New Organic Nonlinear Optical Polyene Crystals and Their Unusual Phase Transitions

A series of new nonlinear optical chromophores based on configurationally locked polyenes (CLPs) with chiral pyrrolidine donors are synthesized. All CLP derivatives exhibit high thermal stability with decomposition temperatures T_d at least > 270 °C. Acentric single crystals of enantiopure D ‐ and L ‐prolinol‐based chromophores with a monoclinic space group P2₁ exhibit a macroscopic second‐order nonlinearity that is twice as large than that of analogous dimethylamino‐based crystal. This is attributed to a strong hydrogen‐bonded polar polymer‐like chain built by these molecules, which is aligned along the polar crystallographic b‐axis. Five α‐phase CLP crystals with different donors grown from solution exhibit a reversible or irreversible thermally induced structural phase transition to a β‐phase. These phase transitions are unusual, changing the crystal symmetry from higher to lower at increasing temperatures, for example, from centrosymmetric to non‐centrosymmetric, enhancing their macroscopic second‐order nonlinear optical properties.     

A new N-type doping precursor for MOCVD-IMP growth of detector quality MCT

A new indium precursor, triisopropyl indium (TIPIn), has been used for doping MCT at low carrier concentrations. Previous attempts using indium organometallics resulted in a strong memory effect where residual doping would persist for many growth runs. Introducing TIPIn on the tellurium inject line resulted in a similarly strong memory doping but this was not observed when feeding the dopant in on the cadmium injection line. The TIPIn is believed to have been forming a low volatility adduct with diisopropyl tellurium (DIPTe) in the feed line and to have continued to evaporate at a low but significant rate. By keeping the TIPIn and DIPTe precursors separate until they entered the reactor, the desired low 10¹⁵ cm⁻³ carrier concentration and flat indium profiles could be achieved with good reproducibility. Good electrical characteristics were measured for these layers with Auger limited lifetime >1 μs at 77K.     

Fractal modeling techniques for spatial data

The paper presents convolutional linear data models for the processing of one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) spatial data. The models assume that the measured data is the superposition of a stochastic innovation process and a deterministic system function. The innovation process is described by a fractal scaling noise, which has a power spectral density proportional to some power (-β) of the frequency. The system function is assumed to be symmetric and is constructed using autoregressive (AR) filtering procedures. Iterative deconvolution procedures are developed to recover the fractal innovation from the data. For computational convenience, these procedures assume a spectrally white (β=0) innovation, but modify the data prior to inversion by prewhitening the a priori assumed fractal innovation. The filter coefficients recovered by inverting the modified data are then applied to the original data to recover the fractal innovation. The ability of the deconvolution procedures to recover the fractal innovation is demonstrated using 1D and 2D synthetic data sets. As a practical example, the 2D deconvolution technique is applied to an aeromagnetic map from northeastern Ontario, Canada, and is shown to be effective in enhancing magnetic field anomalies     

石英振梁加速度计：一种精密低成本的小型敏感器

当考虑到标度因数精度要求的时候，振梁加速度计是一种很有吸引力的概念。这种概念基于当梁受到因加速度引起的拉力或压力时，振梁谐振频率发生变化。     

Noncoherent space-time coding: An algebraic perspective

The design of space-time signals for noncoherent block-fading channels where the channel state information is not known a priori at the transmitter and the receiver is considered. In particular, a new algebraic formulation for the diversity advantage design criterion is developed. The new criterion encompasses, as a special case, the well-known diversity advantage for unitary space-time signals and, more importantly, applies to arbitrary signaling schemes and arbitrary channel distributions. This criterion is used to establish the optimal diversity-versus-rate tradeoff for training based schemes in block-fading channels. Our results are then specialized to the class of affine space-time signals which allows for a low complexity decoder. Within this class, space-time constellations based on the threaded algebraic space-time (TAST) architecture are considered. These constellations achieve the optimal diversity-versus-rate tradeoff over noncoherent block-fading channels and outperform previously proposed codes in the considered scenarios as demonstrated by the numerical results. Using the analytical and numerical results developed in this paper, nonunitary space-time codes are argued to offer certain advantages in block-fading channels where the appropriate use of coherent space-time codes is shown to offer a very efficient solution to the noncoherent space-time communication paradigm.     

Electrical characterization of HfO2 films obtained by UV assisted injection MOCVD

HfO₂ films were deposited at low temperature (400 °C) by UV assisted injection metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (UVI-MOCVD). A three-step process was used for this study, consisting of (A) Pre-deposition anneal for nitridation; (B) Deposition step; (C) Post-deposition annealing in oxygen. Special attention was paid to the effect of UV exposure during these steps. Films were characterized by physical, optical and electrical techniques. Thickness was determined by different methods (X-ray Reflectrometry (XRR), spectroscopic ellipsometry and transmission electron microscopy) and a good agreement was found for all samples. The HfO₂ permittivity, equivalent oxide thickness (E_OT), flat-band voltage (V_fb) and total charge (Q_t) were extracted from the CV response at high frequency taking into account the HfO₂ and SiO₂ thicknesses obtained by XRR. The calculated permittivity values were in the range 7–13, i.e. lower than theoretical values for the monoclinic phase. Explanations are suggested in the context of the other characterizations. JE_eff characteristics were constructed taking into account the E_OT values (E_eff = V/E_OT). Effective breakdown fields range between 8.7 and 16.9 MV/cm. No dependence of E_eff with UV exposure was found.     

Ka-band analog front-end for software-defined direct conversion receiver

A six-port Ka-band front-end architecture based on direct conversion for a software-defined radio application is proposed in this paper. The direct conversion is accomplished using six-port technology. In order to demodulate various phase-shift-keying/quadrature-amplitude-modulation (PSK/QAM) modulated signals at a high bit rate, a new analog baseband circuit was specially designed according to the I/Q equations presented in the theoretical part. An experimental prototype has been fabricated and measured. Simulation and measurement results for binary PSK, quaternary PSK (QPSK), 8 PSK, 16 PSK, and 16 QAM modulated signals at a bit rate up to 40 Mb/s are presented to validate the proposed approach. A software-defined radio can be designed using the new front-end and only two analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) because the I/Q output signals are generated by analog means. Previous six-port receivers make use of four ADCs to read the six-port dc levels and require digital computations to generate the I/Q output signals. With the proposed approach, the load of the signal processor will therefore be reduced and the modulation speed can be significantly increased using the same digital signal processor.     

High-speed and low-driving-Voltage thin-sheet X-cut LiNbO/sub 3/ Modulator with laminated low-dielectric-constant adhesive

We present a novel thin-sheet X-cut LiNbO/sub 3/ optical modulator structure which can be fabricated by precise polishing and lapping to obtain a thinner LiNbO/sub 3/ substrate for a lower driving voltage in addition to velocity matching and impedance matching. We demonstrated that the fabricated modulator had a driving voltage V/spl pi/ of 2 V and zero chirp for 40-Gb/s operation and had a high potential for suppressed dc drift, and long-term reliability.     

Mutual Coupling Reduction in Patch Antenna Arrays by Using a Planar EBG Structure and a Multilayer Dielectric Substrate

Periodic structures can help in the reduction of mutual coupling by using their capability of suppressing surface waves propagation in a given frequency range. The purpose of this work is to show the viability of using a planar electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure based on a truncated frequency selective surface (FSS) grounded slab to this aim. The goal is to use it in patch antenna arrays, keeping both the element separation smaller than for grating lobes avoidance (assuming broadside case) and the patch antenna size large enough to have a good antenna directivity. To this aim, a multilayer dielectric substrate composed of high and low permittivity layers is convenient. This allows the use of a planar EBG structure made of small elements printed on the high permittivity material and, at the same time, the low permittivity layer helps the bandwidth and the directivity of the antenna to be increased. The EBG structure was designed under these premises and optimized for the particular application via an external optimization algorithm based on evolutionary computation: ant colony optimization (ACO). The mutual coupling reduction has been measured and it is larger than 10 dB with a completely planar structure.     

The storage life of chilled pork packaged under carbon dioxide

Pork cuts of longissimus dorsi muscle with overlaying fat and skin were packed under vacuum in film of low oxygen transmission rate, or under CO₂ in gas impermeable aluminium foil laminate. Cuts were stored at +3 or −1·5°C. Vacuum packaged cuts were grossly spoiled by Brochothrix thermosphacta after 2 weeks' storage at 3°C and after 5 weeks at −1·5°C. Cuts packaged under CO₂ were grossly spoiled by B. thermosphacta after 5·5 weeks' storage at 3°C. Growth of B. thermosphacta was suppressed when CO₂ packaged cuts were stored at −1·5°C. At that temperature, slow growth of enterobacteria was detected after a lag of about 18 weeks. The enterobacteria caused gross spoilage of an increasing proportion of cuts between 18 and 26 weeks. Muscle tissue with pale, soft, exudative (PSE) characteristics tended to lose colour after long storage periods, apparently because of loss of myogglobin with exudate. Until spoilage, the eating qualities of pork appeared little affected by prolonged storage.