Antioxidant activities of seed extracts from Dalbergia odorifera T. Chen

The heartwood or root of Dalbergia odorifera T. Chen is an important traditional Chinese medicine. Antioxidant activities of seed extracts from D. odorifera T. Chen were first investigated in this study. Ethanolic extracts were suspended in distilled water and partitioned successively with petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, n-butanol (n-BuOH) and water, yielding four extracts named as PE, EE, BE and WE, respectively. The EE exhibited the highest total phenolic, total flavonoid, 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, reducing power, linoleic acid and lard peroxidation inhibition, but lowest chelating ability. Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) analysis of EE revealed that there was a predominant component with negative molecular ion [M-H]- at m/z 373.2, a fragment at m/z 343.2 and UV λmax at 263 and 297nm. The mechanisms of antioxidant activities of seed extracts were exploited. Positive linear correlations were observed between reducing power and DPPH radical scavenging activity (R2 = 0.836), and linoleic acid peroxidation inhibition (R2 = 0.920), respectively. Similarly, high positive linear correlations of the total phenolic and total flavonoid with DPPH radical scavenging activity, reducing power and linoleic acid peroxidation inhibition were observed. This study therefore suggests that seeds of D. odorifera T. Chen have the potential to be used as natural antioxidants in food or pharmaceutical industry.Key words: Antioxidant activity, Dalbergia odorifera T. Chen, seed, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS)

High-performance GaAs/AlAs superlattice electronic devices in oscillators at frequencies 100–320 GHz

Negative differential resistance devices were fabricated from two epitaxial wafers with very similar GaAs/AlAs super-lattices and evaluated in resonant-cap full-height waveguide cavities. These devices yielded output powers in the fun-damental mode between 105 GHz and 175 GHz, with 14 mW generated at 127.1 GHz and 9.2 mW at 133.2 GHz. The output power of 4.2 mW recorded at 145.3 GHz constitutes a 50-fold improvement over previous results in the funda-mental mode. The highest confirmed fundamental-mode oscillation frequency was 175.1 GHz. In a second-harmonic mode, the best devices yielded 0.92 mW at 249.6 GHz, 0.7 mW at 253.4 GHz, 0.61 mW at 272.0 GHz, and 0.54 mW at 280.7 GHz. These powers exceed those extracted previously from higher harmonic modes by orders of magnitude. The power of 0.92 mW constitutes an improvement by 77% around 250 GHz. The second-harmonic frequency of 317.4 GHz is the highest to date for superlattice electronic devices and is an increase by 25% over previous results

Polarization dependence of electroluminescence from closely-stacked and columnar quantum dots

Quantum dots (QDs) have a potential for application in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), due to their high saturation power related to the low differential gain, fast gain recovery and wide gain spectrum compared to quantum wells. Besides all advantages, QDs realized by Stranski-Krastanov growth mode have a flat shape which leads to a gain anisotropy and a related transverse magnetic (TM) and -electric (TE) polarization dependence as compared to bulk material. This has so far prevented their applications in SOAs. It has been suggested that control of optical polarization anisotropy of the QD can be obtained through QD shape engineering, in closely stacked or columnar QDs (CQDs). To this aim, we have fabricated and tested SOA structures based on closely-stacked and columnar QDs. Closely-stacked InAs QDs with 4, 6 and 10nm GaAs spacer showed a minor improvement in the ratio of TM and TE integrated electroluminescence (EL) over standard QDs along with a strong reduction in efficiency. In contrast, a large improvement was obtained in CQDs, depending on the number of stacked submonolayers which can be attributed to the more symmetric shape of columnar QDs. A relatively small spectral separation (ΔE ~ 21meV) between TE- and TM-EL peaks has been observed showing that heavy- and light hole-like states, respectively are energetically close in these QDs. These results indicate that columnar QDs have a significant potential for polarization-independent QD SO

Polarization dependence of electroluminescence from closely-stacked and columnar quantum dots

Quantum dots (QDs) have a potential for application in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), due to their high saturation power related to the low differential gain, fast gain recovery and wide gain spectrum compared to quantum wells. Besides all advantages, QDs realized by Stranski-Krastanov growth mode have a flat shape which leads to a gain anisotropy and a related transverse magnetic (TM) and -electric (TE) polarization dependence as compared to bulk material. This has so far prevented their applications in SOAs. It has been suggested that control of optical polarization anisotropy of the QD can be obtained through QD shape engineering, in closely stacked or columnar QDs (CQDs). To this aim, we have fabricated and tested SOA structures based on closely-stacked and columnar QDs. Closely-stacked InAs QDs with 4, 6 and 10 nm GaAs spacer showed a minor improvement in the ratio of TM and TE integrated electroluminescence (EL) over standard QDs along with a strong reduction in efficiency. In contrast, a large improvement was obtained in CQDs, depending on the number of stacked submonolayers which can be attributed to the more symmetric shape of columnar QDs. A relatively small spectral separation (Delta E similar to 21 meV) between TE- and TM-EL peaks has been observed showing that heavy- and light hole-like states, respectively are energetically close in these QDs. These results indicate that columnar QDs have a significant potential for polarization-independent QD SOA

Continuous-wave highly-efficient low-divergence terahertz wire lasers.

Terahertz (THz) quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) have undergone rapid development since their demonstration, showing high power, broad-tunability, quantum-limited linewidth, and ultra-broadband gain. Typically, to address applications needs, continuous-wave (CW) operation, low-divergent beam profiles and fine spectral control of the emitted radiation, are required. This, however, is very difficult to achieve in practice. Lithographic patterning has been extensively used to this purpose (via distributed feedback (DFB), photonic crystals or microcavities), to optimize either the beam divergence or the emission frequency, or, both of them simultaneously, in third-order DFBs, via a demanding fabrication procedure that precisely constrains the mode index to 3. Here, we demonstrate wire DFB THz QCLs, in which feedback is provided by a sinusoidal corrugation of the cavity, defining the frequency, while light extraction is ensured by an array of surface holes. This new architecture, extendable to a broad range of far-infrared frequencies, has led to the achievement of low-divergent beams (10°), single-mode emission, high slope efficiencies (250 mW/A), and stable CW operation

Quasi-continuous frequency tunable terahertz quantum cascade lasers with coupled cavity and integrated photonic lattice

We demonstrate quasi-continuous tuning of the emission frequency from coupled cavity terahertz frequency quantum cascade lasers. Such coupled cavity lasers comprise a lasing cavity and a tuning cavity which are optically coupled through a narrow air slit and are operated above and below the lasing threshold current, respectively. The emission frequency of these devices is determined by the Vernier resonance of longitudinal modes in the lasing and the tuning cavities, and can be tuned by applying an index perturbation in the tuning cavity. The spectral coverage of the coupled cavity devices have been increased by reducing the repetition frequency of the Vernier resonance and increasing the ratio of the free spectral ranges of the two cavities. A continuous tuning of the coupled cavity modes has been realized through an index perturbation of the lasing cavity itself by using wide electrical heating pulses at the tuning cavity and exploiting thermal conduction through the monolithic substrate. Single mode emission and discrete frequency tuning over a bandwidth of 100 GHz and a quasi-continuous frequency coverage of 7 GHz at 2.25 THz is demonstrated. An improvement in the side mode suppression and a continuous spectral coverage of 3 GHz is achieved without any degradation of output power by integrating a π-phase shifted photonic lattice in the laser cavity