In the 2014 school year, the new government educational guidelines for physics were applied to every grade of high school. The percentage of students who take physics (the subject "Basic Physics") has doubled as a result of the revision of the guidelines. For that reason, the number of young physics teachers is increasing in high schools now. The new textbooks based on the new guidelines include a lot of content that is difficult for students to learn. The physics teachers have to select the content to teach in their class. Many of the schools have only one physics teacher. Therefore, the young teachers have no chance to work with experienced teachers and to discuss how to teach physics. We have an urgent responsibility to organize a system to support young teachers. This might be a chance to make more people interested in physics.

The electric double layer gating technique using ionic liquids, which allows an increase in the capability of typical field effect doping by two orders of magnitude, opens up a new avenue, not only to novel physics of solid-state materials but also to potential applications for organic electronics. Here we report on high-performance organic field-effect transistors and new applications for organic light-emitting diodes with ionic-liquid electrolytes.

Z_eff imaging that provides a way to visualize elemental distributions in samples has been developed. Because the atomic number (Z) of a single-element sample [the effective atomic number (Z_eff) for a multiple-element sample] corresponds to the ratio of the real to imaginary part of the complex refractive index, an elemental map is calculable from the ratio of absorption and phase-contrast images. Several metal foils underwent feasibility observations with an imaging system fitted with a two-crystal X-ray interferometer. The obtained Z_eff image shows that aluminum, iron, nickel, and copper foils were clearly distinguished and that the nickel and copper Z_eff values coincided with the ideal Z number within 5%.

Laser-produced tin plasmas, emitting extreme ultraviolet (XUV) light with a 13.5 nm wavelength and 2% bandwidth, are expected to be used in 10 nm-level next generation semiconductor lithography. However, the current XUV output power is not large enough to satisfy the requirements for mass production. To fulfill the requirements and optimize the conditions, we must have a better understanding of the “dynamics of laser-irradiated tin droplets” and “XUV emission from tin plasma irradiated by a CO₂ laser”. Therefore, we carried out simulations of these problems using our radiation hydrodynamics simulation code. We present the results of the simulations and describe the optimization conditions.

Wide-gap semiconductors have great potential for achieving “green” electric and energy devices. In addition, an atmospheric pressure (AP) process is also expected to be a green process that replaces conventional vacuum-based processes. Because oxide wide-gap materials are air-stable and easy to form using an AP process, several kinds of oxide materials and devices have been demonstrated through solution-based AP processes. Here, we will present mist chemical vapor deposition, which is a solution-based AP deposition method for thin-film deposition and its application to oxide thin-film transistors, as a move toward a green process for oxide-based electronics.

Metal motors have been used as a power source (energy transducer) for home-electronics and other electrical devices. Recently, home electronics and medical examination apparatus have a need for their miniaturization, high-functionalization, and low-energy consumption. From these points of view, polymer actuators have attracted much attention as a new type of actuator (energy transducer) in place of conventional metal motors because the polymer actuators are soft and lightweight, and furthermore, they can demonstrate flexible and silent motion similar to human muscles. In this paper, we introduce our recent research progress on nanocarbon polymer actuators consisting of carbon nanotubes, ionic liquids, and a base polymer. The nanocarbon polymer actuators show stable actuation in air. We also introduce recent application challenges for polymer actuators.

Thallium bromide (TlBr) is a promising compound semiconductor for the fabrication of room-temperature gamma-ray detectors. The attractive physical properties of TlBr lie in its high photon stopping power, high resistivity and good charge transport properties. In this paper, recent developments with TlBr detectors are reviewed with emphasis on the crystal growth and detector fabrication processes, and the spectroscopic performance of pixelated TlBr detectors.