Giant room-temperature magnetoresistance in single-crystal Fe/MgO/Fe magnetic tunnel junctions

The tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) effect in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) is the key to developing magnetoresistive random-access-memory (MRAM), magnetic sensors and novel programmable logic devices. Conventional MTJs with an amorphous aluminium oxide tunnel barrier, which have been extensively studied for device applications, exhibit a magnetoresistance ratio up to 70% at room temperature. This low magnetoresistance seriously limits the feasibility of spintronics devices. Here, we report a giant MR ratio up to 180% at room temperature in single-crystal Fe/MgO/Fe MTJs. The origin of this enormous TMR effect is coherent spin-polarized tunnelling, where the symmetry of electron wave functions plays an important role. Moreover, we observed that their tunnel magnetoresistance oscillates as a function of tunnel barrier thickness, indicating that coherency of wave functions is conserved across the tunnel barrier. The coherent TMR effect is a key to making spintronic devices with novel quantum-mechanical functions, and to developing gigabit-scale MRAM.     

Absorption phenomena in the treatment of cotton with formaldehyde and cyclic oxymethylenes

Monomeric formaldehyde and the cyclic oxymethylenes tetraoxane and pentaoxane were retained by cotton to similar extents at the high temperatures used in textile finishing, but the mechanisms of absorption appeared to differ. Trioxane, however, was not retained by cotton. The absorption of cyclic oxymethylenes did not seem to involve bonding to cellulose by primary valence bonds. The presence of other substances had a greater effect on the absorption of monomeric formaldehyde than of cyclic oxymethylenes, but changes in extent of absorption were not large enough to influence textile properties of treated fabric.     

Chemicofunctional membrane for integrated chemical processes on a microchip

Here we report a design and synthesis of a chemically functional polymer membrane by an interfacial polycondensation reaction and multilayer flow inside a microchannel. Single and parallel dual-membrane structures are successfully prepared by using organic/aqueous two-layer flow and organic/aqueous/organic three-layer flow inside the microchannel followed by an interfacial polycondensation reaction. By using the inner-channel membrane, permeation of ammonia species through the inner-channel membrane is successfully achieved. Furthermore, horseradish peroxidase is immobilized on one side of the membrane surface to integrate the chemical transform function onto the inner-channel membrane. Here substrate permeation through the membrane and subsequent chemical transformation at the membrane surface are realized. The polymer membrane prepared inside the microchannel has an important role in ensuring stable contact of different phases such as gas/liquid or liquid/ liquid and the permeation of chemical species through the membrane. Furthermore, membrane surface modification chemistry allows chemical transformation of permeated chemical species. These methods are expected to lead to development of complicated and sophisticated chemical systems involving membrane permeation and chemical reactions.     

Pore structure of porous ceramics synthesized from water-based slurry by freeze-dry process

A unique porous ceramic with complex pore structure was synthesized by the freeze-dry process. A water-based ceramic slurry was frozen while controlling the growth direction of ice, and sublimation of the ice were generated by drying it at a reduced pressure. By sintering this green body, a porous ceramic with complex pore structure was obtained, where macroscopically aligned open pores exceeding 10 m in size contained minute pores of about 0.1 m in their internal walls. Wide control of the porosity was possible by changing the concentration of the starting slurry. The pore size distribution as well as the microstructure were substantially affected by the freezing and sintering temperatures. Optimization of the synthesis conditions was investigated in order to obtain the desired pore structure.     

On PH quintic spirals joining two circles with one circle inside the other

The paper derives a spiral condition, for a single Pythagorean hodograph quintic transition curve of G² contact, between two circles with one circle inside the other. A spiral is free of local curvature extrema, making spiral designs an interesting mathematical problem with importance for both physical and aesthetic applications. In the construction of highways or railway routes in particular, it is often desirable to have a transition curve from circle to circle. Here, we treat an open problem on planar quintic spiral segments, called transition curve elements, examine techniques for curve design using the new results, and derive lower and upper bounds for the distance between the two circles. The proposed method is applicable for non-tangent and non-concentric circles.     

A Gait Phase Measurement System Using Treadmill Motor Current

The article describes the development of a gait phase time-based split-belt treadmill measurement system. Conventional methods of measuring gait phase, such as the foot switch and force plate, require significant preparation and are costly. In this article, we propose a simple, cheap, and accurate gait phase measurement system that utilizes only the treadmill motor current value. Comparison of this algorithm with conventional methods reveals that the proposed algorithm is as accurate as the foot switch. Moreover, the proposed algorithm can estimate stance phase within a 0.2?s error of the measured value of the force plate in most cases (four out of five healthy subjects). This accuracy is higher than that of the foot switch which is widely used in the clinical field.     

Growth monitoring and classification of rice fields using multitemporal RADARSAT-2 full-polarimetric data

Spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can be used for agricultural monitoring. In this study, three single-polarimetric and four full-polarimetric observation data sets were analysed. A rice paddy field in northern Japan was used as the study site; the data for this site were obtained using RADARSAT-2, which carries a full-polarimetric C-band SAR. Soybean and grass fields were also present within the paddy fields. The temporal change in the backscattering coefficient of the rice paddy fields for the single-polarization data agreed with the temporal change obtained for a rice growth model based on radiative transfer theory. A three-component decomposition approach was applied to the full-polarimetric data. With each rice growth stage, the volume scattering component ratio increased, whereas the surface scattering component ratio generally decreased. The soybean and grass fields showed a smaller double-bounce scattering component than the rice fields for all the acquired data. The results of this study show that multitemporal observation by full-polarimetric SAR has great potential to be utilized for estimating rice-planted areas and monitoring rice growth.     

Application of wavelet transform for extracting edges of paddy fields from remotely sensed images

For geographical information systems (GIS) to be useful in the management of Japanese paddy fields, it is vital to be able to prepare base maps that define sections of field. We attempted to prepare a base map by detecting the edges of submerged paddy fields from a SPOT image with the use of multi-resolution wavelet transform. The raw image of SPOT band 3 was decomposed into a low frequency approximation image and a set of high frequency detailed images to five levels, and then reconstructed. The reconstructed image at the fifth level was obtained from all of the high frequency images except for the low frequency approximation image. The image reconstructed up to full scale was then applied to a zero-crossing scheme and three post-processings—line thinning, removal of isolated pixels, and connection of pixels with their neighbours—in order to obtain clear edges. The spatial features of the image indicating the edges obtained by multi-resolution wavelet transform were compared quantitatively with those obtained by using a difference of Gaussian (DOG) filter. The multi-resolution wavelet transform was better than the DOG filter in that the base map obtained by the wavelet transform method represented a ‘field block’, which is typically composed of 10 holdings of paddy field, more precisely than with the DOG filter, and in that the number of open polygons on this map was smaller, indicating that the wavelet transform method is more suitable for producing the base map in GIS for the management of paddy fields.     

Nanofabrication of magnetic tunnel junctions by using side-edge thin film deposition

Nanostructured double ferromagnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) are indispensable for investigation of spin-dependent single-electron transport at low temperature. A new fabrication process that enables us to reduce the size of MTJs down to nanometer scale by using the side edge of a patterned film were developed. The multilayers of MTJ partially replaced by thick Al₂O₃/Cu double layer were prepared by using electron beam lithography and lift-off, then Pt film was vacuum-evaporated onto the side edge of Al₂O₃/Cu film, which masked MTJ during following Ar ion milling. As a result, the double MTJs with the dimension of 10 nm £ 10 mm were formed beneath the Pt film. The large tunnel magnetoresistive ratio of 35% and symmetrical I–V characteristics were obtained at room temperature.     

Spectral interferometric microscope with tandem liquid-crystal Fabry-Perot interferometers for extension of the dynamic range in three-dimensional step-height measurement

The maximum measurable range of a spectral interference microscope depends on the coherence length of the light transmitted by its tunable spectral filter. To achieve a large range in step-height measurement we have developed a new tunable spectral filter that uses tandem liquid-crystal Fabry-Perot interferometers (LC-FPIs), which can simultaneously attain both a high spectral resolution and a large tuning range. Fringe visibility measurements were carried out, and it was found that the coherence length of the light transmitted through tandem LC-FPIs is two times larger than that transmitted through a single LC-FPI. Using this novel tunable spectral filter, we developed a new spectral interference microscope for the measurement of three-dimensional shapes of discontinuous objects. Experimental results of step-height measurements both with a single LC-FPI and with tandem LC-FPIs are presented for a combination of standard steel gauge block sets with 1-, 99-, and 100-microm steps. A large range (1-100 microm) of measurement with submicrometer resolution was achieved with tandem LC-FPIs that was not possible with our previous system in which a single LC-FPI was used.