Plasma production by helicon and slow waves

The observation of slow-wave sustained (SW) discharge in a whistler- or helicon-wave range of frequency is made using high-frequency and very-high-frequency bands of rf. The SW discharge occurs at an extremely low rf power and plasma density, which are lower than a capacitive-coupling discharge region.     

Development of a “Built-in” Scanning Near Field Microscope Head for an Atomic Force Microscope System and Stress Mapping of an Al2O3/ZrO2 Eutectic Composite

We constructed a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) on a commercially available atomic force microscopy (AFM) apparatus (SPM-9500J2; Shimadzu Corp.) to measure the stress distribution in ceramic composite materials. Features of our SNOM system are: (1) a compact SNOM head substituted for the original AFM head; (2) a wide scanning range (125 × 125 μm²) inherited from the original scanner; (3) use of conventional shear-force regulation; (4) an optical system for the illumination-collection (I-C) mode; (5) excitation by a 488 nm line of an Ar-ion laser, and (6) light detection by photon counting or a polychromator equipped with an electronically cooled charge coupled device (CCD). This SNOM system was used to measure the surface structure and stress distribution of an Al₂O₃/ZrO₂ eutectic composite. We simultaneously measured topographic images and fluorescence spectra of an Al₂O₃/ZrO₂ eutectic composite. We estimated its peak intensity, peak position, and peak width from the fluorescence spectrum during scanning, which respectively correspond to the abundance of Al₂O₃, stress in the grain, and the anisotropy of that stress. Mapping images showed that the stress and its anisotropy were weaker in the center of the Al₂O₃ grain than its boundary between Al₂O₃ and ZrO₂. That observation suggests that Al₂O₃ underwent intense anisotropic stress induced by volume expansion in the phase transition of ZrO₂ from the cubic phase to the monoclinic phase during preparation.     

Design of a widely tunable laser with a chirped ladder filter

We theoretically investigated a digitally tunable laser with a chirped ladder filter and a ring resonator to obtain a wide wavelength tuning range covering the whole C- or L- band. The clear relation between the tuning range and laser structure, especially the ladder filter, is described analytically. The introduction of a chirped structure into a ladder filter is effective in achieving both wide tunability and a stable lasing mode. A numerical simulation based on multimode rate equations shows that a tuning range of over 40 nm and a mode suppression ratio over 40 dB can be achieved by introducing a chirped ladder filter.     

Superthermostability of nanoscale TIC-reinforced copper alloys manufactured by a two-step ball-milling process

A Cu-TiC alloy, with nanoscale TiC particles highly dispersed in the submicron-grained Cu matrix, was manufactured by a self-developed two-step ball-milling process on Cu, Ti and C powders. The thermostability of the composite was evaluated by high-temperature isothermal annealing treatments, with temperatures ranging from 727 to 1273 K. The semicoherent nanoscale TiC particles with Cu matrix, mainly located along the grain boundaries, were found to exhibit the promising trait of blocking grain boundary migrations, which leads to a super-stabilized microstructures up to approximately the melting point of copper (1223 K). Furthermore, the Cu-TiC alloys after annealing at 1323 K showed a slight decrease in Vickers hardness as well as the duplex microstructure due to selective grain growth, which were discussed in terms of hardness contributions from various mechanisms.     

Lightness Change as Perceived in Relation to the Size of Recognized Visual Space of Illumination

According to the concept of the recognized visual space of illumination (RVSI) the lightness of an object surface is perceived in relation to its conceptualized size. To prove this proposition the lightness of gray test patches was judged when they were located at various positions inside an illuminated space composed of two rooms in the depth direction from a subject. No retinal image arrangement was changed in the test patch and its immediate surroundings, but the front room had walls, floors and furniture lower in lightness by the amount of N1.5 than the back room to make the RVSI of the former smaller despite the illuminance in the entire space being the same. The results showed that the apparent lightness of the patches was perceived higher by amount of about 13 in L units for the N4 test patch and about 20 for N6 when the patches were located in the front room, in accordance with the prediction. It was stressed that the experiment of lightness judgment should be conducted in a three dimensional space rather than two dimensional plane as done by several investigators.     

Hybrid Planar Wiggler with a Period of 2 cm for Higher Harmonic FEL Lasing

A hybrid planar wiggler with a period of 20 mm has been studied as the simplest one which gives the strong field including some higher harmonic components by selecting proper sizes of the ferromagnetic and the permanent magnet. Small gap length of the wiggler and small width of permendur satisfy these conditions to a certain degree.Gain analysis of FEL suggests that for high wiggler field of K>1 1.6, higher harmonic gains are improved primarily due to its strong field, and for low wiggler field of K< 1 1.6, they are mainly due to the modification of the wiggler field distribution.     

Finsler geometry of topological singularities for multi‐valued fields: Applications to continuum theory of defects

Topological singularity in a continuum theory of defects and a quantum field theory is studied from a viewpoint of differential geometry. The integrability conditions of singularity (Clairaut‐Schwarz‐Young theorem) are expressed by a torsion tensor and a curvature tensor when a Finslerian intrinsic parallelism holds for the multi‐valued function. In the context of the quantum field theory, the singularity called an extended object is expressed by the torsion when the intrinsic parallelism is related to the spontaneous breakdown of symmetry. In the continuum theory of defects, the path‐dependency of point and line defects within a crystal is interpreted by the non‐vanishing condition of torsion tensor in a non‐Riemannian space osculated from the Finsler space, and the domain is not simply connected. On the other hand, for the rotational singularity, an energy integral (J‐integral) around a disclination field is path‐independent when a nonlinear connection is single‐valued. This means that the topological expression for the sole defect (Gauss‐Bonnet theorem with genus ) is understood by the integrability of nonlinear connection.

     

Estimation of energy dissipated during superconducting wire motion in a magnetic field

An experiment was carried out to study the motion of superconducting wire under the influence of electromagnetic force. Experiments were conducted at 4.2 K by varying the experimental conditions such as tension to the superconducting wire, current ramp rate, and the use of different insulating materials at the interface of the superconducting wire. We were able to examine in detail the structure of the voltage spikes caused by sudden wire motion. The velocity of the wire motion, distance moved by the wire, and energy dissipated during wire motion are estimated.