Performance and simulation of an on-board guided-wave optical processor for airborne SAR applications

This paper describes the performance and simulation of a compact integrated optical processor for the real-time reconstruction of two-dimensional images in airborne stripmap synthetic aperture radar applications. The functional behavior of the processor is explained in some detail. The design criteria are briefly given. The simulation step allowed the main processor characteristics and properties to be identified. A number of comparisons were obtained in airborne SAR mission scenarios between the predictions of the optical device and those achieved by the modern electronic digital approach, based on the wavefront reconstruction method by matched filtering.     

Barrier-free intermolecular proton transfer in the uracil-glycine complex induced by excess electron attachment

The photoelectron spectra (PES) of anions of uracil-glycine and uracil-phenylalanine complexes reveal broad features with maxima at 1.8 and 2.0 eV. The results of ab initio density functional B3LYP and second order M?ller-Plesset theory calculations indicate that the excess electron occupies a π^* orbital localized on uracil. The excess electron attachment to the complex can induce a barrier-free proton transfer (BFPT) from the carboxylic group of glycine to the O8 atom of uracil. As a result, the four most stable structures of the anion of uracil-glycine complex can be characterized as the neutral radical of hydrogenated uracil solvated by the anion of deprotonated glycine. The similarity between the PES spectra for the uracil complexes with glycine and phenylalanine suggests that the BFPT is also operative in the case of the latter anionic species. The BFPT to the O8 atom of uracil may be related to the damage of nucleic acid bases by low energy electrons because the O8 atom is involved in a hydrogen bond with adenine in the standard Watson-Crick pairing scheme. Received 6 April 2002 Published online 13 September 2002     

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     

Necessary and sufficient conditions in constrained optimization

Additional conditions are attached to the Kuhn-Tucker conditions giving a set of conditions which are both necessary and sufficient for optimality in constrained optimization, under appropriate constraint qualifications. Necessary and sufficient conditions are also given for optimality of the dual problem. Duality and converse duality are treated accordingly.     

Joint detection of a given number of reference fragments in a quasi-periodic sequence and its partition into segments containing series of identical fragments

The problem of joint a posteriori detection of reference fragments in a quasi-periodic sequence and its partition into segments containing series of recurring fragments from the reference tuple is solved. It is assumed that (i) an ordered reference tuple of sequences to be detected is given, (ii) the number of desired fragments is known, (iii) the index of the sequence term corresponding to the beginning of a fragment is a deterministic (not random) value, and (iv) a sequence distorted by an additive uncorrelated Gaussian noise is available for observation. It is established that the problem consists in testing a set of hypotheses about the mean of a random Gaussian vector. The cardinality of the set grows exponentially as the vector dimension (i.e., the sequence length) increases. An efficient a posteriori algorithm producing a maximum-likelihood optimal solution to the problem is substantiated. Time and space complexity bounds related to the parameters of the problem are derived. The results of numerical simulation are presented.     

A Characterization of Graphs without Even Factors

In this paper, we first reduce the problem of finding a minimum parity (g,f)-factor of a graph G into the problem of finding a minimum perfect matching in a weighted simple graph G*. Using the structure of G*, a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of an even factor is derived. This paper was accomplished while the second author was visiting the Center for Combinatorics, Nankai University. The research is supported by NSFC     

Property improvement of pulsed laser deposited boron carbide films by pulse shortening

Growth characteristics and surface morphology of boron carbide films fabricated by ablating a B₄C target in high vacuum with a traditional KrF excimer laser and a high brightness hybrid dye/excimer laser system emitting at the same wavelength while delivering 700 fs pulses are compared. The ultrashort pulse processing is highly effective. Energy densities between 0.25 and 2 J cm⁻² result in apparent growth rates ranging from 0.017 to 0.085 nm/pulse. Ablation with nanosecond pulses of one order of magnitude higher energy densities yields smaller growth rates, the figures increase from 0.002 to 0.016 nm/pulse within the 2-14.3 J cm⁻² fluence window. 2D thickness maps derived from variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry reveal that, when ablating with sub-ps pulses, the spot size rather than the energy density determines both the deposition rate and the angular distribution of film material. Pulse shortening leads to significant improvement in surface morphology, as well. While droplets with number densities ranging from 1 × 10⁴ to 7 × 10⁴ mm⁻² deteriorate the surface of the films deposited by the KrF excimer laser, sub-ps pulses produce practically droplet-free films. The absence of droplets has also a beneficial effect on the stoichiometry and homogeneity of the films fabricated by ultrashort pulses.     

Surface morphologies of anthracene single crystals grown from vapor phase

The morphologies and lattice structures of anthracene single crystals grown from the vapor phase were investigated using optical microscopy, phase contrast microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction analysis. Common morphologies with hexagonal large planes were observed irrespective of crystal size. The observation of certain surface morphologies with a phase contrast microscopy revealed that the spiral steps originated from screw dislocations present on the (0 0 1) planes. Moreover, the center and edge of the (0 0 1) planes had large curvatures, similar to hills. Resultantly, quarter-monolayer (ML) steps were observed on the large and flat planes between both hills.     

Navier-Stokes equations in 3D thin domains with Navier friction boundary condition

In this article we study the 3D Navier-Stokes equations with Navier friction boundary condition in thin domains. We prove the global existence of strong solutions to the 3D Navier-Stokes equations when the initial data and external forces are in large sets as the thickness of the domain is small. We generalize the techniques developed to study the 3D Navier-Stokes equations in thin domains, see [G. Raugel, G. Sell, Navier-Stokes equations on thin 3D domains I: Global attractors and global regularity of solutions, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 6 (1993) 503-568; G. Raugel, G. Sell, Navier-Stokes equations on thin 3D domains II: Global regularity of spatially periodic conditions, in: Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations and Their Application, College de France Seminar, vol. XI, Longman, Harlow, 1994, pp. 205-247; R. Temam, M. Ziane, Navier-Stokes equations in three-dimensional thin domains with various boundary conditions, Adv. Differential Equations 1 (1996) 499-546; R. Temam, M. Ziane, Navier-Stokes equations in thin spherical shells, in: Optimization Methods in Partial Differential Equations, in: Contemp. Math., vol. 209, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 1996, pp. 281-314], to the Navier friction boundary condition by introducing a new average operator Mε in the thin direction according to the spectral decomposition of the Stokes operator Aε. Our analysis hinges on the refined investigation of the eigenvalue problem corresponding to the Stokes operator Aε with Navier friction boundary condition.