Search Results - (Author, Cooperation:K. L. Tsai)

2011-07-05

Nature Publishing Group (NPG)

0028-0836

1476-4687

Biology

Chemistry and Pharmacology

Medicine

Natural Sciences in General

Physics

Binding Sites ; Crystallography, X-Ray ; Mediator Complex/*chemistry/*metabolism ; Models, Molecular ; Phosphorylation ; Protein Structure, Tertiary ; Protein Subunits/chemistry/metabolism ; RNA Polymerase II/chemistry/metabolism ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae/*chemistry/enzymology ; Structure-Activity Relationship ; Transcription Factor TFIIH/chemistry/metabolism

1089-7550

AIP Digital Archive

Physics

AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure emitter bipolar transistors were grown with emitter thicknesses varied from 300 to 900 A(ring) and the emitter thickness effects on the current gain and offset voltage were studied. It was found that both the current gain and offset voltage are strongly dependent on the emitter thickness. The current gain decreases with increasing emitter thickness. For an emitter thickness smaller than 500 A(ring), the offset voltage decreases with increasing emitter thickness, but for an emitter thickness larger than 500 A(ring), the offset voltage stays at a nearly constant value. Offset voltage as low as 55 mV was obtained for an emitter thickness of 700 A(ring). This low offset voltage, mostly contributed by the geometric effect, indicates that the base-emitter junction is a homojunction. From the current gain and offset voltage considerations, the optimal emitter thickness was found to be about 300–500 A(ring).

Electronic Resource

1089-7550

AIP Digital Archive

Physics

Influence of a thin protective but subsequently evaporated InAs layer on the regrowth of AlGaAs has been studied. It was found that although most of the InAs could be evaporated by thermal desorption, some would react with Al0.36Ga0.64As to form InAlGaAs. These InAlGaAs islands act as potential wells for carrier recombination and dominate the photoluminescence spectrum. Transmission electron microscopy photographs show that dislocations are formed near the islands. These defects are caused by lattice mismatch between AlGaAs and InAlGaAs. These islands and defects strongly affect the optical quality of surrounding Al0.36Ga0.64As and quantum wells.

Electronic Resource

1089-7550

AIP Digital Archive

Physics

A new ridge waveguide laser array with stable fundamental mode operation has been fabricated. By introducing absorption regions in all the laser stripes except for the central one, the electric field distribution of the laser arrays and the modal gains of the array supermodes are changed, resulting in fundamental mode operation. The threshold current of an array with five elements is typically 40 mA and the maximum output power is higher than 150 mW. The single-lobed far-field pattern centered at 0° with full width at half maximum of 2° is obtained at 1.5 times of the threshold current (Ith).

Electronic Resource

1089-7550

AIP Digital Archive

Physics

Compositional disordering of InGaAs/GaAs superlattices using a low-temperature-grown GaAs cap layer (LT-GaAs) by molecular beam epitaxy has been studied. The disordering of the superlattice was verified by photoluminescence and double-crystal x-ray rocking curve measurements. The Ga-vacancy-enhanced interdiffusion due to the presence of LT-GaAs was found to be the disordering mechanism. Diffusion equations and the Schrödinger's equation were solved numerically to obtain the composition profile and the transition energies in the disordered quantum well, respectively. The simulated energy shifts for samples under different annealing conditions agreed very well with the experimental results. The calculated effective diffusivity for the In–Ga interdiffusion has an activation energy of 1.63 eV, which is smaller than the activation energy 1.93 eV, for intrinsic interdiffusion. The diffusivity for the enhanced In–Ga interdiffusion due to the presence of LT-GaAs is about two orders of magnitude larger than the intrinsic In–Ga diffusivity. © 1996 American Institute of Physics.

Electronic Resource

1089-7550

AIP Digital Archive

Physics

Compositional disordering of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells due to the presence of low-temperature grown GaAs (by molecular beam epitaxy) was studied. Ga vacancy enhanced interdiffusion was found to be the mechanism underlying the observed intermixing. Diffusion equations were solved numerically to obtain the band profile after intermixing. The transition energies in the quantum wells under various annealing conditions were solved and agree very well with the observed photoluminescence emission peaks. The diffusivity of Ga vacancies and that of induced Al-Ga interdiffusion were obtained. The vacancy induced interdiffusion diffusivity was found to have an activation energy of 4.08 eV, which is smaller than the activation energy of interdiffusion diffusivity of normal temperature grown GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. This is a clear indication of enhanced interdiffusion due to the presence of low-temperature grown GaAs. © 1995 American Institute of Physics.

Electronic Resource

1089-7550

AIP Digital Archive

Physics

The influence of oxygen on the performance of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIP) has been studied. Photoluminescence and secondary ion mass spectroscopy were used to examine the relationship between the quality of AlGaAs and the oxygen content that were then correlated to the performance of QWIPs. It was found that oxygen is the dominant impurity in the GaAs/AlGaAs superlattice. Because oxygen atoms behave likes electron traps, which effectively reduce the carrier concentration in the material, both of the responsivity and the dark current of QWIP are reduced. The detectivities of QWIPs with lower oxygen concentrations are better than those with higher oxygen concentrations.

Electronic Resource

1089-7550

AIP Digital Archive

Physics

Clusters of up to 28 Fe0 atoms have been introduced into the "supercages'' of NaY zeolite by ion exchange of Fe+2 for Na+ followed by reduction to Fe0 with solvated electrons and Na−1 ions. The temperature-dependent ac and dc susceptibilities, which exhibit Curie–Weiss behavior before reduction, change to something approximating superparamagnetic behavior afterwards. The blocking temperature, Tb shows a strong dependence on magnetic field but weak dependence on frequency. There is at best a very weak remanence and coercive field while the onset of irreversibility occurs at temperatures well above Tb. In addition, the real and imaginary parts of the ac susceptibility show essentially similar temperature dependence. Some of this anomalous behavior can be attributed to a distribution of particle sizes. To the best of our knowledge these preliminary data—while poorly understood—represent the first measurements of the temperature, frequency, and field dependence of the magnetic properties of such small clusters.

Electronic Resource

1077-3118

AIP Digital Archive

Physics

Multiple quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) with bi-periodic grating couplers have been demonstrated. The bi-periodic grating consists of two gratings with different periods. The response linewidths of such QWIPs are found to be much wider than those of conventional grating coupled QWIPs. By using bi-periodic gratings for coupling the radiation into QWIPs, the influence of variation of material and grating quality on the performance of QWIP can be largely eliminated.

Electronic Resource

1077-3118

AIP Digital Archive

Physics

Asymmetric dark current versus voltage characteristics in quantum well infrared photodetectors have been studied. A model based on asymmetrical potential barriers was proposed. The asymmetrical potential barriers, which are most likely due to the accumulation of oxygen impurities at one of the interfaces, cause the asymmetrical I-V characteristics. The height of the potential spike is found to increase with the Al content in the AlGaAs barriers. Calculations based on our model agree well with experimental results.

Electronic Resource

1077-3118

AIP Digital Archive

Physics

A two-color infrared detector using GaAs/AlGaAs and strained InGaAs/AlGaAs multiquantum wells is demonstrated. The response peak of the GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well is at 8 μm, and that of the InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum well is at 5.3 μm. The responsivity of the detector is 1 A/W at 8 μm and 0.27 A/W at 5.3 μm; these are the best values reported for a two-color quantum well infrared detectors (QWIPs) with peak sensitivities in the spectral regions of 3–5.3 μm and 7.5–14 μm. Single-colored 5.3 and 8 μm QWIPs were also fabricated to study the bias dependent behavior. This behavior can be explained using the concept of current continuity. Because of a higher electrical resistance, a high electric field domain is always formed first in the shorter wavelength quantum well stack.

Electronic Resource

1089-7550

AIP Digital Archive

Physics

The effect of indium doping in the graded-index regions of the InGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs graded-index separated confinement heterostructure quantum well laser has been studied. It was found that the threshold current density can be greatly reduced by a proper amount of In doping in the graded AlGaAs region. This result is attributed to an improvement in material quality due to a reduction in group III vacancies. The effect of thermal treatment on laser performance has also been studied. Although high temperature annealing can significantly improve non-In-doped lasers, it has little effect on In-doped lasers.

Electronic Resource

1040-452X

Acrosome ; Acrosome reaction ; Video microscopy ; Lobster ; Crustacean ; Sperm ; Sperm motility ; Fertilization ; Life and Medical Sciences ; Cell & Developmental Biology

Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000

Biology

Sperm from the American lobster (Homarus americanus) are normally nonmotile. However, during fertilization, the sperm undergo a calcium-dependent acrosome reaction that propels them forward about 18 μMm. The reaction occurs in two phases, eversion and ejection, which take place too quickly to permit analysis by direct observation. The purposes of this study were to examine the structural changes occurring in sperm during the normal acrosome reaction and to determine the rate of the reaction using video microscopy. The reaction was induced in vitro by ionophore A23187 and recorded using a video system attached to a Nikon Nomarski interference microscope. Videotapes were played back frame by frame (30 frames/sec), and images of reactions from 10 sperm were analyzed. The acrosome reaction, including the eversion of the acrosomal vesicle and ejection of the subacrosomal material and nucleus, can be divided into 4 steps: (1) expansion of the apical cap followed by expansion of the remainder of the acrosomal cylinder; expansion of the cylinder begins at its apical end and proceeds toward its base, (2) eversion of the apical half of the acrosomal vesicle and initial contraction of the apical cap, (3) eversion of the basal half of the acrosomal vesicle, continued contraction of the apical cap, and ejection of the subacrosomal material and nucleus, and (4) final contraction of the apical cap and ejection of the acrosomal filament. During steps 2, 3, and 4, the mean forward movement of sperm is 12.7, 3.9, and 1.1 μMm, respectively. Although the time required to complete the reaction ranged from 0.66 to 5.16 s, most sperm reacted in less than 3. s, and these sperm were considered to have typical rates. For sperm that reacted in less than 3 s, both step 1 and step 4 take about 0.2 s and show little variation among sperm. the time required to complete steps 2 and 3 averaged 0.63 and 0.37 s, respectively. Forward movement of the sperm during the acrosome reaction is caused by eversion of the inner and outer acrosomal material and contraction of the apical cap. The protein(s) responsible for this contraction is not yet known. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

3 Ill.

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