The zinc-rich corner of the Zn-Fe-Ni-Si quaternary system at 450 °C

Following up on recent studies of the Zn-rich corners of the Zn-Fe-Ni and Zn-Fe-Si ternary systems, a 450 °C isothermal section of the Zn-Fe-Ni-Si quaternary phase diagram with the Zn composition being fixed at 93 at.% was determined experimentally using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and x-ray diffractometry (XRD). FeSi was found to be in equilibrium with almost all phases in the section, including the T, ζ, Ni-δ, NiSi₂, and FeSi₂ phases, as well as the liquid phase (L). Silicon solubilities in the T, ζ, and Ni-δ phases were rather limited. However, the solubilities of Fe and Zn in the NiSi₂ phase, at 4.5 at.% and 7.2 at.%, respectively, were appreciable. The existence of the (L+NiSi₂+Ni-δ) three-phase equilibrium state apparently prevents other Ni-Si compounds from entering equilibrium with the liquid at 450 °C. No true quaternary compound was found in the study.     

Theoretical analysis of heat transfer in laminar pulsating flow

Pulsation effect on heat transfer in laminar incompressible flow, which led to contradictory results in previous studies, is theoretically investigated in this work starting from basic principles in an attempt to eliminate existing confusion at various levels. First, the analytical solution of the fully developed thermal and hydraulic profiles under constant wall heat flux is obtained. It eliminates the confusion resulting from a previously published erroneous solution. The physical implications of the solution are discussed. Also, a new time average heat transfer coefficient for pulsating flow is carefully defined such as to produce results that are both useful from the engineering point of view, and compliant with the energy balance. This rationally derived average is compared with intuitive averages used in the literature. New results are numerically obtained for the thermally developing region with a fully developed velocity profile. Different types of thermal boundary conditions are considered, including the effect of wall thermal inertia. The effects of Reynold and Prandtl numbers, as well as pulsation amplitude and frequency on heat transfer are investigated. The mechanism by which pulsation affects the developing region, by creating damped oscillations along the tube length of the time average Nusselt number, is explained.     

Advanced Method for Single Crystal Casting of Turbine Blades for Gas Turbine Engines and Plants

A method for fabricating single crystal blades that combines the techniques of seed crystals and selection is suggested. The method realizes the advantages of both techniques, i.e., the high structural perfection and the possibility of fabricating single crystals with specified spatial orientation. Metallographic and x-ray diffraction analyses are used to study the processes of nucleation of the single crystal structure of blade castings fabricated from high-temperature nickel alloys by the method of selection and seed crystals. A commercial process for fabricating cast single crystal turbine blades by the new method is suggested.     

Single-frequency, single-knob tuning of a CW color center laser

We describe a simple way to achieve CW single-frequency laser operation with a grating as the sole tuning element. It is Shown, both experimentally and theoretically, that by proper choice of cavity parameters, the competing hole burning modes can be completely suppressed. Experiments to demonstrate the theoretical calculations were carried out in a CW color center laser using Tl⁰(1) centers. Linewidths of 0.01 cm^-1were obtained and this figure can probably be much improved by proper cavity stabilization. The method can be readily extended to any compact gain medium.     

Performance engineering and topological design of metro WDM opticalnetworks using computer simulation

This paper demonstrates the use of computer simulation for topological design and performance engineering of transparent wavelength-division multiplexing metropolitan-area networks. Engineering of these networks involves the study of various transport-layer impairments such as amplifier noise, component ripple, chirp/dispersion, optical crosstalk, waveform distortion due to filter concatenation, fiber nonlinearities, and polarization effects. A computer simulation methodology composed of three main simulation steps is derived and implemented. This methodology obtains performance estimations by applying efficient wavelength-domain simulations on the entire network topology, followed by time-/frequency-domain simulations on selected paths of the network and finally Q-budgeting on an identified worst case path. The above technique provides an efficient tool for topological design and network performance engineering. Accurate simulation models are presented for each of the performance impairments, and the computer simulation methodology is used for the design and engineering of a number of actual metro network architectures     

Systematic characterization of Cl2 reactive ion etchingfor improved ohmics in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

Pre-metal-deposition reactive ion etching (RIE) was performed on an Al_0.3Ga_0.7N/AlN/GaN heterostructure in order to improve the metal-to-semiconductor contact resistance. An optimum AlGaN thickness for minimizing contact resistance was determined. An initial decrease in contact resistance with etching time was explained in terms of removal of an oxide surface layer and/or by an increase in tunnelling current with the decrease of the AlGaN thickness. The presence of a dissimilar surface layer was confirmed by an initial nonuniform etch depth rate. An increase in contact resistance for deeper etches was experienced. The increase was related to depletion of the two-dimensional (2-D) electron gas (2-DEG) under the ohmics. Etch depths were measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The contact resistance decreased from about 0.45 Ωmm for unetched ohmics to a minimum of 0.27 Ωmm for 70 Å etched ohmics. The initial thickness of the AlGaN layer was 250 Å. The decrease in contact resistance, without excessive complications on device processing, supports RIE etching as a viable solution to improve ohmic contact resistance in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs     

A concise process technology for 3-D suspended radio frequency micro-inductors on silicon substrate

In this letter, a concise process technology is proposed for the first time to enable the fabrication of good quality three-dimensional (3-D) suspended radio frequency (RF) micro-inductors on bulk silicon, without utilizing the lithography process on sidewall and trench-bottom patterning. Samples were fabricated to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed process technology.     

The microstructure of Cu films deposited by the self-ion assisted technique

The microstructures of Cu films deposited by the self-ion assisted, partially ionized beam (PIB) deposition technique under two different accelerating potentials, 0 KeV and 6 KeV, are compared. The 6 KeV film shows a bimodal (111) fiber and (100) fiber texture with an abundance of twin boundaries and a relatively large average grain size with a typical lognormal distribution. The 0 KeV film consists of small, mostly (111) oriented grains with islands of abnormally large (100) grains. The controlling factors for the abnormal growth of the (100) grains are discussed in relation to the observed microstructures, showing that all factors necessary for abnormal (100) growth are present in the films.     

干涉条纹图估测基线的方法研究

根据SAR干涉测量原理，提出了利用干涉相干条纹估测基线的方法，并以欧洲空间局资源卫星1号和2号携带的SAR系统在中国新疆伽师试验区获取的串接式（Tan-dem）干涉测量数据为数据源，对提出的方法进行了验证，结果表明，该方法能有效地估测基线，并弥补不能有效获取卫星轨道参数时，对基线进行估测的缺陷，该方法尤其适用于差分干涉测量的研究。