Microelectrode arrays (MEAs) are designed to monitor and/or stimulate extracellularly neuronal activity. However, the biomechanical and structural mismatch between current MEAs and neural tissues remains a challenge for neural interfaces. This article describes a material strategy to prepare neural electrodes with improved mechanical compliance that relies on thin metal film electrodes embedded in polymeric substrates. The electrode impedance of micro-electrodes on polymer is comparable to that of MEA on glass substrates. Furthermore, MEAs on plastic can be flexed and rolled offering improved structural interface with brain and nerves in vivo.MEAs on elastomer can be stretched reversibly and provide in vitro unique platforms to simultaneously investigate the electrophysiological of neural cells and tissues to mechanical stimulation. Adding mechanical compliance to MEAs is a promising vehicle for robust and reliable neural interfaces.

Neural interfaces are implanted devices that couple the nervous system to electronic circuitry. They are intended for long term use to control assistive technologies such as muscle stimulators or prosthetics that compensate for loss of function due to injury. Here we present a novel design of interface for peripheral nerves. Recording from axons is complicated by the small size of extracellular potentials and the concentration of current flow at nodes of Ranvier. Confining axons to microchannels of ~100 µm diameter produces amplified potentials that are independent of node position. After implantation of microchannel arrays into rat sciatic nerve, axons regenerated through the channels forming 'mini-fascicles', each typically containing ~100 myelinated fibres and one or more blood vessels. Regenerated motor axons reconnected to distal muscles, as demonstrated by the recovery of an electromyogram and partial prevention of muscle atrophy. Efferent motor potentials and afferent signals evoked by muscle stretch or cutaneous stimulation were easily recorded from the mini-fascicles and were in the range of 35-170 µV. Individual motor units in distal musculature were activated from channels using stimulus currents in the microampere range. Microchannel interfaces are a potential solution for applications such as prosthetic limb control or enhancing recovery after nerve injury.

A thin Co/Cu/Permalloy (Ni80Fe20) pseudo-spin-valve structure is sandwiched between superconducting Nb contacts. When the current is passed perpendicular to the plane of the film a Josephson critical current (IC) is observed at 4.2 K, in addition to a magnetoresistance (MR) of ∼ 0.5 % at high bias. The hysteresis loop of the spin-valve structure can be cycled to modulate the zero field IC of the junction in line with the MR measurements. These modulations of resistance and IC occur both smoothly and sharply with the applied field. For each type of behaviour there is a strong correlation between shape of the MR loops and the IC modulation. PACS numbers: 74.50+r, 75.47.De, 85.25.Cp,

No abstract

Although colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) materials exhibit large changes in electrical resistance (up to 106%), large magnetic fields (several tesla) must be applied. To obtain a sizeable low-field effect (<102% in several millitesla), it is necessary to incorporate structural discontinuities such as grain boundaries, or other types of interfaces. The potential for applications, however, remains limited because structural discontinuities increase electrical resistance by several orders of magnitude and hence create noise. Moreover, it has proven to be difficult to fabricate structural discontinuities reproducibly. We have attempted to investigate discontinuities that are purely magnetic via transport measurements through a precisely controlled number of magnetic domain walls of known area in thin film devices of the ferromagnetic CMR perovskite La0.7Ca0.3MnO3. A sharp low-field switching seen below ∼110 K is ascribed to the formation of a precise number of magnetic domain walls, each with resistance-area product 8×10−14 Ω m2 at 77 K. This is four orders of magnitude larger than expected, suggesting that the domain walls contain an additional structure. Our findings demonstrate that CMR devices are capable of low-noise low-field switching, and suggest the possibility of exploiting a hitherto unexpected intrinsic effect reproducibly and therefore commercially.

We have demonstrated that micro-channel electrode arrays with 100 microm x 100 microm cross-section channels support axon regeneration well, and that micro-channels of similar calibre and up to 5 mm long can support axon regeneration and vascularisation. They may be microfabricated using silicon, silicone, or polyimide and thin metal films to form 3-D bundles of long micro-channels. Arrays of "mini-nerves," i.e., miniature nerve fascicles with their own blood vessels, successfully grew through implants 0.5-5 mm long. Furthermore, guiding the regenerating nerve fibres into the small insulating channels allows for a significant increase of the extracellular (recordable) amplitude of action potentials, which promises considerable improvement for in vivo electrophysiology.

We have performed (voltage–current) V–I measurements on a thin film YBa2Cu3O7 4° [001] tilt low-angle grain boundary over an extensive range of temperatures and fields, verifying the presence of a linear characteristic. We report on the occurrence of the linear characteristic in its basic form and on the observation of V–I kinking into several, and in some cases numerous, linear segments. We interpret these findings in terms of a variation in the dissipative width at the grain boundary. Kinking from one linear V–I section to another of different gradient is described in terms of a change in the number of vortex rows being viscously channeled along the boundary.

No abstract