What is novel in quantum transport for mesoscopics?

The understanding of mesoscopic transport has now attained an ultimate simplicity. Indeed, orthodox quantum kinetics would seem to say little about mesoscopics that has not been revealed — nearly effortlessly — by more popular means. Such is far from the case, however. The fact that kinetic theory remains very much in charge is best appreciated through the physics of a quantum point contact. While discretization of its conductance is viewed as the exclusive result of coherent, single-electron-wave transmission, this does not begin to address the paramount feature of all metallic conduction: dissipation. A perfect quantum point contact still has finite resistance, so its ballistic carriers must dissipate the energy gained from the applied field. How do they manage that? The key is in standard many-body quantum theory, and its conservation principles.     

Performance Enhancement for Optical Fast Frequency-hopping CDMA Systems by BCH Channel Coding

In this paper, the impact of optical beat noise on the performance of optical fast frequency-hopping code-division multiple-access (FFH OCDMA) networks is analyzed. BCH/FFH-OCDMA to reduce the impact of optical beat noise is proposed. It is shown that, BCH/FFH-OCDMA has much better performance under the same bit rate, same chip time and same number of available wavelengths. Another advantage for BCH/FFH-OCDMA is that the code length of one-coincidence sequence will be shorter, which can greatly reduce the difficulty of fabrication for fiber gratings.     

Acoustic characterization and prediction for fan-duct-plenum-room integrations

This paper investigates mutual influence of duct and room acoustics in the whole fan-duct-plenum-room integrations. Applying the parametric design language of finite element software ANSYS (APDL), dimensional and positional influence on system acoustics has been studied. Models with different room dimensions, duct lengths, duct cross-sections, duct locations, duct discharges and duct elbow were constructed, and their characteristics were compared qualitatively. Results show that small rooms, short ducts, large duct cross-sections and bell mouth duct discharges help to increase room sound pressure levels (SPLs); SPLs in ducts and plenums are sensitive to duct dimensions and duct discharge types but insensitive to duct locations and room dimensions; duct elbows have relatively indistinct acoustic influence in each component. Based on the calculation results, a semi-experimental method was proposed for simply and approximately evaluating indoor acoustic spectra of fan-duct-plenum-room integrations, then an example was used to demonstrate the prediction process. Finally, by adopting several ideal models, sound field constitutions, duct and room wall admittances and duct end reflection were explored quantitatively. This study may give a detailed understanding of fan-duct-plenum-room acoustics for researchers, also it might provide a new, simple and approximate prediction method for professionals to evaluate and improve fan-ducted acoustics.     

Generation of 3rd and 5th harmonics in a thin superconducting film by temperature oscillations and isothermal nonlinear current response

The generation of harmonics of the voltage response is considered when an AC current is applied through a superconducting film above T_c. It is shown that almost at all temperatures the mechanism of the temperature oscillations created by the AC current and the temperature dependence of the resistance dominates over the isothermal nonlinear electric conductivity. Only in a narrow critical region close to T_c the latter is essential for the generation of the harmonics. A detailed investigation of harmonics generation provides an accurate method for measuring the thermal boundary conductance between the film and the insulating substrate. The critical behaviour of the third harmonic will give a new method for the determination of the lifetime of metastable Cooper pairs above T_c. The comparison of the calculated fifth harmonics of the voltage with the experiment is proposed as an important test for the applicability of the employed theoretical models. Received 8 September 2001     

An ASE Reduction Filter Using Cascaded Optical Fiber Grating Couplers in EDFA Repeater

A new configuration for an ASE reduction filter in EDFA repeaters for WDM optical transmission systems using optical fiber grating couplers (FGCs) was proposed and first demonstrated. The filtering characteristics of the proposed filter for amplified single wavelength signal and 2-channel WDM signals using EDFA were identified. It was found that the filter was effective to improve SNR in optical domain by reducing ASE noise. The required FGC characteristics for the filter were theoretically predicted under the condition that the total filter loss did not exceed 3 dB. More than 70% of drop efficiency was required in each FGC for the application of the proposed filter to an 8-channel WDM system using EDFA repeaters.     

Effect of hardness and composition gradients on Barkhausen emission in case hardened steel

The effect of gradients in hardness, structure and composition in the surface layers on magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) was investigated in two widely used low alloy steels. One material was case hardened by induction hardening. The other was case carburised. Similar hardness profiles were produced by the two treatments. It was found that the variation in structure and hardness through the case in the induction-hardened steel had a minor effect on the MBN profile. In contrast, the inhomogeneity in the case-carburised material showed up clearly. This took the form of a broadened or two-peak MBN profile. When the surface layer containing the case was removed by etching, the broadened profile was replaced by a profile with a single peak. It is concluded that the shape and position of the MBN profile is significantly affected when a gradient in microstructure is induced by a gradient in carbon content. On the other hand, a gradient in microstructure induced by heat treatment with a constant carbon level has much less affect on the MBN profile for the induction-hardened steel.     

A hybrid active noise controller for finite ducts

A hybrid active noise controller (ANC) is proposed to solve some existing problems, which are related to the non-minimum phase (NMP) path models between uncollocated sensors and actuators in many ANC systems. For hybrid ANC schemes, the NMP path causes design difficulties to both feedforward and feedback control. These problems can be solved effectively by adding an extra actuator in the ANC system. A new design procedure is presented to take the greatest advantage of the extra actuator. Theoretical analysis and experimental results are presented to show the improved performance of the proposed ANC.     

Selection of meaningless steady noise for masking of speech

This paper focuses on masking speech with meaningless steady noise as a way of realizing a comfortable sound environment. As a basis for research, meaningless steady noise at minimum sound pressure levels for masking of male or female meaningful speech is considered, based on psychological experiments using a method of adjustment. From the results, band-limited pink noise can be selected as the most effective noise for masking of speech. In the case of speech with a lower sound pressure level, the sound pressure level of the meaningless steady noise needs to be a little higher.     

基于新型长周期光纤光栅的掺铒光纤放大器

报道了基于高频CO₂激光脉冲写入的新型长周期光纤光栅的低噪音掺铒光纤放大器,这种新型长周期光纤光栅是用大约几千Hz的高频CO₂激光脉冲对光纤玻璃热冲击作用而形成的.在铒纤中插入一个长周期光纤光栅,会明显减少掺铒光纤放大器的放大自发辐射(ASE)噪音.报道了两种低噪音掺铒光纤放大器,作为前置放大器和线路放大器,它们的ASE噪音指数分别从4.0 dB减少到3.5 dB和从4.8 dB减少到4.3 dB,并且在作为线放时,其小信号增益从30 dB提高到37 dB,降噪及提高增益效应十分显著.     

Quantum information processing in optical images

Optical images can be used to transport, store and process information in a parallel way. We discuss different results obtained in the domain of ‘quantum imaging’, aiming at exploiting at the same time the quantum properties of optical images and their intrinsic parallelism. We define the notion of standard quantum limit (SQL) in optical resolution, set by the quantum noise of usual coherent light, and show that it can be much lower than the diffraction limit. We also prove that this limit can be circumvented by especially designed nonclassical and multimode light. We present an experiment showing that OPOs oscillating inside an exactly confocal cavity actually produce such transverse multimode nonclassical light. We finally describe another experiment which has surpassed the SQL in the case of beam positioning, both in the 1D and 2D cases.