Electrets are dielectric materials possessing a quasi-permanent electric charge or dipole polarization. Frequently, the electrets are adversely affected by environmental temperature and humidity, leading to charge instability, which severely restricts applications. Here we show that silicon nanowires (SiNWs) via modified oxide-assisted growth can surprisingly serve as electrets with permanent e...

The volar sides of the fingers can be seen as the haptic counterpart to the fovea for visual perception. This study assessed the localisation of individual tactile stimuli and spatiotemporal patterns presented to the volar side of the fingers. Participants performed the localisation task by pointing at the perceived positions with a 3D tracker. Based on the pointing data, perceptual maps were d...

Multiferroic materials, in which ferroelectric and magnetic ordering coexist, are of fundamental interest for the development of multi-state memory devices that allow for electrical writing and non-destructive magnetic readout operation. The great challenge is to create multiferroic materials that operate at room temperature and have a large ferroelectric polarization P. Cupric oxide, CuO, is p...

Herein, we propose a phenomenon of "polarization-coupling (PC) cascading" generated in MgO doped periodically poled lithium niobate crystal (PPMgLN). PC cascading contributes to the effective electro-optical (EO) Kerr effect that is several orders of magnitude stronger than the classical ones. Experiment of Newton's rings demonstrates the large phase accumulation during the PC cascaded processe...

Three-dimensional dielectric photonic crystals have well-established enhanced light-matter interactions via high Q factors. Their plasmonic counterparts based on arrays of nanoparticles, however, have not been experimentally well explored owing to a lack of available synthetic routes for preparing them. However, such structures should facilitate these interactions based on the small mode volume...

We introduce the passive all-optical polarization switch, which modulates light with light. That switch is used to construct all the binary logic gates of two or more inputs. We discuss the design concepts and the operation of the AND, OR, NAND, and NOR gates as examples. The rest of the 16 logic gates are similarly designed. Cascading of such gates is straightforward as we show and discuss. Ca...

We have successfully demonstrated a polarization-maintaining (PM) fused silica microfiber by adiabatically tapering a conventional PM fiber. Compared to standard single-mode microfibers, the proposed PM microfibers exhibit robust polarization, preserving characteristics under the presence of external perturbations, such as bending. A polarization-extinction ratio of 16 dB is typically obtained ...

We propose optical polarization imaging as a minimally invasive technique for measuring the mechanical properties of plastics and soft tissues through their change in reflectance properties with applied strain or force. We suggest that changes in surface roughness are responsible for the linear reflectivity changes with applied stretch or strain. Several aspects of this model are tested, includ...

Fluorescence polarization (FP) has become a powerful technique to quantitatively analyze the binding of a small soluble fluorescence-labeled probe to a larger soluble protein and its displacement by other molecules. Here, we describe a detailed protocol to identify small molecules capable of targeting p53-MDM2/MDMX interactions using a fluorescence polarization assay with Rhodamine-labeled p53 ...

Intracellular transport of membrane organelles occurs along microtubules (MTs) and actin filaments (AFs). Although transport along each type of the cytoskeletal tracks is well characterized, the switching between the two types of transport is poorly understood because it cannot be observed directly in living cells. To gain insight into the regulation of the switching of membrane organelles betw...