Consideration of slice profiles in inversion recovery Look–Locker relaxation parameter mapping

Purpose

To include the flip angle distribution caused by the slice profile into the model used for describing the relaxation curves observed in inversion recovery Look–Locker FLASH T₁ mapping for a more accurate determination of the relaxation parameters.

Materials and methods

For each inversion time, the flip angle dependent signal of the mono-exponential relaxation model is integrated across the slice profile. The resulting Consideration of Slice Profiles (CSP) relaxation curves are compared to the mono-exponential signal model in numerical simulations as well as in phantom and in-vivo experiments.

Results

All measured relaxation curves showed systematic deviations from a mono-exponential curve increasing with flip angle and T₁ but decreasing with repetition time. Additionally, the accuracy of T₁ was found to be largely dependent on the temporal coverage of the relaxation curve. All these systematic errors were largely reduced by the CSP model.

Conclusion

The proposed CSP model represents a useful extension of the conventionally used mono-exponential relaxation model. Despite inherent model inaccuracies, the mono-exponential model was found to be sufficient for many T₁ mapping situations. However, if only a poor temporal coverage of the relaxation process is achievable or a very precise modeling of the relaxation course is needed as in model-based techniques, the mono-exponential model leads to systematic errors and the CSP model should be used instead.     

Optical system design and experimental evaluation of a coherent Doppler wind Lidar system for the predictive control of wind turbine

The control of wind turbine blade pitch systems by Lidar assisted wind speed prediction has been proposed to increase the electric power generation and reduce the mechanical fatigue load on wind turbines. However, the sticking point of such Lidar systems is the price. Hence, our objective is to develop a more cost efficient Lidar system to support the pitch control of horizontal axis wind turbines and therefore to reduce the material requirement, lower the operation and maintenance costs and decrease the cost of wind energy in the long term. Compared to the state of the art Lidar systems, a laser with a shorter coherence length and a corresponding fiber delay line is introduced for reducing the costs. In this paper we present the experimental evaluation of different sending and receiving optics designs for such a system from a free space laboratory setup.     

Self-diffusion in granular gases: Green-Kubo versus Chapman-Enskog

We study the diffusion of tracers (self-diffusion) in a homogeneously cooling gas of dissipative particles, using the Green-Kubo relation and the Chapman-Enskog approach. The dissipative particle collisions are described by the coefficient of restitution epsilon which for realistic material properties depends on the impact velocity. First, we consider self-diffusion using a constant coefficient of restitution, epsilon=const, as frequently used to simplify the analysis. Second, self-diffusion is studied for a simplified (stepwise) dependence of epsilon on the impact velocity. Finally, diffusion is considered for gases of realistic viscoelastic particles. We find that for epsilon=const both methods lead to the same result for the self-diffusion coefficient. For the case of impact-velocity dependent coefficients of restitution, the Green-Kubo method is, however, either restrictive or too complicated for practical application, therefore we compute the diffusion coefficient using the Chapman-Enskog method. We conclude that in application to granular gases, the Chapman-Enskog approach is preferable for deriving kinetic coefficients.     

The role of the spray pyrolysed Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> barrier layer in achieving high efficiency solar cells on flexible steel substrates

Thin film chalcopyrite solar cells grown on light-weight, flexible steel substrates are poised to enter the photovoltaic market. To guarantee good solar cell performance, the diffusion of iron from the steel into the CIGSe absorber material must be hindered during layer deposition. A barrier layer is thus required to isolate the solar module from the metal substrate, both electronically and chemically. Ideally the barrier layer would be deposited by a cheap roll-to-roll process suitable to coat flexible steel substrates. Aluminium oxide deposited by spray pyrolysis matches the criteria. The coating is homogeneous over rough substrates allowing comparatively thin barrier layers to be utilized. In this article, solar cell results are presented contrasting the device performance made with a barrier layer to that without a barrier layer. Secondary Ion Mass spectrometry (SIMS) measurements show that the spray pyrolysed barrier layer diminishes iron diffusion to the chalcopyrite absorber layer. The role of sodium, imperative for the growth of high efficiency chalcopyrite solar cells, and how it interacts with Al₂O₃ is discussed.