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At least 289 records · Page 16

Phase-Compensating System For Fiber-Optic Holography

Phase-compensating system controls relative phase of laser light emitted from two optical fibers. Stabilized for conventional holographic applications, or stepped through sequence of 90 degree phase shifts for phase-stepping holographic interferometry. Closed-loop system compensates for phase fluctuations caused by mechanical stresses and temperature changes in fibers, providing long-term phase stability and phase steps accurate to within 0.02 degrees. Controls environmental fluctuations in phases of light emitted by output fibers.

Mercer, Carolyn R.↗

Effects of Convective Transport of Solute and Impurities on Defect-Causing Kinetics Instabilities

For in-situ studies of the formation and evolution of step patterns during the growth of protein crystals, we have designed and assembled an experimental setup based on Michelson interferometry with the surface of the growing protein crystal as one of the reflective surfaces. The crystallization part of the device allows optical monitoring of a face of a crystal growing at temperature stable within 0.05 C in a developed solution flow of controlled direction and speed. The reference arm of the interferometer contains a liquid-crystal element that allows controlled shifts of the phase of the interferograms. We employ an image processing algorithm which combines five images with a pi/2 phase difference between each pair of images. The images are transferred to a computer by a camera capable of capturing 6-8 frames per second. The device allows data collection data regarding growth over a relatively large area (approximately .3 sq. mm) in-situ and in real time during growth. The estimated dept resolution of the phase shifting interferometry is about 100 A. The lateral resolution, depending on the zoom ratio, varies between 0.3 and 0.6 micrometers. We have now collected quantitative results on the onset, initial stages and development of instabilities in moving step trains on vicinal crystal surfaces at varying supersaturation, position on the facet, crystal size and temperature with the proteins ferritin, apoferritin and thaumatin. Comparisons with theory, especially with the AFM results on the molecular level processes, see below, allow tests of the rational for the effects of convective flows and, as a particular case, the lack thereof, on step bunching.

Vekilov, Peter G.↗

Applications of the Hybrid Theory to the Scattering of Electrons from HE+ and Li++ and Resonances in these Systems

Applications of the hybrid theory to the scattering of electrons from Ile+ and Li++ and resonances in these systems, A. K. Bhatia, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center- The Hybrid theory of electron-hydrogen elastic scattering [I] is applied to the S-wave scattering of electrons from He+ and Li++. In this method, both short-range and long-range correlations are included in the Schrodinger equation at the same time. Phase shifts obtained in this calculation have rigorous lower bounds to the exact phase shifts and they are compared with those obtained using the Feshbach projection operator formalism [2], the close-coupling approach [3], and Harris-Nesbet method [4]. The agreement among all the calculations is very good. These systems have doubly-excited or Feshbach resonances embedded in the continuum. The resonance parameters for the lowest ' S resonances in He and Li+ are calculated and they are compared with the results obtained using the Feshbach projection operator formalism [5,6]. It is concluded that accurate resonance parameters can be obtained by the present method, which has the advantage of including corrections due to neighboring resonances and the continuum in which these resonances are embedded.

Bhatia, Anand K.↗

Active Suppression of Instabilities in Engine Combustors

A method of feedback control has been proposed as a means of suppressing thermo-acoustic instabilities in a liquid- fueled combustor of a type used in an aircraft engine. The basic principle of the method is one of (1) sensing combustor pressure oscillations associated with instabilities and (2) modulating the rate of flow of fuel to the combustor with a control phase that is chosen adaptively so that the pressure oscillations caused by the modulation oppose the sensed pressure oscillations. The need for this method arises because of the planned introduction of advanced, lean-burning aircraft gas turbine engines, which promise to operate with higher efficiencies and to emit smaller quantities of nitrogen oxides, relative to those of present aircraft engines. Unfortunately, the advanced engines are more susceptible to thermoacoustic instabilities. These instabilities are hard to control because they include large dead-time phase shifts, wide-band noise characterized by amplitudes that are large relative to those of the instabilities, exponential growth of the instabilities, random net phase walks, and amplitude fluctuations. In this method (see figure), the output of a combustion-pressure sensor would be wide-band-pass filtered and then further processed to generate a control signal that would be applied to a fast-actuation valve to modulate the flow of fuel. Initially, the controller would rapidly take large phase steps in order to home in, within a fraction of a second, to a favorable phase region within which the instability would be reduced. Then the controller would restrict itself to operate within this phase region and would further restrict itself to operate within a region of stability, as long as the power in the instability signal was decreasing. In the phase-shifting scheme of this method, the phase of the control vector would be made to continuously bounce back and forth from one boundary of an effective stability region to the other. Computationally, this scheme would be implemented by the adaptive sliding phaser averaged control (ASPAC) algorithm, which requires very little detailed knowledge of the combustor dynamics. In the ASPAC algorithm, the power of the instability signal would be calculated from the wide-bandpass- filtered combustion-pressure signal and averaged over a period of time (typically of the order of a few hundredths of a second) corresponding to the controller updating cycle [not to be confused with the controller sampling cycle, which would be much shorter (typically of the order of 10(exp -4) second)].

Kopasakis, George↗

Method and system of doppler correction for mobile communications systems

Doppler correction system and method comprising receiving a Doppler effected signal comprising a preamble signal (32). A delayed preamble signal (48) may be generated based on the preamble signal (32). The preamble signal (32) may be multiplied by the delayed preamble signal (48) to generate an in-phase preamble signal (60). The in-phase preamble signal (60) may be filtered to generate a substantially constant in-phase preamble signal (62). A plurality of samples of the substantially constant in-phase preamble signal (62) may be accumulated. A phase-shifted signal (76) may also be generated based on the preamble signal (32). The phase-shifted signal (76) may be multiplied by the delayed preamble signal (48) to generate an out-of-phase preamble signal (80). The out-of-phase preamble signal (80) may be filtered to generate a substantially constant out-of-phase preamble signal (82). A plurality of samples of the substantially constant out-of-phase signal (82) may be accumulated. A sum of the in-phase preamble samples and a sum of the out-of-phase preamble samples may be normalized relative to each other to generate an in-phase Doppler estimator (92) and an out-of-phase Doppler estimator (94).

Georghiades, Costas N.↗

Buckling behavior of long symmetrically laminated plates subjected to combined loadings

A parametric study is presented of the buckling behavior of infinitely long, symmetrically laminated anisotropic plates subjected to combined loadings. The loading conditions considered are axial tension and compression transverse tension and compression, and shear. Results obtained using a special-purpose analysis, well-suited for parametric studies, are presented for clamped and simply supported plates. Moreover, results are presented for some common laminate constructions, and generic buckling design charts are presented for a wide range of parameters. The generic design charts are presented in terms of useful nondimensional parameters, and the dependence of the nondimensional parameters on laminate fiber orientation, stacking sequence, and material properties is discussed. An important finding of the study is that the effects of anisotropy are much more pronounced in shear-loaded plates than in compression-loaded plates. In addition, the effects of anisotropy on plates subjected to combined loadings are generally manifested as a phase shift of self-similar buckling interaction curves. A practical application of this phase shift is that the buckling resistance of long plates can be improved by applying a shear loading with a specific orientation. In all cases considered in the study, the buckling coefficients of infinitely long plates are found to be independent of the bending stiffness ratio (D sub 11/D sub 22)(1/4).

Nemeth, Michael P.↗

Buckling behavior of long symmetrically laminated plates subjected to combined loads

A parametric study of the buckling behavior of infinitely long symmetrically laminated anisotropic plates subjected to combined loadings is presented. The loading conditions considered are axial tension and compression, transverse tension and compression, and shear. Results obtained using a special purpose analysis, well suited for parametric studies are presented for clamped and simply supported plates. Moreover, results are presented for some common laminate constructions, and generic buckling design charts are presented for a wide range of parameters. The generic design charts are presented in terms of useful nondimensional parameters, and dependence of the nondimensional parameters on laminate fiber orientation, stacking sequence, and material properties is discussed. An important finding of the study is that the effects of anisotropy are much more pronounced in shear-loaded plates than in compression loaded plates. In addition, the effects of anisotropy on plates subjected to combined loadings are generally manifested as a phase shift of self-similar buckling interaction curves. A practical application of this phase shift is the buckling resistance of long plates can be improved by applying a shear loading with a specific orientation. In all cases considered, it is found that the buckling coefficients of infinitely long plates are independent of the bending stiffness ratio (D sub 11/D sub 22) sup 1/4.

Nemeth, Michael P.↗

Interferometer for Testing in Vibration Environments

Temporal phase shifting interferometers require a stable environment during the data acquisition, so that well controlled phase steps can be introduced between successively acquired interferograms. In contrast, single-frame interferometers need to acquire only one interferogram to provide a phase map with very good precision at high spatial resolution. Thus these interferometers are well suited for the interferometric testing of large optics with long radius of curvature for which vibration isolation is difficult, eg. testing astronomical telescope mirrors in a test tower, or testing space optics inside a cryogenic vacuum chamber. This paper describes the Instantaneous Phase Interferometer (IPI) by ADE Phase Shift, together with measurement results at NASA. The IPI consists of a polarization Twyman-Green interferometer operating at 632.8 nm, with single-frame data acquisition based on a spatial carrier technique. The spatial carrier fringes are generated by introducing large amount of tilt between the test beam and the reference beam. The phase information of the optical surface under test is encoded in the straightness of the interference fringes, which can be detected in a single frame with spatial sampling of 1000 x 1000 pixels. Measurements taken at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Cater in support of the characterization of developmental optics for the Next Generation Space Telescope are presented. Such tests consist of a mirror placed inside a cryogenic vacuum chamber, with the IPI placed outside the test chamber without any additional vibration isolation.

Eng, Ron↗

Investigation of Bandwidth-Efficient Coding and Modulation Techniques

The necessary technology was studied to improve the bandwidth efficiency of the space-to-ground communications network using the current capabilities of that network as a baseline. The study was aimed at making space payloads, for example the Hubble Space Telescope, more capable without the need to completely redesign the link. Particular emphasis was placed on the following concepts: (1) what the requirements are which are necessary to convert an existing standard 4-ary phase shift keying communications link to one that can support, as a minimum, 8-ary phase shift keying with error corrections applied; and (2) to determine the feasibility of using the existing equipment configurations with additional signal processing equipment to realize the higher order modulation and coding schemes.

Osborne, William P.↗

Hybrid Theory of Electron-Hydrogenic Systems Elastic Scattering

Accurate electron-hydrogen and electron-hydrogenic cross sections are required to interpret fusion experiments, laboratory plasma physics and properties of the solar and astrophysical plasmas. We have developed a method in which the short-range and long-range correlations can be included at the same time in the scattering equations. The phase shifts have rigorous lower bounds and the scattering lengths have rigorous upper bounds. The phase shifts in the resonance region can be used to calculate very accurately the resonance parameters.

Bhatia, A. K.↗

Scalar field in Reissner–Nordström spacetime: Bound state and scattering state (with appendix on eliminating oscillation in partial sum approximation of periodic function)

Highlights: • Bound-state and scattering-state solutions of massive scalar fields in R-N spacetime. • Bound-state wave functions and eigenvalues of massive scalar fields in R-N spacetime. • Solving explicit expressions of scattering phase shifts by integral equation methods. • Introducing tortoise coordinates for R-N spacetime. • Eliminating oscillations in the partial sum approximation of periodic functions. In this paper, we solve the massive scalar field in the Reissner–Nordström spacetime. The scalar field in the Reissner–Nordström spacetime has both bound states and scattering states. For bound states, we solve the bound-state wave function and the eigenvalue spectrum. For scattering states, we solve the scattering wave function and give an explicit expression for scattering phase shift by the integral equation method. Especially, we introduce the tortoise coordinate for the Reissner–Nordström spacetime. Moreover, in the calculation of scattering cross sections, we encounter a difficulty in partial sum approximation. If the sum of partial waves cannot be performed exactly, one has to turn to the partial sum approximation which approximates a function by the first several terms of the series. However, in the partial sum approximation there exists an incorrect oscillation which cannot be eliminated by keeping more terms. In the appendix we suggest an approach for eliminating such oscillations in the partial sum.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Power electronics for low power arcjets

In anticipation of the needs of future light-weight, low-power spacecraft, arcjet power electronics in the 100 to 400 W operating range were developed. Limited spacecraft power and thermal control capacity of these small spacecraft emphasized the need for high efficiency. Power topologies similar to those in the higher 2 kW and 5 to 30 kW power range were implemented, including a four transistor bridge switching circuit, current mode pulse-width modulated control, and an output current averaging inductor with an integral pulse generation winding. Reduction of switching transients was accomplished using a low inductance power distribution network, and no passive snubber circuits were necessary for power switch protection. Phase shift control of the power bridge was accomplished using an improved pulse width modulation to phase shift converter circuit. These features, along with conservative magnetics designs allowed power conversion efficiencies of greater than 92.5 percent to be achieved into resistive loads over the entire operating range of the converter. Electromagnetic compatibility requirements were not considered in this work, and control power for the converter was derived from AC mains. Addition of input filters and control power converters would result in an efficiency of on the order of 90 percent for a flight unit. Due to the developmental nature of arcjet systems at this power level, the exact nature of the thruster/power processor interface was not quantified. Output regulation and current ripple requirements of 1 and 20 percent respectively, as well as starting techniques, were derived from the characteristics of the 2 kW system but an open circuit voltage in excess of 175 V was specified. Arcjet integration tests were performed, resulting in successful starts and stable arcjet operation at power levels as low as 240 W with simulated hydrazine propellants.

Hamley, John A.↗

Power electronics for low power arcjets

In anticipation of the needs of future light-weight low-power spacecraft, arcjet power electronics in the 100- to 400-W operating range were developed. Power topologies similar to those in the higher 2-kW and 5- to 30-kW power range were implemented, including a four-transistor bridge-switching circuit, current-mode pulse-width modulated control, and an output current averaging inductor with an integral pulse generation winding. Reduction of switching transients was accomplished using a low inductance power distribution network, and no passive snubber circuits were necessary for power switch protection. Phase shift control of the power bridge was accomplished using an improved pulse width modulation to phase shift converter circuit. These features, along with conservative magnetics designs, allowed power conversion efficiencies of greater than 92.5 percent to be achieved into resistive loads over the entire operating range of the converter.

Hamley, John A.↗

3D magnetic imaging using electron vortex beam microscopy

Abstract Electron vortex beams are free-electron waves that carry orbital angular momentum. There has been growing theoretical and experimental interest in the use of electron vortex beams as a tool for the investigation of magnetic materials. However, due to the complex wavefront of the propagating waves, a deeper understanding of the interaction of electron vortex beams and the magnetic sample is needed. Here we calculate the magnetic phase shift that an electron vortex beam obtains upon transmitting through a magnetic sample. We show that this magnetic phase shift is influenced by the out-of-plane magnetization, which is a unique characteristic of incident electron vortex beams and is proportional to their orbital angular momentum. Finally, we develop a phase retrieval methodology to retrieve the out-of-plane component of magnetization. Based on our theory, we discuss suitable experimental conditions that would enable this imaging capability for magnetic materials and further extend to non-magnetic chiral materials.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Monolithic 20-GHz Transmitting Module

20-GHz monolithic microwave/millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) with amplification and phase-shift (time-delay) capabilities developed. Use of MMIC module technology promises to make feasible development of weight- and cost-effective phased-array antenna systems, identified as major factor in achieving minimum cost and efficient use of frequency and orbital resources of future generations of communication satellite systems. Use of MMIC transmitting modules provides for relatively simple method for phase-shift control of many separate radio-frequency (RF) signals required for phased-array antenna systems.

Kascak, T.↗

Ground plane interference elimination by passive element

The radiation pattern of a beam at elevation angles near the horizon is improved for phased array antennas by control of the radiation field intensity near the horizon to reduce multipath disturbances, and to improve the axial ratio of a circularly polarized phased array antenna. This is accomplished by placing a parasitic phase shifting element directly below the antenna beam axis. The waveguide section is designed to produce a phase shift in the portion of antenna radiation energy passing through it to cancel some of the radiation energy in the direction of the horizon. The spacing of the waveguide section in front of the antenna is determined empirically for optimum results, i.e., for reduction of beam power below about 20 deg. without affecting beam power at high elevation angles.

Bonebright, Mark E.↗

An imaging photoemission polarimeter for soft X-rays

Results of investigations are reviewed to assess the polarization dependence of photoemission in the optical, UV, and soft X-ray bands, as well as present a design for an imaging photoelectric polarimeter. Data regarding the effect of the dependence in the soft X-ray band are emphasized including the quantity of photons produced by each X-ray. The phase shift encountered in some experiments indicates that a third axis is present; the importance of the phase shift in understanding the vectoral photoeffect is emphasized. Measurements of the pulse height show that this measure is proportional to the number of electrons photoemitted by the incident X-ray. The development of X-ray polarimeters can be significantly improved as a result of the study of polarization sensitivity in the photoelectric effect. The design of a photoelectric polarimeter is presented, and the potential uses for the instrument include measuring the polarization of supernova remnants, AGN, and black hole candidates.

Kaaret, Philip↗

Scattering of p-modes by a sunspot

The acoustic scattering properties of a large sunspot are determined from a Fourier-Hankel decomposition of p-mode amplitudes as measured from a 68-hr subset of a larger set of observations made at the South Pole in 1988. It is shown that significant improvement in the measurement of p-mode scattering amplitudes results from the increased temporal frequency resolution provided by these data. Scattering phase shifts are unambiguously determined for the first time, and the dependence of the p-mode phase shift and absorption with wavenumber and frequency is presented.

Braun, D. C.↗