Particle Transportation Using Programmable Electrode Arrays

This study presents a technique to manipulate particles in microchannels using arrays of individually excitable electrodes. These electrodes were energized sequentially to form a non-uniform electric field that moved along the microchannel. The non-uniform electric field caused dielectrophoresis to make polarized particles move. This technique was demonstrated using viable yeast cells in a suspending medium with different conductivities. The viable yeast cells experienced positive dielectrophoresis and negative dielectrophoresis in medium conductivity of 21.5 μS/cm and 966 μS/cm respectively. The experimental results indicate that the cells can be transported in either condition using the proposed technique.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

Pbte Quantum Dots In Tellurite Glass Microstructured Optical Fiber

PbTe doped tellurite glass photonic optical fiber for non linear application were developed using rod in tube method in a draw tower. We follow the growth kinetics of the quantum dots in the optical fiber by High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy giving some results related with the growth kinetic of the same in function of time so much for optical fiber as for the glass bulk. Absorption peak near 1500 nm as observed and it was attributed the optical resonance due PbTe quantum dots in the core fiber.6902Tsunetomo, K., (1995) Nonlinear Opt, 13, p. 109Borrelli, N.F., Smith, D.W., (1994) J. Non-Cryst. Soi, 180, p. 25Lipovskii, A., Kolobkova, E.A., Petrikov, V., Kang, I., Olkhovets, A., Krauus, T., Thomas, M., Kycia, S., (1997) Appl. Phys. Lett, 71, p. 3406Reynoso, V.C.S., de Paula, A.M., Cuevas, R.F., Medeiros Neto, J.A., Alves, O.L., Cesar, C.L., Barbosa, L.C., (1995) Elect. Lett, 31 (12), pp. 1013-1014Rodrigues, E., Jimenez, E., Jacob, G.J., Neves, A.A.A., Cesar, C.L., Barbosa, L.C., (2005) Phisica E, 26, pp. 321-325Jacob, G.J., Cesar, C.L., Barbosa, L.C., Tellurite Glass Doped with PbTe Quantum Dots (2002) Physics and Chemistry of Glass, 43 C, pp. 250-253Jacob, G.J., Rodriguez, E., Barbosa, L.C., Cesar, C.L., Tellurite Glass Optical fiber doped with PbTe Quantum DotsPhotonics West 2005, The International Society for Optical Engineering SPIEEnomoto, Y., Tokuyama, M., Kawasaki, K., (1986) Act. Metall, 34, p. 2139Marqusee, J.A., Ross, J., (1984) J. Chem. Phys, 80, p. 536Lifshitz, E.M., Slyozov, V.V., (1961) J. Phys. Chem. Sol, 19, p. 3

Spin and charge ordering in self-doped Mott insulators

We have investigated possible spin and charge ordered states in 3d transition-metal oxides with small or negative charge-transfer energy, which can be regarded as self-doped Mott insulators, using Hartree-Fock calculations on d-p-type lattice models. It was found that an antiferromagnetic state with charge ordering in oxygen 2p orbitals is favored for relatively large charge-transfer energy and may be relevant for PrNiO$_3$ and NdNiO$_3$. On the other hand, an antiferromagnetic state with charge ordering in transition-metal 3$d$ orbitals tends to be stable for highly negative charge-transfer energy and can be stabilized by the breathing-type lattice distortion; this is probably realized in YNiO$_3$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

A Real Space Description of Field Induced Melting in the Charge Ordered Manganites: II. the Disordered Case

We study the effect of A site disorder on magnetic field induced melting of charge order (CO) in half doped manganites using a Monte-Carlo technique. Strong A-site disorder destroys CO even without an applied field. At moderate disorder, the zero field CO state survives but has several intriguing features in its field response. Our spatially resolved results track the broadening of the field melting transition due to disorder and explain the unusual dependence of the melting scales on bandwidth and disorder. In combination with our companion paper on field melting of charge order in clean systems we provide an unified understanding of CO melting across all half doped manganites.Comment: 9 pages, pdflatex, 10 embedded png fig

Tellurite Photonic Crystal Fiber With Er3+-tm3+ For Broadband Optical Amplifier In 1550nm

Er3+-Tm3+ co-doped tellurite photonic crystal fiber was fabricated via a stack-and-draw procedure and without using extrusion in any stage. The final fiber presents a 187 nm bandwidth of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) intensity around 1550nm when pumped with 790nm. In this manuscript a soft-glass tube fabrication technique, using the centrifugation method, is also shown.6116Knight, J.C., Birks, T.A., Russel, P.St.J., Atkin, D.M., All-silica single-mode optical fiber with photonic crystal cladding (1996) Opt. Lett, 21, pp. 1547-1549Jeong, H., Oh, K., Han, S.R., Morse, T.F., Characterization of broadband amplified spontaneous emission from an Er3+-Tm3+ -codoped silica fiber (2003) Opt. Lett, 367, pp. 507-511Chillcce, E.F., Rodriguez, E., Neves, A.A.R., Moreira, W.C., César, C.L., Barbosa, L.C., Er3+-Tm3+ co-doped tellurite fibers for broadband optical fiber amplifier around 1550 nm band (2005) Opt. Fiber Technol., , article in pressRussell, P., Photonic crystal fibers (2003) Science, 299, pp. 358-362Knight, J.C., Photonic crystal fibers (2003) Nature, 424, pp. 847-851Kumar, V.V.R.K., George, A.K., Knight, J.C., Russell, P.St.J., Tellurite photonic crystal fiber (2003) Opt. Exp, 20, pp. 2641-2645Kumar, V.V.R.K., George, A.K., Reeves, W.H., Knight, J.C., Russell, P.St.J., Omenetto, F.G., Taylor, A.J., Extruded soft glass photonic crystal fiber for ultrabroad supercontinuum generation (2002) Opt. Exp, 10 (25), pp. 1520-1525Kiang, K.M., Frampton, K., Monro, T.M., Moore, R., Tucknott, J., Hewak, D.W., Richardson, D.J., Rutt, H.N., Extruded singlemode non-silica glass holey optical fiber (2002) Electron. Lett, 38 (12), pp. 546-54

Oyster reefs as carbon sources and sinks

Carbon burial is increasingly valued as a service provided by threatened vegetated coastal habitats. Similarly, shellfish reefs contain significant pools of carbon and are globally endangered, yet considerable uncertainty remains regarding shellfish reefs’ role as sources (+) or sinks (-) of atmospheric CO2. While CO2 release is a by-product of carbonate shell production (then burial), shellfish also facilitate atmospheric-CO2 drawdown via filtration and rapid biodeposition of carbon-fixing primary producers. We provide a framework to account for the dual burial of inorganic and organic carbon, and demonstrate that decade-old experimental reefs on intertidal sandflats were net sources of CO2 (7.1 ± 1.2 MgC ha-1 yr-1 (m ± s.e.)) resulting from predominantly carbonate deposition, whereas shallow subtidal reefs (-1.0 ± 0.4 MgC ha-1 yr-1) and saltmarsh-fringing reefs (-1.3 ± 0.4 MgC ha-1 yr-1) were dominated by organic-carbon-rich sediments and functioned as net carbon sinks (on par with vegetated coastal habitats). These landscape-level differences reflect gradients in shellfish growth, survivorship and shell bioerosion. Notably, down-core carbon concentrations in 100- to 4000-year-old reefs mirrored experimental-reef data, suggesting our results are relevant over centennial to millennial scales, although we note that these natural reefs appeared to function as slight carbon sources (0.5 ± 0.3 MgC ha-1 yr-1). Globally, the historical mining of the top metre of shellfish reefs may have reintroduced more than 400 000 000 Mg of organic carbon into estuaries. Importantly, reef formation and destruction do not have reciprocal, counterbalancing impacts on atmospheric CO2 since excavated organic material may be remineralized while shell may experience continued preservation through reburial. Thus, protection of existing reefs could be considered as one component of climate mitigation programmes focused on the coastal zone