When a polymer solution with volatile solvent is exposed to open air, an elastic layer (called a skin) is often formed at the surface of the solution due to evaporation of the solvent. After such a skin is formed, further extraction of the solvent from the solution caused by evaporation has generally been considered to reduce the pressure in the solution. We have found that, in PMMA/acetone dro...

We explore experimentally the fluidization of vertically agitated polymethylmethacrylate spheres wetted by liquid 4He . By controlling the temperature around the lambda point, we change the properties of the wetting liquid from a normal fluid (helium I) to a superfluid (helium II). For wetting by helium I, the critical acceleration for fluidization (Gamma_{c}) shows a steep increase close to th...

Dynamic crack propagation drives catastrophic solid failures. In many amorphous brittle materials, sufficiently fast crack growth involves small-scale, high-frequency microcracking damage localized near the crack tip. The ultrafast dynamics of microcrack nucleation, growth, and coalescence is inaccessible experimentally and fast crack propagation was therefore studied only as a macroscale avera...

A reply to the comment by Jiménez et al. directed to the paper of "Experiments on PMMA model to predict the impact of corneal refractive surgery on corneal shape" by Dorronsoro et al., Opt. Express, 14, 6142-6156 (2006).

Local segmental relaxation properties of poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) of varying molecular weight are measured by dielectric spectroscopy and analyzed in combination with the equation of state obtained from PVT measurements. Significant variations of glass transition temperature and fragility with molecular weight are observed. In accord with the general properties of glass-forming materials...

A photochromic diarylethene was found to crystallize rapidly from the amorphous state in poly(methyl methacrylate) by heating at 130 degrees C. The diarylethene amorphous film was successfully patterned to form microcrystals upon ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation through a photomask, showing a high resolution as good as approximately 4 microm under optimal conditions.

A stencil lithography technique has been developed to fabricate organic-material-based electronic devices with sub-micron resolution. Suspended polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) membranes were used as shadow masks for defining organic channels and top electrodes. Arrays of pentacene field effect transistors (FETs) with various channel lengths from 50 μm down to 500 nm were successfully produced fro...

We report the electrochemical characterisation of well-defined graphene samples, prepared by mechanical exfoliation. Mechanical exfoliation is the method of choice for high purity graphene samples, despite the inherent complexity of the approach and the small scale of the resultant flakes. However, one important, yet presently unclear area, is the role of adsorbates such as processing residue, ...

We had accomplished recording and readout of bit patterns by two-photon 3D optical storage technology using a new photochromic diarylethene, 1,2-bis(2-methyl-5-methylene-n-butylamido-thien-3-yl) perfluorocyclopentene (BMMBTP), as memory medium. The photochromic reaction, both in solution and in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) amorphous film, and fluorescence property of BMMBTP were investigate...

We compare the characteristics of dew at nearly the same latitude (42° 45° N) for the Mediterranean island of Corsica (Ajaccio, France) and two continental locations (Bordeaux, France, Atlantic coastal area; Grenoble, France, Alpine valley). Dew amount was measured on a horizontal reference plate made of Polymethylmethacrylate (Plexiglas) and placed at 1 m above the ground. Data are correlated ...