Diffusion of aluminum in MgO： A thermodynamic approach study

We have applied a thermodynamical model to calculate the diffusion coefficient of aluminum in MgO with the aid of bulk elastic properties. Our calculated diffusivities as a function of temperature and pressure are compared with the existing results derived from experimental or theoretical investigations. We find that the present model provides a satisfactory estimation for the activation volume and the activation enthalpy.     

First-principle study on optical properties of N-La-codoped anatase TiO

The electronic structures, deformation charge density, dipole moment, and optical properties of N-La-codoped anatase titanium dioxide (TiO2) are studied using the plane-wave ultrasoft pseudopotential method based on the density functional theory (DFT). The optical properties of two-ion-doped TiO2 are analyzed via electronic structures, deformation charge density, and dipole moment. For the model of N-La-doped TiO2 , a smaller atom fraction of N and La atoms induces better optical properties. The absorption edges of two doped TiO2 models redshift to the visible-light region.     

Penetrating view of nano-structures in Aleochara verna spermatheca and flagellum by hard X-ray microscopy

A penetrating view of the three-dimensional nanostructure of female spermatheca and male flagellum in the species Aleochara verna is obtained with 100-nm resolution using a hard X-ray microscope, which provides a fast noninvasive imaging technology for insect morphology. Through introducing Zernike phase contrast and heavy metal staining, images taken at 8 keV displayed sufficient contrast for observing nanoscale fine structures, such as the spermatheca cochleate duct and the subapex of the flagellum, which have some implications for the study of the sperm transfer process and genital evolution in insects. This work shows that both the spatial resolution and the contrast characteristic of hard X-ray microscopy are quite promising for insect morphology studies and, particularly, provide an attractive alternative to the destructive techniques used for investigating internal soft tissues.     

Nonlinear dynamic behaviors of a deploying-and-retreating wing with varying velocity

In this paper, the nonlinear dynamical behaviors of deploying-and-retreating wings in supersonic airflow are investigated. A cantilever laminated composite beam, which is axially moving at a known rate, is implemented to model the deploying-and-retreating wing. Associated with Reddy's third-order theory and von Karman type equations of large deformation, the nonlinear governing equations of motion of the deploying-and-retreating wing are derived based on the Hamilton's principle. The nonlinear partial differential equations of motion are transformed into a set of the ordinary differential equations using Galerkin's method. The nonlinear dynamical behaviors of the deployable-and-retreating wing are investigated in the cases of three different axially moving rates during deploying process and retreating process using the numerical simulations.     

A new method to accelerate depth extraction for aperture-coded camera

Depth extraction, or the retrieval of three-dimensional information of the captured scene from camera, is an important problem in computer vision and image processing. The aperture-coded camera has certain advantages in depth extraction. However, such calculation will cost huge time as it contains weighted iterative deconvolution. In order to solve the problem, this paper proposes an improved algorithm in which the image is firstly segmented and then the small image regions are sampled for deconvolution and depth judgment. Experimental results prove that the proposed method can greatly reduce time consumption and save computer memory. On this basis, by using the characteristics of aperture-coded camera obtaining image and depth, we propose a framework to handle the application of stitching the images of occluded scene, and then carry out experiments.     

Plasmonic planar lens based on stack of metal–insulator–metal waveguides with height tuning

We introduce a technique capable of focusing electromagnetic (EM) waves through plasmonic nanoslits symmetrically arranged along the indented semi-circular surface in silver background. The EM transports through the tuning slits in the form of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), and gets the required phase retardations to focus at the focal plane. Due to the subwavelength nature of planar metallic lens, we present the rigorous electromagnetic analysis by using two dimensional (2D) finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. These height-modulated slits with uniform width are demonstrated to have unique advantages in beam manipulation. In combination with previous studies, it is expected that our structure with small number of slits could lead to realization of optimum designs of plasmonic nano-lens.     

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering effect of gold nanoparticle arrays: The influence of annealing temperature,excitation power and array thickness

Gold nanoparticle arrays are fabricated for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and the effect of the annealing temperature, the thickness of nanoparticle array and the exciting power on the SERS signals are investigated. The particle distribution and particle size are dense and uniform on the glass substrate when the 10 nm gold film was annealed at 250 °C and strong SERS signals for Rhodamine 6G were achieved via a 532 nm excitation with a 10 mW power. The SERS signal at 1650 cm⁻¹ is enhanced more than 10 times as compared to that of the gold film without annealing. The strong SERS behavior of gold nanoparticle arrays may broaden the SERS applications in biomedical and analytical chemistry.     

A novel image tamper localization and recovery algorithm based on watermarking technology

In this paper, an effective self-embedding fragile watermarking scheme is presented. The watermark is generated by encoding the DCT coefficients of each 2 × 2 block and embedded into another block according to the block mapping. A non-linear chaotic sequence is used for generating the block mapping which can enhance the security of the algorithm. An improved tamper localization and recovery algorithm are performed. The experiment results show that the watermarked image has a high average peak signal-to-noise ratio. Furthermore, the tamper region can be successfully localized and exactly recovered, even if for the content-only tampering.     

Coupled caloric effects in multiferroics

We propose a conception – coupled caloric effect   where the enhanced caloric effects originate from the coupling among magnetic, ferroelectric, and structural degrees of freedom. Specifically, as the magneto-electric case, the magnitude of the coupled caloric effect was evaluated for a ferromagnetic–ferroelectric system using a phenomenological calculation based on Landau phase transition theory. The isothermal entropy change is greatly enhanced by increasing the magneto-electric coupling strength. This work indicates that the caloric effect in a ferromagnetic–ferroelectric coupled system consists of pure magnetic entropy change (Δ_SM$\mathrm{\Delta }{S}_M$), pure ferroelectric one (Δ_SE$\mathrm{\Delta }{S}_E$), and coupled one (Δ_SME$\mathrm{\Delta }{S}_{\mathit{ME}}$) that plays a significant part. The counterpart of the last one in magneto-structural coupled system was usually neglected. Our study provides a route to energy-efficient refrigeration via realization of coupling among various ferroic orders.     

Effect of defect configuration on the localization of phonons in two-dimensional phononic crystals

Effects of defect location on the defect frequency and the localization of phonons are investigated in two novel kinds of model, created by moving the location of the native cylinder and inserting an ad-cylinder in the central cellular respectively. The results show that the defect frequency in Model 1 is only related to the distance, while in Model 2, is related not only to the distance, but also to the moving direction. From the pressure distribution, obvious localization phenomenon is found. The position and shape of the localized energy are varied with the position of the defect.