Orientation dependence of the electrocaloric effect of ferroelectric bilayer thin films

An analytical thermodynamic theory is applied to investigate the electrocaloric effect of ferroelectric BaTiO₃/SrTiO₃ bilayer thin films with different orientations at room temperature. Theoretical analysis indicates that the strong electrostatic coupling between the layers results in the suppression of ferroelectricity at a critical relative thickness which occurs approximately at 50%, 23%, and 12% of SrTiO₃ fraction in the (001), (110), and (111) bilayer thin films, respectively. The ferroelectric bilayer thin films are respected to have the largest electrocaloric effect at this critical relative thickness. Moreover, the electrocaloric effect strongly depends on the orientation and the (110) oriented bilayer thin films have the largest electrocaloric effect. Consequently, control of the orientation and the relative thickness of SrTiO₃ layer can be used to adjust the electrocaloric effect of ferroelectric bilayer thin films, which may provide the potential for practical application in refrigeration devices.     

First-principles study of structural, elastic, electronic and optical properties of SrMO3 (M=Ti and Sn)

We present structural, elastic, electronic and optical properties of the perovskites SrMO₃ (M=Ti, and Sn) for different pressure. The computational method is based on the pseudo-potential plane wave method (PP-PW). The exchange-correlation energy is described in the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). The calculated equilibrium lattice parameters are in reasonable agreement with the available experimental data. This work shows that the perovskites SrTiO₃, and SrSnO₃ are mechanically stable and present an indirect band gaps at the Fermi level. Applied pressure does not change the shape of the total valence electronic charge density and most of the electronic charge density is shifted toward O atom. Furthermore, in order to understand the optical properties of SrMO₃, the dielectric function, absorption coefficient, optical reflectivity, refractive index, extinction coefficient and electron energy-loss are calculated for radiation up to 80 eV. The enhancement of pressure decreases the dielectric function and refractive indices of SrTiO₃ and SrSnO₃.     

Complexed sol-gel synthesis of improved Pt-Ru-Os-based anode electro-catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells

A high specific surface area (SSA) Pt-Ru-Os-based anode catalyst synthesized by a novel complexed sol-gel (CSG) process shows better catalytic activity in comparison to pure equi-atomic compositions of Pt-Ru anode catalysts synthesized by similar sol-gel processes. A homogeneous amorphous gel was successfully synthesized by complexing platinum(II) acetylacetonate, ruthenium(III) acetylacetonate and osmium(III) chloride with tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) used as a complexing agent. Phase-pure Pt(Ru,Os) and Pt(Ru) solid solutions possessing high specific surface area (∼110-120 m²/g) were successfully synthesized by controlled removal of carbonaceous species present in the as-prepared precursor generated from the CSG process. This has been successfully achieved by precise thermal treatments of the precursor using controlled oxidizing atmospheres. Results indicate that the nano-crystalline Pt(Ru,Os) solid solution of nominal composition 50 at%-Pt-40 at% Ru-10 at% Os possesses good chemical homogeneity, and reveals excellent catalytic activity, thus demonstrating the potential of the novel CSG process for synthesizing high-performance Pt-Ru-Os-based catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells.     

Characterization of new-layered Cr(III)-doped chlorocadmiumphosphate, Cd(HPO4)Cl·[H3N(CH2)6NH3]0.5 crystal by EPR and optical studies

Cr(III)-doped Cd(HPO₄)Cl·[H₃N(CH₂)₆NH₃]_0.5, a new-layered cadmium phosphate, is synthesized in acidic condition at room temperature. EPR and optical studies are carried out at room temperature. Polycrystalline EPR spectrum reveals the presence of two sites of Cr(III) ions in this layered phosphate lattice with zero-field splitting values of 24.24 and 7.65 mT, indicating that Cr(III) ions are in distorted octahedral sites. The optical absorption spectrum of the sample indicates near octahedral symmetry for the dopant ions. Crystal field, inter-electronic and bonding parameters are evaluated by collaborating EPR and optical data. The evaluated parameters suggest the mode of entry of Cr(III) ion into the layered phosphate as interstitial site, and bonding between the metal and ligand is partially covalent.     

Complex object 3D measurement based on phase-shifting and a neural network

An accurate phase-height mapping algorithm based on phase-shifting and a neural network is proposed to improve the performance of the structured light system with digital fringe projection. As phase-height mapping is nonlinear, it is difficult to find the best camera model for the system. In order to achieve high accuracy, a trained three-layer back propagation neural network is employed to obtain the complicated transformation. The phase error caused by the non-sinusoidal attribute of the fringe image is analyzed. During the phase calculation process, a pre-calibrated phase error look-up-table is used to reduce the phase error. The detailed procedures of the sample data collection are described. By training the network, the relationship between the image coordinates and the 3D coordinates of the object can be obtained. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is not sensitive to the non-sinusoidal attribute of the fringe image and it can recover complex free-form objects with high accuracy.     

Spin-peierls transition in dimerized stacks of anion-radical salt (N-Me-2,5-di-Me-Pz)(TCNQ)2, (Pz is pyrazine)

An anion-radical salt (ARS) (N-Me-2,5-di-Me-Pz)(TCNQ)₂, where Pz is pyrazine, was synthesized and its crystal structure was resolved. X-ray diffraction experiments on single crystals were performed. Heat capacity was measured in the temperature range from 2 to 300 K. Magnetisation and magnetic susceptibility were measured in the temperature range from 2 to 300 K and the low-temperature part was measured in magnetic fields from 5 mT to 5 T. The experimental results were explained in terms of dimerized Heisenberg spin chain model. Numerical calculations were performed and compared with experimental data.     

Advances in digital holographic micro-PTV for analyzing microscale flows

The accurate three-dimensional (3D) velocity field measurement technique has been receiving large attention in the study of microfluidics. DHM-PTV technique was developed by combining the digital holographic microscopy and particle tracking velocimetry technique. DHM-PTV is an ideal method for measuring three-component-three-dimensional (3C-3D) velocity field in a microscale flow with a fairly good spatial resolution. The advances in the DHM-PTV technique enable the measurement of various microscale flows, such as transport of red blood cells in a microtube and 3D flows in microfluidic devices. DHM-PTV is also applied in studying the motile behavior of swimming microorganisms. DHM-PTV would play an important role in ascertaining the undiscovered basic physics in various microscale and biofluid flow phenomena. In the current study, the basic principle of the DHM-PTV technique and its typical applications to microscale flows are introduced and discussed.     

Holovideo: Real-time 3D range video encoding and decoding on GPU

We present a 3D video-encoding technique called Holovideo that is capable of encoding high-resolution 3D videos into standard 2D videos, and then decoding the 2D videos back into 3D rapidly without significant loss of quality. Due to the nature of the algorithm, 2D video compression such as JPEG encoding with QuickTime Run Length Encoding (QTRLE) can be applied with little quality loss, resulting in an effective way to store 3D video at very small file sizes. We found that under a compression ratio of 134:1, Holovideo to OBJ file format, the 3D geometry quality drops at a negligible level. Several sets of 3D videos were captured using a structured light scanner, compressed using the Holovideo codec, and then uncompressed and displayed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the codec. With the use of OpenGL Shaders (GLSL), the 3D video codec can encode and decode in realtime. We demonstrated that for a video size of 512×512, the decoding speed is 28 frames per second (FPS) with a laptop computer using an embedded NVIDIA GeForce 9400 m graphics processing unit (GPU). Encoding can be done with this same setup at 18 FPS, making this technology suitable for applications such as interactive 3D video games and 3D video conferencing.     

一种可扩展的三维半导体器件并行数值模拟算法

在基于漂移-扩散模型的三维半导体器件数值模拟中,通过有限体积法进行数值离散,采用完全耦合的牛顿迭代求解非线性代数方程组,并使用基于代数多重网格预条件子的GMRES方法求解牛顿迭代中的线性方程组,构造一种稳健且高度可扩展的非结构四面体网格上求解半导体方程的并行算法.基于PHG平台实现该算法的并行计算程序,并对PN结和MOS场效应晶体管等问题进行了最大网格规模达到5亿单元、最大并行规模达到1 024进程的大规模数值模拟实验,结果表明,该算法计算效率高,可扩展性好.     

大鼠粪样中几种糖类物质的结构确定

粪样代谢组能够反映宿主和肠道菌群相互作用的共代谢信息,然而粪样中糖类物质的归属信息迄今仍不完善. 该研究使用1D NMR技术检测到大鼠粪样中木糖、阿拉伯糖、半乳糖等单糖以及由阿拉伯糖和木糖组成的寡聚糖. 在使用固相萃取（SPE）方法进行分离富集的基础上,结合使用2D NMR实验技术（¹H-¹H COSY,¹H-¹H TOCSY,¹H-¹³C HSQC,¹H-¹³C HMBC以及DOSY）确定了这些糖类物质的结构,并对其1H NMR和¹³C NMR谱峰进行了归属.