Experimental investigation of the pulse inversion technique for imaging ultrasound contrast agents

The application of ultrasound contrast agents aims to detect low velocity blood flow in the microcirculation. To enhance discrimination between tissue and blood containing the contrast agent, harmonic imaging is used. Harmonic imaging requires the application of narrow-band signals and is obscured by high levels of native harmonics generated in an intervening medium. To improve discrimination between contrast agent and native harmonics, a pulse inversion technique has been proposed. Pulse inversion allows wide-band signals, thus preserving the axial resolution. The present study examines the interference of native harmonics and discusses the practical difficulties of wide-band pulse inversion measurements of harmonics by a single transducer. Native harmonics are not eliminated by pulse inversion. Furthermore, only even harmonics remain and are amplified by 6 dB, alleviating the requirement for selective filtering. Finally, it is shown that the contaminating third harmonic contained in the square wave activation signal leaks through in the emitted signal. The spectral location of the contaminating third harmonic is governed by the transducer spectral characteristics while the location of the native and contrast agent second harmonics is not. Thus the contaminating third harmonic and the native and contrast agent second harmonics may overlap and interfere. Optimal discrimination requires a balance between maximal sensitivity for the second harmonic at reception and minimal interference from the contaminating third harmonic.     

Electron density characterization by use of a broadband x-ray-compatible wave-front sensor

The use of a Hartmann wave-front sensor to accurately measure the line-integrated electron density gradients formed in laser-produced and z-pinch plasma experiments is examined. This wave-front sensor may be used with a soft-x-ray laser as well as with incoherent line emission at multikilovolt x-ray energies. This diagnostic is significantly easier to use than interferometery and moiré deflectometry, both of which have been demonstrated with soft-x-ray lasers. This scheme is experimentally demonstrated in the visible region by use of a Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensor and a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator to simulate a phase profile that could occur when an x-ray probe passes through a plasma. The merits of using a Hartmann sensor include a wide dynamic range, broadband or low-coherence-length light capability, high x-ray efficiency, two-dimensional gradient determination, multiplexing capability, and experimental simplicity. Hartmann sensors could also be utilized for wavelength testing of extreme-ultraviolet lithography components and x-ray phase imaging of biological specimens.     

Decoupling technique of patch antenna arrays with shared substrate by suppressing near-field magnetic coupling using magnetic metamaterials

In this paper,we propose the decoupling technique of patch antenna array by suppressing near-field magnetic coupling(NFMC) using magnetic metamaterials.To this end,a highly-integrated magnetic metamaterials,the substrate-integrated split-ring resonator(SI-SRR),is firstly proposed to achieve negative permeability at the antenna operating frequency.By integrating SI-SRR in between two closely spaced antennas,magnetic fields are blocked in the shared substrate due to negative permeability of SI-SRR,reducing NFMC between the two antennas.To verify the technique,a prototype was fabricated and measured.The measured results demonstrated that the isolation can be enhanced by more than 17 dB even when the gap between the two patch antennas is only about 0.067 A.Due to high integration,this technique provides an effective alternative to high-isolation antenna array.     

生物组织成像中用反相位脉冲技术提高二次谐波信噪比的研究

本文基于有限振幅声波在介质中的非线性传播理论,分析了反相位脉冲技术对生物组织中二次谐波增强的原理.实验中利用反相位脉冲激发超声换能器,对生物组织中传播的非线性信号相加分析.结果表明反相位脉冲技术可有效抑制基波及奇次谐波信号,而可增强偶次谐波信号6dB.与滤波器滤波法相比,反相位脉冲技术在抑制基波信号的同时,可有效地提高二次谐波的信噪比,因而在生物组织的二次谐波成像中具有广阔的应用前景.     

Experimental investigation of plasma-field co-localization at an antenna operating in the corona formation mode

We have investigated the spatial distributions of plasma and near antenna fields operating in a rarefied gas in the corona formation regime. We have recorded and analyzed the effect of co-localization of the plasma and the near antenna field producing the corona.Lobachevskii State University, Nizhny Novgorod. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 38, Nos. 3–4, pp. 342–348, March–April, 1995.     

Experimental determination of two-point Stokes parameters for a partially coherent broadband light beam

The generalized Stokes parameters, which are two-point extensions of conventional Stokes parameters, are determined for a pair of points in the cross-section of a partially coherent broadband light beam. For this purpose, using a two-mirror and two-beam-splitter assembly, unpolarized, linearly polarized and partially polarized electromagnetic beams are generated. This simple experimental method for determining generalized Stokes parameters establishes an analogy with the experimental scheme of determining conventional Stokes parameters, which in succession contributes to appreciable reduction in uncertainty in the measurements.     

Experimental determination technique for magnetic anisotropy of individual nanowires

We present an experimental technique to determine the magnetic anisotropy of ferromagnetic nanowires. In the technique, the magnetization state is monitored by measuring the anisotropic magnetoresistance with rotating the external magnetic field. The measured magnetoresistance curves exhibit basically the same curves typically appeared in the torque magnetometric measurements, which are then readily analyzed based on the Stoner–Wohlfarth theory with a single fitting parameter – the magnetic anisotropy. By applying the present technique to Permalloy nanowires, it is shown that the shape anisotropy in real nanowires is significantly influenced by the edge roughness.     

Observation of subcellular structures of neurons by an illumination mode near-field optical microscope under an optical feedback control

We propose an illumination mode near-field optical microscope operated under an optical feedback for imaging biological specimens in their natural environment. For feedback control, rapidly varying evanescent signal has been generated over the sample surface. It has been found that evanescent signal can be profitably used as a control signal by utilizing its sample feature dependent discrimination sensitivity. Neurons have been successfully observed both in air and in liquid with a resolution well beyond the diffraction limit.     

纳米孔模板浸润法制备聚乙烯纳米线阵列的热导率的实验研究

采用纳米孔模板润湿技术制备了直径为200 nm的低密度聚乙烯(LDPE)纳米线阵列, 并利用纳秒激光闪光法测量了20—80℃时LDPE纳米线阵列的热导率. 测量得到室温时LDPE纳米线阵列的热导率为2.2 W/mK, 大约比其体材料的热导率高1个数量级, 并且纳米线阵列的热导率随温度的升高略有增加. 忽略纳米线之间的声子散射, 估算得到室温下单根LDPE纳米线的热导率高于5 W/mK. 本文制备LDPE纳米线热导率的提高源自其分子链定向度增加导致的低维导热效应的增强, 纳米线的分子链定向度受工艺过程中流体剪切、振动、分子链迁移运动、 纳米孔约束等几种因素的综合影响.     

Experimental investigation on coupling efficiency between semiconductor laser diodes and single-mode fibres by an etching technique

The coupling efficiency between semiconductor laser diodes (LDs) and single-mode fibres (SMFs) can be improved by matching their respective modes. This may be achieved by constructing a conical microlens on the end of an Al-coated vapour-axial deposition (VAD) SMF. A simple process to etch an SMF end selectively to produce such a conical microlens is described.A minimum coupling loss of 3 dB has been obtained using 1.3-m InGaAsP/InP buried heterostructure LDs. Experimental results on coupling efficiency and loss penalty due to lateral misalignment are also reported. This conical microlens is easy to manufacture and reproduce.     

Experimental investigation and numerical validation of explosion suppression by inert particles in large-scale duct

A large-scale duct with an explosion suppressor was designed to investigate experimentally the explosion suppression by inert particles for a CH₄/O₂/N₂ mixture. The duct is 25 m long and has an internal diameter of 700 mm. Pressure and flame signals were recorded some distance away from ignitor in the duct. Pressure tracking lines of the shock front for the different inert particle cloud densities and the inert particle diameters were made. The measured results indicate that the shock front is decoupled from the flame front in the inert particle cloud, which leads to a suppression of explosion. Also, the experiments suggest that increasing the inert particle cloud density or decreasing the inert particle diameter can enhance the ability to suppress explosion. For the purpose of validation, a two-dimensional numerical model coupled with the element chemical reaction mechanism for the simulations of the CH₄/O₂/N₂ mixture explosion suppression by the inert particles has been developed. This model makes use of the second-order TVD scheme and the MacCormack scheme to calculate gas-phase and particle-phase equations, respectively. The Strang splitting technique is used to treat the stiffness due to the coupling of the governing equations, while the implicit Gear algorithm is used to treat the stiffness due to the chemical reactions. The effect of inert particle cloud density on explosion suppression was investigated using the model. The calculated results indicate that the accumulation of inert particles slows the propagation of the gas-phase shock front and results in explosion suppression. With increased inert particle cloud density, the explosion suppression is more prominent. The calculated results show a qualitative agreement with the measured results in the large-scale duct experiment.     

Failure of the Ingard-Myers boundary condition for a lined duct: an experimental investigation

This paper deals with experimental investigation of the lined wall boundary condition in flow duct applications such as aircraft engine systems or automobile mufflers. A first experiment, based on a microphone array located in the liner test section, is carried out in order to extract the axial wavenumbers with the help of an "high-accurate" singular value decomposition Prony-like algorithm. The experimental axial wavenumbers are then used to provide the lined wall impedance for both downstream and upstream acoustic propagation by means of a straightforward impedance education method involving the classical Ingard-Myers boundary condition. The results show that the Ingard-Myers boundary condition fails to predict with accuracy the acoustic behavior in a lined duct with flow. An effective lined wall impedance, valid whatever the direction of acoustic propagation, can be suitably found from experimental axial wavenumbers and a modified version of the Ingard-Myers condition with the form inspired from a previous theoretical study [Aure?gan et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 109, 59-64 (2001)]. In a second experiment, the scattering matrix of the liner test section is measured and is then compared to the predicted scattering matrix using the multimodal approach and the lined wall impedances previously deduced. A large discrepancy is observed between the measured and the predicted scattering coefficients that confirms the poor accuracy provided from the Ingard-Myers boundary condition widely used in lined duct applications.     

参考光干涉提取复振幅的散斑统计函数的实验研究

由散斑场和参考光的干涉图样提取散斑场复振幅、相位和强度的数值分布,并对其统计特性进行实验研究,消除了散斑场强度统计函数特别是概率密度函数的传统测量方法中噪声引起的偏差,并实现了散斑场复振幅和相位统计特性的实验研究.通过对不同散射角处散斑场的研究发现随着散射角度的增大散斑颗粒逐渐呈现出横向展宽的现象,且其平均宽度表现为各向异性,但是其概率密度函数并没有发生变化,与小角度情况一样属于圆形高斯散斑场. 关键词： 散斑 概率密度 干涉     

Failures in the discrete models for flow duct with perforations: an experimental investigation

Acoustical experiments have been performed at low frequencies on perforated tubes with a back cavity by means of the “2 sources method” and are compared to classical models. The four elements of the transfer matrix of the device are measured with flow. The classical lumped model relates the sound pressure and the axial velocity on both sides of the lined region. Since this model fails, a new empirical model has been proposed to take into account the experimental data. The new transfer matrix of the measured device is calculated and the results fit surprisingly well with the experiments. It is therefore possible to make a segmentation model of the aeroacoustical behaviour of a perforated tube with a partitioned chamber.     

光纤折射率剖面的折射近场法测量的研究

本文叙述了折射近场法(简称RNF)测量光纤折射率剖面的基本原理及实验方法.提供了对单模光纤和多模光纤的测量结果,并与反射法、近场法进行了比较.实验中获得空间分辨率优于0.8μm,折射率灵敏度优于2×10~(-4).     

Estimation of some transducer parameters in a broadband piezoelectric transmitter by using an artificial intelligence technique

An estimation procedure to efficiently find approximate values of internal parameters in ultrasonic transducers intended for broadband operation would be a valuable tool to discover internal construction data. This information is necessary in the modelling and simulation of acoustic and electrical behaviour related to ultrasonic systems containing commercial transducers. There is not a general solution for this generic problem of parameter estimation in the case of broadband piezoelectric probes. In this paper, this general problem is briefly analysed for broadband conditions. The viability of application in this field of an artificial intelligence technique supported on the modelling of the transducer internal components is studied. A genetic algorithm (GA) procedure is presented and applied to the estimation of different parameters, related to two transducers which are working as pulsed transmitters. The efficiency of this GA technique is studied, considering the influence of the number and variation range of the estimated parameters. Estimation results are experimentally ratified.     

Simultaneous determination of fibre parameters by an improved four-photon mixing technique

We demonstrate the possibility of determining simultaneously the parameters of optical fibres using a stimulated four-wave mixing method without the requirement of considering the particular refractive index profile. The most suitable modal combinations that minimize the error in neglecting the refractive index profile are found and their dependence on the value of the V parameter. Experimental results that verify the accuracy of the proposed method are also given.