Evaluation of a soft X-ray unipolar charger for charging nanoparticles

Three types of unipolar chargers (parallel multi-electrodes, single electrode, and single electrode with compact size) using the soft X-ray were constructed and their charging performance was evaluated by measuring positive, negative, and neutral fractions of size-resolved ultrafine particles (20–100 nm) with the Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer (TDMA) technique. The unipolar charger with a single electrode and compact size showed the highest charge fraction with least particle loss probably due to lower electrostatic loss of ions among tested chargers. With positive voltage applied to electrode to remove negative ions, we found that the positively charged particles were 43, 52, 62, 69, and 75% for 20, 30, 50, 70, and 100-nm particles, respectively, and a few particles were negatively charged although their fraction increased with size (1, 2, 4, 5, and 6% for 20, 30, 50, 70, and 100-nm particles, respectively). The positive charge fractions were about three times higher than the values estimated theoretically from a bipolar charger. Also, based on comparison of current data with previously reported values using corona discharge unipolar charger, the soft X-ray charger showed better performance in terms of charging efficiency and penetration for particles (NaCl) currently tested in the particle size range of 20–100 nm.     

工业SO2及碳黑颗粒紫外成像遥感监测技术

为了准确有效监测工业烟囱排放,基于SO2及碳黑颗粒物的光学特性,设计并研制出一套双通道紫外成像遥感监测系统.该成像系统的两个光谱通道的中心波长分别定于310 nm和330 nm,利用两个通道的光学厚度之差反演SO2浓度图像,颗粒物浓度图像由330 nm通道获取,根据浓度图像结合光流法获取烟羽运动速度,进而计算得出SO2和碳黑颗粒物的排放速率.结果表明,该工业烟囱的SO2及碳黑颗粒物排放速率分别为72.48±3.16 kg/h和6.33±1.18 kg/h.实验采用紫外相机同时对工业烟囱排放的SO2及碳黑颗粒物进行监测,实验表明双通道紫外成像遥感监测兼具高时间分辨率与高空间分辨率,测量结果准确直观,在工业废气污染、船舶尾气污染以及火山喷发污染排放遥感监测中具有非常明显的技术优势及巨大的应用前景.     

Single-shot fluorescence spectra of individual micrometer-sized bioaerosols illuminated by a 351- or a 266-nm ultraviolet laser

Reproducible fluorescence spectra of individual 2- to 5-microm -diameter biological aerosol particles excited with a single shot from a Q -switched laser (266 or 351 nm) have been obtained with highly improved signal-to-noise ratios. Critical to the advance are crossed diode-laser trigger beams, which precisely define the sample volume, and a reflecting objective, which minimizes chromatic aberration and has a large N.A. for collecting fluorescence. Several allergens (red oak, meadow oat pollen, paper mulberry pollen, and puffball spores) have different fluorescence spectra. Bacillus subtilis fluorescence spectrum deteriorates at high 266-nm incident intensity. Dry riboflavin particles illuminated with a 351-nm light exhibit a new 420-nm fluorescence peak that grows nonlinearly with laser pulse energy.     

Intra‐laser‐cavity microparticle sensing with a dual‐wavelength distributed‐feedback laser

An integrated intra‐laser‐cavity microparticle sensor based on a dual‐wavelength distributed‐feedback channel waveguide laser in ytterbium‐doped amorphous aluminum oxide on a silicon substrate is demonstrated. Real‐time detection and accurate size measurement of single micro‐particles with diameters ranging between 1 µm and 20 µm are achieved, which represent the typical sizes of many fungal and bacterial pathogens as well as a large variety of human cells. A limit of detection of ∼500 nm is deduced. The sensing principle relies on measuring changes in the frequency difference between the two longitudinal laser modes as the evanescent field of the dual‐wavelength laser interacts with micro‐sized particles on the surface of the waveguide. Improvement in sensitivity far down to the nanometer range can be expected upon stabilizing the pump power, minimizing back reflections, and optimizing the grating geometry to increase the evanescent fraction of the guided modes.     

Detection of acoustic oscillations of single gold nanospheres by time-resolved interferometry

We measure the transient absorption of single gold particles with a common-path interferometer. The prompt electronic part of the signal provides images for diameters as small as 10 nm. Mechanical vibrations of single particles appear on a longer time scale (period of 16 ps for 50 nm diameter). They reveal the full heterogeneity of the ensemble, and the intrinsic damping of the vibration. We also observe a lower-frequency mode involving shear. Ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy of individual particles opens new insight into mechanical properties of nanometer-sized objects.     

Real-time measurement of nano-particle size using differential optical phase detection

We demonstrate a size sensing technique for nano-particles using optical differential phase measurement by a dual fiber interferometer through phase-generated carrier(PGC) demodulation. Nano-particle diameters are obtained from the differential phase shift as a result of adding an optical scattering perturbation into two-beam interference. Polystyrene nano-particles with diameters from 200 to 900 nm in a microfluidic channel are detected using this technique to acquire real-time particle diameters. Compared with amplitude sensing with over 10 mW of laser irradiance, particle sizing by PGC phase sensing can be achieved at a laser power as low as1.18 mW. We further analyze major sources of noise in order to improve the limits of detection. This sensing technique may find a broad range of applications from the real-time selection of biological cell samples to rare cell detection in blood samples for early cancer screening.     

Frequency stabilization of a frequency-doubled 1556-nm source to the 5S(1/2) ? 5D (5/2) two-photon transitions of rubidium

Improvements in the power level of sources near 1550 nm and in the efficiency of waveguide frequency doublers enabled us to lock a frequency-doubled source directly to the 5S(1/2) ? 5D(5/2) two-photon transitions near 778 nm. We obtained a sufficiently powerful second-harmonic signal, exceeding 2 mW, by doubling an external-cavity diode laser that was amplified by an erbium-doped fiber amplifier in a periodically poled LiNbO(3) channel waveguide. Our experimental scheme can be used for realizing compact, high-performance frequency standards near 1550 nm for fiber-optic communication and sensing applications.     

Multi-channel sensing and resource allocation in energy constrained cognitive radio networks

We consider a cognitive radio network in a multi-channel licensed environment. Secondary user transmits in a channel if the channel is sensed to be vacant. This results in a tradeoff between sensing time and transmission time. When secondary users are energy constrained, energy available for transmission is less if more energy is used in sensing. This gives rise to an energy tradeoff. For multiple primary channels, secondary users must decide appropriate sensing time and transmission power in each channel to maximize average aggregate-bit throughput in each frame duration while ensuring quality-of-service of primary users. Considering time and energy as limited resources, we formulate this problem as a resource allocation problem. Initially a single secondary user scenario is considered and solution is obtained using decomposition and alternating optimization techniques. Later we extend the analysis for the case of multiple secondary users. Simulation results are presented to study effect of channel occupancy, fading and energy availability on performance of proposed method.     

Real-time and background-free detection of nanoscale particles

We introduce a background-free real-time detection scheme capable of recognizing low-index nanoparticles such as single viruses in water. The method is based on interferometrically measuring the electromagnetic field amplitude of the scattered light. A split detector is used to generate a background-free signal that renders unprecedented sensitivity for small particles. In its current configuration the sensor is capable of detecting low-index particles in water down to 10 nm in radius or single gold particles as small as 5 nm. We demonstrate the detection of such small particles in a microfluidic system with a time resolution of 1 ms and we discuss the theoretical limits of this novel detection scheme.     

Hollow-core photonic crystal fiber based multifunctional optical system for trapping, position sensing, and detection of fluorescent particles

We demonstrate a novel multifunctional optical system that is capable of trapping, imaging, position sensing, and fluorescence detection of micrometer-sized fluorescent test particles using hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF). This multifunctional optical system for trapping, position sensing, and fluorescent detection is designed such that a near-IR laser light is used to create an optical trap across a liquid-filled HC-PCF, and a 473 nm laser is employed as a source for fluorescence excitation. This proposed system and the obtained results are expected to significantly enable an efficient integrated trapping platform employing HC-PCF for diagnostic biomedical applications.     

Resistive Pulse Sensing as a High‐Resolution Nanoparticle Sizing Method: A Comparative Study

One of the main challenges of sizing methods for nanoparticle (NP) suspensions is to distinguish between particles and particle populations with very small size differences. This would be especially important to follow various surface functionalization processes of nanoparticles resulting in small alterations of their size. In this respect, methods involving the detection of single particles, such as resistive pulse sensing (RPS) or nanoparticle tracking analysis, are generally considered superior to ensemble measuring methods such as dynamic light scattering. However, to compare the exact capabilities of these methodologies require systematic investigations in optimized conditions for each method. Here, such a study is presented for a narrow size range of spherical latex nanoparticles (60–200 nm). It is concluded that the RPS methodology based on quartz nanopipets as single nanopore counters, is the only sizing method among those studied capable to fully resolve a ternary mixture of 70, 110, and 140 nm average diameter NPs. The practical usefulness of this size resolution is demonstrated by following the increase in diameter of latex nanoparticles after their surface modification with antibodies.     

热交联型聚氨酯集成双通道电光调制器的制备及其性质的研究

研究了交联型聚氨酯材料集成衰减全反射型双通道聚合物波导电光调制器的制备和性能。这种电光调制器的制备技术非常简单,只要用两个分立的下电极代替单通道调制器中的下电极即可。通过测量器件的调制特性,在832 nm波长下,获得了最大电光系数为24.2 Pm/V,调制带宽约为500 MHz、插入损耗低于1.5 dB。由于器件上下电极的垂直距离为微米级、而通道之间的水平距离为毫米量级的设计,使各通道之间的场不会引起相互交迭,因而未测到各通道间的串扰。另外,热交联型聚合物材料的采用提高了整个器件的热稳定性,在100℃经过800 h后,电光系数仍然保持初值的88%。     

Direct evidence of the dependence of surface state density on the size of SnO2 nanoparticles observed by scanning tunnelling spectroscopy

In this work, we report a scanning tunnelling spectroscopy (STS) study of 30 and 10 nm tin dioxide nanoparticles. The STS spectra give a surface band gap of 2.5 eV for both samples and show that the density of surface states in the band gap is around 6 times higher for the 30 nm particles than for the 10 nm particles. This provides direct experimental evidence for our theoretical model, which predicts a decrease in the surface state density as the particle size decreases, and partly accounts for the improved sensitivity of gas sensing devices fabricated with nanoparticles.     

The behavior of a many-particle electrode in a lithium-ion battery

We study a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that uses a many-particle FePO₄ electrode to reversibly store lithium atoms. This process is accompanied by a phase transition and charging/discharging run along different paths, so that hysteretic behavior is observed.Although there are experimental studies suggesting that the overall behavior of the battery is a many-particle effect, most authors exclusively describe the phase transition within a single particle model of the electrode.In this work, we study in detail a many-particle model for the electrode. The model is capable to describe a kind of phase transition where each individual particle of the electrode is homogeneous. It will be shown that the particles are either in the first phase or in the second phase. This phenomenon is due to the non-monotone relation between the chemical potential and the lithium mole fraction of a single particle.The pressure-radius relation of a spherical elastic rubber balloon also exhibits non-monotone behavior. In fact, a system of many interconnected balloons behaves correspondingly to an electrode consisting of many storage particles. The analogy between the two systems is important, because the predictions of the many-particle model can easily be tested with rubber balloons of macroscopic size than with an ensemble of microscopically small (FePO₄) particles.     

Chemical sensing based on the plasmonic response of nanoparticle aggregation: anion sensing in nanoparticles stabilized by amino-functional ionic liquid

We report the synthesis, characterization and modellization of optical anion sensors based on gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) stabilized by amino-functional imidazolium ionic liquids (AFIL). The addition of different salts results in anion exchange of the imidazolium ionic liquid stabilizer leading to a change in the optical response of the original nanoparticle aqueous solution. In all cases except with dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid sodium salt, a sufficient amount of salt concentration (5 times larger than equimolar) leads to the appearance of an absorption band between 600 and 700 nm in the ultravioletvisible (UV-vis) spectrum. The presence of the salt produces aggregation of the particles that localise the optical response and produce a large spectral red shift. Transmission electron microscopy images demonstrated that this optical change was due to the aggregation of the nanoparticles. We simulate the optical response of both situations, before and after salt addition, and interpret the experimental observations in terms of the different response of metallic single nanoparticles and nanoparticle aggregates. Theoretical calculations for single nanoparticle and single nanoparticle dimers demonstrate that the colour change is not due to the enlargement or structural changes of the Au NPs, but due to the formation of NP aggregation. These results show the potential of nanoparticle plasmonics to perform effective chemical sensing.     

Fluorescent Si nanoparticle-based electrode for sensing biomedical substances

We have been studying the miniaturization of silicon crystals and the transition from the solid state to the atomistic state. We demonstrated the existence of “sweet spots” in cluster size in the range 1-3 nm that have enhanced chemical, structural, and photo stability. The particles are produced by an electrochemical etching process as dispersion in liquid, and they are reconstituted in films, patterns, alloys, or spread on chips to produce super chips. Unlike bulk, these Si nanoparticle configurations have a spectacular ability to glow in distinct RGB colors. In this paper we describe an electrode sensor built by decorating metal or heavily doped silicon electrode with nanoparticles. We demonstrated amperometric response of the electrode to glucose and compared the response to that of heavily doped silicon wafer decorated with GOx. The all silicon electrode shows improved sensitivity, selectivity and stability. Light induced modulation of the response allows phase sensitive detection. The device is suitable for miniaturization, which may enable in vivo use.     

彩色遥感图像薄云去除方法

针对彩色遥感图像中薄云带来的降质问题,提出了一种基于低秩矩阵分解的去云方法。将彩色遥感图像分成三个单通道图像,对每一个通道进行低秩矩阵分解,得到单通道薄云信息;根据薄云在三个通道中均匀分布的特点,选取合适的阈值对薄云信息进行自动判定,提取代表三个通道的薄云图像;用三个通道的图像分别减去对应通道的薄云图像,并融合三个通道的结果得到去云后的彩色遥感图像。实验结果表明,该方法不仅能够保留无云区域信息的完整性,而且对有云区域的处理在主观视觉效果和客观评价指标上都具有较好的效果。     

基于拉曼光谱散射的新型分布式光纤温度传感器及应用

介绍了分布式光纤拉曼温度传感器(DTS)的基本原理、发展趋势和工程应用研究状况,研究了分布式光纤拉曼温度传感器的关键技术,全面提升了DTS的性能。将拉曼放大技术应用于DTS系统,用拉曼增益部分抵偿光纤的传输损耗,使系统的传感长度达到50 km;对脉冲激光器进行211位循环编码,在接收时采用相关运算解调,显著提高系统的信噪比,使测温不确定度达到1 ℃;采用双波长自校正技术提高了系统的空间分辨率,达到2 m;在DTS系统中嵌入光开关,使测温通道成倍扩展,有效延伸了传感光纤的总长度,组成光纤传感网络。     

Measurement of bimodal size distribution of nanoparticles by using the spatial distribution of laser-induced plasma

Laser-induced breakdown detection was performed to monitor the nanoparticles in an aqueous solution by means of a two-dimensional optical imaging method. To verify the relationship between the particle size and the optical image of a laser-induced plasma, we investigated the characteristics of its spatial distribution corresponding to the number of breakdown events plotted on the laser beam propagating axis. It was found that, for particles smaller than 50 nm in diameter, the spatial distribution follows a single Gaussian curve. For particles in the diameter range from 100 to 1000 nm, however, the spatial distribution follows a sum of the multiple Gaussian curves with different peak positions and peak heights. We demonstrated that particles smaller than 20 nm in trace concentrations, which are mixed with larger particles in the diameter range of a few hundred nm, can be measured by a peak deconvolution of the spatial distribution of a laser-induced plasma. PACS 42.62.Eh; 52.25.Rv; 52.70.Nc