Paintable band-edge liquid crystal lasers.

In this paper we demonstrate photonic band-edge laser emission from emulsion-based polymer dispersed liquid crystals. The lasing medium consists of dye-doped chiral nematic droplets dispersed within a polymer matrix that spontaneously align as the film dries. Such lasers can be easily formed on single substrates with no alignment layers. The system combines the self-organizing periodic structure of chiral nematic liquid crystals with the simplicity of the emulsion procedure so as to produce a material that retains the emission characteristics of band-edge lasers yet can be readily coated. Sequential and stacked layers demonstrate the possibility of achieving simultaneous multi-wavelength laser output from glass, metallic, and flexible substrates.

Correlations between the performance characteristics of a liquid crystal laser and the macroscopic material properties.

In order to understand how the performance of a liquid-crystal laser depends on the physical properties of the low molar mass nematic host, we have studied the energy threshold and slope efficiency of ten optically pumped liquid-crystal lasers based on different hosts. Specifically, this leads to a variation in the birefringence, the orientational order parameter, and the order parameter of the transition dipole moment of the dye. It is found that low threshold energies and high slope efficiencies correlate with high order parameters and large birefringences. To a first approximation this can be understood by considering analytical expressions for the threshold and slope efficiency, which are derived from the space-independent rate equations for a two-level system, in terms of the macroscopic liquid crystal properties.

Novel nonvolatile memory with multibit storage based on a ZnO nanowire transistor.

We demonstrate a room temperature processed ferroelectric (FE) nonvolatile memory based on a ZnO nanowire (NW) FET where the NW channel is coated with FE nanoparticles. A single device exhibits excellent memory characteristics with the large modulation in channel conductance between ON and OFF states exceeding 10(4), a long retention time of over 4 × 10(4) s, and multibit memory storage ability. Our findings provide a viable way to create new functional high-density nonvolatile memory devices compatible with simple processing techniques at low temperature for flexible devices made on plastic substrates.

Emission characteristics of a homologous series of bimesogenic liquid-crystal lasers.

In this study we have fabricated eight different liquid-crystal lasers using the same gain medium but different homologues from the bimesogenic series alpha-(2',4-difluorobiphenyl-4'-yloxy)-omega-(4-cyanobiphenyl-4'-yloxy)alkanes, whereby the number of methylene units in the spacer chain varied from n=5 to n=12. To quantify the performance of these lasers, the threshold energy and the slope efficiency were extracted from the input-output characteristics of each laser. A clear odd-even effect was observed when both the excitation threshold and the slope efficiency were plotted as a function of the number of methylene units in the spacer chain. In all cases, the bimesogen lasers for which n is even exhibit lower threshold energies and higher slope efficiencies than those for which n is odd. These results are then interpreted in terms of the macroscopic physical properties of the liquid-crystalline compounds. In accordance with a previous study [S. M. Morris, A. D. Ford, M. N. Pivnenko, O. Hadeler, and H. J. Coles, Phys. Rev. E. 74, 061709 (2006)], a combination of a large birefringence and high order parameters are found, in the most part, to correlate with low-threshold energy and high slope efficiency. This indicates that the threshold and slope efficiency are dominated by the host macroscopic properties as opposed to intermolecular interactions between the dye and the liquid crystal. However, certain differences in the slope efficiency could not be explained by the birefringence and order parameter values alone. Instead, we find that the slope efficiency is further increased by increasing the elastic constants of the liquid-crystal host so as to decrease the scattering losses incurred by local distortions in the director field under high-energy optical excitation.

横断山区的翠雀属植物:分类学和细胞学

翠雀属Delphinium L.是毛茛科中的一个大属，全世界有300－400 余种，广布于北半球温带地区。我国是世界上记载翠雀属植物种类最多的国家，尤以西南横断山区种类最为丰富。 通过文献查阅、标本室研究和野外考察，本文对我国特别是横断山区翠雀属植物的主要形态性状在居群间和居群内的变异式样进行了初步分析，认为根的形态、叶的分裂程度、植株尤其是花序轴和花梗被毛与否以及毛被类型、小苞片的形状和位置、退化雄蕊的颜色、上萼片的形状、心皮数目和种子形态特征是比较可靠的分类性状。但性状之间的相关性往往较小，即使是通常比较稳定的分类性状有时也表现出不同程度的变异，因此同一性状对于不同等级分类群的划分和在不同分类群中的分类价值常不一样。在具体的分类处理中，应具体情况具体分析，尽可能利用较多的分类学性状或性状组合。 根据上述对我国翠雀属植物主要形态性状变异式样的理解，本文主要对我国西南横断山区及其邻近一些地区的翠雀属植物进行了力所能及的分类修订：将42 种和22 变种降为异名，提出2 新组合(毛梗黑水翠雀D. potaninii var. mollipes　(W. T. Wang) Q. Yuan & Q. E. Yang 和腺毛康定翠雀D. tatsienense var. pseudomosoynense (W. T. Wang) Q. E. Yang & Q. Yuan)，澄清了直距翠雀D. tenii Lévl. 的名实问题和Munz 等学者对我国翠雀属植物标本的鉴定错误以及由此引起的我国有关翠雀属植物的地理分布的混乱; 另有两种( 硕片翠雀D. grandilimbum W. T. Wang & M. J. Warnock 和永宁翠雀D. yongningense W. T. Wang & M. J. Warnock)因未见到模式标本，故暂存疑。本文讨论到的我国翠雀属植物共有87 种、10 变种。 为了在染色体水平上了解横断山区翠雀属植物的物种形成和分化，同时增加对整个翠雀族tribe Delphineae Warming 植物染色体进化的理解，本文报道了我国主要采自该地区的乌头属Aconitum L. 30 种、1 变种共40 个居群和翠雀属 48 种、3 变种共87 个居群的染色体数目，分析了30 种、1 变种乌头属植物和 46 种、3 变种翠雀属植物的核型，发现46 种、3 变种翠雀属植物为二倍体(2n = 2x=16)，1 种(黄毛翠雀D. chrysotrichum Finet & Gagnep.)为四倍体(2n = 4x =32)，1种(螺距翠雀D. spirocentrum Hand.-Mazz.)有二倍体和四倍体两种细胞型，3 种(宽距翠雀D. beesianum W. W. Smith、裂瓣翠雀D. mosoynense Franch.和康定翠雀 D. tatsienense Franch.)的个别居群有B 染色体出现。这表明横断山区翠雀属植物的物种形成主要在二倍体水平上进行。可能由于核型直向选择（karyotypic orthoselection）的结果，我国翠雀属植物的核型就整体情况而言在属内相当一致，属内核型分化不如乌头属中明显，外部形态上显得最为原始的种类如短距翠雀 D. forrestii Diels 和毛翠雀D. trichophorum Franch.的核型与其他多年生种类的核型相比并无明显区别。尽管如此，翠雀属植物的核型在属内仍表现出一定程度的分化：在多年生种类中，大理翠雀群(D. taliense group)的种类的染色体内部不对称性(intrachromosomal asymmetry) 程度较高, 但染色体之间的不对称性 (interchromosomal asymmetry)程度偏低;一年生种类与多年生种类相比，我国唯一的一年生种还亮草D. anthriscifolium Hance 染色体之间不对称性最高，该种染色体内部不对称性程度在翠雀族中也偏高，因此就其核型的整体不对称性程度而言，在翠雀属乃至整个翠雀族中最高，而地中海分布的一年生种类的染色体内部不对称性明显增强, 但染色体之间的不对称性在翠雀族中最低。这种核型分化的系统学和生物地理学意义尚不清楚，以后需进一步研究。与乌头属相比，翠雀属植物的染色体通常较小，核型中st 染色体明显增多（可达6 对），核型的整体不对称性程度逐渐增强; 虽然乌头属牛扁亚属Aconitum subgen. Lycoctonum (DC.) Peterm.的二倍体种类也一般具有较多的st 染色体（4 对），但这些st 染色体比乌头亚属Aconitum L. subgen. Aconitum和露蕊乌头亚属Aconitum subgen. Gymnaconitum (Stapf) Rapaics 植物核型中相对应的m 或 sm 染色体以及翠雀属和飞燕草属Consolida (DC.) S. F. Gray 植物中相对应的st 或偶尔出现的sm 染色体要大。特别应当注意的是牛扁亚属中外部形态上显得最为原始的展喙乌头A. novoluridum Munz 的核型具有较多而且较大的sm 染色体，所以我们认为展喙乌头的核型保留了较多的原始性质，那些核型中具有较多st 染色体的牛扁亚属植物应当是该亚属中在核型上已比较特化的种类。这一结果不支持前人提出的乌头属植物的核型有从st 染色体进化到m 或sm 染色体的趋势的观点。就整个翠雀族而言，从现有资料看，其核型的进化趋势应当为：(1) 染色体从大进化到小, 从m 或sm 染色体进化到st 染色体;(2) 核型的整体不对称性程度逐渐增强，即核型的二型性从多年生的牛扁亚属植物到翠雀属植物的一年生的还亮草亚属Delphinium subgen. Delphinium 而愈趋明显。翠雀族植物核型的进化方向与整个毛茛科核型的进化方向看来是一致的，即都向核型不对称性增强的方向进化。

Polychromatic liquid crystal laser arrays towards display applications.

Band-edge liquid crystal lasers are of interest for a number of applications including laser projection displays. Herein, we demonstrate simultaneous red-green-blue lasing from a single liquid crystal sample by creating a two-dimensional laser array fabricated from dye-doped chiral nematic liquid crystals. By forming a pitch gradient across the cell, and optically pumping the sample using a lenslet array, a polychromatic laser array can be observed consisting simultaneously of red-green-blue colors. Specifically, the two-dimensional polychromatic array could be used to produce a laser-based display, with low speckle and wide color gamut, whereby no complex fabrication procedure is required to generate the individual 'pixels'.