A plane stress formulation for elastic-plastic deformation of unidirectional composites

A plane stress analysis of the elastic-plastic deformation of unidirectional composites is presented. A continuum model based on the solid-mixture concept is selected as the basis for the analysis. Model parameters, including process-dependent variables, are deduced from experiments performed on unidirectional composites. A computer program MET1MAT has been developed accordingly and tested for a few simple in-plane loading cases. Experimental data for uniaxial tests performed in longitudinal and transverse directions and for a few biaxial tests are presented to substantiate the analysis. And, finally, application of the results to laminated metal matrix composites is discussed.     

Quantum corrections to the conductivity of a natural Nd<Subscript>2−<Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript> Ce<Subscript>x</Subscript>CuO<Subscript>4</Subscript> superlattice

Temperature and magnetic field dependences of the resistivity and Hall coefficient in layered single-crystal Nd_2?xCe_xCuO₄ (x = 0.12) films are experimentally investigated and analyzed. It is shown that this material clearly exhibits quantum effects characteristic of 2D semiconductor structures: negative magnetoresistance caused by suppression of the interference quantum correction by a magnetic field, a near-logarithmic temperature dependence of the conductivity, and a temperature dependence of the Hall coefficient related to e-e interaction. It is shown that, when analyzing experimental data, it is necessary to take interlayer transitions into account. Such an approach provides quantitative agreement between experiment and the standard theory of quantum corrections.     

Polymer-assisted complexing controlled orientation growth of ZnO nanorods

The growth of the oriented zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods on silicon substrates based on a simple novel chemical transformation and thermal hydrolysis by using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as self-assembling complex polymer was introduced in this paper. All the polymers were removed after chemical oxidation and only the carbonized grid backbones remained that confines the ZnO nanorod’s diameter and enhance the absorption and diffusion of ZnO at the tips of the nanorods during growth. The ZnO nanorods are investigated by FTIR, XRD and FE-SEM. The results indicated that these nanorods have fine hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure and their diameter varies from 20 to 90 nm and the length up to about 1 μm. A polymer-localized ZnO growth model is proposed, which well explains the growth behavior of ZnO nanorods.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected issue number.     

Time-resolved and steady state spectroscopy of polydisperse colloidal silver nanoparticle samples

A signal due to coherently excited vibrational motion has been observed in polydisperse silver nanoparticle samples. The particles were synthesized via a wet chemistry seed mediated method, which yields different particle shapes, including spheres, rods, and irregular triangular-shaped particles. The measured vibrational periods were compared to the results from continuum mechanics calculations. This analysis shows that the observed signal arises from the triangular-shaped particles, rather than the rods or spheres. The period of vibration increases as the dimensions of the triangular-shaped particles increase; specifically, we find that the period is given by 2h/c(l), where h is the bisector of the triangle and c(l) is the longitudinal speed of sound in silver.     

Dynamical hysteresis in a three-level atomic system

We have experimentally investigated dynamical hysteresis behavior by changing the sweeping frequency of the cavity input field in the optical bistability of rubidium atoms (in a three-level atomic-type configuration) inside an optical cavity. The shape, width (or area), and direction of the hysteresis cycle are sensitive functions of the sweeping frequency for such an optical bistable system.     

Photonic phase shifters based on a vector-sum technique with polarization-maintaining fibers

We propose and demonstrate a photonic phase shifter based a on vector-sum technique that uses polarization-maintaining fibers (PMFs). We achieved a continuous and full phase shift up to 2pi at 30.48 GHz by controlling the polarization state of the light injected into two pieces of PMF of different lengths and applying two different modulator bias voltages.     

Polarity switching and transient responses in single nanotube nanofluidic transistors

We report the integration of inorganic nanotubes into metal-oxide-solution field effect transistors (FETs) which exhibit rapid field effect modulation of ionic conductance. Surface functionalization, analogous to doping in semiconductors, can switch the nanofluidic transistors from p-type to ambipolar and n-type field effect transistors. Transient study reveals the kinetics of field effect modulation is controlled by ion-exchange step. Nanofluidic FETs have potential implications in subfemtoliter analytical technology and large-scale nanofluidic integration.     

Studies on Fast Algorithm for the Scattering of a Large Array of Waveguide-Fed Wide-Slot Antennas in Millimeter Wave Region

We present an effective numerical technique to characterize the scattering of wide-slot antennas fed by waveguides with arbitrary terminations in terms of the method of moment (MoM) and the mixed potential integral equation (MPIE). In particular, the precorrected-fast Fourier transform (P-FFT) eliminates the need to generate and store the usual square impedance matrix andthus leads to speed up the matrix-vector multiplication in the resultant system. This property makes the Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) functions to be useful in simulating electrically large-scale problems. In addition, the scattering from the finite ground surfaces is accounted for in the total scattered field by using the method of equivalent edge currents. The numerical results are presented and compared with both the traditional method of moment results obtained using the entire-domain basis functions and the experimental results, to demonstrate the proposed method to be a good candidate for study on the scattering of arbitrary wide-slot large array.     

Analysis of Multilayered Millimeter Wave Structure with Via-Holes Connected

An effective technique to characterize multilayered millimeter wave structure with vertical via-holes connected is presented. The advantage of this method is the closed-form Greens functions in spatial domain for general electric and magnetic sources in multilayered medium are obtained easily in terms of the two-level discrete complex image method (DCIM) with the high-order Sommerfeld identities, which only four elements of Greens functions in spectral domain are needed. In addition, the curl operators in mixed potential integral equations (MPIE) are avoided effectively from the Greens functions in this paper. A low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) aperture coupled antenna with vertical via-holes connected is analyzed to prove the accuracy and efficiency of this technique on three-dimensional (3-D) multilayered structure with vertical components.