The hot He-burning horizontal-branch (HB) stars and their progeny are most likely dominant ultraviolet (UV) sources in the old stellar population systems such as globular clusters (GCs). Integrated FUV flux can be an age indicator of GCs and allow us to investigate age distributions of GCs within a given galaxy or between galaxies. The unprecedented set of UV photometry for M31 by Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), coupled with most recent detailed population models enable to study detailed global UV properties of M31 GCs.

A top gate pentacene TFT employing vapor deposited polyimide as a gate dielectric was fabricated. Polyimide was co-evaporated from 6FDA and ODA monomers and annealed at 150 °C in vacuum. The degree of imidization was verified by FT-IR. A breakdown voltage of 0.9 MV/cm of polyimide film was measured by MIM structure. A top gate pentacene TFT with W/L=25 has 0.01 cm2/Vs as a mobility, about 103 as an on-off ratio (In/off), −7.5V as a threshold voltage and 9 V per decade as a sub-threshold slope.

We present our recent revision of model constructions for the horizontal-branch (HB) morphology of globular clusters, which suggests the HB morphology is more sensitive to age compared to our earlier models. We also present our high precision CCD photometry for the classic second parameter pair M3 and M13. The relative age dating based on this photometry indicates that M13 is indeed older than M3 by 1.7 Gyr. This is consistent with the age difference predicted from our new models, which provides a further support that the HB morphology is a reliable age indicator in most population II stellar systems.

GaN nanorods were grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by hydride vapor phase epitaxy HVPE) through a self-assemble process. The nanorods were grown at high growth rate, with the c-axis maintained perpendicular to the substrate surface. The dependence of rod diameter and density on growth conditions was systematically investigated. The average diameter was minimized to 80-120 nm and the density of the GaN nanorods was 100×1012 rods/m2.

Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited tungsten nitride (PECVD-W67N33) thin film has been proposed as a diffusion barrier. The resistivity and lattice constant of PECVD-W67N33 are 110-28 μΩ-cm and 4.134 Å, respectively and this film has compressive stress of 2.6 × 1010 dyne/cm2. Thermal stability of PECVD-W67N33 as a diffusion barrier reveals that the interdiffusions between Al or W and Si substrate can be prevented by N interstitial atoms in fcc-W2N grains and grain boundaries.