Improved and isotropic resolution in tomographic diffractive microscopy combining sample and illumination rotation

Tomographic Diffractive Microscopy is a technique, which permits to image transparent living specimens in three dimensions without staining. It is commonly implemented in two configurations, by either rotating the sample illumination keeping the specimen fixed, or by rotating the sample using a fixed illumination. Under the first-order Born approximation, the volume of the frequency domain that can be mapped with the rotating illumination method has the shape of a “doughnut”, which exhibits a so-called “missing cone” of non-captured frequencies, responsible for the strong resolution anisotropy characteristic of transmission microscopes. When rotating the sample, the resolution is almost isotropic, but the set of captured frequencies still exhibits a missing part, the shape of which resembles that of an apple core. Furthermore, its maximal extension is reduced compared to tomography with rotating illumination. We propose various configurations for tomographic diffractive microscopy, which combine both approaches, and aim at obtaining a high and isotropic resolution. We illustrate with simulations the expected imaging performances of these configurations.     

Effective Polytropic Indices of Anisotropic Planetary Magnetosheath Plasmas with Magnetoacoustic Waves

Magnetosheath models for the planets Earth, Jupiter and Saturn are developed within the frame of the double‐adiabatic Chew‐Goldberger‐Low approximation. It is shown that in all three magnetosheaths slow and fast magnetoacoustic waves are generated, the dispersions of which considerably differ from that of isotropic systems. If slow magnetoacoustic waves exist in the magnetosheaths, then the effective polytropic coefficient of the plasma may be smaller than unity ‐ that means compression of the plasma is accompanied, in the average, by cooling. Such polytropic coefficients are not obtained when fast magnetoacoustic waves are excited (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Operation of a Raman laser in bulk silicon

A Raman laser based on a bulk silicon single crystal with 1.127 μm emission wavelength is demonstrated. The Si crystal with 30 mm length was placed into an external cavity and pumped by a Q-switched Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier system. Strong defocusing of the pump and Raman laser beam by free carriers was compensated by an intracavity lens. Raman laser operation with a pulse duration of 2.5 ns was identified by a Raman laser threshold significantly lower than the single-pass stimulated Raman-scattering threshold. Linear absorption losses of the 1.06415 μm pump radiation are strongly reduced by cooling the Si crystal to a temperature of 10 K.     

General Synthesis and Physicochemical Characterisation of a Series of Peptide‐Mimic Lysine‐Based Amino‐Functionalised Lipids

A series of novel malonic acid diamides (second generation) with two long hydrophobic alkyl chains and an alkaline polar head group was synthesised and characterised as a new class of amino‐functionalised lipids. These peptide‐mimic lipids are suitable for polynucleotide transfer. The lipids bear a novel backbone consisting of a lysine unit and a malonic acid unit. Six different head‐group structures, which vary in size and number of amino groups that can be protonated, were attached to the backbone structure. Furthermore, different alkyl chains were used to build the lipophilic part (namely tetradecyl, hexadecyl, and oleyl). Phase transitions of the new compounds in aqueous dispersions at pH 10 were analysed and discussed in terms of head group and alkyl chain variations. The shape and size of the formed aggregates of selected lipid dispersions were investigated by dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy.     

New Process Simulation Procedure for High-Rate Plasma Jet Machining

Surface figuring using chemically reactive plasma jet machining (PJM) is a promising non-conventional technology for deterministic ultra-precision machining of optical components. Based on chemical reactions between plasma generated radicals and the surface atoms this technology is capable to fabricate complex shaped free form surfaces. Since the material removal rate during PJM depends strongly on the surface temperature which itself is influenced by the jet heat flux to the surface, the arising nonlinear effects on the etch result have to be regarded. Conventionally applied dwell time calculation algorithms do not consider those effects leading to significant machining errors in some cases. In order to improve the machining procedure with respect to deterministic material removal yielding predictable results a process simulation model has been developed. This model considers spatio-temporal variations of surface temperature and temperature dependent material removal and is able to predict the final workpiece topography after machining.     

L2Roe: a low dissipation version of Roe's approximate Riemann solver for low Mach numbers

A modification of the Roe scheme called L²Roe for low dissipation low Mach Roe is presented. It reduces the dissipation of kinetic energy at the highest resolved wave numbers in a low Mach number test case of decaying isotropic turbulence. This is achieved by scaling the jumps in all discrete velocity components within the numerical flux function. An asymptotic analysis is used to show the correct pressure scaling at low Mach numbers and to identify the reduced numerical dissipation in that regime. Furthermore, the analysis allows a comparison with two other schemes that employ different scaling of discrete velocity jumps, namely, LMRoe and a method of Thornber et al. To this end, we present for the first time an asymptotic analysis of the last method. Numerical tests on cases ranging from low Mach number (M_∞=0.001) to hypersonic (M_∞=5) viscous flows are used to illustrate the differences between the methods and to show the correct behavior of L²Roe. No conflict is observed between the reduced numerical dissipation and the accuracy or stability of the scheme in any of the investigated test cases. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Double-knife EDGE problems with elastic/plastic type screens

A problem of diffraction of a wave by a pair of semi-infinite screens is considered. The screens are lined with two different wave bearing materials that can support surface waves. This type of problem arises in the propagation and, scattering of acoustic and electromagnetic waves by surface wave guides. To be specific, we shall couch our problem in terms of acoustics. These diffraction problems for two parallel wave bearing screens lead to boundary value problems which are governed by the Helmholtz equation, and some specific third kind boundary conditions. Such problems are shown to be well-posed for finite energy space solutions. Their representation is given by means of the canonical factorization of a non-rational matrix function.This work was supported by DFG grant KO 634/32-1     

Interaction of atomic hydrogen with the graphite single-crystal surface

The reaction of atomic hydrogen (or atomic deuterium) with highly orientated pyrolytic graphite surfaces has been studied by means of thermal desorption spectroscopy. In some cases atomic deuterium instead of atomic hydrogen, was used solely to assign the desorbed masses unambiguously to the different hydrocarbons. The desorption of D₂ and fourteen hydrocarbons was observed. D₂ desorbed at higher temperatures than the CH-(CD) compounds, the desorption spectra of the hydrocarbons contained two peaks. The dependence of the desorption spectra of several hydrocarbons on the heating rate, the atomic hydrogen exposure and the composition of the desorption products was investigated in detail. The kinetic parameters of the desorption process were determined for CH, C₂H₂, and CD₄. The spectra showed that there must be a first order desorption process for all the hydrocarbons, the values for the activation energy and the frequency factor were the same within experimental errors. The results were discussed by means of a simple model.     

L'approche variationnelle de la fatigue : des premiers résultats

By using a principle of least energy and a Dugdale surface energy with an irreversibility condition, we build a debonding model of thin films valid both for monotone and cyclic loading. We show that, if the internal length introduced in Dugdale model is small in comparison to the film length, then the growth of the debonding follows Griffith's law under monotone loading and a Paris-type law under cycling loading. To cite this article: A. Jaubert, J.-J. Marigo, C. R. Mecanique 333 (2005).