Band 22, Heft 4

We investigated the contribution of electron-phonon interaction to the broadening parameter Γ of the Wannier-Stark ladder levels in oxidized macroporous silicon structures with different concentration of Si-O-Si states (TO and LO phonons). The obtained value of the Wannier-Stark ladder parameter Γ is much less than the djacent level energy evaluated from giant oscillations of resonance electron scattering on the surface states. We determined the influence of broadening on the oscillation amplitude in IR absorption spectra as interaction of the surface multi-phonon polaritons with scattered electrons. This interaction transforms the resonance electron scattering in samples with low concentration of Si-O-Si states into ordinary scattering on ionized impurities for samples with high concentration of Si-O-Si states. The transformation takes place at the scattering lifetime coinciding with the period of electron oscillations in the surface electric field.

In this paper theoretical and experimental results regarding discrete light propagation in photonic liquid crystal fibres (PLCFs) are presented. Particular interest is focused on tunability of the beam guidance obtained due to the variation in either external temperature or optical power (with assumption of thermal nonlinearity taking place in liquid crystals). Highly tunable (discrete) diffraction and thermal self-(de)focusing are studied and tested in experimental conditions. Specifically, spatial light localization and/or delocalization due to the change in tuning parameters are demonstrated, with possibility of discrete spatial (gap) soliton propagation in particular conditions. Results of numerical simulations (performed for the Gaussian beams of different widths and wavelengths) have been compared to those from experimental tests performed in the PLCFs of interest. Owning to the limit of experimental means, direct qualitative comparison was not quite accessible. Nevertheless, a qualitative agreement between theoretical and experimental data (obtained in analogous conditions) has been achieved, suggesting a compact and widely-accessible platform for the study of tunable linear (and nonlinear) discrete light propagation in two-dimensional systems. Proposed photonic structures are of a great potential for all-optical beam shaping and switching.

The Linac coherent light source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) is the world’s first hard X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) and is capable of producing high-energy, femtosecond duration X-ray pulses. A common technique to study fast timescale physical phenomena, various “pump/probe” techniques are used. In these techniques there are two lasers, one optical and one X-ray, that work as a pump and as a probe to study dynamic processes in atoms and molecules. In order to resolve phenomena that occur on femtosecond timescales, it is imperative to have very precise timing between the optical lasers and X-rays (on the order of ∼20 fs or better). The lasers are synchronized to the same RF source that drives the accelerator and produces the X-ray laser. However, elements in the lasers cause some drift and time jitter, thereby de-synchronizing the system. This paper considers cross-correlation technique as a way to quantify the drift and jitter caused by the regenerative amplifier of the ultrafast optical laser.

Many laser scanners depend on their mechanical construction to guarantee their measurements accuracy, however, the current computational technologies allow us to improve these measurements by mathematical methods implemented in neural networks. In this article we are going to introduce the current laser scanner technologies, give a description of our 3D laser scanner and adjust their measurement error by a previously trained feed forward back propagation (FFBP) neural network with a Widrow-Hoff weight/bias learning function. A comparative analysis with other learning functions such as the Kohonen algorithm and gradient descendent with momentum algorithm is presented. Finally, computational simulations are conducted to verify the performance and method uncertainty in the proposed system.

Influence of the CdTe content in a near-surface graded-gap layer on the admittance of MIS-structures fabricated on the basis of heteroepitaxial Hg1−xCdxTe (x = 0.22–0.23 and 0.31–0.32) films grown by molecular beam epitaxy was investigated in a wide temperature range. It is shown that a temperature drop from 77 K to 8 K results in a decrease of hysteresis of the capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics and a decrease of frequencies which corresponds to a high-frequency behaviour of C-V characteristics of MIS-structures based on n-HgCdTe (x = 0.22–0.23) with and without graded-gap layersand also for MIS-structures based on n-HgCdTe (x = 0.31–0.32). Temperature dependences of the resistance of the epitaxial film bulk and differential resistance of the space-charge region (SCR) in strong inversion mode were studied. The experimental results can be explained by the fact that for MIS-structures based on n-HgCdTe (x = 0.22–0.23) with the graded-gap layers and for MIS-structures based on n-HgCdTe (x = 0.31–0.32), the differential resistance of SCR is limited by Shockley-Read generation at 25–77 K. Differential resistance of SCR for MIS-structures based on n-HgCdTe (x = 0.22–0.23) without the graded-gap layers is limited by tunnelling through deep levels at 8–77 K.

This paper presents a review and in-depth analysis of three of the most popular techniques for processing PT images: differential absolute contrast, thermographic signal reconstruction and pulsed phase thermography. The fundamental concepts of the three techniques are reviewed and their application on thermal data obtained from the PT inspection on a carbon fibre reinforced specimen is analysed. Furthermore, a new promissory technique based on multivariate statistical analysis is also introduced and evaluated. The performance of the techniques is evaluated in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio at maximum signal contrast.

A three-layer slab waveguide with air core layer and anisotropic left-handed material claddings is investigated for sensing applications. Different from the waveguide mode sensors and surface plasmon resonance sensors in which the analyte is placed in the evanescent field region, the proposed sensor contains the sample in the core region that supports the oscillating field. Due to the strong concentration of the electromagnetic field in the analyte medium, the proposed device exhibits unusual sensitivity enhancement. The simulations revealed that the sensitivity improvement of TE3 mode compared to conventional evanescent wave sensor is approximately a factor of 20.