Using 334-nm light, we demonstrate side writing of Bragg gratings with an index change of ~10(-4) in germanium-doped fibers. No hydrogen loading of the fibers was required. These gratings have the same temperature stability as gratings fabricated with 240-nm light. Our results suggest that photoionization is not needed for formation of gratings in Ge-doped glass. We observe an enhancement of the 334-nm photosensitivity in boron-codoped fibers and suggest that B facilitates a structural transformation of the glass.

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We report on a recently developed superior ITO-alternative transparent conductor, based on metal mesh technology. Trademarked by Rolith, Inc as NanoWeb ® , metal mesh has the narrowest lines on the market (< 1 micron), which assures complete invisibility of the mesh under the most strict illumination conditions. It has also removed the necessity to optimize metal mesh design for each display structure, since it does not create a visible Moiré fringes, as do other metal mesh conductors on the market. We report also on "best-in-class" optical, electrical and mechanical performance of NanoWeb conductor fabricated on glass plates and PET films.

We describe a programmable microfluidic system with onboard pumps and valves that has the ability to process reaction volumes in the sub-microlitre to hundred microlitre range. The flexibility of the architecture is demonstrated with a commercial molecular biology protocol for mRNA amplification, implemented without significant modification. The performance of the microchip system is compared to conventional bench processing at each stage of the multistep protocol, and DNA microarrays are used to assess the quality and performance of bench- and microchip-amplified RNA. The results show that the microchip system reactions are similar to bench control reactions at each step, and that the microchip- and bench-derived amplified RNAs are virtually indistinguishable in differential microarray analyses.

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