High-resolution optical angle sensors: approaching the diffraction limit to the sensitivity

We carry out a detailed analysis of angle-sensitive devices based on the critical-angle effect. We consider their use in measuring small angular deflections of a laser beam. We establish the diffraction limit to the sensitivity for optical-angle sensors based on reflection and transmission of a laser beam. We find that this limit is identical to that of the triangulation scheme when using a position-sensitive detector or the autocollimation scheme. We analyze the main proposals to date of optical-angle sensors based on the critical-angle effect, focusing on their maximum sensitivity and their polarization dependence in practical conditions. We propose and analyze theoretically a novel and simple angle-sensitive device for sensing optical-beam deflections with very low polarization dependence and a maximum sensitivity close to the diffraction limit when used with typical laser beams. We discuss the basic principles for designing this type of device, provide numerical results, and point out a convenient fabrication procedure.     

Sensitivity of an imaging space infrared interferometer

We study the sensitivities of space infrared interferometers. We formulate the signal-to-noise ratios of infrared images obtained by aperture synthesis in the presence of source shot noise, background shot noise, and detector read noise. We consider the case in which n beams are combined pairwise at n(n - 1)/2 detectors and the case in which all the n beams are combined at a single detector. We apply the results to future missions, Terrestrial Planet Finder and Darwin. We also discuss the potential of a far-infrared interferometer for a deep galaxy survey.     

Model of directed crystallization of binary alloy

We consider a model of directed crystallization. We write the boundary-value problem to a curvilinear coordinate frame attached to the interface. The theory of perturbations is formulated for small perturbations of temperature and component concentration. We study stability of the interface of a binary alloy. In this paper, we show the manner in which the known phenomenon of the lamination of the components in a melt, result in formation of regular eutectic structure. We also give a conclusion of analytical expression for period of this structure.     

Self-consistent scattering theory for the radiative transport equation

We study light propagation in a random medium governed by the radiative transport equation. We present a theory for the transport equation with an inhomogeneous absorption coefficient. We obtain an analytical expression for the specific intensity in a uniform absorbing and scattering medium containing a point absorber. Using that result we derive a self-consistent system of integral equations to study a collection of point absorbers. We show numerical results that demonstrate the use of this theory.     

Linear and nonlinear optical properties of hollow core photonic crystal fiber

We review the optical guidance properties of hollow-core photonic crystal fibers. We follow a historical perspective to introduce the two major optical guidance mechanisms that were identified as operating in these fibers: photonic bandgap guidance and inhibited coupling guidance. We then review the modal properties of these fibers and assess the transmission loss mechanisms in photonic bandgap guiding hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. We dedicate a section to a review of the technical basics of hollow-core photonic crystal fiber fabrication and photonic microcell assembly. We review some of the early results on the use of hollow-core photonic crystal fiber for laser guiding micro-sized particles, as well as the generation of stimulated Raman scattering, electromagnetically induced transparency and laser frequency stabilization when the fiber core is filled with a gas-phase material. We conclude this review with a non-exhaustive list of prospects where hollow-core photonic crystal fiber could play a central role.     

Real-Time Renormalization Group: Charge Fluctuations in Metallic Islands and Quantum Dots

We develop a perturbative renormalization-group method in realtime to describe nonequilibrium properties of discrete quantumsystems coupled linearly to an environment. We include energybroadening and dissipation and develop a cutoff-independentformalism. We apply the method to charge fluctuations insingle-electron devices at low temperatures. We presentquantitatively reliable results for the conductance inmetallic islands and in the mixed-valence and empty-orbitalregime of the nonequilibrium Anderson impurity model. Weconsider a finite charging energy and include all chargestates.     

Comparison of designs in presence of a possible correlation in observations

We often assume the standard linear model with uncorrelated observations for comparison of designs without realizing a possible presence of correlation in observations. In this paper we present several change of variance functions including the one given in Zhou (2001) for comparing designs in presence of possible correlation in observations. We find a design by minimizing one of our proposed change of variance functions in a simple response surface setup. We then compare its performance with all variance design, all bias design, and the design making the average variance equal to the average squared bias. We also compare a second order rotatable design with a non-rotatable design. The rotatable design is better than the non-rotatable design with respect to A-, D-, and E- optimality criterion functions under the standard linear model with uncorrelated observations. We observe that the rotatable design may not perform better than the non-rotatable design with respect to the change of variance functions. We present some important properties of the change of variance functions. We find that the A-optimum designs may perform poorly with respect to a change of variance function.     

Simulations of Dynamical Ordering in Pinned Vortex Systems

We model a vortex system in a sample with bulk pinning and superficial pinning generated by a magnetic decoration. We perform a sequence of finite temperature numerical experiments in which external forces are applied to obtain, a dynamically ordered vortex lattice. We analyze the final structures and the behavior of the total energy of the system.     

Calculation of Charge Carrier Concentration Profile in a Wide Potential Well with Electric and Magnetic Fields

We investigated an equilibrium state of Fermi electrons in modulation doped structures with a wide quantum well in a strong parallel magnetic field. We studied the charge carrier system with a sufficiently high density, such that the de Broglie wavelength of electrons is smaller than the potential well width. We have formulated hydrodynamic equations for this carrier system both in the absence of magnetic field and in a parallel magnetic field. We have obtained analytical solutions for the charge carrier concentration as a function of coordinates in the potential well. In a quantum area near the interface, we carried out quantum mechanical calculations taking into account the effect of electric and magnetic fields. The concentration profile is presented for modulation doped Si/SiGe/Si heterostructures. We discuss large positive magnetoresistance in a strong parallel magnetic field in these structures.     

Theoretical and experimental studies of pump-induced probe deflection in a thermal medium

We analyze the deflection of a probe beam because of pump-probe interaction in a high-absorbing thermal medium. We extend the existing theory by accounting for translation of a finite-width probe because of deflection within the nonlinear sample. We also provide expressions for the number of resolvable angles of the probe for possible applications of the setup as a beam deflector and study conditions for the maximization of the deflection angle and the resolution. We present experimental results obtained with a solution of chlorophyll in ethanol as the thermal medium.     

Pose estimation from a two-dimensional view by use of composite correlation filters and neural networks

We present a technique to estimate the pose of a three-dimensional object from a two-dimensional view. We first compute the correlation between the unknown image and several synthetic-discriminant-function filters constructed with known views of the object. We consider both linear and nonlinear correlations. The filters are constructed in such a way that the obtained correlation values depend on the pose parameters. We show that this dependence is not perfectly linear, in particular for nonlinear correlation. Therefore we use a two-layer neural network to retrieve the pose parameters from the correlation values. We demonstrate the technique by simultaneously estimating the in-plane and out-of-plane orientations of an airplane within an 8-deg portion. We show that a nonlinear correlation is necessary to identify the object and also to estimate its pose. On the other hand, linear correlation is more accurate and more robust. A combination of linear and nonlinear correlations gives the best results.     

Stochastic cyclic flow lines with blocking: Markovian models

We consider a cyclic flow line model that repetitively produces multiple items in a cyclic order. We examine performance of stochastic cyclic flow line models with finite buffers of which processing times have exponential or phase-type distributions. We develop an exact method for computing a two-station model by making use of the matrix geometric structure of the associated Markov chain. We present a computationally tractable approximate performance computing method that decomposes the line model into a number of two-station submodels and parameterizing the submodels by propagating the starvation and blocking probabilities through the adjacent submodels. We discuss performance characteristics including comparison with random order processing and effects of the job variation and the job processing sequence. We also report the accuracy of our proposed method.     

Digital three-dimensional image correlation by use of computer-reconstructed integral imaging

We use integral images of a three-dimensional (3D) scene to estimate the longitudinal depth of multiple objects present in the scene. With this information, we digitally reconstruct the objects in three dimensions and compute 3D correlations of input objects. We investigate the use of nonlinear techniques for 3D correlations. We present experimental results for 3D reconstruction and correlation of 3D objects. We demonstrate that it is possible to perform 3D segmentation of 3D objects in a scene. We finally present experiments to demonstrate that the 3D correlation is more discriminant than the two-dimensional correlation.     

Generation of entangled photon pairs using small-coherence-time continuous wave pump lasers

We address the generation of entangled photon pairs by parametric downconversion from solid state cw lasers with small coherence time. We consider a compact and low-cost setup based on a two-crystal scheme with type-I phase matching. We reconstruct the full density matrix by quantum tomography and analyze in detail the entanglement properties of the generated state as a function of the crystal's length and the coherence time of the pump. We verify the possibility to improve the visibility using a purification protocol based on a compensation crystal.     

Separate detection of BTX mixture gas by a microfluidic device using a function of nanosized pores of mesoporous silica adsorbent

We achieved separate detection of the components of 10 ppm of a benzene, toluene, and o-xylene mixture gas by using mesoporous silica powder incorporated in our microfluidic device. The device consists of concentration and detection cells formed of 3 cm x 1 cm Pyrex plates. We first introduced the mixture gas into the concentration cell where it was adsorbed on an adsorbent in a channel formed in the cell. We then raised the temperature using a thin-film heater and introduced the desorbed gas into the detection cell. Here, we measured the changes in the absorption spectra of the mixture gas in the detection cell. We found that the mixture ratio of the compounds in the desorbed gas varies with time because the thermal desorption property of each compound is different from that of the adsorbent. We analyzed the thermal desorption mechanism by comparing two types of silica adsorbents with different pore structures. We found that an adsorbent that has pores with a periodic and uniform nanosized column shape provides better component separation. We concluded that the uniform pore structure might cause the adsorbate molecules to exhibit a homogeneous adsorption state thus revealing the desorption properties of the gas more clearly.     

Sequencing with limited flexibility

We consider the problem of resequencing a set of prearranged jobs when there is limited resequencing flexibility and sequence-dependent changeover costs. Resequencing flexibility is limited by how far forward or backward a job can shift in the sequence relative to its original position. We show how the problem can be solved using dynamic programming in polynomial time with respect to the number of jobs. We also show how the same solution approach can be extended to problems where sequencing constraints are job specific and to problems where job features, which determine changeover costs, are jointly determined with the job sequence. We provide an integer programming formulation to the resequencing problem whose linear programming relaxation offers a useful lower bound. We also describe a family of decomposition heuristics that are easy to customize to provide desired levels of solution quality and solution time. We document the quality of the lower bound from the linear programming relaxation and the upper bound from the heuristic using numerical results. We also provide numerical results to support managerial insights regarding the value of flexibility. We show that the value of flexibility is of the diminishing kind with most of the benefit realized with relatively limited flexibility. We also show that a balanced allocation of flexibility among forward and backward position shifting is superior to an unbalanced one. More significantly, we show that forward and backward position shifting flexibility are complements with the value of one increasing in the amount of the other. Finally, we apply our solution approach to a real-world case from the automotive industry.     

Variational Monte Carlo for Interacting Electrons in Quantum Dots

We use a variational Monte Carlo algorithm to solve the electronic structure of two-dimensional semiconductor quantum dots in external magnetic field. We present accurate many-body wave functions for the system in various magnetic field regimes. We show the importance of symmetry, and demonstrate how it can be used to simplify the variational wave functions. We present in detail the algorithm for e_cient wave function optimization. We also present a Monte Carlo -based diagonalization technique to solve the quantum dot problem in the strong magnetic _eld limit where the system is of a multiconfiguration nature.PACS numbers: 71.10.−w, 73.21.La, 02.70.Ss     

Three-dimensional particle tracking via bifocal imaging

We introduce a bifocal imaging method that enables three-dimensional (3D) tracking of both fluorescent and nonfluorescent particles. We accomplish this by simultaneously imaging a focused plane, for in-plane position (x,y), and a defocused plane, for out-of-plane position (z), of a molecule using a single CCD camera. We applied our method to several systems including in vivo melanosome tracking and phagocytosed fluorescent bead tracking. We have achieved 2-5 nm accuracy with a 2-50 ms time resolution.     

Bose-Condensed Gases in a 1D Optical Lattice at Finite Temperatures

We study equilibrium properties of Bose-Condensed gases in a one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice at finite temperatures. We assume that an additional harmonic confinement is highly anisotropic, in which the confinement in the radial directions is much tighter than in the axial direction. We derive a quasi-1D model of the Gross-Pitaeavskii equation and the Bogoliubov equations, and numerically solve these coupled equations to obtain the condensate fraction as a function of the temperature. We also discuss the importance of the radial excitations in the thermodynamic properties at finite temperatures.