Fabrication of Arsenic Sulfide Optical Fiber with Low Hydrogen Impurities

Arsenic sulfide glass optical fibers typically possess extrinsic absorption bands in the infrared wavelength region associated with residual hydrogen and oxygen related impurities, despite using purified precursors. We report a purification process based on the addition of tellurium tetrachloride (TeCl₄) to the glass. During melting, the chlorine from TeCl₄ reacts with the hydrogen impurities to produce volatile products (e.g., HCl) that can be removed by subsequent dynamic distillation. The processing conditions have been modified accordingly to produce optical fibers with significantly reduced loss due to hydrogen sulfide impurity content (1.5 dB/m).     

The growth of roughness during electrodeposition

Measurements of the growth rate of roughness on a cathode surface can be used to study the physics of cathodic processes. But these growth rates are cell wide variables and they ordinarily depend on what is taking place at the anode as well as at the cathode. Our aim is to derive a simple condition under which the anode makes no contribution to the interpretation of growth rate measurements at the cathode.Our condition stems from the contribution of ion diffusion to the growth rate and it is satisfied for all non-small values of the wave number of a growing disturbance. This, together with the fact that surface tension is the only stabilizing factor and the fact that the surface tension coefficient multiplying the wave number is small, means that the anode ought not to be important for the fastest growing wave numbers.Once the effect of the anode is eliminated, the growth rate at the cathode can be expressed in a formula so simple that pencil and paper calculations are possible and this makes important questions in cell design easy to answer, e.g., is the growth rate diffusion controlled?     

A Shortcut Method for Estimating the HETP of Structured Packed Distillation Columns at Elevated Pressure

A shortcut model is developed for predicting the HETP of a structured packed distillation column operating at elevated pressure. The proposed model incorporates the geometrical parameters of the packing, physical properties of the vapor and liquid phases, and the hydrodynamics of the two‐phase flow. The proposed model is tested and validated by comparing the predicted results with the present experimental data and some published HETP data. The results show that the proposed model can predict the experimental data with a deviation smaller than 20 %.     

Tearing, folding and deformation of a carbon-carbon sp-bonded network

A monolayer and a few layers of carbon sp²-bonded networks were torn and folded by the tip of an atomic force microscope at the steps on newly cleaved highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. It was found that the preferential breaking directions and folding axes are along the symmetry directions of the graphite hexagonal structure. Depending on the force exerted by the tip, breaking may occur along other directions. The torn part of the graphene sheet can even be stretched and deformed, and does not resume its original shape after release from the tip.     

Pinhole density measurements of barriers deposited on low-k films

Evaluation of diffusion barrier integrity is an important issue in advanced interconnects. A diffusion barrier separating Cu from low-k must be as thin as possible and must not contain pinholes. We have developed a method for measuring pinhole density in diffusion barriers deposited on low-k materials. The method employs ellipsometric porosimetry for measuring diffusion of toluene in a porous low-k film beneath the barrier in question.     

Insulating safety analysis of the hot-line sweeping robot

This paper presents a method of calculating the insulating safety distances for hot-line working robots at high voltage when dielectric is adulterated with conducts. Also, finite element method is adopted to calculate the electric field strength to find whether it is beyond the critical. The above methods have been applied to analyze the insulating safety of the robot for hot-line sweeping post insulators in a 220 KV substation. They have also been testified by experimentations.     

First-principle study of ferroelectricity in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices

We performed the first-principles calculation to investigate the electronic structure and polarization behaviors in PbTiO₃/SrTiO₃ (PST) superlattices. The DOS (density of state) profiles show that there are strong hybridizations of atom Ti–O and Pb–O which play very important roles on ferroelectricity of the PbTiO₃/SrTiO₃ superlattices. Comparing to the corresponding paraelectric phase, we find the electrons of the PT (PbTiO₃) layers occupy lower energy states and electrons of the ST (SrTiO₃) layer occupy higher energy states. It is shown that the polarizations of the superlattices decrease with proportion of SrTiO₃ increasing. The constant polarization of local layer indicates that PST superlattices with small modulation lengthen can be approximately considered as a single ferroelectric material. Furthermore, according to electrostatic model, we find that directions of internal electric fields in PT and ST layers are opposite. In PST superlattices, internal electric field in PT layer leads to the loss of polarization of this layer, but the polarization of ST layer is induced by internal electric field of this layer. Compared to the value of the polarization in bulk PbTiO₃, polarization of PST is smaller.