Effects of AsH3 surface treatment for the improvement of ultra-shallow area-selective regrown GaAs sidewall tunnel junction

Low-temperature (290°C) area-selective regrowth by molecular layer epitaxy (MLE) was applied for the fabrication of an ultra-shallow sidewall (50 nm) GaAs tunnel junction. Fabricated tunnel junctions have shown a record peak current density up to 35,000 A/cm². It is shown that the tunnel junction characteristics are strongly dependent on the sidewall orientation and the AsH₃ surface treatment conditions just prior to regrowth. The effects of AsH₃ surface treatment are discussed in view of the control of surface stoichiometry.     

Optimal training for block transmissions over doubly selective wireless fading channels

High data rates give rise to frequency-selective propagation, whereas carrier frequency-offsets and mobility-induced Doppler shifts introduce time-selectivity in wireless links. To mitigate the resulting time- and frequency-selective (or doubly selective) channels, optimal training sequences have been designed only for special cases: pilot symbol assisted modulation (PSAM) for time-selective channels and pilot tone-assisted orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) for frequency-selective channels. Relying on a basis expansion channel model, we design low-complexity optimal PSAM for block transmissions over doubly selective channels. The optimality in designing our PSAM parameters consists of maximizing a tight lower bound on the average channel capacity that is shown to be equivalent to the minimization of the minimum mean-square channel estimation error. Numerical results corroborate our theoretical designs.     

Enhanced Electron Mobility Due to Dopant‐Defect Pairing in Conductive ZnMgO

The increase of the band gap in Zn_1‐xMg_xO alloys with added Mg facilitates tunable control of the conduction band alignment and the Fermi‐level position in oxide‐heterostructures. However, the maximal conductivity achievable by doping decreases considerably at higher Mg compositions, which limits practical application as a wide‐gap transparent conductive oxide. In this work, first‐principles calculations and material synthesis and characterization are combined to show that the leading cause of the conductivity decrease is the increased formation of acceptor‐like compensating intrinsic defects, such as zinc vacancies (V_Zn), which reduce the free electron concentration and decrease the mobility through ionized impurity scattering. Following the expectation that non‐equilibrium deposition techniques should create a more random distribution of oppositely charged dopants and defects compared to the thermodynamic limit, the paring between dopant Ga_Zn and intrinsic defects V_Zn is studied as a means to reduce the ionized impurity scattering. Indeed, the post‐deposition annealing of Ga‐doped Zn_0.7Mg_0.3O films grown by pulsed laser deposition increases the mobility by 50% resulting in a conductivity as high as σ = 475 S cm^‐1.     

Soft error susceptibility mapping of DRAMs using a high-energy nuclear microprobe

Soft errors in 16 Mbit dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) have been investigated using proton microprobes at 400 keV with a spot size of 1 × 1 μm². The newly developed susceptibility mapping can reveal the correlation between the particle hit-position position and the susceptibility to soft errors in a DRAM. The cell-mode soft-errors were found to take place by the incidence of ions within 6 μm around a monitored cell. These errors would be induced by minority carrier diffusion in a lateral direction. This result manifests the possibility of multiple-bit errors by the incidence of an energetic particle.     

Optical quality GaInAs grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Ga₄₇In₅₃As films have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on InP substrates. The unintentionally doped material has a free electron concentration of 8 × 10¹⁵cm^-3 and exhibits sharp (~5 meV linewidth) exciton recombination in the 4K photoluminescence. The films were grown on (100) InP surfaces which were thermally cleaned in the arsenic beam. The effects of the substrate temperature during growth, the Ga to In flux ratio and the group V to group III flux ratio on the 4K photoluminescence are reported.     

Multiresidue analysis of pesticides in agricultural products by GC/MS coupled with database software

We evaluated a multiresidue method for determination of pesticides in agricultural products by SCAN mode GC/MS coupled with three kinds of database for 253 pesticides: relative retention time, mass spectra and calibration curve (SCAN method). Twenty-six pesticides, a total of 131 pesticides were detected in samples by the SCAN method. The detection results agreed closely with those of the SIM mode GC/MS method using calibration standards (SIM method). The ratios of the SCAN method to the SIM method ranged from 0.3 to 3.1 with SD values of 0.63. It was judged that the SCAN method could be applied to the screening analysis of pesticide residues in agricultural products, provided that the sample preparation method makes it possible to effectively remove sample matrixes with minimal loss of analytes.     

Mutation Analysis of Radioresistant Early-Stage Cervical Cancer

Radiotherapy is a definitive treatment for early-stage cervical cancer; however, a subset of this disease recurs locally, necessitating establishment of predictive biomarkers and treatment strategies. To address this issue, we performed gene panel-based sequencing of 18 stage IB cervical cancers treated with definitive radiotherapy, including two cases of local recurrence, followed by in vitro and in silico analyses. Simultaneous mutations in KRAS and SMAD4 (KRAS^mt/SMAD4^mt) were detected only in a local recurrence case, indicating potential association of this mutation signature with radioresistance. In isogenic cell-based experiments, a combination of activating KRAS mutation and SMAD4 deficiency led to X-ray resistance, whereas either of these factors alone did not. Analysis of genomic data from 55,308 cancers showed a significant trend toward co-occurrence of mutations in KRAS and SMAD4. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis of the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia dataset suggested upregulation of the pathways involved in epithelial mesenchymal transition and inflammatory responses in KRAS^mt/SMAD4^mt cancer cells. Notably, irradiation with therapeutic carbon ions led to robust killing of X-ray-resistant KRAS^mt/SMAD4^mt cancer cells. These data indicate that the KRAS^mt/SMAD4^mt signature is a potential predictor of radioresistance, and that carbon ion radiotherapy is a potential option to treat early-stage cervical cancers with the KRAS^mt/SMAD4^mt signature.     

Chain matching between hydrocarbon and fatty acid as interfacial phenomena

According to the investigations of Cameron and his coworkers^1–5 into the chain-matching phenomena between normal paraffin as a solvent and straight-chain fatty acid as an additive, the optimum condition in boundary lubrication is attained when the chain lengths of the additive and solvent are equal. A series of experiments has been conducted over the past ten years on the role of the chain-matching effect, not only on boundary lubrication but also widely on relevant interfacial phenomena. The results of the investigations are discussed.     

Molecular Hydrogen Enhances Proliferation of Cancer Cells That Exhibit Potent Mitochondrial Unfolded Protein Response

Molecular hydrogen ameliorates pathological states in a variety of human diseases, animal models, and cell models, but the effects of hydrogen on cancer have been rarely reported. In addition, the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of hydrogen remain mostly unelucidated. We found that hydrogen enhances proliferation of four out of seven human cancer cell lines (the responders). The proliferation-promoting effects were not correlated with basal levels of cellular reactive oxygen species. Expression profiling of the seven cells showed that the responders have higher gene expression of mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) molecules than the non-responders. In addition, the responders have higher mitochondrial mass, higher mitochondrial superoxide, higher mitochondrial membrane potential, and higher mitochondrial spare respiratory capacity than the non-responders. In the responders, hydrogen provoked mitochondrial unfolded protein response (mtUPR). Suppression of cell proliferation by rotenone, an inhibitor of mitochondrial ETC complex I, was rescued by hydrogen in the responders. Hydrogen triggers mtUPR and induces cell proliferation in cancer cells that have high basal and spare mitochondrial ETC activities.