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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (54 results)

  • Article
  • Peer Reviewed
LBL Publications (2008)

Mechanically hard ha-C and soft sa-C amorphous carbon films of 2.9 and 2.2 g cm-3 approximate densities were prepared by filtered cathodic arc deposition and analyzed by near-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy NEXAFS and extended x-ray absorption spectroscopy EXAFS to determine their structure. The analysis observed an insignificant level of pi bond conjugation in both kind of films. EXAFS distinguished two types of atomic environments in them: one semiordered with well defined bond lengths, and the other with so strong bond disorder that its contribution to EXAFS was undetectable. The proportion of atoms in the semiordered atomic environments was of less than 40percent in both films. Their bond lengths were similar to those of diamond in the ha-C films and to graphite in the sa-C. NEXAFS spectra analysis was based on the linear relation between sigma* energy and bond length. It served to quantify the proportion of sp3 bonded atoms in a-C, to deduce the average bond length of the atoms undetected by EXAFS, and to determine the level of bond conjugation in the films. The sp3 concentration estimated with the proposed method was of 44percent in the ha-C films and 10percent in the sa-C films. These values were consistent with the EXAFS results, but disagreed with those obtained based on the traditional pi*/sigma* intensity ratio method which overestimated sp3 concentrations. Annealing of the ha-C films up to its almost complete graphitization caused a gradual reduction in bond length of the semiordered environments with no differentiation between two phases, diamondlike and graphitelike, at any temperature. This result support models that explain sp3 bond promotion in a-C as caused by the high compressive stress attained by a strongly disordered sp2 dense structure during film deposition.

    Cover page: The structure of a-C: What NEXAFS and EXAFS see
    • Thesis
    • Peer Reviewed
    UC Davis Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2022)

    Metamaterial absorbers are devices made from arrays of subwavelength structures used to manipulate electromagnetic radiation incident upon them and they are becoming increasingly important with the implementation of the internet of things and the ubiquity of sensors present in everyday life. This research presents experimental methods to measure the performance of micro and nano electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) produced by our research group. A series of simulations were performed using COMSOL, Ansys HFSS, and Python to provide predictions of their performance. An experimental LabVIEW setup is also presented to measure the performance of a plasmonic piezoelectric NEMS resonator, while various MEMS absorbers were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Various considerations are presented for the materials used in the production of these devices, and their application to use in the sensing of biological and gaseous systems is also discussed. The experimental measurements provided here confirm their potential application as low cost, high resolution, uncooled detectors.

      Cover page: Design Considerations and Experimental Characterization of Plasmonic Metamaterial Absorbers for Selective Infrared Sensing
      • Article
      Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2002)

      The origin of the magnetic anisotropy in a very disordered Fe-Si alloy has been investigated. The alloy containing 40 percent at. Si was prepared in the form of a thin film in a DC magnetron sputtering chamber. Structural disorder was obtained from Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure spectroscopy. The uniformity and lack of inhomogeneities at a microscopic level was checked by measuring their transverse magnetic susceptibility and hysteresis loops. The orbital component of the magnetic moment was measured by X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism spectroscopy. The orbital moment was extraordinary high, 0.4mB. Such a high value contrasted with the relatively small uniaxial anisotropy energy of the thin film (2kJ/m3). This suggests that the cause of the magnetic anisotropy in this alloy was a small degree of correlation in the orientation of the local orbital moments along a preferential direction.

        Cover page: Understanding the magnetic anisotropy in Fe-Si amorphous alloys
        • Article
        • Peer Reviewed
        UC Davis Previously Published Works (2019)
        This article addresses the analysis and design of nonreciprocal filters based on time-modulated resonators. We analytically show that time modulating a resonator leads to a set of harmonic resonators composed of the unmodulated lumped elements plus a frequency-invariant element that accounts for differences in the resonant frequencies. We then demonstrate that harmonic resonators of different orders are coupled through nonreciprocal admittance inverters, whereas harmonic resonators of the same order couple with the admittance inverter coming from the unmodulated filter network. This coupling topology provides useful insights to understand and quickly design nonreciprocal filters and permits their characterization using an asynchronously tuned coupled resonators network together with the coupling matrix formalism. Two designed filters, of orders three and four, are experimentally demonstrated using quarter wavelength resonators implemented in microstrip technology and terminated by a varactor on one side. The varactors are biased using coplanar waveguides integrated into the ground plane of the device. Measured results are found to be in good agreement with numerical results, validating the proposed theory.
          Cover page: Coupling Matrix Representation of Nonreciprocal Filters Based on Time-Modulated Resonators
          • Article
          • Peer Reviewed
          UC Berkeley Previously Published Works (2017)
          A number of microtubule (MT)-stabilizing agents (MSAs) have demonstrated or predicted potential as anticancer agents, but a detailed structural basis for their mechanism of action is still lacking. We have obtained high-resolution (3.9-4.2Å) cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) reconstructions of MTs stabilized by the taxane-site binders Taxol and zampanolide, and by peloruside, which targets a distinct, non-taxoid pocket on β-tubulin. We find that each molecule has unique distinct structural effects on the MT lattice structure. Peloruside acts primarily at lateral contacts and has an effect on the "seam" of heterologous interactions, enforcing a conformation more similar to that of homologous (i.e., non-seam) contacts by which it regularizes the MT lattice. In contrast, binding of either Taxol or zampanolide induces MT heterogeneity. In doubly bound MTs, peloruside overrides the heterogeneity induced by Taxol binding. Our structural analysis illustrates distinct mechanisms of these drugs for stabilizing the MT lattice and is of relevance to the possible use of combinations of MSAs to regulate MT activity and improve therapeutic potential.
            • Article
            • Peer Reviewed
            UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2019)
            It has been proposed that one of the mechanisms of taxane-site ligand-mediated tubulin activation is modulation of the structure of a switch element (the M-loop) from a disordered form in dimeric tubulin to a folded helical structure in microtubules. Here, we used covalent taxane-site ligands, including cyclostreptin, to gain further insight into this mechanism. The crystal structure of cyclostreptin-bound tubulin reveals covalent binding to βHis229, but no stabilization of the M-loop. The capacity of cyclostreptin to induce microtubule assembly compared to other covalent taxane-site agents demonstrates that the induction of tubulin assembly is not strictly dependent on M-loop stabilization. We further demonstrate that most covalent taxane-site ligands are able to partially overcome drug resistance mediated by βIII-tubulin (βIII) overexpression in HeLa cells, and compare their activities to pironetin, an interfacial covalent inhibitor of tubulin assembly that displays invariant growth inhibition in these cells. Our findings suggest a relationship between a diminished interaction of taxane-site ligands with βIII-tubulin and βIII tubulin-mediated drug resistance. This supports the idea that overexpression of βIII increases microtubule dynamicity by counteracting the enhanced microtubule stability promoted by covalent taxane-site binding ligands.
              Cover page: Crystal Structure of the Cyclostreptin-Tubulin Adduct: Implications for Tubulin Activation by Taxane-Site Ligands.
              • Article
              • Peer Reviewed
              UC San Diego Previously Published Works (2016)

              Objective

              To describe the frequency of myocardial infarction (MI) prior to the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and within the first 2 years of follow-up.

              Methods

              The systemic lupus international collaborating clinics (SLICC) atherosclerosis inception cohort enters patients within 15 months of SLE diagnosis. MIs were reported and attributed on a specialised vascular event form. MIs were confirmed by one or more of the following: abnormal ECG, typical or atypical symptoms with ECG abnormalities and elevated enzymes (≥2 times upper limit of normal), or abnormal stress test, echocardiogram, nuclear scan or angiogram. Descriptive statistics were used.

              Results

              31 of 1848 patients who entered the cohort had an MI. Of those, 23 patients had an MI prior to SLE diagnosis or within the first 2 years of disease. Of the 23 patients studied, 60.9% were female, 78.3% were Caucasian, 8.7% black, 8.7% Hispanic and 4.3% other. The mean age at SLE diagnosis was 52.5±15.0 years. Of the 23 MIs that occurred, 16 MIs occurred at a mean of 6.1±7.0 years prior to diagnosis and 7 occurred within the first 2 years of follow-up. Risk factors associated with early MI in univariate analysis are male sex, Caucasian, older age at diagnosis, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, family history of MI and smoking. In multivariate analysis only age (OR=1.06 95% CI 1.03 to 1.09), hypertension (OR=5.01, 95% CI 1.38 to 18.23), hypercholesterolaemia (OR=4.43, 95% CI 1.51 to 12.99) and smoking (OR=7.50, 95% CI 2.38 to 23.57) remained significant risk factors.

              Conclusions

              In some patients with lupus, MI may develop even before the diagnosis of SLE or shortly thereafter, suggesting that there may be a link between autoimmune inflammation and atherosclerosis.
                Cover page: Cardiovascular events prior to or early after diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus in the systemic lupus international collaborating clinics cohort
                • Article
                • Peer Reviewed
                LBL Publications (2016)
                The NEXT experiment aims to observe the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe in a high-pressure xenon gas TPC using electroluminescence (EL) to amplify the signal from ionization. One of the main advantages of this technology is the possibility to reconstruct the topology of events with energies close to Qββ. This paper presents the first demonstration that the topology provides extra handles to reject background events using data obtained with the NEXT-DEMO prototype. Single electrons resulting from the interactions of 22Na 1275 keV gammas and electronpositron pairs produced by conversions of gammas from the 228Th decay chain were used to represent the background and the signal in a double beta decay. These data were used to develop algorithms for the reconstruction of tracks and the identification of the energy deposited at the end-points, providing an extra background rejection factor of 24.3 ± 1.4 (stat.)%, while maintaining an efficiency of 66.7 ± 1.% for signal events.[Figure not available: see fulltext.]
                  Cover page: First proof of topological signature in the high pressure xenon gas TPC with electroluminescence amplification for the NEXT experiment
                  • Article
                  • Peer Reviewed
                  LBL Publications (2018)
                  The NEXT-White (NEW) detector is currently the largest radio-pure high-pressure xenon gas time projection chamber with electroluminescent readout in the world. It has been operating at Laboratorio Subterr'aneo de Canfranc (LSC) since October 2016. This paper describes the calibrations performed using 83mKr decays during a long run taken from March to November 2017 (Run II). Krypton calibrations are used to correct for the finite drift-electron lifetime as well as for the dependence of the measured energy on the event transverse position which is caused by variations in solid angle coverage both for direct and reflected light and edge effects. After producing calibration maps to correct for both effects we measure an excellent energy resolution for 41.5 keV point-like deposits of (4.553 ± 0.010 (stat) ± 0.324 (sys))% FWHM in the full chamber and (3.804 ± 0.013 (stat) ± 0.112 (sys))% FWHM in a restricted fiducial volume. Using naive 1/E scaling, these values translate into resolutions of (0.5916 ± 0.0014 (stat) ± 0.0421 (sys))% FWHM and (0.4943 ± 0.0017 (stat) ± 0.0146 (sys))% FWHM at the Qββ energy of xenon double beta decay (2458 keV), well within range of our target value of 1%.
                    • Article
                    • Peer Reviewed
                    LBL Publications (2017)
                    Xe–CO2 mixtures are important alternatives to pure xenon in Time Projection Chambers (TPC) based on secondary scintillation (electroluminescence) signal amplification with applications in the important field of rare event detection such as directional dark matter, double electron capture and double beta decay detection. The addition of CO2 to pure xenon at the level of 0.05–0.1% can reduce significantly the scale of electron diffusion from 10 mm/m to 2.5 mm/m, with high impact on the discrimination efficiency of the events through pattern recognition of the topology of primary ionization trails. We have measured the electroluminescence (EL) yield of Xe–CO2 mixtures, with sub-percent CO2 concentrations. We demonstrate that the EL production is still high in these mixtures, 70% and 35% relative to that produced in pure xenon, for CO2 concentrations around 0.05% and 0.1%, respectively. The contribution of the statistical fluctuations in EL production to the energy resolution increases with increasing CO2 concentration, being smaller than the contribution of the Fano factor for concentrations below 0.1% CO2.
                      Cover page: Secondary scintillation yield of xenon with sub-percent levels of CO2 additive for rare-event detection
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