Crystal Structure Manipulation of the Exchange Bias in an Antiferromagnetic Film

Exchange bias is one of the most extensively studied phenomena in magnetism, since it exerts a unidirectional anisotropy to a ferromagnet (FM) when coupled to an antiferromagnet (AFM) and the control of the exchange bias is therefore very important for technological applications, such as magnetic random access memory and giant magnetoresistance sensors. In this letter, we report the crystal structure manipulation of the exchange bias in epitaxial hcp Cr2O3 films. By epitaxially growing twined (10-10) oriented Cr2O3 thin films, of which the c axis and spins of the Cr atoms lie in the film plane, we demonstrate that the exchange bias between Cr2O3 and an adjacent permalloy layer is tuned to in-plane from out-of-plane that has been observed in (0001) oriented Cr2O3 films. This is owing to the collinear exchange coupling between the spins of the Cr atoms and the adjacent FM layer. Such a highly anisotropic exchange bias phenomenon is not possible in polycrystalline films.Comment: To be published in Scientific Reports, 12 pages, 6 figure

Study on key technologies of energy-saving and environment-protective pumps

To meet energy-saving and environment-protective purpose, a series of plastic pumps are developed by composite molding. There are four key techniques involved, firstly, plastic hydraulic components with light-weight; secondly, steel barrel as a pump casing and a connection component as well; thirdly, floating impeller strategy where impeller is drifting freely along shaft; and lastly, a self balancing impeller technique which can totally keep axial force balancing. The manufacturing process is energy-saving, and the components can be recycled, which have great potentials for conservation of environment

Enhancing cellular uptake of activable cell-penetrating peptide–doxorubicin conjugate by enzymatic cleavage

The use of activable cell-penetrating peptides (ACPPs) as molecular imaging probes is a promising new approach for the visualization of enzymes. The cell-penetrating function of a polycationic cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) is efficiently blocked by intramolecular electrostatic interactions with a polyanionic peptide. Proteolysis of a proteinase-sensitive substrate present between the CPP and polyanionic peptide affords dissociation of both domains and enables the activated CPP to enter cells. This ACPP strategy could also be used to modify antitumor agents for tumor-targeting therapy. Here, we aimed to develop a conjugate of ACPP with antitumor drug doxorubicin (DOX) sensitive to matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9 (MMP-2/9) for tumor-targeting therapy purposes. The ACPP-DOX conjugate was successfully synthesized. Enzymatic cleavage of ACPP-DOX conjugate by matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2/9 indicated that the activation of ACPP-DOX occurred in an enzyme concentration–dependent manner. Flow cytometry and laser confocal microscope studies revealed that the cellular uptake of ACPP-DOX was enhanced after enzymatic-triggered activation and was higher in HT-1080 cells (overexpressed MMPs) than in MCF-7 cells (under-expressed MMPs). The antiproliferative assay showed that ACPP had little toxicity and that ACPP-DOX effectively inhibited HT-1080 cell proliferation. These experiments revealed that the ACPP-DOX conjugate could be triggered by MMP-2/9, which enabled the activated CPP-DOX to enter cells. ACPP-DOX conjugate may be a potential prodrug delivery system used to carry antitumor drugs for MMP-related tumor therapy

Polarization-insensitive silicon nitride arrayed waveguide grating

Next-generation passive optical networks require integrated, polarization-insensitive wavelength-division multiplexing solutions, for which the recently emerging low-loss silicon nitride nanophotonic platforms hold great potential. A novel polarization-insensitive arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) built with silicon nitride waveguides is presented in this Letter. Polarization insensitivity is obtained when both the channel spacing and the center wavelength of the two orthogonal polarization states (i.e., the TE and TM waveguide modes) are simultaneously aligned. In our design, the channel spacing alignment between the polarization states is obtained by optimizing the geometry of the arrayed waveguides, whereas the central wavelength polarization insensitivity is obtained by splitting the two polarization states and adjusting their angle of incidence at the input star coupler to compensate for the polarization mode dispersion of the AWG. A 100 GHz 1×8 wavelength-division multiplexer with crosstalk levels below −16  dB is demonstrated experimentally