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We investigated strontium oxide (SrO) as an interlayer material to enhance the UV stability of a CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cell. Moisture and over 400 nm wavelength of light were excluded to investigate the effect of UV light only. Two different interlayer fabrication processes were examined to optimize the performance of this solar cell. Devices fabricated by dipping for 30 min in SrO solution exhibited photoconversion efficiencies of 15.5%, whereas those fabricated with 60-min dipping showed photoconversion efficiencies of 15% and exhibited local Sr agglomeration. Devices with SrO displayed lower initial efficiencies than those without any SrO layer (17.6%), However, a device without SrO retained only 34.4% of its initial efficiency after 100 h of UV exposure. In contrast, SrO-incorporated devices retained almost 60.0% of their initial efficiency. Severe μ-PL mapping intensity degradation was observed in devices that did not include the interlayer, but no degradation was observed in those with the SrO interlayer. This can be attributed to the passivation of the degradation sites by SrO.

Human lysophosphatidic acid receptor 1 (LPA1 ) is a G-protein coupled receptor that mediates various biological functions such as proliferation, platelet aggregation, smooth muscle contraction, and tumor cell invasion. For dissection of the molecular function of LPA1 , a recombinant LPA1 was overexpressed in Escherichia coli membrane fractions and purified to homogeneity by single affinity chromatography. The purified LPA1 was stabilized with an amphiphilic polymer that was synthesized by the coupling of octylamine, glucosamine, and diethylaminoproylamine at the carboxylic groups of poly-γ-glutamic acid. The complex of purified LPA1 and amphiphilic polymer showed a monodisperse oligomer and specific binding to LPA with apparent Ki values of 30 μM. Compared with the Gs protein, it also showed selective binding to the alpha subunit of the Gi protein. These results indicate that recombinant LPA1 in an amphiphilic polymer complex has an active conformation for interaction with ligands and G-proteins.

This paper reports a scalable approach to achieve spatially selective graphene functionalization using multiscale wrinkles. Graphene wrinkles were formed by relieving the strain in thermoplastic polystyrene substrates conformally coated with fluoropolymer and graphene skin layers. Chemical reactivity of a fluorination process could be tuned by changing the local curvature of the graphene nanostructures. Patterned areas of graphene nanowrinkles and crumples followed by a single-process plasma reaction resulted in substrates with regions having different fluorination levels. Notably, conductivity of the functionalized graphene nanostructures could be locally tuned as a function of feature size without affecting the mechanical properties.

International audience; There is an increasing demand for precise molecular spectroscopy, in particular in the mid-infrared fingerprint window that hosts a considerable number of vibrational signatures, whether it be for modeling our atmosphere, interpreting astrophysical spectra or testing fundamental physics. We present a high-resolution mid-infrared spectrometer traceable to primary frequency standards. It combines a widely tunable ultra-narrow Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL), an optical frequency comb and a compact multipass cell. The QCL frequency is stabilized onto a comb controlled with a remote near-infrared ultra-stable laser, transferred through a fiber link. The resulting QCL frequency stability is below 10-15 from 0.1 to 10s and its frequency uncertainty of 4×10-14 is given by the remote frequency standards. Continuous tuning over ~400 MHz is reported. We use the apparatus to perform saturated absorption spectroscopy of methanol in the low-pressure multipass cell and demonstrate a statistical uncertainty at the kHz level on transition center frequencies, confirming its potential for driving the next generation technology required for precise spectroscopic measurements.

A new clock laser system using an optical cavity with $4.8 \times 10^-17$ thermal noise limit has been developed for rapid evaluation of ytterbium lattice clocks. This was realized by using a 30-cm-long ULE cavity, fused-silica mirror substrates, and crystalline mirror coatings. The frequency stability of the beating signal between the new clock laser and the old clock laser was limited by the latter. The linewidth and the frequency stability of the new clock laser will be measured by comparing the frequency between two similar systems.

International audience; We present a brief review of our progress towards measuring parity violation in heavy-metal chiral complexes using mid-infrared Ramsey interferometry. We discuss our progress addressing the main challenges, including the development of buffer-gas sources of slow, cold polyatomic molecules, and the frequency-stabilisation of quantum cascade lasers calibrated using primary frequency standards. We report investigations on achiral test species of which promising chiral derivatives have been synthesized.

This paper describes how delamination-free, hierarchical patterning of graphene can be achieved on prestrained thermoplastic sheets by surface wrinkling. Conformal contact between graphene and the substrate during strain relief was maintained by the presence of a soft skin layer, resulting in the uniform patterning of three-dimensional wrinkles over large areas (>cm2). The graphene wrinkle wavelength was tuned from the microscale to the nanoscale by controlling the thickness of the skin layer with 1 nm accuracy to realize a degree of control not possible by crumpling, which relies on delamination. Hierarchical patterning of the skin layers with varying thicknesses enabled multiscale graphene wrinkles with predetermined orientations to be formed. Significantly, hierarchical graphene wrinkles exhibited tunable mechanical stiffness at the nanoscale without compromising the macroscale electrical conductivity.

An experimental method is developed for the robust frequency stabilization using a high-finesse cavity when the laser exhibits large intermittent frequency jumps. This is accomplished by applying an additional slow feedback signal from Doppler-free fluorescence spectroscopy in an atomic beam with increased frequency locking range. As a result, a stable and narrow-linewidth 556 nm laser maintains the frequency lock status for more than a week, and contributes to more accurate evaluation of the Yb optical lattice clock. In addition, the reference optical cavity is supported at vibration-insensitive points without any vibration isolation table, making the laser setup more simple and compact., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

We are stabilizing the frequency of a mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) to an optical frequency comb itself stabilized to an ultra-stable near-infrared reference signal at $\pmb{1.5\mu} \mathbf{m}$ transferred from SYRTE to LPL using an optical link. The reference stability is copied to the QCL and we benefit from the traceability to the primary standards of SYRTE. The stabilized QCL can be scanned by scanning the near-IR reference with an electro-optic modulator. We use this ultrastable spectrometer to carry out saturated absorption spectroscopy of methanol. A detailed analysis of the frequency measurement uncertainty will be presented.

The systematic uncertainty of the Yb optical lattice clock has been improved to 8.3×10−17at KRISS, and the absolute frequency has been measured with uncertainty of 9.6×10−16referenced to the SI second (TT). We also describe future prospects to further reduce the systematic uncertainty and the absolute frequency measurement uncertainty. A new clock laser system has been developed to evaluate the uncertainties in reasonably short time.

In this paper, as a previous step of software development, through an analysis step in the basic design process of the FPSO crane, ERD, which could help develop common understanding between its developer and the user, was introduced. From the flowchart of the design process, the overall work flow in its development was understood. Then, after the design process of the crane was divided into many entities, the attributes of each entity were defined and the relationships between the entities were established, followed by ERD creation through the use of IDEF1X notation. The results of the analysis can be readily understood even by users who lack of software knowledge, and then their change requirements can be immediately reflected in the developed system that requires modification.

We design and develop a new clock laser system for the second Yb optical lattice clock (OLC) at KRISS with the targeted uncertainty of 10−18 level. With a longer ULE cavity, the fused silica substrates, and the crystalline mirror coatings, the overall thermal limit is expected to be 4.3×10−17. The rapid evaluation of the systematic uncertainties of the second OLC will be possible with this new clock laser system.

We present a frequency comb-assisted experimental setup which enables us to both coherently transfer the stability and accuracy of a remote near-infrared (NIR) ultrastable laser to a mid-infrared (MIR) quantum cascade laser (QCL), and widely tune the QCL frequency for spectroscopic applications. The QCL is stabilized at the level of 2×10−15 from 1 to 100 s, with an accuracy of 10−14 after 100 s. The achievable frequency tuning paves the way for high-resolution saturated absorption spectroscopy of molecular transitions, in particular in spectral regions that were previously inaccessible with standard stabilized MIR lasers. Preliminary results show a sensitivity at the kHz level on transition center frequencies.

We present the first experimental demonstration over a 43-km-long urban fiber network of a local two-way optical frequency comparison, which does not require any synchronization of the measurements. It was combined with a regular active-noise compensation on another parallel fiber leading to a very reliable and robust frequency transfer. This hybrid scheme enables us to investigate the major limiting factors of the local two-way comparison. We analyze the contribution to the phase noise of the recovered signal by the interferometers at local and remote places. By using the ability of this set up to be injected by a single laser or two independent lasers, we measure the contribution to the long-term instability by the demodulated laser instabilities. We show that a fractional frequency instability level of $1\times10^{-20}$ at 10 000 s can be obtained with this simple setup after 43-km-long propagation in an urban area.

The main function of methionine sulfoxide reductases (Msr) in many organisms is to protect cells against oxidative stress caused by the catalyzed reduction of oxidized methionine to normal methionine. In a few micro-organisms, the existence of Msr as a fusion protein on a single polypeptide, MsrAB, was reported. However, Msr generally exists as separate enzymes MsrA and MsrB. Here, MsrAB from Helicobacter pylori (HpMsrAB) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli, purified, and crystallized to determine its structure. HpMsrAB X-ray diffraction data were collected to the resolution of 3.3 A, and the crystals were found to belong to the tetragonal space group P41212, with the unit cell parameters a =100.91, b =100.91, and c =160.08 A. The crystals corresponded to 5.38 A3 Da−1 of Matthews coefficient and 77.2% solvent content from the molecular replacement suggest that there is a single molecule in an asymmetric unit. Due to their unusually high solvent content, diffraction of these crystals only reach a resolution of 3.3 A. A preliminary solution was determined by molecular replacement. Further refinement of the structure is in progress.

The current status of an Yb optical lattice clock at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) is reported. The systematic uncertainty of the Yb clock in the first accuracy evaluation was 1.5 × 10−14 [Park et al., Metrologia 50, 119 (2013)]. The uncertainty was dominated by the large uncertainties in the lattice ac Stark shift and the collisional shift, which were mainly limited by the large linewidth and jitter of the clock laser. Recently, a highly stable clock laser at 578 nm was developed with a short-term linewidth of 3.5 Hz and a frequency jitter of about 25 Hz at 1 s and 10 s measurement times, respectively. The long-term frequency drift showed only a linear dependence on time, confirming that the temperature of the super-cavity was maintained a zero coefficient of thermal expansion. The frequency of the lattice laser at 759 nm was phase locked to the optical frequency comb and could be stabilized at the “absolute” frequency of the “magic wavelength”, to within a 1-MHz uncertainty. This improvement greatly reduced the fractional uncertainty due to the lattice ac Stark shift down to 2 × 10−16. The systematic uncertainty of the clock is currently 5.3 × 10−15 and is dominated by the collisional frequency shift.

This paper introduces an atomic gravimeter under development at KRISS for precise measurement of gravitational acceleration. The gravimeter based on atom interferometer uses two counter-propagating Raman lasers of π/2-π-π/2 pulse sequence and laser cooled 87Rb atoms in free fall. Atomic interference fringes caused by Raman lasers were observed at various time intervals between the three Raman pulses. The frequency sweep rate α which compensates Doppler shift due to gravitational acceleration g was obtained from the interference fringes. In the presentation, the current status and recent results of the KRISS atomic gravimeter will be discussed.

This paper reports implementation and operation of a frequency synthesizer based on a cryocooled cryogenic Sapphire oscillator (cryoCSO) for the Cesium atomic fountain clock developing at KRISS, KRISS-Fl(Cs). With use of this highly stable local oscillator, the short-term stability of KRISS-F1(Cs) was greatly improved and reaches the quantum projection noise limit, resulting in the measured lowest Allan deviation of 2.6×10−14. In addition, the long-term drift (4.8×10−14/day) of the cryoCSO could be compensated and reach below 5×10−16/day as low as state-of-the-art active hydrogen masers.

Nucleolar phosphoprotein 140 (Nopp140) is a nucleolar protein, more than 80% of which is disordered. Previous studies have shown that the C-terminal region of Nopp140 (residues 568-596) interacts with protein kinase CK2α, and inhibits the catalytic activity of CK2. Although the region of Nopp140 responsible for the interaction with CK2α was identified, the structural features and the effect of this interaction on the structure of Nopp140 have not been defined due to the difficulty of structural characterization of disordered protein. In this study, the disordered feature of Nopp140 and the effect of CK2α on the structure of Nopp140 were examined using single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). The interaction with CK2α was increased conformational rigidity of the CK2α-interacting region of Nopp140 (Nopp140C), suggesting that the disordered and flexible conformation of Nopp140C became more rigid conformation as it binds to CK2α. In addition, site specific spin labeling and EPR analysis confirmed that the residues 574-589 of Nopp140 are critical for binding to CK2α. Similar technical approaches can be applied to analyze the conformational changes in other IDPs during their interactions with binding partners.

We describe our high-performance experimental apparatus for producing large atom number 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensates by using a double magneto-optical trap (MOT) system that consists of a two-dimensional MOT (2D MOT) and a three-dimensional MOT (3D MOT). As an atomic beam source for loading the 3D MOT, we use a unique 2D MOT system with two-color pushing beams, which increase the loading rate and the total number of atoms in the 3D MOT, compared to a pure 2D MOT by a factor of 20. After MOT compression and polarization gradient cooling, atoms are optically pumped into a magnetically trappable hyperfine state |F = 1, mF = −1〉 to be loaded into a quadrupole-Ioffe-configuration (QUIC) trap. We enhance this optical pumping process by up to 300% by using two laser beams. After rf evaporative cooling, a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) with more than 2 × 107 atoms is achieved.

Purpose: Utilizing air thermal energy during over-heated time in the greenhouse is a necessary component to save greenhouse heating costs for nighttime. However, there is no practical way to implement the related principles. Methods: In this study, a heating and cooling system which utilizes the surplus air thermal energy in a greenhouse was developed. Available air thermal energy and heating load for this experimental glasshouse were estimated based on temperature conditions of the plant growth and weather data. Results: Estimated values were 400 MJ/day for maximum surplus air thermal energy and 340 MJ/day for maximum heating energy which were target values of the design as well. The system consists of a heat pump, fan-coil units and heat storage tanks which are divided into low and high temperature tanks. Moreover, a new control logic was developed for surplus air thermal energy utilization. Conclusions: This paper explains the details of conceptual design process of the system. Results of test operations showed that the developed system performed the recovery and supply of the thermal energy according to design purposes.

We have developed a high performance liquid crystal (LC) alignment layer of ultra-thin single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and a conjugated block copolymer nanocomposite that is solution-processible for conventional twisted nematic (TN) LC cells. The alignment layer is based on the non-destructive solution dispersion of nanotubes with a poly(styrene-b- paraphenylene) (PS-b-PPP) copolymer and subsequent spin coating, followed by conventional rubbing without a post-annealing process. Topographically grooved nanocomposite films with two dimensionally (2D) networked SWNTs embedded in a block copolymer matrix were created using a rubbing process in which bundles of SWNTs on the composite surface were effectively removed. The LCs were well aligned with a stable pre-tilt angle of approximately 2° on our extremely transparent nanocomposite, which gave rise to superfast switching of the TN LC molecules that was approximately 3.8 ms, or four times faster than that on a commercial polyimide layer. Furthermore, the TN LCD cells containing our SWNT nanocomposite alignment layers exhibited low power operation at an effective switching voltage amplitude of approximately 1.3 V without capacitance hysteresis.

In this study, the kinetic properties of wild-type and C117D mutant H. influenzae MurA (Hi MurA), which catalyzes the first reaction in the biosynthetic pathway of the cell wall, were characterized. Purified recombinant Hi MurA was active at pH values ranging from pH 5.5 to pH 10, and its (UNAG), (PEP), and values were measured to be 31 , 24 , and 210 , respectively. Hi MurA activity was effectively inhibited by fosfomycin with an value of 60 . Hi MurA contains a cysteine residue (C117) at the loop region near the PEP binding, whereas MurA from fosfomycin resistant Mycobaterium tuberculosis or Chlamydia trachomatis contain an aspartate residue instead of the cysteine at the corresponding site. Aspartate substitution of Cys117 in Hi MurA shifted its optimum pH from 7.8 to 6.0. In addition, the values for UNAG and PEP were increased to 160 and 150 , respectively, and the value was significantly reduced to 41 . Furthermore, the C117D mutant form of Hi MurA was not inhibited by 1 mM fosfomycin. These results indicate that the Cys117 of Hi MurA is the binding site of fosfomycin and plays an important role in the fast turnover of the catalytic reaction.

We analyzed frequency-domain characteristics of a femtosecond laser whose carrier-envelope phase (CEP) was stabilized by the direct locking method (DLM). To evaluate the CEP-stabilized laser with zero carrier-envelope-offset frequency (f ceo), as imposed by DLM, a self-referencing f-to-2f interferometer with a shifted frequency comb by an acousto-optic modulator was employed in an out-of-loop. The measurement of the square root of triangle variance confirmed that DLM is a phase-locking method. The tight locking was verified from a narrow bandwidth of f ceo, measured using the out-of-loop interferometer, and from a small frequency jitter measured with a frequency counter referenced to a Rb-clock. The femtosecond laser with CEP stabilized by DLM is, thus, well suited for applications in the frequency domain as well as in the time domain.

Vertical alignment (VA) of a liquid crystal display (LCD) device with a stable pretilt angle has been achieved on ion-bombarded silicon nitride (SiN x) surfaces. The surface energy variation of the SiN x surface with the bonding conversion achieved via ion beam bombardment makes it possible to control the liquid crystal (LC) pretilt angle. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that the vertical orientation of the LC molecules occurs on the SiO 2 surface and that this orientation is directionally transformed upon ion bombardment of SiN x thin films. Moreover, the upgraded electro-optical characteristics of VA-LCDs showed potential for high-performance LCD applications on modified SiN x surfaces.

A fiber-phase-noise compensating system was constructed for a 1.4 GHz reference frequency transferred through a 13-km-long fiber spool. The transfer instability was dependent on the temperature variation of the compensating system. With the room temperature variation stabilized within 0.3℃, the transfer instability was 4.6×10

Sum frequency generation was utilized to obtain a yellow laser with the wavelength of 578.4 nm for a probe laser of an Yb lattice clock. The output of an Nd:YAG laser with wavelength of 1319 nm and that of an Yb-fiber laser with wavelength of 1030 nm were passed through a waveguided periodically-poled lithium niobate (WG-PPLN) for sum frequency generation. It is required that the probe laser has a linewidth of the order of 1 Hz to fully resolve the Yb lattice clock transition. Thus, the linewidth of the probe laser was reduced by stabilizing the frequency to a super-cavity. This was made of ULE with a low thermal expansion coefficient, and was mounted on an active vibration-isolation table at the optimal point for the reduced sensitivity to vibration. Also, this was installed in a vacuum chamber, and the temperature was stabilized to 1 mK level. This system was installed in an acoustic enclosure to block acoustic noise. The finesse of the super-cavity was measured to be 380 000 from the photon life time of the cavity.

We investigated the electrical properties of polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film transistors (TFTs) employing field-enhanced solid phase crystallization (FESPC). An n+ amorphous silicon (n+ a-Si) layer was deposited to improve the contact resistance between the active Si and source/drain (S/D) metal instead of ion doping. By using C–V measurement method, we could explain the diffused phosphorous ions (P+ ions) on the channel surface caused a negatively shifted threshold voltage (VTH) of −7.81 V at a drain bias of 0.1 V, and stretched out a subthreshold swing (S) of 1.698 V/dec. This process was almost compatible with the widely used hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) TFT fabrication process and also offers a better uniformity when compared to the conventional laser-crystallized poly-Si TFT process because of non-laser crystallization.

We fabricate a low noise erbium-doped fiber ring laser that can be continuously tuned over 102 nm by insertion of the fiber Fabry–Perot tunable filter (FFP-TF) in the ring cavity with a novel cavity structure and the optimal gain medium length. As an application of this fiber ring laser, we performed the absorption spectroscopy of acetylene (13C2H2) and hydrogen cyanide (H13C14N) and measure the absorption spectra of more than 50 transition lines of these gases with an excellent signal to noise ratio (SNR). The pressure broadening coefficients of four acetylene transition lines are obtained using this fiber ring laser and an external cavity laser diode.

A new low power consumption amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) TFT level shifter is designed and verified by SPICE simulation. The a-Si:H TFT level shifter employing cascade inverters successfully shifts low voltage (5 V) to high voltage (23 V) by employing a bootstrapping method. Proposed a-Si:H TFT level shifter has considerably reduced the power consumption by 50% compared with the conventional one (8.03 mW) due to connection of clock pulse on the diode connected node and bootstrapping method. The proposed level shifter may be suitable for mobile display applications.

We developed an optical pumping magnetometer system for magnetocardiography (MCG). The basic system requirements for measuring MCG are as follows: a 5-muT weak bias field in a magnetically shielded room, a 20-mm cell for spatial resolution, and a 30-Hz bandwidth for heart signals. In order to reduce the environmental magnetic noise, a double-cell gradiometer configuration has been adopted. The measured noise level was ~10 pT/radicHz. By switching current flows through a symmetrical three-axis rectangular Helmholtz coil set, the system is designed to measure three vector components of the magnetic field gradient. We show that this configuration reduces the error in current dipole localization with respect to the usual normal component detection by computer simulation of confidence-region estimation. Based on the simulation, we suggest that the system is applicable for diagnosing myocardial infarction on the anterior wall of a human heart in coronary artery disease

In order to establish the national frequency standards for the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science in the 1.5-mum region, we have developed an acetylene-stabilized laser diode locked to the P(16) transition of 13C2H2. We then measured its absolute frequency using an optical-frequency comb based on a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser whose repetition frequency and carrier-envelope offset frequency were phase locked to an H-maser. The measured absolute frequency of the laser diode locked to the P(16) transition of 13C2H2 was 194 369 569 386.0 kHz, with an uncertainty of 0.3 kHz, based on the measurements of a single system. Including the contribution of the residual offset, the uncertainty was 1.9 kHz

International audience; We theoretically and experimentally investigate relevant noise processes arising in optical fiber links, which fundamentally limit their relative stability. We derive the unsuppressed delay noise for three configurations of optical links: two-way method, Sagnac interferometry, and actively compensated link, respectively designed for frequency comparison, rotation sensing, and frequency transfer. We also consider an alternative two-way setup allowing real-time frequency comparison and demonstrate its effectiveness on a proof-of-principle experiment with a 25-km fiber spool. For these three configurations, we analyze the noise arising from uncommon fiber paths in the interferometric ensemble and design optimized interferometers. We demonstrate interferometers with very low temperature sensitivity of respectively -2.2, -0.03 and 1 fs/K. We use one of these optimized interferometers on a long haul compensated fiber link of 540 km. We obtain a relative frequency stability of 3x10^-20 after 10,000 s of integration time.

An L-shaped dual-gate device structure, which reduces kink current in polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs), has been proposed and fabricated. In the proposed device, the poly-Si TFTs have a lateral grain growth in channels such as TFTs fabricated by sequential lateral solidification (SLS) or CW laser crystallization. The current flow of dual TFTs is strongly affected by grain boundaries showing lateral grain growth. The L-shaped dual gate structure is employed for asymmetry between dual channels. One of the channels is located in a parallel direction of grain growth and the other is located vertically. It is verified by experiment that the proposed L-shaped dual-gate TFT reduced the kink current of poly-Si TFT and showed improved reliability by fixed current flow in the saturation mode.

We have observed the nonlinear magneto-optic effect(NMOE) based on atomic coherence in Rb D-line using the Rb vapor cell containing 50 Torr of Ne. The width of the NMOE signal was measured to be 2464 Hz, when the peak-to-peak B-field variation was 1 mGauss. The result of this work may be applied to a high-sensitivity magnetometer.

Using the external cavity spectroscopy method, we have observed the saturated absorption spectrum of the P(16) line of the v $_1$ +v $_3$ band of $^{13}C $_2$ H $_2$ $ . The frequency of a laser has been stabilized to the saturated absorption spectrum. The relative contrast of the saturation spectrum is about 7% with respect to the linear absorption and the linewidth is about 1.8 MHz. The frequency fluctuation of the stabilized LD is about $\pm$ 20 KHz for a sampling time of 100 ms.

We developed an a‐Si TFT‐LCD panel with integrated gate driver circuit using a standard 5‐MASK process. To minimize the effect of the a‐Si TFT current and LC's capacitance variation with temperature, we developed a new a‐Si TFT circuit structure and minimized coupling capacitance by changing vertical architecture above gate driver circuit. Integration of gate driver circuit on glass substrate enables single chip and 3‐side free panel structure in a‐Si TFT‐LCD of QVGA (240 × 320) resolution. And using double ASG structure the dead space of TFT‐LCD panel could be further decreased.

The development of an Yb optical lattice clock at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) is reported with current systematic uncertainty of 2.9×10. A highly stable clock laser at 578 nm was developed with a shortterm linewidth of 3.5 Hz. The laser was locked to the clock transition and the fractional frequency stability was 2.0×10 at 1 s. Collisional frequency shift for Rabi spectroscopy was theoretically and experimentally investigated and the uncertainty was greatly reduced to 2.9×10. We identified conditions to further reduce the collisional shift uncertainty to 10 level. Index Terms — Optical clock, optical lattice, Ytterbium, collisional shift, sub-Hz laser.

This study proposes the use of flexible capacitive electrodes for reducing motion artifacts in a wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) device. The capacitive electrodes have conductive foam on their surface, a shield, an optimal input bias resistor, and guarding feedback. The electrodes are integrated in a chest belt, and the acquired signals are transmitted wirelessly for ambulatory heart rate monitoring. We experimentally validated the electrode performance with subjects standing and walking on a treadmill at speeds of up to 7 km/h. The results confirmed the highly accurate heart rate detection capacity of the developed system and its feasibility for daily-life ECG monitoring.

A stable single-frequency fiber ring laser is proposed that operates in a single mode for more than an hour by incorporating unpumped erbium-doped fiber (EDF) as a saturable absorber filter and optimizing the length of EDF used as gain medium. This laser can be continuously tuned to 25-GHz spacing that precisely matches the ITU-T grids by temperature control of etalon filter. This laser had a signal-to-source spontaneous emission ratio higher than 70 dB, and lasing frequencies of 361 channels was matched to ITU-T grids with excellent flatness. Frequency offset from the ITU-T grid was less than 0.14 GHz. The linewidth and the relative intensity noise value was less than 1.3 kHz and 130 dB/Hz (above 250 kHz), respectively.

The phosphate-specific transport substrate binding protein-1 (PstS1) is a potential antigen used for the serological diagnosis of tuberculosis. For a highly specific diagnostic result, it is important that the recombinant PstS1 be highly pure and correctly folded. In this study, the PstS1 was expressed as fusion protein with glutathione-S-transferase (PstS1-GST) and Escherichia coli trigger factor (PstS1-TF) and their immunodiagnostic potentials were evaluated. The insoluble PstS1-GST was denatured and refolded to the native conformation by a step-gradient dilution, followed by purification with affinity chromatography on immobilized glutathione whereas the soluble PstS1-TF was directly purified by Ni-NTA affinity and size-exclusion chromatographies. The levels of antibody responses to PstS1-TF and PstS1-GST were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the sera of 22 tuberculosis patients with smear-positive and culture-positive tuberculosis as well as 20 healthy individuals; the antigenicities of the samples were evaluated in terms of sensitivity and specificity. To determine the diagnostic accuracy, receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed and then the areas under the ROC curves (AUC) were calculated; the AUC values for PstS1-TF and PstS1-GST were 0.971 and 0.877 with 95% confidence intervals (CI) of 0.927-1.000 and 0.768-0.986, respectively. The specificity of PstS1-TF was reduced from 89.5% to 84.2%, but in case of PstS1-GST it dropped drastically from 78.9% to 26.3% when the sensitivity was raised from 86.4% up to 95.5%. These results indicate that PstS1-TF is capable of producing more accurate and consistent serodiagnostic results than PstS1-GST, possibly due to its conformation being closer to the native state.

Human Nopp140 is a highly phosphorylated nucleolus protein and involved in the biogenesis of the nucleolus. It interacts with a variety of proteins related to the synthesis and assembly of the ribosome including a ubiquitous protein kinase CK2 which mediates cell growth and prevents apoptosis. We showed that hNopp140 is a highly intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) lacking stable secondary structures over its entire sequence of 710 residues. In this work, we employed various biophysical approach, for example, Circular Dichroism (CD), Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) and Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET), to investigate the intrinsic nature of hNopp140 and its structural changes by various conditions, interaction with CK2alpha.

A laser source at 578 nm with output power of more than 10 mW was obtained using a waveguide periodically-poled-lithium-niobate crystal as a nonlinear medium for second harmonic generation. To achieve this result, we made a high power 1156-nm external-cavity diode laser with maximum output power of more than 250 mW. This system is expected to be an excellent alternative to systems using sum-frequency generation with advantages of simplicity and cost-effectiveness, and will be used as a clock laser of an ytterbium optical lattice clock with robust and reliable operation.

An Yb optical lattice clock is under development at KRISS. Yb atoms were trapped in an optical lattice and further optimization is underway. Linewidth of the probe laser at 578 nm developed by sum frequency generation (SFG) method was reduced to less than 100 Hz. We also developed an optical frequency synthesizer (OFS) with the carrier-envelope-offset frequency locked to 0 Hz using the “direct locking method.”

The long-term carrier-envelope phase (CEP) coherence of a femtosecond laser with same pulse-to-pulse CEP value, obtained using the direct locking method, is demonstrated by employing a quasi-common-path interferometer (QPI). For the evaluation of the CEP stability, the phase noise properties of a femtosecond laser with the CEP stabilized using a QPI are compared with those obtained using a Mach-Zehnder f-2f interferometer, for which the phase power spectral density and the Allan deviation were calculated from the beat signals of the interferometers. With the improved CEP stability, the long-term CEP coherent signal with an accumulated phase noise well below 1 radian can be maintained for more than 56 hours, i.e., the CEP coherence is preserved without a phase cycle slip for more than 1.6 × 10(13) pulses at a repetition rate of 80 MHz. The relative stability is also estimated to be approximately 1.4 × 10(-22) at a central wavelength of 790 nm.

We introduce the characteristics of the titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) inorganic film deposited by rf magnetron sputtering for liquid crystal display applications. The TiO(2) films demonstrated vertical alignment (VA) of the liquid crystals (LCs) obtained by using ion-beam (IB) bombardment. As observed by using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the chemical structure of the TiO(2) was changed by IB bombardment, altering the Ti-O bonding of the Ti 2p spectra to lower intensity levels. Breaking Ti-O bonding by IB bombardment created pretilt angles between the TiO(2) film and LC molecules. The better voltage-transmittance characteristics of the VA LCDs based on TiO(2) film were measured and compared with the same characteristics of polyimide film.

We performed an absolute frequency measurement of an acetylene stabilized laser utilizing a femtosecond injection locking technique that can select one component among the fiber laser comb modes. The injection locking scheme has all the fiber configurations. Femtosecond comb lines of 250 MHz spacing based on the fiber femtosecond laser were used for injection locking of a distributed feedback (DFB) laser operating at 1542 nm as a frequency reference. The comb injected DFB laser serves as a selection filter of optical comb modes and an amplifier for amplification of the selected mode. The DFB laser injection locked to the desired comb mode was used to evaluate the frequency stability and absolute frequency measurement of an acetylene stabilized laser. The frequency stability of the acetylene stabilized laser was measured to be 1.1 x 10(-12) for a 1 s averaging time, improving to 6.9 x 10(-14) after 512 s. The absolute frequency of the laser stabilized on the P(16) transition of (13)C(2)H(2) was measured to be 194 369 569 385.7 kHz.

This paper describes the current status of an ytterbium lattice clock under development at KRISS. After the success of 399 nm magneto-optical-trap (MOT) at a temperature 1 mK, we constructed the 2nd stage cooling laser system at a wavelength of 556 nm to cool atoms further down to several muK. We are also developing an ultra-narrow linewidth laser at a wavelength of 578 nm to probe the clock transition by doubling the frequency output of a commercial 1156 nm ECDL. Efforts to reduce the linewidth are under way.