Stacked pin Devices for Imaging Applications

In this paper we present results on the optimization of device architectures for colour and imaging applications, using a device with a TCO/pinpi'n/TCO configuration. The effect of the applied voltage on the color selectivity is discussed. Results show that the spectral response curves demonstrate rather good separation between the red, green and blue basic colors. Combining the information obtained under positive and negative applied bias a colour image is acquired without colour filters or pixel architecture. A low level image processing algorithm is used for the colour image reconstruction.

Cork processing wastewater treatment/valorisation by nanofiltration

Nanofiltration process for the treatment/valorisation of cork processing wastewaters was studied. A DS-5 DK 20/40 (GE Water Technologies) nanofiltration membrane/module was used, having 2.09 m(2) of surface area. Hydraulic permeability was determined with pure water and the result was 5.2 L.h(-1).m(-2).bar(-1). The membrane presents a rejection of 51% and 99% for NaCl and MgSO4 salts, respectively. Two different types of regimes were used in the wastewaters filtration process, total recycling mode and concentration mode. The first filtration regime showed that the most favourable working transmembrane pressure was 7 bar working at 25 degrees C. For the concentration mode experiments it was observed a 30% decline of the permeate fluxes when a volumetric concentration factor of 5 was reached. The permeate COD, BOD5, colour and TOC rejection values remained well above the 90% value, which allows, therefore, the concentration of organic matter (namely the tannin fraction) in the concentrate stream that can be further used by other industries. The permeate characterization showed that it cannot be directly discharged to the environment as it does not fulfil the values of the Portuguese discharge legislation. However, the permeate stream can be recycled to the process (boiling tanks) as it presents no colour and low TOC (< 60 ppm) or if wastewater discharge is envisaged we have observed that the permeate biodegradability is higher than 0.5, which renders conventional wastewater treatments feasible.

: SiC Multilayer Photonic Structures with Self Optical Bias Amplification

Characteristics of tunable wavelength pi'n/pin filters based on a-SiC:H multilayered stacked cells are studied both experimental and theoretically. Results show that the device combines the demultiplexing operation with the simultaneous photodetection and self amplification of the signal. An algorithm to decode the multiplex signal is established. A capacitive active band-pass filter model is presented and supported by an electrical simulation of the state variable filter circuit. Experimental and simulated results show that the device acts as a state variable filter. It combines the properties of active high-pass and low-pass filter sections into a capacitive active band-pass filter using a changing photo capacitance to control the power delivered to the load.

Structural and optical studies of Au doped titanium oxide films

Thin films of TiO2 were doped with Au by ion implantation and in situ during the deposition. The films were grown by reactive magnetron sputtering and deposited in silicon and glass substrates at a temperature around 150 degrees C. The undoped films were implanted with Au fiuences in the range of 5 x 10(15) Au/cm(2)-1 x 10(17) Au/cm(2) with a energy of 150 keV. At a fluence of 5 x 10(16) Au/cm(2) the formation of Au nanoclusters in the films is observed during the implantation at room temperature. The clustering process starts to occur during the implantation where XRD estimates the presence of 3-5 nm precipitates. After annealing in a reducing atmosphere, the small precipitates coalesce into larger ones following an Ostwald ripening mechanism. In situ XRD studies reveal that Au atoms start to coalesce at 350 degrees C, reaching the precipitates dimensions larger than 40 nm at 600 degrees C. Annealing above 700 degrees C promotes drastic changes in the Au profile of in situ doped films with the formation of two Au rich regions at the interface and surface respectively. The optical properties reveal the presence of a broad band centered at 550 nm related to the plasmon resonance of gold particles visible in AFM maps. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Biodegradation rate constants in different NF/UF fractions of cork processing wastewaters

Cork processing wastewater is an aqueous complex mixture of organic compounds that have been extracted from cork planks during the boiling process. These compounds, such as polysaccharides and polyphenols, have different biodegradability rates, which depend not only on the natureof the compound but also on the size of the compound. The aim of this study is to determine the biochemical oxygen demands (BOD) and biodegradationrate constants (k) for different cork wastewater fractions with different organic matter characteristics. These wastewater fractions were obtained using membrane separation processes, namely nanofiltration (NF) and ultrafiltration (UF). The nanofiltration and ultrafiltration membranes molecular weight cut-offs (MWCO) ranged from 0.125 to 91 kDa. The results obtained showed that the biodegradation rate constant for the cork processing wastewater was around 0.3 d(-1) and the k values for the permeates varied between 0.27-0.72 d(-1), being the lower values observed for permeates generated by the membranes with higher MWCO and the higher values observed for the permeates generated by the membranes with lower MWCO. These higher k values indicate that the biodegradable organic matter that is permeated by the membranes with tighter MWCO is more readily biodegradated.

Convex Total Variation Denoising of Poisson Fluorescence Confocal Images With Anisotropic Filtering

Fluorescence confocal microscopy (FCM) is now one of the most important tools in biomedicine research. In fact, it makes it possible to accurately study the dynamic processes occurring inside the cell and its nucleus by following the motion of fluorescent molecules over time. Due to the small amount of acquired radiation and the huge optical and electronics amplification, the FCM images are usually corrupted by a severe type of Poisson noise. This noise may be even more damaging when very low intensity incident radiation is used to avoid phototoxicity. In this paper, a Bayesian algorithm is proposed to remove the Poisson intensity dependent noise corrupting the FCM image sequences. The observations are organized in a 3-D tensor where each plane is one of the images acquired along the time of a cell nucleus using the fluorescence loss in photobleaching (FLIP) technique. The method removes simultaneously the noise by considering different spatial and temporal correlations. This is accomplished by using an anisotropic 3-D filter that may be separately tuned in space and in time dimensions. Tests using synthetic and real data are described and presented to illustrate the application of the algorithm. A comparison with several state-of-the-art algorithms is also presented.

Optical Transducers Based on Amorphous Si/SiC Photodiodes

Amorphous Si/SiC photodiodes working as photo-sensing or wavelength sensitive devices have been widely studied. In this paper single and stacked a-SiC:H p-i-n devices, in different geometries and configurations, are reviewed. Several readout techniques, depending on the desired applications (image sensor, color sensor, wavelength division multiplexer/demultiplexer device) are proposed. Physical models are presented and supported by electrical and numerical simulations of the output characteristics of the sensors.

Semiconductor Device as Optical Demultiplexer for Short Range Optical Communications

In this paper we present results on the use of a multilayered a-SiC:H heterostructure as a wavelength-division demultiplexing device for the visible light spectrum. The proposed device is composed of two stacked p-i-n photodiodes with intrinsic absorber regions adjusted to short and long wavelength absorption and carrier collection. An optoelectronic characterisation of the device was performed in the visible spectrum. Demonstration of the device functionality for WDM applications was done with three different input channels covering the long, the medium and the short wavelengths in the visible range. The recovery of the input channels is explained using the photocurrent spectral dependence on the applied voltage. An electrical model of the WDM device is proposed and supported by the solution of the respective circuit equations. Short range optical communications constitute the major application field, however other applications are also foreseen.

Tratamento de cor em pós-produção televisiva: o caso da produtora de conteúdos SP Televisão

Dissertação apresentada à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Audiovisual e Multimédia.

Photodetector with integrated optical thin film filters

This paper reports on optical filters based on a-SiC:H tandem pi'n/pin heterostructures. The spectral sensitivity is analyzed. Steady state optical bias with different wavelengths are applied from each front and back sides and the photocurrent is measured. Results show that it is possible to control the sensitivity of the device and to tune a specific wavelength range by combining radiations with complementary light penetration depths. The transfer characteristics effects due to changes in the front and back optical bias wavelength are discussed. Depending on the wavelength of the external background and irradiation side, the device acts either as a short- or a long-pass band filter or as a band-stop filter. The output waveform presents a nonlinear amplitude-dependent response to the wavelengths of the input channels.

Theoretical Analysis of Multimodal Four-Wave Mixing in Optical Microwires

Optical fiber microwires (OFMs) are nonlinear optical waveguides that support several spatial modes. The multimodal generalized nonlinear Schrodinger equation (MM-GNLSE) is deduced taking into account the linear and nonlinear modal coupling. A detailed theoretical description of four-wave mixing (FWM) considering the modal coupling is developed. Both, the intramode and the intermode phase-matching conditions is calculated for an optical microwire in a strong guiding regime. Finally, the FWM dynamics is studied and the amplitude evolution of the pump beams, the signal and the idler are analyzed.

Reconfigurable SiC Embedded Photonic Structures with Self Optical Bias Control

Multilayered heterostructures based on embedded a-Si:H and a-SiC:H p-i-n filters are analyzed from differential voltage design perspective using short- and long-pass filters. The transfer functions characteristics are presented. A numerical simulation is presented to explain the filtering properties of the photonic devices. Several monochromatic pulsed lights, separately (input channels) or in a polychromatic mixture (multiplexed signal) at different bit rates, illuminated the device. Steady-state optical bias is superimposed from the front and the back side. Results show that depending on the wavelength of the external background and impinging side, the device acts either as a short- or a long-pass band filter or as a band-stop filter. Particular attention is given to the amplification coefficient weights, which allow to take into account the wavelength background effects when a band or frequency needs to be filtered or the gate switch, in which optical active filter gates are used to select and filter input signals to specific output ports in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) communication systems. This nonlinearity provides the possibility for selective removal or addition of wavelengths. A truth table of an encoder that performs 8-to-1 MUX function exemplifies the optoelectronic conversion.

Optical demultiplexer based on an a-SiC:H voltage controlled device

In this paper we present results on the use of a semiconductor heterostructure based on a-SiC:H as a wavelength-division demultiplexer for the visible light spectrum. The proposed device is composed of two stacked p-i-n photodiodes with intrinsic absorber regions adjusted to short and long wavelength absorption and carrier collection. An optoelectronic characterisation of the device was performed in the visible spectrum. Demonstration of the device functionality for WDM applications was done with three different input channels covering the long, the medium and the short wavelengths in the visible range. The recovery of the input channels is explained using the photocurrent spectral dependence on the applied voltage. An electrical model of the WDM device is proposed and supported by the solution of the respective circuit equations. Short range optical communications constitute the major application field however other applications are foreseen. (C) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Direct Color Sensor, Optical Amplifier and Demux Device Integrated on a Single Monolithic SiC Photodetector

A pi'n/pin a-SiC:H voltage and optical bias controlled device is presented and its behavior as image and color sensor, optical amplifier and demux device is discussed. The design and the light source properties are correlated with the sensor output characteristics. Different readout techniques are used. When a low power monochromatic scanner readout the generated carriers the transducer recognizes a color pattern projected on it acting as a direct color and image sensor. Scan speeds up to 10(4) lines per second are achieved without degradation in the resolution. If the photocurrent generated by different monochromatic pulsed channels is readout directly, the information is demultiplexed. Results show that it is possible to decode the information from three simultaneous color channels without bit errors at bit rates per channel higher than 4000 bps. Finally, when triggered by light of appropriated wavelength, it can amplify or suppress the generated photocurrent working as an optical amplifier (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Unmixing hyperspectral intimate mixtures

Proceedings of International Conference Conference Volume 7830 Image and Signal Processing for Remote Sensing XVI Lorenzo Bruzzone Toulouse, France | September 20, 2010