Facile Preparation of PbTiO3 Nanodot Arrays: Combining Nanohybridization with Vapor Phase Reaction Sputtering

A facile route is presented for the fabrication of spherical PbTiO₃ (PTO) nanodot arrays on platinized silicon substrates using PbO vapor phase reaction sputtering on micellar monolayer films of polystyrene‐block‐poly(ethylene oxide) (PS‐b‐PEO) loaded with TiO₂ sol–gel precursor. Short exposure to PbO transforms the amorphous TiO₂ into polycrystalline PTO, while keeping the inherent size and periodicity of TiO₂ nanodots. HRTEM images show that the spherical PTO nanodots, with an average size and height of 63 nm and 40 nm, respectively, are fixed on the Pt supported by residual carbon. XPS narrow scan spectra of Ti 2p and O 1s strongly verify the evolution of chemical identity and the reduction of the Ti‐O binding energy from TiO₂ to PTO. The amplitude and phase images of piezoelectric force microscopy (PFM) confirm a multidomain structure attributed by the crystalline orientation of the PTO nanodots. Furthermore, the discrete PTO nanodots show remarkable switching properties due to the low strain field induced by the small lateral size, and the absence of domain pinning effects by grain boundary.     

Analysis of Physiological Responses and Use of Fuzzy Information Granulation–Based Neural Network for Recognition of Three Emotions

In this study, we investigate the relationship between emotions and the physiological responses, with emotion recognition, using the proposed fuzzy information granulation–based neural network (FIGNN) for boredom, pain, and surprise emotions. For an analysis of the physiological responses, three emotions are induced through emotional stimuli, and the physiological signals are obtained from the evoked emotions. To recognize the emotions, we design an FIGNN recognizer and deal with the feature selection through an analysis of the physiological signals. The proposed method is accomplished in premise, consequence, and aggregation design phases. The premise phase takes information granulation using fuzzy c‐means clustering, the consequence phase adopts a polynomial function, and the aggregation phase resorts to a general fuzzy inference. Experiments show that a suitable methodology and a substantial reduction of the feature space can be accomplished, and that the proposed FIGNN has a high recognition accuracy for the three emotions using physiological signals.     

Data Clustering Method Using a Modified Gaussian Kernel Metric and Kernel PCA

Most hyper‐ellipsoidal clustering (HEC) approaches use the Mahalanobis distance as a distance metric. It has been proven that HEC, under this condition, cannot be realized since the cost function of partitional clustering is a constant. We demonstrate that HEC with a modified Gaussian kernel metric can be interpreted as a problem of finding condensed ellipsoidal clusters (with respect to the volumes and densities of the clusters) and propose a practical HEC algorithm that is able to efficiently handle clusters that are ellipsoidal in shape and that are of different size and density. We then try to refine the HEC algorithm by utilizing ellipsoids defined on the kernel feature space to deal with more complex‐shaped clusters. The proposed methods lead to a significant improvement in the clustering results over K‐means algorithm, fuzzy C‐means algorithm, GMM‐EM algorithm, and HEC algorithm based on minimum‐volume ellipsoids using Mahalanobis distance.     

Laterally Coupled DFB Lasers With Self-Aligned Metal Surface Grating by Holographic Lithography

A laterally coupled InGaAsP-InP distributed-feedback (DFB) laser operating around 1.55 mum was fabricated through a novel technique for the formation of metal surface gratings by holographic lithography. The self-aligned Cr DFB gratings were formed on the sidewalls as well as on both sides of the laser ridge by means of angled e-beam evaporation of Ti mask and metal-SiO₂ lift-off on the top of ridges. For an uncoated 3-mum-wide and 300-mum-long cavity, the device emitted an output power of ~9.7 mW/facet at an injection current of 100 mA with a threshold current of 29 mA and a slope efficiency of 0.14 mW/mA per facet at 20 degC under continuous-wave mode. A stable single-mode emission near 1.54 mum with a sidemode suppression ratio of nearly 28 dB was observed and a tuning coefficient of 0.21 nm/K was obtained in the temperature range of 15 degC -55 degC.     

Biomimetic Chitin–Silk Hybrids: An Optically Transparent Structural Platform for Wearable Devices and Advanced Electronics

The cuticles of insects and marine crustaceans are fascinating models for man‐made advanced functional composites. The excellent mechanical properties of these biological structures rest on the exquisite self‐assembly of natural ingredients, such as biominerals, polysaccharides, and proteins. Among them, the two commonly found building blocks in the model biocomposites are chitin nanofibers and silk‐like proteins with β‐sheet structure. Despite being wholly organic, the chitinous protein complex plays a key role for the biocomposites by contributing to the overall mechanical robustness and structural integrity. Moreover, the chitinous protein complex alone without biominerals is optically transparent (e.g., dragonfly wings), thereby making it a brilliant model material system for engineering applications where optical transparency is essentially required. Here, inspired by the chitinous protein complex of arthropods cuticles, an optically transparent biomimetic composite that hybridizes chitin nanofibers and silk fibroin (β‐sheet) is introduced, and its potential as a biocompatible structural platform for emerging wearable devices (e.g., smart contact lenses) and advanced displays (e.g., transparent plastic cover window) is demonstrated.     

Defect Restoration of Low‐Temperature Sol‐Gel‐Derived ZnO via Sulfur Doping for Advancing Polymeric Schottky Photodiodes

This study shows that the deep‐level defect states in sol‐gel‐derived ZnO can be efficiently restored by facile sulfur doping chemistry, wherein the +2 charged oxygen vacancies are filled with the S^2? ions brought by thiocyanate. By fabricating a solution‐processed polymeric Schottky diode with ITO/ZnO as the cathode, the synergetic effects of such defect‐restored ZnO electron selective layers are demonstrated. The decreased chemical defects and thus reduced mid‐gap states enable to not only enlarge the effective built‐in potential, which can expand the width of the depletion region, but also increase the Schottky energy barrier, which can reduce undesired dark‐current injection. As a result, the demonstrated simple‐structure blue‐selective polymeric Schottky photodiode renders near‐ideal diode operation with an ideality factor of 1.18, a noise equivalent power of 1.25 × 10^?14 W Hz^?1/2, and a high peak detectivity of 2.4 × 10¹³ Jones. In addition, the chemical robustness of sulfur‐doped ZnO enables exceptional device stability against air exposure as well as device‐to‐device reproducibility. Therefore, this work opens the possibility of utilizing low‐temperature sol‐gel‐derived ZnO in realizing high‐performance, stable, and reliable organic photodiodes that could be employed in the design of practical image sensors.     

Outage Probability Analysis for Energy Harvesting Cooperative Relays in a Clustered Environment

This paper presents the outage probability analysis of the energy harvesting (EH) decode and forward (DF) cooperative relay network when more than one relays are available to assist the communication between source and destination in the presence of the direct connection. The relays use power splitting (PS) protocol with adaptive PS ratio for EH. As wireless EH can be more beneficial over smaller distances therefore a clustered environment is considered in which the source, destination and relays are located in a small area. First, we analyze the performance of selection cooperation (SC) which requires channel state information (CSI) at the source. High signal to noise ratio approximation of the outage probability is provided for this case. Secondly, we present the performance of all relays cooperation (ARC) scheme which requires no CSI at the source. Lower and upper bounds of the outage probability are presented for smaller number of relays in ARC scheme whereas high signal to noise ratio approximation is provided for higher number of relays. Simulation results validate the analytical results and show that SC scheme outperforms ARC scheme at the expense of CSI requirement.     

Neuro-Glia-Vascular-on-a-Chip System to Assess Aggravated Neurodegeneration via Brain Endothelial Cells upon Exposure to Diesel Exhaust Particles

Air pollution induces neurodegeneration, including cognitive deficits, neuroinflammation, and disruption of the blood–brain barrier. The mechanisms underlying air pollution-mediated neurodegeneration have not yet been fully elucidated given the limited knowledge on intercellular interactions. A brain-on-a-chip platform is presented comprising neurons, glia, and brain endothelial cells (bECs; neuro-glia-vascular, NGV) and diesel exhaust particle (DEP)-induced neurodegeneration is evaluated with a particular focus on the intercellular interactions. DEP exposure in the NGV model yields Alzheimer's disease-like signatures, including amyloid beta accumulation, tau phosphorylation, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂)/reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and neuronal cell death. bEC-secreted granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) stimulates microglial activation and the overproduction of H₂O₂/ROS in microglia, suggesting that the bEC-microglia-neuron is a neurodegeneration cascade. Pharmacological inhibition at each step of the cascade, including GM-CSF neutralization, microglial activation suppression, and ROS scavenging, prohibits neurodegeneration in the NGV model. Therefore, intercellular interactions should be further studied of air pollution-induced neurodegeneration.     

Double S-Shaped Polarization – Voltage Curve and Negative Capacitance from Al2O3-Hf0.5Zr0.5O2-Al2O3 Triple-Layer Structure

The negative capacitance (NC) effect, recently discovered in a fluorite-based ferroelectric thin film, has attracted great attention as a rescue to overcome the scaling limitations of the conventional memory and logic devices of highly integrated circuits. The NC effect manifesting an S-shaped polarization–voltage (P–V) curve is initially interpreted by a 1-dimensional Landau Ginzburg Devonshire (LGD) model. However, a series of recent studies have found that this effect can also be explained by the inhomogeneous stray field energy (ISE) model. In this study, by extending the ISE model in the ferroelectric (FE)-dielectric (DE) layered structure, an analytical model that considers the influence of the interfacial screening charge distribution is presented. This model showed that the NC effect in the FE-DE heterostructure can be manifested in various forms other than a single S-shaped P–V curve. In particular, a double S-shaped P–V curve is expected from the fully compensated anti-parallel domain structure, confirmed experimentally in the actual Al₂O₃/(Hf_0.5Zr_0.5)O₂/Al₂O₃ triple-layer structure. Furthermore, to reveal the origin of the double S-shaped P–V curve, a multidomain LGD model is presented. It is confirmed that this phenomenon is attributed to the evolution of inhomogeneous stray field energy.     

A Wide Locking Range Differential Colpitts Injection Locked Frequency Divider

This letter proposes a new wideband Colpitts injection locked frequency divider (ILFD) and describes the operation principle of the ILFD. The circuit consists of a differential CMOS LC-tank oscillator and a direct injection topology. The divide-by-two ILFD can provide wide locking range, and the measurement results show that at the supply voltage of 2.4 V, the tuning range of the free running ILFD is from 4.46 to 5.6 GHz, about 1.14 GHz, and the locking range of the ILFD is from 8.03 to 11.63 GHz, about 3.6 GHz, at the injection signal power of 0 dBm. The ILFD dissipates 19.92 mW at a supply voltage of 2.4 V and was fabricated in 1P6M 0.18 mum CMOS process. At the tuning voltage of 1.2 V, the measured phase noise of the free running ILFD is -110.8 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset frequency from 4.94 GHz and the phase noise of the locked ILFD is -135.4 dBc/Hz, while the input signal power is -4 dBm.