Recently, nanoionic phenomena that originate in physical or chemical actions caused by local ionic migration near hetero-interfaces using ion conductors have been found, and, as a result, nanoinonic devices using these phenomena are being developed. As examples, nanoionic devices with unique functionalities that cannot be obtained in conventional semiconductor devices, such as an atomic switch, a brain-type device, an all solid electric double layer transistor, a multifunctional on-demand device, and a superconducting device that can modulate the transition temperature are enumerated. We introduce some recent interesting results for solid state ionic field regarding development research into the next generation of information communication devices.

Moving through the 30 years of R&D after the discovery of cuprate high T_c superconductors (HTS) in 1986, high performance long length HTS tapes have been realized and are now produced by several manufacturers across the world. This opened a new era for the industrial application of liquid helium-free superconducting technologies. The superior characteristics of the HTS in a high magnetic field also allow us to develop an extremely high field magnet, which is a key device for medical-and/or high-energy-applications. In this paper, I will review the history and breakthroughs of the wire development of HTS materials and summarize their application to power devices.

Recently, research for realizing nuclear fusion energy has greatly advanced, and the construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which is a tokamak and aims at the nuclear fusion of deuterium and tritium, is now being pushed forward as an international collaboration in France. In addition, because the Large Helical Device (LHD) in the National Institute for Fusion Science has shown high plasma performance like a tokamak, the helical device is now included among the candidates for DEMO, which demonstrates power generation and will be constructed based upon ITER. Here, these magnetic-confinement devices are introduced, and the prospects for deuterium experiments in LHD and the road map toward DEMO are discussed.

The Laguerre-Gauss mode, being one of the typical optical vortices, is the eigen solution of the paraxial wave equation in the cylindrical coordinate system. Optical vortices refer to the optical waves that have a phase singularity in their beam center. After introducing the concept of optical vortices and their conventional generation methods, we describe our recent results regarding the generation of ultrashort vortex pulses and their characterization with high precision. In addition, we report on the application of optical vortex pulses to laser processing and nonlinear spectroscopy.

In this manuscript, the development guidelines for a novel high performance scintillator are discussed. Two approaches are explained. The first is an approach for how to improve a well-known scintillator. The substitution of the cation is introduced with an example using Pr:LuYAG. Band gap engineering is also introduced with the result of Ce:GAGG. The effects of co-dopings are also introduced using an example of co-doping in Tl:CsI and Mg co-doping in Ce:LYSO, Ce:GAGG. The second is an approach for how to grow transparent bulk crystals, which are regarded as difficult crystals to be grown. Eu:SrI₂ is introduced as the hygroscopic material. The La-GPS scintillator is described using an example of how to make a crystal congruent.

With the technological advances of laser diodes, diode-pumped 325 solid-state lasers have increased their performance such as their output power and efficiency. The throughput and the efficiency of the existing lasers have remained low, however, a wide range of applications have progressed in areas such as material processing and fusion power plant drivers. When all solid-state lasers generate a high 330 brightness pulse of high efficiency and high repetition rate as well as ultra-high intensity in an ultra-short pulse system, novel fields in science and technology, and the subsequent creation of new industries will open up. The authors introduce their research and development of power lasers and their applications.

A topologically protected gapless state, called a Dirac cone, shows up at an interface between a topological insulator (TI) and an ordinary insulator. However, the interface between TI and metal has not been well explored. Here we report a novel phenomenon termed the topological proximity effect that occurs between a metallic ultrathin film and TI. We grew one-bilayer bismuth on the TI material TlBiSe₂, and by using spin-resolved ARPES, we found evidence that the topological Dirac-cone state migrates from the surface of TlBiSe₂ to 1BL Bi. We show that such a migration occurs as a result of spin-dependent hybridization of the wave functions at the interface. Our finding points to a new route to manipulating the topological properties of materials.

We have developed effective procedures to detect and characterize single MOS interface traps by the charge pumping (CP) method, and found that the maximum CP current per trap (I_CPMAX) is in the range of 0≦I_CPMAX≦2fq, but not a fixed value of fq, where f is the gate pulse frequency, and q is the electron charge. This finding supports that the interface traps are P_b centers, and it has been experimentally clarified that the various values of I_CPMAX result from the differences in the pairs of donor-like and acceptor-like trap energy levels. The single-interface-trap density of the states has been also experimentally obtained, which is reasonably similar to the P_b0 density of the states.

Though terahertz (THz) technology has not been fully established compared to the other frequency regions, THz spectroscopy in both the time and frequency domain is becoming more important. However, because THz waves have not been utilized so far, tips for sample preparation and measurements are not well known. For the purpose of tutorials for beginners in this field, this article explains technical tips for obtaining accurate THz spectra.