Pixel-level tunable liquid crystal lenses for auto-stereoscopic display

Mobile video and gaming are now widely used, and delivery of a glass-free 3D experience is of both research and development interest. The key drawbacks of a conventional 3D display based on a static lenticular lenslet array and parallax barriers are low resolution, limited viewing angle and reduced brightness, mainly because of the need of multiple-pixels for each object point. This study describes the concept and performance of pixel-level cylindrical liquid crystal (LC) lenses, which are designed to steer light to the left and right eye sequentially to form stereo parallax. The width of the LC lenses can be as small as 20-30 μm, so that the associated auto-stereoscopic display will have the same resolution as the 2D display panel in use. Such a thin sheet of tunable LC lens array can be applied directly on existing mobile displays, and can deliver 3D viewing experience while maintaining 2D viewing capability. Transparent electrodes were laser patterned to achieve the single pixel lens resolution, and a high birefringent LC material was used to realise a large diffraction angle for a wide field of view. Simulation was carried out to model the intensity profile at the viewing plane and optimise the lens array based on the measured LC phase profile. The measured viewing angle and intensity profile were compared with the simulation results. © 2014 SPIE.

Molecular characterization and IFN signal pathway analysis of Carassius auratus CaSTAT1 identified from the cultured cells in response to virus infection

Type I interferon (IFN) exerts its pleiotropic effects mainly through the JAK-STAT signaling pathway, which is presently best described in mammals. By subtractive suppression hybridization, two fish signaling factors, JAK1 and STAT1, had been identified in the IFN-induced crucian carp Carassius auratus L. blastulae embryonic (CAB) cells after treatment with UV-inactivated grass carp hemorrhagic virus (GCHV). Further, the full-length cDNA of STAT1, termed CaSTAT1, was obtained. It contains 2926 bp and encodes a protein of 718 aa. CaSTAT1 is most similar to rat STAT1 with 59% identity overall and displays all highly conserved domains that the STAT family possesses. Like human STAT1beta, it lacks the C-terminus acting as transcriptional activation domain in mammals. By contrast, only a single transcript was detected in virus-induced CAB cells. Expression analysis showed that CaSTAT1 could be activated by stimulation of CAB cells with poly I:C, active GCHV, UV-inactivated GCHV or CAB IFN, and displayed diverse expression patterns similar to that of mammalian STATI. Additionally, the expression of an antiviral gene CaMx1 was also induced under the same conditions, and expression difference between CaSTAT1 and CaMx1 was revealed by induction of CAB IFN. These results provide molecular evidence supporting the notion that the fish IFN signaling transduction pathway is similar to that in mammals. Fish IFN exerts its multiple functions, at least antiviral action, through a JAK-STAT pathway. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

First-principles study of ground-state properties and high pressure behavior of ThO2

The mechanical properties, electronic structure and phonon dispersion of ground state ThO2 as well as the structure behavior up to 240 GPa are studied using first-principles density-functional theory. Our calculated elastic constants indicate that both the ground-state fluorite structure and high pressure cotunnite structure of ThO2 are mechanically stable. The bulk modulus, shear modulus, and Young's modulus of cotunnite ThO2 are all smaller by approximately 25% compared with those of fluorite ThO2. The Poisson's ratios of both structures are approximately equal to 0.3 and the hardness of fluorite ThO2 is 22.4 GPa. The electronic structure and bonding nature of fluorite ThO2 are fully analyzed, and show that the Th-O bond displays a mixed ionic/covalent character. The phase transition from the fluorite to cotunnite structure is calculated to occur at the pressure of 26.5 GPa, consistent with recent experimental measurement by ldiri et al. [1]. For the cotunnite phase it is further predicted that an isostructural transition takes place in the pressure region of 80-130 GPa.

Tuning of the two electron states in quantum rings through the spin-orbit interaction

The effect of the Coulomb interaction on the energy spectrum and anisotropic distribution of two electron states in a quantum ring in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction (RSOI) and Dresselhaus SOI (DSOI) is investigated in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. We find that the interplay between the RSOI and DSOI makes the single quantum ring behaves like a laterally coupled quantum dot and the interdot coupling can be tuned by changing the strengths of the SOIs. The interplay can lead to singlet-triplet state mixing and anticrossing behavior when the singlet and triplet states meet with increasing magnetic field. The two electron ground state displays a bar-bell-like spatial anisotropic distribution in a quantum ring at a specific crystallographic direction, i.e., [110] or [1 (1) over bar0], which can be switched by reversing the direction of the perpendicular electric field. The ground state exhibits a singlet-triplet state transition with increasing magnetic field and strengths of RSOI and DSOI. An anisotropic electron distribution is predicted which can be detected through the measurement of its optical properties.

Coulomb blockade double-dot Aharonov-Bohm interferometer: Giant fluctuations

Electron transport through two parallel quantum dots is a kind of solid-state realization of double path interference We demonstrate that the inter-clot Coulomb correlation and quantum coherence would result in strong current fluctuations with a divergent Fano factor at zero frequency. We also provide physical interpretation for this surprising result, which displays its generic feature and allows us to recover this phenomenon in more complicated systems. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Spin-Hall effect in the generalized honeycomb lattice with Rashba spin-orbit interaction

We study the spin-Hall effect in a generalized honeycomb lattice, which is described by a tight-binding Hamiltonian including the Rashba spin-orbit coupling and inversion-symmetry breaking terms brought about by a uniaxial pressure. The calculated spin-Hall conductance displays a series of exact or approximate plateaus for isotropic or anisotropic hopping integral parameters, respectively. We show that these plateaus are a consequence of the various Fermi-surface topologies when tuning epsilon(F). For the isotropic case, a consistent two-band analysis, as well as a Berry-phase interpretation. are also given. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Full-color emission from In2S3 and ln(2)S(3): Eu3+ nanoparticles

New observations on the luminescence Of In2S3 and europium-doped In2S3 nanoparticles show a green (5 10 nm) emission from In2S3 and In1.8Eu0.2S3 nanoparticles while a blue (425 nm) emission is observed from ln(1.6)Eu(0.4)S(3) nanoparticles. Both the blue and green emissions have large Stokes shifts of 62 and 110 nm, respectively. Excitation with longer-wavelength photons causes the blue emission to shift to a longer wavelength while the green emission wavelength remains unchanged. The lifetimes of both the green and blue emissions are similar to reported values for excitonic recombination. When doped with Eu3+, in addition to the broad blue and green emissions, a red emission near 615 nm attributed to Eu3+ is observed. Temperature dependences on nanoparticle thin films indicate that with increasing temperature, the green emission wavelength remains constant, however, the blue emission shifts toward longer wavelengths. Based on these observations, the blue emission is attributed to exciton recombination and the green emission to Indium interstitial defects. These nanoparticles show full-color emission with high efficiency, fast lifetime decays, and good stability; they are also relatively simple to prepare, thus making them a new type of phosphor with potential applications in lighting, flat-panel displays, and communications.

Second-harmonic generation of Bogoliubov excitations in a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate

A second-harmonic generation (SHG) is predicted for the Bogoliubov excitations in a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate. It is shown that, because the linear dispersion curve of the excitations displays two branches, the phase-matching condition for the SHG can be fulfilled if the wave vectors and frequencies of fundamental and second-harmonic waves are selected suitably from different branches. The nonlinearly coupled envelope equations for the SHG are derived by using a method of multiple scales. The explicit solutions of these envelope equations are provided and the conversion efficiency of the SHG is also discussed.

Photoluminescence of Er-doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride

Er photoluminescence (Er PL) and dangling bonds (DBs) of annealed Er-doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride (a-SiN:H(Er)) with various concentrations of nitrogen are studied in the temperature range 62-300 K. Post-annealing process is employed to change the DBs density of a-SiN:H(Er). PL spectra, DBs density and H, N concentrations are measured. The intensity of Er PL displays complicated relation with Si DBs density within the annealing temperature range 200-500 degreesC. The intensity of Er PL first increases with decreasing density of Si dangling bonds owing to the structural relaxation up to 250 degreesC, and continues to increase up to 350 degreesC even though the density of Si DBs increases due to the improvement of symmetry environment of Er3+. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Tunable giant Faraday rotation of exciton in semiconductor quantum wells embedded in a microcavity

The Faraday rotation of an exciton in a GaAs quantum well (QW) embedded in a microcavity is investigated theoretically. The authors find that the Faraday rotation is enhanced remarkably by the microcavity, with a magnitude about two orders of magnitude larger than that of a single QW without microcavity. The Faraday rotation can be tuned by changing the incident angle of the pump and probe lights, or by varying the temperature or an external electric field. With an appropriate detuning between the cavity mode of the pump and probe lights, the Faraday rotation spectrum displays a strongly asymmetric line shape, which can easily be detected experimentally.

Magnetic field tuning of the effective g factor in a diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dot

The spin interaction and the effective g factor of a magnetic exciton (ME) are investigated theoretically in a diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) quantum dot (QD), including the Coulomb interaction and the sp-d exchange interaction. At low magnetic field, the ME energy decreases rapidly with increasing magnetic field and saturates at high magnetic field for high Mn concentration. The ground state of the ME exhibits an interesting crossing behavior between sigma(+)-ME and sigma(-)-ME for low Mn concentration. The g(ex) factor of the ME in a DMS QD displays a monotonic decrease with increasing magnetic field and can be tuned to zero by an external magnetic field. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.

Photoluminescence of erbium-doped hydrogenated amorphous SiOx(0 < x < 2)

Hydrogenated amorphous SiOx films are fabricated via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique. After erbium implantation and rapid thermal annealing, photoluminescence (PL) are measured at 77 K and room temperature (RT), respectively. We observed the strong PL at 1.54 mu m at RT. The 1.54 mu m PL intensity changes with the variation of concentration of oxygen. The most intense PL at 77 K in a-SiOx:H (Er) corresponds to O/Si = 1.0 and at RT to O/Si = 1.76. Based on our results, we propose that Er ions contributed to PL come from O-rich region in the film. Er ions in Si-rich region have no relation with FL. Temperature dependence of the intensity of the 1.54 mu m line of the Er3+ transition displays a very weak temperature quenching in Er-doped hydrogenated amorphous Si. The PL intensity at 250 K is a little more one half of that at 15 K.

Photoluminescence from surface-oxidized Ge nanoclusters

Photoluminescence from gas-evaporated Ge nanoclusters consisting of a crystalline core encased in an oxide shell are presented. An as-grown sample shows room temperature luminescence with separate peaks around 357 and 580 nm. Prolonged air exposure of the clusters reduces the Ge core dimensions, and the emission initially at 580 nm shifts to 420 nm; however, the violet luminescence at 357 nm displays no difference. These results indicate that there are two mechanisms involved with light emission from Ge nanoclusters, visible light emission associated with the quantum confinement effect, and violet light emission correlated to luminescent centers. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

Substrate temperature dependence of ZnTe epilayers grown on GaAs(001) by molecular beam epitaxy

ZnTe thin films have been grown on GaAs(0 0 1) substrates at different temperatures with constant Zn and Te beam equivalent pressures (BEPs) by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). In situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) observation indicates that two-dimensional (2D) growth mode can be established after around one-minute three-dimensional (3D) nucleation by increasing the substrate temperature to 340 degrees C. We found that Zn desorption from the ZnTe surface is much greater than that of Te at higher temperatures, and estimated the Zn sticking coefficient by the evolution of growth rate. The Zn sticking coefficient decreases from 0.93 to 0.58 as the temperature is elevated from 320 to 400 degrees C. The ZnTe epilayer grown at 360 degrees C displays the narrowest full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 660 arcsec from (0 0 4) reflection in double-crystal X-ray rocking curve (DCXRC) measurements. The surface morphology of ZnTe epilayers is strongly dependent on the substrate temperature, and the root-mean-square (RMS) roughness diminishes drastically with the increase in temperature.

Improved electroluminescence from n-ZnO/AlN/p-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diodes

n-ZnO/p-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diodes with and without a sandwiched AlN layer were fabricated. The electroluminescence (EL) spectrum acquired from the n-ZnO/p-GaN displays broad emission at 650 nm originating from ZnO and weak emission at 440 nm from GaN, whereas the n-ZnO/AlN/p-GaN exhibits strong violet emission at 405 nm from ZnO without GaN emission. The EL intensity is greatly enhanced by inserting a thin AlN intermediate layer and it can be attributed to the suppressed formation of the GaOx interfacial layer and confinement effect rendered by the AlN potential barrier layer.