Chien-g Chen

Probing Hydrophilic Interface of Solid/Liquid-Water by Nanoultrasonics

Despite the numerous devoted studies, water at solid interfaces remains puzzling. An ongoing debate concerns the nature of interfacial water at a hydrophilic surface, whether it is more solid-like, ice-like, or liquid-like. To answer this question, a complete picture of the distribution of the water molecule structure and molecular interactions has to be obtained in a non-invasive way and on an ultrafast time scale. We developed a new experimental technique that extends the classical acoustic technique to the molecular level. Using nanoacoustic waves with a femtosecond pulsewidth and an ångström resolution to noninvasively diagnose the hydration structure distribution at ambient solid/water interface, we performed a complete mapping of the viscoelastic properties and of the density in the whole interfacial water region at hydrophilic surfaces. Our results suggest that water in the interfacial region possesses mixed properties and that the different pictures obtained up to now can be unified. Moreover, we discuss the effect of the interfacial water structure on the abnormal thermal transport properties of solid/liquid interfaces.

In vivo metabolic imaging of insulin with multiphoton fluorescence of human insulin-Au nanodots.

Functional human insulin-Au nanodots (NDs) are synthesized for the in vivo imaging of insulin metabolism. Benefiting from its efficient red to near infrared fluorescence, deep tissue subcellular uptake of insulin-Au NDs can be clearly resolved through a least-invasive harmonic generation and two-photon fluorescence (TPF) microscope. In vivo investigations on mice ear and ex vivo assays on human fat tissues conclude that cells with rich insulin receptors have higher uptake of administrated insulin. Interestingly, the insulin-Au NDs can even permeate into lipid droplets (LDs) of adipocytes. Using this newly discovered metabolic phenomenon of insulin, it is found that enlarged adipocytes in type II diabetes mice have higher adjacent/LD concentration contrast with small-sized ones in wild type mice. For human clinical samples, the epicardial adipocytes of patients with diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) also show elevated adjacent/LD concentration contrast. As a result, human insulin-Au nanodots provide a new approach to explore subcellular insulin metabolism in model animals or patients with metabolic or cardiovascular diseases.

Magnitude-tunable sub-THz shear phonons in a non-polar GaN multiple-quantum-well p-i-n diode

Coherent transverse acoustic phonons are optically generated and detected through the piezoelectric coupling between the build-in electric fields and shear strains of a non-polar GaN multiple quantum wells embedded in a p-n junction. By optical transient transmission change measurement, the phonon frequency is observed to be 0.4 THz which corresponds to a wavelength of 12.5 nm, the periodicity of the multiple quantum wells, and the estimated phonon velocity corresponds to the transverse acoustic phonon velocity in GaN. Moreover, we can magnify the driving amplitude of the generated shear phonons by increasing the reverse bias of the p-i-n diode.

Efficient excitation of guided acoustic waves in semiconductor nanorods through external metallic acoustic transducer

We demonstrate that guided acoustic waves inside a nanorod can be excited through an external metallic acoustic transducer. By attaching gold nanodisks on top of GaAs nanorods, the femtosecond optical excitation on the external acoustic transducer enables the generation of guided acoustic waves in the rods. The propagation behavior and mode shape of the observed guided acoustic waves are analyzed. These observations would not only lead to the development of superior external transducers for acoustic imaging, but also provide an experimental system for the study of the acoustic phonon transport behavior in nanorods and nanowires.

Light Enhancement of Si-Nanocrystals-Embedded SiOx film on Silicon-on-Insulator Substrate

We reported the light enhancement obtained from a Si-nanocrystals-embedded SiOx film on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and Si substrates in visible light range. A strong emission from the SOI substrate was observed due to the better optical confinement. We also compare the vertical distribution of the electric field in vertical direction of the two structures.

Light Emission Enhancement of GaN-Based Photonic Crystal With Ultraviolet AlN/AlGaN Distributed Bragg Reflector

In this study, we demonstrated two-dimensional (2-D) photonic crystal band-edge coupling operation in the ultraviolet wavelength range. The light extraction enhancement was obtained from the photonic crystal structure with an ultraviolet AlN/AlGaN distributed Bragg reflector (UVDBR). The DBR provides a high reflectivity of 85%with15-nmstopbandwidth.Afivefold enhance- ment in photoluminescence emission was also achieved compared with the emission from the unpatterned area on the same sample at 374 nm wavelength. We also study the photonic crystal band- edge coupling with finite-difference time-domain and plane-wave expansion methods.