We consider the reduced dynamics of a molecular chain weakly coupled to a phonon bath. With a small and constant inhomogeneity in the coupling, the excitation relaxation rates are obtained in closed form. They are dominated by transitions between exciton modes lying next to each other in the energy spectrum. The rates are quadratic in the number of sites in a long chain. Consequently, the evolution of site occupation numbers exhibits longer coherence lifetime for short chains only. When external source and sink are added, the rate equations of exciton occupation numbers are similar to those obtained earlier by Fröhlich to explain energy storage and energy transfer in biological systems. There is a clear separation of timescale into a faster one pertaining to internal influence of the chain and phonon bath, and a slower one determined by external influence, such as the pumping rate of the source, the absorption rate of the sink, and the rate of radiation loss. The energy transfer efficiency at steady state depends strongly on these external parameters and is robust against a change in the internal parameters, such as temperature and inhomogeneity. Excitations are predicted to concentrate to the lowest energy mode when the source power is sufficiently high. In the site basis, this implies that when sustained by a high power source, a sink positioned at the center of the chain is more efficient in trapping energy than a sink placed at its end. Analytic expressions of energy transfer efficiency are obtained in the high power and low-power source limit. Parameters of a photosynthetic system are used as examples to illustrate the results.
Novel decoration of high aspect ratio zinc oxide nanowires (ZnO NWs) with noble metals such as Ag and Au nanoparticles (NPs) was demonstrated in this work. A facile method of chemical deposition with good controllability, as well as good homogeneity would be a huge advantage towards large scale fabrication. The highlight of this work is the feasibility of multiple component decoration such as a hybrid (co-exist) Ag-Au NPs decorated ZnO NWs formation that could be beneficial towards the development of nanoarchitectured materials with the most desired properties. The local surface plasmon effect (LSPR) of Ag and Au NPs were confirmed using extinction spectra and significant photoelectrochemical conversion efficiency (PCE) enhancement of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was achieved. The Ag-NPs and hybrid Ag-Au NPs decorated ZnO NWs marked an impressive 125 and 240% efficiency improvement against pure ZnO NWs. The improved dye light extinction resulted from the LSPR effect that had enabled greater electron generation leading to improved PCE. As the complex design of oxides' nanoarchitectures have reached a point of saturation, this novel method would enable further enhancement in their photoelectrochemical properties through decoration with noble metals via a simple chemical deposition route.
This paper shows the effect of the dimensions of nanowires on threshold voltage, ON/OFF current ratio, and sub-threshold slope. These parameters are critical factors of the characteristics of silicon nanowire transistors. The MuGFET simulation tool was used to investigate the characteristics of a transistor. Current-voltage characteristics with different dimensions were simulated. Results show that long nanowires with low diameter and oxide thickness tend to have the best transistor characteristics.
An investigation on relationship among the physicochemical, optical and dielectric properties of the hydroxyapatite/cornstarch (HA/Cs) composites with the starch proportion of 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 wt% is presented in this work. The HA/Cs composites have been characterized via FTIR, XRD, DRS and impedance analyzer. This work depicts that the strong interaction is exhibited between the hydroxyapatite nanoparticles and starch as the starch proportion increases. This increment trend results in the higher crystallinity of the HA/Cs composites. The highly crystallized HA/Cs with hydroxyapatite nucleation center presents low optical properties (diffuse reflectance and optical band gap energy). The HA/Cs composite with 80 wt% starch proportion (H2C8) show higher dielectric properties (dielectric constant, loss factor and conductivity) due to the stronger interfacial interaction and close-packed HA/Cs crystalline structure. The relationship among the physicochemical, optical and dielectric properties of the HA/Cs composite is studied in this work for potential of instrumentation design.
A 360° twisted helical capacitance sensor was developed for holdup measurement in horizontal two-phase stratified flow. Instead of suppressing nonlinear response, the sensor was optimized in such a way that a 'sine-like' function was displayed on top of the linear function. This concept of design had been implemented and verified in both software and hardware. A good agreement was achieved between the finite element model of proposed design and the approximation model (pure sinusoidal function), with a maximum difference of ±1.2%. In addition, the design parameters of the sensor were analysed and investigated. It was found that the error in symmetry of the sinusoidal function could be minimized by adjusting the pitch of helix. The experiments of air-water and oil-water stratified flows were carried out and validated the sinusoidal relationship with a maximum difference of ±1.2% and ±1.3% for the range of water holdup from 0.15 to 0.85. The proposed design concept therefore may pose a promising alternative for the optimization of capacitance sensor design.
In the interfacial superconductor Bi2Te3/Fe1+yTe, two dimensional superconductivity occurs in direct vicinity to the surface state of a topological insulator. If this state were to become involved in superconductivity, under certain conditions a topological superconducting state could be formed, which is of high interest due to the possibility of creating Majorana fermionic states. We report directional point-contact spectroscopy data on the novel Bi2Te3/Fe1+yTe interfacial superconductor for a Bi2Te3 thickness of 9 quintuple layers, bonded by van der Waals epitaxy to a Fe1+yTe film at an atomically sharp interface. Our data show highly unconventional superconductivity, which appears as complex as in the cuprate high temperature superconductors. A very large superconducting twin-gap structure is replaced by a pseudogap above ~12 K which persists up to 40 K. While the larger gap shows unconventional order parameter symmetry and is attributed to a thin FeTe layer in proximity to the interface, the smaller gap is associated with superconductivity induced via the proximity effect in the topological insulator Bi2Te3.
New crystal structures of fully hydrogenated borophene (borophane) have been predicted by first principles calculation. Comparing with the chair-like borophane (C-boropane) that has been reported in literature, we obtained four new borophane conformers with much lower total-energy. The most stable one, washboard-like borophane (W-borophane), has energy about 113.41 meV/atom lower than C-borophane. In order to explain the relative stability of different borophane conformers, the atom configuration, density of states, charge transfer, charge density distribution and defect formation energy of B-H dimer have been calculated. The results show that the charge transfer from B atoms to H atoms is crucial for the stability of borophane. In different borophane conformers, the bonding characteristics between B and H atoms are similar, but the B-B bonds in W-borophane are much stronger than that in C-borophane or other structures. In addition, we examined the dynamical stability of borophane conformers by phonon dispersions and found that the four new conformers are all dynamically stable. Finally the mechanical properties of borophane conformers along an arbitrary direction have been discussed. W-borophane possesses unique electronic structure (Dirac cone), good stability and superior mechanical properties. W-borophane has broad perspective for nano electronic device.
Data from heavy ion collisions suggest that the evolution of a parton shower is modified by interactions with the color charges in the dense partonic medium created in these collisions, but it is not known where in the shower evolution the modifications occur. The momentum ratio of the two leading partons, resolved as subjets, provides information about the parton shower evolution. This substructure observable, known as the splitting function, reflects the process of a parton splitting into two other partons and has been measured for jets with transverse momentum between 140 and 500 GeV, in pp and PbPb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV per nucleon pair. In central PbPb collisions, the splitting function indicates a more unbalanced momentum ratio, compared to peripheral PbPb and pp collisions.. The measurements are compared to various predictions from event generators and analytical calculations.
This paper provides a qualitative overview of different Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS),
which play important role in the field of sensors due to their excellent
characteristics, spontaneous response and easy handling system. The current
state of the art of optical fiber technology is reviewed, namely based on its main
characteristics and sensing advantages. In addition, the working principle of OFS
and their applications are discussed, particularly for sensor employment.
One of the concerns in power system preventive control and security assessment is to find the point where the voltage and frequency collapse and when the system forces a severe disturbance. Identifying the weakest bus in a power system is an essential aspect of planning, optimising and post-event analysing procedures. This paper proposes an approach to identify the weakest bus from the frequency security viewpoint. The transient frequency deviation index for the individual buses is used as the weakest bus identification as well as a frequency security indicator. This approach will help to determine the bus with the worst deviation, which helps to analyse the system disturbance, takes proper control action to prevent frequency failure, and most importantly, observes consumer frequency. The approach is applied to the WSCC 9 bus test system to show the feasibility of the method.
In this paper, the challenge of harmonic injection mitigation becomes critical with the massive use of inverters in electrical distribution systems that has been discussed and analyzed. Currently, between the inverter and the grid, L, LC or LCL filters is often used to mitigate the current harmonic. Further, filter connection in both delta-to-star or star-to-delta transformer for state space model of LC filter couplings with impedance is obtained in this paper and it also talked about the different passive damping techniques that been used to suppress the resonance effect on the filter. The effect of series and parallel damping resistor techniques that impact filtering and stability are also been analyzed and discussed. At the end, the simulation results show that LCL filter with parallel damping resistor achieves best performance compared on those for L, LC, or LCL with series damping resistor while at the same time enhancing the smoothness of the signal output while at the same time reducing the percentage of total harmonic distortion between inverter-grid connection.
Bandgap tuning of a mixed organic cation perovskite is demonstrated via chemical vapor deposition process. The optical and electrical properties of the mixed organic cation perovskite can be manipulated by varying the growth time. A slight shift of the absorption band to shorter wavelengths is demonstrated with increasing growth time, which results in the increment of the current density. Hence, based on the optimized growth time, our device exhibits an efficiency of 15.86% with negligible current hysteresis.
Nowadays, it is becoming increasingly common to deploy sensors in public buildings or homes with the aim of obtaining data from the environment and taking decisions that help to save energy. Many of the current state-of-the-art systems make decisions considering solely the environmental factors that cause the consumption of energy. These systems are successful at optimizing energy consumption; however, they do not adapt to the preferences of users and their comfort. Any system that is to be used by end-users should consider factors that affect their wellbeing. Thus, this article proposes an energy-saving system, which apart from considering the environmental conditions also adapts to the preferences of inhabitants. The architecture is based on a Multi-Agent System (MAS), its agents use Agreement Technologies (AT) to perform a negotiation process between the comfort preferences of the users and the degree of optimization that the system can achieve according to these preferences. A case study was conducted in an office building, showing that the proposed system achieved average energy savings of 17.15%.
Shunt active power filter (SAPF) is the most effective solution for current harmonics. In its controller, DC-link capacitor voltage regulation algorithm with either proportional-integral (PI) or fuzzy logic control (FLC) technique has played a significant role in maintaining a constant DC voltage across all the DC-link capacitors. However, PI technique performs poorly with high overshoot and significant time delay under dynamic state conditions, as its parameters are difficult to be tuned without requiring complete knowledge of the designated system. Although FLC technique has been developed to overcome limitations of PI technique, it is mostly developed with high complexity thereby increases computational burden of the designed controller. This paper presents a fuzzy-based DC-link capacitor voltage regulation algorithm with reduced computational efforts to enhance performance of three-phase three-level neutralpoint diode clamped (NPC) inverter-based SAPF in overall DC-link voltage regulation. The proposed method is called effort-reduction FLC technique. The proposed algorithm is developed and evaluated in MATLAB-Simulink. Moreover, conventional algorithm with PI technique is tested for comparison purposes. Simulation results have confirmed improvement achieved by the proposed algorithm in comparison to the conventional algorithm.
Visual inspection to locate metals embedded in walls or floors is impractical. Detection of these metals can only be done with a proper metal detection. Accordingly, the development of a magnetic imaging system based on giant magneto-resistance (GMR) sensors is presented for metal shape detection . This system is based on magnetic flux leakage testing (MFLT) principle for detecting the shape of ferromagnetic material specimens. The imaging system is constructed using 21 linear GMR sensors array as signals sensing unit (SSU). In this study, a few ferromagnetic SS400 mild steels specimens in various shapes are used as specimens. Image produced confirm system functionality in detecting and evaluating metal shapes.
Weft density and draw in plan play an important role since they affect physical properties such as fabric weight, cloth cover factor as well as seam strength. Weft density refers to the amount of weft yarn in one inch. Meanwhile, draw in plan refers to the amount of heald shaft used and the order of warp yarn through the heald. In this study, plain woven fabrics were produced by using Sulzer Rapier Loom Machine. There were two different types of weft density used which were 15 and 20 weft per centimeter (wpcm) and four draws in plan: pointed, straight, broken and broken mirror. Seams were constructed by using plain seam of Ssa-1, four stitches of stitch density and 301 lockstitches for stitch type. Subsequently, the fabric samples were tested on seam strength by using Testometric tester. As a result of this study, it is proven that weft density and draw in plan of woven plain fabric are parameters that affect the seam strength and seam efficiency. The highest increase in percentage of seam strength was obtained from straight draw in plan which increases up to 17.19% from 15wpcm to 20wpcm. Meanwhile, broken draw in plan has the lowest increase percentage for seam strength which is 6.46%. Furthermore, seam efficiency also shows straight draw in plan gives good fabric durability compared to others. Lastly, it also shows broken draw in plan has no significant effect on fabric tensile strength and seam strength.
A corrosive environment leaves in-service conductive structures prone to subsurface corrosion which poses a severe threat to the structural integrity. It is indispensable to detect and quantitatively evaluate subsurface corrosion via non-destructive evaluation techniques. Although the gradient-field pulsed eddy current technique (GPEC) has been found to be superior in the evaluation of corrosion in conductors, it suffers from a technical drawback resulting from the non-uniform field excited by the conventional pancake coil. In light of this, a new GPEC probe with uniform field excitation for the imaging of subsurface corrosion is proposed in this paper. The excited uniform field makes the GPEC signal correspond only to the field perturbation due to the presence of subsurface corrosion, which benefits the corrosion profiling and sizing. A 3D analytical model of GPEC is established to analyze the characteristics of the uniform field induced within a conductor. Following this, experiments regarding the imaging of subsurface corrosion via GPEC have been carried out. It has been found from the results that the proposed GPEC probe with uniform field excitation not only applies to the imaging of subsurface corrosion in conductive structures, but provides high-sensitivity imaging results regarding the corrosion profile and opening size.
We study the photoelectron spectra by intense laser pulses with arbitrary time dependence and phase within the Keldysh framework. An efficient semianalytical approach using analytical transition matrix elements for hydrogenic atoms in any initial state enables efficient and accurate computation of the photoionization probability at any observation point without saddle point approximation, providing comprehensive three dimensional photoelectron angular distribution for linear and elliptical polarizations, that reveal the intricate features and provide insights on the photoionization characteristics such as angular dispersions, shift and splitting of photoelectron peaks from the tunneling or above threshold ionization(ATI) regime to non-adiabatic(intermediate) and multiphoton ionization(MPI) regimes. This facilitates the study of the effects of various laser pulse parameters on the photoelectron spectra and their angular distributions. The photoelectron peaks occur at multiples of 2ħω for linear polarization while odd-ordered peaks are suppressed in the direction perpendicular to the electric field. Short pulses create splitting and angular dispersion where the peaks are strongly correlated to the angles. For MPI and elliptical polarization with shorter pulses the peaks split into doublets and the first peak vanishes. The carrier envelope phase(CEP) significantly affects the ATI spectra while the Stark effect shifts the spectra of intermediate regime to higher energies due to interference.
Uncovering energy absorption and surface effects of various penetrating velocities on laminar structures is essential for designing protective structures. In this study, both quasi-static and dynamic penetration tests were systematical conducted on the front surfaces of metal sheets coated with a graphene oxide (GO) solution and other media. The addition of a GO fluid film to the front impact surface aided in increasing the penetration strength, improving the failure extension and dissipating additional energy under a wide-range of indentation velocity, from 3.33 × 10-5 m/s to 4.42 m/s. The coated -surfaces improved the specific energy dissipation by approximately 15~40% relative to the dry-contact configuration for both single-layer and double-layer configurations, and specific energy dissipations of double-layer configurations were 20~30% higher than those of the single-layer configurations. This treatment provides a facile strategy in changing the contact state for improving the failure load and dissipate additional energy.
A search for physics beyond the standard model in events with one or more high-momentum Higgs bosons, H, decaying to pairs of b quarks in association with missing transverse momentum is presented. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb^{-1}, were collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at the center-of-mass energy sqrt[s]=13 TeV. The analysis utilizes a new b quark tagging technique based on jet substructure to identify jets from H→bb[over ¯]. Events are categorized by the multiplicity of H-tagged jets, jet mass, and the missing transverse momentum. No significant deviation from standard model expectations is observed. In the context of supersymmetry (SUSY), limits on the cross sections of pair-produced gluinos are set, assuming that gluinos decay to quark pairs, H (or Z), and the lightest SUSY particle, LSP, through an intermediate next-to-lightest SUSY particle, NLSP. With large mass splitting between the NLSP and LSP, and 100% NLSP branching fraction to H, the lower limit on the gluino mass is found to be 2010 GeV.