The electrical lubricants have been accepted to reduce friction of contacts and to prevent degradation of contact resistance. However, as the lubricant has an electrical insulation property it seems that application to contact surface is unsuitable for contact resistance. These mechanisms in contact interfaces have not fully understood. In this paper, relationships between contact resistance and contact load were examined with both clean and lubricated surfaces. Orientation of the lubricant molecules was observed by high magnification images of STM and AFM. There was no difference in contact resistance characteristics for both clean and lubricated surfaces in spite of lubricants thickness. The molecules were orientated perpendicular to the surface. This fact turns over an established theory of adsorption of non-polar lubricant to surface.

The use of an interface-planarization (IP) prism in millimeter-wave ellipsometry is proposed to achieve reproducible measurements of soft, protean, and non-flat samples. The complex relative dielectric constants of a slice of bovine tissue were successfully measured at frequencies from 90 to 140 GHz using the IP prism to confirm its applicability. The use of the IP prism was found to be advantageous for protecting the sample surface from the desiccation during the measurements.

Two types of low-coherence millimeter-wave sources for photonic millimeter-wave ellipsometry are compared. A broadband signal (125-GHz bandwidth) or a narrowband one (0.5-GHz bandwidth) is used to measure the complex relative dielectric constants of purified water, and the narrowband signal is revealed to be suitable for accurate measurement.

We have determined the thickness and optical constants (refractive index and extinction coefficient) of each layer in the multi-layer organic light emitting diode (OLED) devices based on phosphorescent platinum octaethyl porphine (PtOEP) using a phase modulated spectroscopic ellipsometer. The thickness of each layer estimated from the ellipsometric measurement is different from the thickness measured with quartz oscillator during the evaporation of organic materials. The deviation of total multi-layer thickness is about 5%, while the deviation in each of N, N'-bis(1-naphtyl)-N, N'-diphenyl-1,1'-biphenyl-4,4'-diamine (α-NPD) and aluminum tris 8-hydroxyquinoline (Alq3) layers is about 20-25%. Additionally the spectra of refractive index and extinction coefficient of Alq3 and α-NPD layers are different from those that are measured using the single layer films. These results are understood by penetration of organic material from the neighboring layers in the multi-layer structure devices.

In the paper, a theoretical and experimental investigation of a new type of the in-line optical fiber ellipsometer is described. The discussed device, based on the Sagnac interferometer, has the possibility to detect the changes of full polarisation state. The detection of the polarisation state in real time by a system containing standard single-mode fiber and an appropriate applied modulation technique is a new system property. The device uses interferometric measurement technique based on the fourth Fresnel-Arago's condition, which secures very good system accuracy and stability, also presented in the paper.