LaNiO3 and Cu3Ge contacts to YBa2Cu3O7-x films

Metallization of high-T_c superconductors using low resistivity metal oxides and Cu-Ge alloys has been investigated on high quality pulsed laser deposited epitaxial YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x (YBCO) films. Epitaxial LaNiO₃ (LNO) thin films have been grown on YBCO films at 700°C using pulsed laser deposition. The specific resistivity of LNO was measured to be 50 μΩ-cm at 300K which decreases to 19 μΩ-cm at 100K indicating good metallicity of the LNO films. The contact resistance of LNO-YBCO thin film interface was found to be reasonably low (of the order of 10^-4Ω-cm² at 77K) which suggests that the interface formed between the two films is quite clean and LNO can emerge as a promising metal electrode-material to YBCO films. A preliminary investigation related to the compatibility of Cu₃Ge alloy as a contact metallization material to YBCO films is discussed. The usage of other oxide based low resistivity materials such as SrRuO₃ (SRO) and SrVO₃ (SVO) for metallization of high-T_c YBCO superconductor films is also discussed.     

Cyclic codes over Z4, locator polynomials, and Newton'sidentities

Certain nonlinear binary codes contain more codewords than any comparable linear code presently known. These include the Kerdock (1972) and Preparata (1968) codes that can be very simply constructed as binary images, under the Gray map, of linear codes over Z₄ that are defined by means of parity checks involving Galois rings. This paper describes how Fourier transforms on Galois rings and elementary symmetric functions can be used to derive lower bounds on the minimum distance of such codes. These methods and techniques from algebraic geometry are applied to find the exact minimum distance of a family of Z ₄. Linear codes with length 2^m (m, odd) and size 2(2^m+1-5m-2). The Gray image of the code of length 32 is the best (64, 2³⁷) code that is presently known. This paper also determines the exact minimum Lee distance of the linear codes over Z₄ that are obtained from the extended binary two- and three-error-correcting BCH codes by Hensel lifting. The Gray image of the Hensel lift of the three-error-correcting BCH code of length 32 is the best (64, 2³²) code that is presently known. This code also determines an extremal 32-dimensional even unimodular lattice     

Upper bound for a hybrid sum over Galois rings with applications toaperiodic correlation of some q-ary sequences

An upper bound for a hybrid exponential sum over Galois rings is derived. This bound is then used to obtain an upper bound for the maximum aperiodic correlation of some sequence families over Galois rings. The bound is of the order of √qlnq where q-1 is the period of the sequences     

Delay performance of some scheduling strategies in an input queuingATM switch with multiclass bursty traffic

Considers an N×N nonblocking, space division, input queuing ATM cell switch, and a class of Markovian models for cell arrivals on each of its inputs. The traffic at each input comprises geometrically distributed bursts of cells, each burst destined for a particular output. The inputs differ in the burstiness of the offered traffic, with burstiness being characterized in terms of the average burst length. We analyze burst delays where some inputs receive traffic with low burstiness and others receive traffic with higher burstiness. Three policies for head-of-the-line contention resolution are studied: two static priority policies [shorter-expected-burst-length-first (SEBF), longer-expected-burst-length-first (LEBF)] and random selection (RS). Direct queuing analysis is used to obtain approximations for asymptotic high and low priority mean burst delays with the priority policies. Simulation is used for obtaining mean burst delays for finite N and for the random selection policy. As the traffic burstiness increases, the asymptotic analysis can serve as a good approximation only for large switch sizes. Qualitative performance comparisons based on the asymptotic analysis are, however, found to continue to hold for finite switch sizes. It is found that the SEBF policy yields the best delay performance over a wide range of loads, while RS lies in between. SEBF drastically reduces the delay of the less bursty traffic while only slightly increasing the delay of the more bursty traffic. LEBF causes severe degradation in the delay of less bursty traffic, while only marginally improving the delays of the more bursty traffic. RS can be an adequate compromise if there is no prior knowledge of input traffic burstiness     

An access protocol for supporting multiple classes of service in alocal wireless environment

This paper presents a time split token-based contention resolution (TS-TBCR) protocol for providing multiple classes of traffic access to a shared wireless media. Since the protocol requires immediate response from the base station, it is best suited for short-range wireless applications. The key feature of the protocol is that it allows multiplexing of various services with high throughput even under heavy traffic loads. The protocol provides near perfect scheduling of information transfer by reserving a small part of the bandwidth for contention resolution. This resolves contention in an a priori manner, thus preventing collisions and leading to high channel bandwidth utilization. This protocol allows the system to support a high load while keeping packet loss probability within acceptable limits. Using a token-based mechanism, the protocol implements an access scheme, as well as a service (scheduling) discipline. The protocol is analytically modeled and extensive simulations performed to evaluate its performance. Results indicate that for multimedia traffic transport, the protocol can dynamically, and without any centralized control, realize any service discipline from first-in first-out (FIFO: complete fairness) to head-of-line (HOL: complete biasing), merely based on the relative service requirements of the traffic classes. This brings in fairness since no service class is excessively penalized     

Thermal stratification in ribbed liquid hydrogen storage tanks

A significant decrease in the degree of thermal stratification is demonstrated by improvising transverse wall ribs on the inner cylindrical surfaces of large liquid hydrogen storage tanks. The ribbed surfaces are modeled as fins and a conjugate transient heat transfer problem is formulated for predicting flow currents and heat transfer. Turbulent Rayleigh numbers between 1.2×10¹²$1.2\times {10}^{12}$ and 6×10¹⁶$6\times {10}^{16}$ are considered. A stratification parameter based on the moment of energy is defined to quantify the degree of stratification and this parameter is seen to be about 30% lower for the ribbed tanks. The degree of stratification is not sensitive to changes in the ratio of the rib height to the spacing between the ribs. The transient free convection is shown to be characterized by the parameter Fo×Ra^0.15$\mathrm{Fo}\times {\mathrm{Ra}}^{0.15}$. The process of stratification takes place more slowly in the ribbed tanks than in smooth-walled tanks. The free convective heat transfer coefficient for tanks having ribbed surface is also seen to be significantly lower. Incorporation of ribs over the inner surface of the insulated tanks is demonstrated to offer a simple means of reducing the stratification and boil-off losses.     

Conjugate natural convection heat transfer in an inclined square cavity containing a conducting block

The present work is concerned with computation of natural convection flow in a square enclosure with a centered internal conducting square block both of which are given an inclination angle. Finite volume method through the concepts of staggered grid and SIMPLE algorithm have been applied. Deferred QUICK scheme has been used to discretize the convective fluxes and central difference for diffusive fluxes. The problem of conjugate natural convection has been taken up for validating the code. The abrupt variation in the properties at the solid/fluid interface are taken care of with the harmonic mean formulation. Solution has been performed in the computational domain as a whole with proper treatment at the solid/fluid interface. Computations have been performed for Ra = 10³–10⁶, angle of inclination varying from 15° to 90° in steps of 15° and ratio of solid to fluid thermal conductivities of 0.2 and 5.0. Results are presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, local and average Nusselt number.     

Electrical and photovoltaic response of bulk hetero-junction device made from poly (3-phenyl azo methine thiophene) (PPAT) and 1, 1′-diallyl substituted 4, 4′-dipyridine (DADP)

Electrical and photovoltaic properties of donor–acceptor composite system comprised of poly (3-phenyl azo methine thiophene) (PPAT) and 1, 1′–diallyl substituted 4, 4′-dipyridine (DADP) were investigated. A significant enhancement of photocurrent was observed when PPAT was blended with DADP. The increase in photocurrent has been explained in terms of efficient charge separation that resulted from the transfer of photo-excited electrons from PPAT to DADP. The strong quenching of fluorescence of PPAT was caused by the presence of DADP that indicates the photo-induced charge transfer from PPAT to DADP. The open circuit voltage (V_oc) generated in the device is independent of the variation of work function of negative metal electrode that has been explained in terms of Fermi level pinning between DADP and metal via surface charges. The electrical characteristics of ITO/PPAT: DADP/Al photovoltaic device were determined by analyzing the dependence of short circuit photocurrent density (J_sc) and V_oc under illumination at different temperatures. The V_oc decreases almost linearly with increasing temperature, while short-circuit photocurrent increases logarithmically with temperature and saturates at higher temperature above 330 K. This dependence of J_sc and V_oc on temperature has been discussed in terms of possible mechanism that involves the photovoltage generation and charge carrier transport in the device under thermally activated state. The photovoltaic device made from PPAT: DADP blend has shown three times higher photosensitivity than that of made from pure PPAT.     

Solar drying vs. open sun drying: A framework for financial evaluation

Initiatives towards large-scale dissemination of solar dryers for drying of agri-produce face severe competition from the largely prevalent practice of open sun drying in most of the developing countries. Therefore, solar drying systems must offer exceptionally attractive financial gains to enhance their acceptance among the potential users. A modest attempt to develop a simple framework to facilitate a comparison of the financial feasibility of solar drying as against open sun drying has been made in the present work. Results of some exemplifying calculations are presented and briefly discussed.     

Observations of high temperature impinging-jet boiling phenomena

A high-speed video camera and microphone were used to capture the flow behavior and boiling sound of a free-surface water jet impinging on a high temperature surface during quench cooling. It was found that depending on the superheat of the surface considerably different flow patterns appeared. For cases where the initial surface temperature was above about 300 °C an almost explosive pattern appeared. This was in contrast to slightly lower temperatures where a liquid sheet flow structure was apparent. The change in phenomena was accompanied by a sudden change in the boiling sound and an increase in the heat transfer rate.