Electromagnetic scattering model of the Kelvin wake and turbulent wake by a moving ship

Taking the attenuation character of the Kelvin wake and the limitation of the traditional two-scale method into account, the practical electromagnetic (EM) scattering model of the Kelvin wake is obtained by using a facet-based model; and for a turbulent ship wake, it is produced by dealing with the wave energy loss rate due to turbulence with the width of turbulent wake closely following a moving ship. The volume scattering theory of foam or bubbles, by using the vector radiation transfer equation, is introduced to modify the traditional two-scale method, a special method for the EM scattering of a turbulent wake, which brings the scattering of ship wakes into better agreement with the real situation.     

Metamaterials and plasmonics: From nanoparticles to nanoantenna arrays,metasurfaces, and metamaterials

The rise of plasmonic metamaterials in recent years has unveiled the possibility of revolutionizing the entire field of optics and photonics, challenging well-established technological limitations and paving the way to innovations at an unprecedented level To capitalize the disruptive potential of this rising field of science and technology, it is important to be able to combine the richness of optical phenomena enabled by nanoplasmonics in order to realize metamaterial components, devices, and systems of increasing complexity. Here, we review a few recent research directions in the field of plasmonic metamaterials, which may foster further advancements in this research area. We will discuss the anomalous scattering features enabled by plasmonic nanoparticles and nanoclusters, and show how they may represent the fundamental building blocks of complex nanophotonic architectures. Building on these concepts, advanced components can be designed and operated, such as optical nanoantennas and nanoantenna arrays, which, in turn, may be at the basis of metasurface devices and complex systems. Following this path, from basic phenomena to advanced functionalities, the field of plasmonic metamaterials offers the promise of an important scientific and technological impact, with applications spanning from medical diagnostics to clean energy and information processing.     

Complex wave-interference phenomena: From the atomic nucleus to mesoscopic systems to microwave cavities

Universal statistical aspects of wave scattering by a variety of physical systems ranging from atomic nuclei to mesoscopic systems and microwave cavities are described. A statistical model for the scattering matrix is employed to address the problem of quantum chaotic scattering. The model, introduced in the past in the context of nuclear physics, discusses the problem in terms of a prompt and an equilibrated component: it incorporates the average value of the scattering matrix to account for the prompt processes and satisfies the requirements of flux conservation, causality and ergodicity. The main application of the model is the analysis of electronic transport through ballistic mesoscopic cavities: it describes well the results from the numerical solutions of the Schrödinger equation for two-dimensional cavities.     

Complex solutions under shear and pressure: a rheometer setup for X‐ray scattering experiments

A newly developed high‐pressure rheometer for in situ X‐ray scattering experiments is described. A commercial rheometer was modified in such a way that X‐ray scattering experiments can be performed under different pressures and shear. First experiments were carried out on hyaluronan, a ubiquitous biopolymer that is important for different functions in the body such as articular joint lubrication. The data hint at a decreased electrostatic interaction at higher pressure, presumably due to the increase of the dielectric constant of water by 3% and the decrease of the free volume at 300 bar.     

A fully vectorial technique for scattering and propagation in three-dimensional stratified photonic structures

We present a three-dimensional (3D) technique for computing light scattering and propagation in complex structures formed by scatterers embedded in a stratified background. This approach relies on the Green's tensor associated with the background and requires only the discretization of the scatterers, the entire stratified background being accounted for in the Green's tensor. Further, the boundary conditions at the edges of the computation window and at the different material interfaces in the stratified background are automatically fulfilled. Different examples illustrate the application of the technique to the modeling of photonic integrated circuits: waveguides with protrusions (single element grating) and notches. Subtle effects, like polarization crosstalks in an integrated optics device are also investigated.     

Quantum scattering in the strip: From ballistic to localized regimes

Quantum scattering is studied in a system consisting of randomly distributed point scatterers in the strip. The model is continuous yet exactly solvable. Varying the number of scatterers (the sample length) we investigate a transition between the ballistic and the localized regimes. By considering the cylinder geometry and introducing the magnetic flux we are able to study time reversal symmetry breaking in the system. Both macroscopic (conductance) and microscopic (eigenphases distribution, statistics of S-matrix elements) characteristics of the system are examined. Received: 28 January 1998 / Revised: 16 June 1998 / Accepted: 6 July 1998     

Scattering in thick multifractal clouds, Part I: Overview and single scattering

Over the last twenty years, many studies have been made of radiative transfer in scaling cloud fields, the vast majority of which have been limited to numerical studies in clouds with relatively small optical thickness. An exception to this was the development of a formalism for treating single scattering in optically thick but conservative multifractal clouds without significant holes. In part I of this paper we show how these results can be extended to general “universal” multifractal clouds dominated by low density “Lévy holes”. In part II, we demonstrate how the analytic single scattering results can be generalized to multiple scattering including the case of very thick clouds as well as to realistic nonconservative clouds.     

Interaction between ultra short pulses and a dense scattering medium by Monte Carlo simulation: consideration of particle size effect

With an enough short-pulse incident to an individual particle, elementary scattering modes can be observed: internal or external reflection, refraction and diffraction. Simulation of pulse propagation in dense scattering medium is usually computed for large observation time, so that time delays of pulse interaction with the particles are negligible compared to propagation times between particle. A Monte Carlo method is proposed to compute the propagation of an incident 100 fs laser pulse in dense medium taking into account time-dependent scattering characteristics of particle: observation time of scattered light is less than 5000 fs. Two extreme cases are exemplified: predominance of direct and single-scattered photons appears in a thin time window for small particles (1 μm). On the contrary multiple scattering is always predominant and scrambles the transmitted signal for large particles (100 μm).     

From anti‐Stokes photoluminescence to resonant Raman scattering in GaN single crystals and GaN‐based heterostructures

The progress on anti‐Stokes photoluminescence and Stokes and anti‐Stokes Raman scattering in GaN single crystals and GaN/AlN heterostructures is reviewed. Anti‐Stokes photoluminescence investigated in the past was primarily attributed to two‐photon absorption, three‐photon absorption, and phonon‐assisted absorption. On the other hand, anti‐Stokes Raman scattering was used to determine electron‐phonon scattering time and decay time constant for longitudinal‐optical phonons. In a typical high electron mobility transistor based on GaN/AlN heterostructures, strong resonances were reached for first‐order and second‐order Raman scattering processes. Therefore, both Stokes and anti‐Stokes Raman intensities were dramatically enhanced. The feasibility of laser cooling of a nitride structure has been demonstrated. Anti‐Stokes photoluminescence and Raman scattering have potential applications in upconversion lasers and laser cooling of nitride ultrafast electronic and optoelectronic devices.     

Emergent intensity from a plane-parallel medium exposed to a Gaussian laser beam: A comparison of Rayleigh and isotropic scattering

The focus of this two-dimensional study is the radially varying intensity emergent from a plane-parallel scattering medium exposed to a collimated, Gaussian laser beam directed perpendicular to the upper surface. The method of analysis is the integral transform technique. Specifically, this work uses the generalized reflection and transmission functions from a previous study to construct the emergent intensity with the use of an inverse Hankel transform. Radially varying backscattered and transmitted intensities are calculated for media with isotropic and Rayleigh scattering phase functions and optical thicknesses that range from 0.125 to 8.0. The behavior of the emergent radiation inside and outside the beam is investigated for both narrow and wide beams. A new integration method is implemented to compute the emergent intensity at the beam center. The emergent intensity at the beam center is used to quantify when a one-dimensional model may be used. As expected, for small optical thicknesses and near the beam the phase function has significant influence, while far from the beam multiple scattering reduces the influence of the Rayleigh phase function. Results from this study will be useful in understanding and interpreting more complicated situations, such as those that include polarization.     

Measurements of ultrasound velocity and attenuation in numerical anisotropic porous media compared to Biot’s and multiple scattering models

This article quantitatively investigates ultrasound propagation in numerical anisotropic porous media with finite-difference simulations in 3D. The propagation media consist of clusters of ellipsoidal scatterers randomly distributed in water, mimicking the anisotropic structure of cancellous bone. Velocities and attenuation coefficients of the ensemble-averaged transmitted wave (also known as the coherent wave) are measured in various configurations. As in real cancellous bone, one or two longitudinal modes emerge, depending on the micro-structure. The results are confronted with two standard theoretical approaches: Biot’s theory, usually invoked in porous media, and the Independent Scattering Approximation (ISA), a classical first-order approach of multiple scattering theory. On the one hand, when only one longitudinal wave is observed, it is found that at porosities higher than 90% the ISA successfully predicts the attenuation coefficient (unlike Biot’s theory), as well as the existence of negative dispersion. On the other hand, the ISA is not well suited to study two-wave propagation, unlike Biot’s model, at least as far as wave speeds are concerned. No free fitting parameters were used for the application of Biot’s theory. Finally we investigate the phase-shift between waves in the fluid and the solid structure, and compare them to Biot’s predictions of in-phase and out-of-phase motions.     

Monte Carlo simulation of the interaction between an ultra-short pulse and a strongly scattering medium: The case of large particles

Simulations of the transmission of a short light pulse (50 fs) through a strongly scattering medium constituted by water droplets (50-150 μm diameter) are presented. Temporal emerging signals are computed using a Monte Carlo technique. In case of large particles with respect to the pulse duration, the time delay related to the interaction between light and individual particles has to be taken into account, in addition to the time delay related to the travel of light between particles. After careful comparisons with temporal Lorenz-Mie theory, it has been chosen to pre-calculate scattering characteristics of individual droplets using Debye series. Transmitted signals in forward direction and in a small temporal window (0-400 fs) are presented, showing that temporal information on particle size are still observable facing strongly scattering media.     

Total neutron scattering: The key to the local and medium range structure of complex materials

Structural characterization is mainly based on the measurement of Bragg intensities and yields the average structure of crystalline materials. The total scattering pattern, however, contains structural information over all length scales, and it can be used to obtain a complete structural picture of complex materials. Suddenly one has access to a new parameter, the real-space range of the refinement and structures can be analysed as a function of length scale straightforwardly.      

Using simple particle shapes to model the Stokes scattering matrix of ensembles of wavelength-sized particles with complex shapes: possibilities and limitations

We investigate to what extent the full Stokes scattering matrix of an ensemble of wavelength-sized particles with complex shapes can be modeled by employing an ensemble of simple model shapes, such as spheres, spheroids, and circular cylinders. We also examine to what extent such a simple-shape particle model can be used to retrieve meaningful shape information about the complex-shaped particle ensemble. More specifically, we compute the Stokes scattering matrix for ensembles of randomly oriented particles having several polyhedral prism geometries of different sizes and shape parameters. These ensembles serve as proxies for size-shape mixtures of particles containing several different shapes of higher geometrical complexity than the simple-shaped model particles we employ. We find that the phase function of the complex-shaped particle ensemble can be accurately modeled with a size distribution of volume-equivalent spheres. The diagonal elements of the scattering matrix are accurately reproduced with a size-shape mixture of spheroids. A model based on circular cylinders accurately fits the full scattering matrix including the off-diagonal elements. However, the modeling results provide us with only a rough estimate of the effective shape parameter of the complex-shaped particle ensemble to be modeled. They do not allow us to infer detailed information about the shape distribution of the complex-shaped particle ensemble.     

Quantum well and quantum dot lasers: From strained-layer and self-organized epitaxy to high-performance devices

Strained heterostructures are now widely used to realize high-performance lasers. Highly mismatched epitaxy also produces defect-free quantum dots via an island growth mode. The characteristics of high-speed strained quantum well and quantum dot lasers are described. It is seen that substantial improvements in small-signal modulation bandwidth are obtained in both 1 m (48 GHz) and 1.55 m (26 GHz) by tunneling electrons directly into the lasing sub-band. In quantum dots the small-signal modulation bandwidth is limited by electron-hole scattering to 7 GHz at room temperature and 23 GHz at 80 K. The properties of these devices are described.     

Behavior Variations and Their Implications for Popularity Promotions: From Elites to Mass on Weibo

The boom in social media with regard to producing and consuming information simultaneously implies the crucial role of online user influence in determining content popularity. In particular, understanding behavior variations between the influential elites and the mass grassroots is an important issue in communication. However, how their behavior varies across user categories and content domains and how these differences influence content popularity are rarely addressed. From a novel view of seven content domains, a detailed picture of the behavior variations among five user groups, from the views of both the elites and mass, is drawn on Weibo, one of the most popular Twitter-like services in China. Interestingly, elites post more diverse content with video links, while the mass possess retweeters of higher loyalty. According to these variations, user-oriented actions for enhancing content popularity are discussed and testified. The most surprising finding is that the diverse content does not always bring more retweets, and the mass and elites should promote content popularity by increasing their retweeter counts and loyalty, respectively. For the first time, our results demonstrate the possibility of highly individualized strategies of popularity promotions in social media, instead of a universal principle.     

Ab-initio electronic and optical properties of low dimensional systems: From single particle to many-body approaches

Low dimensional systems, such as nanodots, nanotubes, nanowires, have attracted great interest in the last years, due to their possible application in nanodevices. It is hence very important to describe accurately their electronic and optical properties within highly reliable and efficient ab-initio approaches. Density functional theory (DFT) has become in the last 20 years the standard technique for studying the ground-state properties, but this method often shows significant deviations from the experiment when electronic excited states are involved. The use of many-body Green’s functions theory, with DFT calculations taken as the zero order approximation, is today the state-of-the-art technique for obtaining quasi-particle excitation energies and optical spectra. In this paper we will present the current status of this theoretical and computational approach, showing results for different kinds of low dimensional systems.