Scaling infrared detectors-status and outlook.

The predicted 'Law 19' benchmark for HgCdTe photodiode performance established in 2019 is a milestone in the development of infrared (IR) detectors and make the dream of Elliott and colleagues, who in 1999 wrote thatthere is no fundamental obstacle to obtaining room temperature operation of photon detectors at room temperature with background-limited performance even in reduced fields of view(Elliottet al1999Appl. Phys. Lett.742881). This circumstance will make it possible to achieve in the near future the room-temperature IR arrays operation with high pixel density (small pixels) fully compatible with the background and diffraction-limited performance resulting from the system optics. The advent of smaller pixels also results in superior spatial and temperature resolutions of imaging systems. In megapixel imaging systems, the pixel dimension plays a crucial role in determining critical system attributes such as system size, weight, and power consumption. In the paper, the physical limitations of pixel size related to the aperture of the optics, which in turn is wavelength dependent, are described. Since the critical parameter of small pixels is quantum efficiency, more attention has been paid to enhancing the coupling of radiation to the detector. Then, the evaluation for assessing the figure-of-merit of different material systems (especially short wavelength IR colloidal quantum dots, both medium and long wavelength IR novel III-V material systems) relative to bulk HgCdTe alloys is considered. Of the various thermal detectors, particular attention has been focussed on bolometer arrays due to their largest share of the global commercial market. Also key challenges in realizing ultimate pixel dimensions in focal plane arrays design are presented for different material systems including dark current, pixel hybridization, pixel delineation, and unit cell readout capacity.

Electrical Properties of Midwave and Longwave InAs/GaSb Superlattices Grown on GaAs Substrates by Molecular Beam Epitaxy.

In the present work, we report on the in-plane electrical transport properties of midwave (MWIR) and longwave infrared (LWIR) InAs/GaSb type-II superlattices (T2SLs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system on GaAs (001) substrate. The huge lattice mismatch between the T2SL and GaAs substrate is reduced by the growth of GaSb buffer layer based on interfacial misfit array (IMF) technique. In order to compensate the strain in the InAs/GaSb T2SL, we utilized a special shutters sequence to get InSb-like and GaAs-like interfaces. It is found that the MWIR InAs/GaSb T2SL exhibits a p- and n-type conduction at low and high temperatures, respectively. Interestingly, the conduction change temperature is observed to be dependent on the growth temperature. On the other hand, LWIR T2SL conduction is dominated only by electrons. It is important to note that the dominant scattering mechanism in LWIR T2SL at low temperatures is the interface roughness scattering mechanism.

Challenges of small-pixel infrared detectors: a review.

In the last two decades, several new concepts for improving the performance of infrared detectors have been proposed. These new concepts particularly address the drive towards the so-called high operating temperature focal plane arrays (FPAs), aiming to increase detector operating temperatures, and as a consequence reduce the cost of infrared systems. In imaging systems with the above megapixel formats, pixel dimension plays a crucial role in determining critical system attributes such as system size, weight and power consumption (SWaP). The advent of smaller pixels has also resulted in the superior spatial and temperature resolution of these systems. Optimum pixel dimensions are limited by diffraction effects from the aperture, and are in turn wavelength-dependent. In this paper, the key challenges in realizing optimum pixel dimensions in FPA design including dark current, pixel hybridization, pixel delineation, and unit cell readout capacity are outlined to achieve a sufficiently adequate modulation transfer function for the ultra-small pitches involved. Both photon and thermal detectors have been considered. Concerning infrared photon detectors, the trade-offs between two types of competing technology-HgCdTe material systems and III-V materials (mainly barrier detectors)-have been investigated.

Variation of pKa in the N-terminal tyrosine side chain in octapeptide analogs of tendamistat influences alpha-amylase inhibition.

Peptide analogs of tendamistat were synthesized and analyzed for alpha-amylase inhibitory activity. The pK(a) of the N-terminal tyrosine was modified by incorporation of ring-substituted analogs, which alters hydrogen bonding capacity. K(i) values ranging from 70 to 524 microM generally increased with increasing pK(a), indicating a necessity for H-bond donor ability.

Association of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase with the plasma membrane of the intact human red blood cell.

Glycolytic enzymes have been observed to associate in vitro with membranes and cytoplasmic filaments in a variety of systems, but their distribution in vivo is contested. We have therefore examined the distribution of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3PD) in the intact human erythrocyte using indirect immunofluorescence and affinity-purified rabbit antibodies to G3PD. Antibody specificity was demonstrated by immunoblotting as well as immunofluorescence experiments with ghosts specifically depleted of and reconstituted with G3PD. Anti-G3PD immunolabeling experiments utilized both fixed whole cells and fixed cell suspensions infused with 2.3 M sucrose, frozen and thick-sectioned. In all experiments a two-step fixation protocol was employed which ensured that cytoplasmic hemoglobin was retained when cells were subjected to Triton X-100 permeabilization, the anti-genicity of G3PD was preserved, and antibody penetration was complete. We used mixtures of biotinylated affinity-purified antibodies to G3PD and dichlorotriazinylaminofluorescein-labeled, affinity-purified antibodies to hemoglobin, followed by rhodamine-streptavidin, in double-label experiments. In both whole and sectioned human erythrocytes, G3PD staining was predominantly membrane associated while hemoglobin staining was diffusely distributed throughout the cytoplasm. In isolated ghosts, some G3PD was tightly bound to the membrane and was resistant to elution with phosphate-buffered saline and NAD+/arsenate. However, in immunolabeled rat reticulocytes and erythrocytes G3PD was cytoplasmic. Nucleated human blood cells and platelets also exhibited cytoplasmic G3PD. In approximately 10% of the human erythrocyte population G3PD was also cytoplasmic. These cells were flatter in shape and exhibited strong cytoplasmic immunolabeling for hemoglobin which was sometimes concentrated along the cell membrane; possibly, these cells were late reticulocytes or early erythrocytes. We conclude that G3PD is preferentially associated with the plasma membrane of human erythrocytes in a specific fashion.

A plasma membrane integral sialoglycoprotein (Sgp 130) molecularly distinguishes nonjunctional dense plaque sites of microfilament attachment.

An integral sialoglycoprotein with Mr approximately 130,000 (Sgp 130) and highest expression in adult chicken gizzard smooth muscle has been recently identified as an excellent candidate for classification as a plasma membrane protein natively associated (directly or indirectly) with actin microfilaments (Rogalski, A.A., and S.J. Singer, 1985, J. Cell Biol., 101:785-801). In this study, the relative in situ distributions of the Sgp 130 integral species (a designation that also includes non-smooth muscle molecular forms) and the peripheral protein, vinculin, have been simultaneously revealed for the first time in selected cultured cells and tissues abundant in microfilament-membrane attachment sites, particularly, smooth and cardiac muscle. Specific antibody probes against Sgp 130 (mouse mAb 30B6) and vinculin (affinity-purified rabbit antibody) were used in double indirect immunofluorescent and immunoelectron microscopic experiments. In contrast to the widespread distributions of vinculin at microfilament-membrane attachment sites, Sgp 130 has been shown to exhibit striking site-specific variation in its abundancy levels in the plasma membrane. Sgp 130 and vinculin were found coincidentally concentrated at focal contact sites in cultured chick embryo fibroblasts and endothelial cells, membrane dense plaques of smooth muscle, and sarcolemma dense plaque sites overlying the Z line in cardiac muscle. However, at the fascia adherens junctional sites of cardiac muscle where vinculin is sharply confined, Sgp 130 was immunologically undetectable in both intact and EGTA-uncoupled tissue. This latter result was confirmed with immunoblotting experiments using isolated forms of the fascia adherens. The double immunolabeling studies of this report establish Sgp 130 as a major integral protein component of nonjunctional membrane dense plaque structures and raise the possibility that the 130-kD integral sialoglycoprotein (Sgp 130) and vinculin assume stable transmembrane associations at these particular microfilament-membrane attachment sites. Nonjunctional dense plaques are further suggested to be a molecularly distinct class of plasma membrane structures rather than a subgroup of adherens junctions. Our data also support a hypothesis that Sgp 130 is involved in plasma membrane force coupling events but not in junctional-related cell-cell coupling.

An integral glycoprotein associated with the membrane attachment sites of actin microfilaments.

An integral membrane protein associated with sites of microfilament-membrane attachment has been identified by a newly developed IgG1 monoclonal antibody. This antibody, MAb 30B6, was derived from hybridoma fusion experiments using intact mitotic cells of chick embryo fibroblasts as the immunization vehicle as well as the screening probe for cell surface antigens. In immunofluorescent experiments with fixed cells, MAb 30B6 surface labeling is uniquely correlated with microfilament distributions in the cleavage furrow region of dividing chick embryo fibroblasts and cardiac myocytes in culture. The MAb 30B6 antigen in addition is associated with microfilament-membrane attachment sites in interphase fibroblasts at the dorsal surface, the adhesion plaque region at the ventral surface, and at junction-like regions of cell-cell contact. It is also found co-localized with the membrane-dense plaques of smooth muscle. The MAb 30B6 antigen is expressed in a wide number of chicken cell types (particularly smooth muscle cells, platelets, and endothelial cells), but not in erythrocytes. Some of the molecular characteristics of the MAb 30B6 antigen have been determined from immunoblotting, immunoaffinity chromatography, immunoprecipitation, cell extraction, and charge shift electrophoresis experiments. It is an integral sialoglycoprotein with an apparent molecular mass of 130 kD (reduced form)/107 kD (nonreduced form) in SDS PAGE. Another prominent glycoprotein species with an apparent molecular mass of 175 kD (reduced form)/165 kD (nonreduced form) in SDS PAGE is co-isolated on MAb 30B6 affinity columns, but appears to be antigenically distinct since it is not recognized by MAb 30B6 in immunoblotting or immunoprecipitation experiments. By virtue of its surface distributions relative to actin microfilaments and its integral protein character, we propose that the MAb 30B6 antigen is an excellent candidate for the function of directly or indirectly anchoring microfilaments to the membrane.

Effect of microtubule assembly status on the intracellular processing and surface expression of an integral protein of the plasma membrane.

We studied the effects of changes in microtubule assembly status upon the intracellular transport of an integral membrane protein from the rough endoplasmic reticulum to the plasma membrane. The protein was the G glycoprotein of vesicular stomatitis virus in cells infected with the Orsay-45 temperature-sensitive mutant of the virus; the synchronous intracellular transport of the G protein could be initiated by a temperature shift-down protocol. The intracellular and surface-expressed G protein were separately detected and localized in the same cells at different times after the temperature shift, by double-immunofluorescence microscopic measurements, and the extent of sialylation of the G protein at different times was quantitated by immunoprecipitation and SDS PAGE of [35S]methionine-labeled cell extracts. Neither complete disassembly of the cytoplasmic microtubules by nocodazole treatment, nor the radical reorganization of microtubules upon taxol treatment, led to any perceptible changes in the rate or extent of G protein sialylation, nor to any marked changes in the rate or extent of surface appearance of the G protein. However, whereas in control cells the surface expression of G was polarized, at membrane regions in juxtaposition to the perinuclear compact Golgi apparatus, in cells with disassembled microtubules the surface expression of the G protein was uniform, corresponding to the intracellular dispersal of the elements of the Golgi apparatus. The mechanisms of transfer of integral proteins from the rough endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus, and from the Golgi apparatus to the plasma membrane, are discussed in the light of these observations, and compared with earlier studies of the intracellular transport of secretory proteins.

Associations of elements of the Golgi apparatus with microtubules.

The intracellular spatial relationships between elements of the Golgi apparatus (GA) and microtubules in interphase cells have been explored by double immunofluorescence microscopy. By using cultured cells infected with the temperature-sensitive Orsay-45 mutant of vesicular stomatitis virus and a temperature shift-down protocol, we visualized functional elements of the GA by immunolabeling of the G protein of the virus that was arrested in the GA during its intracellular passage to the plasma membrane 13 min after the temperature shift-down. Complete disassembly of the cytoplasmic microtubules by nocodazole at the nonpermissive temperature before the temperature shift led to the dispersal of the GA elements, from their normal compact perinuclear configuration close to the microtubule-organizing center (MTOC) into the cell periphery. Washout of the nocodazole that led to the reassembly of the microtubules from the MTOC also led to the recompaction of the GA elements to their normal configuration. During this recompaction process, GA elements were seen in close lateral apposition to microtubules. In cells treated with nocodazole followed by taxol, an MTOC developed, but most of the microtubules were free of the MTOC and were assembled into bundles in the cell periphery. Under these circumstances, the GA elements that had been dispersed into the cell periphery by the nocodazole treatment remained dispersed despite the presence of an MTOC. In cells treated directly with taxol, free microtubules were seen in the cytoplasm in widely different, bundled configurations from one cell to another, but, in each case, elements of the GA appeared to be associated with one of the two end regions of the microtubule bundles, and to be uncorrelated with the locations of the vimentin intermediate filaments in these cells. These results are interpreted to suggest two types of associations of elements of the GA with microtubules: one lateral, and the other (more stable) end-on. The end-on association is suggested to involve the minus-end regions of microtubules, and it is proposed that this accounts for the GA-MTOC association in normal cells.

Flagellar surface antigens in Euglena: immunological evidence for an external glycoprotein pool and its transfer to the regenerating flagellum.

Antibodies raised against the Sarkosyl-insoluble, major flagellar glycoprotein fraction, mastigonemes, were used to determine the source of flagellar surface glycoproteins and to define the general properties of flagellar surface assembly in Euglena. After suitable absorption, mastigoneme antiserum reacts with several specific mastigoneme glycoproteins but does not bind either to the other major flagellar glycoprotein, xyloglycorien, or to other Sarkosyl-soluble flagellar components. When Fab' fragments of this mastigoneme-specific antiserum were used in combination with a biotin-avidin secondary label, antigen was localized not only on the flagellum as previously described but also in the contiguous reservoir region. If deflagellated cells are reservoir pulse-labeled with Fab' antibody, this antibody appears subsequently on the newly regenerated flagellum. This chased antibody is uniformly distributed throughout the length of the flagellum and shows no preferred growth zone after visualization with either fluorescein or ferritin-conjugated secondary label. From these and tunicamycin inhibition experiments it is concluded that (a) a surface pool of at least some flagellar surface antigens is present in the reservoir membrane adjacent to the flagellum and that (b) the reservoir antigen pool is transferred to the flagellar surface during regeneration.

Surface properties of the euglenoid flagellum.

New structural details of the Euglena flagellum have led to a modified interpretation of the arrangement of the mastigoneme sheath and its internal attachment. A paraaxial ribbon is described which is located between the flagellar membrane and the axonemal microtubules. This fine ribbon apparently binds mastigoneme units and in turn is bonded to three peripheral microtubule doublets in a position approximately opposite that of the paraflagellar rod. The latter structure seems to anchor one half of the flagellar sheath while the paraaxial ribbon anchors the other one half of the flagellar sheath. Immunological labelling of Euglena mastigonemes has demonstrated that mastigonemes are present in the reservoir as well as on the flagellar surface if monovalent Fab' is used on deflagellated cells. Pulse labelling with anti-mastigoneme Fab' in regenerating cells showed the initial reservoir label was lost and indicated that the labelled mastigonemes were transferred to the flagellum. The reservoir is thus demonstrated to contain a surface pool for flagellar mastigonemes. Flagellar regeneration is partially inhibited irreversibly by the glycoprotein synthesis inhibitor tunicamycin. Experiments with cycloheximide and tunicamycin suggest each antibiotic affects different moieties and that some glycoprotein(s) is limiting to flagellar growth in Euglena. It is postulated that mastigonemes are possible candidates for that rate-limiting component.

Characterization and localization of a flagellar-specific membrane glycoprotein in Euglena.

Purified flagella from Euglena yield a unique high molecular weight glycoprotein when treated with low concentrations of nonionic detergents. This glycoprotein termed "xyloglycorien" cannot be extracted from other regions of the cell, although a minor component that coextracts with xyloglycorien does have a counterpart in deflagellated cell bodies. Xyloglycorien is tentatively identified with a flagellar surface fuzzy layer that appears in negatively stained membrane vesicles of untreated flagella but not in similar vesicles after Nonidet P-40 extraction. The localization of xyloglycorien is further confirmed to be membrane associated by reciprocal extraction experiments using 12.5 mM lithium diiodosalicylate (LIS), which does not appreciably extract xyloglycorien, visibly solubilize membranes, or remove the fuzzy layer. Rabbit antibodies directed against the two major flagellar glycoproteins (xyloglycorien and mastigonemes) to some extent cross react, which may in part be caused by the large percentage of xylose found by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) analysis to be characteristic of both antigens. However, adsorption of anti-xyloglycorien sera with intact mastigonemes produced antibodies responding only to xyloglycorien, and vice versa, indicating the nonidentity of the two antigens. Antibodies or fragments of these antibodies used in immunofluorescence assays demonstrated that xyloglycorien is confined to the flagellum and possibly the adjacent reservoir and gullet. Binding could not be detected on the cell surface. The sum of these experiments suggests that, in addition to mastigonemes, at least one major membrane glycoprotein in Euglena is restricted to the flagellar domain and is not inserted into the contiguous cell surface region.

Surface organization and composition of Euglena. II. Flagellar mastigonemes.

The surface of the Euglena flagellum is coated with about 30,000 fine filaments of two distinct types. The longer of these nontubular mastigonemes (about 3 micron) appear to be attached to the paraflagellar rod whereas the shorter nontubular mastigonemes (about 1.5 micron) are the centrifugally arranged portions of a larger complex, which consists of an attached unit parallel to and outside of the flagellar membrane. Units are arranged laternally in near registration and longitudinally overlap by one-half of a unit length. Rows of mastigoneme units are firmly attached to the axoneme microtubules or to the paraflagellar rod as evidenced by their persistence after removal of the flagellar membrane with neutral detergents. SDS-acrylamide gels of whole flagella revealed about 30 polypeptides, of which two gave strong positive staining with the periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) procedure. At least one of these two bands (glycoproteins) has been equated with the surface mastigonemes by parallel analysis of isolated and purified mastigonemes, particularly after phenol extraction. The faster moving glycoprotein has been selectively removed from whole flagella and from the mastigoneme fraction with low concentrations of neutral detergents at neutral or high pH. The larger glycoprotein was found to be polydisperse when electrophoresed through 1% agarose/SDS gels. Thin-layer chromatography of hydrolysates of whole flagella or of isolated mastigonemes has indicated that the major carbohydrate moiety is the pentose sugar, xylose, with possibly a small amount of glucose and an unknown minor component.