side chain that conjugates the polymer backbone with a hydrophobic ICG (indocyanine green) moiety enhanced the fluorescence intensities of these self-assemblies in aqueous solution as well as in tumor-bearing mice. A longer side chain conjugated with tumor targeting agents could significantly affect the tumor specificity of self-assemblies to a greater extent. The self-assemblies bearing hydrophilic tumor targeting agents, such as a glucosamine molecule and a cyclic RGD (arginine-glycine-asparatic acid) peptide, accumulated in tumor tissues with high selectivity, while those having a hydrophobic targeting agent, such as folate moieties, accumulated in tumor sites with low selectivity. The results demonstrated here unambiguously indicate that the fluorescence intensity and tumor specificity of self-assemblies are strongly affected by the length of side chains that conjugate with dyes and targeting agents.     

<Superscript>59</Superscript>Co NMR at Pulsed High Magnetic Fields

We report the ⁵⁹Co-NMR observation by spin-echo method at pulsed high magnetic fields up to 48 T. The 22 mm bore-resistive coil magnet with an inductance of 7.59 mH has a total time duration of 50 ms. After discharging the capacitor bank, NMR signals were observed near the maximum field. By repeatedly pulsing the RF sequence around the maximum field, spin echoes at different fields were recorded to give the NMR spectrum.