<p>Pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) is an optical and non-intrusive pressure measurement technique, and is used in wind tunnel testing. In general, PSP is applied to a model surface by a sprayer by hand, resulting in non-uniform layer. Recently, we proposed a novel PSP paint technique using an inkjet printer. This technique enable us to easily paint uniform PSP. In this study, we fabricated a combined PSP and TSP (temperature-sensitive paint) by inkjet printer. PSP and TSP were symmetrically painted on a substrate. Then, we measured the pressure and temperature distribution induced by impingement jet. The obtained pressure distribution was in good agreement with the literature.</p>

<p>The supersonic mixing field induced by a novel wall-mounted cavity having a three-dimensional shape is investigated experimentally and computationally. In the experiments, the phase-averaged pressure oscillation fields are measured by using anodized aluminum pressure-sensitive paint (AA-PSP). The experimental results are compared with the computational results obtained by solving the Navier-Stokes equations. It is found from the experimental and computational results that pressure waves propagate in the cavity and that the waves act on the jet so as that it fluctuates largely. Such large fluctuation of jet is one of the primary reasons why mixing is enhanced by using the proposed cavity.</p>

Along with the development of micro- and nano-technologies, gas-surface interaction becomes important due to large surface area-to-volume ratio in micro-scale gas flows. In such flows, the Knudsen number (Kn) is often employed as a parameter of rarefaction of flows. When 0.01<Kn≦0.1, a flow is classified as the slip flow with a finite velocity slip at boundary. In this regime, the mass flow rate increases from the rate in the continuum regime because of the velocity slip. The mass flow rate depends on the combination of molecule and surface. In this study, we measured the mass flow rate of water molecules to investigate the characteristics on gas properties. The constant-volume technique was employed for measuring the mass flow rate through a micro channel. The obtained results suggested that the adsorption of water molecules on the measurement system influenced the accurate measurement of the mass flow rate.

The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique is an optical technique for measuring surface pressure on a model surface. The PSP technique has been used in wind-tunnel tests because of its great advantages such as non-intrusive and global pressure measurement. In general, PSP is painted by a sprayer by hand, resulting in low reproducibility. In this study, we used a commercial inkjet printer for printing PSP on substrates. PSP was printed on three substrates: chromatography paper, label seal, and viewgraph. We investigated the pressure and temperature sensitivities of these PSPs. PSP printed on the chromatography paper showed the best characteristics among them. And, we succeeded in preparation of PSP using the commercial inkjet printer.

Thermal transpiration (thermal creep) flow, which is induced only by temperature gradient along a channel, is one of the most interesting phenomena in micro gas flows. The thermal transpiration flow has been studied both numerically and experimentally; however, the detailed condition inside a channel has not been enough studied experimentally, and it makes difficult to compare numerical and experimental results directly. In this study, the pressure distribution on a micro channel surface in thermal transpiration flow was measured by means of the Pressure-Sensitive Paint (PSP) technique. And the pressure distribution was a convex profile along the channel.

Along with the development of microtechnology, the gas-surface interaction becomes important due to large surface area-to-volume ratio in micro-scale flows. As a parameter on gas-surface interaction related to a flow rate, Tangential Momentum Accommodation Efficient (TMAC) is often employed. TMAC represents the degree on tangential momentum exchange between molecule and surface. In this study, TMAC was measured for several gas species to investigate the characteristics on gas properties. The constant-volume technique was employed for measuring the mass flow rate through a microchannel. Monatomic gases of helium, argon and xenon were employed as test gases. The microchannel was made of Fused Silica as non-metal material. TMAC was calculated by comparing the measured mass flow rate and the theoretical one with the second order slip boundary condition. The obtained results suggested that the molecular weight has only small influence on TMAC.

&nbsp;&nbsp;In micro gas flows, some interesting phenomena at/near a wall, velocity slip, temperature jump, and thermal transpiration, play an important role; thus, the development of a measurement technique, which measure a physical quantity at a wall, is very important. The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique has potential as a diagnostic tool for pressure measurement of a solid surface. However, the application of PSP to micro gas flow measurement is very difficult, because the conventional PSP is too thick and does not have sufficient spatial resolution. Pressure-sensitive molecular film (PSMF) with ordered molecular assemblies has been developed. PSMF is fabricated by the Langmuir-Blodgett method. We also developed a micro channel by the PDMS micro-molding technique with mixing a pressure-sensitive dye into PDMS: i.e., a micro channel fabricated by PSP, which is named PSCC. In this paper, we show the PSMF/PSCC fabrication procedure and the applicability of them to micro gas flow measurement.

A fast response pressure-sensitive dot array sensor has been developed by means of an inkjet printing technique on an anodized aluminum substrate, which has been used for unsteady flow measurements. However, PtTFPP based dot array sensor has several problems: non-uniform distribution of luminescent intensity due to "coffee ring effect" and low luminescent intensity. To solve these problems, we fabricated the PtTFPP-based dot array sensor on an anodized aluminum substrate with hydrophobic treatment. The hydrophobic treatment was applied to an anodized aluminum in three ways: dipping in the solution of dodecanoic acid in hexadecane, dipping in the solution of dodecanoic acid in water, and spraying the fluorine hydrophobic coat. The effect of the three hydrophobic treatments on the characteristics of PSP dots was investigated.

It has been desired to measure pressure distribution in a micro channel for understanding micro-scale thermo-fluid phenomena. Pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique is an optical measurement technique using luminescent molecules, seemed to be suitable for analysis of micro/nano flow. However, the spatial resolution of PSP is insufficient for applying to micro-scale measurements due to the aggregation of the luminescent molecules. Therefore, we fabricated pressure-sensitive molecular film (PSMF) by Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method. LB method can fabricate very thin molecular film with controlling the intermolecular spacing of luminescent molecules. PSMF fabricated by this method has enough high spatial resolution to measure micro-gas flows. The pressure distribution in a micro channel with a bend of 90° was measured by PSMF. The low pressure region was found at near the inner wall behind the bend suggesting the flow separation. Additionally, the high pressure area downstream of the separation region was observed, indicating the flow reattachment.

By means of an inkjet printing device, a pressure-sensitive dot array sensor has been developed for unsteady pressure measurements. A conventional bi-luminophore anodized aluminum Pressure-Sensitive Paint (AA-PSP) prepared by a dipping method does not work well due to the interference between the two luminophores. To avoid this problem, we developed a pressure-sensitive dot array sensor on an anodized aluminum substrate using Ru(dpp)3 as a pressure-sensitive luminophore dissolved in four solvents: methanol, dichloromethane, chloroform, and the mixed solvent of dichloromethane and chloroform. Formed PSP dots exhibited significantly different properties including the luminescence intensity distribution inside the dot and pressure sensitivity by the solvents. As a result, the PSP solutions with dichloromethane or the mixed solution of dichloromethane and chloroform, which evaporated quicker than other solvents, formed dots with the uniform distribution of luminescence and showed that comparable pressure sensitivity with conventional AA-PSP prepared by a dipping method.

Knudsen pump is a pump based on thermal transpiration, which is a specific phenomenon in a high Knudsen number flow. Since the pump does not have any moving parts and can be miniaturized to micro scale, it is a favorable pump in micro electro mechanical system (MEMS). However, there are many points to be clarified on characteristics and performances of Knudsen pumps. In this study, a Knudsen pump with commercially available parts and porous membranes was fabricated, and effects of temperature difference and the number of membranes on pressure difference and time constant for pressure time variation were investigated. The fabricated Knudsen pump with four membranes generated about 70 Pa from an atmosphere with temperature difference of 71 K with four membranes. The pressure difference was proportional to the temperature difference and the number of membrane, while the time constants were independent of them. This result suggested that the Knudsen pump was able to generate higher pressure difference or flow rate with increasing in the number of membranes.

Recently, micro gaseous flow has been a novel research filed along with the development in the micro technology. In the micro gaseous flow, the Knudsen number, which is a ratio of the mean free path to the characteristic length of the system, becomes large, and such a high Knudsen number flow should be investigated as a molecular flow. We organized a session meeting in the Japanese Society for Mechanical Engineers for the investigation on the micro gaseous flow. The closed discussions by the members gave the deep insight to the field, but much more interaction in the research network in future is expected for the further progress in the field. The recent developments in the measurement techniques for the micro gaseous flow in our group have been introduced.

In this paper, we proposed long-lifetime fluorescent measurement by compensation of photo-bleaching with the difference of photo intensity. In this method, difference of fluorescent intensity is compensated using single exponential function to make the difference amount uniform between two fluorescent intensities. We evaluated the dependencies of measurement lifetime by fluorescent lifetime and the sensitivity by the decay coefficient of fluorescent lifetime by numerical simulation. From these results, the proposed method has much higher sensitivity and longer lifetime to conventional compensation method of photo-bleaching. We demonstrate the photosynthesis activity of single Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 in the micro chamber with gas barrier layer.

Flows inside micro-systems are so-called high-Knudsen number flows. The flow field cannot be treated as a continuum and the thermal conduction can not be described by ordinary Fourier's law. In high-Knudsen number flows, gas-surface interaction becomes significant and the energy accommodation coefficient is often employed to analyze heat transport phenomena. The energy accommodation coefficient varies depending on combination of surface materials and gas species. Thus, it is important to measure the accurate energy accommodation coefficient for each pair of surface material and gas species. In this study, we obtained the energy accommodation coefficients for nitrogen and oxygen in contact with a platinum surface in accordance with the Low-Pressure method using the theoretical heat flux equation expanded to transition regime. The experimentally obtained energy accommodation coefficients were compared with previous results in the literature as a function of surface temperature, showing good agreement with each other.

In pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) measurements, pressure is deduced from the luminescence intensity of PSP. Since the intensity depends not only on pressure but also on temperature, a PSP result has to be compensated by the temperature of a surface to which PSP is applied. In this paper, we propose a novel combined pressure and temperature sensor composed of PSP and TSP dot arrays. PtTFPP and CdSe/ZnS were adopted as PSP and TSP luminophores, respectively. PtTFPP is widely used as PSP luminophore, and CdSe/ZnS has several favorable features as TSP luminophore such as tunable luminescence peak wavelength, narrow full width at half maximum, high quantum yield and broad absorption band. The dot array sensor was fabricated by inkjet printing of the luminophores. We examined its photostability under an illumination light, pressure and temperature sensitivities. Each luminophore is separately arranged in dot array; thus the interaction between both luminophores is prevented. The dot array sensor has pressure sensitivity of 0.62 %/kPa as a pressure sensor, and temperature sensitivity of -0.61%/K as a temperature sensor

The flow around micro-systems is so-called the high-Knudsen number flow. The flow field cannot be treated as a continuum and the thermal conduction should not be treated by ordinary Fourier's law. In high-Knudsen number flows, the gas-surface interaction becomes important and the energy accommodation coefficient is often employed to analyze heat transport phenomena. The energy accommodation coefficient varies depending on combination of surface materials and gas species. Thus, it is important to use the appropriate energy accommodation coefficient for each pair of surface and gas for accurate thermal management. In this report, we obtained the energy accommodation coefficients for argon in contact with platinum surface in accordance with the Low-Pressure method, using the theoretical heat flux equation expanded to transition regime. The experimental result was compared with previous result in literature, which reported a relation between the energy accommodation coefficient and the surface temperature, and they are in good agreement.

Pressure-Sensitive Paint (PSP) is a pressure sensor based on the oxygen quenching of the luminescence of luminophore. In general, the luminescent intensity of PSP depends not only on pressure but also on temperature. Therefore, it is necessary to simultaneously measure the temperature with the pressure to improve the accuracy of PSP measurement. The compound sensor composed of pressure and temperature-sensitive luminophore was developed for simultaneous measurements of pressure and temperature. However, some of such compound sensors suffer the degradation of the sensitivity and other properties. In this paper, we show the possibility of a compound PSP/TSP sensor using PtTFPP and CdSe/ZnS.

It is important to understand the behavior of oxygen concentration distribution inside micro-channels for the improvement of micro devices or fuel cells. Most of oxygen sensors such as galvanic or polaro-graphic type cannot be used for unsteady measurements in a small system because of their long response time and large probe heads. We focused on pressure sensitive paint (PSP) for the measurement of the oxygen concentration dissolved in the water in a small system. Up to the present, the PSP techniques have been mainly applied to gas-flows. However, the PSP technique is based on the oxygen quenching of luminescent molecules and would be used in both gas and liquid-flows. In this paper, we investigated the oxygen sensitivity of three types of PSP in the water, and selected a suitable polymer for a binder of PSP.

In order to analyze high Knudsen number flows, it is important to understand the interactions of gas molecules and solid surfaces. Molecular beams have been used to study these interactions. Properties such as the translational energy and momentum of a molecular beam have been analyzed very well; however, there are very few reports analyzing the rotational energy of diatomic or polyatomic molecular beam experimentally. Resonantly enhanced multi-photon ionization (REMPI) is a spectroscopic technique, which is able to measure molecular internal energy distribution in very low density gas flows. In this study, we have detected and analyzed the rotational energy distribution in a nitrogen molecular beam by 2R+2 REMPI.

To analyze micro-scale flows, we need a measurement technique of the molecular level. The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique employs the interactions between luminophores and oxygen molecules; hence it is suitable for pressure measurement in the flows. However, there are few reports concerning application of PSP to fnicro-flows, because conventional PSPs are too thick owing to their polymer binders. Therefore, we had developed pressure-sensitive molecular film (PSMF) with a thickness of about 1Onm by using the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique, and obtained the pressure distribution on the surface along micro-channels. PSMF is, however, inferior to the ordinary PSP in the signal-to-noise ratio, because of the small amount of luminophores in the film. In this study, based on PSP and soft lithography techniques, we have developed a novel micro fluidic channel itself has a pressure sensitive property, emitting appreciable luminescence. Additionally, we investigated the pressure sensitivity of this new PSP device, and measured the pressure along a micro-nozzle.

The micro flows such as flow around MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System), are so-called the high-Knudsen number flow. In these flows, the gas-surface interaction becomes important. The energy accommodation coefficient, which is an empirical parameter defined by Knudsen, is often used to analyze heat transport phenomena. The energy accommodation coefficient varies depending on the combination of surface and gas. Thus, it is important to use the appropriate energy accommodation coefficient for each pair of surface and gas for accurate thermal management. In this report, we obtained the energy accommodation coefficients for argon and oxygen in contact with platinum surface by the Low-Pressure (LP) method, using the theoretical heat flux equation expanded to transition regime. The experimental results were compared with the previous results by Thomas and Olmer(1943), which reported a relation between the energy accommodation coefficient and the surface temperature. Our results are in good agreement with their results.

Along with the developments of the Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), the Knudsen number, which is the non-dimensional parameter for rarefaction, of the flow inside such systems becomes large. In these high Knudsen number flows, a gas-surface interaction has become important. To illustrate the gas-surface interaction, an accommodation coefficient α is widely used as an empirical parameter. The tangential momentum accommodation coefficient (TMAC), one of the accommodation coefficients, has close relation to the pressure loss through a micro channel. Therefore, TMAC is an important coefficient for micro flow analyses. To obtain TMAC experimentally, the mass flow rate measurements in microtubes were carried out using the constant volume method. Since the mean Knudsen number was less than 0.3, the velocity slip boundary condition is applicable. The results obtained experimentally were analyzed in frame of the Navier-Stokes equation associated with the second order velocity slip boundary condition. Then the slip coefficient of the boundary condition was obtained, and finally TMAC was determined.

The PSP technique is a nonintrusive pressure measurement method based on the oxygen quenching of the luminescence of luminophore. Since the PSP measurement is generally affected by temperature changes, it is difficult to precisely measure the pressure on a surface with non-uniform temperature distribution. In this study, we focused on pyrene sulfonic acid (PySO_3H) as a luminophore of PSP. It is known that the PySO_3H has two peaks in the emission spectra which have opposite temperature-dependent properties. Temperature effects can be eliminated by measuring the luminescence at an appropriate wavelength band between these two peaks. We successfully obtained the time-averaged pressure distribution on the rotating disk by the use of PySO_3H. The pressure shows a concentric circle distribution and decreases toward the disk center at every rotational speed (10000-20000rpm). It is also found that the pressure difference between the inner and the outer region of the disk is proportional to the square of the disk angular velocity.

The flow around MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) is so-called the high-Knudsen number flow. The flow field cannot be treated as a continuum and the thermal conduction must not be treated by ordinary Fourier's law. In high-Knudsen number flows, the gas-surface interaction becomes important and the energy accommodation coefficient, an empirical parameter, is often used to analyze heat transport phenomena. The energy accommodation coefficient is different depending on combination of surface and gas. Thus, it is important to use the appropriate energy accommodation coefficient for each pair of surface and gas for accurate thermal management. In this report, we obtained the energy accommodation coefficients for argon and oxygen in contact with platinum surface by the Low-Pressure (LP) method, using the theoretical heat flux equation expanded to transition regime. The experimental result was compared with previous result by Thomas and Olmer (1943), which reported a relation between the energy accommodation coefficient and the surface temperature, and they are good agreement.

To analyze micro/nano scale flows, we need to adopt a measurement technique in the molecular level. The pressure sensitive molecular film (PSMF) technique employs interaction between luminophores and oxygen molecules; hence it is suitable for pressure measurement in the flows. Previously, we researched the pressure sensitivity and the temperature dependence of PSMF. Typically, luminophores of PSMF are easily degraded by light and oxygen molecules, and it is very important to consider the photo-degradation in the measurement. In this study, we studied the photo-degradation of PSMF under two different pressure conditions to reveal the effect of oxygen molecules. Additionally, the time profile of the photo-degradation was measured. From the asymptotical behavior, it was clarified that the pre-illumination reduced the photo-degradation. We successfully obtained the pressure distribution of a micro-nozzle by pre-illuminated PSMF.

In the field of chemical industries, it is desired to downsize chemical reactors for easy controlling, synthesizing a wide variety of products in small quantities and so on. It is well known that flow field structure in a mixing channel changes from steady to unsteady with an increase in Reynolds number. These flow fields have been analyzed numerically, but there are few reports analyzed experimentally. We have focused on the pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique, which enables us to measure the distribution of oxygen concentrations. Using the PSP technique, we tried to reveal the flow field structure and evaluate the flow unsteadiness in a parallel mixing channel depending on inlet Reynolds numbers.

For a hard disk drive, high-speed rotation is required to achieve fast access to data on a disk. However, the high-speed rotation induces pressure fluctuation on the disk and results in disk fluttering. Therefore, it is important to investigate the pressure distribution on the disk to realize high-speed and stable disk rotation. We have measured the pressure distribution on the disk rotated at various speeds by using pressure-sensitive paint, which is appropriate for measuring the pressure of rotating objects. As a result, it is clarified that the pressure distribution forms concentric circles and the pressure difference between the outer and inner part of the disk increases with an increase in the disk rotation speed.

To analyze high Knudsen number flows, interactions of gas molecules and solid surfaces are very important. Molecular beams have been widely used to diagnose these interactions. While properties such as translational energy and momentum of molecular beam have been analyzed very well, there are very few reports analyzing rotational energy of diatomic or polyatomic molecular beam experimentally. Resonantly enhanced multi-photon ionization (REMPI) is a spectroscopic technique, which is able to measure molecular internal energy in very low density gas flows. In this study, we have tried to detect a nitrogen molecular beam by 2R+2 REMPI, and analyzed rotational energy distribution of nitrogen molecules in the molecular beam.

The pressure sensitive paint (PSP) is very useful and easy way to obtain the pressure distribution on surfaces. Recently, PSP has been applied to various flow fields, like high Knudsen number flows. In this study, we discuss on measurement mechanism of PSP, especially in high Knudsen number regime. It is well known that a pressure tap shows good agreement with surface pressure, and not gas pressure in this regime. Therefore, a PSP experimental result is examined by DSMC method, and compared with gas and surface pressures. We suggest that PSP measures a number flux toward a surface.

The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique has potential as a diagnostic tool for pressure measurement of micro gas-flows because it is based on interaction of molecules with photons. However, the application of the PSP to micro-flows is very difficult, because the conventional PSP is too thick owing to polymer binder. In our previous work, we adopted Langmuir-Blodgett technique to fabricate a pressure sensitive molecular film (PSMF). In this study, we have constructed PSMF composed of Pt(II) Mesoporphyrin IX (PtMP) to be applied to pressure measurement near atmospheric pressure condition. The pressure sensitivity of PSMF-PtMP was tested, and it was clarified that the PSMF-PtMP has equivalent pressure sensitivity of polymer PSPs (e.g. PtOEP/GP-197). Moreover, we have applied PSMF to pressure measurement of a gas flow through the 170μm width micro-channel, and the pressure distribution on the surface along the channel was successfully obtained.

Non-uniform pressure distribution on shrouded co-rotating disks at high speed causes disk flutter. For stable rotation of disks at high speed, it is necessary to analyze pressure distribution on the disk surfaces and understand the mechanism of the disk flutter. To clarify the behavior of the flow around high-speed co-rotating disks, we have measured pressure distribution of disk surfaces by means of pressure sensitive paint. As a result, it is clarified that the pressure difference between the outer part and the inner part of the middle disk of the triple co-rotating disks is larger than that of the top disk, and the average pressure on the middle disk is lower than that of the top disk.

To analyze a micro/nano scale flow, we need to adopt a measurement technique that treats the flow as a molecular flow, because the flow cannot be treated as continuum. The pressure sensitive molecular film (PSMF) technique employs interaction between molecules, hence it is suitable for pressure measurement in the flow. We developed PSMF that is effective in the low pressure range. Typically, effective pressure range of PSMF depends mainly on the kind of luminophores. In this study, we adopt new luminophores in order to develop a new PSMF for near-atmospheric pressure range. Furthermore, because luminophores of PSMF are easily deteriorated by light, it is very important to consider photo-deterioration in pressure measurement by PSMF. In this study, we also analyzed photo-deterioration of PSMF to clarify basic photo-deterioration feature of PSMF.

Pressure sensitive paints are widely used in many applications. The pressure distribution on surfaces obtained by the paint shows good agreement with that by other methods, like a pressure tap. Recently, the paint has been adopted to high Knudsen number flows, such as rarefied gas flows and micro/nano flows. The mechanism of the paint is based on the oxygen quenching of luminescent molecules in the paint. Usually the static pressure is inversely proportional to the luminescent intensity of the paint, because of the static gas condition. In high Knudesen number flows, it is not clear whether this relation holds or not. Here, in this study, we tried to relate the number flux of oxygen molecules and the pressures to the luminescence intensity, and clarify the limit of application in high Knudsen number flows.

The Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) is very useful and easy way to obtain the pressure distribution on surfaces. The pressure distribution obtained by the paint shows good agreement with that by other methods, like a pressure tap. Recently, the paint has been adopted to the high Knudsen number regime. The mechanism of the PSP is mainly discussed within the framwork of the luminescence intensity and the oxygen quenching, while it is unclear that luminescence intensity is really proportional to the pressure, especially in the high Knudsen number regime. Usually it is considered that the luminescent represents a pressure, but it is not clear yet that this "pressure" means "static" or "total" pressure. Here, in this study, we tried to relate the flux of oxygen molecules and a pressure to the luminescence intensity, and clarify the limit of application from the molecular kinetics point of view.

The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique has the potential as a diagnostic tool for measurement in the high Knudsen number regime because it works as a so-called "molecular sensor". However, application of the PSP technique to micro-systems is difficult because the conventional PSP is too thick owing to the use of polymer binder and does not have sufficient spatial resolution for pressure measurement of micro-flows. We constructed pressure sensitive molecular film (PSMF), using Platinum (II) MesoporphyrinIX (PtMP) as a luminescent molecule, and have examined our PSMF to evaluate the possibility of application to the measurement of micro-flows. It is clarified that the pressure sensitivity of PtMP based PSMF is equal to the that of conventional polymer PSP. The pressure distribution on the solid surface interacting with supersonic free-jet can be measured with PSMF composed of PtMP. This indicates that the PSMF is feasible to measure the pressure in high Knudsen number flows such as micro-flows.

To measure pressure distribution in high Knudsen number regimes, we have adopted a pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique, because the PSP works as a so-called "molecular sensor". However, application of the PSP to micro-devices is very difficult because the conventional PSP is too thick owing to the use of polymer binder. Moreover, they have not sufficient spatial resolution for pressure measurement of micro-flows because of the aggregation of luminescent molecules in polymer binders. In our past work, we have adopted Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique to fabricate pressure sensitive molecular films (PSMFs) using Pd(II) Mesoporphyrin IX (PdMP) to resolve the problems of ordinary PSPs mentioned above. However the luminescent intensity of PSMF is low, leading to low SN ratio because the amount of luminescent molecules in the layer is small. In this study, we have applied localized surface plasmon resonance to increase luminescent intensity of PSMF and have tested PSMFs to evaluate the feasibility of the pressure measurement around the micro-devices. A PSMF with nanometer order thickness and high spatial resolution is suitable for analyses of micro-flow.

Experimental analyses of thermo-fluid phenomena of micro- and nano-flows with high Knudsen number need the measurement techniques based on interaction of atoms or molecules with photons. The pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique has the capability to be applied to high Knudsen number flows, such as micro-flows and low density gas flows. In this study, to inspect the feasibility of PSP for measurement of pressure on a solid surface in high Knudsen number flows, fundamental properties of PSPs are examined especially in the range of pressure below 1 Torr. As an application of PSP to measurement in high Knudsen number conditions, the pressure distribution on a jet-impinging small solid surface is measured. However, application of the PSP technique to a micro-system is very difficult, because of large thickness of conventional PSPs. Therefore, we have adopted Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method to fabricate a pressure sensitive molecular film (PSMF) applicable to pressure measurement around micro/nano devices. Finally, the dependence of luminescence intensity of PSP on the molecular number flux onto the solid surface is discussed, because molecular number flux is an important quantity to analyze the interaction between high Knudsen number flows and solid surfaces.

The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique has the potential as a diagnostic tool for measurements in the high Knudsen number regime because it works as a so-called "molecular sensor". However, application of the PSP technique to micro-systems has never been reported because the conventional PSP is too thick owing to the use of polymer binder. We constructed PSP molecular films, using Pd(II) Octaethylporphine (PdOEP) and an amphiphilic palladium metal complex, and have examined these PSP molecular films to evaluate the possibility of application to the measurement of micro flow. It is found that the latter PSP molecular film has sufficient sensitivity in the low pressure region with high Knudsen number, even if the amount of the luminescent molecules in PSP molecular film layer is smaller than that in conventional PSP. This indicates that the PSP molecular film is feasible to measure the pressure in high Knudsen number flow such as micro flows.

The pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique has the capability to be applied to high Knudsen number flows, such as low density gas flows, micro-flows, and so on. However, applications of the PSP technique to micro/nanodevices have never been reported, because of the thickness of the conventional PSPs and of the low resolution caused by the aggregation of luminescent molecules. In this study, we have constructed ultrathin PSP films for micro/nanodevices by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. Two luminophores are examined to select the suitable one for LB-PSP. Moreover, the dependence of luminescence intensity and oxygen sensitivity of the LB-PSP on the number of the layer is clarified.

Pressure-Sensitive Paint is a new technique to optically measure pressure distribution on a model surface with a CCD/CMOS camera. In this study, we have developed an electrically excited high-luminescence PSP based on the principle of luminescent electrochemical cells (LECs) to measure fast fluid phenomena with high accuracy in a very short exposure time of 1-100 &#181;s. First, the preparation method of LECs using the pressure-sensitive dye PtTFPP was studied, and the preparation conditions including the preparation materials, their proportions and film thicknesses were found.
The pressure sensitivity of the LEC-PSP was confirmed to be comparable to that of the conventional spray-coated PSP. The LEC-PSP showed 36 times higher intensity than the conventional one, which can significantly improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the acquired images and the associated measurement accuracy.

The advanced optical measurement techniques have been applied to internal compressible microflows. The following conclusions have been obtained.
(1) A supersonic expansion region peculiar to microduct flow has been observed. (2) Neither a normal shock wave nor a pseudo-shock wave appears in microduct flows. (3) A microduct flow changes gradually its supersonic state with the duct length under an underexpanded condition although a starting shock wave for large scale flows suddenly appears in a duct as its length exceeds a certain specific length. (4) For the compressible flows in the straight duct connected to a convergent nozzle, the length of in-duct choking, which is defined as a length between the sonic line and the duct exit, attains to the maximum at the Reynolds number of ~2000. (5) The temperature and pressure distributions on the duct wall (useful for estimating the local heat transfer on the microduct wall) have been successfully measured.

The domestic production of plastics has been over 10 million tons. The improvement of the efficiency of the production process is important for energy saving. The comprehensive understanding of curing process of polymers is essential for the development efficient polymer production process. In this study, we investigated the thermophysical properties of polymer layer during curing process at the single-molecular scale using single molecule tracking (SMT) method. The SMT method enables us to investigate or diffusion coefficient or the viscosity of the polymer in which the probe molecule travels. As a result, we found that there were some diffusive states in the polymer layer investigated in this study.

Paper-based analytical devices (PADs) have attracted a lot of attention, since they are cost efficient, disposable, and portable. In this study, we proposed the addition of printed electric circuits to PADs in order to improve their applications without the loss of the properties of PADs such as low cost, disposability, and portability. We fabricated electric circuits by printing a conductive ink using an inkjet printer. We developed the separation technique on PAD based on the electrophoresis. Our proposed method is simple and will improve PADs without the loss of the properties.

The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique has received much attention, as this technique enable us to measure pressure distribution. The PSP technique is an optical measurement technique based on oxygen quenching of luminescence. The application of PSP to pressure measurement near an atmospheric pressure is very difficult, because PSP is an absolute pressure sensor and it is difficult to detect small changes in luminescent intensity of PSP induced by small pressure changes. In this study, the heterodyne method was applied to the PSP technique. This method records the luminescent beat signal that result from interference between the PSP emission and modulating illumination light. The proposed method enables the precise measurement of pressure fluctuations, because only the signal at the frequency of interest can be detected. The 1 kHz pressure fluctuation of 50 Pa was successfully measured by this technique.

Boiling and Two-phase flow in microgap channel has been recently proposed for cooling the heat sources directly in application of thermal management for electronic devices. In this study, the boiling heat transfer and gas-liquid flow on the heated surface in microgap is investigated experimentally by using Temperature-Sensitive Paint (TSP). Experiments are performed in a single rectangular channel having microgap of 10 mm width, 35 mm heated length and 0.5 mm height using FC-72. TSP coated on the heated wall is used to obtain the local temperatures and subsequently local heat transfer coefficients. Flow rate of FC-72 is 200 mg/s and heated water at 339 K is used as a heat source for boiling of the test fluid. Observation of gas-liquid behavior and measurement of the temperature distributions on the heated surface could be achieved at the same time by TSP. As a result, the heat flux of the rear side of a boiling bubble is 1.2-1.5 times higher than that of the front side of a bubble.

A fast response bi-luminophore pressure-sensitive dot array sensor has been developed on an anodized aluminum (AA) substrate for unsteady flow measurements. We have applied the isolated dot arrays of PSP and TSP formed on an AA substrate by an inkjet printing method to prevent interference between the two luminophores. Suitable solvent was chosen for each dye to form the dots with uniform and high luminescence intensity, and high sensitivity. The created bi-luminophore AA-PSP could simultaneously measure pressure and temperature and could reduce the temperature effect from 0.97 %/degree C (without temperature correction) to 0.02 %/degree C (with temperature correction). It showed a pressure response time of 64 micro sec at 90 % pressure rise to a step change of pressure, which is in the same range with a conventional AA-PSP.

In this study, we have developed a new sensing tool of a smart micro channel by combining the pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique and the soft lithography technique. This smart micro channel is fabricated by mixing PSP into a material for the channel; thus, the smart micro channel is a micro channel whose inner wall works as PSP. The smart micro channel was successfully demonstrated on the measurement of pressure in a gaseous flow, oxygen concentration in a liquid flow, and the temperature measurement.

A measurement technique based on the lifetime method of two-photon induced luminescence was studied. Two-photon induced luminescence of temperature-sensitive dye was successfully observed by using pulse laser whoes pulse duration was of the order of pico seconds. Moreover, it was revealed that the lifetime of the luminescence was a function of temperature. Some dyes, such as quantum dots, were investigated as a novel temperature-sensitive dye to improve measurement accuracy.

Multidimensional and multivariable combined simultaneous measurement on high Knudsen number micro flows have been studied applying the knowledge of measurement technique in rarefied gas flows, where the Knudsen numbers are also large. The molecular tagging velocimetry using the laser induced fluorescence was developed for rarefied and mini-scale internal gas flows, and was applied to micro gaseous flows. The ordered molecular film sensors for pressure, temperature, and concentration measurement were investigated, and the pressure-sensitive molecular film was success-fully applied to micro gas flows.

本研究では,感圧塗料(PSP)による気体流の二次元圧力計測法として有機エレクトロルミネッセンス(有機EL)技術を応用した有機EL-PSPを開発することによって,PSPによる計測精度を劇的に向上させ,PSPでは実現が困難とされている大気圧近傍での微小な圧力変化を計測する技術の確立を目的とする.
有機EL素子自体は広く開発が行われているが,PSPとして利用するためには素子に十分な酸素が透過・浸透する必要がある.そこで,基板にAl陰極,発光層,気体透過性のあるポリマ電極の順に積層し'たトップエミッション構造に着目して,素子の開発を行った。ポリマ電極としてはPEDOT:PSS(Poly(3,4ethylenedioxythiophene)poly(styrenesulfonate))を用いた.作成した素子が圧力感度を持つことを確認するために,光励起により色素分子を発光させ圧力感度を調査した.その結果,大気圧近傍の90～110kPaにおいて圧力感度を持つことが明らかとなり,PEDOT:PSSが十分な酸素透過性を有することを示した.開発した素子は圧力センサーとして十分な感度を得られたが,PEDOT:PSSの膜厚によって酸素透過率も変わるため,膜厚を調整することでさらに感度向上が期待できる.続いて,有機EL素子として機能させた際の発光を確認した.その結果,時間や輝度に課題は残るものの,発光することが確認された.以上から,陽極にPEDOT:PSSを用いたトップエミッション構造の有機EL素子は圧力感度を有することが十分期待でき,圧力センサーとして圧力計測に適用できる可能性を示した.

It is desired to understand thermo-fluid phenomena inside micro-devices. In this study, a measurement technique based on the pressure- and temperature-sensitive paint technique was studied. Firstly, the technique applicable to micro scale measurement was developed. Secondary, characteristics of PSP, which has been generally used in gas phase, in liquid phase were investigated. Moreover, the dual sensor of PSP and TSP was studied.

本研究では実験及び数値実験を実施することにより気体-表面相互作用の詳細を明らかにすることを目的とした.速度と方向の揃った分子線を用いて散乱形態を測定する分子線散乱実験と平均化された統計量としての経験的なパラメータであるエネルギー適応係数を結び付けることによって,相互作用の詳細を明らかにする.
まず,光学的非接触測定法である共鳴多光子イオン化(REMPI)法を用いて分子線の内部状態を明らかにすることを試みた.REMPI法はレーザー光により気体分子をイオン化する手法であり,高感度かつ回転エネルギー分布を取得できることが特徴である.排気系や真空装置を改善することにより真空装置内を超高真空に維持可能となり,窒素分子線のREMPIスペクトルの取得に成功した.その結果,導出された回転温度は理論的な並進温度とは明らかに異なっており,自由度間非平衡が生じていることが明らかとなった.
また,エネルギー適応係数に関して,金属細線を低圧力下で通電加熱することにより気体分子へのエネルギー移動量を測定するLow-Pressure法を用いて,白金表面に対する窒素,酸素,アルゴンのエネルギー適応係数の取得に成功し,既存の結果とも良い一致を示すことを確認した.さらにシリコンを用いて同様の手法による測定を試み,潜在する問題を明らかにした.
分子線散乱実験による詳細条件とエネルギー適応係数取得実験における平均化された統計量の関係を明らかにするため,分子動力学法を用いて解析した.その結果,詳細条件の結果のみを利用して定性的な予測がある程度可能なことを明らかにした.
また,固体表面に塗布することで圧力を測定可能な感圧塗料を対象として,気体-表面相互作用についての解析も実施した.感圧塗料は固体表面へ向かう数流束を計測していると考えられることが分かり,実験的に相互作用を解明する手法として有用であることが明らかとなった.

The Brownian motions of ZnS-AgInS2 (ZAIS) nanoparticles in a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) layer were observed using the single-particle tracking (SPT) technique. The positions of each nanoparticle can be detected with spatial resolution of O(10 nm), and reflect the environment near each nanoparticles
thus, SPT can obtain information on the nanoscale structure or the spatial heterogeneity of the medium. In this study, ZAIS nanoparticles were illuminated by an excitation laser, and the emission of the nanoparticle was taken by using an EM-CCD camera. We analyzed each motion of the nanoparticle in the PDMS layer under two conditions: before and after adding a curing agent. The histograms of the diffusion coefficients had single peak for all of the particles in the layer before adding the curing agent and some particles in the layer after adding the one. On the other hand, the histogram of the other particles had two peaks. This indicates these particles diffused in the heterogeneous layer, showing spatial heterogeneous curing process in the layer.

Thermal transpiration (thermal creep) flow, which is induced only by temperature gradient along a channel, is one of the most interesting phenomena in micro gas flows. The thermal transpiration flow has been studied both numerically and experimentally; however, the detailed condition inside a channel has not been enough studied experimentally, and it makes difficult to compare numerical and experimental results directly. In this study, the pressure distribution on a micro channel surface in thermal transpiration flow was measured by means of the Pressure-Sensitive Paint (PSP) technique. And the pressure distribution was a convex profile along the channel.

A sprayable fast pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) has been developed to measure pressure fluctuation on models made of non-aluminum-alloy materials with complex shapes. It is important to distribute a pressure-sensitive dye only over the surface to improve responsiveness of the fast PSP. In this study, fast PSP's were prepared by applying the solution of a pressure-sensitive dye onto a pre-coated porous binary layer and the effect of the solvents of dye solution was investigated. By choosing a polymer dissolving solvent for the dye solution, one could succeed to develop a PtTFPP based PSP with a pressure response time of 17.8 μs at 90 % pressure rise to a step change of pressure. This was about 10 times faster than a previous fast PSP (191μs) using a polymer dissolving solvent for dye solution.

The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique is an optical technique for measuring surface pressure on a model surface. The PSP technique has been used in wind-tunnel tests because of its great advantages such as non-intrusive and global pressure measurement. In general, PSP is painted by a sprayer by hand, resulting in low reproducibility. In this study, we used a commercial inkjet printer for printing PSP on substrates. PSP was printed on three substrates: chromatography paper, label seal, and viewgraph. We investigated the pressure and temperature sensitivities of these PSPs. PSP printed on the chromatography paper showed the best characteristics among them. And, we succeeded in preparation of PSP using the commercial inkjet printer.

Along with the development of micro- and nano-technologies, gas-surface interaction becomes important due to large surface area-to-volume ratio in micro-scale gas flows. In such flows, the Knudsen number (Kn) is often employed as a parameter of rarefaction of flows. When 0.01<Kn≦0.1, a flow is classified as the slip flow with a finite velocity slip at boundary. In this regime, the mass flow rate increases from the rate in the continuum regime because of the velocity slip. The mass flow rate depends on the combination of molecule and surface. In this study, we measured the mass flow rate of water molecules to investigate the characteristics on gas properties. The constant-volume technique was employed for measuring the mass flow rate through a micro channel. The obtained results suggested that the adsorption of water molecules on the measurement system influenced the accurate measurement of the mass flow rate.

Along with the development of microtechnology, the gas-surface interaction becomes important due to large surface area-to-volume ratio in micro-scale flows. As a parameter on gas-surface interaction related to a flow rate, Tangential Momentum Accommodation Efficient (TMAC) is often employed. TMAC represents the degree on tangential momentum exchange between molecule and surface. In this study, TMAC was measured for several gas species to investigate the characteristics on gas properties. The constant-volume technique was employed for measuring the mass flow rate through a microchannel. Monatomic gases of helium, argon and xenon were employed as test gases. The microchannel was made of Fused Silica as non-metal material. TMAC was calculated by comparing the measured mass flow rate and the theoretical one with the second order slip boundary condition. The obtained results suggested that the molecular weight has only small influence on TMAC.

Boiling and Two-phase flow in microgap channel has been recently proposed for cooling the heat sources directly in application of thermal management for electronic devices. Many researches were carried out to investigate the mechanism of heat transfer in the microgap channel. In this study, the boiling heat transfer and gas-liquid flow on the heated surface in microgap is investigated experimentally by using Temperature- Sensitive Paint (TSP). Experiments are performed in a single rectangular channel having microgap of 10 mm width, 35 mm heated length and 0.5 mm height using FC-72 as a test fluid with inlet subcooling 13.9 K under atmospheric pressure conditions. TSP coated on the heated wall is used to obtain the local temperatures and subsequently local heat transfer coefficients. In addition, simultaneous flow visualizations are conducted to observe and explore the flow boiling in microgap channel. Flow rate of FC-72 is 200 mg/s and heated water at 339 K is used as a heat source for boiling of the test fluid. Observation of gas-liquid behavior and measurement of the temperature distributions on the heated surface could be achieved at the same time by TSP. As a result, the heat flux of the rear side of a boiling bubble is 1.2-1.5 times higher than that of the front side of a bubble.

The diffusion process of nanoparticles in a polymer matrix was studied by the single-particle tracking (SPT) method. ZnS-AgInS2 (ZAIS) nanoparticles were dispersed in poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and were tracked before and 20 hours after adding a curing agent in the PDMS. The averaged diffusion coefficients of the ZAIS nanoparticles in PDMS 20 hours after adding the curing agent was 1/2 of that without the curing agent. While the diffusion coefficients of the nanoparticles in the PDMS without the curing agent were of similar value, that in the PDMS in the curing process showed broad distribution in value.

This paper presents a novel combined PSP・TSP sensor, which is composed of arrays of tiny PSP and TSP dots. We fabricated the combined sensor, dual-array sensor, by inkjet-printing of PSP and TSP solutions. The dual-array sensor is unique among combined PSP・TSP sensors in the point that PSP and TSP luminophores are discretely arranged on a measurement surface. This prevents interactions between PSP and TSP luminophores that has been one of major issues in conventional combined sensors, and makes it possible to select optimal binding material and solvent for each luminophore. From emission spectrum, pressure and temperature sensitivities of a fabricated dual-array sensor, the dual-array sensor is able to combine any luminophores without paying attention to the interaction issues. Moreover, a demonstration shows that the dual-array sensor is a favorable pressure sensor for the measurements on surfaces with non-uniform temperature distribution.

It has been desired to measure pressure distribution in a micro channel for understanding micro-scale thermo-fluid phenomena. Pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique is an optical measurement technique using luminescent molecules, seemed to be suitable for analysis of micro/nano flow. However, the spatial resolution of PSP is insufficient for applying to micro-scale measurements due to the aggregation of the luminescent molecules. Therefore, we fabricated pressure-sensitive molecular film (PSMF) by Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method. LB method can fabricate very thin molecular film with controlling the intermolecular spacing of luminescent molecules. PSMF fabricated by this method has enough high spatial resolution to measure micro-gas flows. The pressure distribution in a micro channel with a bend of 90° was measured by PSMF. The low pressure region was found at near the inner wall behind the bend suggesting the flow separation. Additionally, the high pressure area downstream of the separation region was observed, indicating the flow reattachment.

Knudsen pump is a pump based on thermal transpiration, which is a specific phenomenon in a high Knudsen number flow. Since the pump does not have any moving parts and can be miniaturized to micro scale, it is a favorable pump in micro electro mechanical system (MEMS). However, there are many points to be clarified on characteristics and performances of Knudsen pumps. In this study, a Knudsen pump with commercially available parts and porous membranes was fabricated, and effects of temperature difference and the number of membranes on pressure difference and time constant for pressure time variation were investigated. The fabricated Knudsen pump with four membranes generated about 70 Pa from an atmosphere with temperature difference of 71 K with four membranes. The pressure difference was proportional to the temperature difference and the number of membrane, while the time constants were independent of them. This result suggested that the Knudsen pump was able to generate higher pressure difference or flow rate with increasing in the number of membranes.

Recently, micro gaseous flow has been a novel research filed along with the development in the micro technology. In the micro gaseous flow, the Knudsen number, which is a ratio of the mean free path to the characteristic length of the system, becomes large, and such a high Knudsen number flow should be investigated as a molecular flow. We organized a session meeting in the Japanese Society for Mechanical Engineers for the investigation on the micro gaseous flow. The closed discussions by the members gave the deep insight to the field, but much more interaction in the research network in future is expected for the further progress in the field. The recent developments in the measurement techniques for the micro gaseous flow in our group have been introduced.

In micro gas flows, some interesting phenomena at/near a wall, velocity slip, temperature jump, and thermal transpiration, play an important role; thus, the development of a measurement technique, which measure a physical quantity at a wall, is very important. The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique has potential as a diagnostic tool for pressure measurement of a solid surface. However, the application of PSP to micro gas flow measurement is very difficult, because the conventional PSP is too thick and does not have sufficient spatial resolution. Pressure-sensitive molecular film (PSMF) with ordered molecular assemblies has been developed. PSMF is fabricated by the Langmuir-Blodgett method. We also developed a micro channel by the PDMS micro-molding technique with mixing a pressure-sensitive dye into PDMS: i.e., a micro channel fabricated by PSP, which is named PSCC. In this paper, we show the PSMF/PSCC fabrication procedure and the applicability of them to micro gas flow measurement.

Gas flows through a micro-channel were experimentally studied by using PSCC (Pressure-Sensitive Channel Chip). PSCC is a micro-channel fabricated by PDMS containing a pressure-sensitive dye, and then it works as both a micro-channel and PSP (Pressure-Sensitive Paint). The micro-channel (PSCC) with 200 x 91 mu m cross section and 2.0 mm long was fabricated. The pressure distribution with the inlet and outlet pressures of 101 kPa and 30 kPa was successfully measured. The measured pressure distribution indicates that the gas flow near the exit of the channel should be treated as compressible flow and the gas flow was choked at the end.

Pressure-sensitive paints (PSP) and pressure-sensitive molecular film (PSMF) are drawing much attention, since the techniques enable us to measure pressure/oxygen concentration distribution with high spatial resolution. A measurement system of PSP/PSMF is generally composed of a sensor layer (PSP/PSMF itself), an illumination light source, a photodetector, and optics such as optical filters and mirrors. Since dye molecules in a sensor layer are photo-excited by an illumination light, the measurement system needs optical windows to transmit UV light for the illumination light and needs an optical filter to eliminate the illumination light, which also reduces the luminescence detected by a photo-detector. We have proposed a novel concept of a pressure sensor called electroluminescent pressure/oxygen sensor (ELPS/ELOS) based on oxygen quenching of electroluminescence without an external illumination light source. The sensor was fabricated as an organic light-emitting device (OLED) with phosphorescent dyes whose phosphorescence can be quenched by oxygen molecules, and with a polymer electrode which permeates oxygen molecules. The pressure sensitivity of the fabricated ELPS sample was equivalent to that of the sensor excited by an illumination light source. Moreover, the pressure sensitivity of the sensor is comparable to that of conventional PSP.

Pressure-Sensitive Paint (PSP) generally changes its luminescence intensity not only with pressure but also with temperature. The effect of temperature variations on a model surface decreases the measurement accuracy of PSP. Therefore, it is important to minimize temperature variations on the surface during wind tunnel testing. In this study, we have investigated the effect of model materials and coatings on the temperature variations on a model surface. Plate models made of three different materials: aluminium alloy, stainless steel, and wood with two thicknesses: 2 and 10 mm were prepared and then coated with PSP. Temperature variations on the model surfaces heated with hot air flow was measured by means of an infrared camera. The results revealed that the magnitude of the temperature variations on the model surface strongly depends on the model material and thickness, and applied coatings. The model with a higher heat capacity showed a smaller rate of temperature change on the model surface. Moreover, the models coated with PSP showed 2-3 times higher temperature change rates than those without the coating due to the low thermal conductivity of the applied layer. To resolve this problem, a high thermal conductive PSP has been developed by mixing high thermal conductive particles. This novel PSP successfully reduced the rate of the temperature change to almost the same level as a non-coated metal model surface. © 2012 by Y. Egami. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

Flows inside micro-systems are so-called high-Knudsen number flows. The flow field cannot be treated as a continuum and the thermal conduction can not be described by ordinary Fourier's law. In high-Knudsen number flows, gas-surface interaction becomes significant and the energy accommodation coefficient is often employed to analyze heat transport phenomena. The energy accommodation coefficient varies depending on combination of surface materials and gas species. Thus, it is important to measure the accurate energy accommodation coefficient for each pair of surface material and gas species. In this study, we obtained the energy accommodation coefficients for nitrogen and oxygen in contact with a platinum surface in accordance with the Low-Pressure method using the theoretical heat flux equation expanded to transition regime. The experimentally obtained energy accommodation coefficients were compared with previous results in the literature as a function of surface temperature, showing good agreement with each other.

In pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) measurements, pressure is deduced from the luminescence intensity of PSP. Since the intensity depends not only on pressure but also on temperature, a PSP result has to be compensated by the temperature of a surface to which PSP is applied. In this paper, we propose a novel combined pressure and temperature sensor composed of PSP and TSP dot arrays. PtTFPP and CdSe/ZnS were adopted as PSP and TSP luminophores, respectively. PtTFPP is widely used as PSP luminophore, and CdSe/ZnS has several favorable features as TSP luminophore such as tunable luminescence peak wavelength, narrow full width at half maximum, high quantum yield and broad absorption band. The dot array sensor was fabricated by inkjet printing of the luminophores. We examined its photostability under an illumination light, pressure and temperature sensitivities. Each luminophore is separately arranged in dot array; thus the interaction between both luminophores is prevented. The dot array sensor has pressure sensitivity of 0.62 %/kPa as a pressure sensor, and temperature sensitivity of -0.61%/K as a temperature sensor

In this paper, we proposed long-lifetime fluorescent measurement by compensation of photo-bleaching with the difference of photo intensity. In this method, difference of fluorescent intensity is compensated using single exponential function to make the difference amount uniform between two fluorescent intensities. We evaluated the dependencies of measurement lifetime by fluorescent lifetime and the sensitivity by the decay coefficient of fluorescent lifetime by numerical simulation. From these results, the proposed method has much higher sensitivity and longer lifetime to conventional compensation method of photo-bleaching. We demonstrate the photosynthesis activity of single Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 in the micro chamber with gas barrier layer.

We developed a novel single cell measurement of photosynthesis activity using fluorescent oxygen sensor in a microchamber with gas barrier wall. We used Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, which is a series of cyanobacteria. The chamber wall contains oxygen sensor and gas barrier wall to measure the dissolved oxygen concentration in the chamber. The oxygen concentration is changed by aerobic respiration and photosynthesis of Synechocystis. The variation of the oxygen concentration was used for evaluation of aerobic respiration and photosynthesis of single Synechocystis. To achieve precise oxygen measurement, we used our proposed compensation method for photo-degradation of fluorescence. We demonstrated photosynthesis evaluation of single Synechocystis and calculated the photosynthetic performance of sugar production of single Synechocystis. © 2012 IEEE.

Molecular beams have been used for diagnoses of solid surfaces and gas-surface interactions. For molecular beams of polyatomic gases, it is important to clarify the distribution over the energy states of the internal degree of freedom. In this study, the rotational energy distribution in a nitrogen molecular beam was spectroscopically measured by the (2+2)N 2-REMPI (Resonantly Enhanced Multiphoton Ionization) technique. REMPI is known to have very high detection sensitivity, which allows us to detect molecules under the very low number density condition like in a molecular beam. A REMPI spectrum indicates the rotational energy distribution of molecules, and is not affected by secondary electrons, which simplifies the analysis. The molecular beam was generated using a Kantrowitz-Grey type beam source. The measured REMPI spectra were well fitted by a theoretical spectrum with the Boltzmann distribution, and the rotational temperatures were obtained. Since the supersonic freejet was employed as a beam source, the rotational temperature in the molecular beam was analyzed in accordance with the frozen rotational temperature in a supersonic freejet using the parameter p0d, which is a product of the source pressure p0 and the orifice diameter d. It was found that the rotational temperature is well described as a function of the parameter p0d under the fixed source tempearture condition. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

In this paper, we proposed long-lifetime and high-sensitive measurement using fluorescent intensity by compensation of photo-bleaching with the difference compensation for cell measurement. Photo-bleaching of fluorescence is one of the most crucial factors to cause measurement error in physiological measurement. In our approach, difference of fluorescent intensity between imaging time is compensated using single exponential function to make the difference amount uniform in each imaging time. We evaluated the dependencies of measurable time and the sensitivity by fluorescent lifetime and the decay coefficient of fluorescent lifetime using numerical simulation. From these results, the proposed method has much higher sensitivity and longer measurable time against conventional compensation method of photo-bleaching. By using the proposed method, we demonstrate the photosynthesis activity of single Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 in the micro chamber with gas barrier layer. © 2012 IEEE.

Optical measurement techniques are useful for experimental studies on micro gas flows, which enable us to non-intrusively measure the flows with a high spatial resolution. The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique, which is based on the emission of photons from luminophore, is a potential diagnostic tool for pressure measurement of micro gas flows. However, measurements by conventional PSPs are limited to the sub-millimeter order spatial resolution of ca. 200 mu m, indicating the difficulty of the micro scale measurements. The present study proposes pressure-sensitive channel chip (PSCC) which is a micro channel with the capability of measuring pressure. We focused on the poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) micro-molding technique, which is one of the most popular techniques to fabricate a micro channel easily. Moreover, PDMS is a polymer used as a binder in PSP because of high optical transparency, gas permeability, and gas diffusivity. Thus, we developed a micro channel by the PDMS micro-molding technique with mixing a pressure-sensitive luminophore into PDMS: i.e. a micro channel fabricated by PSP, which is named PSCC. A flow through a micro converging-diverging nozzle with the throat width of 120 mu m was demonstrated. The pressure distribution on the nozzle surface was successfully obtained by PSCC.

In pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) measurements, pressure is deduced from the luminescence intensity of PSP. Since the intensity depends not only on pressure but also on temperature, PSP results have to be compensated by the surface temperature; thus, we combined temperature-sensitive paint (TSP) with PSP for the compensation. PtTFPP and CdSe/ZnS were adopted as pressure and temperature sensitive luminophores, respectively. In this paper, we report the pressure and temperature sensitivities and the photostability of the combined sensor around an atmospheric pressure and room temperature.

The tangential momentum accommodation coefficient was measured from the gaseous flow through a single microtube. The mass flow rate was measured by the constant volume technique, where the rate is related to time rate of pressure variation in a fixed volume tank. The measured mass flow rate was fitted by the theoretical mass flow rate expressed by the slip velocity at the surface to deduce the slip coefficient, which can be related to the tangential accommodation coefficient. The mean Knudsen number, which is determined as the mean pressure of the inlet and the outlet, was set to be below 0.32, where the second-order slip boundary condition was suggested to be valid. The measurement system was designed to allow using a microtube with large diameter of several hundred micrometers. Since low pressure environment was essential for large Knudsen number condition for the flow through such large microtube, a low leakage measurement system realized by applying the UHV technology is needed. Applicability of sub millimeters size microtubes allowed us to measure the tangential momentum accommodation coefficients on various materials. In this study, we measured the tangential momentum accommodation coefficients on an engineering metal surface for various gas species.

Pressure-sensitive paint (PS?) is an optical measurement technique based on the photo-chemical reaction between oxygen and luminescent molecules, and has potential as a diagnostic tool for pressure measurement in the high Knudsen number regime. However, the application of PSP to micro flow measurement is not straightforward, because conventional PSPs are too thick owing to their polymer binder. In our previous work, we fabricated pressure-sensitive molecular film (PSMF) by using the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. In this study, we investigated the temperature dependency of Pt(II) Mesoporphyrin IX (PtMP) based PSMF, and found that the temperature dependency of the pressure sensitivity is very small. Moreover, we have applied PSMF to the pressure measurement of micro gas flows through the 170 mu m width micro channel and the 100 mu m width micro nozzle, and the pressure distributions were successfully obtained.

The flow around micro-systems is so-called the high-Knudsen number flow. The flow field cannot be treated as a continuum and the thermal conduction should not be treated by ordinary Fourier's law. In high-Knudsen number flows, the gas-surface interaction becomes important and the energy accommodation coefficient is often employed to analyze heat transport phenomena. The energy accommodation coefficient varies depending on combination of surface materials and gas species. Thus, it is important to use the appropriate energy accommodation coefficient for each pair of surface and gas for accurate thermal management. In this report, we obtained the energy accommodation coefficients for argon in contact with platinum surface in accordance with the Low-Pressure method, using the theoretical heat flux equation expanded to transition regime. The experimental result was compared with previous result in literature, which reported a relation between the energy accommodation coefficient and the surface temperature, and they are in good agreement.

Pressure-Sensitive Paint (PSP) is a pressure sensor based on the oxygen quenching of the luminescence of luminophore. In general, the luminescent intensity of PSP depends not only on pressure but also on temperature. Therefore, it is necessary to simultaneously measure the temperature with the pressure to improve the accuracy of PSP measurement. The compound sensor composed of pressure and temperature-sensitive luminophore was developed for simultaneous measurements of pressure and temperature. However, some of such compound sensors suffer the degradation of the sensitivity and other properties. In this paper, we show the possibility of a compound PSP/TSP sensor using PtTFPP and CdSe/ZnS.

Along with the progress in micro- and nano-technologies, such as Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and mu-TAS (Micro-Total Analysis Systems), the Knudsen number, which is a non dimensional parameter for rarefaction, of the flow around and inside the systems becomes large. In such high Knudsen number flows, gas-surface interaction has become important for flow field analyses. To illustrate overall gas-surface interaction without any detailed processes, an accommodation coefficient, a, is the most widely used as an empirical parameter for a practical purpose. One of accommodation coefficients, the tangential momentum accommodation coefficient (TMAC) alpha(t), is in closely related to the loss of the pressure through a micro channel. Therefore, TMAC is an important coefficient for flow inside micro/nano fluidic devices. To obtain TMAC from experiments, the mass flow rate measurements in a microtube were carried out using the constant volume method. The results obtained from the experiments were analyzed in frame of the Navier-Stokes equation associated with the second order velocity slip boundary condition. The mean Knudsen number was less than 0.3, where the velocity slip boundary condition is applicable. From the mass flow rates, the slip coefficient of the boundary condition was obtained, and then, TMAC was determined. The experimental apparatus showed very low leakage rate, and TMAC was determined with a high degree of accuracy. The TMACs of the same surface material with different dimensional parameters were compared for validation of the system.

It is important to understand the behavior of oxygen concentration distribution inside micro-channels for the improvement of micro devices or fuel cells. Most of oxygen sensors such as galvanic or polaro-graphic type cannot be used for unsteady measurements in a small system because of their long response time and large probe heads. We focused on pressure sensitive paint (PSP) for the measurement of the oxygen concentration dissolved in the water in a small system. Up to the present, the PSP techniques have been mainly applied to gas-flows. However, the PSP technique is based on the oxygen quenching of luminescent molecules and would be used in both gas and liquid-flows. In this paper, we investigated the oxygen sensitivity of three types of PSP in the water, and selected a suitable polymer for a binder of PSP.

In order to analyze high Knudsen number flows, it is important to understand the interactions of gas molecules and solid surfaces. Molecular beams have been used to study these interactions. Properties such as the translational energy and momentum of a molecular beam have been analyzed very well; however, there are very few reports analyzing the rotational energy of diatomic or polyatomic molecular beam experimentally. Resonantly enhanced multi-photon ionization (REMPI) is a spectroscopic technique, which is able to measure molecular internal energy distribution in very low density gas flows. In this study, we have detected and analyzed the rotational energy distribution in a nitrogen molecular beam by 2R+2 REMPI.

Heat transfer in micro flows has received much attention along with the development in micro- and nano-technology. In micro- and nano-flow fields, the Knudsen number, which is defined as a ratio of the molecular mean free path to the characteristic length of the system, becomes large because of the small characteristic length. In these so-called "high Knudsen number flows", the number of the collision of gas molecules to the surface is much larger than that of intermolecular collisions. Therefore, it is important for the high Knudsen number flows to understand the gas-surface interaction. Since detailed science of the gas-surface interaction is complicated, the empirical parameter called the accommodation coefficient is widely used for flow analyses of the flows.
In this study, the energy accommodation coefficient for metal surface has been measured experimentally by the Low-Pressure method, in which the energy accommodation coefficient is obtained from the pressure dependency of the heat flux in the free-molecular flow regime. It is not easy to realize the free-molecular flow condition, and, thus, the relation between the heat flux and the pressure extended to much higher pressure condition was employed in this study. Experimental geometry was designed as concentric cylinders, and heat flux between two cylinders, whose surface temperatures was different, was measured. Experimental results are reported for argon and oxygen in contact with a platinum surface. The surface temperature dependence of the energy accommodation coefficient was also studied, and verified by the results of previous work.

There appears fluttering phenomena in a hard disk drive system with high-speed disks rotating inside a closed space, leading to degrade of reading and writing performance. The precise pressure distribution on the disk may improve the performance, but there has been no report because it is very hard to measure the surface pressure using conventional techniques, such as pressure taps. While pressure sensitive paint (PSP) seems to be suitable for the pressure measurement on the disk, we have to compensate its highly temperature-sensitive characteristics of PSP, because the temperature distribution on the disk is not assumed to be uniform. We employed PySO3H based PSP, which has small temperature sensitivity, and have obtained the pressure distribution on the disk rotated at various speeds (10000-20000 rpm) successfully. The result showed that the pressure is higher at the disk outside than at the center, and forms a concentric circle distribution. Moreover, we found that the pressure difference between the inner and outer region of the disk increases as a square of disk rotation speed.

For a hard disk drive, high-speed rotation is required to achieve fast access to data on a disk. However, the high-speed rotation induces pressure fluctuation on the disk and results in disk fluttering. Therefore, it is important to investigate the pressure distribution on the disk to realize high-speed and stable disk rotation. We have measured the pressure distribution on the disk rotated at various speeds by using pressure-sensitive paint, which is appropriate for measuring the pressure of rotating objects. As a result, it is clarified that the pressure distribution forms concentric circles and the pressure difference between the outer and inner part of the disk increases with an increase in the disk rotation speed.

To analyze high Knudsen number flows, interactions of gas molecules and solid surfaces are very important. Molecular beams have been widely used to diagnose these interactions. While properties such as translational energy and momentum of molecular beam have been analyzed very well, there are very few reports analyzing rotational energy of diatomic or polyatomic molecular beam experimentally. Resonantly enhanced multi-photon ionization (REMPI) is a spectroscopic technique, which is able to measure molecular internal energy in very low density gas flows. In this study, we have tried to detect a nitrogen molecular beam by 2R+2 REMPI, and analyzed rotational energy distribution of nitrogen molecules in the molecular beam.

In the field of chemical industries, it is desired to downsize chemical reactors for easy controlling, synthesizing a wide variety of products in small quantities and so on. It is well known that flow field structure in a mixing channel changes from steady to unsteady with an increase in Reynolds number. These flow fields have been analyzed numerically, but there are few reports analyzed experimentally. We have focused on the pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique, which enables us to measure the distribution of oxygen concentrations. Using the PSP technique, we tried to reveal the flow field structure and evaluate the flow unsteadiness in a parallel mixing channel depending on inlet Reynolds numbers.

The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) has potential as a diagnostic tool for pressure measurement in the high Knudsen number regime because it works as a so-called "molecular sensor". However, there arc few reports concerning application of the PSP to micro devices, because the conventional PSP is too thick owing to the use of polymer binder. In our previous work, we have adopted Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique to fabricate pressure sensitive molecular films (PSMFs) using Pd(II) Mesoporphyrin IX (PdMP). The PSMF based on PdMP has pressure sensitivity only at low pressure range (below 3kPa). In this study, we have constructed PSMF composed of Pt(II) Mesoporphyrin IX (PtMP) to be applied to pressure measurement near atmospheric pressure. The pressure sensitivity of PSMF based on PIMP has been tested, and it is clarified that the PSMF of PIMP has equivalent pressure sensitivity of polymer PSP. Moreover, we have applied PSMF to measurement of pressure distribution of micro-channel gas flow, showing its usefulness.

The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique has potential as a diagnostic tool for pressure measurement of micro gas-flows because it is based on interaction of molecules with photons. However, the application of the PSP to micro-flows is very difficult, because the conventional PSP is too thick owing to polymer binder. In our previous work, we adopted Langmuir-Blodgett technique to fabricate a pressure sensitive molecular film (PSMF). In this study, we have constructed PSMF composed of Pt(II) Mesoporphyrin IX (PtMP) to be applied to pressure measurement near atmospheric pressure condition. The pressure sensitivity of PSMF-PtMP was tested, and it was clarified that the PSMF-PtMP has equivalent pressure sensitivity of polymer PSPs (e.g. PtOEP/GP-197). Moreover, we have applied PSMF to pressure measurement of a gas flow through the 170μm width micro-channel, and the pressure distribution on the surface along the channel was successfully obtained.

The pressure sensitive paint (PSP) is very useful and easy way to obtain the pressure distribution on surfaces. Recently, PSP has been applied to various flow fields, like high Knudsen number flows. In this study, we discuss on measurement mechanism of PSP, especially in high Knudsen number regime. It is well known that a pressure tap shows good agreement with surface pressure, and not gas pressure in this regime. Therefore, a PSP experimental result is examined by DSMC method, and compared with gas and surface pressures. We suggest that PSP measures a number flux toward a surface.

The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique has the potential as a diagnostic tool for measurement in the high Knudsen number regime because it works as a so-called "molecular sensor". However, application of the PSP technique to micro-systems is difficult because the conventional PSP is too thick owing to the use of polymer binder and does not have sufficient spatial resolution for pressure measurement of micro-flows. We constructed pressure sensitive molecular film (PSMF), using Platinum (II) MesoporphyrinIX (PtMP) as a luminescent molecule, and have examined our PSMF to evaluate the possibility of application to the measurement of micro-flows. It is clarified that the pressure sensitivity of PtMP based PSMF is equal to the that of conventional polymer PSP. The pressure distribution on the solid surface interacting with supersonic free-jet can be measured with PSMF composed of PtMP. This indicates that the PSMF is feasible to measure the pressure in high Knudsen number flows such as micro-flows.

The Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) is very useful and easy way to obtain the pressure distribution on surfaces. Therefore the PSP has been adopted to various flow fields to obtain pressure distributions, showing good agreement with other methods, such as a pressure tap. Many kinds of flow fields have been used in the manufacturing process, like small scale, low pressure and/or high speed flows
for example, semiconductor manufacturing processes where a mean free path of gas molecules is large, and micro-/nano-systems where a characteristic length is small. Recently the PSP is applied to these high Knudsen number flows. Usually it is considered that the luminescent of the PSP represents the surface pressure, but it is not clear yet that this "pressure" means "static" or "total" pressure. The PSP is considered to be in the boundary layer, leading to the local equilibrium of oxygen molecular density between in the gas phase and in the PSP is achieved. This becomes a large problem especially in the high Knudsen number regime. The mechanism of the PSP has been mainly discussed focused on the luminescence intensity and the oxygen quenching of luminescent molecules. Here, in this study, we tried to relate the flux of oxygen molecules and the surface pressure to the luminescence intensity of the PSP, and clarify the limit of application from the molecular kinetics point of view. The main target of this problem was in the high Knudsen number and the high Mach number flow fields. Copyright © 2007 by ASME.

Pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique is based on the interaction of oxygen molecules with luminescent molecules, and it seems suitable for analyses of high Knudsen number flows which require diagnostic tools in the molecular level. However, application of the PSP technique to micro-devices is still very difficult because of the thickness of PSP layers of the order of microns and the aggregation of luminescent molecules caused by the "painting" methods. To resolve the problems of ordinary PSPs mentioned above, we adopt the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method to fabricate pressure sensitive molecular films (PSMFs) having nanometer order thickness. The fundamental properties of the PSMFs such as the pressure sensitivity and the surface roughness are examined, to evaluate the feasibility of the PSMF technique for pressure measurement around micro-devices. A PSMF based on palladium(II) mesoporphyrin DC shows high pressure sensitivity in low pressure regime, while a PSMF based on platinum(II) mesoporphyrin IX is optimum for atmospheric pressure. It is also clarified that the PSMFs do not degrade the roughness of solid surfaces. The results indicate the feasibility of the PSMF technique for pressure measurement in high Knudsen number flows such as micro flows.

The Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) is very useful and easy way to obtain the pressure distribution on surfaces. The pressure distribution obtained by the paint shows good agreement with that by other methods, like a pressure tap. Recently, the paint has been adopted to the high Knudsen number regime. The mechanism of the PSP is mainly discussed within the framwork of the luminescence intensity and the oxygen quenching, while it is unclear that luminescence intensity is really proportional to the pressure, especially in the high Knudsen number regime. Usually it is considered that the luminescent represents a pressure, but it is not clear yet that this &quot;pressure&quot; means &quot;static&quot; or &quot;total&quot; pressure. Here, in this study, we tried to relate the flux of oxygen molecules and a pressure to the luminescence intensity, and clarify the limit of application from the molecular kinetics point of view.

Pressure sensitive paints are widely used in many applications. The pressure distribution on surfaces obtained by the paint shows good agreement with that by other methods, like a pressure tap. Recently, the paint has been adopted to high Knudsen number flows, such as rarefied gas flows and micro/nano flows. The mechanism of the paint is based on the oxygen quenching of luminescent molecules in the paint. Usually the static pressure is inversely proportional to the luminescent intensity of the paint, because of the static gas condition. In high Knudesen number flows, it is not clear whether this relation holds or not. Here, in this study, we tried to relate the number flux of oxygen molecules and the pressures to the luminescence intensity, and clarify the limit of application in high Knudsen number flows.

Gas flows in micro- and nano-systems having high Knudsen number must be treated as molecular flows, and experimental analyses of thermo-fluid phenomena in micro- and nano-systems need measurement techniques employing "molecular sensors". However, such measurement techniques are behind in development compared with molecular simulation techniques for numerical analyses. Pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique is based on the interaction of oxygen molecules with luminescent molecules, and it seems suitable for analyses of high Knudsen number flows, which require diagnostic tools in the molecular level. In this study, we fabricate pressure sensitive molecular films (PSMF) with very small thickness based on the PSP technique and the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) film technique. It is clarified that the PSMF composed of palladium (II) mesoporphyrin IX (PdMP) as a luminophore and arachidic acid as a buffer has comparable pressure sensitivity with conventional PSPs in low pressure regime with high Knudsen number, even if the amount of the luminescent molecules in the PSMF layer is much smaller than that in conventional PSPs. The results indicate the feasibility of PSMF technique for pressure measurement in high Knudsen number flows such as micro flows.

To measure pressure distribution in high Knudsen number regimes, we have adopted a pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique, because the PSP works as a so-called &quot;molecular sensor&quot;. However, application of the PSP to micro-devices is very difficult because the conventional PSP is too thick owing to the use of polymer binder. Moreover, they have not sufficient spatial resolution for pressure measurement of micro-flows because of the aggregation of luminescent molecules in polymer binders. In our past work, we have adopted Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique to fabricate pressure sensitive molecular films (PSMFs) using Pd(II) Mesoporphyrin IX (PdMP) to resolve the problems of ordinary PSPs mentioned above. However the luminescent intensity of PSMF is low, leading to low SN ratio because the amount of luminescent molecules in the layer is small. In this study, we have applied localized surface plasmon resonance to increase luminescent intensity of PSMF and have tested PSMFs to evaluate the feasibility of the pressure measurement around the micro-devices. A PSMF with nanometer order thickness and high spatial resolution is suitable for analyses of micro-flow.

Experimental analyses of thermo-fluid phenomena of micro- and nano-flows with high Knudsen number need the measurement techniques based on interaction of atoms or molecules with photons. The pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique has the capability to be applied to high Knudsen number flows, such as micro-flows and low density gas flows. In this study, to inspect the feasibility of PSP for measurement of pressure on a solid surface in high Knudsen number flows, fundamental properties of PSPs are examined especially in the range of pressure below 1 Torr. As an application of PSP to measurement in high Knudsen number conditions, the pressure distribution on a jet-impinging small solid surface is measured. However, application of the PSP technique to a micro-system is very difficult, because of large thickness of conventional PSPs. Therefore, we have adopted Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method to fabricate a pressure sensitive molecular film (PSMF) applicable to pressure measurement around micro/nano devices. Finally, the dependence of luminescence intensity of PSP on the molecular number flux onto the solid surface is discussed, because molecular number flux is an important quantity to analyze the interaction between high Knudsen number flows and solid surfaces.

The pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique has the capability to be applied to high Knudsen number flows, such as low density gas flows, micro-flows, and so on. However, applications of the PSP technique to micro/nanodevices have never been reported, because of the thickness of the conventional PSPs and of the low resolution caused by the aggregation of luminescent molecules. In this study, we have constructed ultrathin PSP films for micro/nanodevices by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. Two luminophores are examined to select the suitable one for LB-PSP. Moreover, the dependence of luminescence intensity and oxygen sensitivity of the LB-PSP on the number of the layer is clarified.

The pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique has the potential as a diagnostic tool for measurements in the high Knudsen number regime because it works as a so-called &quot;molecular sensor&quot;. However, application of the PSP technique to micro-systems has never been reported because the conventional PSP is too thick owing to the use of polymer binder. We constructed PSP molecular films, using Pd(II) Octaethylporphine (PdOEP) and an amphiphilic palladium metal complex, and have examined these PSP molecular films to evaluate the possibility of application to the measurement of micro flow. It is found that the latter PSP molecular film has sufficient sensitivity in the low pressure region with high Knudsen number, even if the amount of the luminescent molecules in PSP molecular film layer is smaller than that in conventional PSP. This indicates that the PSP molecular film is feasible to measure the pressure in high Knudsen number flow such as micro flows.

PDMSは高い生体適合性，高いガス透過性，高い鋳型への追随性，高い光学的透明性，低自家蛍光などの優れた特長を有し，広範な分野で利用されている．特に，マイクロ流体チップとして一般的に利用され，生化学分析，マイクロ流体力学分野をはじめとして重要な材料である．また，マイクロデバイスの小型集積化は非常に活発に研究されており，ナノインプリントをはじめとしてより小スケールのチップ作製法が注目されている．このような利用の観点から，PDMSのミクロスケールでの熱物性とくに硬化過程における空間均一性の評価と制御手法が重要となる．そこで本研究では，単一分子計測法(SMT)により，の硬化過程における経時変化を計測し，ミクロスケールでの熱物性変化の空間構造を調査した．具体的には，PDMSに極微量の蛍光分子を混入し，その熱運動を顕微鏡で計測し，熱運動の活発さ（拡散係数の大小分析）を解析することで空間構造を評価した．

沸騰現象及びそれに伴う熱輸送現象に関する知識は，相変化を利用する熱機器の高効率化には極めて重要である．特に固気液三相界面位置(コンタクトライン)の時間的・空間的変化は伝熱面温度分布に対して支配的因子と考えられており，これらの間の関係を明らかにすることが強く求められている．従来研究では，赤外線(IR)カメラを用いた温度分布の計測が行われているが，IRカメラでの精密な計測には伝熱面上に不透明の赤外線感受性層が必要となるため，コンタクトライン位置が特定できず，コンタクトライン近傍での熱輸送計測という観点からは十分な研究が行われているとは言い難かった．そこで本研究では感温塗料計測法によって，沸騰流動場での時間分解固気液界面・温度場同時計測法の開発を行い，その有効性を示した．

紙流体チップによる分析技術がWhitesidesらによって2007年に提案されて以降，同分野の研究が盛んに行われている．紙流体チップは，ろ紙上に流路パターンを形成し，この流路上で生化学分析を可能としたデバイスであり，特に「紙」である点から，安価，軽量の上，毛細管現象による試料流体の輸送が可能なため，ポンプなどによる送液機構が不要であるという利点がある．一方で，紙であることから実現可能な機能に大きな制限がある．本研究では，電気回路を紙流体チップに埋め込むことで，従来の紙流体チップでは実現が困難であった化学分析を可能とした．また電気回路の利用を実現したことで，今後多様な機能の実現可能性があると期待できる．