Microablation with ultrashort laser pulses

This paper reports the micromachining results of different materials (Al, Si, InP and fused silica) using a Ti : sapphire laser at the wavelength of 800 and 267 nm with variable pulse lengths in the range from 100 fs to 10 ps. The hole arrays with a diameter up to a few μm through microdrilling are presented. We discussed how an effective suppression of the thermal diffusion inside the ablated materials and an effective microablation could be realized. If the laser fluence is taken only slightly above the threshold, a hole array can be drilled with diameters even smaller than the wavelength of the laser. Some examples are presented in the paper.     

Influence of microsupersonic gas jets on nanosecond laser percussion drilling

This paper reports on etching rates and hole quality for nanosecond laser percussion drilling of 200-μm thick 316L stainless steel performed with micro supersonic gas jets. The assist-gas jets were produced using nozzles of 200, 300 and 500 μm nominal throat diameters. Air and oxygen were used separately for the process gas in the drilling trials and the drilling performance was compared to drilling in ambient conditions. The highest etch rate of 1.2 μm per pulse was obtained in the ambient atmosphere condition, but this was reduced by about 50% with assist-air jets from the 200 μm nozzle. Increasing the jet diameter and/or using oxygen assist gas also decreased the etching rate and increased the hole diameter. The 200 μm nozzle using air-assist jets produced the least amount of recast and gave the best compromise for etching rate. A combination of plasma shielding and different gas dynamic conditions inside the holes and at the surface are correlated to the observations of different drilling rates and hole characteristics.     

The effect of laser peak power and pulse width on the hole geometry repeatability in laser percussion drilling

In this work, the two main factors that influence the repeatability of the laser percussion drilling process are identified. Experimental parametric analysis was carried out to correlate the laser parameters with the repeatability of a laser percussion drilling process. The experiment was conducted using a flash lamp pumped Nd:YAG laser to drill 2 mm thick mild steel sheets. The relationship between the percentage standard deviation (PSD) of entrance hole diameter, hole circularity and the operating parameters is established. Thirty-five holes were drilled and analysed for each set of identical laser parameters. The PSD of entrance hole diameter ranges between 1.47% and 4.78% for an operating window of 3.5–7 kW peak power, and 1–3 ms pulse width. The circularity of the entrance hole (defined as the ratio between the minimum and maximum diameters of the hole) ranges from 0.94 to 0.87, and is found to correlate with repeatability. The work shows that higher peak power, and shorter pulse width gives better hole geometry repeatability. The effect of melt ejection on hole geometry repeatability is also investigated. Melt ejection and spatter formation have been found to contribute to the poor repeatability of the process.     

Micro via and line patterning for PCB using imprint technique

Today’s electronic devices such as mobile phones, PDA, computers, etc. have more functions in a smaller size. Thus conducting lines and via holes of PCB (printed circuit board) which has a role of land for all kinds of electronic components are getting finer. In this study, the conducting lines and via holes are produced using thermal imprint technique rather than the conventional photo-lithography process. Imprint technique is a press process that transfers patterns of stamp to resins. Imprint technique is used to produce micro size trench lines and via holes in epoxy resins.Resins used in this work are silica (SiO₂) reinforced epoxy. Resins were imprinted using 10 * 10 mm size Ni or polymer stamp. Line/space of pattern is 10/10 μm while diameter of via hole is 30 μm. The depths of lines and via holes are 15 and 30 μm, respectively. The anti-sticking treated stamp and epoxy resins were pressed at 100 °C for 30 min in vacuum. The stamp was released after resins were cured for 1 h at 130 °C. All patterns of stamp were successfully transferred with high fidelity and any noticeable defect was not observed within imprinted area. Imprinted resins were de-smeared to remove the residue at the bottom of via holes and to enhance the adhesion of resins with Cu. Electro/less copper plating was followed to fill in the imprinted patterns. Since the excess Cu layer was formed on the resins during Cu plating, the planarization process was introduced to obtain isolated lines and via holes.     

Study of oscillatory behavior of recording process arising from electron–hole competition in strongly oxidized LiNbO3:Ce:Cu

We have investigated ultraviolet (UV) photorefractive effect of lithium niobate doubly doped with Ce and Cu. It is found the diffraction efficiency shows oscillating behavior under UV-light-recording. A model in which electrons and holes can be excited from impurity centers in the UV region is proposed to study the oscillatory behavior of the diffraction efficiency. On the basis of the material equations and the coupled-wave equations, we found that the oscillatory behavior is due to the oscillation of the relative spatial phase shift Φ. And the electron–hole competition may cause the oscillation of the relative spatial phase shift. A switch point from electron grating to hole grating is chosen to realize nonvolatile readout by a red light with high sensitivity (0.4 cm/J).     

Numerical analysis of gas-dynamic instabilities during the laser drilling process

The use of high-pressure gas jets in the laser-drilling process has significant influence on the melt ejection mechanism. These jets are highly unstable and this directly relates to the gas pressure and the geometry of the hole being drilled. The evolution of gas-dynamic instabilities during the laser-drilling process was investigated numerically. A minimum length nozzle (MLN) with a 300 μm throat diameter was modelled at various gas pressures, with the gas jet impinging on a range of simulated holes with different aspect ratios. The simulations predict the formation of surface pressure fluctuations that have a broad spectrum due to both the turbulent nature of the jet and the blunt shock oscillation on the surface. The surface pressure variations and the blunt shock oscillation govern the gas dynamic conditions inside the hole, which strongly influence the melt ejection phenomena during the laser-drilling process.     

Efficient fourth harmonic UV generation of passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO4/Cr:YAG lasers

A coherent UV passively Q-switched diode pumped Nd:GdVO₄ laser source is proposed. During pumping of the β-BBO crystal a stable light with power 0.6 W with wavelength 532 nm and pulse duration 9 ns at frequency repetition 16 kHz was applied. The output UV light has a power about 79 mW at wavelength 266 nm during diode-pumping with 8 W incident light.     

Temperature and fiber optic spectroscopy composition measurements of heated propanol–acetone droplets

Time-dependent temperatures and compositions within individual fiber-supported droplets initially from about 2–3 mm in diameter were investigated. In the experiments, droplets were composed of mixtures of 1-propanol and acetone. The droplets evaporated in room air, where the air was heated by placing an electrically heated coil underneath the droplets. The experiments employed thin optical fibers to carry light from a UV–vis light source into and out of a droplet. The time-dependent UV absorption spectrum of the liquid between the fiber ends was measured using a spectrometer coupled to one of the fibers. This spectrum yielded real-time information on the composition of the liquid. Droplet temperatures were simultaneously measured using a thermocouple that was immersed into the liquid. Results demonstrate that droplet evaporation follows a multi-stage process and that acetone is preferentially gasified from a droplet.     

Ohmic contact and space-charge-limited current in molybdenum oxide modified devices

The effect of indium-tin oxide (ITO) surface treatment on hole injection of devices with molybdenum oxide (MoO₃) as a buffer layer on ITO was studied. The Ohmic contact is formed at the metal/organic interface due to high work function of MoO₃. Hence, the current is due to space charge limited when ITO is positively biased. The hole mobility of N, N′-bis-(1-napthyl)-N, N′-diphenyl-1, 1′biphenyl-4, 4′-diamine (NPB) at various thicknesses (100–400 nm) has been estimated by using space-charge-limited current measurements. The hole mobility of NPB, 1.09×10⁻⁵ cm²/V s at 100 nm is smaller than the value of 1.52×10⁻⁴ cm²/V s at 400 nm at 0.8 MV/cm, which is caused by the interfacial trap states restricted by the surface interaction. The mobility is hardly changed with NPB thickness for the effect of interfacial trap states on mobility which can be negligible when the thickness is more than 300 nm.     

The volume inside a black hole

The horizon (the surface) of a black hole is a null surface, defined by those hypothetical “outgoing” light rays that just hover under the influence of the strong gravity at the surface. Because the light rays are orthogonal to the spatial two-dimensional surface at one instant of time, the surface area of the black hole is the same for all observers (i.e. the same for all coordinate definitions of “instant of time”). This value is 4π(2Gm/c ²)² for nonspinning black holes, with G = Newton’s constant, c = speed of light, and m = mass of the black hole. The three-dimensional spatial volume inside a black hole, in contrast, depends explicitly on the definition of time, and can even be time dependent, or zero. We give examples of the volume found inside a standard, nonspinning spherical black hole, for several different standard time-coordinate definitions. Elucidating these results for the volume provides a new pedagogical resource of facts already known in principle to the relativity community, but rarely worked out.     

Acoustically induced light gyration in nickel nanoparticles

Circularly polarized acoustically induced light gyration (AILG) in nickel nanoparticles (NiNPs) attached to indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates was observed to be enhanced by nanosecond UV laser excitation at a wavelength in the surface plasmon resonance region. The AILG was observed during exposure to two acoustical waves with frequencies of 2 and 4 MHz and power densities of up to 5 W/cm². The maximum value of the AILG observed for NiNPs of average size ca. 8.7 nm, attached to an ITO substrate was about 2.8°/mm without UV-light illumination. Additional irradiation by 5 ns pulse UV laser light (λ: 337 nm) at the surface plasmon resonance region was found to favour the additional enhancement of the AILG up to 11°/mm. The effect was optimized at a temperature of 120 K. This increase was not observed when the size of NiNPs was 16.8 nm.     

Ignition of single coal particle in a hot furnace under normal- and micro-gravity condition

An experimental study on ignition and combustion of single particles was conducted at normal gravity (1-g) and microgravity (μ-g) for three high volatile coals with initial diameter of 1.5 and 2.0 mm, respectively. The non-intrusive twin-color pyrometry method was used to retrieve the surface temperature of the coal particle through processing the images taken by a color CCD camera. At the same time, a mathematical model considering thermal conduction inside the coal particle was developed to simulate the ignition process.Both experiments and modeling found that ignition occurred homogeneously at the beginning and then heterogeneously for the testing coal particles burning at μ-g. Experimental results confirmed that ignition temperature decreased with increasing volatile content and increasing particle size. However, contradicted to previous studies, this study found that for a given coal with certain particle size, ignition temperature was about 50–80 K lower at μ-g than that at 1-g.The model predictions agreed well with the μ-g experimental data on ignition temperature. The criterion that the temperature gradient in the space away from the particle surface equaled to zero was validated to determine the commence of homogeneous ignition. Thermal conduction inside the particle could have a noticeable effect for determining the ignition temperature. With the consideration of thermal conduction, the critical size for the phase transient from homogeneous to heterogeneous is about 700 μm at ambient temperature 1500 K and oxygen concentration 0.23.     

Flame propagation and quenching in iron dust clouds

Laminar flames propagating in fuel-rich suspensions of iron dust in air were studied in a reduced-gravity environment provided by a parabolic flight aircraft. Experiments were performed with four different dusts having average particle sizes in the range 3–27 μm. Uniform dust suspensions were created inside glass tubes (ID = 48 mm, L = 70 cm) and then ignited at the open end via an electrically heated wire. Quenching distances were determined as the flames propagated through assemblies of equally spaced steel plates installed in the tubes. Flame propagation speeds in the open tubes and within the quenching plates were determined from video recordings, and emission spectra recorded by a spectrometer were used to determine flame temperature. Flame quenching distance was found to increase linearly with particle size from less than 2 mm quenching distance for the 3 μm-sized dust to 10 mm quenching distance for the 27 μm-sized dust. The flame speeds in the open tubes were found to be inversely proportional to the dust particle size, and the minimum speeds observed near quenching within the plate assemblies were found to be a factor of smaller than the flame speeds in the open tube. The experimental results were in good agreement with the predictions of a simple one-dimensional dust flame model with conductive heat loss that assumes the diffusive regime of particle combustion.     

Observational effects in black and white holes (dynamical wormholes)

The models of wormholes with a topology based on a Reissner-Nordström black and white hole are considered. In these models, there are one entrance in one universe (a black hole) and one exit into another universe (a white hole) corresponding to this entrance. The passage of matter through the wormhole in these models is possible only in one direction (from past to future). All models are considered under the assumption of spherical symmetry. It is shown that all models without a throat do not violate the null energy condition. The model of a Reissner-Nordström black hole containing no singularities inside the horizon has been constructed. The trajectories of particles and light rays passing from one universe into another have been constructed for the simplest Reissner-Nordström black and white hole. Distinctive features have been found for the images of objects from another universe observed through such objects. The characteristics of these images are compared with those for ordinary wormholes.     

Imaging properties of photon sieve with a large aperture

We report the optimization design and experimental results for the imaging properties of a photon sieve, which is formed on a layer of metal film supported by a thin glass substrate. As an example, we considered a micro-optical element with parameters of diameter D=50 mm, 3,564,290 hole number, and 10 μm minimum micro-hole diameter, which was designed and fabricated by means of surface machining technique in the lab. To evaluate its imaging performance, both on-axis and off-axis imaging experiments were carried out using the element. Compared to a Fresnel zone plate lens with the same feature size, the photon sieve has super imaging performance. Some quantitative analyses and initial qualitative explanations were given for the imaging characteristics.     

Continuous double-step acid catalyzed esterification production of sludge palm oil using 3D-printed rotational hydrodynamic cavitation reactor

Sludge palm oil (SPO) with high free fatty acid (FFA) content was processed using a continuous and double-step esterification production process in a rotor-stator-type hydrodynamic cavitation reactor. Three-dimensional printed rotor was made of plastic filament and acted as a major element in minimizing the FFA content in SPO. To evaluate the reduced level of FFAs using both methods, five independent factors were varied: methanol content, sulphuric acid content (H₂SO₄), hole diameter, hole depth, and rotor speed. The first-step conditions for the esterification process included 60.8 vol% methanol content, 7.2 vol% H₂SO₄ content, 5.0 mm diameter of the hole, 6.1 mm depth of the hole, and 3000 rpm speed of the rotor. The initial free fatty acid content decreased from 89.16 wt% to 35.00 wt% by the predictive model, while 36.69 wt% FFA level and 94.4 vol% washed first-esterified oil yield were obtained from an actual experiment. In the second-step, 1.0 wt% FFA was achieved under the following conditions: 44.5 vol% methanol content, 3.0 vol% H₂SO₄ content, 4.6 mm hole diameter, 5.8 mm hole depth, and 3000 rpm rotor speed. The actual experiment produced 0.94 wt% FFA content and 93.9 vol% washed second-esterified oil yield. The entire process required an average electricity of 0.137 kWh/L to reduce the FFA level in the SPO below 1 wt%.     

Thermally stimulated current measurements in as-grown TlGaSeS layered single crystals

Charge carrier traps in as-grown TlGaSeS layered single crystals were studied using thermally stimulated current measurements. The investigations were performed in temperatures ranging from 10 to 100 K. The experimental evidences were found for the presence of one shallow hole trapping center in TlGaSeS, located at 12 meV from the valence band. The trap parameters have been calculated using various methods of analysis, and these agree well with each other. Its capture cross-section and concentration have been found to be 8.9 × 10⁻²⁶ cm² and 2.0 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻³, respectively. Analysis of the thermally stimulated current data at different light excitation temperatures leads to a value of 19 meV/decade for the shallow hole traps distribution.     

An experimental investigation of the onset of detonation

An experimental configuration is devised in the present investigation whereby the condition at the final phase of the deflagration to detonation transition (DDT) process can be generated reproducibly by reflecting a CJ detonation from a perforated plate. The detonation products are transmitted downstream through the plate, generating a turbulent reaction front that mixes with the unburned mixture and that drives a precursor shock ahead of it at a strength of about M = 3. The gasdynamic condition that is generated downstream of the perforated plate closely corresponds to that just prior to the onset of detonation in the DDT process. The turbulence parameters can be controlled by varying the geometry of the perforated plate; thus, the condition leading to the onset of detonation can be experimentally investigated. A one-dimensional theoretical analysis of the steady wave processes was first performed, and the experimental results show good agreement, indicating that the present experimental condition can be theoretically described. Two different detonation tube geometries (one with a square cross-section of 300 mm by 300 mm and the other with a circular cross-section of 150 mm) are used to demonstrate the independence of the tube diameter at the critical condition for DDT. Perforated plates with different hole diameters (d = 8, 15, and 25 mm) were tested, and the hole spacing to hole diameter ratio was maintained at 0.5. Different hydrogen–air mixtures were tested at normal temperature and pressure. For the plate with 8 mm holes, the onset of detonation is never observed. For the plate with 15 mm holes, successful initiation of a detonation is achieved for 0.8 < < 1.75 in both detonation tubes. For the plate with 25 mm holes, detonation initiation is observed for 0.7 < < 2.1 in the square detonation tube and for 0.8 < < 1.6 in the smaller circular detonation tube.     

Photocatalytic degradation of ciprofloxacin drug in water using ZnO nanoparticles

We report the synthesis of nanostructure ZnO semiconductor with ～2.1 nm diameter using a chemical precipitation method. The resulting nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The optical properties were investigated by UV–vis and fluorescence techniques. The absorption spectra exhibit a sharp absorption edge at ～334 nm corresponding to band gap of ～3.7 eV. The fluorescence spectra displayed a near-band-edge ultraviolet excitonic emission at ～410 nm and a green emission peak at ～525 nm, due to a transition of a photo-generated electron from the conduction band to a deeply trapped hole. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared ZnO nanoparticles has been investigated for the degradation of ciprofloxacin drug under UV light irradiation in aqueous solutions of different pH values. The results showed that the photocatalytic degradation process is effective at pH 7 and 10, but it is rather slow at pH 4. Higher degradation efficiency (～50%) of the drug was observed at pH 10 after 60 min. Photodegradation of the drug follows a pseudo-first-order kinetics.     

Pyroelectric nano-rods grown inside alumina nano-pores

This paper reports the formation and properties of nano-composite pyroelectric thin films. They consist of pyroelectric triglycine sulfate (TGS) single-crystal nano-rods grown inside a highly dense array of alumina pores (about 65 nm diameter and density of 1011 cm⁻²). The nucleation and growth of the TGS single crystals are obtained by precipitation from a supersaturated aqueous solution. Nucleation is preferred only at the bottom of the pores due to a tight control of temperature, composition and pore diameter. Growth of single crystals with preferred crystallographic orientation is obtained with the aid of an applied electric field. Various crystallographic orientations (1 0 0) (−1 1 0) (−1 2 0) are obtained separately as a single preferred orientation by changing the amplitude of the electric field during crystal growth. The films exhibit ferroelectric behavior.