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Ternary copper germanate nanowires have been synthesized by the hydrothermal deposition route in an autoclave using germanium dioxide and copper oxide powders as the starting materials as well as the copper germanate nanowires have been investigated for cysteine sensing characteristics. The nanowires with the length of several dozens of micrometers are mainly composed of single crystalline orthorhombic CuGeO3, which are supported by X‐ray diffraction, selected area electron diffraction, high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy and X‐ray photoelectron spectrum. Room temperature photoluminescence spectrum exhibits strong green light emission ability at 535.4 nm with a broad emission band. The copper germanate nanowires may be controlled grown by controlling the growth conditions of the nanowires. The nanowire growth process is explained using a solid state growth mechanism. The electrochemical analysis demonstrates that the copper germanate nanowires serve as a good electrochemical sensor with excellent electrochemical sensing ability for cysteine and catalytic ability for electron‐transfer process. The electrochemical result of the copper germanate nanowires presents an important advance toward the application for electrochemical sensors operating at room temperature. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ho3+ doped fluoroaluminate glass fibers based on chemically durable AlF3–BaF2–YF3–PbF2–MgF2–CaF2 glasses are fabricated by using a rod-in-tube method. By using an 84 cm long Ho3+-doped fluoroaluminate glass fiber as the gain medium and a 1120 nm fiber laser as the pump source, lasing at 2868 nm is obtained, the maximum unsaturated power is about 57 mW for a pump power of 1224 mW, and the corresponding slope efficiency is ~5.1%. The effect of the fiber length on lasing at 2868 nm is also investigated. Our results show that Ho3+-doped fluoroaluminate glass fibers are promising gain media for 2.9 µm laser applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to use high aspect ratio anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes as an etching and evaporation mask is one of the unsolved problems in the application of nanostructured arrays. Here we describe the versatile utilizations of the highly ordered AAO membranes with a high aspect ratio of more than 20 used as universal masks for the formation of various nanostructure arrays on various substrates. The result shows that the fabricated nanopore and nanoparticle arrays of substrates inherit the regularity of the AAO membranes completely. The flat AAO substrates and uneven AAO frontages were attached to the Si substrates respectively as an etching mask, which demonstrates that the two kinds of replication, positive and negative, represent the replication of the mirroring of Si substrates relative to the flat AAO substrates and uneven AAO frontages. Our work is a breakthrough for the broad research field of surface nano-masking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]