Analysis of nonlinear transient responses of piezoelectric resonators

The electric transient response method is an effective technique to evaluate material constants of piezoelectric ceramics under high-power driving. In this study, we tried to incorporate nonlinear piezoelectric behaviors in the analysis of transient responses. As a base for handling the nonlinear piezoelectric responses, we proposed an assumption that the electric displacement is proportional to the strain without phase lag, which could be described by a real and constant piezoelectric e-coefficient. Piezoelectric constitutive equations including nonlinear responses were proposed to calculate transient responses of a piezoelectric resonator. The envelopes and waveforms of current and vibration velocity in transient responses observed in some piezoelectric ceramics could be fitted with the calculation including nonlinear responses. The procedure for calculation of mechanical quality factor Q(m) for piezoelectric resonators with nonlinear behaviors was also proposed.     

How to identify water from thickener aqueous solutions by touch

Water detection is one of the most crucial psychological processes for many animals. However, nobody knows the perception mechanism of water through our tactile sense. In the present study, we found that a characteristic frictional stimulus with large acceleration is one of the cues to differentiate water from water contaminated with thickener. When subjects applied small amounts of water to a glass plate, strong stick-slip phenomena with a friction force of 0.46 ± 0.30 N and a vertical force of 0.57 ± 0.36 N were observed at the skin surface, as shown in previous studies. Surprisingly, periodic shears with acceleration seven times greater than gravitational acceleration occurred during the application process. Finite-element analyses predicted that these strong stimuli could activate tactile receptors: Meissner''s corpuscle and Pacinians. When such stimuli were applied to the fingertips by an ultrasonic vibrator, a water-like tactile texture was perceived by some subjects, even though no liquid was present between the fingertip and the vibrator surface. These findings could potentially be applied in the following areas: materials science, information technology, medical treatment and entertainment.     

High temperature coefficients of resistance of VO2 films grown by excimer-laser-assisted metal organic deposition process for bolometer application

With bolometer application in mind, we prepared VO₂ films on TiO₂ (001) substrates by an excimer-laser-assisted metal organic deposition process at 300 °C or less. A metal-to-insulator transition of VO₂ is expected to induce high temperature coefficient of electrical resistance (TCR) useful for high-performance infrared sensors, but the practical use of crystalline VO₂ films has been prevented due to the accompanied wide hysteresis. In this study, by forming the epitaxial phase only near the substrate interface, the transition of the film was successfully broadened and the hysteresis disappeared. The maximum TCR of the film was more than -10%/°C near room temperature, and the temperature range in which TCR was higher than -4%/°C was very wide (280-320 K).     

Estimation of wood stiffness and strength properties of hybrid larch by near-infrared spectroscopy

This work was undertaken to investigate the feasibility of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for estimating wood mechanical properties, i.e., modulus of elasticity (MOE) and modulus of rupture (MOR) in bending tests. Two sample sets having large and limited density variation were prepared to examine the effects of wood density on estimation of MOE and MOR by the NIR technique. Partial least squares (PLS) analysis was employed and it was found that the relationships between laboratory-measured and NIR-predicted values were good in the case of sample sets having large density variation. MOE could be estimated even when density variation in the sample set was limited. It was concluded that absorption bands due to the OH group in the semi-crystalline or crystalline regions of cellulose strongly influenced the calibrations for bending stiffness of hybrid larch. This was also suggested from the result that both alpha-cellulose content and cellulose crystallinity showed moderate positive correlation to wood stiffness.     

Characterisation of optically driven microstructures for manipulating single DNA molecules under a fluorescence microscope

Optical tweezers are powerful tools for manipulating single DNA molecules using fluorescence microscopy, particularly in nanotechnology‐based DNA analysis. We previously proposed a manipulation technique using microstructures driven by optical tweezers that allows the handling of single giant DNA molecules of millimetre length that cannot be manipulated by conventional techniques. To further develop this technique, the authors characterised the microstructures quantitatively from the view point of fabrication and efficiency of DNA manipulation under a fluorescence microscope. The success rate and precision of the fabrications were evaluated. The results indicate that the microstructures are obtained in an aqueous solution with a precision ∼50 nm at concentrations in the order of 10⁶ particles/ml. The visibility of these microstructures under a fluorescence microscope was also characterised, along with the elucidation of the fabrication parameters needed to fine tune visibility. Manipulating yeast chromosomal DNA molecules with the microstructures illustrated the relationship between the efficiency of manipulation and the geometrical shape of the microstructure. This report provides the guidelines for designing microstructures used in single DNA molecule analysis based on on‐site DNA manipulation, and is expected to broaden the applications of this technique in the future.Inspec keywords: DNA, molecular biophysics, fluorescence, optical microscopy, radiation pressure, biological techniquesOther keywords: optically driven microstructures, single DNA molecule analysis, fluorescence microscopy, optical tweezers, nanotechnology‐based DNA analysis, manipulation technique, aqueous solution, fine tune visibility, yeast chromosomal DNA molecules, geometrical shape, on‐site DNA manipulation     

Electron beam nanoprocessing of a carbon nanotube film using a variable pressure scanning electron microscope

We demonstrate a novel method of processing carbon nanotubes using a variable pressure scanning electron microscope. Lines were processed in a nanotube film by electron beam irradiation in oxygen gas and nitrogen gas. The processing mechanism can be explained in terms of gas ion sputtering and chemical reaction. In this experiment, the narrowest line width of 120 nm was achieved in a nitrogen atmosphere.     

Superconductivity in the tetragonal phase of La1.9Bi0.1CuO4+δ annealed under high oxygen pressure

We have investigated the relation between the crystal structure and superconductivity in La_1.9Bi_0.1CuO₄₊ , in which the phase separation observed in La₂CuO₄₊ is suppressed. A phase diagram in theT– plane is given for La_1.9Bi_0.1CuO₄₊ with excess oxygen. For very small values, the crystal structure is orthorhombic, and an orthorhombic-tetragonal phase transition occurs markedly at 0.03 in the measured temperature range between 13 and 293 K. Superconductivity is observed in the range of 0.04<<0.11. This is clear evidence thathigh-T _c superconductivity also appears in the tetragonal phase.     

Superconductivity in the tetragonal phase of La1.9Bi0.1CuO4+δ annealed under high oxygen pressure

We have investigated the relation between the crystal structure and superconductivity in La_1.9Bi_0.1CuO_4+δ , in which the phase separation observed in La₂CuO_4+δ is suppressed. A phase diagram in theT?δ plane is given for La_1.9Bi_0.1CuO_4+δ with excess oxygen. For very smallδ values, the crystal structure is orthorhombic, and an orthorhombic-tetragonal phase transition occurs markedly atδ ～ 0.03 in the measured temperature range between 13 and 293 K. Superconductivity is observed in the range of 0.04<δ<0.11. This is clear evidence thathigh-T _c superconductivity also appears in the tetragonal phase.     

Self-organizing maps with asymmetric neighborhood function

The self-organizing map (SOM) is an unsupervised learning method as well as a type of nonlinear principal component analysis that forms a topologically ordered mapping from the high-dimensional data space to a low-dimensional representation space. It has recently found wide applications in such areas as visualization, classification, and mining of various data. However, when the data sets to be processed are very large, a copious amount of time is often required to train the map, which seems to restrict the range of putative applications. One of the major culprits for this slow ordering time is that a kind of topological defect (e.g., a kink in one dimension or a twist in two dimensions) gets created in the map during training. Once such a defect appears in the map during training, the ordered map cannot be obtained until the defect is eliminated, for which the number of iterations required is typically several times larger than in the absence of the defect. In order to overcome this weakness, we propose that an asymmetric neighborhood function be used for the SOM algorithm. Compared with the commonly used symmetric neighborhood function, we found that an asymmetric neighborhood function accelerates the ordering process of the SOM algorithm, though this asymmetry tends to distort the generated ordered map. We demonstrate that the distortion of the map can be suppressed by improving the asymmetric neighborhood function SOM algorithm. The number of learning steps required for perfect ordering in the case of the one-dimensional SOM is numerically shown to be reduced from O(N(3)) to O(N(2)) with an asymmetric neighborhood function, even when the improved algorithm is used to get the final map without distortion.     

In situ Raman study on single- and double-walled carbon nanotubes as a function of lithium insertion

We investigated the electrochemical lithium ion (Li(+)) insertion/desertion behavior on highly pure and bundled single- and double-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs and DWNTs) using an in situ Raman technique. In general, two storage sites could host Li(+) in SWNT and DWNT bundles when varying an external potential: a) the outer surface sites, and b) the interstitial spaces within the bundles. The most sensitive changes in the tangential mode (TM) of the Raman spectra upon doping with Li(+) can be divided into two regions. The first region was found from 2.8 to 1.0 V (the coverage of Li(+) on the outer surface of a bundled nanotube) and was characterized by the loss of resonant conditions via partial charge transfer, where the G(+) line of the SWNT and the TM of the outer tube of DWNTs experienced a highly depressed intensity, but remained almost constant in frequency. The appearance of a Breit-Wigner-Fano (BWF) profile provided strong evidence of metallic inner tubes within DWNTs. The second region was observed when the applied potentials ranged from 0.9 to 0 V and was characterized by Li(+) diffusion into the interstitial sites of the bundled nanotube material. This phenomenon invoked a large downshift of the G(-) band in SWNTs, and a small downshift of the TM of the inner tube of DWNTs caused by expansion of the C--C bonds due to the charge transferred to the nanotubes, and the disappearance of the BWF profile through the screening effect of the interstitial Li(+) layers.