Special topic on soft matter science and technology

Soft matter,as first proposed by de Gennes in 1991,describes a broad range of molecular systems exhibiting a large response to small foreign stimuli.Typically,it includes colloidal particles,amphiphiles,liquid crystals,polymers and others.The term"soft"originates from the common macroscopic properties of these systems and differentiates them from conventional"hard"materials.Over the past decades,the field of"soft matter"has progressed tremendously.Today,it is a truly multidisciplinary research endeavor bridging physics with chemistry and life science.

Mechanical Reinforcement and Piezoelectric Properties of PZT Ceramics Embedded with Nano-Crystalline

The double-scale lead zirconate titanate （PZT） piezoelectric ceramics were prepared by the solid state processing with PZT nano-crystalline and micro-powder. The microstructures, electrical and mechanical properties of the double-scale PZT are investigated. All the sintered ceramics exhibit a single perovskite structure and the grain size of the dou ble-scale PZT reduces due to the incorporation of PZT nano-crystalline. Compared to normal PZT, the mechanical properties increase significantly and the piezoelectric properties decrease slightly. Mechanisms responsible for the reinforcement of the double-scale PZT are discussed.

KELEA (Kinetic Energy Limiting Electrostatic Attraction) Offers an Alternative Explanation to Existing Concepts Regarding Wave-Particle Duality, Cold Fusion and Superconductivity

Existing explanations for several major phenomena in physics may need to be reconsidered in light of the description of a natural force termed KELEA (kinetic energy limiting electrostatic attraction). Three examples are selected for discussion in this paper: i) The proposed wave-particle duality of electrons;ii) cold fusion;and iii) superconductivity. The current interpretations of these enigmatic concepts are incomplete and not fully validated by scientific methods. The observations underlying these processes are seemingly consistent with KELEA acting as a repelling force between opposite electrical charges. Relatively simple experiments can be designed to either confirm or exclude KELEA in these and in various other currently perplexing physical phenomena.

High Characteristic Temperature 1.3μm InAs/GaAs Quantum-Dot Lasers Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

We report the molecular beam epitaxy growth of 1.3 μm InAs/GaAs quantum-dot （QD） lasers with high characteristic temperature T0. The active region of the lasers consists of five-layer InAs QDs with p-type modulation doping. Devices with a stripe width of 4 μm and a cavity length of 1200 μm are fabricated and tested in the pulsed regime under different temperatures. It is found that T0 of the QD lasers is as high as 532 K in the temperature range from 10°C to 60°C. In addition, the aging test for the lasers under continuous wave operation at 100°C for 72 h shows almost no degradation, indicating the high crystal quality of the devices.

Irradiation Effects of Femtosecond Pulses on Refractive Index of Ag-Embedded Nanocomposite Glasses

The irradiation effects of femtosecond pulses on Ag-embedded composite glasses fabricated by ion-exchange are investigated using z-scan measurement. Both changes of the refractive index caused by the laser irradiation effect and the third-order optical nonlinearity are observed in the experiment. Taking the change of the linear and nonlinear refractive index into consideration, the fitting results are in agreement with the experimental results.

Mechanical Behavior of Nanometer Ni by Simulating Nanoindentation

An indentation simulation of the crystal Ni is carried out by a molecular dynamics technique （MD） to study the mechanical behavior at nanometer scales. Indenter tips with both sphere shape and conical shape with 60° cone angle are used, and simulation samples with different crystal orientations are adopted. Some defects such as dislocations and point defects are observed. It is found that nucleated defects （dislocations, amorphous atoms） are from the local region near the pin tip or the sample surface. The temperature distribution of the local region is analyzed and it can explain our MD simulation results.

Damage Performance of Multilayer Films under Simultaneous Exposure to Multi-Wavelength Pulses

Laser damage performance of multilayer films with combined irradiation of 1ω and 2ω is studied to probe the damage mechanisms during wavelength division. The laser induced damage thresholds （LIDTs） of the samples are obtained and tested with only 2ω with various energy densities of 1ω. Different 1ω; polarization directions combined with the 2ω case are also investigated. The result suggests that lw can raise the damage probability of multilayer mirrors when two light wavelengths are present simultaneously; the increasing number of sensitive defects for 2ω can be related to the decline of the LIDTs of the multilayer mirrors.

Evolution of Structural and Magnetic Properties of BaFe12O19 with B2O3 Addition

We investigate the effects of B2O3 addition on structural and magnetic properties of hard magnetic BaFe12O19 particles. The conventional solid state reaction method is used as the synthesis route. Single phase BaFe12O19 could be synthesized with very small amounts of B2O3 addition and with calcination at low temperatures （850°C） in short times （1 h）. B2O3 addition also improves the magnetic parameters significantly. Remanence magnetization and specific magnetization at 1.5 T increase by ～40% in magnitude although no significant variations on coercivity is observed.

Competition between Radiative Power and Dissipation Power in the Refrigeration Process in Oxide Multifilms

The maximum refrigeration power dependence on the doping density in the p-BaTiO3/BaTiO3/SrTiO3/BaTiO3/ n-BaTiO3 system and in the p-AlGaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs/n-AlGaAs system is obtained respectively based on the opto-thermionic refrigeration model. The results show that the maximum refrigeration power in the p-BaTiO3/BaTiO3/SrTiO3/BaTiO3/n-BaTiO3 system increases dramatically with the increase of doping density from 1.0×1018 cm-3 to 5.0×1019 cm-3 while that in the p-AlGaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs/n-AlGaAs system is nearly a constant. It is found that the different Auger coefficients and the competition between radiative power and dissipation power lead to the different behavior of the maximum refrigeration power dependence on the doping density of the two systems.

A Study on Porosity Distribution in Nanoporous TiO2 Photoelectrodes for Output Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Porosity as one of the crucial factors to film morphology affects the overall electrical current-voltage characteristics of dye-sensitized solar cell （DSC）. We search for the short-circuit current density, the open-circuit voltage and the maximum power output as the main functional parameters of DSC closely related to porosity under different film thickness. The theoretical analyses show some exciting results. As porosity changes from 0.41 to 0.75, the short-circuit current density shows the optimal value when the film thickness is 8-10 μm. The open-circuit voltage presents different variation tendencies for the film thicknesses within 1-8 μm and within 10-30 μm. The porosity is near 0.41 and the film thickness is about 10 μm, DSC will have the maximum power output. The theoretical studies also illustrate that given a good porosity distribution, DSC can obtain an excellent short-circuit current characteristic, which agrees well with the experimental results reported in previous literature.