Thermal analysis and expected performance of the low energy instrument on board the HXMT satellite

The Low Energy X-ray Instrument （LE） of the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope （HXMT） uses the Swept Charge Device （SCD） to detect the X-rays in 1-15 keV. The performance of SCD is vulnerable to temperature. We analyzed the thermal condition of LE at different satellite working attitudes with the Finite Element Method （FEM）. It is shown that the angle between the sunlight and the normal line of the barrier should be less them 26°, to keep the SCD detectors working in the required temperature range, i.e. -40 ℃ to -80 ℃. We find that the performance of LE is very stable in this temperature range, with a typical energy resolution of 160 eV at 5.9 keV.     

Measurements of charge transfer ef f iciency in a proton-irradiated swept charge device

Charged Coupled Devices(CCDs) have been successfully used in several low energy X-ray astronomical satellites over the past two decades. Their high energy resolution and high spatial resolution make them a perfect tool for low energy astronomy, such as observing the formation of galaxy clusters and the environment around black holes. The Low Energy X-ray Telescope(LE) group is developing a Swept Charge Device(SCD) for the Hard Xray Modulation Telescope(HXMT) satellite. A SCD is a special low energy X-ray CCD, which can be read out a thousand times faster than traditional CCDs, simultaneously keeping excellent energy resolution. A test method for measuring the charge transfer efficiency(CTE) of a prototype SCD has been set up. Studies of the charge transfer inefficiency(CTI) with a proton-irradiated SCD have been performed at a range of operating temperatures. The SCD is irradiated by 3×108cm-210 MeV protons.     

Low temperature testing and neutron irradiation of a swept charge device on board the HXMT satellite

We present the low temperature testing of an SCD detector, investigating its performance such as readout noise, energy resolution at 5.9 keV and dark current. The SCD's performance is closely related to temperature, and the temperature range of -80 ℃ to -50 ℃ is the best choice, where the FWHM at 5.9 keV is about 130 eV. The influence of the neutron irradiation from an electrostatic accelerator with fluence up to 1×10⁹ cm^-2 has been examined. We find the SCD is not vulnerable to neutron irradiation. The detailed operations of the SCD and the test results of low temperature are reported, and the results of neutron irradiation are discussed.     

Interaction of intense laser pulses with hydrogen atomic clusters

The interaction between intense femtosecond laser pulses and hydrogen atomic clusters is studied by a simplified Coulomb explosion model. The dependences of average proton kinetic energy on cluster size, pulse duration, laser intensity and wavelength are studied respectively. The calculated results indicate that the irradiation of a femtosecond laser of longer wavelength on hydrogen atomic clusters may be a simple, economical way to produce highly kinetic hydrogen ions. The phenomenon suggests that the irradiation of femtosecond laser of longer wavelength on deuterium atomic clusters may be easier than that of shorter wavelength to drive nuclear fusion reactions. The product of the laser intensity and the squared laser wavelength needed to make proton energy saturated as a function of the squared cluster radius is also investigated. The proton energy distribution calculated is also shown and compared with the experimental data. Our results are in agreement with the experimental results fairly well.     

The Low Energy X-ray telescope (LE) onboard the Insight-HXMT astronomy satellite

The Low Energy X-ray telescope(LE) is one of the three main instruments of the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope(Insight-HXMT). It is equipped with Swept Charge Device(SCD) sensor arrays with a total geometrical area of 384 cm^2 and an energy band from 0.7 to 13 ke V. In order to evaluate the particle induced X-ray background and the cosmic X-ray background simultaneously, LE adopts collimators to define four types of Field Of Views(FOVs), i.e., 1.6°×6°, 4°×6°, 50°-60°×2°-6 oand the blocked ones which block the X-ray by an aluminum cover. LE is constituted of three detector boxes(LEDs) and an electric control box(LEB) and achieves a good energy resolution of 140 e V@5.9 ke V, an excellent time resolution of 0.98 ms, as well as an extremely low pileup(<1%@18000 cts/s). Detailed performance tests and calibration on the ground have been performed,including energy-channel relation, energy response, detection efficiency and time response.     

A CVD diamond film detector for pulsed proton detection

A chemical vapour deposition （CVD） diamond film detector was prepared and the main characteristics for pulsed proton detection were studied at Beijing Tandem Accelerator. The result shows that the charge collection efficiency of the detector increases with increasing electric field intensity and reaches to 9.44% at 5 V/μm with the charge collection distance of 15.9 μm. The relationship between the sensitivity of the detector and proton energy is consistent with the Monte Carlo （MC） simulation result. Its plasma time for a pulse with 4.85×10^5 protons is 1l.2ns. The dose threshold for onset of damage under 9MeV proton irradiation in the detector is about 10^13 cm^-2. All of the results show that a CVD diamond detector has fast time response and high radiation hardness, and can be used in pulsed proton detection.     

A study of the pointed observation methods and sensitivity of HXMT

The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope （HXMT） is an X-ray astronomy satellite consisting of three slat-collimated instruments, the High Energy X-ray Instrument （HE）, the Medium Energy X-ray Instrument （ME）, and the Low Energy X-ray Instrument （LE）. HXMT will carry out an all sky survey and make pointed observations in the 1-250 keV energy band. In order to get the source and background fluxes simultaneously in the pointed observations, two methods, i.e., the combined field of view （FOV） method and the off-axis pointing method are proposed in this paper. Comprehensive analyses of the sensitivities of the three instruments by using these two methods are presented, respectively. It is found that the off-axis pointing method has a higher sensitivity for HE and ME but a lower sensitivity for LE. Since the axes of the three instruments are aligned along the same direction, the off-axis pointing method is recommended as the main method in the pointed observation for HXMT; the combined FOV method can be used when LE is the most relevant instrument in order to satisfy the scientific objective of the observation.     

Investigation of GEM-Micromegas detector on X-ray beam of synchrotron radiation

To reduce the discharge of the standard bulk Micromegas and GEM detectors, a GEM-Micromegas detector was developed at the Institute of High Energy Physics. Taking into account the advantages of the two detectors, one GEM foil was set as a preamplifier on the mesh of Micromegas in the structure and the CEM pream- plification decreased the working voltage of Micromegas to significantly reduce the effect of the discharge. At the same gain, the spark probability of the GEM-Micromegas detector can be reduced to a factor 0.01 compared to the standard Micromegas detector, and an even higher gain could be obtained. This paper describes the performance of the X-ray beam detector that was studied at 1W2B Laboratory of Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Finally, the result of the energy resolution under various X-ray energies was given in different working gases. This indicates that the GEM-Micromegas detector has an energy response capability in an energy range from 6 keV to 20 keV and it could work better than the standard bulk-Micromegas.     

Investigation of GEM-Micromegas detector on X-ray beam of synchrotron radiation

To reduce the discharge of the standard bulk Micromegas and GEM detectors, a GEM-Micromegas detector was developed at the Institute of High Energy Physics. Taking into account the advantages of the two detectors, one GEM foil was set as a preamplifier on the mesh of Micromegas in the structure and the GEM preamplification decreased the working voltage of Micromegas to significantly reduce the effect of the discharge. At the same gain, the spark probability of the GEM-Micromegas detector can be reduced to a factor 0.01 compared to the standard Micromegas detector, and an even higher gain could be obtained. This paper describes the performance of the X-ray beam detector that was studied at 1W2B Laboratory of Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Finally, the result of the energy resolution under various X-ray energies was given in different working gases. This indicates that the GEM-Micromegas detector has an energy response capability in an energy range from 6 keV to 20 keV and it could work better than the standard bulk-Micromegas.     

Study on the interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with nanometre-sized hydrogen clusters

The interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with hydrogen clusters has been experimentally studied. The hydrogen clusters were produced from expansion of high-pressure hydrogen gas (backed up to 8\tm10⁶Pa) into vacuum through a conical nozzle cryogenically cooled by liquid nitrogen. The average size of hydrogen clusters was estimated by Rayleigh scattering measurement and the maximum proton energy of up to 4.2keV has been obtained from the Coulomb explosion of hydrogen clusters under 2×10¹⁶ W/cm² laser irradiation. Dependence of the maximum proton energy on cluster size and laser intensity was investigated, indicating the correlation between the laser intensity and the cluster size. The maximum proton energy is found to be directly proportional to the laser intensity, which is consistent with the theoretical prediction.     

Self-organization of five species in a cyclic competition game

Cyclic competition game models, particularly the “rock–paper–scissors” model, play important roles in exploring the problem of multi-species coexistence in spatially ecological systems. We propose an extended “rock–paper–scissors” game to model cyclic interactions among five species, and find that two of the five can coexistent when biodiversity disappears, which is different from the “rock–paper–scissors” game. As the number of fingers is five, we named the new model the “fingers” game, where the thumb, forefinger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger cyclically dominate their subsequent species and are dominated by their former species. We investigate the “fingers” model in two ways: direct simulations and nonlinear partial differential equations. An important finding is that the number of species in a cyclic competition game has an influence on the emergence of biodiversity. To be specific, the “rock–paper–scissors” model is in favor of maintaining biodiversity in comparison with the “fingers” model when the variables (population size, reproduction rate, selection rate, and migration rate) are the same. It is also shown that the mobility and reproduction rate can promote or jeopardize biodiversity.     

Contrastive analysis on tone between Putonghua and Taiwan Mandarin

The differences of the pitch and duration of Chinese syllables between Putonghua （PTH） and Taiwan Mandarin （TM） were studied. The speech materials to be used are not only isolated syllables, but also sentences. The results reveal that： For the isolated syllables, T1 and T2 in TM are influenced by Minnan dialect, therefore their pitch are lower than those in PTH. T3 is fall-rise in PTH, while it is fall in TM. Moreover, the syllable duration sequence for different tone is T3〉T2〉T1〉T4 in PTH, while it is T1〉T2〉T3〉T4 in TM. For the syllables in sentences, T2 is mid-rise in PTH, while it is mid-level in TM. And the T3 is longer than T4 but shorter than T1 or T2 in PTH, while it is the shortest in TM. Furthermore the effects of prosodic phrase boundary on duration for different tones are almost the same in PTH, but the lengthening part of T1 or T2 is longer than that of T3 or T4 in TM.     

Experimental study on downstep in Chinese intonation

Downstep in pitch contour of Chinese Putonghua is examined using subtly designed sentences by controlling tone combinations. The results show both automatic and nonautomatic downstep phenomena exist in Chinese. In non-automatic downstep, low tones compress downwards the pitch range of the following syllables. and the main influence of downstep is on topline. Low tone not only lower the topline behind it, but also raise the high tones before it, the effects are compatible with each other. In automatic downstep, the topline of pitch contour in intonational phrase is presented as a linear downtrend, but it differs among speakers due to the effect of personal stress practice. In comparison with downstep phenomenon in other tone or non-tone languages, the downstep ratio in Chinese is not constant, and the domain of downstep is not limited within the adjacent tones.     

Abelian-Higgs phase of SU(2) QCD and glueball energy

It is shown that SU(2) QCD admits an dual Abelian-Higgs phase, with a Higgs vacuum of a type-Ⅱ superconductor. This is done by using a connection decomposition for the gluon field and the random-direction approximation. Using a bag picture with soft wall, we presented a calculational procedure for the glueball energy based on the recent proof for wall-vortices [Nucl. Phys. B 741(2006)1].     

Theoretical analysis and simulation of conjugate heights for dual-conjugate AO system in lidar

A multi-conjugate adaptive optics （MCAO） can offer a possibility of widening field of view （FOV） characterized by the isoplanatic angle, and the choose of conjugate height becomes a basic problem for MCAO, which influences the size of iosplanatic angle. Considering the application of lidar, the isoplanatic angle＇s expressions of two deformable mirrors （DMs） MCAO for uplink and downlink are deduced. The effects of conjugate heights for dual-conjugate AO are thoughtfully discussed, and the isoplanatic angles are further analyzed. The results show that the isopanatic angle varies with the conjugate height and reaches the maximum as the conjugate height is at the optimal altitude. Moreover, the optimal conjugate height changes with the propagation distance.     

Quick single-photon detector with many avalanche photo diodes working on the time division

Due to the limit of response speed of the present single-photon detector, the code rate is still too low to come into practical use for the present quantum key distribution (QKD) system.A new idea is put up to design a quick single-photon detector.This quick single-photon detector is composed of a multi-port optic-fiber splitter and many avalanche photo diodes (APDs).Au of the ports with APDs work on the time division and cooperate with a logic discriminating and deciding unit driven by the clock signal.The operation frequency lies on the number N of ports, and can reach N times of the conventional single-photon detector.The single-photon prompt detection can come true for high repetition-rate pulses.The applying of this detector will largely raise the code rate of the QKD, and boost the commercial use.     

Signal generation in an isotropic medium in scanning electron acoustic microscope

Based on the research in Ref. [5][Materials Science and Engineering, 1989; A122： 57 63], an improved model of heat source is set up, the different modes of Lamb wave in an isotropic sample generated by a chopped electron beam at frequency f are obtained with integral transform and normal function expansion method, and the output signal of PZT coupled at the back surface of the sample is found out. The generation mechanism of SEAM （Scanning Electron Acoustic Microscopy） signal is discussed. It shows that the SEAM is a near field imaging technique with high spatial resolution and its best lateral spatial resolution is about 2√2α （α is the radius of the focused electron beam）. Some of experimental results of SEAM images are presented in the paper and it shows that the spatial resolution of SEAM is better than 0.5 μm and smaller than the thermal diffusion length of the sample. Therefore the character of near field imaging in SEAM is also proved experimentally.     

High efficiency filtering using two-dimensional photonic crystal coupled cavity structures

Transmission spectra of coupled cavity structures (CCSs) in two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals (PCs) are investigated using a coupled mode theory, and an optical filter based on CCS is proposed. The performance of the filter is investigated using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, and the results show that within a very short coupling distance of about 3λ, where λ is the wavelength of signal in vacuum, the incident signals with different frequencies are separated into different channels with a contrast ratio of 20 dB. The advantages of this kind of filter are small size and easily tunable operation frequencies.