ALBERT

Description: Results are presented of a set of computational electromagnetics validation measurements referring to three-dimensional perfectly conducting smooth targets, performed for the Electromagnetic Code Consortium. Plots are presented for both the low- and high-frequency measurements of the NASA almond, an ogive, a double ogive, a cone-sphere, and a cone-sphere with a gap.

Description: A formulation is presented for modeling a resistive card in the context of the finite element method. The appropriate variational function is derived and for variational purposes results are presented for the scattering by a metal-backed cavity loaded with a resistive card.

Description: The Electromagnetic Code Consortium (EMCC) was sponsored by the Advanced Research Program Agency (ARPA) to demonstrate the effectiveness of massively parallel computing in large scale radar signature predictions. The EMCC/ARPA project consisted of three parts.

Description: The ultimate objective of this project is to develop a new technique which permits an accurate simulation of microstrip patch antennas or arrays with various feed, superstrate and/or substrate configurations residing in a recessed cavity whose aperture is planar, cylindrical or otherwise conformed to the substructure. The technique combines the finite element and boundary integral methods to formulate a system suitable for solution via the conjugate gradient method in conjunction with the fast Fourier transform. The final code is intended to compute both scattering and radiation patterns of the structure with an affordable memory demand. With upgraded capabilities, the four included papers examined the radar cross section (RCS), input impedance, gain, and resonant frequency of several rectangular configurations using different loading and substrate/superstrate configurations.

Description: Conformal antenna arrays offer many cost and weight advantages over conventional antenna systems. In the past, antenna designers have had to resort to expensive measurements in order to develop a conformal array design. This is due to the lack of rigorous mathematical models for conformal antenna arrays, and as a result the design of conformal arrays is primarily based on planar antenna design concepts. Recently, we have found the finite element-boundary integral method to be very successful in modeling large planar arrays of arbitrary composition in a metallic plane. Herewith we shall extend this formulation for conformal arrays on large metallic cylinders. In this we develop the mathematical formulation. In particular we discuss the finite element equations, the shape elements, and the boundary integral evaluation, and it is shown how this formulation can be applied with minimal computation and memory requirements. The implementation shall be discussed in a later report.

Description: Ultrafast modulation of semiconductor quantum well (QW) laser is of technological importance for information technology. Improvement by order(s) of magnitude in data transfer rate is possible as terahertz (THz) radiation is available for heating the laser at picosecond time scale. Optical gain modulation in the QW is achieved via temperature modulation of electron-hole plasma (EHP). Applications include free-space THz communication, optical switching, and pulse generation. The EHP in the semiconductor QW is described with a two-band model. Semiconductor Bloch equations with many-body effects are used to derive a hydrodynamical model for the active QW region. Because of ultrafast carrier-carrier scatterings in the order of 50 fs, EHP follows quasiequilibrium Fermi-Dirac distributions and THz field interacts incoherently with it. Carrier-longitudinal optical (LO) phonon scatterings and coherent laser-EHP interaction are treated microscopically in our physical model. A set of hydrodynamical equations for plasma density, temperature, and laser envelop amplitude are derived and Runge-Kutta method is adopted for numerical simulation. A typical 8 nm GaAs/Al(0.3)Ga(0.7) As single QW at 300 K is used. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Description: In semiconductor quantum well structures, the intersubband energy separation can be adjusted to the terahertz (THz) frequency range by changing the well width and material combinations. The electronic and optical properties of these nanostructures can also be controlled by an applied dc electric field. These unique features lead to a large frequency tunability of the quantum well devices. In the on-going project of modeling of the THz lasers, we investigate the possibility of using optical pumping to generate THz radiation based on intersubband transitions in semiconductor quantum wells. We choose the optical pumping because in the electric current injection it is difficult to realize population inversion in the THz frequency range due to the small intersubband separation (4-40 meV). We considered both small conduction band offset (GaAs/AlGaAs) and large band offset (InGaAs/AlAsSb) quantum well structures. For GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells, mid-infrared C02 lasers are used as pumping sources. For InGaAs/AlAsSb quantum wells, the resonant intersubband transitions can be excited by the near-infrared diode lasers. For three- and four-subband quantum wells, we solve the pumpfield-induced nonequilibrium distribution function for each subband of the quantum well system from a set of rate equations that include both intrasubband and intersubband relaxation processes. Taking into account the coherent interactions between pump and THz (signal) waves, we calculate the optical gain for the THz field. The gain arising from population inversion and stimulated Raman processes is calculated in a unified manner. A graph shows the calculated THz gain spectra for three-subband GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells. We see that the coherent pump and signal wave interactions contribute significantly to the gain. The pump intensity dependence of the THz gain is also studied. The calculated results are shown. Because of the optical Stark effect and pump-induced population redistribution, the maximum THz gain saturates at larger pump intensities.

Description: Many Radar Cross Section (RCS) prediction codes are limited to one monostatic return per run. However, such codes can calculate multiple bistatic returns per incident angle for a relatively small amount of additional computer resources. This note describes a method of using bistatic returns to generate multiple monostatic predictions for each incident angle computed. Typical results are presented and show the accuracy is initially good and then degrades as the separation angle between the incident and viewing angles becomes large. Introduction Since 1990, the monostatic/bistatic approximation has been used to reduce the number of runs required by finite-volume time-domain (FVTD) codes for making RCS versus azimuth plots. This approximation was spawned by the observation of a range test where the transmit and receive antennas were separated by a few degrees to prevent cross talk between the antennas. The measurements from this range are presented as monostatic RCS rather than bistatic: RCS. The procedure of reporting experimental bistatic RCS as the monostatic RCS at the angle bisecting the transmit and receive antennas was extended to FVTD codes and produces excellent results.

Description: The Unitary Plan Facility is the most heavily used wind tunnel in all of NASA. Every major commercial transport and almost every fighter built in the United States over the last 30 years has been tested in this tunnel. Also tested in this tunnel complex were models of the Space Shuttle, as well as the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules. The wind tunnel represents a unique national asset of vital importance to the nation's defense and its competitive position in the world aerospace market. In 1985, the Unitary Plan Facility was named a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service because of 'its significant associations with the development of the American Space Program.'

Description: We introduce a new benchmark for measuring the performance of parallel input/ouput. This benchmark has flexible initialization. size. and scaling properties that allows it to satisfy seven criteria for practical parallel I/O benchmarks. We obtained performance results while running on the a SGI Origin2OOO computer with various numbers of processors: with 4 processors. the performance was 68.9 Mflop/s with 0.52 of the time spent on I/O, with 8 processors the performance was 139.3 Mflop/s with 0.50 of the time spent on I/O, with 16 processors the performance was 173.6 Mflop/s with 0.43 of the time spent on I/O. and with 32 processors the performance was 259.1 Mflop/s with 0.47 of the time spent on I/O.