Haptic Stylus and Empirical Studies on Braille, Button, and Texture Display

This paper presents a haptic stylus interface with a built-in compact tactile display module and an impact module as well as empirical studies on Braille, button, and texture display. We describe preliminary evaluations verifying the tactile display's performance indicating that it can satisfactorily represent Braille numbers for both the normal and the blind. In order to prove haptic feedback capability of the stylus, an experiment providing impact feedback mimicking the click of a button has been conducted. Since the developed device is small enough to be attached to a force feedback device, its applicability to combined force and tactile feedback display in a pen-held haptic device is also investigated. The handle of pen-held haptic interface was replaced by the pen-like interface to add tactile feedback capability to the device. Since the system provides combination of force, tactile and impact feedback, three haptic representation methods for texture display have been compared on surface with 3 texture groups which differ in direction, groove width, and shape. In addition, we evaluate its capacity to support touch screen operations by providing tactile sensations when a user rubs against an image displayed on a monitor

Remarkable enhancement of domain-wall velocity in magnetic nanostripes

Remarkable reductions in the velocity of magnetic-field (or electric current)-driven domain-wall (DW) motions in ferromagnetic nanostripes have typically been observed under magnetic fields stronger than the Walker threshold field [N. L. Schryer and L. R. Walker, J. Appl. Phys. 45, 5406 (1974)]. This velocity breakdown is known to be associated with an oscillatory dynamic transformation between transverse- and antivortex (or vortex)-type DWs during their propagations. The authors propose, as the result of numerical calculations, a simple means to suppress the velocity breakdown and rather enhance the DW velocities, using a magnetic underlayer of strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. This underlayer plays a crucial role in preventing the nucleation of antivortex (or vortex)-type DWs at the edges of nanostripes, in the process of periodic dynamic transformations from the transverse into antivortex- or vortex-type wall. The present study not only offers a promising means of the speedup of DW propagations to levels required for their technological application to ultrafast information-storage or logic devices, but also provides insight into its underlying mechanism.open383

Origin of the increased velocities of domain wall motions in soft magnetic thin-film nanostripes beyond the velocity-breakdown regime

It is known that oscillatory domain-wall (DW) motions in soft magnetic thin-film nanostripes above the Walker critical field lead to a remarkable reduction in the average DW velocities. In a much-higher-field region beyond the velocity-breakdown regime, however, the DW velocities have been found to increase in response to a further increase of the applied field. We report on the physical origin and detailed mechanism of this unexpected behavior. We associate the mechanism with the serial dynamic processes of the nucleation of vortex-antivortex (V-AV) pairs inside the stripe or at its edges, the non-linear gyrotropic motions of Vs and AVs, and their annihilation process. The present results imply that a two-dimensional soliton model is required for adequate interpretation of DW motions in the linear- and oscillatory-DW-motion regimes as well as in the beyond-velocity-breakdown regime.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Experimental Investigation for Tensile Performance of GFRP-Steel Hybridized Rebar

Tensile performance of the recently developed “FRP Hybrid Bar” at Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) is experimentally evaluated by the authors. FRP Hybrid Bar is introduced to overcome the low elastic modulus of the existing GFRP bars to be used as a structural member in reinforced concrete structures. The concept of material hybridization is applied to increase elastic modulus of GFRP bars by using steel. This hybridized GFRP bar can be used in concrete structures as a flexural reinforcement with a sufficient level of elastic modulus. In order to verify the effect of material hybridization on tensile properties, tensile tests are conducted. The test results for both FRP Hybrid Bar and the existing GFRP bars are compared. The results indicate that the elastic modulus of FRP Hybrid Bar can be enhanced by up to approximately 250 percent by the material hybridization with a sufficient tensile strength. To ensure the long-term durability of FRP Hybrid Bar to corrosion resistance, the individual and combined effects of environmental conditions on FRP Hybrid Bar itself as well as on the interface between rebar and concrete are currently under investigation

Understanding of complex periodic transformations of moving domain walls in magnetic nanostripes

The magnetic field (or electric current) driven domain-wall motion in magnetic nanostripes is of considerable interest because it is essential to the performance of information storage and logic devices. One of the currently key problems is to unveil the complex behaviors of oscillatory domain-wall motions under applied magnetic fields stronger than the so-called Walker field, beyond which the velocity of domain walls markedly drops. Here, we provide not only considerably better understandings but also new details of the complex domain-wall motions. In a certain range just above the Walker field, the motions are not chaotic but rather periodic with different unique periodicities of dynamic transformations of a moving domain wall between the different types of its internal structure. Three unique periodicities found, which consist of different types of domain wall that are transformed from type one to another. The transformation periods vary with the field strength and the nanostripe width. This novel phenomenon can be described by the dynamic motion of a limited number of magnetic topological solitons such as vortex and antivortex in nanostripes.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figure

Highly p-doped graphene obtained by fluorine intercalation

We present a method for decoupling epitaxial graphene grown on SiC(0001) by intercalation of a layer of fluorine at the interface. The fluorine atoms do not enter into a covalent bond with graphene, but rather saturate the substrate Si bonds. This configuration of the fluorine atoms induces a remarkably large hole density of p \approx 4.5 \times 1013 cm-2, equivalent to the location of the Fermi level at 0.79 eV above the Dirac point ED .Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, in print AP

Criterion for transformation of transverse domain wall to vortex or antivortex wall in soft magnetic thin-film nanostripes

We report on the criterion for the dynamic transformation of the internal structure of moving domain walls (DWs) in soft magnetic thin-film nanostripes above the Walker threshold field, Hw. In order for the process of transformation from transverse wall (TW) to vortex wall (VW) or antivortex wall (AVW) occurs, the edge-soliton core of the TW-type DW should grow sufficiently to the full width at half maximum of the out-of-plane magnetizations of the core area of the stabilized vortex (or antivortex) by moving inward along the transverse (width) direction. Upon completion of the nucleation of the vortex (antivortex) core, the VW (AVW) is stabilized, and then its core accompanies the gyrotropic motion in a potential well (hill) of a given nanostripe. Field strengths exceeding the Hw, which is the onset field of DW velocity breakdown, are not sufficient but necessary conditions for dynamic DW transformation