DESIGN, MICRO-MANUFACTURING, AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A NEW FAST PARALLEL-PROCESSING FOURIER TRANSFORM INTERFEROMETER (FTIR) WITH SINGLE NON-PERIODIC PULSE CAPABILITY

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Design, fabrication, and characterisation of wire grid polarizers for the deep UV spectral range

In this communication, we show preliminary results on transmissive TiO wire-grid polarizers (WGP) operating in the deep ultraviolet (DUV) range. WGP are devices based on strips of materials with large values of the modulus of the dielectric constant along with high absorption in the operational range. The merit function I is introduced as a new tool to find the optimum material for WGPs in a given spectral range. The experimental dielectric constant of TiO thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition are obtained through spectroscopic ellipsometry, and the function indicates that TiO is the best candidate for WGP in the DUV range when it is compared with other oxides. Once the material selection for WGP is done, we present and compare two different design approaches for WGP: one using an effective medium theory for the periodic structure, and the second using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) analysis. A prototype of WGP is fabricated by electron beam (e-beam) lithography followed by lift-off process; the topography of the sample is analyzed by AFM, and we found noticeable deviations in the grating from the designed values. In preliminary characterization work the effective dielectric constant in two perpendicular orientations is obtained by ellipsometry and the contrast is compared with the design

IR Sensing: Exploiting the IR Transparency of Graphene for Fast Pyroelectric Infrared Detection (Advanced Optical Materials 1/2015)

Advanced Optical Materials3133-3

Wafer Scale Manufacturing of High Precision Micro-Optical Components through X-Ray Lithography yielding 1800 Gray Levels in a Fingertip Sized Chip

Nature Nanotechnolog

X-ray lithography of SU8 photoresist using fast miniature plasma focus device and its characterization using FTIR spectroscopy

10.1016/j.physleta.2014.12.007Physics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics3796560-56

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field