Hall effect in gated single-wall carbon nanotube films.

The presence of hopping carriers and grain boundaries can sometimes lead to anomalous carrier types and density overestimation in Hall-effect measurements. Previous Hall-effect studies on carbon nanotube films reported unreasonably large carrier densities without independent assessments of the carrier types and densities. Here, we have systematically investigated the validity of Hall-effect results for a series of metallic, semiconducting, and metal-semiconductor-mixed single-wall carbon nanotube films. With carrier densities controlled through applied gate voltages, we were able to observe the Hall effect both in the n- and p-type regions, detecting opposite signs in the Hall coefficient. By comparing the obtained carrier types and densities against values derived from simultaneous field-effect-transistor measurements, we found that, while the Hall carrier types were always correct, the Hall carrier densities were overestimated by up to four orders of magnitude. This significant overestimation indicates that thin films of one-dimensional SWCNTs are quite different from conventional hopping transport systems.

OIP5-AS1 Promotes Proliferation of Non-small-cell Lung Cancer and Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells.

BACKGROUND/AIM: The long noncoding RNA OIP5 antisense RNA 1 (OIP5-AS1) is overexpressed in various cancer types, such as lung cancer, hepatoblastoma and cervical cancer, and functions to accelerate cell proliferation, invasion and migration. Here, we investigated the roIe of OIP5-AS1 in cell-cycle progression of H1299 and A549 non-small cell lung cancer cells, and FaDu and CAL27 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The cells were transfected with small interfering RNA and subjected to cell-cycle analysis and reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). RESULTS: Silencing of OIP5-AS1 suppressed the proliferation of H1299, A549, FaDu and CAL27 cells. RT-qPCR and cell-cycle analysis revealed that silencing OIP5-AS1 increased the expression of CDK inhibitors, such as p15, p16, p18 and p19, resulting in G1-phase arrest. CONCLUSION: OIP5-AS1 regulates G1-phase progression by repressing CDK inhibitors and, thus, promotes the proliferation of H1299, A549, FaDu and CAL27 cells.

Intersubband plasmons in the quantum limit in gated and aligned carbon nanotubes.

Confined electrons collectively oscillate in response to light, resulting in a plasmon resonance whose frequency is determined by the electron density and the size and shape of the confinement structure. Plasmons in metallic particles typically occur in the classical regime where the characteristic quantum level spacing is negligibly small compared to the plasma frequency. In doped semiconductor quantum wells, quantum plasmon excitations can be observed, where the quantization energy exceeds the plasma frequency. Such intersubband plasmons occur in the mid- and far-infrared ranges and exhibit a variety of dynamic many-body effects. Here, we report the observation of intersubband plasmons in carbon nanotubes, where both the quantization and plasma frequencies are larger than those of typical quantum wells by three orders of magnitude. As a result, we observed a pronounced absorption peak in the near-infrared. Specifically, we observed the near-infrared plasmon peak in gated films of aligned single-wall carbon nanotubes only for probe light polarized perpendicular to the nanotube axis and only when carriers are present either in the conduction or valence band. Both the intensity and frequency of the peak were found to increase with the carrier density, consistent with the plasmonic nature of the resonance. Our observation of gate-controlled quantum plasmons in aligned carbon nanotubes will not only pave the way for the development of carbon-based near-infrared optoelectronic devices but also allow us to study the collective dynamic response of interacting electrons in one dimension.