Etching and Narrowing of Graphene from the Edges

Large scale graphene electronics desires lithographic patterning of narrow graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) for device integration. However, conventional lithography can only reliably pattern ~20nm wide GNR arrays limited by lithography resolution, while sub-5nm GNRs are desirable for high on/off ratio field-effect transistors (FETs) at room temperature. Here, we devised a gas phase chemical approach to etch graphene from the edges without damaging its basal plane. The reaction involved high temperature oxidation of graphene in a slightly reducing environment to afford controlled etch rate (\leq ~1nm/min). We fabricated ~20-30nm wide GNR arrays lithographically, and used the gas phase etching chemistry to narrow the ribbons down to <10nm. For the first time, high on/off ratio up to ~10^4 was achieved at room temperature for FETs built with sub-5nm wide GNR semiconductors derived from lithographic patterning and narrowing. Our controlled etching method opens up a chemical way to control the size of various graphene nano-structures beyond the capability of top-down lithography.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Nature Chemistr

Hippo signalling governs cytosolic nucleic acid sensing through YAP/TAZ-mediated TBK1 blockade

The Hippo pathway senses cellular conditions and regulates YAP/TAZ to control cellular and tissue homeostasis, while TBK1 is central for cytosolic nucleic acid sensing and antiviral defence. The correlation between cellular nutrient/physical status and host antiviral defence is interesting but not well understood. Here we find that YAP/TAZ act as natural inhibitors of TBK1 and are vital for antiviral physiology. Independent of transcriptional regulation and through the transactivation domain, YAP/TAZ associate directly with TBK1 and abolish virus-induced TBK1 activation, by preventing TBK1 Lys63-linked ubiquitylation and the binding of adaptors/substrates. Accordingly, YAP/TAZ deletion/depletion or cellular conditions inactivating YAP/TAZ through Lats1/2 kinases relieve TBK1 suppression and boost antiviral responses, whereas expression of the transcriptionally inactive YAP dampens cytosolic RNA/DNA sensing and weakens the antiviral defence in cells and zebrafish. Thus, we describe a function of YAP/TAZ and the Hippo pathway in innate immunity, by linking cellular nutrient/physical status to antiviral host defence

200 Gbps OOK transmission over an indoor optical wireless link enabled by an integrated cascaded aperture optical receiver

\u3cp\u3eEnabled by an integrated InP membrane cascaded aperture optical receiver with flexibly-designed light collection aperture and &gt;67 GHz bandwidth, the record-breaking 200 Gbps (5λ×40 Gbps) OOK data transmission is achieved over a 2 meter indoor optical wireless link.\u3c/p\u3

38-GHz millimeter wave beam steered fiber wireless systems for 5G indoor coverage: architectures, devices, and links

\u3cp\u3eMillimeter wave (mm-wave) beam steering is a key technique for the next generation (5G) wireless communication. The 28 and 38-GHz bands are widely considered as the candidates for 5G. In the context of indoor coverage, fiber-wireless systems with multiple simplified remote antenna sites are attractive to avoid the indoor coverage problem caused by the high wall penetration loss of mm-wave signals. To allow enough antenna gain at the mm-wave bands, radio beam steering (and beamforming) is desired. Combining fiber-wireless system with remotely controlled photonic mm-wave beam steering can bring significant advances in terms of energy efficiency and cost. In this paper, we explore two kinds of indoor fiber-wireless network architectures for such mm-wave beam steering. Then, we discuss and investigate the key enabling device, which is an arrayed waveguide grating feedback loop (AWG-loop). Based on the AWG-loop, we further design two fiber-wireless links to accommodate the two network architectures. Both links with bit rates from 50 Mb/s to 8 Gb/s per spatial channel are experimentally demonstrated with a 38-GHz carrier frequency. The advanced reversely modulated optical transmitter and half-cycled 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM-16) are employed to realize a simplified mm-wave beam steered fiber-wireless link with the record-breaking 16-b/s/Hz (4 spatial channels × 4/s/Hz) spatial-spectral efficiency in its kind.\u3c/p\u3

Optical generation/detection of broadband microwave orbital angular momentum modes

\u3cp\u3eIn this article, a novel electrically controlled optical broadband phase shifter (ECO-BPS) is proposed and experimentally investigated for broadband microwave orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode generation. Based on the proposed ECO-BPS and a 17-element circular antenna array, the effect of the phase error on the OAM mode quality is studied by comparing the OAM modes respectively synthesized by three phase schemes: ideal phase shifts, ECO-BPS phase shifts, and optical true time delay phase shifts. In addition, the crosstalk caused by the phase error in applications of OAM modes multiplexing is investigated in a Dammann vortex grating based OAM modes demultiplexing system. All numerical simulation results demonstrate the feasibility of the ECO-BPS in broadband microwave OAM applications.\u3c/p\u3

Optical wireless data transfer enabled by a cascaded acceptance optical receiver fabricated in an InP membrane platform

Utilizing an InP membrane based cascaded acceptance optical receiver (CAO-Rx), we demonstrate 17.4Gbps optical wireless transmission in C-band. By separating light collection and opto-electrical conversion, CAO-Rx provides better optical efficiency and electrical bandwidth simultaneously