Improvement of output and lifetime is a problem for biofuel cells. A structure was adopted in which gelation mixed with agarose and fuel (fructose) was sandwiched by electrodes made of graphene-coated carbon fiber. The electrode surface not contacting the gel was exposed to air. In addition, grooves were added to the gel surface to further increase the oxygen supply. The power density of the fuel cell was examined in terms of the electrode area exposed to air. The output increased almost in proportion to the area of the electrode exposed to air. Optimization of the concentration of fuel, gel, and the amount of enzyme at the cathode were also examined. The maximum power density in the proposed system was approximately 121μW/cm2, an enhancement of approximately 2.5 times that in the case of using liquid fuel. For the power density after 24h, the fuel gel was superior to the fuel liquid.

The self-organized microwrinkles can serve as a surface alignment layer to align nematic liquid crystals, which is primarily based on the groove mechanism. The azimuthal anchoring energy is discussed and estimated from the groove topography and the actual twist angle in the twisted nematic cell.

This paper deals with the scattering of a TM plane wave from a periodic grating with single defect, of which position is known. The surface is perfectly conductive and made up with a periodic array of rectangular grooves and a defect where a groove is not formed. The scattered wave above grooves is written as a variation from the diffracted wave for the perfectly periodic case. Then, an integral equation for the scattering amplitude is obtained, which is solved numerically by use of truncation and the iteration method. The differential scattering cross section and the optical theorem are calculated in terms of the scattering amplitude and are illustrated in figures. It is found that incoherent Wood's anomaly appears at critical angles of scattering. The physical mechanisms of Wood's anomaly and incoherent Wood's anomaly are discussed in relation to the guided surface wave excited by the incident plane wave. It is concluded that incoherent Wood's anomaly is caused by the diffraction of the guided surface wave.

This paper deals with the scattering of transverse magnetic (TM) plane wave by a perfectly conductive surface made up of a periodic array of finite number of rectangular grooves. By the modal expansion method, the total scattering cross section pc is numerically calculated for several different numbers of grooves. It is then found that, when the groove depth is less than wavelenght, the total scattering cross section pc increases linearly proportional to the corrugation width W. But an exception takes place at a low grazing angle of incidence, where pc is proportional to Wα and the exponent α is less than 1. From these facts, it is concluded that the total scattering cross section pc must diverge but pc/W the total scattering cross section per unit surface must vanish at a low grazing limit when the number of grooves goes to infinity.

This paper deals with the scattering of TE plane wave from a periodic grating with single defect, of which position is known. The surface is perfectly conductive and made up with a periodic array of rectangular grooves and a defect where a groove is not formed. By use of the modal expansion method, the field inside grooves is expressed as a sum of guided modes with unknown amplitudes. The mode amplitudes are regarded as a sum of the base component and the perturbed component due to the defect, where the base component is the solution in case of the perfectly periodic grating. An equation for the base component is obtained in the first step. By use of the base component, a new equation for the perturbed component is derived in the second step. A new representation of the optical theorem, relating the total scattering cross section with the reduction of the scattering amplitude is obtained. Also, a single scattering approximation is proposed to express the scattered field. By use of truncation, we numerically obtain the base component and the perturbed component, in terms of which the total scattering cross section and the differential scattering cross section are calculated and illustrated in figures.

The diffraction of a transverse magnetic (TM) plane wave by a perfectly conductive surface made up of a periodic array of rectangular grooves is studied by the modal expansion method. It is found theoretically that the reflection coefficient approaches -1 but no diffraction takes place when the angle of incidence reaches a low grazing limit. Such singular behavior is shown analytically to hold for any finite values of the period, groove depth and groove width and is then demonstrated by numerical examples.

The present paper deals with the frequency-dependent finite difference time domain ((FD)2TD) method analysis of the light-beam diffraction from a land/groove recording phase-change (PC) disk model with a metal (Al or Au) reflective layer in order to improve the conventional analysis for PC optical disk models with a perfectly conducting reflective layer. The diffracted fields are numerically calculated for both recorded and non-recorded states of the recording layer, and the comparison of the detected signal characteristics between two states is discussed. The crosstalk between the recording marks on lands and grooves are evaluated and the optimum groove depth is examined for Al,Au and perfectly conducting layer models.

The present paper deals with the frequency-dependent finite difference time domain ((FD)2TD) method analysis of the light-beam scattering from a land/groove recording magneto-optical (MO) disk model with an Al reflective layer (ALRL) in order to improve the conventional analysis for MO disk models under the assumption of perfectly conducting reflective layer (PCRL). Numerical examples of main- and cross-polarized scattered fields and the phase difference between them are presented. We show the comparison of the scattering characteristics between ALRL and PCRL, and also examine the dependence of the cross talk of the readout signal due to adjacent recorded marks on both the recorded mark size and the depth of grooves.

Precise plastic V-grooved alignment parts for connecting single-mode optical fiber arrays to multi-port optical devices were successfully molded with a thermosetting resin by using a highly productive injection molding technique. The molded parts are two types of V-grooved blocks that are compatible with the size of optical devices having eight or twelve optical ports. Their dimensional accuracy must be better than 1 µm over the whole length of the V-grooves for efficient optical coupling. This strict requirement was satisfied using precisely processed molding tools with a specially chosen resin under optimum molding conditions. The feasibility of the optical alignment parts was assured by an evaluation of their loss characteristics and reliability in coupling single-mode fibers to 18 power splitters, where the average optical loss was 0.2 dB and the change in loss was less than 0.2 dB under a temperature cycling test and also under a damp heat test. These results show that plastic molded parts can be used for precise coupling of single-mode optical devices, and will lead to a breakthrough in innovation in the field of optical packaging.

Precise plastic V-grooved alignment parts for connecting single-mode optical fiber arrays to multi-port optical devices were successfully molded with a thermosetting resin by using a highly productive injection molding technique. The molded parts are two types of V-grooved blocks that are compatible with the size of optical devices having eight or twelve optical ports. Their dimensional accuracy must be better than 1 µm over the whole length of the V-grooves for efficient optical coupling. This strict requirement was satisfied using precisely processed molding tools with a specially chosen resin under optimum molding conditions. The feasibility of the optical alignment parts was assured by an evaluation of their loss characteristics and reliability in coupling single-mode fibers to 18 power splitters, where the average optical loss was 0.2 dB and the change in loss was less than 0.2 dB under a temperature cycling test and also under a damp heat test. These results show that plastic molded parts can be used for precise coupling of single-mode optical devices, and will lead to a breakthrough in innovation in the field of optical packaging.

We demonstrate a very simple and compact optical transceiver diode module using a passive alignment on a silicon bench with a V-groove. The excess loss caused by the passive alignment of an optical transceiver diode and a flat-end optical fiber is only 0. 6 dB. A high coupling efficiency of -4. 3 dB is obtained. This results in a high responsivity with a wavelength- and polarization-independence of 0. 5 dB over a 70 nm wavelength range and in good laser performance.

An equivalent circuit for designing a coherent power combiner using a quasi-optical resonator has been developed. In the resonator, large numbers of devices (HEMT, HBT, etc. ) are arrayed two dimensionally and mounted on a surface of a metal grooved-mirror. A newly developed equivalent circuit for the resonator has been constructed using a transmission-line model. Experiments performed at Ku-band have shown that oscillation frequencies in a 33 HEMT array oscillator can be predicted with errors of less than 1% by using this equivalent circuit.

Computer circumstance have changed drastically, and larger capacity removable media is indispensable. Magneto-optical disk is promising candidate to satisfy computer user's needs. In this report, future perspective of high density magneto-optical recording technology is investigated.

A new self-holding optical switch that consists of an optical matrix board and a precision robot is proposed. Fabrication and evaluation of 33 optical matrix boards confirm the feasibility of large-size optical switching. Suppressing deviations in the groove position will realize lower loss optical matrix boards in the near future. The apparent roughness of the groove walls can be evaluated simply and effectively by measuring return loss with an interferometric optical-time-domain reflectometer.

We studied the supply and removal of oil to and from a thin groove and the consequent insertion loss, aiming at matrix optical waveguide switches that utilize optical reflection and transmission effects at the groove. A robot precisely controlled the position of the removal nozzle and the supply needle by a vision servo. The optimum position for the removal nozzle was at the entrance of the groove to a circular oil pool, and the positioning margin was 10-15µm around the optimum position. The on-off ratio of the switching light power at the optimum position was about 30dB. The removal time was proportional to the kinetic viscosity of the oil, and the optimum height of the removal nozzle was independent of the kinetic viscosity of the oil. An analysis of the insertion loss revealed that the main factor in the loss at the reflection is the tilt of the groove wall.