Investigation of Terra Cotta artefacts with terahertz

Terahertz Time Domain Imaging has been used in the last few years for the investigation of cultural heritage. In this article, the authors demonstrate the possibility to apply it for the investigation of clay artifacts. Tomographic images were obtained of a model in reflection, and an Egyptian vessel in transmission.     

Vibro-acoustic response of orthogonally stiffened panels: The effects of finite dimensions

This paper investigates the effects of finite dimensions on the vibro-acoustic response of orthogonally stiffened panels. Three types of excitations are considered: acoustical excitation, point force excitation and random excitation by a turbulent boundary layer. In each case, a spatially windowed periodic model is compared with a Rayleigh-Ritz model where the modes of the un-stiffened panel are used as the basis functions. The latter model accounts for the reflected wave field generated at the boundaries by assuming that the panel is simply supported. On the contrary, the windowed periodic model only accounts for finiteness on sound radiation (the assumption of an infinite periodic structure is used to calculate the panel response). Numerical studies show that when the bending wavelength becomes comparable or smaller than the stiffener spacing, the periodic model is able to reproduce the results obtained with the Rayleigh-Ritz model. To complement the study, the developed models are compared with numerical simulations (finite element method) and with experimental results.     

Formation of metal-anion arrays within layered perovskite hosts. Preparation of a series of new metastable transition-metal oxyhalides, (MCl)LaNb(2)O(7) (M = Cr,Mn, Fe,Co)

A new series of transition-metal oxyhalides (MCl)LaNb(2)O(7) (M = Cr, Mn, Fe, Co) have been prepared by a simple topochemical route. Layered perovskite hosts (ALaNb(2)O(7), A = Li, Na, K or Rb) were reacted with the corresponding anhydrous metal halides under mild reaction conditions (<400 degrees C). The compounds were examined by X-ray powder diffraction; the series appears to be isostructural with (CuCl)LaNb(2)O(7), and the layer spacings, with the exception of M = Co, follow the trend expected from transition-metal cationic radii. Thermal analysis with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) shows the materials to be metastable where all four compounds decompose exothermically above 690 degrees C.     

Observation of a motional Stark effect to determine the second-order Doppler effect

The high resolution two-photon spectroscopy of hydrogen is often limited by the second-order Doppler effect. To determine this effect, we apply a magnetic field perpendicular to the atomic beam. This field induces a quadratic motional Stark shift proportional, as the second-order Doppler effect, to v(2) (v atomic velocity). For some magnetic field, these two effects are opposite and the total shift due to the atomic velocity is reduced. We present the first observation of this effect for the 1S-3S transition in hydrogen.     

Adaptive instant record signals applied to detection with time reversal operator decomposition

Time reversal arrays are becoming common tools whether for detection or tomography. These applications require the measurement of the response from the array to one or several receivers. The most natural way to record the impulse responses for several sources is to generate pulses successively from each emitting point and record simultaneously the signals from the receivers. However, this method is very time consuming or inefficient in terms of signal-to-noise ratio. To overcome this limitation quasi-orthogonal pseudonoise signals like Kasami sequences can be used. For guided wave propagation, a very high degree of orthogonality between the signal is necessary to allow an accurate measure of the whole multipath structure of the transfer function. Hence, in this work, we propose a new family of pseudo-orthogonal signals that is adapted to the environment and more specifically, to highly dispersive media. These adaptive instant records signals are used experimentally to detect targets using the time reversal operator decomposition method. The accuracy of the 15 x 15 transfer functions acquired simultaneously, and therefore the detection capability, are demonstrated in an experimental ultrasonic waveguide as a small-scale model of shallow water propagation including bottom absorption and reverberation.     

Experimental evidence of spontaneous symmetry breaking in intracavity type II second-harmonic generation with triple resonance

We describe a spontaneous symmetry-breaking phenomenon between the intensities of the ordinary and extraordinary components of the fundamental field in intracavity type II harmonic generation. It is based on a triply resonant cavity containing a type II chi(2) crystal pumped at fundamental frequency omega0. The pump beam generates a second-harmonic mode at frequency 2omega0 that acts as a pump for frequency-degenerate type II parametric downconversion. Under operating conditions symmetric with respect to the ordinary and extraordinary components of the fundamental wave, we show a breaking of the symmetry of the intensities of these two waves.     

Parameter fitting for piano sound synthesis by physical modeling

A difficult issue in the synthesis of piano tones by physical models is to choose the values of the parameters governing the hammer-string model. In fact, these parameters are hard to estimate from static measurements, causing the synthesis sounds to be unrealistic. An original approach that estimates the parameters of a piano model, from the measurement of the string vibration, by minimizing a perceptual criterion is proposed. The minimization process that was used is a combination of a gradient method and a simulated annealing algorithm, in order to avoid convergence problems in case of multiple local minima. The criterion, based on the tristimulus concept, takes into account the spectral energy density in three bands, each allowing particular parameters to be estimated. The optimization process has been run on signals measured on an experimental setup. The parameters thus estimated provided a better sound quality than the one obtained using a global energetic criterion. Both the sound's attack and its brightness were better preserved. This quality gain was obtained for parameter values very close to the initial ones, showing that only slight deviations are necessary to make synthetic sounds closer to the real ones.