Tapered Bragg reflection waveguide edge emitting lasers with near circular twin-beam emission

An edge emitting laser with two symmetrical near-circular spots located far field （FF） is demonstrated using tapered double-sided Bragg reflection waveguides （BRWs）. The BRWs consist of six pairs of top p-type and bottom n-type A10.Ga0.9 As/A10.3 Ga0.7As Bragg reflectors with a period thickness of 850 nm. The device has a 4° tapered angle configuration and exhibits two stable circular beams with a separation angle of 52°. Typical FF angles of 5.87° and 7.8° in the lateral and vertical directions, respectively, are achieved. The lateral FF angle in the ridged section is independent of the injection current （〉0.8 A） beeause of narrow ridge （-10 μm） confinement. By contrast, the FF angle in the tapered section shows an increase rate of 1.2 1.66°/A. The periodic modulation of the lasing wavelength is observed to be sensitive to self-heating effects.     

Near-infrared downconversion in Eu2＋ and Pr3＋ co-doped KSrPO4 phosphor

A novel near-infrared (NIR) downconversion (DC) phosphor KSrPO4 :Eu2+ , Pr3+ is synthesized by the conventional high temperature solid-state reaction. The Eu2+ acts as an efficient sensitizer for Pr3+ in the KSrPO4 host. With broad-band near-ultraviolet light excitation induced by the 4f→5d transition of Eu2+ , the characteristic NIR emission of Pr3+ , peaking at 974 nm and 1019 nm due to 3P0 → 1G4 and 1G4 → 3H4 transitions, is generated as a result of the energy transfer from Eu2+ to Pr3+ . The luminescence spectra in both the visible and the NIR regions and the decay lifetime curves of Eu2+ prove the energy transfer from Eu2+ to Pr3+ . This Eu2+ and Pr3+ co-doped KSrPO4 phosphor may be a promising candidate to modify the spectral mismatch behavior of crystalline solar cells and sunlight.     

A meshless model for transient heat conduction analyses of 3D axisymmetric functionally graded solids

A meshless numerical model is developed for analyzing transient heat conductions in three-dimensional （3D） axisymmetric continuously nonhomogeneous functionally graded materials （FGMs）. Axial symmetry of geometry and boundary conditions reduces the original 3D initial-boundary value problem into a two-dimensional （2D） problem. Local weak forms are derived for small polygonal sub-domains which surround nodal points distributed over the cross section. In order to simplify the treatment of the essential boundary conditions, spatial variations of the temperature and heat flux at discrete time instants are interpolated by the natural neighbor interpolation. Moreover, the using of three-node triangular finite element method （FEM） shape functions as test functions reduces the orders of integrands involved in domain integrals. The semi-discrete heat conduction equation is solved numerically with the traditional two-point difference technique in the time domain. Two numerical examples are investigated and excellent results are obtained, demonstrating the potential application of the proposed approach.     

Algebro-Geometric Solutions of the TD Hierarchy

Resorting to the Lenard recursion scheme, we derive the TD hierarchy associated with a 2?×?2 matrix spectral problem and establish Dubrovin-type equation in terms of the introduced elliptic variables. Based on the theory of algebraic curve, all the flows associated with the TD hierarchy are straightened under the Abel-Jacobi coordinates. An algebraic function ?, also called the meromorphic function, carrying the data of the divisor is introduced on the underlying hyperelliptic curve $\mathcal {K}_{n}$ . The known zeros and poles of ? allow to find theta function representations for ? by referring to Riemann’s vanishing theorem, from which we obtain algebro-geometric solutions for the entire TD hierarchy with the help of asymptotic expansion of ? and its theta function representation.     

Characterization of mechanical properties of polymers by nanoindentation tests

A constitutive model for thermoplastic polymeric materials and its finite element implementation are presented. The model was verified by both tensile and indentation experimental results. In addition, a five-step indentation scheme, which is able to separate time-dependent plastic deformation from elastic and visco-elastic–plastic deformations, was formulated to extract the complete list of parameters in the constitutive model. Four types of indentation tests on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), following the five-step and other schemes, were performed. Experimental data were used to extract all the parameters in the model and verify the five-step test scheme. Good agreement between the experimental results and model prediction indicate that the five-step indentation scheme is a practical approach to determine the mechanical properties of thermoplastic polymers.     

The application of lightning forecasting based on surface electrostatic field observations and radar data

This paper presents an analysis of lightning forecasting based on atmospheric electrostatic field (EF), radar and lightning location data in Nanjing of China. The warning behavior with EF data in summer of 2009 was analyzed and the suitable EF warning indexes were determined. To improve EF warnings effect, a method of cloud-ground (CG) lightning nowcasting based on EF observations, radar data, etc. was proposed and the best radar forecasting index was selected in the paper. The experimental (2009) and independent test (2010) results show that POD is 82.7%, FAR is 14.6%, CSI is 72.4% and average lead time is 20.8 min.     

The structure-tunable synthesis and magnetic properties of Fe3O4 nanocrystals

Magnetite nanocrystals with tunable crystalline structures (orthorhombic and cubic) were synthesized via a simple oxidation-coprecipitation approach basing on the reaction of FeSO₄·7H₂O with C₆H₁₂N₄. The average diameter of prepared orthorhombic Fe₃O₄ nanorods were 15 nm while their lengths were approximately 150~200 nm. As-prepared cubic counterparts were composed of 10 nm sized nanoparticles. XRD, FESEM, TEM, SAED and HRTEM were then used to characterize our samples. In addition, magnetic measurements showed the saturation magnetization of orthorhombic magnetite was lower than that of cubic ones. Mössbauer spectroscopy verified the samples possessed the nature of cubic magnetite. Finally, a possible growth mechanism for orthorhombic nanorods and cubic nanoparticles was also discussed.     

Analysis of the mechanisms of electron recombination in HgCdTe infrared photodiode

This paper presents an experimental study of minority carrier lifetime and recombination mechanisms in HgCdTe photodiode. The excitation light source is a wavelength-tunable pulsed infrared laser. A constant background illumination has been introduced to minimize the effect of the junction equivalent capacitor and resistance. The decay of the photo-generated voltage is recorded by a storage oscilloscope. By fitting the exponentially decay curve, the time constant has been obtained which is regarded as the photo-generated minority carrier lifetime of the HgCdTe photodiode. The experimental results show that the carrier lifetime is in the range of 18–407 ns at 77 K for the measured detectors of four Cd compositions. It was found that the Auger recombination process is more effective for low Cd composition while the radiative recombination process became more important for high composition materials. The Shockley–Read–Hall recombination processes could not be ignored for all Cd composition.     

Ranking spreaders by decomposing complex networks

Ranking the nodes? ability of spreading in networks is crucial for designing efficient strategies to hinder spreading in the case of diseases or accelerate spreading in the case of information dissemination. In the well-known k-shell method, nodes are ranked only according to the links between the remaining nodes (residual links) while the links connecting to the removed nodes (exhausted links) are entirely ignored. In this Letter, we propose a mixed degree decomposition (MDD) procedure in which both the residual degree and the exhausted degree are considered. By simulating the epidemic spreading process on real networks, we show that the MDD method can outperform the k-shell and degree methods in ranking spreaders.