Characteristics of Ions Emitted from Laser-Induced Silver Plasma

In this work, study of laser-induced ions is presented. The plasma was produced by focusing a Nd：YAG laser, with a wavelength of 1064 nm, a pulsed width of 9-14 ns, a power of 1.1 MW and energy of 10 mJ, on silver target in vacuum （10-3 Torr= 1.3332 Pa）. The characteristics of ion streams were investigated by CR-39 detectors located at angles of 0°, 30°, 60° and 90° with respect to normal of the target. The distance between the silver target and each detector was 11 cm. The energy of silver ions was found ranging from 1.5 eV to 1.06E4 eV. There was a high concentration of ions with low energy as compared to those with high energy, showing the energy distribution amongst the ions. The flux of ions was maximum in the axial direction which was decreasing with the angle increase with respect to normal of the target, and finally became minimum in the radial direction. Hence the silver ions have shown anisotropic behaviour.     

Low-latency and low-overhead encoder ASIC in the ATLAS LAr calorimeter trigger upgrade

In this article, an encoder Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) for high-speed serial data transmission is presented. The ASIC implements a low-latency and low-overhead line code and is fabricated with a commercial 0.25-µm Silicon-on-Sapphire CMOS technology. The ASIC operates at 640 MHz with a latency of no greater than 6.25 ns and the overhead of 14.3%. The encoder will be integrated with a serialiser and will be used in the A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS Liquid Argon (LAr) calorimeter Phase-I trigger upgrade.     

适用于微机电系统的自适应红外探测器的可调谐滤光器设计与开发

微机电系统与高品质红外探测技术联合运用为国防、商业、通信、生物医学检测及环境监测等许多应用领域面临的一系列具有挑战性的问题提供了唯一可行的解决方案．可调谐法布里．玻罗滤光片是适用于微机电系统的红外探测器的核心部件．滤光片的结构设计和关键结构件的材料对于滤光片的性能和整个装置的完善性有重要影响．阐述了利用有限元建模进行法布里-玻罗滤光片机械设计和分析的方法．报告了滤光片的结构材料——用低温等离子增强化学沉积法制造的氮化硅的结构表征和机械性能测定方法和结果．最后展示了一些所制作的滤光片阵列．     

组合式熔凝石英微透镜阵列-线列Yba_2Cu_3O_(7-δ)高温超导薄膜红外探测器的研究

采用准分子激光扫描消融法淀积YB32C23O7-δ高温超导薄膜,利用常规光刻工艺制备线列高温超导薄膜器件,采用离子束刻蚀制备与高温超导薄膜器件匹配的熔凝石英微透镜阵列,测试了微透镜／高温超导薄膜器件所构成的混合结构在1～5μm红外波段的几项重要的光响应特性．     

Characterisation of rare earth minerals with field emission scanning electron microscopy

Abstract

Rare earth elements are becoming increasingly in demand, due to their prevalence in both renewable energy devices and high end electronics. The characterisation of the composition and morphology of the various phases that have valuable rare earth elements in the ores are needed in conjunction with the study of their physicochemical properties to optimise industrial process to extract the minerals containing the rare earth elements. Rare earth bearing minerals contain many elements with overlapping X-ray peaks (L- and M-lines) with an energy dispersive spectrometry detector, requiring a high degree of X-ray energy resolution. A program was developed to obtain the intensity of each peak by deconvolution of the X-ray spectrum. Low accelerating voltage of less than 5 kV and small beam diameter of less than 10 nm of a cold field emission scanning electron microscope allow x-ray microanalysis on the nanometre scale. A 100 nm wide phase was observed at 4 kV on a backscattered electron micrograph. Furthermore, a small beam diameter of less than 10 nm was used for identification of small phases of a few micrometres.

Les éléments de terre rare sont de plus en plus en demande, grâce à leur prévalence tant dans les dispositifs d’énergie renouvelable que dans l’électronique de haute gamme. On a besoin de caractériser la composition et la morphologie des différentes phases qui contiennent des terres rares de valeur dans les minerais, en combinaison avec l’étude de leurs propriétés physico-chimiques, afin d’optimiser le procédé industriel d’extraction des minéraux contenant les terres rares. Les minéraux porteurs de terre rare contiennent plusieurs éléments ayant des pics de rayons x qui se chevauchent (lignes L et M) avec un détecteur de spectroscopie à dispersion d’énergie, nécessitant une haute résolution énergétique. On a développé un programme visant à obtenir l’intensité de chaque pic par déconvolution du spectre de rayons x. Un faible voltage d’accélération de moins que 5 kV et un faisceau à faible diamètre de moins que 10 nm d’un microscope électronique à balayage par cathode froide permettent la microanalyse des rayons x à l’échelle du nanomètre. On a observé une phase de 100 nm de largeur à 4 kV sur une micrographe d’électrons rétrodiffusés. De plus, on a utilisé un faisceau de faible diamètre de moins que 10 nm pour l’identification de petites phases de quelques μm.     

The Fermi Large Area Telescope as a cosmic-ray electron detector

Successfully launched into a low-Earth orbit on June 11, 2008, the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) is a pair conversion telescope specifically designed to survey the gamma-ray sky with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. The broad list of exciting scientific results that the observatory has achieved in the first year of operation, though, is not limited to photon science, as it includes the first high-statistics measurement of the cosmic-ray electron spectrum for energies above 20 GeV. Here we thoroughly discuss the main aspects of the data analysis underlying this measurement and present the ongoing study aimed at lowering the energy threshold of the primary spectrum (measured by the LAT) as well as exploring the properties of the electron albedo population.     

Design and performance of vacuum capable detector electronics for linear position sensitive neutron detectors

We describe the design and performance of electronics for linear position sensitive neutron detectors. The eight tube assembly requires 10 W of power and can be controlled via digital communication links. The electronics can be used without modification in vacuum. Using a transimpedance amplifier and gated integration, we achieve a highly linear system with coefficient of determinations of 0.9999 or better. Typical resolution is one percent of tube length.     

Far-infrared detector based on HgTe/HgCdTe superlattices

HgTe/Hg_0.05Cd_0.95Te superlattices (SLs) were grown on (112)B oriented Cd_0.96Zn_0.04 Te substrates using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The SLs, consisting of 100 periods of 80-Å-thick HgTe wells alternating with 77-Å-thick Hg_0.05Cd_0.95Te barriers, were designed to operate as detectors in the far-infrared (FIR) region. Infrared absorption spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Hall effect measurements, and x-ray diffraction were used to characterize the superlattice layers. A series of annealing experiments were initiated to quantify the temperature-dependent interdiffusion of the HgTe wells and Hg_0.05Cd_0.95Te barriers and consequently their degradation, which shifts the absorption edges of the SLs to higher energies, since a high-temperature ex situ anneal is normally required in order to produce the p-type material required for a photovoltaic detector. Results from infrared absorption spectroscopy, TEM, and Hall effect measurements for the annealed samples are presented. A FIR SLs single-element photoconductive (PC) device was designed and fabricated. Both material characterization and device testing have established the applicability of the HgTe/Hg_0.05Cd_0.95Te SLs for the FIR region.     

金属阴极真空型紫外探测器光谱响应测试研究

紫外探测相比红外探测的一个重要优势是背景干净,信噪比高.这一优势充分体现的前提是其日盲特性.本文利用光谱测试系统对制作的金属阴极真空紫外探测器的光谱响应进行测试,并将测试结果与传统的碲铷阴极紫外探测器的光谱响应曲线进行对比,比较了这两类器件的紫外日盲特性,发现金属阴极在日盲特性方面有一定的优势,最终指出该类型器件在某些特殊场合的潜在应用.     

Accuracy of the zero crossings of the second directional derivative as an edge detector

In this paper the accuracy of the second directional derivative edge detector is analyzed, based on a number of idealized edge models. The results are compared with those for the Laplacian edge detector. Errors are shown to be small under a number of conditions. These conditions are less severe for the second directional derivative than for the Laplacian edge detector. Spurious or phantom edges can be removed by checking the sign of the third directional derivative, though this is not enough to remove all large errors. Indeed, it is also shown that large errors will be obtained if no threshold is set on the magnitude of a third order derivative.This work was supported by the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (NFWO).