Spatial coherence effect on layer thickness determination in narrowband full-field optical coherence tomography

Longitudinal spatial coherence (LSC) is determined by the spatial frequency content of an optical beam. The use of lenses with a high numerical aperture (NA) in full-field optical coherence tomography and a narrowband light source makes the LSC length much shorter than the temporal coherence length, hence suggesting that high-resolution 3D images of biological and multilayered samples can be obtained based on the low LSC. A simplified model is derived, supported by experimental results, which describes the expected interference output signal of multilayered samples when high-NA lenses are used together with a narrowband light source. An expression for the correction factor for the layer thickness determination is found valid for high-NA objectives. Additionally, the method was applied to a strongly scattering layer, demonstrating the potential of this method for high-resolution imaging of scattering media.     

A multi-scale orthogonal nonlinear strategy for multi-variate statistical process monitoring

In this paper a multi-scale nonlinear PCA strategy for process monitoring is proposed. The strategy utilizes the optimal wavelet decomposition in such a way that only the approximation and the highest detail functions are used, thus simplifying the overall structure and making the interpretation at each scale more meaningful. An orthogonal nonlinear PCA procedure is incorporated to capture the nonlinear characteristics with a minimum number of principal components. The proposed nonlinear strategy also eliminates the requirement of nonlinear functions relating the nonlinear principal scores to process measurements for Q-statistics as in other nonlinear PCA process monitoring approaches. In addition, the strategy is considerably robust to the presence of typical outliers.     

Simplified optical scatterometry for periodic nanoarrays in the near-quasi-static limit

Scatterometry is now proven to be a very powerful technique for measurement of subwavelength periodic structures. However it requires heavy numerical calculations of the scattered optical waves from the structure. For periodic nanoarrays with feature size less than 100 nm, it is possible to simplify this using the Rytov near-quasi-static approximation valid for feature periods only few time less than the wavelength. The validity is investigated by way of comparison with exact numerical results obtained with the eigenfunctions approach. It is shown to be adequate for the determination of the structure parameters from the specularly reflected or transmitted waves and their polarization or ellipsometric properties. The validity of this approach is applied to lamellar nanoscale grating photoresist lines on Si substrate. The high sensitivity of the signals to the structure parameters is demonstrated using wavelengths of only few times the period.     

Integrated OBF-NN models with enhanced extrapolation capability for nonlinear systems

This paper proposes a nonlinear system identification using parallel linear-plus-neural network models that provide more accurate predictions on the process behavior even on extrapolated regions. For this purpose, a residuals-based identification algorithm using parallel integration of linear orthonormal basis filters (OBF) and neural networks model is developed and analyzed under range extrapolations. Results on the van de Vusse reactor case study show enhanced extrapolation capability when compared to the conventional neural network (NN) and the series Wiener-NN models.     

Optimization of cryogenic carbon dioxide capture from natural gas

Cryogenic carbon dioxide removal from natural gas requires accurate thermodynamic phase study of the natural gas mixture and individual components. Thermodynamic data generation of carbon dioxide‐methane mixture having 90 % carbon dioxide for cryogenic carbon dioxide capture from natural gas using Peng Robinson equation of state is discussed in this research work. Golden section search technique along with Eureqa optimizing tool is then used to optimize the pressure‐temperature conditions for the cryogenic carbon dioxide capture in the solid‐vapour two‐phase region. Cost optimization is done for the carbon dioxide capture system at atmospheric pressure and 20 bar. Temperature ranges for optimization were obtained from the predicted thermodynamic data for the mixture. The optimum temperatures obtained in this research work for the cryogenic carbon dioxide capture at atmospheric pressure and the 20 bar are ?103.8 °C and ?60.90 °C respectively. For atmospheric pressure at ?103.8 °C the worth of methane, carbon dioxide, and energy is 114 $/h, 9 $/h, and 53 $/h respectively, while at 20 bar and ?60.9 °C the worth of carbon dioxide, methane, and the energy are found to be 129 $/h, 46 $/h, 52 $/h, respectively.     

Elasto-optically induced modulation of in-fiber grating

Strong effects due to uniaxial stress applied to an in-fiber grating reflection peak splits because of the elastooptically induced birefringence. The separation between the two peaks increases with the stress, and they broaden and shift. By modulating the pressure using a PZT disk at frequencies up to 1 MHz, modulation of the reflectivity, which varies with the wavelength within the grating reflection band, was obtained     

Preparation of asymmetric polysulfone/polyimide blended membranes for CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> separation

Asymmetric Flat sheet polysulfone-polyimide (PSF-PI) blended polymeric membranes (with PI content from 5–20%) have been fabricated following phase inversion technique. The membranes have been thoroughly characterized by the measurement of porosity, mechanical properties and also by SEM, FTIR and DSC analyses. With the increase in the PI content, the mechanical properties of the membranes, like Young’s modulus, tensile strength and elongation at break, increased. SEM investigations revealed that the surfaces of fabricated blended membranes possessed adequate homogeneity and their cross-sections showed non-porous top and diminutive porous substructure. From DSC analyses it has been observed that different compositions of the blended membranes exhibited single glass transition temperatures, implying proper compatibility of the polymers. The permeance of CO₂ and CH₄ through the membrane increased with the increase in PI content and it gradually decreased with the increase in the feed pressure in the range of 2–10 bar. Under the present investigation, the membrane with 20% PI content exhibited the maximum selectivity for the separation of CO₂/CH₄ gas mixes.