Terahertz generation in quantum cascade structures by two-color deriving fields: An approach to reach inversion population via optical pumping

In this paper, a quantum cascade laser (QCL) design is proposed based on GaAs/AlGaAs material system, which simultaneously operates at three widely separated wavelengths (${\lambda }_1=11.1\mu m,{\lambda }_2=14.1\mu m$ and ${\lambda }_{THz}=60\mu m$). In the design, all the wavelength radiations are achieved by the engineering of the electronic spectrum via the quantum-well widths and the applied electric field in a single active region within a same waveguide. The mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelengths are obtained by adoption a dual-upper-state active region, and the proposed design aims to use both the mid-IR radiations as the coherent deriving fields to populate the upper THz lasing state to aid the THz-laser population inversion via optical pumping instead of direct electrical injection. A detailed analysis of electronic transport in the structure is carried out using a multi-level rate-equation model. The results show that the proposed structure offers an alternative approach to room temperature THz generation in QCLs.     

Duality between the SU(2) lattice gauge model and bosonic t − J model

We investigate the duality between the $SU(2)$ lattice gauge model and the bosonic $t-J$ model. We construct the relations between the gauge field operators and particle operators, and map the low-energy regime of the $SU(2)$ lattice gauge model to a $U(1)$ bosonic $t-J$ model coupled with a $U(1)$ gauge field. The mapped model can be interpreted as a bosonic $t-J$ model with particle-hole symmetry, or a mean-field form of the bosonic $t-J$ model with the coexistence of a two-particle pairing and four particle-pairing. The duality between the lattice gauge model and the bosonic $t-J$ model provides a direct connection between gauge theory and strongly correlated systems.     

Investigating the thermoelectric properties of Na0.74Co1−xNbxO2 (x = 0.05,0.10) at high temperature region

Here, the thermoelectric (TE) properties of Na_0.74Co${}_{1-x}$Nb_xO₂ ($x=0.05,0.10$) compounds are investigated experimentally and computationally. The experimental measurements are conducted in $300-620$ K. Positive sign of Seebeck coefficient for both the compounds indicates the dominating p-type character. The maximum experimental values of ZT are observed as ∼ 0.12 and ∼ 0.19 at 620 K for $x=0.05$ and $x=0.10$, respectively. The experimental transport properties of these compounds are understood by employing spin-polarized GGA+U (= 4 eV) electronic structure calculations on $x=0.0625$ compound. On the basis of best experimental and computational matching of transport properties, we have estimated ZT till 1200 K computationally. The highest calculated values of ZT are ∼ 1.36 and ∼ 1.22 at 1200 K for $x=0.05$ and $x=0.10$, respectively. The optimum value of efficiency for $x=0.05$ is calculated as ∼ 6.4%, whereas it reaches ∼ 7.5% for $x=0.10$.     

Experimental determination of interfacial energy for solid Al in the Al-Sn-Mg eutectic system with Bridgman-type apparatus

The equilibrated grain boundary groove shape of solid Al in equilibrium with Al-Sn-Mg eutectic liquid was observed by using a Bridgman type directional solidification apparatus. The ratio of the thermal conductivity of the equilibrated liquid to the thermal conductivity of solid Al has been obtained as 0.91. In addition, the average Gibbs-Thomson coefficient, $\bar{\mathrm{\Gamma }}=(4.20\pm 0.35)\times {10}^{-8}\mathrm{Km}$, the solid-liquid interfacial energy, ${\sigma }_{SL}=180.68\pm 23.48\text{mJ}/{\text{m}}^2$ and the grain boundary energy, ${\sigma }_{GB}=309.30\pm 29.47\text{mJ}/{\text{m}}^2$, in the Al/Al-Sn-Mg system have been calculated from the measured grain boundary shapes.     

Thermoelectric coefficient in nanoisland metallic films

We study the thermoelectric properties of island metal films on a dielectric substrate. Dependence of thermoelectric coefficient of metal films on their thickness with the dimensionless conductance $g>1$ and $g<1$ was investigated. Also, the thermopower dependence of island metal structures with $g<1$ on the chemical composition of nanostructures was studied. We found that regardless of tunneling or Drude character of conductivity, the value of the thermoelectric coefficient in island metal films is determined by the properties of film metal element.     

CNN-aided multiple PU spectrum sensing in uncalibrated massive antennas SU system

This paper deploys the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to learn and set the statistical test in Spectrum Sensing (SS) task of multiple primary user (PU) sources in massive uncalibrated antennas of secondary users (SU) sharing the same spectrum resources. The proposed deep learning-based SS method (DL-SS) is based on the CNN architecture that has the capability of extracting features of the sample covariance matrices (SCMs) that are given as the network input, improving the overall performance and robustness. The proposed CNN-SS method is compared with nine recent multiple-antennas SS methods, namely the arithmetic–geometric detector (AGM), John’s detector (JD), sphericity detector (SD), generalized likelihood test (GLRT), locally most powerful invariant test (LMPIT), maximum–minimum eigenvalue detector (MME), covariance detector (CAV), Hadamard detector (HD) and volume detector (VD) methods; besides, the proposed method is also compared with five recent state-of-art CNN-based SS methodologies. Performance-complexity trade-off of the proposed and reference SS methods are corroborated via Monte Carlo Simulations (MCS). The proposed CNN-SS method under uncalibrated massive antennas reveals substantial benefits w.r.t. the reference methods and is competitive with others CNN-SS methodologies, both in terms of complexity and performance, achieving detection probability of $P_d=0.9$ $(@SNR=-20\mathrm{dB})$ under very low false alarm probability $P_f=0.1$. Under different figures of merit, the performance of the CNN-based SS detector has revealed to be indubitably superior regarding the state-of-art SS detectors. However, the proposed CNN-based SS detector presents relative computational complexity increases. Hence, to be effective, such a superior operational performance requires a very efficient processing structure in the SU base stations.     

Investigation of the kinetics of conjugated diolefins using UV absorption spectroscopy

Conjugated diolefins are not only crucial intermediates in larger hydrocarbon pyrolysis and oxidation, but also key species in the formation and growth of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this work, we employed a sensitive UV laser diagnostic to measure absorption cross-sections and decomposition rates of three conjugated diolefins, namely 1,3-butadiene, 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene (isoprene), and 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene. The single-pass UV absorption diagnostic achieved a ppm-level detection limit between the wavelengths of 212.5 and 220.5 nm. The use of dilute conditions (119 – 500 ppm fuel in argon) enabled nearly isothermal measurements despite reaction enthalpy. Temperature-dependent absorption cross-sections were measured from room temperature to 1850 K and pressures ranging 0.75 – 1.50 bar in a shock tube. Decomposition of the molecules was observed at temperatures above ∼ 1350 K, and all three molecules exhibited similar activation energy. Around 1800 K, 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene decomposed twice as fast as isoprene and 4 times faster than 1,3-butadiene. Our measured overall decomposition rate coefficients are given as (unit of s ^− 1, ± 20% uncertainty):$\begin{array}{ccc}& & k_1\left(1,3-\text{butadiene}\right)=9.65\times {10}^9{e}^{\left(\frac{-24,338K}{T}\right)}(1411-1823\mathrm{K})\hfill \\ & & k_2\left(\text{isoprene}\right)=1.86\times {10}^{10}{e}^{\left(\frac{-24,341K}{T}\right)}(1464-1829\mathrm{K})\hfill \\ & & k_3\left(2,3-\text{dimethyl}-1,3-\text{butadiene}\right)=8.64\times {10}^{10}{e}^{\left(\frac{-25,845K}{T}\right)}(1401-1822\mathrm{K})\hfill \end{array}$1,3-Butadiene decomposition rate coefficients agree well with previous measurement at similar pressures. To our knowledge, this work reports first measurements of the decomposition rate coefficients of isoprene and 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene. As an additional application of the current UV diagnostic, we measured 1,3-butadiene decay time-histories during fuel-lean oxidation and compared our data with the predictions of AramcoMech 3.0. We updated the model with our measured 1,3-butadiene decomposition rate coefficients, which significantly improved the model prediction of fuel oxidation.     

On the redox reactions between allyl radicals and NOx

NO_x mitigation is a central focus of combustion technologies with increasingly stringent emission regulations. NO_x can also enhance the autoignition of hydrocarbon fuels and can promote soot oxidation. The reaction between allyl radical (C₃H₅) and NO_x plays an important role in the oxidation kinetics of propene. In this work, we measured the absolute rate coefficients for the redox reaction between C₃H₅ and NO_x over the temperature range of 1000–1252 K and pressure range of 1.5–5.0 bar using a shock tube and UV laser absorption technique. We produced C₃H₅ by shock heating of C₃H₅I behind reflected shock waves. Using a Ti:Sapphire laser system with frequency quadrupling, we monitored the kinetics of C₃H₅ at 220 nm. Unlike low-temperature chemistry, the two target reactions, C₃H₅ + NO → products (R1) and C₃H₅ + NO₂ → products (R2), exhibited a strong positive temperature dependence for this radical-radical type reaction. However, these reactions did not show any pressure dependence over the pressure range of 1.5–5.0 bar, indicating that the measured rate coefficients are close to the high-pressure limit. The measured values of the rate coefficients resulted in the following Arrhenius expressions (in unit of cm³/molecule/s):$k_1\left({\mathrm{C}}_3{\mathrm{H}}_5+\text{NO}\right)=1.49\times {10}^{?10}\exp \left(?6083.6\frac{\mathrm{K}}{T}\right)\left(1017?1252K\right)$$k_2\left({\mathrm{C}}_3{\mathrm{H}}_5+\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{O}}_2\right)=1.71\times {10}^{?10}\exp \left(?3675.7\frac{\mathrm{K}}{T}\right)\left(1062?1250K\right)$To our knowledge, these are the first high-temperature measurements of allyl + NO_x reactions. The reported data will be highly useful in understanding the interaction of NO_x with resonantly stabilized radicals as well as the mutual sensitization effect of NO_x on hydrocarbon fuels.     

PDM creation and annihilation operators of the harmonic oscillators and the emergence of an alternative PDM-Hamiltonian

The exact solvability and impressive pedagogical implementation of the harmonic oscillator's creation and annihilation operators make it a problem of great physical relevance and the most fundamental one in quantum mechanics. So would be the position-dependent mass (PDM) oscillator for the PDM quantum mechanics. We, hereby, construct the PDM creation and annihilation operators for the PDM oscillator via two different approaches. First, via von Roos PDM Hamiltonian and show that the commutation relation between the PDM creation ${\hat{A}}^{+}$ and annihilation $\hat{A}$ operators, $[\hat{A},{\hat{A}}^{+}]=1\iff \hat{A}{\hat{A}}^{+}-1/2={\hat{A}}^{+}\hat{A}+1/2$, not only offers a unique PDM-Hamiltonian ${\hat{H}}_1$ but also suggests a PDM-deformation in the coordinate system. Next, we use a PDM point canonical transformation of the textbook constant mass harmonic oscillator analog and obtain yet another set of PDM creation ${\hat{B}}^{+}$ and annihilation $\hat{B}$ operators, hence an “apparently new” PDM-Hamiltonian ${\hat{H}}_2$ is obtained. The “new” PDM-Hamiltonian ${\hat{H}}_2$ turned out to be not only correlated with ${\hat{H}}_1$ but also represents an alternative and most simplistic user-friendly PDM-Hamiltonian, $\hat{H}={(\hat{p}/\sqrt{2m\left(x\right)})}^2+V\left(x\right)$; $\hat{p}=-iħ{\partial }_x$, that has never been reported before.