Precipitation of Icosahedral Quasicrystalline Phase, R-phase and Laves Phase in Ferritic Alloys

Ferritic heat resistant steels involving precipitation of intermetallic phases have drawn a growing interest for the enhancement of creep strength, while the brittleness of the intermetallic phases may lower the toughness of the alloy.Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the dispersion characteristics of the intermetallics phase through microstructural control to minimize the trade-off between the strength and toughness. The effects of α-Fe matrix substructures on the precipitation sequence, morphology, dispersion characteristics, and the stability of the intermetallic phases are investigated in Fe-Cr-W-Co-Si system. The precipitates of the Si-free Fe-10Cr-I.4W-4.5Co (at%) alloy aged at 873K are the R-phase but those of the Si-added Fe-10Cr-1.4W-4.5Co-0.3Si (at%) alloy are the icosahedral quasicrystalline phase. The precipitates in both the Si-free and Si-added alloys aged at 973K are the Laves phase. Matrix of the alloys is controlled by heat treatments as to provide three types of matrix substructures; ferrite, ferrite/martensite mixture and martensite. The hardening behavior of the alloys depends on the matrix substructures and is independent of the kinds of precipitates. In the alloys with ferrite matrix, the peak of hardness during aging at 873K shifts to longer aging time in comparison with that in the alloys with lath martensite matrix which contain numbers of nucleation sites.     

Microstructure control and tensile properties of three-phase alloys based on the E21 Co3AlC and B2 CoAl

To investigate tensile mechanical behavior, tensile tests were conducted at room temperature and 1273 K on three-phase alloys consisting of the E2₁ Co₃AlC, B2 CoAl and (Co) primary solid solution. The alloy containing a large volume fraction of E2₁ phase exhibits excellent ductility, exceeding 5% plastic strain at room temperature, while the alloy with a considerable amount of coarse B2 phase particles shows zero ductility. In this study, microstructure control was used to improve the ambient temperature ductility of the E2₁/B2/(Co) three-phase alloys. Hot forging and subsequent heat treatments were performed aiming at eliminating solidification defects and minimizing the heterogeneity of the as-cast microstructure. These thermomechanical treatments together with compositional control effectively improve the ductility of the E2₁/B2/(Co) three-phase alloys at ambient temperature and 1273 K.     

Effects of light intensity and water temperature on oxygen release from roots into water lettuce rhizosphere

The oxygen release rate into the rhizosphere by a floating aquatic plant-water lettuce-was determined under various light intensities (0.0-1.2x10(5)lx) and water temperatures (10-35 degrees C). The net specific oxygen release rate was expressed by a model equation comprising the gross oxygen release rate and the rhizosphere respiration terms. Experimental and simulated results show that the net specific oxygen release rate increased with light intensity up to the optimal value, but slight inhibition by higher light intensities was observed at 10-20 degrees C. With increased water temperature, the respiration rate became larger than the gross oxygen release rate. The maximum net specific oxygen release rate of 11.0-12.5mg-O(2)kg-wet(-1)h(-1) was obtained at the optimal condition of about 25 degrees C and 9.0x10(4)-1.1x10(5)lx. The net oxygen release rate was negligible at 35 degrees C at any light intensity because the respiration rate was much greater than the gross oxygen release rate into the rhizosphere.     

Plasmon-Waveguide Interband Cascade Lasers Near 7.5 $mu$ m

Broad-area plasmon-waveguide interband cascade lasers with emission wavelengths near 7.5 mu m were demonstrated at temperatures up to 121 K in continuous-wave mode. Their threshold current densities and voltages varied from 72 A/cm² and 2.1 V at 84 K to 400 A/cm² and 2.7 V at 121 K, showing very efficient use of bias voltage (e.g., voltage efficiency of about 90% at 84 K) at this long wavelength. These plasmon-waveguide lasers also operated in pulsed mode at temperatures up to 165 K with emission wavelengths near 7.6 mum and threshold current density of 1100 A/cm².     

Correlations of two-phase frictional pressure drop and void fraction in mini-channel

Alternative correlations of two-phase friction pressure drop and void fraction are explored for mini-channels based on the separated flow model and drift-flux model. By applying the artificial neural network, dominant parameters to correlate the two-phase friction multiplier and void fraction are picked out. It is found that in mini-channels the non-dimensional Laplace constant is a main parameter to correlate the Chisholm parameter as well as the distribution parameter. Both previous correlations and the newly developed correlations are extensively evaluated with a variety of data sets collected from the literature.     

Optimum design and fabrication of InAlAs/InGaAs HEMT's on GaAs withboth high breakdown voltage and high maximum frequency of oscillation

A simple model to describe the dependence of the breakdown voltage between gate and drain on width of the gate recess in an InAlAs/InGaAs high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) is presented. In this model, the depletion region laterally spreads to the drain region. It enables us to express the dependence of device parameters on the width of the gate recess. The model suggests that the breakdown voltage increases with the width of the gate recess and then saturates, which is experimentally confirmed. Calculations based on the model show that the maximum frequency of oscillation (f_max) also increases with the width of the gate-recess due to the reduction in both the drain conductance and the gate-to-drain capacitance, and then slightly decreases with the width due to the increase in the source resistance. We fabricated InAlAs/InGaAs HEMT's lattice-mismatched on GaAs substrates with optimum recess-width, and these exhibited both a high breakdown voltage of 14 V and a high f_max of 127 GHz at a gate length of 0.66 μm     

Low-base-resistance InP/InGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors with a compositionally graded-base structure

To reduce base resistance of an InP/InGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor grown by gas-source molecular beam epitaxy, the doping characteristics of carbon-doped InGaAs and the dependence of doping concentration on current gain were investigated. Using a thicker graded base was found to increase current gain significantly, resulting in increased doping level in the InGaAs: C-base layer. In particular, an 80-nm-thick graded base produces a base sheet resistance of 285 Ω/sq and maintains a practically useful current gain of 23 and a high cut-off frequency of 139 GHz.     

139La-NMR study of spin-flop and spin structure in La2−x Sr x CuO4(x∼1/8)

The external field dependence of the hyperfine field at La-site has been studied on La _2–x Sr _x CuO ₄ (x=0.115) and La _2–x Ba _x CuO ₄ (x=0.125), where the magnetic ordering in Cu-3d spins exists at low temperature. In La _1.885 Sr _0.115 CuO ₄, a significant decrease in the resonance line width was observed above a field of H _c 7.5T, which is the direct evidence of the spin-flop in the canted-spin system with Dzyaloshinski-Moriya interaction. The spin-flop field H _c of 7.5T is slightly lower than that in La ₂ CuO ₄ (H _c 10T), reflecting the decrease of the tilting angle of the CuO ₆ octahedra by the substitution of Sr ²⁺ ion for La-site.     

Cold-active pectinolytic activity of psychrophilic-basidiomycetous yeast Cystofilobasidium capitatum strain PPY-1

A pectinolytic and psychrophilic yeast was isolated from soil from Abashiri, Hokkaido, Japan. The phenotype and sequencing of the 28S rDNA of the isolated strain (PPY-1) indicated a taxonomic affiliation to the basidiomycetous yeast Cystofilobasidium capitatum. C. capitatum strain PPY-1 was able to grow on two pectic compounds, polygalacturonate and pectin, at below 5 degrees C. Moreover, the extracellular fraction of the strain exhibited pectin methylesterase, pectin lyase and polygalacturonase activities at 5 degrees C. Thus strain PPY-1 may produce novel enzymes that are able to degrade pectin at low temperature, although the strain has isozymes of these enzymes.