Influence of floating-ring-electrode on large-aperture liquid crystal lens

Large-aperture liquid crystal (LALC) lens with hole-patterned electrodes possesses small lens power and high addressing voltage because of the thick dielectric layer inserted between the hole-patterned electrode and LC layer. With an embedded narrow floating ring electrode (FRE), the lens power and addressing voltage of the LALC lens could be effectively increased and decreased, respectively. In this study, we analyse the electro-optic performance of LALC lens upon variation of the diameter of the embedded FRE. Results reveal that the FRE diameter determines the electric-field distribution and hence the electro-optic behaviour of the LALC lens. The LALC lens with embedded 2-mm-diameter FRE has excellent lens properties, such as low aberration, high focal quality and modulation transfer function performance comparable with solid glass lens.     

Ferromagnetism study of Co<Subscript>0.2</Subscript>Mg<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>Zn<Subscript>0.8−<Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>O films prepared by the sol–gel method

Co_0.2Mg _x Zn_0.8−x O films prepared with different molar ratio of magnesium acetate to zinc acetate were deposited on substrates by the sol–gel technique. X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence (PL) and ferromagnetism measurements were used to characterize the Co_0.2Mg _x Zn_0.8−x O diluted magnetic semiconductors. The acceptor-like defects were determined in the PL band and the intensity of the acceptor-related PL increased with increasing Mg concentration. Therefore, an increase in the number of the acceptor-like defects (zinc vacancies especially) in the Co_0.2Mg _x Zn_0.8−x O film may lead to the enhancement of the magnetic properties. It is worth noting that changes in Mg concentration and the number of the acceptor-like defects are important issues for producing strong ferromagnetism Co_0.2Mg _x Zn_0.8−x O films prepared by the sol–gel method.     

Random telegraph noise in carbon nanotubes and peapods

The switching of resistance between two discrete values, known as random telegraph noise (RTN), was observed in individual single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and C₆₀-filled SWNTs (the so-called peapods). The RTN has been studied as a function of bias-voltage and gate-voltage as well as temperature. By analyzing the features of the RTN, we identify three different types of RTN existing in the SWNT related systems. While the RTN can be generated by the various charge traps in the vicinity of the SWNTs, the RTN for metallic SWNTs is mainly due to reversible defect motions between two metastable states, activated by inelastic scattering with ballistic electrons. On the other hand, the noise for peapods can be attributed to the motion of C₆₀ molecules in hollow space of SWNTs.     

Self-marking phase-stepping electronic speckle pattern interfometry (ESPI) for 3D displacement measurement on cathode ray tube (CRT)-panels

This study demonstrates the feasibility of applying phase-shifting electronic speckle pattern interfometry to measure the deformation field of the front panel of a cathode ray tube, to support analysis to enhance the implosion-resistance capacity under violent collapse. Two effects, the air exhaustion and shrink band constraint effects, are comprehensively investigated. The angle of an adjustable mirror is switched, to provide three sensitivity vectors that are required in 3D-displacement measurement. A Fourier filtration is employed to remove speckle noise and establish a noise-free phase map. Inconsistent points are identified and masked to prevent any possible divergence during phase unwrapping. The results show that the accuracy of this method is satisfactory.     

Coaxially bifocal liquid crystal lens with switchable optical aperture

An electrically tunable liquid crystal (LC) lens with dual hole-patterned electrodes is demonstrated. When the LC lens is operated at low voltages, the dual hole-patterned electrodes with different diameters impart the lens with a coaxial bifocal characteristic. At high voltages, the proposed LC lens functions as a conventional lens with a single focal length but with a switchable optical aperture. The demonstrated LC lens is free of disclination lines because of the presence of voltage-assisted high pretilt angles created from the upmost hole-patterned electrode with small diameter.     

Bandwidth control in a hybrid fiber acousto-optic filter

We report a bandwidth variation technique in an acousto-optic filter. Utilizing the adiabatic conversion in both optical and acoustic modes, we obtain a novel hybrid waveguide composed of serial concatenation of single-mode fiber (SMF) and two-mode hollow optical fiber (HOF). On the basis of dissimilarity in the phase-matching conditions and beat-length dispersion in SMF and HOF, the FWHM of the resonant bands is varied from 3.8 to 190 nm near the 1.5-microm region in a single device. Furthermore, we theoretically analyze the acousto-optic coupling among the guided modes in HOF, which shows good agreement with experimental observations.     

A nondestructive method for estimation of the fracture toughness of CrMoV rotor steels based on ultrasonic nonlinearity

The objective of this paper is to develop a nondestructive method for estimating the fracture toughness (K(IC)) of CrMoV steels used as the rotor material of steam turbines in power plants. To achieve this objective, a number of CrMoV steel samples were heat-treated, and the fracture appearance transition temperature (FATT) was determined as a function of aging time. Nonlinear ultrasonics was employed as the theoretical basis to explain the harmonic generation in a damaged material, and the nonlinearity parameter of the second harmonic wave was the experimental measure used to be correlated to the fracture toughness of the rotor steel. The nondestructive procedure for estimating the K(IC) consists of two steps. First, the correlations between the nonlinearity parameter and the FATT are sought. The FATT values are then used to estimate K(IC) using the K(IC) versus excess temperature (i.e., T-FATT) correlation that is available in the literature for CrMoV rotor steel.     

Inverses and eigenpairs of tridiagonal Toeplitz matrix with opposite-bordered rows

In this paper, tridiagonal Toeplitz matrix (type I, type II) with opposite-bordered rows are introduced. Main attention is paid to calculate the determinants, the inverses and the eigenpairs of these matrices. Specifically, the determinants of an $n\times n$ tridiagonal Toeplitz matrix with opposite-bordered rows can be explicitly expressed by using the $(n-1)$th Fibonacci number, the inversion of the tridiagonal Toeplitz matrix with opposite-bordered rows can also be explicitly expressed by using the Fibonacci numbers and unknown entries from the new matrix. Besides, we give the expression of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the tridiagonal Toeplitz matrix with opposite-bordered rows. In addition, some algorithms are presented based on these theoretical results. Numerical results show that the new algorithms have much better computing efficiency than some existing algorithms studied recently.