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We have developed an analysis toolbox called NUTMEG (Neurodynamic Utility Toolbox for Magnetoencephalography) for reconstructing the spatiotemporal dynamics of neural activations and overlaying them onto structural MR images. The toolbox runs under MATLAB in conjunction with SPM2 and can be used with the Linux/UNIX, Mac OS X, and even Windows platforms. Currently, evoked magnetic field data from 4-D Neuroimaging, CTF, and KIT systems can be imported to the toolbox for analysis. NUTMEG uses an eigenspace vector beamforming algorithm to generate a tomographic reconstruction of spatiotemporal magnetic source activity over selected time intervals and spatial regions. The MEG coordinate frame is coregistered with an anatomical MR image using fiducial locations and, optionally, head shape information. This allows the reconstruction to be superimposed onto an MRI to provide a convenient visual correspondence to neuroanatomy. Navigating through the MR volume automatically updates the displayed time series of activation for the selected voxel. Animations can also be generated to view the evolution of neural activity over time. Since NUTMEG displays activations using SPM2's engine, certain SPM functions such as brain rendering and spatial normalization may be applied as well. Finally, as a MATLAB package, the end user can easily add customized functions. Source code is available at http://bil.ucsf.edu/ and distributed under a BSD-style license.

We report angle dependent and temperature dependent (9 K-300 K) photo-modulated reflectance (PR) studies on vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) structures, designed for 2.3 µm mid-infrared gas sensing applications. Changing the temperature allows us to tune the energies of the quantum well (QW) transitions relative to the VCSEL cavity mode (CM) energy. These studies show that this VCSEL structure has a QW-CM offset of 21meV at room temperature. Consequently the QW ground-state transition comes into resonance with the CM at 220 ± 2 K. The results from these PR studies are closely compared with those obtained in a separate study of actual operating devices and show how the PR technique may be useful for device optimisation without the necessity of having first to process the wafers into working devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The GaBixAs1-x bismide III-V semiconductor system remains a relatively underexplored alloy particularly with regards to its detailed electronic band structure. Of particular importance to understanding the physics of this system is how the bandgap energy Eg and spin-orbit splitting energy Δo vary relative to one another as a function of Bi content, since in this alloy it becomes possible for Δo to exceed Eg for higher Bi fractions, which occurrence would have important implications for minimising non-radiative Auger recombination losses in such structures. However, this situation had not so far been realised in this system. Here, we study a set of epitaxial layers of GaBixAs1-x (2.3% ≤ x ≤ 10.4%), of thickness 30-40 nm, grown compressively strained onto GaAs (100) substrates. Using room temperature photomodulated reflectance, we observe a reduction in Eg, together with an increase in Δo, with increasing Bi content. In these strained samples, it is found that the transition energy between the conduction and heavy-hole valence band edges is equal with that between the heavy-hole and spin-orbit split-off valence band edges at ∼9.0 ± 0.2% Bi. Furthermore, we observe that the strained valence band heavy-hole/light-hole splitting increases with Bi fraction at a rate of ∼15 (±1) meV/Bi%, from which we are able to deduce the shear deformation potential. By application of an iterative strain theory, we decouple the strain effects from our experimental measurements and deduce Eg and Δo of free standing GaBiAs; we find that Δo indeed does come into resonance with Eg at ∼10.5 ± 0.2% Bi. We also conclude that the conduction/valence band alignment of dilute-Bi GaBiAs on GaAs is most likely to be type-I. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) is used for studying the epitaxial magnetite ([Fe.sub.3][O.sub.4]) films on MgO (001) and [Al.sub.2][O.sub.3] (0001) substrates. The differences observed between film grown on MgO and [Al.sub.2][O.sub.3] are described within the framework of differences in mismatch strain experienced by the films.