Determination of the Superconducting Penetration Depth From Coplanar-Waveguide Measurements

We introduce a novel transmission-line method for determining the penetration depth in thin high-temperature superconducting (HTS) films. The method is based on the accurate measurement of the inductance per unit length of a superconducting coplanar-waveguide (CPW) transmission line fabricated on the HTS sample. Using the experimentally obtained inductance per unit length, we interpolate the penetration depth from a table of numerically determined values of inductance (per unit length) as a function of penetration depth, calculated from a coupled transmission-line model. A novelty of our procedure is the utilization of the multiline thru-reflect-line (TRL) method and the calibration-comparison method to accurately determine the inductance per unit length of the superconducting transmission line. By measuring different CPW geometries patterned onto the same thin-film sample, we can verify our penetration depth values. We demonstrate this technique by extracting the penetration depth for several different HTS films at 76 K. Estimated uncertainties in the extracted penetration depth are also provided. Contribution of an agency of the US government not subject to copyright.     

Magnetic properties and microstructure of FePt–SiO2 nanocomposite films fabricated by nanocluster beam technology

Nanocluster beam technology combined with conventional sputtering was used to fabricate FePt–SiO₂ nanocomposite films in this present work. The post-deposition annealing affected the final particle size and size distribution of FePt nanoclusters. The effects of both volume fraction of SiO₂ matrix and annealing temperature on magnetic and microstructural properties were studied. Partial ordering, grain growth and agglomeration of FePt particles in FePt–SiO₂ nanocomposite films occurred during annealing. A higher volume fraction of SiO₂ matrix was effective in suppressing diffusion of atoms and magnetic exchange coupling of FePt grains. Excessive SiO₂ however resulted in a lower degree of FePt ordering and thus lower coercivity.     

Low-temperature conductance measurements of surface states in HfO2–Si structures with different gate materials

Metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors based on HfO₂ gate stack with different metal and metal compound gates (Al, TiN, NiSi and NiAlN) are compared to study the effect of the gate electrode material on the trap density at the insulator–semiconductor interface.C–V and G–ω measurements were made in the frequency range from 1 kHz to 1 MHz in the temperature range 180–300 K. From the maximum of the plot G/ω vs. ln(ω) the density of interface states was calculated, and from its position on the frequency axis the trap cross-section was found. Reducing temperature makes it possible to decrease leakage current through the dielectric and to investigate the states located closer to the band edge.The structures under study were shown to contain significant interface trap densities located near the valence band edge (around 2×10¹¹ cm⁻²eV⁻¹ for Al and up to (3.5–5.5)×10¹² cm⁻² eV⁻¹ for other gate materials). The peak in the surface state distribution is situated at 0.18 eV above the valence band edge for Al electrode. The capture cross-section is 5.8×10⁻¹⁷ cm² at 200 K for Al–HfO₂–Si structure.     

Influence of isovalent ion substitution on the electrochemical performance of LiCoPO4

LiCo_1−xM_xPO₄ (M = Mg²⁺, Mn²⁺ and Ni²⁺; 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.2) compounds have been synthesized by solid-state reaction method and studied as cathode materials for secondary lithium batteries. LiCoPO₄ exhibits a discharge plateau at ∼4.7 V with an initial discharge capacity of 125 mAh/g and on cycling capacity falls. Substitution of Co²⁺ with Mg²⁺/Mn²⁺/Ni²⁺ in LiCoPO₄ has an influence on the initial discharge capacity and on cycling behaviour. The capacity retention of LiCoPO₄ is improved by manganese substitution. Among the manganese substituted phases, LiCo_0.95Mn_0.05PO₄ shows good reversible capacity of ∼50 mAh/g.     

Robust estimation of continuous nonlinear plants with discrete measurements

In this work the problem of designing a state estimator for completely or partially observable continuous nonlinear plants with discrete measurements is addressed. The combination of a geometric approach with a stability analysis yields an estimator design methodology with a nonlinear detectability condition susceptible of testing, a systematic estimator construction, a robust convergence criterion coupled with a simple tuning scheme, as well as a rationale to explain the interplay between sampling time, estimator gains, and estimator functioning. Comparing with the continuous measurement case where the convergence is attained by tuning the gain above a low limit, in the discrete measurement case the loss of information due to the measurement sampling increases the size of the lower gain limit, and imposes sampling time and high gain limits. The proposed methodology is applied to address the estimation problem of a class of solution homopolymerization reactors, and is tested with a methyl-methacrylate polymerization run taken from a previous extended Kalman filter implementation study with experimental data.     

Robust H∞ filtering for uncertain impulsive stochastic systems under sampled measurements

This paper is concerned with the problem of robust H_∞ filtering for uncertain impulsive stochastic systems under sampled measurements. The parameter uncertainties are assumed to be time-varying norm-bounded. The aim is to design a stochastically stable filter, using the locally sampled measurements, which ensures both the robust stochastic stability and a prescribed level of H_∞ performance for the filtering error dynamics for all admissible uncertainties. A sufficient condition for the existence of such a filter is proposed in terms of certain linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). When these LMIs are feasible, an explicit expression of a desired filter is given. An example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

基于四端参数分析的隔振器传递阻抗测量方法

基于四端参数网络分析方法,推导了隔振器传递阻抗的计算公式,利用公式中易于测量的固定状态和自由状态的输入阻抗,得到隔振器的传递阻抗数据.根据该方法原理,测量了两种隔振器的实际传递阻抗,由测量结果可知,该方法具有简单、方便、理论依据明确的优点.     

Thermal stability of the Ta (1 1 1) surface covered with Pd

The thermal stability of Ta(1 1 1) face covered with Pd layers of different thickness was examined by the complementary scanning tunnelling microscope (STM), low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), Auger electron spectroscopy and Δφ techniques. It has been found that for thin layers of θ<3 monolayer (ML) heated to 450 K, uplifts appear on the surface that may be treated as an agglomerated form of Pd adsorbate. For layers thicker than θ>3 ML, facets of the {1 1 0} type were observed upon heating to 700 K. Regardless of the conditions of investigation the faceting of the {2 1 1} type did not appear. During the adsorbate desorption the STM images revealed an ordered arrangement of surface atoms in the form of micropyramids composed of 10 atoms each and equally oriented towards the substrate. The appearance of the pyramids on the surface did not affect the observed LEED pattern.     

A finite element formulation to identify damage fields: the equilibrium gap method

It is proposed to determine damage parameters in two dimensions (surface of a material) or three dimensions (in the bulk of a solid) by using full‐field displacement measurements. A finite‐element approach is developed to evaluate piece‐wise constant elastic parameters modeled by an isotropic damage variable. Two sets of examples are discussed. The first series deals with mechanical fields obtained by finite element simulations to assess the performance of the approach. The second series is concerned with displacement measurements performed during a biaxial test on a composite material. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Qualitative Ordinal Scales: The Concept of Ordinal Range

Many practical problems of quality control involve the use of ordinal scales. Questionnaires planned to collect judgments on qualitative or linguistic scales, whose levels are terms such as “good,” “bad,” “medium,” etc., are extensively used both in evaluating service quality and in visual controls for manufacturing industry. In an ordinal environment, the concept of distance between two generic levels of the same scale is not defined. Therefore, a population (universe) of judgments cannot be described using “traditional” statistical distributions since they are based on the notion of distance. The concept of “distribution shape” cannot be defined as well. In this article, we introduce a new statistical entity, the so-called ordinal distribution, to describe a population of judgments expressed on an ordinal scale. We also discuss which of the traditional location and dispersion measures can be used in this context and we briefly analyze some of their properties. A new dispersion measure, the ordinal range, as an extension of the cardinal range to ordinal scales, is then proposed. A practical application in the field of quality is developed throughout the article.