Formation of hydrogenated amorphous carbon films from polymer pyrolysis

Free-standing and supported hydrogenated amorphous carbon films (a:C–H) were prepared upon pyrolysis of the polymer formed by ethanolamine (EA) and citric acid (CA), under an ambient atmosphere at 300 °C. EA facilitates the formation of the macroscopic films, while CA is essential for obtaining the a:C–H microstructure, which comprises a mixture of sp² and sp³ carbon. Received: 29 May 2001 / Accepted: 17 August 2001 / Published online: 20 December 2001     

Structures and stability of Al<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Bold">7</Emphasis></Subscript>C and Al<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Bold">7</Emphasis></Subscript>N clusters

We report results of the atomic and electronic structures of Al₇C cluster using ab initio molecular dynamics with ultrasoft pseudopotentials and generalized gradient approximation. The lowest energy structure is found to be the one in which carbon atom occupies an interstitial position in Al₇ cluster. The electronic structure shows that the recent observation [Chem. Phys. Lett. 316, 31 (2000)] of magic behavior of Al₇C^- cluster is due to a large highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO-LUMO) gap which makes Al₇C^- chemically inert. These results have further led us to the finding of a new neutral magic cluster Al₇N which has the same number of valence electrons as in Al₇C^- and a large HOMO-LUMO gap of 1.99 eV. Further, calculations have been carried out on (Al₇N)₂ to study interaction between magic clusters. Received 28 July 2001     

A note on minimum degree conditions for supereulerian graphs

A graph is called supereulerian if it has a spanning closed trail. Let G be a 2-edge-connected graph of order n such that each minimal edge cut SE(G) with |S|3 satisfies the property that each component of G−S has order at least (n−2)/5. We prove that either G is supereulerian or G belongs to one of two classes of exceptional graphs. Our results slightly improve earlier results of Catlin and Li. Furthermore, our main result implies the following strengthening of a theorem of Lai within the class of graphs with minimum degree δ4: If G is a 2-edge-connected graph of order n with δ(G)4 such that for every edge xyE(G) , we have max{d(x),d(y)}(n−2)/5−1, then either G is supereulerian or G belongs to one of two classes of exceptional graphs. We show that the condition δ(G)4 cannot be relaxed.     

Effects of signal-to-noise ratio, signal periodicity, and degree of hearing impairment on the performance of voice-separation algorithms

Procedures for enhancing the intelligibility of a target talker in the presence of a co-channel competing talker were evaluated in tests involving (i) continuously voiced sentences spoken on a monotone, (ii) continuously voiced sentences with time-varying intonation, and (iii) noncontinuously voiced sentences produced with natural intonation. The procedures were based on the methods of harmonic selection and cepstral filtering [R.J. Stubbs and Q. Summerfield, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 87, 359-372 (1990)]. Target and competing voices were combined at signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) between -10 dB and +10 dB. Subjects were a group with normal hearing and a heterogeneous group with mild-moderate cochlear hearing impairments. Processing enhanced the target voice over a range of SNRs for each type of sentence and for most listeners. Enhancement was greatest at negative SNRs. Among the impaired listeners, benefit was generally greater for those with milder losses. These results consolidate and extend previous demonstrations that voice-separation algorithms that exploit the harmonic structure of the voiced portions of speech can enhance intelligibility. However, practical application of such algorithms depends on a solution to the problem of tracking the fundamental-frequency contour of one voice in the presence of a competing voice.     

提高微晶硅薄膜太阳电池效率的研究

采用甚高频等离子体增强化学气相沉积技术制备了系列微晶硅薄膜太阳电池，指出了气体总流量和背反射电极的类型对电池性能参数的影响.电池的I-V测试结果表明：随反应气体总流量的增加，对应电池的短路电流密度、开路电压和填充因子都有很大程度的提高，结果使得电池的光电转换效率得以提高.另外，ZnO/Ag/Al背反射电极能明显提高电池的短路电流密度，进而也提高了电池的光电转换效率.对气体总流量和背反射电极类型影响电池效率的原因进行了分析. 关键词： 微晶硅薄膜太阳电池 气体流量 ZnO/Ag/Al背反射电极     

Two-dimensional Anhydrous Cadmium(II) Phthalate

The in situ hydrolysis of phthalyl-γ-glutaminyl-histidine with Cd(ClO₄)₂·6H₂O in the presence of water and methanol affords a novel two-dimensional cadmium coordination polymer, a new phase, anhydrous cadmium(II) phthalate, ( 1 ). The structure was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. Crystal data: P2₁/c, a = 13.8168(14), b = 7.0351(7), c = 8.2054(8) Å, β = 105.540(2)°, V = 768.43(13) ų, Z = 4, R₁ = 0.0380, wR₂ = 0.1111.     

Numerical differentiation of photomechanical data using smoothing spline functions with generalized boundary conditions

The smoothing spline function has been used for differentiation of photomechanical data in experimental stress analysis. However, since the available software packages use the algorithm with the so-called natural boundary conditions which are not necessarily suitable in many circumstances, errors tend to occur in both the first and second derivatives. In this paper we have modified the algorithm so that the user can have more freedom in selecting boundary conditions which suit the problem best and therefore, as a result, improve the accuracy of the analysis. Two examples are given to show the improvement achievable using the new scheme.     

A stable dual-wavelength fiber laser with tunable wavelength spacing using a polarization-maintaining linear cavity

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a stable dual-wavelength erbium-doped polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber laser with tunable wavelength spacing using an all-PM linear cavity that makes use of two reflection peaks from the PM fiber Bragg grating (PM-FBG). Experimental results show stable dual lasing lines with a wavelength separation of ∼0.22 nm and a large optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of over 40 dB under room temperature. By applying axial strain to the PM-FBG, the center wavelengths of the two lasing lines can be tuned over several nanometers and the wavelength separation between the lasing lines can also be tuned to as small as 0.05 nm, which, to our knowledge, is the smallest wavelength spacing ever obtained from a stable room-temperature dual-wavelength fiber laser. The proposed laser configuration has the advantages of simple structure, low loss, stable dual-wavelength operation and a very small lasing linewidth of ∼5 kHz . PACS 42.55.Wd; 42.81.-i; 42.81.Gs     

Univariate Ore Polynomial Rings in Computer Algebra

We present some algorithms related to rings of Ore polynomials (or, briefly, Ore rings) and describe a computer algebra library for basic operations in an arbitrary Ore ring. The library can be used as a basis for various algorithms in Ore rings, in particular, in differential, shift, and q-shift rings. __________ Translated from Sovremennaya Matematika i Ee Prilozheniya (Contemporary Mathematics and Its Applications), Vol. 13, Algebra, 2004.     

从像上提取非旋转对称系统的传递函数制作解卷空间滤波器

本文提出从高分辨电子显微像中,利用光学、全息和部分相干等方法,提取传递函数,制作相位和振幅滤波器,实现解卷,提高高分辨电子显微像的分辨率.