Novel method to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in the far-field results obtained from planar near-field measurements

A method to reduce the noise power in far-field pattern without modifying the desired signal is proposed. Therefore, an important signal-to-noise ratio improvement may be achieved. The method is used when the antenna measurement is performed in planar near-field, where the recorded data are assumed to be corrupted with white Gaussian and space-stationary noise, because of the receiver additive noise. Back-propagating the measured field from the scan plane to the antenna under test (AUT) plane, the noise remains white Gaussian and space-stationary, whereas the desired field is theoretically concentrated in the aperture antenna. Thanks to this fact, a spatial filtering may be applied, cancelling the field which is located out of the AUT dimensions and which is only composed by noise. Next, a planar field to far-field transformation is carried out, achieving a great improvement compared to the pattern obtained directly from the measurement. To verify the effectiveness of the method, two examples will be presented using both simulated and measured near-field data.

Reduction of truncation errors in planar, cylindrical and partial spherical near-field antenna measurements

A method to reduce truncation errors in near-field antenna measurements is presented. The method is based on the Gerchberg-Papoulis iterative algorithm used to extrapolate band-limited functions and it is able to extend the valid region of the calculated far-field pattern up to the whole forward hemisphere. The extension of the valid region is achieved by the iterative application of a transformation between two different domains. After each transformation, a filtering process that is based on known information at each domain is applied. The first domain is the spectral domain in which the plane wave spectrum (PWS) is reliable only within a known region. The second domain is the field distribution over the antenna under test (AUT) plane in which the desired field is assumed to be concentrated on the antenna aperture. The method can be applied to any scanning geometry, but in this paper, only the planar, cylindrical, and partial spherical near-field measurements are considered. Several simulation and measurement examples are presented to verify the effectiveness of the method.

Desarrollo de estructuras nanofotonicas de campo cercano para intensificacion localizada de luz en celulas solares de banda intermedia - Near-field nanophotonic structures for localized light enhancement in intermediate band solar cells

This doctoral thesis explores some of the possibilities that near-field optics can bring to photovoltaics, and in particular to quantum-dot intermediate band solar cells (QD-IBSCs). Our main focus is the analytical optimization of the electric field distribution produced in the vicinity of single scattering particles, in order to produce the highest possible absorption enhancement in the photovoltaic medium in their surroundings. Near-field scattering structures have also been fabricated in laboratory, allowing the application of the previously studied theoretical concepts to real devices. We start by looking into the electrostatic scattering regime, which is only applicable to sub-wavelength sized particles. In this regime it was found that metallic nano-spheroids can produce absorption enhancements of about two orders of magnitude on the material in their vicinity, due to their strong plasmonic resonance. The frequency of such resonance can be tuned with the shape of the particles, allowing us to match it with the optimal transition energies of the intermediate band material. Since these metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) are to be inserted inside the cell photovoltaic medium, they should be coated by a thin insulating layer to prevent electron-hole recombination at their surface. This analysis is then generalized, using an analytical separation-of-variables method implemented in Mathematica7.0, to compute scattering by spheroids of any size and material. This code allowed the study of the scattering properties of wavelengthsized particles (mesoscopic regime), and it was verified that in this regime dielectric spheroids perform better than metallic. The light intensity scattered from such dielectric spheroids can have more than two orders of magnitude than the incident intensity, and the focal region in front of the particle can be shaped in several ways by changing the particle geometry and/or material. Experimental work was also performed in this PhD to implement in practice the concepts studied in the analysis of sub-wavelength MNPs. A wet-coating method was developed to self-assemble regular arrays of colloidal MNPs on the surface of several materials, such as silicon wafers, amorphous silicon films, gallium arsenide and glass. A series of thermal and chemical tests have been performed showing what treatments the nanoparticles can withstand for their embedment in a photovoltaic medium. MNPs arrays are then inserted in an amorphous silicon medium to study the effect of their plasmonic near-field enhancement on the absorption spectrum of the material. The self-assembled arrays of MNPs constructed in these experiments inspired a new strategy for fabricating IBSCs using colloidal quantum dots (CQDs). Such CQDs can be deposited in self-assembled monolayers, using procedures similar to those developed for the patterning of colloidal MNPs. The use of CQDs to form the intermediate band presents several important practical and physical advantages relative to the conventional dots epitaxially grown by the Stranski-Krastanov method. Besides, this provides a fast and inexpensive method for patterning binary arrays of QDs and MNPs, envisioned in the theoretical part of this thesis, in which the MNPs act as antennas focusing the light in the QDs and therefore boosting their absorption

Near-field light focusing by wavelength-sized dielectric spheroids for photovoltaic applications

We explore the near-field concentration properties of dielectric spheroidal scatterers with sizes close to the wavelength, using an analytical separation-of-variables method. Such particles act as mesoscopic lenses whose physical parameters are optimized here for maximum scattered light enhancement in photovoltaic applications.

A New Method to Reduce Truncation Errors in Partial Spherical Near-Field Measurements

A new and effective method for reduction of truncation errors in partial spherical near-field (SNF) measurements is proposed. The method is useful when measuring electrically large antennas, where the measurement time with the classical SNF technique is prohibitively long and an acquisition over the whole spherical surface is not practical. Therefore, to reduce the data acquisition time, partial sphere measurement is usually made, taking samples over a portion of the spherical surface in the direction of the main beam. But in this case, the radiation pattern is not known outside the measured angular sector as well as a truncation error is present in the calculated far-field pattern within this sector. The method is based on the Gerchberg-Papoulis algorithm used to extrapolate functions and it is able to extend the valid region of the calculated far-field pattern up to the whole forward hemisphere. To verify the effectiveness of the method, several examples are presented using both simulated and measured truncated near-field data.

New methods to reduce leakage errors in planar near-field measurements

This paper describes two methods to cancel the effect of two kinds of leakage signals which may be presented when an antenna is measured in a planar near-field range. One method tries to reduce leakage bias errors from the receiver¿s quadrature detector and it is based on estimating the bias constant added to every near-field data sample. Then, that constant is subtracted from the data, removing its undesired effect on the far-field pattern. The estimation is performed by back-propagating the field from the scan plane to the antenna under test plane (AUT) and averaging all the data located outside the AUT aperture. The second method is able to cancel the effect of the leakage from faulty transmission lines, connectors or rotary joints. The basis of this method is also a reconstruction process to determine the field distribution on the AUT plane. Once this distribution is known, a spatial filtering is applied to cancel the contribution due to those faulty elements. After that, a near-field-to-far-field transformation is applied, obtaining a new radiation pattern where the leakage effects have disappeared. To verify the effectiveness of both methods, several examples are presented.

Prediction of near field overpressure from quarry blasting

This paper investigates the propagation of airblast or pressure waves in air produced by bench blasting (i.e. detonation of the explosive in a row of blastholes, breaking the burden of rock towards the free vertical face of the block). Peak overpressure is calculated as a function of blasting parameters (explosive mass per delay and velocity at which the detonation sequence proceeds along the bench) and the polar coordinates of the position of interest (distance to the source and azimuth with respect to the free face). The model has been fitted to empirical data using linear least squares. The data set is composed of 122 airblast records monitored at distances less than 400 m in 41 production blasts carried out in two quarries. The model is statistically significant and has a determination coefficient of 0.87. The formula is validated from 12 airblast measurements gathered in five additional blasts.

Methods for noise reduction in far-field patterns obtained from cylindrical near-field antenna measurements

Two different methods to reduce the noise power in the far-field pattern of an antenna as measured in cylindrical near-field (CNF) are proposed. Both methods are based on the same principle: the data recorded in the CNF measurement, assumed to be corrupted by white Gaussian and space-stationary noise, are transformed into a new domain where it is possible to filter out a portion of noise. Those filtered data are then used to calculate a far-field pattern with less noise power than that one obtained from the measured data without applying any filtering. Statistical analyses are carried out to deduce the expressions of the signal-to-noise ratio improvement achieved with each method. Although the idea of the two alternatives is the same, there are important differences between them. The first one applies a modal filtering, requires an oversampling and improves the far-field pattern in all directions. The second method employs a spatial filtering on the antenna plane, does not require oversampling and the far-field pattern is only improved in the forward hemisphere. Several examples are presented using both simulated and measured near-field data to verify the effectiveness of the methods.

Application of postprocessing techniques methods for noise reduction in cylindrical near field antenna measurements

Three different methods to reduce the noise power in the far-field pattern of an antenna when it is measured in a cylindrical near field system are presented and compared. The first one is based on a modal filtering while the other two are based on spatial filtering, either on an antenna plane or either on a cylinder of smaller radius. Simulated and measured results will be presented.

Receptive field structure in the visual cortex: does selective stimulation induce plasticity?

Sensory areas of adult cerebral cortex can reorganize in response to long-term alterations in patterns of afferent signals. This long-term plasticity is thought to play a crucial role in recovery from injury and in some forms of learning. However, the degree to which sensory representations in primary cortical areas depend on short-term (i.e., minute to minute) stimulus variations remains unclear. A traditional view is that each neuron in the mature cortex has a fixed receptive field structure. An alternative view, with fundamentally different implications for understanding cortical function, is that each cell's receptive field is highly malleable, changing according to the recent history of the sensory environment. Consistent with the latter view, it has been reported that selective stimulation of regions surrounding the receptive field induces a dramatic short-term increase in receptive field size for neurons in the visual cortex [Pettet, M. W. & Gilbert, C. D. (1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89, 8366-8370]. In contrast, we report here that there is no change in either the size or the internal structure of the receptive field following several minutes of surround stimulation. However, for some cells, overall responsiveness increases. These results suggest that dynamic alterations of receptive field structure do not underlie short-term plasticity in the mature primary visual cortex. However, some degree of short-term adaptability could be mediated by changes in responsiveness.