Analysis and Modelling of the LPC VD Annular Reactor

This paper presents the results of our work on a new type of CVD reactor, annular reactor. This equipment is able to deposit pure silicon and also in-situ phosphorus doped silicon on a large number of substrates     

Chaotic oscillator in wavelength: a new setup for investigatingdifferential difference equations describing nonlinear dynamics

A generator of chaos in wavelength is reported. It is formed by a wavelength-tunable laser diode with a time delayed feedback loop in which a wavelength nonlinear-linear device is introduced. The dynamical regime of wavelength emission thus obtained is ruled by a differential difference equation. Experimental results are compared with numerical simulations and with previous theoretical and experimental results     

Gaussian Cramer-Rao bound for direction estimation of noncircular signals in unknown noise fields

This paper focuses on the stochastic Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) on direction of arrival (DOA) estimation accuracy for noncircular Gaussian sources in the general case of an arbitrary unknown Gaussian noise field parameterized by a vector of unknowns. Explicit closed-form expressions of the stochastic CRB for DOA parameters alone are obtained directly from the Slepian-Bangs formula for general noncircular complex Gaussian distributions. As a special case, the CRB under the nonuniform white noise assumption is derived. Our expressions can be viewed as extensions of the well-known results by Stoica and Nehorai, Ottersten et al., Weiss and Friedlander, Pesavento and Gershman, and Gershman et al. Some properties of these CRBs are proved and finally, these bounds are numerically compared with the conventional CRBs under the circular complex Gaussian distribution for different unknown noise field models.     

Effects of reducing and oxidizing atmospheres on the PTCR characteristics of porous n-BaTiO3 ceramics by adding polyethylene glycol

Donor doped BaTiO₃ (n-BaTiO₃) ceramics were fabricated by adding polyethylene glycol (PEG) at 20 wt %. The effects of reducing and oxidizing atmospheres on the PTCR characteristics of the porous n-BaTiO₃ ceramics were investigated. The PTCR characteristics of the porous n-BaTiO₃ ceramics is strongly affected by chemisorbed oxygen at the grain boundaries and are recovered as the atmosphere is changed from the reducing gas to oxidizing gas. The low room-temperature resistivity of the porous n-BaTiO₃ ceramics in reducing atmospheres may be caused by the decrease in potential barrier height, which originates from an increase in the number of electrons owing to the desorption of chemisorbed oxygen atoms at the grain boundaries. In addition, the high room-temperature resistivity of the porous n-BaTiO₃ ceramics in oxidizing atmospheres may be caused by the increase in potential barrier height, which results from the adsorption of chemisorbed oxygen atoms at the grain boundaries.     

A Hermitian Box-scheme for One-dimensional Elliptic Equations – Application to Problems with High Contrasts in the Ellipticity

We introduce a new box-scheme, called ``hermitian box-scheme' on the model of the one-dimensional Poisson problem. The scheme combines features of the box-scheme of Keller, [20], [13], with the hermitian approximation of the gradient on a compact stencil, which is characteristic of compact schemes, [9], [21]. The resulting scheme is proved to be 4th order accurate for the primitive unknown u and its gradient p. The proved convergence rate is 1.5 for (u,p) in the discrete L ² norm. The connection with a non standard mixed finite element method is given. Finally, numerical results are displayed on pertinent 1-D elliptic problems with high contrasts in the ellipticity, showing in practice convergence rates ranging from 1 to 2.5 in the discrete H ¹ norm. This work has been performed with the support of the GDR MOMAS, (ANDRA, CEA, EDF, BRGM and CNRS): Modélisation pour le stockage des déchets radioactifs. The author thanks especially A. Bourgeat for his encouragements and his interest in this work.     

Limit of validity of the moisture diffusivity for the study of moisture transfer inside terracotta

In order to know the limit of validity of the concept of hydrical diffusivity, D_W, we tried to validate the Boltzmann's method used to identify it. We show that for a medium strictly satisfying the equation of diffusion, the method gives quite good results with nevertheless some inaccuracies for the extreme values of water contents. For the real studied material, a backed clay, its identification becomes more difficult because of the dispersion of the wetting phenomenon observed for different specimens of the same material. We are showing that the mean behaviour of one sample is near to be the same as the more probable behaviour of all the samples. Otherwise the values of D_W determined for a wetting cannot be used to describe a drying process. It practical interest is then considerably reduced. In order to test the influence of the gas phase pressure effects on the behaviour of the material, we have determined all the parameters necessary to describe, numerically, wetting and drying processes without to resort to D_W. We noticed an overpressure of the gas phase inside the material due to drying. If the gas pressure effects are, numerically, switched off, we cannot notice any influence on water content profiles for this type of material.     

Fourier-transform-limited pulses from gain-switched distributed-Bragg-reflector lasers using simultaneous modulation of gain and phase sections

Fourier-transform-limited pulses ( Delta tau . Delta nu approximately=0.35) have been obtained from a microwave-modulated DBR laser at 1.56 mu m. The chirp of the gain-switched pulse is compensated for by applying a fraction of the microwave signal to the phase section, thereby creating an instantaneous frequency shift of opposite sign. The generation of short coherent pulses from such a monolithic source can be of great interest for long haul soliton transmission.<>     

Tunable TE/TM-mode converter on (001)-InP-substrate

The use of a two-dimensional finite difference simulation technique to determine optimal design parameters for the fabrication of TE/TM-mode converters on (001) InP substrate is discussed. Based on design rules extracted from the calculations, a tunable device for an operating wavelength of 1.56 μm has been fabricated and polarization conversion of 45°, suitable for operation in a polarization diversity network has been achieved at an effective voltage of 32 V     

Effects of interstitial oxygen on microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb with fully lamellar and duplex microstructures

The effect of added oxygen in the range of 1000 to 4000 wt ppm on the microstructures of a Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb alloy has been investigated and compared to the microstructures for a high-purity alloy. For specimens cooled from theα phase, interstitial oxygen stabilizes the lamellar microstructure with respect toγ grains, with higher than equilibrium values for theα ₂ volume fraction. For specimens cooled from theα +γ phase field, the lamellar microstructure still tends to be favored by oxygen, but it is found that the phase volume fractions are not significantly different from equilibrium values. This suggests that interstitial O essentially reduces the kinetics of theα toα +γ transformation. Thus, interstitial oxygen will have a strong effect on microstructures obtained by continuous cooling fromα, but significantly less on those, such as the duplex microstructure, obtained by long treatment in theα +γ phase field. In general, increased O content is well correlated with reduced ductility. Finally, the role of interstitial oxygen on this phase transformation is discussed.