Surface plasmon polariton analogue to Young's double-slit experiment

When a light wave strikes a metal film it can, under appropriate conditions, excite a surface plasmon polariton (SPP)--a surface electromagnetic wave that is coupled to the free electrons in the metal. Such SPPs are involved in a wide range of phenomena, including nanoscale optical waveguiding, perfect lensing, extraordinary optical transmission, subwavelength lithography and ultrahigh-sensitivity biosensing. However, before the full potential of technology based on SPPs (termed 'plasmonics') can be realized, many fundamental questions regarding the interaction between light and matter at the nanoscale need to be answered. For over 200 years, Young's double-slit experiment has been a valuable pedagogical tool for demonstrating the wave nature of light. Here, we perform a double-slit experiment with SPPs to reveal the strong analogy between SPP propagation along the surface of metallic structures and light propagation in conventional dielectric components (such as glass waveguides). This allows us to construct a general framework to describe the propagation, diffraction and interference of SPPs. It also suggests that there is an effective diffraction limit for the lateral confinement of SPPs on metal stripe waveguides, and justifies the use of well-developed concepts from conventional optics and photonics in the design of new plasmonic devices.     

Readout responses of inclined strips in position-sensitivedetectors

Readout responses for the inclined strips in position-sensitive detectors have been studied using theoretical predictions and experimental results. Inclined strips are almost along the displacement direction of incident particles. Rotating conventional strips to near horizontal strips decreases the number of strips by a tangential factor for long-length position sensing. In addition to the channel reduction, the inclined strips modify about 10% in the readout linearity compared to the long-length zigzag patterns. There is resolution degradation because of the inherent high sensitivity of these strips to the avalanche size (about 8% of the detector full length). Double peak responses were observed for sensing the positions of the incident particles. Our theoretical predictions and experimental results are discussed in this paper     

Development and applications of a compact hybrid tabletop terawatt chirped-pulse amplification Ti:sapphire-Nd:glass laser for x-ray lasing and harmonic generation

A hybrid tabletop (2 m x 3 m) terawatt chirped-pulse amplification Ti:sapphire-Nd:glass laser (1054 nm, 475 fs, 500 mJ, 9 x 10(17) W cm(-2)) has been developed for laser-matter experiments. An overall gain factor of 10(10) was achieved for the laser. The results of laser applications in the studies of soft-x-ray Ni-like Mo 18.9-nm lasing and of harmonic generation from solid surfaces are presented.     

Inverted organic photovoltaic device with a new electron transport layer

We demonstrate that there is a new solution-processed electron transport layer, lithium-doped zinc oxide (LZO), with high-performance inverted organic photovoltaic device. The device exhibits a fill factor of 68.58%, an open circuit voltage of 0.86 V, a short-circuit current density of −9.35 cm/mA² along with 5.49% power conversion efficiency. In addition, we studied the performance of blend ratio dependence on inverted organic photovoltaics. Our device also demonstrates a long stability shelf life over 4 weeks in air.     

Sulfonated Reduced Graphene Oxide (RGO-SO3H): As an Efficient Nanocatalyst for One-Pot Synthesis of 2-Amino-3-cyano-7-hydroxy-4H-chromenes Derivatives in Water

Sulfonated reduced graphene oxide (RGO-SO₃H) was found to be an efficient catalyst for one-pot synthesis of a class of 2-amino-3-cyano-7-hydroxy-4H-chromenes derivatives using multicomponent reaction (MCR) of phenols, aldehydes and malononitrile under mild and green conditions. The reaction was performed in water as a green solvent and range of 2-amino-3-cyano-7-hydroxy-4H-chromenes were obtained in good to excellent yields. The RGO-SO₃H was reusable at least 5 times without significant decrease in its catalytic activity.     

Hilbert Transform and Statistical Analysis for Channel Selection and Epileptic Seizure Prediction

This paper is concerned with Electroencephalography (EEG) seizure prediction, which means the detection of the pre-ictal state prior to ictal activity occurrence. The basic idea of the proposed approach for EEG seizure prediction is to work on the signals in the Hilbert domain. The operation in the Hilbert domain guarantees working on the low-pass spectra of EEG signal segments to avoid artifacts. Signal attributes in the Hilbert domain including amplitude, derivative, local mean, local variance, and median are analyzed statistically to perform the channel selection and seizure prediction tasks. Pre-defined prediction and false-alarm probabilities are set to select the channels, the attributes, and bins of probability density functions (PDFs) that can be useful for seizure prediction. Due to the multi-channel nature of this process, there is a need for a majority voting strategy to take a decision for each signal segment. Simulation results reveal an average prediction rate of 96.46%, an average false-alarm rate of 0.028077/h and an average prediction time of 60.1595 min for a 90-min prediction horizon.

     

Design and implementation of tuned viscoelastic dampers for vibration control in milling

Passive means of vibration attenuation have been employed successfully and efficiently in machining systems such as turning and milling. Traditional approach to controlling vibration in a milling system is to develop control mechanisms for cutting tools or machine spindles. However, due to the nature of milling operations where the cutting tools rotate at high speed, the passive vibration control methods find very limited application with the traditional approach. In order to utilise the potential of the passive vibration control methodology in milling applications, the milling operation should be viewed as a system comprising an elastic structure and operation parameters. Dynamics of this closed-loop system should improve with improvement in dynamics of any of the system components, especially within the elastic structure that comprises the cutting tool, the machine tool, the workholding system and the workpiece. Although the level of improvement will vary depending on which component of the elastic chain is targeted for this purpose. This paper presents the development and testing of tuned viscoelastic dampers (TVDs) for vibration control through their application on a workpiece in milling operations. This work targets workpiece held on a palletised workholding system for the control of unwanted vibration and thus deviates from the traditional approach where cutting tool and/or machine spindles are targeted for vibration control strategies. Palletised workholding systems, due to their compact design, offer an opportunity to design passive damping mechanisms that are easier to implement in the case of a milling system. The TVD developed through this research is based on a commercially available viscoelastic damping polymer. Advantage of such materials is their high damping performance over a wide range of excitation frequencies. The TVD design process has used a unique combination of analytical modelling with experimental FRF data. Modal impact testing showed that the application of the TVD reduced the amplitude of vibration acceleration by 20 dB for the target mode. Since the target mode corresponded to torsional vibration, the TVD was effective in two planar coordinates, i.e. X and Y. In addition, the TVD also significantly reduced the amplitude of a vibration mode far from the mode it was designed for. The system has been tested experimentally to demonstrate significant reduction in vibration amplitudes during a milling process. The milling tests with different combinations of cutting parameters show that multi-TVD approach is always valid regardless of the parameters being used. The only requirement for TVDs to function effectively is that the natural frequency of the system, for which the TVDs are designed, is excited during the milling process.     

Thermal conductivity prediction of foods by Neural Network and Fuzzy (ANFIS) modeling techniques

A neuro-fuzzy modeling technique was used to predict the effective of thermal conductivity of various fruits and vegetables. A total of 676 data point was used to develop the neuro-fuzzy model considering the inputs as the fraction of water content, temperature and apparent porosity of food materials. The complexity of the data set which incorporates wide ranges of temperature (including those below freezing points) made it difficult for the data to be predicted by normal analytical and conventional models. However the adaptive neuro-fuzzy model (ANFIS) was able to predict conductivity values which closely matched the experimental values by providing lowest mean square error compared to multivariable regression and conventional artificial neural network (ANN) models. This method also alleviates the problem of determining the hidden structure of the neural network layer by trial and error.     

Analyzing and enhancing the parallel sort operation on multithreaded architectures

The sort operation is a core part of many critical applications (e.g., database management systems). Despite the large efforts to parallelize it, the fact that it suffers from high data-dependencies vastly limits its performance. Multithreaded architectures are emerging as the most demanding technology in leading-edge processors. These architectures include simultaneous multithreading, chip multiprocessors, and machines combining different multithreading technologies. In this paper, we analyze the memory behavior and improve the performance of the most recent parallel radix and quick integer sort algorithms on modern multithreaded architectures. We achieve speedups up to 4.69× for radix sort and up to 4.17× for quicksort on a machine with 4 multithreaded processors compared to single threaded versions, respectively. We find that since radix sort is CPU-intensive, it exhibits better results on chip multiprocessors where multiple CPUs are available. While quicksort is accomplishing speedups on all types of multithreading processers due to its ability to overlap memory miss latencies with other useful processing.     

Tree colonization trends on a sediment bar after a major flood

Tree mortality and regeneration in riparian areas are greatly influenced by flooding. The elevational distribution of Salix spp. and Robinia pseudoacacia were investigated by observing densities and standing conditions before and after a major flood on a sediment bar in the middle reaches of the Arakawa River in Kumagaya, Japan. The subsequent tree recruitment was also examined. R. pseudoacacia was easily washed away with the eroded sediment, whereas Salix spp. was found to be more tolerant. Both species were able to survive even after collapsing, provided that their roots were fully or partially embedded in the sediment. Re‐shooting of collapsed trees, rather than emergence from saplings (either by seeds or vegetative fragments), was observed to be the major method of recruitment after the flood. Therefore, tree density before the flood was unchanged, unless the trees were subject to washing away. Salix spp. recruitment was mainly observed in low‐lying areas and R. pseudoacacia in elevated areas. Recruitment from saplings was species‐specific. Salix spp. at high elevations originated mainly from shoot fragments as they need high levels of moisture for seed germination and at higher elevations, sediment moisture content is very low. R. pseudoacacia, on other hand, originated mainly from roots and seeds. At a given elevation, past recruitment patterns indicated that the annual recruitment of trees increased with tree density up to a particular threshold of recruitment density. Further increases in tree density beyond that optimum value resulted in a decline in recruitment. Furthermore, threshold density was observed to increase along with elevation for R. pseudoacacia while declining with Salix spp. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.