Scattering in Polycrystalline Nd:YAG Lasers

For the present study, 1.1-at.%-neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) ceramics with a controlled pore volume (150-930 vol. ppm) were fabricated via a solid-state reaction method using high-purity powders. The scattering coefficients of neodymium-doped YAG (Nd:YAG) ceramics, obtained from Fresnel's equation, increased simply as the pore volume increased. The effective scattering coefficient and the laser-oscillation performance of Nd:YAG ceramics with a pore volume of ∼150 vol. ppm were almost equivalent to those of a 0.9-at.%-Nd:YAG single crystal fabricated via the Czochralski method.     

Cross section adjustment method based on random sampling technique

A cross section adjustment method based on the random sampling technique is proposed. In the proposed method, correlations among cross sections and core parameters are used instead of sensitivity coefficients of cross sections, which are necessary in the conventional method. The correlations are statistically estimated by the random sampling technique. The proposed method is theoretically consistent with the conventional method and provides comparable adjusted cross sections when sufficient number of random sampling is taken into account. The proposed method would be suitable for practical light water reactor (LWR) core analysis since estimation of sensitivity coefficients, which requires considerable computational cost in typical LWR problems, is not necessary. Through a benchmark problem in simple pin-cell geometry, adjusted cross sections by the present and the conventional cross section adjustment method are compared. The adjusted cross sections by the present method well reproduce the conventional ones, thus the feasibility of the present method is confirmed.     

Envelope analysis of nonlinear electronic circuits based on harmonic balance method

We propose here a Spice‐oriented envelope analysis based on the HB (harmonic balance) method, where Fourier coefficients are assumed to be slowly varying. The Fourier expansions of nonlinear devices are executed by MATLAB in the symbolic forms. In this time, the nonlinearities need to be approximated by the polynomial functions. The determining equation of the HB method is formulated as Sine–Cosine circuit in the form of schematic diagram using ABMs (analog behavior models) of Spice. Each sub‐circuit corresponding to the higher harmonic component is almost the same circuit topology as the original one and has dynamic elements such as capacitors and inductors. The Sine–Cosine circuit can be solved by the transient analysis of Spice. Thus, our method is rather a symbolic approach in the meaning that the HB determining equation is given by the schematic diagram of Spice. Our method can be easily applied to the analysis of middle order of nonlinear communication circuits such as mixers and amplitude modulators and to the analysis of interesting phenomena in the nonlinear oscillations. After many simulation experiments, the results show that our envelope analysis is about 50 times faster than the direct transient analysis. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Domains in ferroelectric VDF/TrFE copolymer thin films: Investigated by a new optical probe method

Abstract

A new optical probe method was developed by using electro-optic and piezoelectric effects and a phase sensitive detection to determine the polarization of domains in ferroelectric thin films. Ferroelectric domains within a region smaller than 1 μm were detected in annealed VDF(65)/TrFE(35) copolymer thin films. The switching dynamics of these individual domains were also investigated by using this method.     

Fabrication and properties of polymer optical fibers containingNd-chelate

Graded-index poly(methyl methacrylate) optical fibers (GI POF) containing a Nd-chelate have been fabricated. The absorption spectrum of the fiber exhibited several strong bands in the visible and infrared regions. We have observed infrared fluorescence (0.90, 1.06, and 1.3 μm) of the Nd³⁺ ion of the fiber at room temperature when it was pumped with an Ar⁺-pumped dye laser at 580 nm     

Dual cryogenic fixation for mechanical testing of soft musculoskeletal tissues

Mechanical testing of soft musculoskeletal structures like tendons and ligaments are essential to medical advances. A long-standing limitation for testing these structures in isolation has been the ability to solidly fix both ends of the tendon. Cryogenic fixation technology was leveraged into the development of a dual cryogenic fixation (DCF) device. Results of the study show that the DCF allows tendons to be tested in isolation, at physiologic temperatures, with excellent reproducibility.     

A 30-ns 64-Mb DRAM with built-in self-test and self-repair function

A 64-Mb dynamic random access memory (DRAM) with a 30-ns access time and 19.48-mm×9.55-mm die size has been developed. For reducing inter-bit-line coupling noise, the DRAM features a latched-sense, shared-sense circuit with open bit-line readout and folded bit-line rewrite operations. To reduce test costs and increase chip reliability, it has been equipped with built-in self-test and self-repair (BIST and BISR) circuits that use spare SRAM cells     

Impact of silicon quantum dot super lattice and quantum well structure as intermediate layer on p‐i‐n silicon solar cells

The photovoltaic effect of the silicon (Si)/silicon carbide (SiC) quantum dot super lattice (QDSL) and multi‐quantum well (QW) strucutres is presented based on numerical simulation and experimental studies. The QDSL and QW structures act as an intermediate layer in a p‐i‐n Si solar cell. The QDSL consists of a stack of four 4‐nm Si nano disks and 2‐nm SiC barrier layers embedded in a SiC matrix fabricated with a top‐down etching process. The Si nano disks were observed with bright field‐scanning transmission electron microscopy. The simulation results based on the 3D finite element method confirmed that the quantum effect on the band structure for the QDSL and QW structures was different and had different effects on solar cell operation. The effect of vertical wave‐function coupling to form a miniband in the QDSL was observed based on the solar‐cell performance, showing a dramatic photovoltaic response in generating a high photocurrent density J_sc of 29.24 mA/cm², open circuit voltage V_oc of 0.51 V, fill factor FF of 0.74, and efficiency η of 11.07% with respect to a i‐QW solar cell with J_sc of 25.27 mA/cm², V_oc of 0.49 V, FF of 0.69, and η of 8.61% and an i‐Si solar cell with J_sc of 27.63 mA/cm², V_oc of 0.55 V, FF of 0.61, and η of 10.00%. A wide range of photo‐carrier transports by the QD arrays in the QDSL solar cell is possible in the internal quantum efficiency spectra with respect to the internal quantum efficiency of the i‐QW solar cell. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improved Stability of High-Performance ZnO/ZnMgO Hetero-MISFETs

Improved performance and stability was demonstrated for ZnO/ZnMgO hetero-MISFETs. The MIS gate structures that were formed using either a 50-nm-thick Al₂O₃ or HfO₂ gate dielectric layer were examined by observation of the transfer characteristic hysteresis. A significantly reduced hysteresis of less than 0.1 V was obtained for HfO₂ as compared to that for the Al₂O₃ gate dielectric. By reducing the access resistance, the 1-mum gate devices showed improved transconductance values, as high as 54 mS/mm for Al₂O₃ and 71 mS/mm for HfO₂, which are the highest values ever reported for ZnO-based FETs.     

Objective specification of food flavour. Analysis of gas chromatographic profiles of soy sauce flavour by stepwise regression analysis

The relationship between gas chromatographic profiles and sensory tests, which were carried out by an ordering method, was investigated by stepwise regression analysis. The, results indicated that sensory qualities were linearly related to gas chromatographic profiles. The multiple correlation coefficient (R) increased with the increase of step number, and exceeded 0·9 at step 10. R reached 0·968 at the last step number, 43. On the other hand, the standard error of estimate reached a minimum value at step 28 and then began to increase gradually. The most predictive regression model for sensory test panel acceptability was calculated for each step and the resulting calculated models were tested by substituting the gas chromatographic data. The results showed good accuracy for the estimation of sensory quality.