The energy transfer by stimulated Brillouin backscatter from a long pump pulse (15 ps) to a short seed pulse (1 ps) has been investigated in a proof-of-principle demonstration experiment. The two pulses were both amplified in different beamlines of a Nd:glass laser system, had a central wavelength of 1054 nm and a spectral bandwidth of 2 nm, and crossed each other in an underdense plasma in a counter-propagating geometry, off-set by $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}10^\circ $ . It is shown that the energy transfer and the wavelength of the generated Brillouin peak depend on the plasma density, the intensity of the laser pulses, and the competition between two-plasmon decay and stimulated Raman scatter instabilities. The highest obtained energy transfer from pump to probe pulse is 2.5%, at a plasma density of $0.17 n_{cr}$ , and this energy transfer increases significantly with plasma density. Therefore, our results suggest that much higher efficiencies can be obtained when higher densities (above $0.25 n_{cr}$ ) are used.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.

Radiocarbon concentrations in the northernmost region of the Japan Sea were observed during the summer of 2002. The averaged surface δ14C (above 100 m depth) was 52 ± 8%, which is significantly higher compared with the values of the Pacific Ocean and Okhotsk Sea. The δ14C in the deep water decreased with density, and the minimum value was −70%. By analyzing 14C and other hydrographic data, we found that i) the Tsushima Warm Current Water reaches to the surface layer in the southern Tatarskiy Strait; ii) deep convection did not occur in the northernmost region, at least not after the winter of 2001–2002; and iii) the bottom water that was previously formed in this region may step down southward along the bottom slope and mix with the Japan Sea Bottom Water. Furthermore, a new water mass characterized by high salinity (>34.09 psu) was found in the subsurface layer in the area north of 46°N.

Several novel Eu(III) complexes with asymmetric bis-phosphine oxide- ligands were synthesized. The relation between molecular structures of bis-phosphine- oxide ligands and properties of Eu(III) complexes was investigated and some interesting results were obtained. Solubility of Eu(III) complexes in fluorinated medium and silicone oil were strongly dependent on the length of alkyl chain (n) binding two phosphine oxide- parts. Also, the thermal properties of Eu(III) complexes were correlated to the solubility. Eu(III) complex 6(n=3), which has phenyl and n-octyl groups as the substituents of a bis-phosphine oxide- ligand, was found to be highly soluble and have large fluorescence intensity.

Different magnesium incorporation behavior has been observed in heavily Mg-doped AlGaN epitaxial layers. The films were grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy involving a lateral overgrowth technique on patterned sapphire substrates. TEM observations show that direct growth on sapphire exhibits pyramidal defects, while lateral overgrowth is homogeneous and free of structural defects. The orientation of the growth front significantly influences the microstructure, and the {0001} growth facet appears to be essential for the formation of the pyramidal defects. In addition, cylindrical and funnel-shaped nanopipes have been observed at dislocations with an edge component. The relationship between Mg segregation and these defects is discussed, and formation mechanisms are proposed taking into consideration the orientation of the growth front.

Transmission electron microscopy has been used to investigate the core structure of threading dislocations in heavily Mg-doped (1020 cm−3) Al0.03Ga0.97N films grown on (0001) sapphire by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition. Evidence is presented that Mg segregates to edge and mixed dislocations, and that these dislocations often have open cores with diameters in the range 1–5nm. The mechanism of hollow core formation and the role of Mg are discussed.

The present study compared the production efficiency and incidence of postnatal death in mice derived by injecting embryonic stem (ES) cells into either heat-treated blastocysts or tetraploid blastocysts. The proportion of completely ES-cell-derived mice from the tetraploid blastocyst group (3.3%) was significantly higher than that obtained from the heat-treated blastocyst group (1.5%). The incidence of postnatal death was the same between the two groups: 10 of 15 young (67%) in the heat-treated group and 21 of 34 young (62%) in the tetraploid group died within 13 days of birth. The remaining young grew to adulthood, had normal fertility, and their germ cells were of ES cell origin. There was no clear correlation, however, between the postnatal lethality of ES-cell-derived mice and the genetic background of the ES cells. The causes of postnatal death are discussed.

The behavior of threading dislocations during mass transport of GaN was investigated in detail by transmission electron microscopy. Mass transport occurred at the surface. Therefore, growing species are supplied from the in-plane direction. The behavior of threading dislocations was found to be strongly affected by the mass transport process as well as the high crystallographic anisotropy of the surface energy of the facets particular to GaN.

The misfit between GaN and 6H-SiC is 3.5% instead of 16% with sapphire, the epitaxial layers have similar densities of defects on both substrates. Moreover, the lattice mismatch between AlN and 6H-SiC is only 1%. Therefore, epitaxial layer overgrowth (ELO) of GaN on AlN/6H-SiC could be a route to further improve the quality of epitaxial layers. AlN has been grown by Halide Vapour Phase Epitaxy (HVPE) on (0001) 6H-SiC, thereafter a dielectric SiO2 mask was deposited and circular openings were made by standard photolithography and reactive ion etching. We have examined GaN layers at an early stage of coalescence in order to identify which dislocations bend and try to understand why. The analysed islands have always the same hexagonal shape, limited by {0110} facets. The a type dislocations are found to fold many times from basal to the prismatic plane, whereas when a+c dislocations bend to the basal plane, they were not seen to come back to a prismatic one.

Photoluminescence (PL) enhancement due to the screening of piezoelectric field induced by Si-doping is systematically studied in GaN/AlGaN quantum wells (QWs) fabricated by metal organic vapor-phase-epitaxy (MOVPE). The PL enhancement ratio of QWs for Si-doped directly into the wells was much larger than that for doped only into the barrier layers. This result shows that the crystal quality of the quantum well is not so damaged by heavy Si-doping, which is different from the cases of GaAs or InP material systems. The PL intensity enhancement ratio was especially large for thick wells. The typical value of the enhancement ratio was 30 times for a 5 nm-thick single QW. The optimum Si-doping concentration was approximately 4×1018 cm-3. From the well width dependence of the PL enhancement ratio and PL peak shift under high excitation conditions, we determined that the dominant effect inducing the PL enhancement is screening of piezoelectric field in the QWs. These results indicate that Si-doping is very effective for the application of GaN/AlGaN QWs to optical devices.

GaN-based metal-ferroelectric-semiconductor (MFS) structure has been fabricated by using ferroelectric Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 (PZT) instead of conventional oxides as gate insulators. The GaN and PZT films in the MFS structures have been characterized by various methods such as photoluminescence (PL), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD). The Electric properties of GaN MFS structure with different oxide thickness have been characterized by high-frequency C-V measurement. When the PZT films are as thick as 1 µm, the GaN active layers can approach inversion under the bias of 15V, which can not be observed in the traditional GaN MOS structures. When the PZT films are about 100 nm, the MFS structures can approach inversion just under 5V. All the marked improvements of C-V behaviors in GaN MFS structures are mainly attributed to the high dielectric constant and large polarization of the ferroelectric gate oxide.

Deep levels studies on a set of n-GaN films grown by MOCVD and HVPE reveal the presence of electron traps with levels near Ec-0.25 eV, Ec-0.55 eV, Ec-0.8 eV, Ec-1 eV, hole traps with levels near Ev+0.9 eV and a band of relatively shallow states in the lower half of the bandgap. The total density of these latter states was estimated to be some 1016 cm−3 and they were tentatively associated with dislocations in GaN based on their high concentration and band-like character. None of the electron or hole traps could be unambiguously related with strong changes of diffusion lengths of minority carriers in various samples. It is proposed that such changes occur due to different surface recombination velocities. An important role of Ec-0.55 eV traps in persistent photoconductivity phenomena in n-GaN has been demonstrated.

The behavior of threading dislocations during mass transport of GaN was investigated in detail by transmission electron microscopy. Mass transport occurred at the surface. Therefore, growing species are supplied from the in-plane direction. The behavior of threading dislocations was found to be strongly affected by the mass transport process as well as the high crystallographic anisotropy of the surface energy of the facets particular to GaN.

High quality zinc oxide (ZnO) films were epitaxially grown on R-plane sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition at temperatures in the range 350-600°C. In-situ nitrogen compensation doping was performed using NH3. The metalsemiconductor-metal ultraviolet-sensitive photodetectors were fabricated on nitrogencompensation-doped epitaxial ZnO films. The photoresponsivity of these devices exhibits a linear dependence upon bias voltage up to 10 V, with a photoresponsivity of 400 A/W at 5 V. The rise and fall times are 1 and 1.5 μs, respectively.

The effect of In on the structural and optical properties of InxGa1−xN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) was investigated. These were five-period MQWs grown on sapphire by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Increasing the In composition caused broadening of the high-resolution x-ray diffraction superlattice satellite peak and the photoluminescence-excitation bandedge. This indicates that the higher In content degrades the interface quality because of nonuniform In incorporation into the GaN layer. However, the samples with higher In compositions have lower room temperature (RT) stimulated (SE) threshold densities and lower nonradiative recombination rates. The lower RT SE threshold densities of the higher In samples show that the suppression of nonradiative recombination by In overcomes the drawback of greater interface imperfection.

Electronic Raman scattering experiments have been carried out on both MBE and MOCVD-grown Mg-doped wurtzite GaN samples. Aside from the expected Raman lines, a broad structure (FWHM ≅ 15cm−1) observed for the first time at around 841cm−1 isattributed to the electronic Raman scattering from neutral Mg impurities in Mg-dopedGaN. From the analysis of the temperature-dependence of this electronic Ramanscattering signal binding energy of the Mg impurities in wurtzite GaN has been found to be Eb ≅ 172 ± 20meV. These experimental results demonstrate that the energy between the ground and first excited states of Mg impurities in wurtzite GaN is about 3/5 of its binding energy.

The oxidation of GaN epilayers in dry oxygen has been studied. The 1-μm-thick GaN epilayers grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by Rapid-Thermal-Processing/Low Pressure Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition were used in this work. The oxidation of GaN in dry oxygen was performed at various temperatures for different time. The oxide was identified as the monoclinic β-Ga2O3 by a θ-2θ scan X-ray diffraction (XRD). The scanning electron microscope observation shows a rough oxide surface and an expansion of the volume. XRD data also showed that the oxidation of GaN began to occur at 800°C. The GaN diffraction peaks disappeared at 1050°C for 4 h or at 1100°C for 1 h, which indicates that the GaN epilayers has been completely oxidized. From these results, it was found that the oxidation of GaN in dry oxygen was not layer-by-layer and limited by the interfacial reaction and diffusion mechanism at different temperatures.

We report on an experimental study of microstructure-based lasing in an optically pumped GaN/AlGaN separate confinement heterostructure (SCH). We achieved low-threshold ultra-violet lasing in optically pumped GaN/AlGaN separate confinement heterostructures over a wide temperature range. The spacing, directionality, and far-field patterns of the lasing modes are shown to be the result of microcavities that were naturally formed in the structures due to strain relaxation. The temperature sensitivity of the lasing wavelength was found to be twice as low as that of bulk-like GaN films. Based on these results, we discuss possibilities for the development of ultra-violet laser diodes with increased temperature stability of the emission wavelength.

GaN films have been grown atop Si-terminated 3C-SiC intermediate layer on Si(111) substrates using low pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD). The SiC intermediate layer was grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using tetramethylsilane (TMS) as the single source precursor. The Si terminated SiC surface was obtained by immediately flow of SiH4 gas after growth of SiC film. LP-MOCVD growth of GaN on 3C-SiC/Si(111) was carried out with trimethylgallium (TMG) and NH3. Single crystalline hexagonal GaN layers can be grown on Si terminated SiC intermediate layer using an AlN or GaN buffer layer. Compared with GaN layers grown using a GaN buffer layer, the crystal qualities of GaN films with AlN buffer layers are extremely improved. The GaN films were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Full width at half maximum (FWHM) of double crystal x-ray diffraction (DCXD) rocking curve for GaN (0002) on 3C-SiC/Si(111) was 890 arcsec. PL near band edge emission peak position and FWHM at room temperature are 3.38 eV and 79.35 meV, respectively.