Misalignment tolerance analysis and fabrication for highly efficient parallel optical-electrical convertor module

A compact, highly efficient, and passively assembled parallel optical-electrical convertor module (POECM) for active optical cable application is proposed. This paper presents our POECM structure, optical design simulation results, fabrication process, and data transmission test results, in sequence. The POECM has a compact size of \(18.5\hbox {mm} \times 10\hbox {mm} \times 2.8\hbox {mm}\) . We confirm a data rate of total throughput at 21.6 Gbps ( \(5.4\hbox {Gbps} \times 4\) channels) with a bit error rate of less than \(10^{-12}\) .     

On Gravitational Effects in the Schrödinger Equation

The Schrödinger  equation for a particle of rest mass $m$ and electrical charge $ne$ interacting with a four-vector potential $A_i$ can be derived as the non-relativistic limit of the Klein–Gordon  equation $\left( \Box '+m^2\right) \varPsi =0$ for the wave function $\varPsi $ , where $\Box '=\eta ^{jk}\partial '_j\partial '_k$ and $\partial '_j=\partial _j -\mathrm {i}n e A_j$ , or equivalently from the one-dimensional  action $S_1=-\int m ds +\int neA_i dx^i$ for the corresponding point particle in the semi-classical approximation $\varPsi \sim \exp {(\mathrm {i}S_1)}$ , both methods yielding the equation $\mathrm {i}\partial _0\varPsi \approx \left( \frac{1}{2m}\eta ^{\alpha \beta }\partial '_{\alpha }\partial '_{\beta } + m + n e\phi \right) \varPsi $ in Minkowski  space–time  , where $\alpha ,\beta =1,2,3$ and $\phi =-A_0$ . We show that these two methods generally yield equations  that differ in a curved background  space–time   $g_{ij}$ , although they coincide when $g_{0\alpha }=0$ if $m$ is replaced by the effective mass $\mathcal{M}\equiv \sqrt{m^2-\xi R}$ in both the Klein–Gordon  action $S$ and $S_1$ , allowing for non-minimal coupling to the gravitational  field, where $R$ is the Ricci scalar and $\xi $ is a constant. In this case $\mathrm {i}\partial _0\varPsi \approx \left( \frac{1}{2\mathcal{M}'} g^{\alpha \beta }\partial '_{\alpha }\partial '_{\beta } + \mathcal{M}\phi ^{(\mathrm g)} + n e\phi \right) \varPsi $ , where $\phi ^{(\mathrm g)} =\sqrt{g_{00}}$ and $\mathcal{M}'=\mathcal{M}/\phi ^{(\mathrm g)} $ , the correctness of the gravitational  contribution to the potential having been verified to linear order $m\phi ^{(\mathrm g)} $ in the thermal-neutron beam interferometry experiment due to Colella et al. Setting $n=2$ and regarding $\varPsi $ as the quasi-particle wave function, or order parameter, we obtain the generalization of the fundamental macroscopic Ginzburg-Landau equation of superconductivity to curved space–time. Conservation of probability and electrical current requires both electromagnetic gauge and space–time  coordinate conditions to be imposed, which exemplifies the gravito-electromagnetic analogy, particularly in the stationary case, when div ${{\varvec{A}}}=\hbox {div}{{\varvec{A}}}^{(\mathrm g)}=0$ , where ${{\varvec{A}}}^{\alpha }=-A^{\alpha }$ and ${{\varvec{A}}}^{(\mathrm g)\alpha }=-\phi ^{(\mathrm g)}g^{0\alpha }$ . The quantum-cosmological Schrödinger  (Wheeler–DeWitt) equation is also discussed in the $\mathcal{D}$ -dimensional  mini-superspace idealization, with particular regard to the vacuum potential $\mathcal V$ and the characteristics of the ground state, assuming a gravitational  Lagrangian   $L_\mathcal{D}$ which contains higher-derivative  terms up to order $\mathcal{R}^4$ . For the heterotic superstring theory  , $L_\mathcal{D}$ consists of an infinite series in $\alpha '\mathcal{R}$ , where $\alpha '$ is the Regge slope parameter, and in the perturbative approximation $\alpha '|\mathcal{R}| \ll 1$ , $\mathcal V$ is positive semi-definite for $\mathcal{D} \ge 4$ . The maximally symmetric ground state satisfying the field equations is Minkowski  space for $3\le {\mathcal {D}}\le 7$ and anti-de Sitter  space for $8 \le \mathcal {D} \le 10$ .     

Discovering Echinococcus granulosus thioredoxin glutathione reductase inhibitors through site-specific dynamic combinatorial chemistry

In this study, we report a strategy using dynamic combinatorial chemistry for targeting the thioredoxin (Trx)-reductase catalytic site on Trx glutathione reductase (TGR), a pyridine nucleotide thiol-disulfide oxido-reductase. We chose Echinococcus granulosus TGR since it is a bottleneck enzyme of platyhelminth parasites and a validated pharmacological target. A dynamic combinatorial library (DCL) was constructed based on thiol-disulfide reversible exchange. We demonstrate the use of 5-thio-2-nitrobenzoic acid (TNB) as a non-covalent anchor fragment in a DCL templated by E. granulosus TGR. The heterodimer of TNB and bisthiazolidine (2af) was identified, upon library analysis by HPLC (IC $_{50}$  = 24  $\upmu $ M). Furthermore, 14 analogs were synthetically prepared and evaluated against TGR. This allowed the study of a structure–activity relationship and the identification of a disulfide TNB-tricyclic bisthiazolidine (2aj) as the best enzyme inhibitor in these series, with an IC $_{50}$  = 14  $\upmu $ M. Thus, our results validate the use of DCL for targeting thiol-disulfide oxido-reductases.     

All-carbon detector with buried graphite pillars in CVD diamond

A diamond detector of 3D architecture without any metallization is developed for spectroscopy of ionizing radiation and single particles detection. The carbon electrode system was fabricated using a femtosecond infrared laser ( $\lambda $ = 1,030 nm) to induce graphitization on the surface and inside 4.0  $\times $  4.0  $\times $  0.4 mm $^{3}$ single-crystal chemical vapor deposition diamond slab, resulting in an array of 84 buried graphite pillars of 30  $\upmu $ m diameter formed orthogonally to the surface and connected by surface graphite strips. Sensitivity to ionizing radiation with $^{90}$ Sr $\upbeta $ -source has been measured for the 3D detector and high charge collection efficiency is demonstrated.     

A flexible scintillation light apparatus for rare event searches

Compelling experimental evidences of neutrino oscillations and their implication that neutrinos are massive particles have given neutrinoless double beta decay ( \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) ) a central role in astroparticle physics. In fact, the discovery of this elusive decay would be a major breakthrough, unveiling that neutrino and antineutrino are the same particle and that the lepton number is not conserved. It would also impact our efforts to establish the absolute neutrino mass scale and, ultimately, understand elementary particle interaction unification. All current experimental programs to search for \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) are facing with the technical and financial challenge of increasing the experimental mass while maintaining incredibly low levels of spurious background. The new concept described in this paper could be the answer which combines all the features of an ideal experiment: energy resolution, low cost mass scalability, isotope choice flexibility and many powerful handles to make the background negligible. The proposed technology is based on the use of arrays of silicon detectors cooled to 120 K to optimize the collection of the scintillation light emitted by ultra-pure crystals. It is shown that with a 54 kg array of natural CaMoO \(_4\) scintillation detectors of this type it is possible to yield a competitive sensitivity on the half-life of the \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) of \(^{100}\) Mo as high as \(\sim \) \(10^{24}\)  years in only 1 year of data taking. The same array made of \(^{40}\) Ca \(^{\mathrm {nat}}\) MoO \(_4\) scintillation detectors (to get rid of the continuous background coming from the two neutrino double beta decay of \(^{48}\) Ca) will instead be capable of achieving the remarkable sensitivity of \(\sim \) \(10^{25}\)  years on the half-life of \(^{100}\) Mo \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) in only 1 year of measurement.     

Polymeric N-stage serial-cascaded four-port optical router with scalable 3N channel wavelengths for wideband signal routing application

Device architecture and design scheme of a universal \(N\) -stage cascaded polymer four-port optical router with scalable 3 \(N\) channel wavelengths are proposed. Basic cross-coupling two-microring resonator routing element based on polymer materials is optimized for single-mode transmission, low optical loss and phase-match between microring waveguide and channel waveguide. Then, a one-stage four-port optical router is constructed using four-group basic routing elements, which has 12 possible I/O routing paths and 3 channel wavelengths. The insertion losses of each channel wavelength along every routing path are within the range of 0.04–0.63 dB, the maximum crosstalk between the on-port along each routing path and other off-ports is less than \(-39\)  dB, and the device footprint size is \(\sim \) 0.13 mm \(^{2}\) . Compared with the previously reported four-port silicon optical routers, this device possesses similar ring radius ( \(\sim \) 10  \(\upmu \) m) and device size ( \(<\) 1 mm \(^{2})\) . Aiming at wideband signal routing applications, we then construct a universal \(N\) -stage cascaded polymer four-port optical router possessing scalable 3 \(N\) channel wavelengths. The proposed routing structure has potential application in photonic networks-on-chip, because of low insertion loss, low crosstalk, small footprint size, and scalable wideband 3 \(N\) routing wavelengths.     

Investigation of conductivity of adhesive layer including indium tin oxide particles for multi-junction solar cells

We report connection conductivity ( \(C_{\rm c}\) ) of adhesive which including \(\hbox {In}_2\hbox {O}_3\) – \(\hbox {SnO}_2\) (ITO) particles developed for fabrication of stacked-type-multi-junction solar cells. The commercial 20- \(\upmu \) m sized ITO particles were heated in vacuum at temperature ranging from 800 to 1,300  \(^{\circ }{\rm C}\) for 10 min to increase \(C_{\rm c}\) . 6.2 wt% ITO particles were dispersed in commercial Cemedine adhesive gel to form 100 samples structured with n-type Si/adhesive/n-type Si (n-Si sample) and p-type Si/adhesive/p-type Si (p-Si sample). Current density as a function of voltage (J–V) characteristics gave \(C_{\rm c}\) . It ranged from 4.3 to 1.0 S/cm \(^2\) for the n-Si sample with 800 \(^{\circ }{\rm C}\) heat-treated ITO particles. Its standard deviation was 0.59 S/cm \(^2\) . On the other hand, it ranged from 2.0 to 0.6 S/cm \(^2\) for the p-Si sample with 800  \(^{\circ }{\rm C}\) heat-treated ITO particles. Its standard deviation was 0.22 S/cm \(^2\) . The distribution of \(C_{\rm c}\) mainly resulted from contact efficiency of ITO particles to substrate. We theoretically estimated that present \(C_{\rm c}\) achieved a low loss of the power conversion efficiency ( \(E_{\rm ff}\) ) lower than 0.3 % in the application of fabrication of multi-junction solar cell with an intrinsic \(E_{\rm ff}\) of 30 % and an open circuit voltage above 1.9 V.     

Rejection of randomly coinciding events in ZnMoO_4 scintillating bolometers

Random coincidence of events (particularly from two neutrino double beta decay) could be one of the main sources of background in the search for neutrinoless double beta decay with cryogenic bolometers due to their poor time resolution. Pulse-shape discrimination by using front edge analysis, mean-time and \(\chi ^2\) methods were applied to discriminate randomly coinciding events in ZnMoO \(_4\) cryogenic scintillating bolometers. These events can be effectively rejected at the level of 99 % by the analysis of the heat signals with rise-time of about 14 ms and signal-to-noise ratio of 900, and at the level of 92 % by the analysis of the light signals with rise-time of about 3 ms and signal-to-noise ratio of 30, under the requirement to detect 95 % of single events. These rejection efficiencies are compatible with extremely low background levels in the region of interest of neutrinoless double beta decay of \(^{100}\) Mo for enriched ZnMoO \(_4\) detectors, of the order of \(10^{-4}\)  counts/(y keV kg). Pulse-shape parameters have been chosen on the basis of the performance of a real massive ZnMoO \(_4\) scintillating bolometer. Importance of the signal-to-noise ratio, correct finding of the signal start and choice of an appropriate sampling frequency are discussed.     

Structural evolution of nanopores and cracks as fundamental constituents of ultrashort pulse-induced nanogratings

We present an extensive study of the underlying structure of femtosecond laser-induced nanogratings in fused silica. To explore the evolution of the three-dimensional structure of the nanopores and cracks, of which the nanogratings consist, we performed small angle X-ray scattering measurements as well as focused ion beam milling and scanning electron microscopy. Our results show that cracks with dimensions of (280  $\times $  25  $\times $  380) nm $^{3}$ and nanopores with typical diameters of (30  $\times $  25  $\times $  75) nm $^{3}$ are formed independent of various illumination parameters. With increasing number of laser pulses the smaller pores fuse to larger structures. Furthermore, the data suggest a cross-sectional change of the pores from cuboidal to ellipsoidal.     

Effects of cerium dopant concentration on structural properties and photocatalytic activity of electrospun Ce-doped TiO2 nanofibers

Electrospun \(\hbox {TiO}_2\) and Ce-doped \(\hbox {TiO}_2\) nanofibers were prepared with 0.5, 2.0 and 8.0 % weight Ce. The structural properties and phase composition were characterized using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) at the Ti K-edge. The undoped nanofibers are composed of an assembly of \(\hbox {TiO}_2\) nanoparticles and their crystal structure is a mixture of anatase and rutile phases with an anatase:rutile volume ratio close to 3:1. As Ce is introduced, the nanoparticles decrease in size and the rutile phase volume decreases. Ce \(\hbox {L}_3\) -edge XANES probed the local structure of Ce dopants. At 0.5 % Ce, most Ce ions are incorporated in the \(\hbox {Ce}^{3+}\) charge state but, at 2 % Ce, the majority are \(\hbox {Ce}^{4+}\) . Visible light absorption indicated that \(\hbox {Ce}^{3+}\) act as shallow acceptors that only participate in absorption of wavelengths below 420 nm but \(\hbox {Ce}^{4+}\) impurity states are associated with absorption of wavelengths up to 550 nm. Photocatalytic performance of the nanofibers was assessed by measuring the degradation of adsorbed Rhodamine B in aqueous solution under visible and ultraviolet light. The 0.5 % Ce-doped \(\hbox {TiO}_2\) nanofiber showed the best visible-light photocatalytic activity, which is probably due to the majority presence of \(\hbox {Ce}^{3+}\) . At higher Ce concentration, the photocatalytic reaction rate was lower than undoped nanofibers, indicating that recombination at the \(\hbox {Ce}^{4+}\) sites is rate limiting.     

Improvement of the bit error rate of a non-coherent OCDMA system for FTTH network applications

In this paper, an optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) system was analysed to improve the bit error rate (BER) performance at 10 Gbps. The improvements to this system were based on a modified double weight code and a NAND subtraction technique and aimed to support the large number of active users in the fibre-to-the-home network. The system performance was investigated through extensive theoretical and numerical simulation analyses. The theoretical and simulation results revealed that the new detection technique exhibits improved BER performance compared to conventional techniques, such as complimentary subtraction techniques. The system performance was characterised by the signal-to-noise ratio, the bit error rate (BER), and various transmit powers ( $P_{sr} - 10$  dBm). The results show that the proposed system, which is based on a new detection technique, can achieve the optimal BER with a high number of users and maintains the error floor transmission rate $(\le 10^{-9})$ .     

Analytic Binding Energies for Two-Baryon Bound States in 2 + 1 Strongly Coupled Lattice QCD With Two-Flavors

We consider a lattice SU(3) QCD model in 2 + 1 dimensions, with two flavors and 2 × 2 spin matrices. An imaginary time functional integral formulation with Wilson’s action is used in the strong coupling regime, i.e. small hopping parameter ${0 < \kappa \ll 1}$ , and much smaller plaquette coupling ${\beta, 0 < \beta \ll \kappa}$ . In this regime, it is known that the low-lying energy-momentum spectrum contains isolated dispersion curves identified with baryons and mesons with asymptotic masses ${m\approx-3\ln\kappa}$ and ${m_m\approx-2\ln\kappa}$ , respectively. We prove the existence of two (labelled by ±) two-baryon bound states for each of the total isospin sectors I = 0,1 and we obtain, in each case, the exact binding energies ${\epsilon_{I\,\pm} }$ (of order ${\kappa^2}$ ) which extend to jointly analytic function in ${\kappa}$ and β. We also prove that these points are the only mass spectrum up to slightly above the bound state masses. Precisely, we show, for ${\alpha_0=\frac 14, \alpha_1=\frac 1{12}, \alpha_2=\frac12, \alpha_3=\frac 34}$ and small ${\delta >0 }$ , that the bound state masses ${2m-\epsilon_{I\,\pm}}$ are the only points in the mass spectrum in ${(0,2m-\epsilon_{I\,\pm}+\delta \alpha_I\kappa^2)}$ , for I = 0,1, and in ${(0,2m-(1+\delta)\alpha_I\kappa^2)}$ , for I = 2,3. These results are exact and validate our previous results obtained in a ladder approximation. The method employs suitable two- and four-point correlations with spectral representations and a lattice Bethe-Salpeter equation. For I = 0,1, a quark, antiquark space-range one potential of order ${\kappa^2}$ is found to be the dominant contribution to the two-baryon interaction and the interaction of the individual quark isospins of one baryon with those of the other is described by permanents. A novel spectral free decomposition (but spectral representation motivated, for real κ and β) of the two-point correlation, after performing a complex extension, is a key ingredient in showing the joint analyticity of the binding energy.     

The Lie–Rinehart Universal Poisson Algebra of Classical and Quantum Mechanics

The Lie–Rinehart algebra of a (connected) manifold ${\mathcal {M}}$ , defined by the Lie structure of the vector fields, their action and their module structure over ${C^\infty({\mathcal {M}})}$ , is a common, diffeomorphism invariant, algebra for both classical and quantum mechanics. Its (noncommutative) Poisson universal enveloping algebra ${\Lambda_{R}({\mathcal {M}})}$ , with the Lie–Rinehart product identified with the symmetric product, contains a central variable (a central sequence for non-compact ${{\mathcal {M}}}$ ) ${Z}$ which relates the commutators to the Lie products. Classical and quantum mechanics are its only factorial realizations, corresponding to Z  =  i z, z  =  0 and ${z = \hbar}$ , respectively; canonical quantization uniquely follows from such a general geometrical structure. For ${z =\hbar \neq 0}$ , the regular factorial Hilbert space representations of ${\Lambda_{R}({\mathcal{M}})}$ describe quantum mechanics on ${{\mathcal {M}}}$ . For z  =  0, if Diff( ${{\mathcal {M}}}$ ) is unitarily implemented, they are unitarily equivalent, up to multiplicity, to the representation defined by classical mechanics on ${{\mathcal {M}}}$ .     

Generation of vacuum ultraviolet radiation by intracavity high-harmonic generation toward state detection of single trapped ions

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation around 159 nm is obtained toward direct excitation of a single trapped \(^{115}\hbox {In}^{+}\) ion. An efficient fluoride-based VUV output coupler is employed for intracavity high-harmonic generation of a Ti:S oscillator. Using this coupler, where we measured its reflectance to be about 90 %, an average power reaching 6.4  \(\upmu\) W is coupled out from a modest fundamental power of 650 mW. When a single comb component out of 1.9  \(\times\)  10 \(^{5}\) teeth is resonant to the atomic transition, 100s of fluorescence photons per second will be detectable under a realistic condition.     

A DFG-based cavity ring-down spectrometer for trace gas sensing in the mid-infrared

Continuing studies into an all-diode laser-based 3.3 μm difference frequency generation cavity ring-down spectroscopy system are presented. Light from a 1,560 nm diode laser, amplified by an erbium-doped fibre amplifier, was mixed with 1,064 nm diode laser radiation in a bulk periodically poled lithium niobate crystal to generate 16 μW of mid-IR light at 3,346 nm with a conversion efficiency of $0.05\,\%\,{\text{W}}^{-1}\,{\text{cm}}^{-1}$ . This radiation was coupled into a 77 cm long linear cavity with average mirror reflectivities of 0.9996, and a measured baseline ring-down time of $6.07\pm 0.03\,\upmu{\rm s}$ . The potential of such a spectrometer was illustrated by investigating the $P(3)$ transition in the fundamental $\nu_{3}(F_{2})$ band of ${\text{CH}}_4$ both in a 7.5 ppmv calibrated mixture of ${\text{CH}}_4$ in air and in breath samples from methane and non-methane producers under conditions where the minimum detectable absorption coefficient ( $\alpha_{\rm min}$ ) was $2.8 \times 10^{-8}\,{\rm cm}^{-1}$ over 6 s using a ring-down time acquisition rate of 20 Hz. Allan variance measurements indicated an optimum $\alpha_{\rm min}$ of $2.9\times 10^{-9}\,{\rm cm}^{-1}$ over 44 s.     

Modeling of HOT (111) HgCdTe MWIR detector for fast response operation

The paper reports on photoelectrical performance of the mid-wave infrared (MWIR) (111) HgCdTe high operating temperature detector for the fast response conditions. Detector structure was simulated with software APSYS by Crosslight Inc. The detailed analysis of the time response as a function of device architecture and applied voltage was performed pointing out optimal working conditions. The time response of the MWIR HgCdTe detector with 50 % cut-off wavelength of \(\lambda _{c} \approx 5.3\, \upmu \hbox {m}\) at \(T = 200\)  K was estimated at the level of \(\tau _{s} \approx \) 2,500 ps for \(V = 100\)  mV and series resistance \(R_{Series} = 510\,\Omega \) . The series resistance’s reduction enables to reach \(\tau _{s}\approx 60\!-\!500\)  ps.     

Formation and crystallization kinetics of Nd–Fe–B-based bulk amorphous alloy

In order to improve the glass-forming ability (GFA) of Nd–Fe–B ternary alloys to obtain fully amorphous bulk Nd–Fe–B-based alloy, the effects of Mo and Y doping on GFA of the alloys were investigated. It was found that the substitution of Mo for Fe and Y for Nd enhanced the GFA of the Nd–Y–Fe–Mo–B alloys. It was also revealed that the GFA of the samples was optimized by 4 at.% Mo doping and increased with the Y content. The fully amorphous structures were all formed in the Nd $_{6-{x}}$ Y $_{{x}}$ Fe $_{68}$ Mo $_{4}$ B $_{22}$ (x $=$ 1–5) alloy rods with 1.5 mm-diameter. After subsequent crystallization, the devitrified Nd $_{3}$ Y $_{3}$ Fe $_{68}$ Mo $_{4}$ B $_{22}$ alloy rod exhibited a uniform distribution of grains with a coercivity of 364.1 kA/m. The crystallization behavior of Nd $_{3}$ Y $_{3}$ Fe $_{68}$ Mo $_{4}$ B $_{22}$ BMG was investigated in isothermal situation. The Avrami exponent n determined by JAM plot is lower than 2.5, implying that the crystallization is mainly governed by a growth of particles with decreasing nucleation rate.     

Nitrogen optical emission during nanosecond laser ablation of metals: prompt electrons or photo-ionization?

Experiments on the interaction of metal targets with a Nd:YAG laser beam ( \(\lambda \)  = 1,064 nm, intensity \(10^{10}\) – \(10^{11}\,\hbox {W/cm}{^2}\) ) are carried out in a finite Nitrogen pressure environment. The observed \(\hbox {N}_2\) spectra are unambiguous evidence of the existence of an ionization and excitation source, arriving at the observation volume prior to the plume. Such a source can be either prompt electrons or VUV radiation. The analysis reveals that the prompt electron interpretation requires energies in excess of 1 keV, incompatible with any acceleration mechanisms relevant for such laser intensities. On the other hand, VUV radiation is sufficiently strong to explain the observed spectra.     

The CMSSM and NUHM1 after LHC Run 1

We analyze the impact of data from the full Run 1 of the LHC at 7 and 8 TeV on the CMSSM with \(\mu > 0\) and \(<0\) and the NUHM1 with \(\mu > 0\) , incorporating the constraints imposed by other experiments such as precision electroweak measurements, flavour measurements, the cosmological density of cold dark matter and the direct search for the scattering of dark matter particles in the LUX experiment. We use the following results from the LHC experiments: ATLAS searches for events with \({E\!\!/}_{T}\) accompanied by jets with the full 7 and 8 TeV data, the ATLAS and CMS measurements of the mass of the Higgs boson, the CMS searches for heavy neutral Higgs bosons and a combination of the LHCb and CMS measurements of \(\mathrm{BR}(B_s \rightarrow \mu ^+\mu ^-)\) and \(\mathrm{BR}(B_d \rightarrow \mu ^+\mu ^-)\) . Our results are based on samplings of the parameter spaces of the CMSSM for both \(\mu >0\) and \(\mu <0\) and of the NUHM1 for \(\mu > 0\) with 6.8 \(\times 10^6\) , 6.2 \(\times 10^6\) and 1.6 \(\times 10^7\) points, respectively, obtained using the MultiNest tool. The impact of the Higgs-mass constraint is assessed using FeynHiggs 2.10.0, which provides an improved prediction for the masses of the MSSM Higgs bosons in the region of heavy squark masses. It yields in general larger values of \(M_h\) than previous versions of FeynHiggs, reducing the pressure on the CMSSM and NUHM1. We find that the global \(\chi ^2\) functions for the supersymmetric models vary slowly over most of the parameter spaces allowed by the Higgs-mass and the \({E\!\!/}_{T}\) searches, with best-fit values that are comparable to the \(\chi ^2/\mathrm{dof}\) for the best Standard Model fit. We provide 95 % CL lower limits on the masses of various sparticles and assess the prospects for observing them during Run 2 of the LHC.