ALBERT

Description: A smart monitoring system for superconducting cable test is proposed with an adaptive current control of a superconducting transformer secondary. The design, based on Fuzzy Gain Scheduling, allows the controller parameters to adapt continuously, and finely, to the working variations arising from transformer nonlinear dynamics. The control system is integrated in a fully digital control loop, with all the related benefits, i.e., high noise rejection, ease of implementation/modification, and so on. In particular, an accurate model of the system, controlled by a Fuzzy Gain Scheduler of the superconducting transformer, was achieved by an experimental campaign through the working domain at several current ramp rates. The model performance was characterized by simulation, under all the main operating conditions, in order to guide the controller design. Finally, the proposed monitoring system was experimentally validated at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in comparison to the state-of-the-art control system [P. Arpaia, L. Bottura, G. Montenero, and S. Le Naour, “Performance improvement of a measurement station for superconducting cable test,” Rev. Sci. Instrum.83, 095111 (2012)] of the Facility for the Research on Superconducting Cables, achieving a significant performance improvement: a reduction in the system overshoot by 50%, with a related attenuation of the corresponding dynamic residual error (both absolute and RMS) up to 52%.

Description: This paper presents a method which uses the characteristics of the etch pits induced in a polyallyl-diglycol-carbonate (PADC) detector of the CR-39/PM-355 type to estimate particle energy. This method is based on the data provided by a semiautomatic system that selects tracks according to two parameters, crater diameters, and mean gray level values. In this paper we used the results of the calibration measurements that were obtained in our laboratory in the period 2000–2014. Combining the information on the two parameters it is possible to determine unambiguously the incident projectile energy values. The paper presents the results of an attempt to estimate the energy resolution of the method when analyzing the tracks produced in the CR-39/PM-355 detector by energetic ions such as alpha particles, protons, and deuterons. We discuss the energy resolution of the measurement of light charged particle energy which is based on the parameters (crater diameter and mean gray level value) of tracks induced in solid state nuclear track detectors of the PADC type.

Description: In this work, an automated apparatus for driving single electrostatic probes and acquiring the plasma-related data has been designed and fabricated. The voltage range of the present system is ±110 V with an adjustable voltage step as low as 3 mV. Voltage and current measurements are carried out with high resolution and high accuracy circuits, both based on 16 bit analog-to-digital converters. The code embedded in a micro-controller, schedules the operation of the device and transfers the experimental data to a personal computer. The modular design of the system makes possible its modification and thus increases its adaptability to different plasma setups. Finally, the reliable operation of the entire device is confirmed by tests in Electron Cyclotron Resonance plasma.

Description: A pulsed slow-positron beam generated by an electron linear accelerator was directly used for positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy without any positron storage devices. A waveform digitizer was introduced to simultaneously capture multiple gamma-ray signals originating from positron annihilation events during a single accelerator pulse. The positron pulse was chopped and bunched with the chopper signals also sent to the waveform digitizer. Time differences between the annihilation gamma-ray and chopper peaks were calculated and accumulated as lifetime spectra in a computer. The developed technique indicated that positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy can be performed in a 20 μ s time window at a pulse repetition rate synchronous with the linear accelerator. Lifetime spectra of a Kapton sheet and a thermally grown SiO 2 layer on Si were successfully measured. Synchronization of positron lifetime measurements with pulsed ion irradiation was demonstrated by this technique.

Description: A major goal of nanotechnology is to develop the capability to arrange matter at will by placing individual atoms at desired locations in a predetermined configuration to build a nanostructure with specific properties or function. The scanning tunneling microscope has demonstrated the ability to arrange the basic building blocks of matter, single atoms, in two-dimensional configurations. An array of various nanostructures has been assembled, which display the quantum mechanics of quantum confined geometries. The level of human interaction needed to physically locate the atom and bring it to the desired location limits this atom assembly technology. Here we report the use of autonomous atom assembly via path planning technology; this allows atomically perfect nanostructures to be assembled without the need for human intervention, resulting in precise constructions in shorter times. We demonstrate autonomous assembly by assembling various quantum confinement geometries using atoms and molecules and describe the benefits of this approach.

Description: We developed a silicon avalanche photodiode (Si-APD) linear-array detector for use in nuclear resonant scattering experiments using synchrotron X-rays. The Si-APD linear array consists of 64 pixels (pixel size: 100 × 200 μm 2 ) with a pixel pitch of 150 μm and depletion depth of 10 μm. An ultrafast frontend circuit allows the X-ray detector to obtain a high output rate of 〉10 7 cps per pixel. High-performance integrated circuits achieve multichannel scaling over 1024 continuous time bins with a 1 ns resolution for each pixel without dead time. The multichannel scaling method enabled us to record a time spectrum of the 14.4 keV nuclear radiation at each pixel with a time resolution of 1.4 ns (FWHM). This method was successfully applied to nuclear forward scattering and nuclear small-angle scattering on 57 Fe.

Description: We describe a nanosecond time-resolved fluorescence spectrometer that acquires fluorescence decay waveforms from each well of a 384-well microplate in 3 min with signal-to-noise exceeding 400 using direct waveform recording. The instrument combines high-energy pulsed laser sources (5–10 kHz repetition rate) with a photomultiplier and high-speed digitizer (1 GHz) to record a fluorescence decay waveform after each pulse. Waveforms acquired from rhodamine or 5-((2-aminoethyl)amino) naphthalene-1-sulfonic acid dyes in a 384-well plate gave lifetime measurements 5- to 25-fold more precise than the simultaneous intensity measurements. Lifetimes as short as 0.04 ns were acquired by interleaving with an effective sample rate of 5 GHz. Lifetime measurements resolved mixtures of single-exponential dyes with better than 1% accuracy. The fluorescence lifetime plate reader enables multiple-well fluorescence lifetime measurements with an acquisition time of 0.5 s per well, suitable for high-throughput fluorescence lifetime screening applications.

Description: Diagnostic for investigating and distinguishing different laser ion acceleration mechanisms has been developed and successfully tested. An ion separation wide angle spectrometer can simultaneously investigate three important aspects of the laser plasma interaction: (1) acquire angularly resolved energy spectra for two ion species, (2) obtain ion energy spectra for multiple species, separated according to their charge to mass ratio, along selected axes, and (3) collect laser radiation reflected from and transmitted through the target and propagating in the same direction as the ion beam. Thus, the presented diagnostic constitutes a highly adaptable tool for accurately studying novel acceleration mechanisms in terms of their angular energy distribution, conversion efficiency, and plasma density evolution.

Description: μLaue diffraction with a polychromatic X-ray beam can be used to measure strain fields and crystal orientations of micro crystals. The hydrostatic strain tensor can be obtained once the energy profile of the reflections is measured. However, this remains a challenge both on the time scale and reproducibility of the beam position on the sample. In this review, we present a new approach to obtain the spatial and energy profiles of Laue spots by using a pn-junction charge-coupled device, an energy-dispersive area detector providing 3D resolution of incident X-rays. The morphology and energetic structure of various Bragg peaks from a single crystalline Cu micro-cantilever used as a test system were simultaneously acquired. The method facilitates the determination of the Laue spots’ energy spectra without filtering the white X-ray beam. The synchrotron experiment was performed at the BM32 beamline of ESRF using polychromatic X-rays in the energy range between 5 and 25 keV and a beam size of 0.5 μ m × 0.5 μ m. The feasibility test on the well known system demonstrates the capabilities of the approach and introduces the “3D detector method” as a promising tool for material investigations to separate bending and strain for technical materials.

Description: A short prototype (847-mm-long) of an Insertion Device (ID) with the dynamic compensation of ID magnetic forces has been designed, built, and tested at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) of the Argonne National Laboratory. The ID magnetic forces were compensated by the set of conical springs placed along the ID strongback. Well-controlled exponential characteristics of conical springs permitted a very close fit to the ID magnetic forces. Several effects related to the imperfections of actual springs, their mounting and tuning, and how these factors affect the prototype performance has been studied. Finally, series of tests to determine the accuracy and reproducibility of the ID magnetic gap settings have been carried out. Based on the magnetic measurements of the ID B eff , it has been demonstrated that the magnetic gaps within an operating range were controlled accurately and reproducibly within ±1 μ m. Successful tests of this ID prototype led to the design of a 3-m long device based on the same concept. The 3-m long prototype is currently under construction. It represents R&D efforts by the APS toward APS Upgrade Project goals as well as the future generation of IDs for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS).

Description: A description is given of an ultra-high vacuum surface-analysis chamber that incorporates an internal cell for performing atomic layer deposition at a pressure of up to ∼1 Torr. The apparatus permits the growth process to be interrupted in stages during which data can be obtained using infrared and x-ray photoemission spectroscopies together with other electron-based techniques. Demonstration results are given for the adsorption of H 2 O on Si (100) at a pressure of ∼0.3 Torr. The system described is generally applicable in the study of any surface reaction under non-high-vacuum conditions in which there is a need for both infrared and electron spectroscopies.

Description: We recently reported the development of a high pressure electrical conductivity probe (HP-ECP) for experimental studies of formation of gas hydrates from electrolytes. The onset of the formation of methane-propane mixed gas hydrate from salt solutions was marked by a temporary upward spike in the electrical conductivity. To further understand hydrate formation a second generation of window-less HP-ECP (MkII), which has a much smaller heat capacity than the earlier version and allows access to faster cooling rates, has been constructed. Using the HP-ECP (MkII) the electrical conductivity signal responses of NaCl solutions upon the formation of ice, tetrahydrofuran hydrates, and methane–propane mixed gas hydrate has been measured. The concentration range of the NaCl solutions was from 1 mM to 3M and the driving AC frequency range was from 25 Hz to 5 kHz. This data has been used to construct an “electrical conductivity response phase diagrams” that summarize the electrical conductivity response signal upon solid formation in these systems. The general trend is that gas hydrate formation is marked by an upward spike in the conductivity at high concentrations and by a drop at low concentrations. This work shows that HP-ECP can be applied in automated measurements of hydrate formation probability distributions of optically opaque samples using the conductivity response signals as a trigger.

Description: In thermomechanical testing of hypersonic materials and structures, direct observation and quantitative strain measurement of the front surface of a test specimen directly exposed to severe aerodynamic heating has been considered as a very challenging task. In this work, a novel quartz infrared heating device with an observation window is designed to reproduce the transient thermal environment experienced by hypersonic vehicles. The specially designed experimental system allows the capture of test article's surface images at various temperatures using an optical system outfitted with a bandpass filter. The captured images are post-processed by digital image correlation to extract full-field thermal deformation. To verify the viability and accuracy of the established system, thermal strains of a chromiumnickel austenite stainless steel sample heated from room temperature up to 600 °C were determined. The preliminary results indicate that the air disturbance between the camera and the specimen due to heat haze induces apparent distortions in the recorded images and large errors in the measured strains, but the average values of the measured strains are accurate enough. Limitations and further improvements of the proposed technique are discussed.

Description: A simplified method for calibrating atomic force microscope cantilevers was recently proposed by Sader et al. [Rev. Sci. Instrum.83, 103705 (2012); Sec. III D] that relies solely on the resonant frequency and quality factor of the cantilever in fluid (typically air). This method eliminates the need to measure the hydrodynamic function of the cantilever, which can be time consuming given the wide range of cantilevers now available. Using laser Doppler vibrometry, we rigorously assess the accuracy of this method for a series of commercially available cantilevers and explore its performance under non-ideal conditions. This shows that the simplified method is highly accurate and can be easily implemented to perform fast, robust, and non-invasive spring constant calibration.

Description: There exist a number of algorithms to map the phase to amplitude in direct digital synthesis (DDS). For DDS with more than 14 output bits, the Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) algorithm is well known for its high precision. Also, it is effective in solutions where there is the need of in-phase and quadrature components simultaneously because the algorithm calculates both. In this paper, a Taylor expansion based method was proposed to calculate both in-phase and quadrature at the same time. Numerical simulations for different data format, e.g., double and finite bits, were carried out in Matlab and Quartus, which were followed by the hardware implementation in Field Programmable Gate Array. The results demonstrated that the proposed method possessed higher precision and exhausted less logic elements than the CORDIC algorithm.

Description: We present a Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) card with a compact form factor, suitable for multichannel timing instruments or for integration into more complex systems. The TDC Card provides 10 ps timing resolution over the whole measurement range, which is selectable from 160 ns up to 10 μ s, reaching 21 ps rms precision, 1.25% LSB rms differential nonlinearity, up to 3 Mconversion/s with 400 mW power consumption. The I/O edge card connector provides timing data readout through either a parallel bus or a 100 MHz serial interface and further measurement information like input signal rate and valid conversion rate (typically useful for time-correlated single-photon counting application) through an independent serial link.

Description: This paper proposes a new pulse-mixing scheme utilizing both pulse-shrinking and pulse-stretching mechanisms to improve the performance of time-to-digital converters (TDCs). The temporal resolution of the conventional pulse-shrinking mechanism is determined by the size ratio between homogeneous and inhomogeneous elements. The proposed scheme which features double-stage operation derives its resolution according to the time difference between pulse-shrinking and pulse-stretching amounts. Thus, it can achieve greater immunity against temperature and ambient variations than that of the single-stage scheme. The circuit area also can be reduced by the proposed pulse-mixing scheme. In addition, this study proposes an improved cyclic delay line to eliminate the undesirable shift in the temporal resolution successfully. Therefore, the effective resolution can be controlled completely by the pulse-mixing unit to improve accuracy. The proposed TDC composed of only one cyclic delay line and one counter is fabricated in a TSMC CMOS 0.35-μm DPQM process. The chip core occupies an extremely small area of 0.02 mm 2 , which is the best among the related works. The experimental result shows that an effective resolution of around 53 ps within ±13% variation over a 0–100 °C temperature range is achieved. The power consumption is 90 μW at a sample rate of 1000 samples/s. In addition to the reduced area, the proposed TDC circuit achieves its resolution with less thermal-sensitivity and better fluctuations caused by process variations.

Description: Real time, in situ , multiframe, diffraction, and imaging measurements on bulk samples under high and ultrahigh strain-rate loading are highly desirable for micro- and mesoscale sciences. We present an experimental demonstration of multiframe transient x-ray diffraction (TXD) along with simultaneous imaging under high strain-rate loading at the Advanced Photon Source beamline 32ID. The feasibility study utilizes high strain-rate Hopkinson bar loading on a Mg alloy. The exposure time in TXD is 2–3 μs, and the frame interval is 26.7–62.5 μs. Various dynamic deformation mechanisms are revealed by TXD, including lattice expansion or compression, crystal plasticity, grain or lattice rotation, and likely grain refinement, as well as considerable anisotropy in deformation. Dynamic strain fields are mapped via x-ray digital image correlation, and are consistent with the diffraction measurements and loading histories.

Description: We report techniques developed to utilize three-dimensional momentum information as feedback in adaptive femtosecond control of molecular dynamics. Velocity map imaging is used to obtain the three-dimensional momentum map of the dissociating ions following interaction with a shaped intense ultrafast laser pulse. In order to recover robust feedback information, however, the two-dimensional momentum projection from the detector must be inverted to reconstruct the full three-dimensional momentum of the photofragments. These methods are typically slow or require manual inputs and are therefore accomplished offline after the images have been obtained. Using an algorithm based upon an “onion-peeling” (also known as “back projection”) method, we are able to invert 1040 × 1054 pixel images in under 1 s. This rapid inversion allows the full photofragment momentum to be used as feedback in a closed-loop adaptive control scheme, in which a genetic algorithm tailors an ultrafast laser pulse to optimize a specific outcome. Examples of three-dimensional velocity map image based control applied to strong-field dissociation of CO and O 2 are presented.

Description: In order to improve the atom spin gyroscope's operational accuracy and compensate the random error caused by the nonlinear and weak-stability characteristic of the random atomic spin gyroscope (ASG) drift, the hybrid random drift error model based on autoregressive (AR) and genetic programming (GP) + genetic algorithm (GA) technique is established. The time series of random ASG drift is taken as the study object. The time series of random ASG drift is acquired by analyzing and preprocessing the measured data of ASG. The linear section model is established based on AR technique. After that, the nonlinear section model is built based on GP technique and GA is used to optimize the coefficients of the mathematic expression acquired by GP in order to obtain a more accurate model. The simulation result indicates that this hybrid model can effectively reflect the characteristics of the ASG's random drift. The square error of the ASG's random drift is reduced by 92.40%. Comparing with the AR technique and the GP + GA technique, the random drift is reduced by 9.34% and 5.06%, respectively. The hybrid modeling method can effectively compensate the ASG's random drift and improve the stability of the system.

Description: This paper describes the design and performance of an extremely low-noise differential transimpedance amplifier, which takes its two inputs from separate photodiodes. The amplifier was planned to serve as the front-end electronics for a highly sensitive shadow-displacement sensing system, aimed at detecting very low-level “Violin-Mode” ( VM ) oscillations in 0.4 mm diameter by 600 mm long fused-silica suspension fibres. Four such highly tensioned fibres support the 40 kg test-masses/mirrors of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory interferometers. This novel design of amplifier incorporates features which prevent “noise-gain peaking” arising from large area photodiode (and cable) capacitances, and which also usefully separate the DC and AC photocurrents coming from the photodiodes. In consequence, the differential amplifier was able to generate straightforwardly two DC outputs, one per photodiode, as well as a single high-gain output for monitoring the VM oscillations—this output being derived from the difference of the photodiodes’ two, naturally anti-phase, AC photocurrents. Following a displacement calibration, the amplifier's final VM signal output was found to have an AC displacement responsivity at 500 Hz of (9.43 ± 1.20) MV(rms) m −1 (rms), and, therefore, a shot-noise limited sensitivity to such AC shadow- (i.e., fibre-) displacements of (69 ± 13) picometres/√Hz at this frequency, over a measuring span of ±0.1 mm.

Description: We present a novel high-precision two-way optic-fiber time transfer scheme. The Inter-Range Instrumentation Group (IRIG-B) time code is modified by increasing bit rate and defining new fields. The modified time code can be transmitted directly using commercial optical transceivers and is able to efficiently suppress the effect of the Rayleigh backscattering in the optical fiber. A dedicated codec (encoder and decoder) with low delay fluctuation is developed. The synchronization issue is addressed by adopting a mask technique and combinational logic circuit. Its delay fluctuation is less than 27 ps in terms of the standard deviation. The two-way optic-fiber time transfer using the improved codec scheme is verified experimentally over 2 m to100 km fiber links. The results show that the stability over 100 km fiber link is always less than 35 ps with the minimum value of about 2 ps at the averaging time around 1000 s. The uncertainty of time difference induced by the chromatic dispersion over 100 km is less than 22 ps.

Description: Neutrons spectra from most of known sources require being collimated for numerous applications; among them one is the Neutron Activation Analysis. High energy neutrons are collimated through a mechanical procedure as one of the most promising methods. The output energy of the neutron beam depends on the velocity of the rotating Polyethylene disks. The collimated neutrons are then measured by an innovative detection technique with high accuracy.

Description: Acceleration in development of additional conventional hydropower requires tools and methods to perform laboratory and in-field validation of turbine performance and fish passage claims. The new-generation Sensor Fish has been developed with more capabilities to accommodate a wider range of users over a broader range of turbine designs and operating environments. It provides in situ measurements of three-dimensional (3D) linear accelerations, 3D rotational velocities, 3D orientation, pressure, and temperature at a sampling frequency of 2048 Hz. It also has an automatic floatation system and built-in radio-frequency transmitter for recovery. The relative errors of the pressure, acceleration, and rotational velocity were within ±2%, ±5%, and ±5%, respectively. The accuracy of orientation was within ±4° and accuracy of temperature was ±2 °C. The new-generation Sensor Fish is becoming a major technology and being deployed for evaluating the conditions for fish passage of turbines or other hydraulic structures in both the United States and several other countries.

Description: High-speed atomic force microscopy has attracted much attention due to its unique capability of visualizing nanoscale dynamic processes at a solid/liquid interface. However, its usability and resolution have yet to be improved. As one of the solutions for this issue, here we present a design of a high-speed Z -tip scanner with screw holding mechanism. We perform detailed comparison between designs with different actuator size and screw arrangement by finite element analysis. Based on the design giving the best performance, we have developed a Z tip scanner and measured its performance. The measured frequency response of the scanner shows a flat response up to ∼10 kHz. This high frequency response allows us to achieve wideband tip-sample distance regulation. We demonstrate the applicability of the scanner to high-speed atomic-resolution imaging by visualizing atomic-scale calcite crystal dissolution process in water at 2 s/frame.

Description: A suspension system of classical geophone was developed, adopting multiple pairs of leaf springs as a substitute for one pair. The finite element analysis was used as the solving means, and the results indicated that the geophone performance with developed suspension system was more favorable than that with conventional suspension system. First, the operating broadband of the improved geophone was wider than that of the conventional geophone. Second, the distortion of output signal for a geophone was slightly reduced, which was usually enlarged with improving the ratio of spurious resonant frequency to natural frequency.

Description: A liquid membrane electrochemical etching process for preparing nano-tips is proposed by the introduction of buoyant force to the lower tip, in which the lower portion of the anodic wire is immersed into a floating layer. A mathematical model of this method is derived. Both calculation and experimental results demonstrate that the introduction of buoyant force can significantly decrease the tip radius. The lubricating oil and deionized water floating layers were tested for the processing of nano-tips. Further, high-aspect-ratio nano-electrodes were prepared by applying a relative vertical movement to the anodic wire.

Description: Construction and characterization of a multichannel photodiode detector based on commercially available components with high signal to noise of ∼10 6 and a rapid frame rate, suitable for time resolved femtosecond spectroscopy with high repetition femtosecond sources, is presented.

Description: The neutron imaging system at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is an important diagnostic tool for measuring the two-dimensional size and shape of the neutrons produced in the burning deuterium-tritium plasma during the stagnation stage of inertial confinement fusion implosions. Since the neutron source is small (∼100 μ m) and neutrons are deeply penetrating (〉3 cm) in all materials, the apertures used to achieve the desired 10- μ m resolution are 20-cm long, triangular tapers machined in gold foils. These gold foils are stacked to form an array of 20 apertures for pinhole imaging and three apertures for penumbral imaging. These apertures must be precisely aligned to accurately place the field of view of each aperture at the design location, or the location of the field of view for each aperture must be measured. In this paper we present a new technique that has been developed for the measurement and characterization of the precise location of each aperture in the array. We present the detailed algorithms used for this characterization and the results of reconstructed sources from inertial confinement fusion implosion experiments at NIF.

Description: Laser-based time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) and frequency-domain thermoreflectance (FDTR) techniques are widely used for investigating thermal transport at micro- and nano-scales. We demonstrate that data obtained in TDTR measurements can be represented in a frequency-domain form equivalent to FDTR, i.e., in the form of a surface temperature amplitude and phase response to time-harmonic heating. Such a representation is made possible by using a large TDTR delay time window covering the entire pulse repetition interval. We demonstrate the extraction of frequency-domain data up to 1 GHz from TDTR measurements on a sapphire sample coated with a thin layer of aluminum, and show that the frequency dependencies of both the amplitude and phase responses agree well with theory. The proposed method not only allows a direct comparison of TDTR and FDTR data, but also enables measurements at high frequencies currently not accessible to FDTR. The frequency-domain representation helps uncover aspects of the measurement physics which remain obscured in a traditional TDTR measurement, such as the importance of modeling the details of the heat transport in the metal transducer film for analyzing high frequency responses.

Description: The ability to synchronize a femtosecond laser to x-ray pulses is crucial for performing ultrafast time-resolved x-ray scattering experiments at synchrotrons. Conventionally, the task has been achieved by locking a harmonic frequency of the laser oscillator to the storage ring master radio-frequency (RF). However, when the frequency mismatch between the two sources cannot be compensated by small adjustments to the laser cavity length, synchronization to a harmonic frequency requires modifying the optical components of the laser system. We demonstrate a novel synchronization scheme, which is a flexible alternative for synchronizing these two sources operating at arbitrarily different frequencies. First, we find the greatest common divisor (GCD) of the two frequencies that is still within the limited tuning range of the laser cavity length. The GCD is generated by dividing down from the storage ring RF, and is separately multiplied up to provide a feedback signal for synchronizing the laser cavity. Unique to our scheme, the GCD also serves as a harmonic RF source for the laser amplifier such that only laser oscillator pulses at fixed integer multiples of the storage ring RF are selected for amplification and delivery to experiments. Our method is implemented at the Photon Test Facility beamline of Pohang Light Source where timing-jitter less than 4 ps (r.m.s.) is measured using a new shot-to-shot method.

Description: A semi-adiabatic isoperibol solution calorimeter has been indigenously developed. The measurement system comprises modules for sensitive temperature measurement probe, signal processing, data collection, and joule calibration. The sensitivity of the temperature measurement module was enhanced by using a sensitive thermistor coupled with a lock-in amplifier based signal processor. A microcontroller coordinates the operation and control of these modules. The latter in turn is controlled through personal computer (PC) based custom made software developed with LabView. An innovative summing amplifier concept was used to cancel out the base resistance of the thermistor. The latter was placed in the dewar. The temperature calibration was carried out with a standard platinum resistance (PT100) sensor coupled with an 8½ digit multimeter. The water equivalent of this calorimeter was determined by using electrical calibration with the joule calibrator. The experimentally measured values of the quantum of heat were validated by measuring heats of dissolution of pure KCl (for endotherm) and tris (hydroxyl methyl) amino-methane (for exotherm). The uncertainity in the measurements was found to be within ±3%.

Description: A biomedical microwave tomography system with 3D-imaging capabilities has been constructed and translated to the clinic. Updates to the hardware and reconfiguration of the electronic-network layouts in a more compartmentalized construct have streamlined system packaging. Upgrades to the data acquisition and microwave components have increased data-acquisition speeds and improved system performance. By incorporating analog-to-digital boards that accommodate the linear amplification and dynamic-range coverage our system requires, a complete set of data (for a fixed array position at a single frequency) is now acquired in 5.8 s. Replacement of key components (e.g., switches and power dividers) by devices with improved operational bandwidths has enhanced system response over a wider frequency range. High-integrity, low-power signals are routinely measured down to −130 dBm for frequencies ranging from 500 to 2300 MHz. Adequate inter-channel isolation has been maintained, and a dynamic range 〉110 dB has been achieved for the full operating frequency range (500–2900 MHz). For our primary band of interest, the associated measurement deviations are less than 0.33% and 0.5° for signal amplitude and phase values, respectively. A modified monopole antenna array (composed of two interwoven eight-element sub-arrays), in conjunction with an updated motion-control system capable of independently moving the sub-arrays to various in-plane and cross-plane positions within the illumination chamber, has been configured in the new design for full volumetric data acquisition. Signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) are more than adequate for all transmit/receive antenna pairs over the full frequency range and for the variety of in-plane and cross-plane configurations. For proximal receivers, in-plane SNRs greater than 80 dB are observed up to 2900 MHz, while cross-plane SNRs greater than 80 dB are seen for 6 cm sub-array spacing (for frequencies up to 1500 MHz). We demonstrate accurate recovery of 3D dielectric property distributions for breast-like phantoms with tumor inclusions utilizing both the in-plane and new cross-plane data.

Description: In situ x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) provides element-specific characterization of both crystalline and amorphous phases and enables direct correlations between electrochemical performance and structural characteristics of cathode and anode materials. In situ XAS measurements are very demanding to the design of the experimental setup. We have developed a sample chamber that provides electrical connectivity and inert atmosphere for operating electrochemical cells and also accounts for x-ray interactions with the chamber and cell materials. The design of the sample chamber for in situ measurements is presented along with example XAS spectra from anode materials in operating pouch cells at the Zn and Sn K-edges measured in fluorescence and transmission modes, respectively.

Description: The light intensity of 6 Li III line spectrum at λ = 516.7 nm was observed during 6 Li 3+ beam tuning at the Hyper-Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source. Separation of ion species of the same charge to mass ratio with an electromagnetic mass analyzer is known to be an exceptionally complex process. However, 6 Li III line intensity observation conducted in this study gives new insights into its simplification of this process. The light intensity of 6 Li III line spectrum from the ECR plasma was found to have a strong correlation with the extracted 6 Li 3+ beam intensity from the RIKEN Azimuthal Varying Field cyclotron.

Description: The paper describes a time- and angle-resolved photoemission apparatus consisting of a hemispherical analyzer and a pulsed laser source. We demonstrate 1.48-eV pump and 5.92-eV probe measurements at the ⩾10.5-meV and ⩾240-fs resolutions by use of fairly monochromatic 170-fs pulses delivered from a regeneratively amplified Ti:sapphire laser system operating typically at 250 kHz. The apparatus is capable to resolve the optically filled superconducting peak in the unoccupied states of a cuprate superconductor, Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8 + δ . A dataset recorded on Bi(111) surface is also presented. Technical descriptions include the followings: A simple procedure to fine-tune the spatio-temporal overlap of the pump-and-probe beams and their diameters; achieving a long-term stability of the system that enables a normalization-free dataset acquisition; changing the repetition rate by utilizing acoustic optical modulator and frequency-division circuit.

Description: Ellipsometry is one of the standard methods for observation of glass transition in thin polymer films. This work proposes that sensitivity of the method to surface morphology can complicate manifestation of the transition in a few nm thick samples. Two possible mechanisms of free surface roughening in the vicinity of glass transition are discussed: roughening due to lateral heterogeneity and roughening associated with thermal capillary waves. Both mechanisms imply an onset of surface roughness in the glass transition temperature range, which affects the experimental data in a way that shifts apparent glass transition temperature. Effective medium approximation models are used to introduce surface roughness into optical calculations. The results of the optical modeling for a 5 nm thick polystyrene film on silicon are presented.

Description: Investigations of emission of harmonics from argon gas jet irradiated by 700 fs, 5 mJ pulses from a KrF laser are presented. Harmonics conversion was optimized by varying the experimental geometry and the nozzle size. For the collection of the harmonic radiation silicon and solar-blind diamond semiconductor detectors equipped with charge preamplifiers were applied. The possibility of using a single-crystal CVD diamond detector for separate measurement of the 3rd harmonic in the presence of a strong pumping radiation was explored. Our experiments show that the earlier suggested 0.7% conversion efficiency can really be obtained, but only in the case when phase matching is optimized with an elongated gas target length corresponding to the length of coherence.

Description: The RF properties of an accelerating structure, and the pulse structure and charge per bunch in the electron beam propagating through it are important parameters that determine the impact of beam loading in the structure. The injector linac of the Compact Ultrafast Terahertz Free-Electron Laser (CUTE-FEL) has been operated with two different pulse structures during initial commissioning experiments and the effect of beam loading on the accelerated electron beam parameters has been studied analytically for these two pulse structures. This paper discusses the analytical study of beam loading in a Standing Wave, Plane Wave Transformer linac employed in the CUTE-FEL setup, and a possible technique for its compensation for the electron beam parameters of the CUTE-FEL. A parametric study has been performed to study beam loading for different beam currents and to optimize injection time of the electron beam to compensate beam loading. Results from the parametric study have also been used to explain previously observed results from acceleration experiments in the CUTE-FEL setup.

Description: We report the design, construction, and performances of a microwave (MW) heating device for laboratory experiments with non-contact, homogeneous internal heating. The device generates MW radiation at 2.47 GHz from a commercial magnetron supplied by a pulsed current inverter using proprietary, feedback based command and control hardware and software. Specially designed MW launchers direct the MW radiation into the sample through a MW homogenizer, devised to even the MW power distribution into the sample's volume. An adjustable MW circuit adapts the MW generator to the load (i.e., the sample) placed in the experiment chamber. Dedicated heatsinks maintain the MW circuits at constant temperature throughout the experiment. Openings for laser scanning for image acquisition with a CCD camera and for the cooling circuits are protected by special MW filters. The performances of the device are analyzed in terms of heating uniformity, long term output power stability, and load matching. The device is used for small scale experiments simulating Earth's mantle convection. The 30 × 30 × 5 cm 3 convection tank is filled with a water‑based viscous fluid. A uniform and constant temperature is maintained at the upper boundary by an aluminum heat exchanger and adiabatic conditions apply at the tank base. We characterize the geometry of the convective regime as well as its bulk thermal evolution by measuring the velocity field by Particle Image Velocimetry and the temperature field by using Thermochromic Liquid Crystals.

Description: This paper announces the implementation of a long wavelength infrared camera to obtain high-speed thermal images of an aircraft engine's in-service thermal barrier coated turbine blades. Long wavelength thermal images were captured of first-stage blades. The achieved temporal and spatial resolutions allowed for the identification of cooling-hole locations. The software and synchronization components of the system allowed for the selection of any blade on the turbine wheel, with tuning capability to image from leading edge to trailing edge. Its first application delivered calibrated thermal images as a function of turbine rotational speed at both steady state conditions and during engine transients. In advance of presenting these data for the purpose of understanding engine operation, this paper focuses on the components of the system, verification of high-speed synchronized operation, and the integration of the system with the commercial jet engine test bed.

Description: We present a home built electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope (ECSTM) with very high stability and repeatability. Its coarse approach is driven by a closely stacked piezo motor of GeckoDrive type with four rigid clamping points, which enhances the rigidity, compactness, and stability greatly. It can give high clarity atomic resolution images without sound and vibration isolations. Its drifting rates in XY and Z directions in solution are as low as 84 pm/min and 59 pm/min, respectively. In addition, repeatable coarse approaches in solution within 2 mm travel distance show a lateral deviation less than 50 nm. The gas environment can be well controlled to lower the evaporation rate of the cell, thus reducing the contamination and elongating the measurement time. Atomically resolved SO 4 2− image on Au (111) work electrode is demonstrated to show the performance of the ECSTM.

Description: Electrospray mass spectrometry is now a widely used technique for observing cell content of various biological tissues. However, electrospray techniques (liquid chromatography and direct infusion) often involve lysing a group of cells and extracting the biomolecules of interest, rather than a sensitive, individual cell method to observe local chemistry. Presented here is an approach of combining a nanomanipulator workstation with nanospray mass spectrometry, which allows for extraction of a single cell, followed by rapid mass analysis that can provide a detailed metabolic profile. Triacylglycerol content was profiled with this tool coupled to mass spectrometry to investigate heterogeneity between healthy and tumorous tissues as well as lipid droplet containing adipocytes in vitro as proof of concept. This selective approach provides cellular resolution and complements existing bioanalytical techniques with minimal invasion to samples. In addition, the coupling of nanomanipulation and mass spectrometry holds the potential to be used in a great number of applications for individual organelles, diseased tissues, and in vitro cell cultures for observing heterogeneity even amongst cells and organelles of the same tissue.

Description: We present a space and time resolved interferometric plasma diagnostic for use on plasmas where neutral-bound electron contribution to the refractive index cannot be neglected. By recording simultaneously the plasma optical index at 532 and 1064 n m , we are able to extract independently the neutral and free electron density profiles. We report a phase resolution of 30 m rad , corresponding to a maximum resolution on the order of 4 × 10 22 m − 3 for the electron density, and of 10 24 m − 3 for the neutral density. The interferometer is demonstrated on centimeter-scale sparks triggered by laser filamentation in air with typical currents of a few tens of A.

Description: An ultrasonic contact-type position restoration mechanism is proposed and investigated in this paper. In the mechanism, two driving points of an ultrasonic vibrator, excited by an AC voltage, produces a restoring force on a slider so that the slider can be pushed back to its equilibrium after it is perturbed away from its equilibrium. The restoring force is generated by the unbalance of ultrasonic frictional driving forces on the slider, which is caused by a pressure difference on the two driving points. A prototype of this mechanism is fabricated, and the effects of the driving voltage, preload between the slider and vibrator, and slider's size on the restoring characteristics are experimentally measured and analyzed.

Description: A transverse beam emittance and acceptance measurement system has been developed to visualize the relationship between the injected beam emittance and the acceptance of a cyclotron. The system is composed of a steering magnet, two pairs of slits to limit the horizontal and vertical phase-space, a beam intensity detector just behind the slits for the emittance measurement, and a beam intensity detector in the cyclotron for the acceptance measurement. The emittance is obtained by scanning the slits and measuring the beam intensity distribution. The acceptance is obtained by measuring the distribution of relative beam transmission by injecting small emittance beams at various positions in a transverse phase-space using the slits. In the acceptance measurement, the beam from an ion source is deflected to the defined region by the slits using the steering magnet so that measurable acceptance area covers a region outside the injection beam emittance. Measurement tests were carried out under the condition of accelerating a beam of 16 O 6+ from 50.2 keV to 160 MeV. The emittance of the injected beam and the acceptance for accelerating and transporting the beam to the entrance of the extraction deflector were successfully measured. The relationship between the emittance and acceptance is visualized by displaying the results in the same phase-plane.

Description: In the development of magnetically confined fusion as an economically sustainable power source, International Tokamak Experimental Reactor (ITER) is currently under construction. Beyond ITER is the demonstration fusion reactor (DEMO) programme in which the physics and engineering aspects of a future fusion power plant will be demonstrated. DEMO will produce net electrical power. The DEMO programme will be outlined and the role of neutral beams for heating and current drive will be described. In particular, the importance of the efficiency of neutral beam systems in terms of injected neutral beam power compared to wallplug power will be discussed. Options for improving this efficiency including advanced neutralisers and energy recovery are discussed.

Description: Extracted ion beams from the test laser ion source (LIS) were transported through a test beam transport line which is almost identical to the actual primary beam transport in the current electron beam ion source apparatus. The tested species were C, Al, Si, Cr, Fe, Cu, Ag, Ta, and Au. The all measured beam currents fulfilled the requirements. However, in the case of light mass ions, the recorded emittance shapes have larger aberrations and the RMS values are higher than 0.06 π mm mrad, which is the design goal. Since we have margin to enhance the beam current, if we then allow some beam losses at the injection point, the number of the single charged ions within the acceptance can be supplied. For heaver ions like Ag, Ta, and Au, the LIS showed very good performance.

Description: A tunable transmission grating was fabricated by molding a silicone elastomer (polydimethylsiloxane). Its optical characteristics were then evaluated during compression. For fabrication, a glass plate with a photoimprinted polymer grating film was used as a mold. Both the grating period and diffraction transmittance of the molded elastomer were functions of the compressive stress. The grating period changed from 3.02 to 2.86 μ m during compressing the elastomer in the direction perpendicular to the grooves.

Description: Ion sources for ion implantation are introduced. The technique is applied not only to large scale integration (LSI) devices but also to flat panel display. For LSI fabrication, ion source scheduled maintenance cycle is most important. For CMOS image sensor devices, metal contamination at implanted wafer is most important. On the other hand, to fabricate miniaturized devices, cluster ion implantation has been proposed to make shallow PN junction. While for power devices such as silicon carbide, aluminum ion is required. For doping processes of LCD fabrication, a large ion source is required. The extraction area is about 150 cm × 10 cm, and the beam uniformity is important as well as the total target beam current.

Description: In order to carry out precise laboratory measurements of infrared absorption intensities, line profiles of molecules and organic volatile compounds for atmospheric chemistry in planetary and upper earth atmospheric layers, precise gas pressure measurement between 10 −3 and a few mbars in the 77–300 K temperature range is necessary. A prototype, rugged, precision capacitive pressure gauge for cryogenic use has been designed, built at SOLEIL and tested down to 77 K. The design includes corrosion-resistant materials and has been tailored to operate on a differential measurement scheme based on a simple, precision capacitance-to-digital converter chip, instead of high precision floating capacitive bridges, as are used in other designs. The designs conception and performance specifications are presented here, illustrated by a precision of better than 1% in the 0.2–40 mbar range, with a resolution of 2 × 10 −3 mbar. The gauge is tunable and can be adjusted for higher precision and a better resolution, at the expense of the maximum high-pressure range.

Description: A novel method for predictions of the sound pressure distribution in acoustic levitators is based on a matrix representation of the Rayleigh integral. This method allows for a fast calculation of the acoustic field within the resonator. To make sure that the underlying assumptions and simplifications are justified, this approach was tested by a direct comparison to experimental data. The experimental sound pressure distributions were recorded by high spatially resolved frequency selective microphone scanning. To emphasize the general applicability of the two approaches, the comparative studies were conducted for four different resonator geometries. In all cases, the results show an excellent agreement, demonstrating the accuracy of the matrix method.

Description: Vibrating mechanical structure characterization is demonstrated using contactless techniques best suited for mobile and rotating equipments. Fast measurement rates are achieved using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices as real-time digital signal processors. Two kinds of algorithms are implemented on FPGA and experimentally validated in the case of the vibrating tuning fork. A first application concerns in-plane displacement detection by vision with sampling rates above 10 kHz, thus reaching frequency ranges above the audio range. A second demonstration concerns pulsed-RADAR cooperative target phase detection and is applied to radiofrequency acoustic transducers used as passive wireless strain gauges. In this case, the 250 ksamples/s refresh rate achieved is only limited by the acoustic sensor design but not by the detection bandwidth. These realizations illustrate the efficiency, interest, and potentialities of FPGA-based real-time digital signal processing for the contactless interrogation of passive embedded probes with high refresh rates.

Description: Organic devices have to be protected with a permeation barrier against ambient moisture since their performance is strongly reduced by contact with water. The corrosion of calcium is widely used to evaluate such permeation barriers. However, design details of the calcium corrosion test may have severe consequences for the validity and precision of the measurement results. In this work, we present such a measurement distortion caused by the direct contact between calcium and the inorganic permeation barrier. Fortunately, even a 20 nm thin interlayer of a soft material (i.e., C 60 ) sandwiched between calcium and the barrier reestablishes the validity of the measurement. In addition, we present our latest and improved electrical calcium test layout used for this investigation.

Description: We present a precision, 1-A, digitally interfaced current controller for quantum cascade lasers, with demonstrated temperature coefficients for continuous and 40-kHz full-depth square-wave modulated operation, of 1–2 ppm/ °C and 15 ppm/ °C, respectively. High precision digital to analog converters (DACs) together with an ultra-precision voltage reference produce highly stable, precision voltages, which are selected by a multiplexer (MUX) chip to set output currents via a linear current regulator. The controller is operated in conjunction with a power multiplexing unit, allowing one of three lasers to be driven by the controller, while ensuring protection of controller and all lasers during operation, standby, and switching. Simple ASCII commands sent over a USB connection to a microprocessor located in the current controller operate both the controller (via the DACs and MUX chip) and the power multiplexer.

Description: A 22 m diameter circular rail, outfitted with a mobile sonar tower trolley, was designed, fabricated, instrumented with underwater acoustic transducers, and assembled on a 1.5 m thick sand layer at the bottom of a large freshwater pool to carry out sonar design and target scattering response studies. The mobile sonar tower translates along the rail via a drive motor controlled by customized LabVIEW software. The rail system is modular and assembly consists of separately deploying eight circular arc sections, measuring a nominal center radius of 11 m and 8.64 m arc length each, and having divers connect them together in the underwater environment. The system enables full scale measurements on targets of interest with 0.1° angular resolution over a complete 360° aperture, without disrupting target setup, and affording a level of control over target environment conditions and noise sources unachievable in standard field measurements. In recent use, the mobile cart carrying an instrumented sonar tower was translated along the rail in 720 equal position increments and acoustic backscatter data were acquired at each position. In addition, this system can accommodate both broadband monostatic and bistatic scattering measurements on targets of interest, allowing capture of target signature phenomena under diverse configurations to address current scientific and technical issues encountered in mine countermeasure and unexploded ordnance applications. In the work discussed here, the circular rail apparatus is used for acoustic backscatter testing, but this system also has the capacity to facilitate the acquisition of magnetic and optical sensor data from targets of interest. A brief description of the system design and operation will be presented along with preliminary processed results for data acquired from acoustic measurements conducted at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City Division Test Pond Facility. [Work Supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research and The Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program.]

Description: Optical hydrophones are optimized pressure-pulse-sensors used for high-power shockwave sources, such as lithotripters. Recent investigation of Smith et al. [“A Comparison of light spot hydrophone and fiber optic probe hydrophone for lithotripter field characterization,” Rev. Sci. Instrum.83, 014301 (2012)] show discrepancies in the negative pressure peak and tensile pulse duration regarding measurements carried out with two optical hydrophones: the Light Spot Hydrophone (LSHD) and the fiber optic hydro-phone. It was assumed that the differences arise from cavitation effects at the end-face of the LSHD glass-block and filter characteristics of the trans-impedance amplifier of the LSHD. The present study investigates the transfer-function of the LSHD. It is shown that the filter characteristics of the amplifier cause discrepancies in the rarefaction pressure pulse fraction (depending on the energy settings of the source 15 ± 2%).

Description: The fixed target experiment NA61 in the North Area of the Super Proton Synchrotron is studying phase transitions in strongly interacting matter. Up to now they used the primary beams available from the CERN accelerator complex (protons and lead ions) or fragmented beams created from the primary lead ion beam. To explore a wider range of energies and densities a request was made to provide primary argon and xenon beams. This paper describes the results of the setting up and 10 week test run of the Ar 11+ beam from the 14.5 GHz ECR ion source and the linear accelerator (Linac3) at CERN.

Description: The new international accelerator facility for antiproton and ion research (FAIR) at GSI in Darmstadt, Germany, is one of the largest research projects worldwide and will provide an antiproton production rate of 7 × 10 10 cooled pbars per hour. This is equivalent to a primary proton beam current of 2 × 10 16 protons per hour. For this request a high intensity proton linac (p-linac) will be built with an operating rf-frequency of 325 MHz to accelerate a 35 mA proton beam at 70 MeV, using conducting crossed-bar H-cavities. The repetition rate is 4 Hz with beam pulse length of 36 μ s. The microwave ion source and low energy beam transport developed within a joint French-German collaboration GSI/CEA-SACLAY will serve as an injector of the compact proton linac. The 2.45 GHz ion source allows high brightness ion beams at an energy of 95 keV and will deliver a proton beam current of 100 mA at the entrance of the radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) within an acceptance of 0.3π mm mrad (norm., rms).

Description: We present a novel ultra-high resolution Raman spectroscopy technique based in a Fabry-Pérot/triple spectrometer tandem with multichannel acquisition. We describe the system, detail the calibration process, and experimentally test the technique, showing that effective finesses in excess of 1000 are possible. The technique is specifically tailored for low intensity, complex and spectrally extended Raman spectra, providing shorter acquisition times with respect to similar tandem systems with monochannel detectors.

Description: The plasma electrode structure of a 14 GHz ECR ion source was modified to enlarge the plasma volume of low electron temperature region. The result shows that the extracted beam current reached about 0.6 mA/cm 2 with about 40 W microwave power. To investigate the correlation between the volume of the low electron temperature region and the H − current, a vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectrometer had been installed to observe light emission in the VUV wavelength range from the plasma. From the results of the negative ion beam current and that from VUV spectrometry, production rate of vibrationally excited hydrogen molecule seems to be enhanced by increasing the volume of low electron temperature region.

Description: Progress in the kinetic modeling of particle dynamics in H − negative ion source plasmas and their comparisons with experiments are reviewed, and discussed with some new results. Main focus is placed on the following two topics, which are important for the research and development of large negative ion sources and high power H − ion beams: (i) Effects of non-equilibrium features of EEDF (electron energy distribution function) on H − production, and (ii) extraction physics of H − ions and beam optics.

Description: Over the past two years, we have tried to improve the performance of the RIKEN superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source using several methods. For the production of U vapor, we chose the sputtering method because it is possible to install a large amount of material inside the plasma chamber and thus achieve long-term operation without a break, although it is assumed that the beam intensity is weaker than in the oven technique. We also used an aluminum chamber instead of a stainless steel one. Using these methods, we successfully produced ∼180 eμA of U 35+ and ∼230 eμA of U 33+ at the injected radio frequency (RF) power of ∼4 kW (28 GHz). Very recently, to further increase the beam intensity of U 35+ , we have started to develop a high temperature oven and have successfully produced a highly charged U ion beam. In this contribution, we report on the beam intensity of highly charged U ions as a function of various parameters (RF power and sputtering voltage) and discuss the effects of these parameters on the beam stability in detail.

Description: Our previous study by two dimension in real space and three dimension in velocity space-particle in cell model shows that the curvature of the plasma meniscus causes the beam halo in the negative ion sources. The negative ions extracted from the periphery of the meniscus are over-focused in the extractor due to the electrostatic lens effect, and consequently become the beam halo. The purpose of this study is to verify this mechanism with the full 3D model. It is shown that the above mechanism is essentially unchanged even in the 3D model, while the fraction of the beam halo is significantly reduced to 6%. This value reasonably agrees with the experimental result.

Description: The paper describes the principle of operation, design special features, and parameters of an inverted time-of-flight spectrometer. The spectrometer is designed in such way that its deflecting plates, drift tube, and primary measuring system are at high potential with respect to the ground potential, whereas plasma is formed near grounded electrodes. This type of configuration greatly extends the application range of the device, making it possible to measure the mass-to-charge composition of plasma with wide range of parameters.

Description: A 70 mm diameter 70 mm long compact ion source equipped with a hollow sputtering target has been designed and tested. The hollow sputtering target serves as the radio frequency (RF) plasma excitation electrode at 13.56 MHz. A stable beam of Cu + has been extracted when Ar was used as the discharge support gas. In the extracted beam, Cu + had occupied more than 85% of the total ion current. Further increase in Cu + ions in the beam is anticipated by increasing the RF power and Ar pressure.

Description: In this paper we present our cyclotron based neutron source with average energy 6.3 MeV generated during the 13.6 MeV deuterons interactions with beryllium target, neutron field dosimetry, and dosimetry of attendant gamma fields. We also present application of our neutron source for cancer treatment.

Description: Grating-based X-ray and neutron interferometry tomography using phase-stepping methods generates large data sets. An improved algorithm is presented for solving for the parameters to calculate transmissions, differential phase contrast, and dark-field images. The method takes advantage of the vectorization inherent in high-level languages such as Mathematica and MATLAB and can solve a 16 × 1 k × 1 k data set in less than a second. In addition, the algorithm can function with partial data sets. This is demonstrated with processing of a 16-step grating data set with partial use of the original data chosen without any restriction. Also, we have calculated the reduced chi-square for the fit and notice the effect of grating support structural elements upon the differential phase contrast image and have explored expanded basis set representations to mitigate the impact.

Description: The prototype rf-driven H − ion-source with a nickel plated oxygen-free-copper (OFC) plasma chamber, which satisfies the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) 2nd stage requirements of a H − ion beam current of 60 mA within normalized emittances of 1.5 π mm mrad both horizontally and vertically, a flat top beam duty factor of 1.25% (500 μ s × 25 Hz) and a life-time of more than 50 days, was reported at the 3rd international symposium on negative ions, beams, and sources (NIBS2012). The experimental results of the J-PARC ion source with a plasma chamber made of stainless-steel, instead of nickel plated OFC used in the prototype source, are presented in this paper. By comparing these two sources, the following two important results were acquired. One was that the about 20% lower emittance was produced by the rather low plasma electrode (PE) temperature (T PE ) of about 120 °C compared with the typically used T PE of about 200 °C to maximize the beam current for the plasma with the abundant cesium (Cs). The other was that by using the rod-filter magnets with a gap at each center and tuning the gap-lengths, the filter-field was optimized and the rf-power necessary to produce the J-PARC required H − ion beam current was reduced typically 18%. The lower rf-power also decreases the emittances.

Description: In this paper we describe the first systematic measurement of beam neutralization (space charge compensation) in the ECR low energy transport line with a retarding field analyzer, which can be used to measure the potential of the beam. Expected trends for the space charge compensation levels such as increase with residual gas pressure, beam current, and beam density could be observed. However, the overall levels of neutralization are consistently low (

Description: This study aims at the design and development of electromagnetic-type intermittent shock wave generation in a liquid. The shock wave generated is focused at a focal point through an acoustic lens. This hardware device mainly consists of a full-wave bridge rectifier, 6 capacitors, a spark gap, and a flat coil. A metal disk is mounted in a liquid-filled tube and is placed in close proximity to the flat coil. Due to the repulsive force existing between the coil and disk shock waves are generated, while an eddy current is induced in the metal disk. Some components and materials associated with the device are also described. By increasing the capacitance content to enhance electric energy level, a highly focused pressure can be achieved at the focal point through an acoustic lens in order to lyse fat tissue. Focused pressures were measured at the focal point and its vicinity for different operation voltages. The designed shock wave generator with an energy intensity of 0.0016 mJ/mm 2 (at 4 kV) and 2000 firings or higher energy intensities with 1000 firings is found to be able to disrupt pig fat tissue.

Description: A setup has been designed to investigate thin films of confined liquids with the use of X-ray scattering methods. The confinement is realized between the flat culets of a pair of diamonds by positioning and orienting the lower diamond with nanometer and micro radian accuracy. We routinely achieve gaps between 5 and 50 nm at culet diameters of 200 μ m. With this setup and a micro focused X-ray beam we have investigated the in-plane and the out-off-plane atomic order of benzene with atomic resolution.

Description: We have designed and built a Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) Z-pinch device using a kJ-level capacitor bank and a hollow anode, and fueled by a cylindrically symmetric gas puff. Using this device, we have measured peak deuteron beam energies of up to 400 keV at 0.8 kJ capacitor bank energy and pinch lengths of ∼6 mm, indicating accelerating fields greater than 50 MV/m. Neutron yields of on the order of 10 7 per shot were measured during deuterium operation. The cylindrical gas puff system permitted simultaneous operation of DPF with a radiofrequency quadrupole accelerator for beam-into-plasma experiments. This paper describes the machine design, the diagnostic systems, and our first results.

Description: Filamentous fungi cause opportunistic infections in hospital patients. A fast assay to detect viable spores is of great interest. We present a device that is capable of monitoring fungi growth in real time via the dynamic operation of cantilevers in an array. The ability to detect minute frequency shifts for higher order flexural resonance modes is demonstrated using hydrogel functionalised cantilevers. The use of higher order resonance modes sees the sensor dependent mass responsivity enhanced by a factor of 13 in comparison to measurements utilizing the fundamental resonance mode only. As a proof of principle measurement, Aspergillus niger growth is monitored using the first two flexural resonance modes. The detection of single spore growth within 10 h is reported for the first time. The ability to detect and monitor the growth of single spores, within a small time frame, is advantageous in both clinical and industrial settings.

Description: In order to improve the ability and accuracy of measuring the temporal–spatial distribution of the intensity of a large-size, high-energy laser beam, a novel array detecting method based on diffuse transmission sampling is proposed. The measurement principle and the design of the sampling and attenuating unit are presented. High-temperature-resistant diffuse transmission material is used to sample and attenuate a high energy laser beam. Pure copper, whose surface is first sand-blasted and then gold-plated, is applied to scatter the incident high-energy laser beam. The formula for the attenuation ratio was derived in detail. We developed two large-aperture array detectors with spatial resolution of 5 mm, spatial duty ratio of 20%, and useable angle range of ±30° without varying the responsivity, the non-uniformity in the laser profile measurement is below 1%, and the repeatability error in the laser power measurement is approximately 1%. The maximal energy density that the array detector can endure is more than 10 kJ/cm 2 .

Description: A cold finger vacuum cryostat is described in which a sapphire heat conducting element is used to achieve very fast slew rates for a small sample stage over a wide temperature range with optimal matching to a closed cycle helium refrigerator head. When the set temperature is reached it is maintained with very high stability (±5 mK). The target applications are associated with semiconductor electrical material characterisation measurements which require temperature scanning, e.g., thermally stimulated current, deep level transient spectroscopy, and applications which require annealing followed by rapid transition to lower temperature for measurement.

Description: Extremely surface specific information, limited to the first atomic layer of molecular surfaces, is essential to understand the chemistry and physics in upper atmospheric and interstellar environments. Ultra low energy ion scattering in the 1–10 eV window with mass selected ions can reveal extremely surface specific information which when coupled with reflection absorption infrared (RAIR) and temperature programmed desorption (TPD) spectroscopies, diverse chemical and physical properties of molecular species at surfaces could be derived. These experiments have to be performed at cryogenic temperatures and at ultra high vacuum conditions without the possibility of collisions of neutrals and background deposition in view of the poor ion intensities and consequent need for longer exposure times. Here we combine a highly optimized low energy ion optical system designed for such studies coupled with RAIR and TPD and its initial characterization. Despite the ultralow collision energies and long ion path lengths employed, the ion intensities at 1 eV have been significant to collect a scattered ion spectrum of 1000 counts/s for mass selected CH 2 + .

Description: A hollow cathode ion source, based on one developed at Saclay, has been modified significantly and used for several years to produce all primary 1+ ions injected into the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS) at Brookhaven. Currents of tens to hundreds of microamperes have been produced for 1+ ions of He, C, O, Ne, Si, Ar, Ti, Fe, Cu, Kr, Xe, Ta, Au, and U. The source is very simple, relying on a glow discharge using a noble gas, between anode and a solid cathode containing the desired species. Ions of both the working gas and ionized sputtered cathode material are extracted, and then the desired species is selected using an ExB filter before being transported into the EBIS trap for charge breeding. The source operates pulsed with long life and excellent stability for most species. Reliable ignition of the discharge at low gas pressure is facilitated by the use of capacitive coupling from a simple toy plasma globe. The source design, and operating experience for the various species, is presented.

Description: An instrument designed for non-destructive mass analysis of single trapped nanoparticles is described. The heart of the instrument is a 3D quadrupole (Paul) trap constructed to give optical access to the trap center along ten directions, allowing passage of lasers for particle heating and detection, particle injection, collection of scattered or fluorescent photons for particle detection and mass analysis, and collection of particles on TEM grids for analysis, as needed. Nanoparticles are injected using an electrospray ionization (ESI) source, and conditions are described for spraying and trapping polymer particles, bare metal particles, and ligand stabilized particles with masses ranging from 200 kDa to 〉3 GDa. Conditions appropriate to ESI and injection of different types of particles are described. The instrument is equipped with two ion guides separating the ESI source and nanoparticle trap. The first ion guide is mostly to allow desolvation and differential pumping before the particles enter the trap section of the instrument. The second is a linear quadrupole guide, which can be operated in mass selective or mass band-pass modes to limit transmission to species with mass-to-charge ratios in the range of interest. With a little experience, the design allows injection of single particles into the trap upon demand.

Description: The performance of the feedback control system is of central importance in the measurement of the Newton's gravitational constant G with angular acceleration method. In this paper, a PID (Proportion-Integration-Differentiation) feedback loop is discussed in detail. Experimental results show that, with the feedback control activated, the twist angle of the torsion balance is limited to 7.3 × 10 − 7 rad / Hz at the signal frequency of 2 mHz, which contributes a 0.4 ppm uncertainty to the G value.

Description: The electrode contamination in electrostatic analyzers such as Langmuir probes and retarding potential analyzers (RPA) is a serious problem for space measurements. The contamination layer acts as extra capacitance and resistance and leads to distortion in the measured I–V curve, which leads to erroneous measurement results. There are two main effects of the contamination layer: one is the impedance effect and the other is the charge attachment and accumulation due to the capacitance. The impedance effect can be reduced or eliminated by choosing the proper sweeping frequency. However, for RPA the charge accumulation effect becomes serious because the capacitance of the contamination layer is much larger than that of the Langmuir probe of similar dimension. The charge accumulation on the retarding potential grid causes the effective potential, that ions experience, to be changed from the applied voltage. Then, the number of ions that can pass through the retarding potential grid to reach the collector and, thus, the measured ion current are changed. This effect causes the measured ion drift velocity and ion temperature to be changed from the actual values. The error caused by the RPA electrode contamination is expected to be significant for sounding rocket measurements with low rocket velocity (1–2 km/s) and low ion temperature of 200–300 K in the height range of 100–300 km. In this paper we discuss the effects associated with the RPA contaminated electrodes based on theoretical analysis and experiments performed in a space plasma operation chamber. Finally, the development of a contamination-free RPA for sounding rocket missions is presented.

Description: We developed a multi-cusp ion source for Nissin ion doping system iG5 which is used in low temperature poly-crystalline silicon processes for flat panel display (FPD) manufacturing. In this ion source, BF 3 or PH 3 diluted H 2 plasmas are produced and large area ribbon ion beams are extracted. In general, ion ratio of B + in BF 3 plasma is much smaller than BF 2 + in multi-cusp ion sources. We developed a new method to increase B + ratio and obtained mass analyzed B + target current of 130 mA. We employed newly improved multi-slot type electrodes for the beam extraction system and obtained stable beams with the uniformity of below 3%. In BF 3 plasmas, several undesirable metal fluorides are produced in the plasma chamber and deposited on the electrode system, which cause glitches and poor beam uniformity. We introduce several cleaning methods.

Description: A new VMEDAC64, 12-bit 64 channel digital-to-analog converter, a Versa Module Europa (VME) module, features 64 analog voltage outputs with user selectable multiple ranges, has been developed for control system applications at Inter University Accelerator Centre. The FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) is the module's core, i.e., it implements the DAC control logic and complexity of VMEbus slave interface logic. The VMEbus slave interface and DAC control logic are completely designed and implemented on a single FPGA chip to achieve high density of 64 channels in a single width VME module and will reduce the module count in the control system applications, and hence will reduce the power consumption and cost of overall system. One of our early design goals was to develop the VME interface such that it can be easily integrated with the peripheral devices and satisfy the timing specifications of VME standard. The modular design of this module reduces the amount of time required to develop other custom modules for control system. The VME slave interface is written as a single component inside FPGA which will be used as a basic building block for any VMEbus interface project. The module offers multiple output voltage ranges depending upon the requirement. The output voltage range can be reduced or expanded by writing range selection bits in the control register. The module has programmable refresh rate and by default hold capacitors in the sample and hold circuit for each channel are charged periodically every 7.040 ms (i.e., update frequency 284 Hz). Each channel has software controlled output switch which disconnects analog output from the field. The modularity in the firmware design on FPGA makes the debugging very easy. On-board DC/DC converters are incorporated for isolated power supply for the analog section of the board.

Description: The design and construction of a high resolution modular x-ray computed tomography (XCT) system is described. The approach for meeting a specified set of performance goals tailored toward experimental versatility is highlighted. The instrument is unique in its detector and x-ray source configuration, both of which enable elevated optimization of spatial and temporal resolution. The process for component selection is provided. The selected components are specified, the custom component design discussed, and the integration of both into a fully functional XCT instrument is outlined. The novelty of this design is a new lab-scale detector and imaging optimization through x-ray source and detector modularity.

Description: A cryogenic differential accelerometer has been developed to test the weak equivalence principle to a few parts in 10 15 within the framework of the general relativity accuracy test in an Einstein elevator experiment. The prototype sensor was designed to identify, address, and solve the major issues associated with various aspects of the experiment. This paper illustrates the measurements conducted on this prototype sensor to attain a high quality factor (Q ∼ 10 5 ) at low frequencies (

Description: The DEIMOS (Dichroism Experimental Installation for Magneto-Optical Spectroscopy) beamline was part of the second phase of the beamline development at French Synchrotron SOLEIL (Source Optimisée de Lumière à Energie Intermédiaire du LURE) and opened to users in March 2011. It delivers polarized soft x-rays to perform x-ray absorption spectroscopy, x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, and x-ray linear dichroism in the energy range 350–2500 eV. The beamline has been optimized for stability and reproducibility in terms of photon flux and photon energy. The main end-station consists in a cryo-magnet with 2 split coils providing a 7 T magnetic field along the beam or 2 T perpendicular to the beam with a controllable temperature on the sample from 370 K down to 1.5 K.

Description: Numerical simulation of the CERN LINAC4 H − source 2 MHz RF system has been performed taking into account a realistic geometry from 3D Computer Aided Design model using commercial FEM high frequency simulation code. The effect of the plasma has been added to the model by the approximation of a homogenous electrically conducting medium. Electric and magnetic fields, RF power losses, and impedance of the circuit have been calculated for different values of the plasma conductivity. Three different regimes have been found depending on the plasma conductivity: (1) Zero or low plasma conductivity results in RF electric field induced by the RF antenna being mainly capacitive and has axial direction; (2) Intermediate conductivity results in the expulsion of capacitive electric field from plasma and the RF power coupling, which is increasing linearly with the plasma conductivity, is mainly dominated by the inductive azimuthal electric field; (3) High conductivity results in the shielding of both the electric and magnetic fields from plasma due to the skin effect, which reduces RF power coupling to plasma. From these simulations and measurements of the RF power coupling on the CERN source, a value of the plasma conductivity has been derived. It agrees well with an analytical estimate calculated from the measured plasma parameters. In addition, the simulated and measured impedances with and without plasma show very good agreement as well demonstrating validity of the plasma model used in the RF simulations.

Description: We will present recent basic developments about possible extension of the COMIC (for COmpact MIcrowave and Coaxial) devices up to 5.8 GHz in place of the present 2.45 GHz operation [P. Sortais, T. Lamy, J. Médard, J. Angot, L. Latrasse, and T. Thuillier, Rev. Sci. Instrum.81, 02B314 (2010)]. New applications associating multiple COMIC devices for thin film deposition will be described and we will explain why an increase of the current density delivered by each individual ion source could lead to the increase of the deposition rate. For this purpose, we will present results of about two devices working at 5.8 GHz. The first one is a tiny ion source, the world smallest microwave ion source, exactly similar to COMIC but operating at 5.8 GHz with a quarter wave cavity structure and a few watts microwave power consumption. We will show that the frequency scaling effect is effective inside such small machines. The second one is a more ambitious ion source designed around a three quarter wave structure that works with a few tens of watts at 5.8 GHz.

Description: We present a novel contactless technique for thermal conductivity determination and thermal field mapping based on creating a thermal distribution of phonons using a heating laser, while a second laser probes the local temperature through the spectral position of a Raman active mode. The spatial resolution can be as small as 300 nm, whereas its temperature accuracy is ±2 K. We validate this technique investigating the thermal properties of three free-standing single crystalline Si membranes with thickness of 250, 1000, and 2000 nm. We show that for two-dimensional materials such as free-standing membranes or thin films, and for small temperature gradients, the thermal field decays as T ( r ) ∝ ln ( r ) in the diffusive limit. The case of large temperature gradients within the membranes leads to an exponential decay of the thermal field, T ∝ exp [ − A · ln ( r )]. The results demonstrate the full potential of this new contactless method for quantitative determination of thermal properties. The range of materials to which this method is applicable reaches far beyond the here demonstrated case of Si, as the only requirement is the presence of a Raman active mode.

Description: Charge accumulation on test masses is a potentially limiting noise source for gravitational-wave interferometers, and may occur due to exposure to an electrostatic drive (ESD) in modern test mass suspensions. We verify that an ESD can cause charge accumulation on a fused silica test mass at a rate of 8 × 10 −16 C/cm 2 /h. We also demonstrate a charge mitigation system consisting of a stream of nitrogen ionized by copper feedthrough pins at 3750 VAC. We demonstrate that the system can neutralize positive and negative charge from 10 −11 C/cm 2 to 3 × 10 −14 C/cm 2 in under 2 h.

Description: Nanoimprint lithography is a nano/micro patterning technology to fabricate functional devices by pressing a template with predefined structures on a substrate. Uniformity of the force distribution between the contacting surfaces should be ensured to produce features with high fidelity. In this paper, a parallel alignment device with the abilities of dynamic force distribution control is developed. By adopting a spherical air bearing held with a 5-degree-of-freedom flexure-based stage, wedge errors between the template and the substrate can be eliminated passively without friction when an imprint force is applied. Since the vertical imprint force is mainly supported by the spherical air bearing, the device is very suitable for high force applications, without causing damage to the delicate compliant stage or precision degradation. Besides, the force distribution of the imprint process is measured, based on which dynamic force compensation is performed by actuating the compliant stage actively. Five-hundred-nm-period grating structures are transferred successfully with the device and proofs effectiveness of the device.

Description: We have developed a two-dimensional (2D) electron temperature ( T e ) diagnostic system for thermal structure studies in a low-aspect-ratio reversed field pinch (RFP). The system consists of a soft x-ray (SXR) camera with two pin holes for two-kinds of absorber foils, combined with a high-speed camera. Two SXR images with almost the same viewing area are formed through different absorber foils on a single micro-channel plate (MCP). A 2D T e image can then be obtained by calculating the intensity ratio for each element of the images. We have succeeded in distinguishing T e image in quasi-single helicity (QSH) from that in multi-helicity (MH) RFP states, where the former is characterized by concentrated magnetic fluctuation spectrum and the latter, by broad spectrum of edge magnetic fluctuations.

Description: We present a method for using liquid-crystal variable retarders (LCVR’s) with continually varying voltage to measure the Stokes vector of a light beam. The LCVR's are usually employed with fixed retardance values due to the nonlinear voltage-retardance behavior that they show. The nonlinear voltage-retardance relationship is first measured and then a linear fit of the known retardance terms to the detected signal is performed. We use known waveplates (half-wave and quarter-wave) as devices to provide controlled polarization states to the Stokes polarimeter and we use the measured Stokes parameters as functions of the orientation of the axes of the waveplates as an indication of the quality of the polarimeter. Results are compared to a Fourier analysis method that does not take into account the nonlinear voltage-retardance relationship and also to a Fourier analysis method that uses experimental voltage values to give a linear retardance function with time. Also, we present results of simulations for comparison.

Description: In the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak, a radiation measurement for a wide spectral range, based on semiconductor detectors, with 256 lines of sight and a time resolution of 5μs was recently installed. In combination with the foil based bolometry, it is now possible to estimate the absolutely calibrated radiated power of the plasma on fast timescales. This work introduces this diagnostic based on AXUV (Absolute eXtended UltraViolet) n-on-p diodes made by International Radiation Detectors, Inc. The measurement and the degradation of the diodes in a tokamak environment is shown. Even though the AXUV diodes are developed to have a constant sensitivity for all photon energies (1 eV-8 keV), degradation leads to a photon energy dependence of the sensitivity. The foil bolometry, which is restricted to a time resolution of less than 1 kHz, offers a basis for a time dependent calibration of the diodes. The measurements of the quasi-calibrated diodes are compared with the foil bolometry and found to be accurate on the kHz time scale. Therefore, it is assumed, that the corrected values are also valid for the highest time resolution (200 kHz). With this improved diagnostic setup, the radiation induced by edge localized modes is analyzed on fast timescales.

Description: Measuring the x-ray flux exiting the target's laser entrance hole (LEH) is the most common diagnostic that quantifies the x-ray intensity inside the laser-driven hohlraum. However, this signal accounts for only a small portion of the incident laser power and thus is likely to be affected by unwanted x-ray background from non-target area, leading to an overestimation of the hohlraum drive. Unwanted emission might be produced when the laser light is clipped by the LEH (LEH clipping) because of a lack of clearance for laser spot, or with a laser spot comprising of discrete structure, or even with a poor pointing accuracy. Its influence on the hohlraum radiation diagnostic is investigated on Shenguang-III prototype laser facility with the typical 1 ns square pulse. The experiment employed three types of targets to excite the unwanted x-ray background from LEH clipping, unconverted light, and both effects, respectively. This work gives an absolute evaluation of x-ray produced by the LEH clipping, which is measured by flat-response x-ray detectors (FXRD) at multiple view angles. The result indicates that there is little variation in measured emission to various view angles, because the unwanted x-rays are mainly generated at the side face of the LEH lip when laser is obliquely incident. Therefore, the LEH clipping brings more overestimation in hohlraum radiation measurement at larger view angle since the hohlraum LEH as an emitting source viewed by FXRD is decreased as the view angle increases. In our condition, the LEH clipping contributes 2%–3.5% overestimation to the hohlraum flux measurement.

Description: A sensitive dielectric spectroscopy setup is built to measure the response of nanoparticles dispersed in a liquid to an alternating electric field over a frequency range from 10 −2 to 10 7 Hz. The measured complex permittivity spectrum records both the rotational dynamics due to a permanent electric dipole moment and the translational dynamics due to net charges. The setup consists of a half-transparent capacitor connected in a bridge circuit, which is balanced on pure solvent only, using a software-controlled compensating voltage. In this way, the measured signal is dominated by the contributions of the nanoparticles rather than by the solvent. We demonstrate the performance of the setup with measurements on a dispersion of colloidal CdSe quantum dots in the apolar liquid decalin.

Description: In this paper, an asymmetrical inertial impact driving principle is first proposed, and accordingly a novel piezoelectrically actuated linear micro-motor is developed. It is driven by the inertial impact force generated by piezoelectric smart cantilever (PSC) with asymmetrical clamping locations during a driving cycle. When the PSC is excited by typical harmonic voltage signals, different equivalent stiffness will be induced due to its asymmetrical clamping locations when it is vibrating back and forth, leading to a tiny displacement difference on the two opposite directions in a cycle, and then the accumulation of tiny displacement difference will allow directional movements. A prototype of the proposed motor has been developed and investigated by means of experimental tests. The motion and dynamics characteristics of the prototype are well studied. The experimental results demonstrate that the resolution of the micro-motor is 0.02 μ m, the maximum velocity is 16.87 mm/s, and the maximum loading capacity can reach up to 1 kg with a voltage of 100 V and 35 Hz.

Description: An enhancement for magnetoelectric (ME) effects is studied in a three-phase ME architecture consisting of two magnetostrictive Terfenol-D (Tb 0.3 Dy 0.7 Fe 1.92 ) plates, a piezoelectric PZT (Pb(Zr,Ti)O 3 ) plate, and a pair of shape-optimized FeCuNbSiB nanocrystalline alloys. By modifying the conventional shape of the magnetic flux concentrator, the shape-optimized flux concentrator has an improved effective permeability ( μ eff ) due to the shape-induced demagnetizing effect at its end surface. The flux concentrator concentrates and amplifies the external magnetic flux into Terfenol-D plate by means of changing its internal flux concentrating manner. Consequently, more flux lines can be uniformly concentrated into Terfenol-D plates. The effective piezomagnetic coefficients ( d 33 m ) of Terfenol-D plate and the ME voltage coefficients ( α ME ) can be further improved under a lower magnetic bias field. The dynamic magneto-elastic properties and the effective magnetic induction of Terfenol-D are taken into account to derive the enhanced effective ME voltage coefficients ( α ME , eff ), the consistency of experimental results and theoretical analyses verifies this enhancement. The experimental results demonstrate that the maximum d 33 m in our proposed architecture achieves 22.48 nm/A under a bias of 114 Oe. The maximum α ME in the bias magnetic range 0–900 Oe reaches 84.73 mV/Oe under the low frequency of 1 kHz, and 2.996 V/Oe under the resonance frequency of 102.3 kHz, respectively. It exhibits a 1.43 times larger piezomagnetic coefficient and a 1.87 times higher ME voltage coefficient under a smaller magnetic bias of 82 Oe than those of a conventional Terfenol-D/PZT/Terfenol-D composite. These shape-induced magnetoelectric behaviors provide the possibility of using this ME architecture in ultra-sensitive magnetic sensors.

Description: This paper describes an apparatus for performing high-precision electrical and thermal characterization of thermoelectric modules (TEMs). The apparatus is calibrated for operation between 20 °C and 80 °C and is normally used for measurements of heat currents in the range 0–10 W. Precision thermometry based on miniature thermistor probes enables an absolute temperature accuracy of better than 0.010 °C. The use of vacuum isolation, thermal guarding, and radiation shielding, augmented by a careful accounting of stray heat leaks and uncertainties, allows the heat current through the TEM under test to be determined with a precision of a few mW. The fractional precision of all measured parameters is approximately 0.1%.