Invention of the split-anode magnetron.

Magnetron production and use far exceed that of other microwave tubes due to their high operational efficiency, power efficiency, and cost-effectiveness in production. The magnetron was named by A. W. Hull; however, the device invented by Hull differs from the magnetron utilized as a microwave tube. The magnetron widely used today is based on the split-anode magnetron invented by K. Okabe. This overview introduces two papers published by Okabe in the Proceedings of the Imperial Academy and discusses the events that led to the discovery of the split-anode magnetron. In addition, the operation mechanisms of magnetrons are explained.

A large piezoelectric response in highly-aligned electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride/trifluoroethylene) nanofiber webs for wearable energy harvesting.

In this study, highly-aligned and molecularly oriented poly(vinylidene fluoride/trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF/TrFE)] nanofiber webs were fabricated and their piezoelectric response was investigated. Using systematic post-treatments under appropriate conditions, a significant enhancement of the piezoelectric response in the P(VDF/TrFE) nanofiber webs was observed for the first time. The high-quality nanofibers exhibited a large output voltage of 0.4 V. The short-circuit current of post-treated nanofibers was found to be 731.25 µA, which increased about 330 times and the surface electric charge density was found to be 0.64 nC cm-2, which was about 2.7 times higher than those of the as-spun nanofibers. The large enhancement of piezoelectric response of the nanofibers is attributed to the additional stretching, annealing and poling of the as-spun nanofibers under the appropriate post-treatment conditions. The results highlight the potential of the high-quality P(VDF/TrFE) nanofibers to be used as wearable piezoelectric energy harvesters and other flexible self-powered portable devices.

Observation of CO Detection Using Aluminum-Doped ZnO Nanorods on Microcantilever.

An oscillating piezoresistive microcantilever (MC) coated with an aluminum (Al)-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods was used to detect carbon monoxide (CO) in air at room temperature. Al-doped ZnO nanorods were grown on the MC surface using the hydrothermal method, and a response to CO gas was observed by measuring a resonant frequency shift of vibrated MC. CO gas response showed a significant increase in resonant frequency, where sensitivity in the order of picogram amounts was obtained. An increase in resonant frequency was also observed with increasing gas flow rate, which was simultaneously followed by a decrease in relative humidity, indicating that the molecular interface between ZnO and H2O plays a key role in CO absorption. The detection of other gases of carbon compounds such as CO2 and CH4 was also performed; the sensitivity of CO was found to be higher than those gases. The results demonstrate the reversibility and reproducibility of the proposed technique, opening up future developments of highly sensitive CO-gas detectors with a fast response and room temperature operation.

Effects of Seeding Layer Annealing Temperature on Physical and Morphological Structure of Ga/F Co-Doped ZnO Nanostructures.

In this work, effects of annealing temperature of seeding layer on structural properties and morphologies of Ga/F co-doped ZnO nanostructures synthesized by hydrothermal process were investigated by varying the annealing temperature of seed layer as 300-500 °C. The ZnO seeding layers were deposited onto cleaned glass substrates by dip-coating technique using zinc acetate dehydrate (CH3COO)2Zn·2H2O as starting coating precursor. The Ga/F co-doped ZnO nanostructures were then grown on these seed layers by conventional hydrothermal process using Zn(NO3)2, NH4F, GaN3O9 and hexamethyltetramine as Zn, F and Ga sources, respectively. Effect of seed layer annealing temperature on morphologies, structural and Photoluminescence properties was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and Photoluminescence spectra, respectively. Variation of annealing temperature of seed layers can significantly result to the difference in morphological, structure and shape of the as-synthesized nanostructure products. It is found that the increase in annealing temperature leads to alternation in their shape from vertically-aligned nanosheets to nanorods with their average size ranging from 50 to 200 nm. Furthermore, the luminescence could be ascribed to the different contributions of the defect emissions, such asthe increase in the oxygen vacancy (VO) emissionor the decrease of the Zinc vacancy (Vzn). However, it can be speculated from the photoluminescence that the incorporated Ga and F substitute into ZnO.

Transformation from plasmon-induced transparence to -induced absorption through the control of coupling strength in metal-insulator-metal structure.

Photonic structures created by coupling a narrow resonance to a broad resonance can significantly improve the sensitivity of optical sensors. We investigated a planar metal-insulator-metal (MIM) multilayered structure using attenuated total reflection to couple surface plasmon polaritons with the waveguide (WG) mode. A plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) to plasmon-induced adsorption (PIA) transformation was realized by controlling the coupling strength between the incident light and the WG mode. The results indicated that PIT and PIA have differing coupling strength and reflectance phase at surface plasmon resonance. Moreover, Fano resonance was realized by adjusting the center of the absorption band of the WG mode.

Low-Temperature Direct Synthesis of Multilayered h-BN without Catalysts by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition.

Low-temperature direct synthesis of thick multilayered hexagonal-boron nitride (h-BN) on semiconducting and insulating substrates is required to produce high-performance electronic devices based on two-dimensional (2D) materials. In this study, multilayered h-BN with a thickness exceeding 5 nm was directly synthesized on quartz and Si at low temperatures, between 400 and 500 °C, by inductively coupled plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition using borazine as the precursor material. The quality and thickness of the h-BN crystals were investigated with respect to synthesis parameters, namely, temperature, radio frequency power, N2 flow rate, and H2 flow rate. Introducing N2 and H2 carrier gases critically affected the deposition rate, and increasing the carrier gas flow rate enhanced the h-BN crystal quality. The typical optical band gap of synthesized h-BN was approximately 5.8 eV, consistent with that of previous studies. The full width at half-maximum of the h-BN Raman peak was 32-33 cm-1, comparable to that of commercially available multilayered h-BN on Cu foil. These results are expected to facilitate the development of 2D materials for electronics applications.

Precise Deposition of Carbon Nanotube Bundles by Inkjet-Printing on a CMOS-Compatible Platform.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are ultimately small structures, attractive for future nanoelectronics. CNT-bundles on Si nanostructures can offer an alternative pathway to build hybrid CMOS-compatible devices. To develop a simple method of using such CNT-bundles as transistor channels, we fabricated semiconductor single-walled CNT field-effect transistors using inkjet printing on a CMOS-compatible platform. We investigated a method of producing stable CNT solutions without surfactants, allowing for CNT debundling and dispersion. An inkjet-printing system disperses CNT-networks with ultimately low density (down to discrete CNT-bundles) in Al source-drain gaps of transistors. Despite the small number of networks and random positions, such CNT-bundles provide paths to the flow current. For enhanced controllability, we also demonstrate the manipulation of CNT-networks using an AFM technique.

Self-Propelled Aero-GaN Based Liquid Marbles Exhibiting Pulsed Rotation on the Water Surface.

We report on self-propelled rotating liquid marbles fabricated using droplets of alcoholic solution encapsulated in hollow microtetrapods of GaN with hydrophilic free ends of their arms and hydrophobic lateral walls. Apart from stationary rotation, elongated-spheroid-like liquid marbles were found, for the first time, to exhibit pulsed rotation on water surfaces characterized by a threshold speed of rotation, which increased with the weight of the liquid marble while the frequency of pulses proved to decrease. To throw light upon the unusual behavior of the developed self-propelled liquid marbles, we propose a model which takes into account skimming of the liquid marbles over the water surface similar to that inherent to flying water lily beetle and the so-called helicopter effect, causing a liquid marble to rise above the level of the water surface when rotating.

Influence of Mg, Cu, and Ni Dopants on Amorphous TiO2 Thin Films Photocatalytic Activity.

The present study investigates Mg (0 ÷ 17.5 wt %), Cu (0 ÷ 21 wt %) and Ni (0 ÷ 20.2 wt %) dopants (M-doped) influence on photocatalytic activity of amorphous TiO2 thin films. Magnetron sputtering was used for the deposition of M-doped TiO2 thin films. According to SEM/EDS surface analysis, the magnetron sputtering technique allows making M-doped TiO2 thin films with high uniformity and high dopant dispersion. Photocatalysis efficiency analysis was set in oxalic acid under UV irradiation. In accordance with the TOC (total organic carbon) measurements followed by the apparent rate constant (kapp) results, the dopants' concentration peak value was dopant-dependent; for Mg/TiO2, it is 0.9% (kapp-0.01866 cm-1), for Cu/TiO2, it is 0.6% (kapp-0.02221 cm-1), and for Ni/TiO2, it is 0.5% (kapp-0.01317 cm-1). The obtained results clearly state that a concentration of dopants in TiO2 between 0.1% and 0.9% results in optimal photocatalytic activity.

Determining the physisorption energies of molecules on graphene nanostructures by measuring the stochastic emission-current fluctuation.

A method of determining the physisorption energy of molecules on carbon nanostructures using field emission current fluctuation measurements is presented. A stochastic model, broken into birth and death processes, was applied to analyze the current fluctuation and determine the physisorption energy. This method yields a highly sensitive, precise determination of the physisorption energy of molecules, and we include the physisorption energies for various molecules on a graphene nanostructure.

X-ray tube with a graphite field emitter inflamed at high temperature.

The authors developed a class of novel graphite-based field emitters, known as graphite field emitters inflamed at high temperature (GFEIHTs), which includes numerous edges and juts. The GFEIHT field emission characteristics are investigated in a vacuum tube (10-7 Pa), and an anode current exceeding 2 mA is obtained. The authors also fabricated tipped-off x-ray tubes using GFEIHTs. No degradation in the anode current is observed under the operating conditions of 16.6 kV anode voltage and 160 µA anode current. The current dispersion, defined as the standard deviation (σ)/mean over 24 h, is 2.8%. The authors successfully demonstrated radiography and x-ray fluorescence spectrometry using an x-ray tube with GFEIHT.

Depth profiling the whispering gallery modes in TiO2:Eu3+ microspheres using cathode luminescence.

The depth-resolved luminescence of whispering gallery modes (WGMs) was studied in TiO2:Eu3+ microsphere using cathode luminescence. As the penetration depth of the electron beam into the microsphere was increased through the control of the accelerating voltage, periodic structures appeared superimposed over the intrinsic transition lines of Eu3+, which were attributable to the cavity enhancement effect of the spontaneous emission by WGM resonance. The calculated radial intensity distribution of the WGM and the penetration depth explained the observed dependence of the WGM structure's visibility on the accelerating voltage.