Hyun Mo Cho

Electro-optic characteristics of 4-domain vertical alignment nematic liquid crystal display with interdigital electrode

We have fabricated a vertically aligned 4-domain nematic liquid crystal display cell with thin film transistor. Unlike the conventional method constructing 4-domain, i.e., protrusion and surrounding electrode which needs additional processes, in this study the pixel design forming 4-domain with interdigital electrodes is suggested. In the device, one pixel is divided into two parts. One part has a horizontal electric field in the vertical direction and the other part has a horizontal one in the horizontal direction. Such fields in the horizontal and vertical direction drive the liquid crystal director to tilt down in four directions. In this article, the electro-optic characteristics of cells with 2 and 4 domain have been studied. The device with 4 domain shows faster response time than normal twisted-nematic and in-plane switching cells, wide viewing angle with optical compensation film, and more stable color characteristics than 2-domain vertical alignment cell with similar structure.

Half-aperture shearing interferometer for collimation testing

A half-aperture shearing interferometer for collimation testing is proposed. It consists of a wedge plate, two plane mirrors, and two baffles. Detailed analyses for three configurations of this system are presented.

Continuous immunosensing of myoglobin in human serum as potential companion diagnostics technique

To attain early diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with enhanced accuracy, continuous immunosensing has been investigated to measure myoglobin concentration in real-time. To this end, a capture antibody showing rapid reaction kinetics was immobilized on the surface of a surface plasmon resonance sensor. Three problems associated with the continuous sensing of myoglobin in human serum needed to be overcome: non-specific binding of the analyte, aggregation of serum components, and drift of the sensor baseline. Non-specific binding was controlled by pretreating the sample with a detergent mixture consisting of sodium dodecyl sulfate and P20, and adjusting the micelle size and net charge. Aggregation was managed by inactivating certain serum constituents through chelation of heavy metals. Baseline drift perceived in the sensorgram was able to be corrected by compensating for the slope calculated by a linear regression. Under the optimal conditions, the continuous sensor reproducibly traced the varying doses of myoglobin over about 8h with periodic one-point calibration every 3h. The dose-response curve of the sensor was linear with acceptable variations (CVs<4.91% in average) between the detection limit (31.0 ng/mL) and about 2000 ng/mL in the arithmetic scale (R(2)>0.98), covering the clinical concentration range. The immunosensor performance correlated with the Pathfast reference system (R(2)>0.98) and analytical consistency could be maintained for longer than a month if appropriately calibrated. Such immunosensing could be used as a companion diagnostic means along with real-time electrocardiographic measurement, significantly enhancing the sensitivity of AMI diagnosis and thereby enabling treatment at an early stage.

Study of Cell-Matrix Adhesion Dynamics Using Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging Ellipsometry

The interaction of cells with extracellular matrix, termed cell-matrix adhesions, importantly governs multiple cellular phenomena. Knowledge of the functional dynamics of cell-matrix adhesion could provide critical clues for understanding biological phenomena. We developed surface plasmon resonance imaging ellipsometry (SPRIE) to provide high contrast images of the cell-matrix interface in unlabeled living cells. To improve the contrast and sensitivity, the null-type imaging ellipsometry technique was integrated with an attenuated total reflection coupler. We verified that the imaged area of SPRIE was indeed a cell-matrix adhesion area by confocal microscopy imaging. Using SPRIE, we demonstrated that three different cell types exhibit distinct features of adhesion. SPRIE was applied to diverse biological systems, including during cell division, cell migration, and cell-cell communication. We imaged the cell-matrix anchorage of mitotic cells, providing the first label-free imaging of this interaction to our knowledge. We found that cell-cell communication can alter cell-matrix adhesion, possibly providing direct experimental evidence for cell-cell communication-mediated changes in cell adhesion. We also investigated shear-stress-induced adhesion dynamics in real time. Based on these data, we expect that SPRIE will be a useful methodology for studying the role of cell-matrix adhesion in important biological phenomena.

Ellipsometric examination of optical property of the Si–SiO2 interface using the s-wave antireflection

Using variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry and introducing two models (a three-phase and a two-film model), we examined the optical properties of thermally grown SiO2 layers on Si, with special focus on phase difference Δ and amplitude ratio tan ψ for the s and p waves. We found an abrupt flip of the cos Δ curve from which the s and p-wave antireflection conditions were determined and evaluated the interface sensitivities for cos Δ and tan ψ based on the three-phase (ambient-oxide substrate) and the two-film (ambient-oxide-interlayer substrate) model. The sensitivities for cos Δ and tan ψ were shown to have maximum values at the same angle of incidence and photon energy in the s-wave antireflection condition. By fitting the variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry data measured in the s-wave antireflection condition, the thickness of the Si–SiO2 interface was determined as 0.784±0.003 nm for a 52-nm thick oxide sample and 0.764±0.002 nm for a 150-nm-thick oxide one. We also found that the effective ...

Snapshot phase sensitive scatterometry based on double-channel spectral carrier frequency concept.

Spectroscopic ellipsometry is one of the most important measurement schemes used in the optical nano-metrology for not only thin film measurement but also nano pattern 3D structure measurement. In this paper, we propose a novel snap shot phase sensitive normal incidence spectroscopic ellipsometic scheme based on a double-channel spectral carrier frequency concept. The proposed method can provide both Ψ(λ) and Δ(λ) only by using two spectra acquired simultaneously through the double spectroscopic channels. We show that the proposed scheme works well experimentally by measuring a binary grating with nano size 3D structure. We claim that the proposed scheme can provide a snapshot spectroscopic ellipsometric parameter measurement capability with moderate accuracy.

Measurement of a long radius of curvature using a half-aperture bidirectional shearing interferometer

We describe a simple method for measuring the long radius of curvature by using a half-aperture bidirectional shearing interferometer. The method is based on the direct comparison of the fringe widths in the two fields. This is very convenient for quantitative interpretation of the fringes. Detailed analyses for optical arrangements and achievable accuracy are presented.

Angle-resolved annular data acquisition method for microellipsometry

An ellipsometric data acquisition method is introduced to measure the optical properties of sample. It is based on a microellipsometer hardware layout integrated a high numerical aperture objective lens, which is aligned in the normal direction of sample surface. This technique enables to achieve ellipsometric data at multiple incident angle with a sub-mum probe beam size, moreover real-time measurement is possible due to no moving parts. The experimental results of different SiO(2) thin film are demonstrated, also calibration technique is described.

Enhancement of biomolecular detection sensitivity by surface plasmon resonance ellipsometry

We present the application of ellipsometry to the phase measurement of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in biomolecular detection. In this configuration, the phase measurement gives a large enhancement of detection sensitivity in comparison to traditional SPR techniques. In this work, the experimental setup for SPR ellipsometry is based on both custom-built rotating analyzer ellipsometer and an imaging ellipsometer which are equipped with a SPR-cell and a flow system, respectively. We investigate the adequate thickness of the gold layer used for SPR cell and the resolution of the phase detection using two ellipsometric methods under the SPR condition. The rotating analyzer method yields higher sensitivity sufficient to detect changes in the effective thickness of biomolecular layers of less than 1 pm. In comparison to conventional SPR the simultaneous measurement of ellipsometric parameters, Δ and ψ, yields more information which is useful for quantitative analysis based on fitting theoretical solutions to experimental results.

Ultrasensitive, label-free detection of cardiac biomarkers with optical SIS sensor

Acute myocardial infarction (MI) is the leading cause of high mortality and morbidity rate worldwide, early and accurate diagnosis can increase the chances of survival. In this work, we report a simple, ultrasensitive, label-free, and high-throughput solution immersed silicon (SIS) immunosensor based on non-reflection condition (NRC) for p-polarized wave for early diagnosis of MI. SIS sensor chips are just a thin dielectric polymer layer on the silicon surface, which can be functionalized for specific application. At NRC, SIS sensors are extremely sensitive to the growing thickness of a bio-layer on the sensor surface while independent of refractive index change of the surrounding medium. Therefore, SIS signal is free from thermal noise, unlike surface plasmon resonance based sensor. Also, there is no need of reference signal which facilitates fast and accurate interaction measurement. Here, SIS technology is applied to tackle two issues in MI diagnosis: high sensitivity with the direct assay and the ability to measure in human serum. Myoglobin, creatine kinase-MB, and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) proteins were used as the MI biomarkers. We were able to measure over a broad concentration range with the detection limit of 5 and 10pg/ml for cTnI in PBS and blood serum, respectively. The response time is about 5min. This novel technique is a suitable candidate for cost effective point-of-care application.