Development of a portable and fast wire tension measurement system for MWPC construction

In a multi-wire proportional chamber detector(MWPC), the anode and signal wires must maintain suitable tension, which is very important for the detector's stable and accurate performance. As a result, wire tension control and measurement is essential in MWPC construction. A high pressure3 He MWPC detector is to be used as the thermal neutron detector of the multi-functional reflectometer at China Spallation Neutron Source, and in the construction of the detector, we have developed a wire tension measurement system. This system is accurate,portable and time-saving. With it, the wire tension on an anode wire plane has been tested. The measurement results show that the wire tension control techniques used in detector manufacture are reliable.     

Synthesis of multi-walled carbon nanotubes for NH3 gas detection

It has been recently demonstrated that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) represent a new type of chemical sensor capable of detecting a small concentration of molecules such as CO, NO₂, NH₃.In this work, CNTs were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on the SiO₂/Si substrate by decomposition of acetylene (C₂H₂) on sputtered Ni catalyst nanoparticles. Their structural properties are studied by atomic force microscopy, high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM) and Raman spectroscopy. The CNTs grown at 700 °C exhibit a low dispersion in size, are about 1 μm long and their average diameter varies in the range 25–60 nm as a function of the deposition time. We have shown that their diameter can be reduced either by annealing in oxygen environment or by growing at lower temperature (less than 600 °C).We developed a test device with interdigital Pt electrodes on an Al₂O₃ substrate in order to evaluate the CNTs-based gas sensor capabilities. We performed room temperature current–voltage measurements for various gas concentrations. The CNT films are found to exhibit a fast response and a high sensitivity to NH₃ gas.     

Imaging in turbid media with intensity-modulated lasers

We describe the formation of a narrow beam for intensity-modulated electromagnetic radiation propagating through highly scattering materials. We propose to use this beam to reconstruct images, similar to X-ray back-projection techniques. For sufficiently high modulation frequency, the photon density wave is primarily carried by photons that suffer small or no large-angle scattering, which gives rise to the beam’s narrow divergence. The beam-narrowing concept is supported by large-scale numerical simulations to examine the quality of the imaging.     

Synthesis of In<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>nanoparticles by thermal decomposition of a citrate gel precursor

This paper describes the synthesis of indium oxide by a modified sol–gel method, and the study of thermal decomposition of the metal complex in air. The characterization of the intermediate as well as the final compounds was carried out by thermogravimetry, differential thermal analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and small angle X-ray scattering. The results show that the indium complex decomposes to In₂O₃ with the formation of an intermediate compound. Nanoparticles of cubic In₂O₃ with crystallite sizes in the nanosize range were formed after calcination at temperatures up to 900°C. Calcined materials are characterized by a polydisperse distribution of spherical particles with sharp and smooth surfaces.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected issue number.     

Observation of upconversion fluorescence and stimulated emission based on three-photon absorption

The observations of three-photon-induced frequency-upconversion fluorescence and the highly directional stimulated visible emission in two dyes, 4-[p-(dicyanoethylamino) styryl]-N-methylpyridinium iodide (abbreviated as CEASP) and the complex of CEASP and Ce(NO₃) (abbreviated as CEASP-Ce), are reported. The photographs of the forward amplified spontaneous emissions spots, pumped by an optical parametric oscillator idler with a pulse width of 8 ns and a wavelength of 1.3 μ m, are shown. The upconversion fluorescence produced both in dimethyl formamide solution and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) polymer spans from green to red, with a cubic dependence on the pump light intensity. The experimental results imply that the existence of the lanthanide ion Ce^{3 +} sensitizes the nonlinear absorption and emission.     

A novel frame shift and integral technique for processing low-light-level moving image sequence

A new method for processing low-light-level moving image sequence is proposed, in which (1) a novel algorithm based on difference processing has been firstly developed to determine the motion parameters of moving image sequence, (2) the spatial relativity of the frames within moving image sequence can be then well established after frame shifting according to motion parameters obtained above, (3) finally, frame integration method can be applied to each processed frame, thereby increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of low-light-level moving image sequence. Experiments have been carried out to verify the validity of the proposed method, which show that the parameters obtained by the developed algorithm coincide well with the actual values, and the SNRs of the moving image sequences were effectively increased with the proposed method, indicating that the method offers significant advantages in the enhancement of low-light-level moving image sequence.     

Asymmetric molecular harmonic assisted generation of the attosecond X-ray pulse

In this paper, we theoretically investigate the asymmetric molecular high-order harmonic emission and the attosecond X-ray pulse generation when the asymmetric molecular HeH²⁺ ion is exposed to an intense chirped pulse. It is found that the molecular harmonics are strongly dependent on the internuclear distance R as well as the chirp parameter, showing a smooth and intense harmonic plateau at R = 8.0 a.u. and β = 0.4. Further, by adding a subharmonic controlling pulse with the optimised conditions, a supercontinuum with a bandwidth of 602 eV can be obtained. Finally, by properly superposing the selected harmonics in the supercontinuum region, a series of isolated X-ray pulses with durations of sub-80 as are directly generated.     

Calculation of acoustical radiation force on microsphere by spherically-focused source

Based on the ray acoustics approach, the trapping effects on a microsphere by an ideally spherically-focused ultrasound are discussed. The acoustical radiation force from a focused ultrasound beam on a spherical particle in a three-dimensional sound field is calculated considering the effect of the attenuation of the ultrasound beam both inside the particle and in the surrounding medium. The results show that as long as the particle is in the range of the ultrasound beam and as long as the appropriate parameters of the transducer are selected, the particle will be captured in the vicinity of the focus of the ultrasound beam. Also, the particle radius and different parameters of the transducer are analyzed for their affect on the radiation force.     

Demonstrating nonlocality-induced teleportation through Majorana bound states in a semiconductor nanowire

It was predicted by Tewari et al. (2008) [15] that a teleportation-like electron transfer phenomenon is one of the novel consequences of the existence of Majorana fermion, because of the inherently nonlocal nature. In this work we consider a concrete realization and measurement scheme for this interesting behavior, based on a setup consisting of a pair of quantum dots which are tunnel-coupled to a semiconductor nanowire and are jointly measured by two point-contact detectors. We analyze the teleportation dynamics in the presence of measurement back-action and discuss how the teleportation events can be identified from the current trajectories of strong response detectors.