Crystal growth of melt-textured Nd-123 under 1% oxygen partial pressure atmosphere

Crystal growth of melt-textured Nd-123 pseudo-crystals was investigated via an isothermal solidification with top-seeding technique under a 1%O2 in N2 atmosphere. Non-steady state solidification was observed at low undercooling, in contrast to an almost linear growth at higher undercooling. Similar to processing in air, the substitution of Nd/Ba was found to decrease from the seed position to the edge of the crystal. In addition, the volume fraction of Nd-422 particles decreased in the solid as solidification proceeded. As a result of these microstructural inhomogeneities, the critical temperature and the critical current density varied within the crystal even for samples processed isothermally, despite the narrow solid solution range of the Nd-123 phase under a reduced pO2 atmosphere.

Development of blade profiles for low pressure turbine applications

This paper describes a program of work, largely experimental, which was undertaken with the objective of developing an improved blade profile for the low-pressure turbine in aero-engine applications. Preliminary experiments were conducted using a novel technique. An existing cascade of datum blades was modified to enable the pressure distribution on the suction surface of one of the blades to be altered. Various means, such as shaped inserts, an adjustable flap at the trailing edge, and changing stagger were employed to change the geometry of the passage. These experiments provided boundary layer and lift data for a wide range of suction surface pressure distributions. The data was then used as a guide for the development of new blade profiles. The new blade profiles were then investigated in a low-speed cascade that included a set of moving bars upstream of the cascade of blades to simulate the effect of the incoming wakes from the previous blade row in a multistage turbine environment.

Short-channel polymer field-effect-transistor fabrication using spin-coating-induced edge template and ink-jet printing

A method to fabricate polymer field-effect transistors with submicron channel lengths is described. A thin polymer film is spin coated on a prepatterned resist with a low resolution to create a thickness contrast in the overcoated polymer layer. After plasma and solvent etching, a submicron-sized line structure, which templates the contour of the prepattern, is obtained. A further lift-off process is applied to define source-drain electrodes of transistors. With a combination of ink-jet printing, transistors with channel length down to 400 nm have been fabricated by this method. We show that drive current density increases as expected, while the on/off current ratio 106 is achieved. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.

Advanced thermal processing of semiconductor materials in the msec-range

This paper reviews the advances that flash lamp annealing brings to the processing of the most frequently used semiconductor materials, namely silicon and silicon carbide, thus enabling the fabrication of novel microelectronic structures and materials. The paper describes how such developments can translate into important practical applications leading to a wide range of technological benefits. Opportunities in ultra-shallow junction formation, heteroepitaxial growth of thin films of cubic silicon carbide on silicon, and crystallization of amorphous silicon films, along with the technical reasons for using flash lamp annealing are discussed in the context of state-of-the-art materials processing. © 2005 IEEE.

The oxidation of CH2O in the intermediate temperature range (943-995 K)

New atmospheric pressure flow reactor data on the oxidation of formaldehyde in the temperature range 943-995 K and over equivalence ratios from 0.013 to 36.7 are reported and discussed. A detailed mechanism assembled from previously published results produced acceptable agreement with the experimental data for the fuel-lean conditions, but failed to predict results for oxidative pyrolysis. Analysis or the very fuel-lean conditions, but failed to modelling results are principally sensitive to CH2O+HO2→HCO+H2O2 (6) and H2O2 +M→OH+OH+M (33). Whereas the specific rate of each reaction cannot be independently determined, it is found that the product k33.k6 is a well defined function of temperature: (3.4±3.0).1028 exp(-(26,800±400)/T). Inadequacies in the mechanism which may be responsible for the disagreement under fuel-rich conditions are discussed. © 1991 Combustion Institute.

Compressor wake/leading-edge interactions at off design incidences

In this paper, the effects of wake/leading-edge interactions were studied at off-design conditions. Measurements were performed on the stator-blade suction surface at midspan. The leading-edge flow-field was investigated using hotwire micro-traverses, hotfilm surface shear-stress sensors and pressure micro-tappings. The trailing-edge flow-field was investigated using hotwire boundary-layer traverses. Unsteady CFD calculations were also performed to aid the interpretation of the results. At low flow coefficients, the time-averaged momentum thickness of the leading-edge boundary layer was found to rise as the flow coefficient was reduced. The time-resolved momentum-thickness rose due to the interaction of the incoming rotor wake. As the flow coefficient was reduced, the incoming wakes increased in pitch-wise extent, velocity deficit and turbulence intensity. This increased both the time-resolved rise in the momentum thickness and the turbulent spot production within the wake affected boundary-layer. Close to stall, a drop in the leading-edge momentum thickness was observed in-between wake events. This was associated with the formation of a leading-edge separation bubble in-between wake events. The wake interaction with the bubble gave rise to a shedding phenomenon, which produced large length scale disturbances in the surface shear stress. Copyright © 2008 by ASME.

Velocity distributions for low pressure turbines

A parametric set of velocity distributions has been investigated using a flat plate experiment. Three different diffusion factors and peak velocity locations were tested. These were designed to mimic the suction surfaces of Low Pressure (LP) turbine blades. Unsteady wakes, inherent in real turbomachinery flows, were generated using a moving bar mechanism. A turbulence grid generated a freestream turbulence level that is believed to be typical of LP turbines. Measurements were taken across a Reynolds number range of 50,000-220,000 at three reduced frequencies (0.314, 0.628, 0.942). Boundary layer traverses were performed at the nominal trailing edge using a Laser Doppler Anemometry system and hot-films were used to examine the boundary layer behaviour along the surface. For every velocity distribution tested, the boundary layer separated in the diffusing flow downstream of the peak velocity. The loss production is dominated by the mixing in the reattachment process, mixing in the turbulent boundary layer downstream of reattachment and the effects of the unsteady interaction between the wakes and the boundary layer. A sensitive balance governs the optimal location of peak velocity on the surface. Moving the velocity peak forwards on the blade was found to be increasingly beneficial when bubblegenerated losses are high, i.e. at low Reynolds number, at low reduced frequency and at high levels of diffusion. Copyright © 2008 by ASME.

Wavelength-tuneable liquid crystal lasers from the visible to the near-infrared

The study of band-edge lasing from dye-doped chiral nematic liquid crystals has thus far been largely restricted to visible wavelengths. In this paper, a wide range of commercially available laser dyes are examined for their suitability as infrared emitters within a chiral nematic host. Problems such as poor solubility and reduced quantum efficiencies are overcome, and successful band-edge lasing is demonstrated within the range of 735-850 nm, using the dyes LD800, HITC-P and DOTC-P. This paper also reports on progress towards widely tuneable liquid crystal lasers, capable of emission in the region 460- 850 nm. Key to this is the use of common pump source, capable of simultaneously exciting all of the dyes (both infrared and visible) that are present within the system. Towards this aim, we successfully demonstrate near-infrared lasing (800 nm) facilitated by Förster energy transfer between the visible dye DCM, and the infra-red dye LD800, enabling pump wavelengths anywhere between 420 and 532 nm to be used. These results demonstrate that small and low-cost tuneable visible to near-infrared laser sources are achievable, using a single common pump source. Such devices are envisaged to have wide-ranging applications including medical imaging (including optical coherence tomography), point-of-care optical medical diagnostics (such as flow cytometry), telecommunications, and optical signatures for security coatings. © 2011 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).