18-Crown-6 Coordinated Metal Halides with Bright Luminescence and Nonlinear Optical Effects.

The crown-ether coordination compounds Zn(18-crown-6), Eu(18-crown-6) (: Cl, Br, I), MnI(18-crown-6), MnCl(18-crown-6), MnI(18-crown-6), and MnI(18-crown-6) are obtained by ionic-liquid-based synthesis. Whereas (18-crown-6) (: Zn, Eu) show conventional structural motives, MnCl(18-crown-6), MnI(18-crown-6), and MnI(18-crown-6) exhibit unusual single Mn tetrahedra coordinated to the crown-ether complex. Surprisingly, some compounds show outstanding photoluminescence.

Halogenated Terephthalic Acid "Antenna Effects" in Lanthanide-SURMOF Thin Films.

Lanthanide-based crystalline coatings have a great potential for energy-conversion devices, but until now luminescent surface-anchored materials were difficult to fabricate. Thin films, called lanthanides surface-mounted metal-organic frameworks (SURMOFs) with tetrasubstituted halide (fluorine, chlorine, and bromine) terephthalic acid derivative linkers as a basic platform for optical devices, exhibit a high quantum yield of fluorescence visible to the naked eyes under ambient light. We show that we can tune the luminescent properties in thin films by halide substitution, which affords control over the molecular structure of the material.

Intensely Photoluminescent Diamidophosphines of the Alkaline-Earth Metals, Aluminum, and Zinc.

The positively charged and weakly polarizable s-block metals commonly do not usually have phosphine ligands in molecular complexes. Herein, we report mono- and dinuclear small diamidophosphine complexes of the alkaline-earth metals Mg, Ca, and Sr, which were prepared from simple precursors and a phosphine-functionalized diamine ligand N,N-bis(2-(diphenyl-phosphino)phenyl)ethane-1,2-diamine (PNHNHP). The alkaline-earth metal based complexes [(PNNP)Mg] and [(PNNP)M(thf) ] (M=Ca, Sr), exhibit unusual coordination spheres and show bright fluorescence, both in the solid state and in solution.

Photodiode-based cutting interruption sensor for near-infrared lasers.

We report on a photodiode-based sensor system to detect cutting interruptions during laser cutting with a fiber laser. An InGaAs diode records the thermal radiation from the process zone with a ring mirror and optical filter arrangement mounted between a collimation unit and a cutting head. The photodiode current is digitalized with a sample rate of 20 kHz and filtered with a Chebyshev Type I filter.

Dissociating a common working memory network from different neural substrates of phonological and spatial stimulus processing.

Positron emission tomography was used to investigate common versus specific cortical regions for the maintenance of spatial versus phonological information in working memory (WM). Group and single-subject analyses of regional cerebral blood flow during a new 2 x 2 factorial n-back task were performed. Eight subjects had to memorize either phonological features or the location of serially presented syllables.