Automatic alignment of a high-power CO2 laser resonator

An on-line, electronic feedback approach for automatic alignment of a laser resonator is described. A measure of the resonator alignment error is derived by partitioning a 1% sample of the laser output into quadrants, and using standard electronic circuits to compare the average power present in each quadrant. A motorized X — Y alignment system is then used to implement the alignment changes required to maintain optimum output quality from the laser. The system is shown capable of stabilizing the output power in each quadrant of the beam to within about 2% of the optimum level.     

A critical analysis of the glass-forming ability of alloys

Several empirical rules have been proposed during the past few years to synthesize bulk metallic glasses. But, the real reasons for the improved glass-forming ability of these alloys are still not clear and the ability to design alloy compositions to enable synthesis of larger diameter rods has not improved. The present work conducts a critical analysis of the existing data in terms of the different glass-forming criteria and concludes that the available parameters cannot satisfactorily predict the GFA and explain all the observed data. Reasons for this failure have been suggested.     

The equivalent potential of water molecules for electronic structure of cysteine

In order to get more reliable electronic structure of protein in aqueous solution, it is necessary to construct a simple, easy-use equivalent potential of water molecules for protein's electronic structure calculation. The first-principles, all-electron, ab initio calculations have been performed to construct the equivalent potential of water molecules for the electronic structure of Cys. The process consists of three steps. First, the electronic structure of the cluster containing Cys and water molecules is calculated. Then, based on the structure, the electronic structure of Cys with the potential of water molecules is calculated using the self-consistent cluster-embedding method. Finally, the electronic structure of Cys with the potential of dipoles is calculated. The dipoles are adjusted so the electronic structure of Cys with the potential of dipoles is close to that of water molecules. The calculations show that the major effect of water molecules on Cys' electronic structure is lowering the occupied electronic states by about 0.032 Ry, and broadening energy gap by 16%. The effect of water molecules on the electronic structure of Cys can be simulated by dipoles potential.     

Elastic charge density representation of the interaction via the nematic director field

The interaction between particle-like sources of the nematic director distortions (e.g., colloids, point defects, macromolecules in nematic emulsions) allows for a useful analogy with the electrostatic multipole interaction between charged bodies. In this paper we develop this analogy to the level corresponding to the charge density and consider the general status of the pairwise approach to the nematic emulsions with finite-size colloids. It is shown that the elastic analog of the surface electric charge density is represented by the two transverse director components on the surface imposing the director distortions. The elastic multipoles of a particle are expressed as integrals over the charge density distribution on this surface. Because of the difference between the scalar electrostatics and vector nematostatics, the number of elastic multipoles of each order is doubled compared to that in the electrostatics: there are two elastic charges, two vectors of dipole moments, two quadrupolar tensors, and so on. The two-component elastic charge is expressed via the vector of external mechanical torque applied on the particle. As a result, the elastic Coulomb-like coupling between two particles is found to be proportional to the scalar product of the two external torques and does not directly depend on the particles' form and anchoring. The real-space Green function method is used to develop the pairwise approach to nematic emulsions and determine its form and restrictions. The pairwise potentials are obtained in the familiar form, but, in contrast to the electrostatics, they describe the interaction between pairs (dyads) of the elastic multipole moments. The multipole moments are shown to be uniquely determined by the single-particle director field, unperturbed by other particles. The pairwise approximation is applicable only in the leading order in the small ratio particle size-to-interparticle distance as the next order contains irreducible three-body terms.     

Renormalization of branching models of triggered seismicity from total to observable seismicity

Several recent works point out that the crowd of small unobservable earthquakes (with magnitudes below the detection threshold m_d) may play a significant and perhaps dominant role in triggering future seismicity. Using the ETAS branching model of triggered seismicity, we apply the formalism of generating probability functions to investigate how the statistical properties of observable earthquakes differ from the statistics of all events. The ETAS (epidemic-type aftershock sequence) model assumes that each earthquake can trigger other earthquakes (“aftershocks”). An aftershock sequence results in this model from the cascade of aftershocks of each past earthquake. The triggering efficiency of earthquakes is assumed to vanish below a lower magnitude limit m₀, in order to ensure the convergence of the theory and may reflect the physics of state-and-velocity frictional rupture. We show that, to a good approximation, the statistical distribution of seismic rates of events with magnitudes above m_d generated by an ETAS model with branching ratio n is the same as that of events generated by another ETAS model with effective parameter n(m_d). Our present analysis thus confirms, for the full statistical (time-independent or large time-window approximation) properties, the results obtained previously by one of us and Werner, based solely on the average seismic rates (the first-order moment of the statistics). Our analysis also demonstrates that this correspondence is not exact, as there are small corrections which can be systematically calculated, in terms of additional contributions that can be mapped onto a different branching model. We also show that this approximate correspondence of the ETAS model onto itself obtained by changing m₀ into m_d, and n into n(m_d) holds only with respect to its statistical properties and not for all its space-time properties.     

Theoretical investigations on ZnCdO2 and ZnMgO2 alloys: A first principle study

We report on the calculations related to the electronic structure of ZnO, CdO, MgO, ZnMgO₂ and ZnCdO₂ in the wurtzite, rocksalt and chalcopyrite structures. From this study we found that ZnO and MgO are of direct band semiconductor, CdO is of semi metallic in nature. ZnMgO₂ and ZnCdO₂ are direct band semiconductors. From the energy considerations, we found that ZnMgO₂ and ZnCdO₂ are more stable in chalcopyrite structure rather than in rocksalt structure. Using the calculated band gap values, the bowing parameter for ZnMgO₂ and ZnCdO₂ is deduced and found to be in agreement with the reported value.     

Quantum trajectories of interacting pseudo-spin networks

Received: 12 June 1998     

Electrode design for a magnetically stabilized glow discharge

The operational characteristics of a magnetically stabilized glow discharge are investigated for several different experimental electrode configurations. In this parametric study, successive geometries were designed to accommodate and/or control specific aspects of the plasma glow process. In this manner, an electrode structure which optimizes discharge stability and promotes glow uniformity over an extended active volume, was ultimately achieved. The study teaches a promising new technique for significantly increasing the power density of high power gas lasers.Experimental data is in excellent correlation with predictions provided by a previous numerical study of this magnetic stabilization process.     

Power law distribution of seismic rates: theory and data analysis

We report an empirical determination of the probability density functions P_data(r) (and its cumulative version) of the number r of earthquakes in finite space-time windows for the California catalog, over fixed spatial boxes 5 ×5 km², 20 ×20 km² and 50 ×50 km² and time intervals and 1000 days. The data can be represented by asymptotic power law tails together with several cross-overs. These observations are explained by a simple stochastic branching process previously studied by many authors, the ETAS (epidemic-type aftershock sequence) model which assumes that each earthquake can trigger other earthquakes (“aftershocks”). An aftershock sequence results in this model from the cascade of aftershocks of each past earthquake. We develop the full theory in terms of generating functions for describing the space-time organization of earthquake sequences and develop several approximations to solve the equations. The calibration of the theory to the empirical observations shows that it is essential to augment the ETAS model by taking account of the pre-existing frozen heterogeneity of spontaneous earthquake sources. This seems natural in view of the complex multi-scale nature of fault networks, on which earthquakes nucleate. Our extended theory is able to account for the empirical observation but some discrepancies, especially for the shorter time windows, point to limits of both our theoretical approach and of the ETAS model.     

New fabrication of a strained Si/Si1−yGey dual channel on a relaxed Si1−xGex virtual substrate using a Ge-rich layer formed by oxidation

This paper presents a new method of forming a Si/SiGe dual channel on a Si_0.8Ge_0.2 virtual substrate. Generally, in a CMOS process using a Si/SiGe dual channel, due to several processes involving ion-implantation, annealing and dry-etching after the deposition of the Si/SiGe dual channel, the surface can be damaged, leading to reduced electrical properties. However, if the dual channel is formed during a specific stage of the CMOS process, the defects of the dual channel can be reduced and the thermal stability will be excellent. Therefore, in this paper, a method for minimizing the defects of the dual channel is presented. This method uses the segregation of the Ge in the oxidation process of a SiGe. A Si/SiGe dual channel formed using this method achieved results that were identical to a dual channel deposited using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method.