Photonic crystal point-shift nanolaser with ultimate small modal volume

A photonic crystal nanolaser consisting of only the shift of two lattice points was fabricated by HJ/Xe inductively coupled plasma etching. The room temperature lasing was observed by photopumping. The three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain calculation showed that the lasing mode has small modal volume close to (lambda/2n)(3).

Design of spectrometer based on volume phase grating for near infrared range

In order to design and fabricate a spectrometer for the infrared range widely used in the different applications, Volume Phase Grating (VPG) with. low Polarization Dependence Loss (PDL) and high efficiency has been adopted as the dispersion element. VPG is constructed by coating an optical substrate with a thin film of dichromated. gelatin and exposing the film to two mutually coherent laser beams to form index modulation. The diffraction efficiency for a VPG is governed by Bragg effects. The depth (d) and index modulation contrast of the grating structure control the efficiency at which the light is diffracted when the Bragg condition is satisfied. Gradient index lens with high performance and low aberration are used as collimating system instead of standard lens. The spot diagrams and MTF curve of the collimating lens are shown in the paper. The receive system is InCaAs photodiode (PD) array including 512 pixels with 25 mum pitch. The spectrum resolution of the spectrometer reaches to 0.2nm and wavelength accuracy is 40pm.

Tolerance analysis for incident angle of volume phase holographic grating used in optical channel performance monitor

Transmission Volume Phase Holographic Grating (VPHG) is adopted as spectral element in the real-time Optical Channel Performance Monitor (OCPM), which is in dire need in the Dense Wavelength -division-multiplexing(DATDM) system. And the tolerance of incident angle, which can be fully determined by two angles: 6 and (p, is finally inferred in this paper. Commonly, the default setting is that the incident plane is perpendicular to the fringes when the incident angle is mentioned. Now the situation out of the vertical is discussed. By combining the theoretic analysis of VPHG with its use in OCPM and changing 6 and (0 precisely in the computation and experiment, the two physical quantities which can fully specify the performance of VPHG the diffraction efficiency and the resolution, are analyzed. The results show that the diffraction efficiency varies greatly with the change of 6 or (p. But from the view of the whole C-band, only the peak diffraction efficiency drifts to another wavelength. As for the resolution, it deteriorates more rapidly than diffraction efficiency with the change of (p, while more slowly with the change of theta. Only if \phi\less than or equal to+/-1degrees and alpha(B) -0.5 less than or equal to theta less than or equal to alpha(B) + 0.5, the performance of the VPHG would be good enough to be used in OCPM system.

Shear transformation zone volume determining ductile–brittle transition of bulk metallic glasses

Three-point bending experiments were performed on as-cast and annealed samples of Zr52.5Cu17.9Ni14.6Al10Ti5 (Vit105) bulk metallic glasses over a wide range of temperatures varying from room temperature (293 K) to liquid nitrogen temperature (77 K). The results demonstrated that the free volume decrease due to annealing and/or cryogenic temperature can reduce the propensity for the formation of multiple shear bands and hence deteriorate plastic deformation ability. We clearly observed a sharp ductile-to-brittle transition (DBT), across which microscopic fracture feature transfers from micro-scale vein patterns to nano-scale periodic corrugations. Macroscopically, the corresponding fracture mode changes from ductile shear fracture to brittle tensile fracture. The shear transformation zone volume, taking into account free volume, temperature and strain rate, is proposed to quantitatively characterize the DBT behavior in fracture of metallic glasses.

A multi-moment finite volume formulation for shallow water equations on unstructured mesh

A novel and accurate finite volume method has been presented to solve the shallow water equations on unstructured grid in plane geometry. In addition to the volume integrated average (VIA moment) for each mesh cell, the point values (PV moment) defined on cell boundary are also treated as the model variables. The volume integrated average is updated via a finite volume formulation, and thus is numerically conserved, while the point value is computed by a point-wise Riemann solver. The cell-wise local interpolation reconstruction is built based on both the VIA and the PV moments, which results in a scheme of almost third order accuracy. Efforts have also been made to formulate the source term of the bottom topography in a way to balance the numerical flux function to satisfy the so-called C-property. The proposed numerical model is validated by numerical tests in comparison with other methods reported in the literature. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A global shallow water model using high order multi-moment constrained finite volume method and icosahedral grid

A novel accurate numerical model for shallow water equations on sphere have been developed by implementing the high order multi-moment constrained finite volume (MCV) method on the icosahedral geodesic grid. High order reconstructions are conducted cell-wisely by making use of the point values as the unknowns distributed within each triangular cell element. The time evolution equations to update the unknowns are derived from a set of constrained conditions for two types of moments, i.e. the point values on the cell boundary edges and the cell-integrated average. The numerical conservation is rigorously guaranteed. in the present model, all unknowns or computational variables are point values and no numerical quadrature is involved, which particularly benefits the computational accuracy and efficiency in handling the spherical geometry, such as coordinate transformation and curved surface. Numerical formulations of third and fourth order accuracy are presented in detail. The proposed numerical model has been validated by widely used benchmark tests and competitive results are obtained. The present numerical framework provides a promising and practical base for further development of atmospheric and oceanic general circulation models. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effect of volume ratio on thermocapillary flow in liquid bridges of high-Prandtl-number fluids

In present study, the transition of thermocapillary convection from the axisymmetric stationary flow to oscillatory flow in liquid bridges of 5cst silicon oil (aspect ratio 1.0 and 1.6) is investigated in microgravity conditions by the linear instability analysis. The corresponding marginal instability boundary is closely related to the gas/liquid configuration of the liquid bridge noted as volume ratio. With the increasing volume ratio, the marginal instability boundary consists of the increasing branch and the decreasing branch. A gap region exists between the branches where the critical Marangoni number of the corresponding axisymmetric stationary flow increases drastically. Particularly, a unique axisymmetric oscillatory flow (the critical azimuthal wave number is m=0) in the gap region is reported for the liquid bridge of aspect ratio 1.6. Moreover, the energy transfer between the basic state and the disturbance fields of the thermocapillary convection is analyzed at the corresponding critical Marangoni number, which reveals different major sources of the energy transfer for the development of the disturbances in regimes of the increasing branch, the gap region and the decreasing branch, respectively.

A study of the influence of initial liquid volume on the capillary flow in an interior corner under microgravity

In this work the influence of initial liquid volume on the capillary flow in an interior corner is studied systematically by microgravity experiments using the drop tower, under three different conditions: the Concus-Finn condition is satisfied,close to and dissatisfied. The capillary flow is studied by discussing the movement of tip of the meniscus in the corner. Experimental results show that with the increase of initial liquid volume the tip location increases for a given microgravity time, the achievable maximum tip velocity increases and the flow reaches its maximum tip velocity earlier However, the results for the three different conditions show some difference. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

Determination of arsenic species by capillary zone electrophoresis with large-volume field-amplified stacking injection

Determination of arsenic species by large-volume field amplified stacking injection-capillary zone electrophoresis (LV-FASI-CZE) is reported in this paper. Whole column injection was employed. The optimum buffer pH for the separation of weak acids was discussed. It was found that the optimum buffer to analyze the stacked arsenate (As(V)), monomethylarsonate (MMA), and dimethylarsinate (DMA) was 25 mm phosphate at pH 6.5. However, the optimum buffer to analyze the concentrated arsenite (As(III)) was 20 mm phosphate - 10 mm borate at pH 9.28. The limits of detection of the method developed were 0.026 mg/L for As(III), 0.023 mg/L for As(V), 0.043 mg/L for MMA, and 0.018 mg/L for DMA. An enrichment factor of 34-100 for several arsenic species was obtained. In the end, this method was applied to determine the arsenic concentration in the environmental reference materials to show the usefulness of the method developed.

Spontaneous volume transition of polyampholyte nanocomposite hydrogels based on pure electrostatic interaction

A circular system is employed in this paper to investigate the swelling behaviors of polyampholyte hydrogels; this circular system can effectively eliminate the disturbance of various factors and keep the surrounding environment constant. It is found that there exists a spontaneous volume transition to the collapsed state of polyampholyte hydrogels, which is attributed to the overshooting effect, and the transition can occur repeatedly under certain conditions. C-13 NMR is employed to investigate the swelling behavior of polyampholyte hydrogels.

The time delay in electrochemical measurements of a finite-volume system

For a sphere electrode enclosed in finite-volume electrolyte, the measured current will deviate from the result predicted by the semi-infinite diffusion theory after some time. By random-walk simulation, we compared this time to the one needed for diffusion layer to reach electrolyte boundary, and revealed a clear signal delay of electrochemical current. Further we presented a quantitative description of this delay time. The simulation results suggested that the semi-infinite diffusion theory can even be applied when the theoretical diffusion layer grows to 1.28 electrolyte thicknesses, with an accuracy better than 0.5%. We attributed this time delay to the molecules' finite propagation velocity. Finally, we discussed how this delay can influence and facilitate the following electrochemical detection towards the nanometer and single-cell scale.

Studies of effect of phase volume ratio on transfer of ionizable species across the water/1,2-dichloroethane interface by a three-electrode setup

The electrochemical behavior of pyridine distribution at the water/1,2-dichloroethane interface with variable phase volume ratios (r=V-0/V-W) was investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The system was composed of an aqueous droplet supported on a Ag/AgCl disk electrode covered with an organic solution or an organic droplet supported on a Ag/AgTPBCl disk electrode covered with an aqueous solution. In this way, a conventional three-electrode potentiostat can be used to study an ionizable compound transfer process at a liquid/liquid interface with a wide range of phase volume ratios (from 0.0004 to 1 and from 1 to 2500). Using this special cell we designed, only very small volumes of both phase were needed for r equal to unity, which is very useful for the investigation of the distribution of ionizable species at a biphasic system when the available amount of species is limited. The ionic partition diagrams were obtained for different phase volume ratios.