Plasmon‐Induced Sub‐Bandgap Photodetection with Organic Schottky Diodes

Organic materials for near‐infrared (NIR) photodetection are in the focus for developing organic optical‐sensing devices. The choice of materials for bulk‐type organic photodetectors is limited due to effects like high nonradiative recombination rates for low‐gap materials. Here, an organic Schottky barrier photodetector with an integrated plasmonic nanohole electrode is proposed, enabling structure‐dependent, sub‐bandgap photodetection in the NIR. Photons are detected via internal photoemission (IPE) process over a metal/organic semiconductor Schottky barrier. The efficiency of IPE is improved by exciting localized surface plasmon resonances, which are further enhanced by coupling to an out‐of‐plane Fabry–Pérot cavity within the metal/organic/metal device configuration. The device allows large on/off ratio (>1000) and the selective control of individual pixels by modulating the Schottky barrier height. The concept opens up new design and application possibilities for organic NIR photodetectors.     

Multi‐Material Tissue Engineering Scaffold with Hierarchical Pore Architecture

Multi‐material polymer scaffolds with multiscale pore architectures are characterized and tested with vascular and heart cells as part of a platform for replacing damaged heart muscle. Vascular and muscle scaffolds are constructed from a new material, poly(limonene thioether) (PLT32i), which meets the design criteria of slow biodegradability, elastomeric mechanical properties, and facile processing. The vascular–parenchymal interface is a poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) porous membrane that meets different criteria of rapid biodegradability, high oxygen permeance, and high porosity. A hierarchical architecture of primary (macroscale) and secondary (microscale) pores is created by casting the PLT32i prepolymer onto sintered spheres of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) within precisely patterned molds followed by photocuring, de‐molding, and leaching out the PMMA. Prefabricated polymer templates are cellularized, assembled, and perfused in order to engineer spatially organized, contractile heart tissue. Structural and functional analyses show that the primary pores guide heart cell alignment and enable robust perfusion while the secondary pores increase heart cell retention and reduce polymer volume fraction.     

Improving the clinical potential of ultra-high field fMRI using a model-free analysis method based on response consistency

Objective

To develop an analysis method that is sensitive to non-model-conform responses often encountered in ultra-high field presurgical planning fMRI. Using the consistency of time courses over a number of experiment repetitions, it should exclude low quality runs and generate activation maps that reflect the reliability of responses.

Materials and methods

7 T fMRI data were acquired from six healthy volunteers: three performing purely motor tasks and three a visuomotor task. These were analysed with the proposed approach (UNBIASED) and the GLM.

Results

UNBIASED results were generally less affected by false positive results than the GLM. Runs that were identified as being of low quality were confirmed to contain little or no activation. In two cases, regions were identified as activated in UNBIASED but not GLM results. Signal changes in these areas were time-locked to the task, but were delayed or transient.

Conclusion

UNBIASED is shown to be a reliable means of identifying consistent task-related signal changes regardless of response timing. In presurgical planning, UNBIASED could be used to rapidly generate reliable maps of the consistency with which eloquent brain regions are activated without recourse to task timing and despite modified hemodynamics.

     

Ant and Mite Diversity Drives Toxin Variation in the Little Devil Poison Frog

Poison frogs sequester chemical defenses from arthropod prey, although the details of how arthropod diversity contributes to variation in poison frog toxins remains unclear. We characterized skin alkaloid profiles in the Little Devil poison frog, Oophaga sylvatica (Dendrobatidae), across three populations in northwestern Ecuador. Using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, we identified histrionicotoxins, 3,5- and 5,8-disubstituted indolizidines, decahydroquinolines, and lehmizidines as the primary alkaloid toxins in these O. sylvatica populations. Frog skin alkaloid composition varied along a geographical gradient following population distribution in a principal component analysis. We also characterized diversity in arthropods isolated from frog stomach contents and confirmed that O. sylvatica specialize on ants and mites. To test the hypothesis that poison frog toxin variability reflects species and chemical diversity in arthropod prey, we (1) used sequencing of cytochrome oxidase 1 to identify individual prey specimens, and (2) used liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry to chemically profile consumed ants and mites. We identified 45 ants and 9 mites in frog stomachs, including several undescribed species. We also showed that chemical profiles of consumed ants and mites cluster by frog population, suggesting different frog populations have access to chemically distinct prey. Finally, by comparing chemical profiles of frog skin and isolated prey items, we traced the arthropod source of four poison frog alkaloids, including 3,5- and 5,8-disubstituted indolizidines and a lehmizidine alkaloid. Together, the data show that toxin variability in O. sylvatica reflects chemical diversity in arthropod prey.     

Polariton condensate coherence in planar microcavities in a magnetic field

In planar GaAs microcavities in a magnetic field up to 5 T perpendicular to the structure growth plane, under conditions of resonant pulsed pumping to a point close to the inflection point of the lower dispersion curve, Zeeman splitting of the spin sublevels of the polariton condensate is observed. This is accompanied by a significant change in the degree of circular polarization and the second-order correlator g²(0). It is found that the correlator is different for the spin sublevels of the polariton condensate, split in a magnetic field. In particular, correlator measurements indicate different condensation thresholds for the spin sublevels. The correlator values initially differing in terms of the absence of a field increase, reach a maximum, and then decrease and become equal for different polarizations in a field of 5 T.     

Hexagonal Boron Nitride Thin Film for Flexible Resistive Memory Applications

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), which is a 2D layered dielectric material, sometimes referred as “white graphene” due to its structural similarity with graphene, has attracted much attention due to its fascinating physical properties. Here, for the first time the use of chemical vapor deposition ‐grown hBN films to fabricate ultrathin (≈3 nm) flexible hBN‐based resistive switching memory device is reported, and the switching mechanism through conductive atomic force microscopy and ex situ transmission electron microscopy is studied. The hBN‐based resistive memory exhibits reproducible switching endurance, long retention time, and the capability to operate under extreme bending conditions. Contrary to the conventional electrochemical metallization theory, the conductive filament is found to commence its growth from the anode to cathode. This work provides an important step for broadening and deepening the understanding on the switching mechanism in filament‐based resistive memories and propels the 2D material application in the resistive memory in future computing systems.     

Kinetic modulation of pulsed chronopotentiometric polymeric membrane ion sensors by polyelectrolyte multilayers

Polymeric membrane ion-selective electrodes are normally interrogated by zero current potentiometry, and their selectivity is understood to be primarily dependent on an extraction/ion-exchange equilibrium between the aqueous sample and polymeric membrane. If concentration gradients in the contacting diffusion layers are insubstantial, the membrane response is thought to be rather independent of kinetic processes such as surface blocking effects. In this work, the surface of calcium-selective polymeric ion-selective electrodes is coated with polyelectrolyte multilayers as evidenced by zeta potential measurements, atomic force microscopy, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Indeed, such multilayers have no effect on their potentiometric response if the membranes are formulated in a traditional manner, containing a lipophilic ion exchanger and a calcium-selective ionophore. However, drastic changes in the potential response are observed if the membranes are operated in a recently introduced kinetic mode using pulsed chronopotentiometry. The results suggest that the assembled nanostructured multilayers drastically alter the kinetics of ion transport to the sensing membrane, making use of the effect that polyelectrolyte multilayers have different permeabilities toward ions with different valences. The results have implications to the design of chemically selective ion sensors since surface-localized kinetic limitations can now be used as an additional dimension to tune the operational ion selectivity.     

Dual-aureole and sun spectrometer system for airborne measurements of aerosol optical properties

We have designed an airborne spectrometer system for the simultaneous measurement of the direct sun irradiance and the aureole radiance in two different solid angles. The high-resolution spectral radiation measurements are used to derive vertical profiles of aerosol optical properties. Combined measurements in two solid angles provide better information about the aerosol type without additional and elaborate measuring geometries. It is even possible to discriminate between absorbing and nonabsorbing aerosol types. Furthermore, they allow to apply additional calibration methods and simplify the detection of contaminated data (e.g., by thin cirrus clouds). For the characterization of the detected aerosol type a new index is introduced that is the slope of the aerosol phase function in the forward scattering region. The instrumentation is a flexible modular setup, which has already been successfully applied in airborne and ground-based field campaigns. We describe the setup as well as the calibration of the instrument. In addition, example vertical profiles of aerosol optical properties--including the aureole measurements--are shown and discussed.     

Uncertainty budget for a whole body counter in the scan geometry and computer simulation of the calibration phantoms

At the Austrian Research Centers Seibersdorf (ARCS), a whole body counter (WBC) in the scan geometry is used to perform routine measurements for the determination of radioactive intake of workers. The calibration of the WBC is made using bottle phantoms with a homogeneous activity distribution. The same calibration procedures have been simulated using Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code and FLUKA and the results of the full energy peak efficiencies for eight energies and five phantoms have been compared with the experimental results. The deviation between experiment and simulation results is within 10%. Furthermore, uncertainty budget evaluations have been performed to find out which parameters make substantial contributions to these differences. Therefore, statistical errors of the Monte Carlo simulation, uncertainties in the cross section tables and differences due to geometrical considerations have been taken into account. Comparisons between these results and the one with inhomogeneous distribution, for which the activity is concentrated only in certain parts of the body (such as head, lung, arms and legs), have been performed. The maximum deviation of 43% from the homogeneous case has been found when the activity is concentrated on the arms.     

On the Natural Draw Ratio of Semi‐Crystalline Polymers: Review of the Mechanical,Physical and Molecular Aspects

Drawing of semi‐crystalline polymers generally involves a necking phenomenon, which is often referred to as plastic instability. The draw ratio in the stable neck is called natural draw ratio. A review is made of papers dealing with the phenomenology of necking and endeavors to identify its physical origin. The destruction of the spherulitic structure that consists of chain‐folded lamellae involves a strain‐softening accompanied with a localization of the plastic deformation. In turn, the fibrillar transition that results from the lamellar fragmentation and subsequent rearrangement of the crystal blocks into microfibrils brings about a strain‐hardening, which stabilizes the plastic deformation. These competitive processes give rise to the natural draw ratio. The macromolecular network that consists of both chain entanglements and intercrystalline tie molecules appears to be a major factor of the neck stabilization. Theoretical approaches of the phenomenon are critically reviewed. Finally, the practical usefulness of the natural draw ratio is discussed with regard to predicting the long‐term mechanical behavior of high‐density polyethylene.