Mode Width Research Articles

Amphibole Dusts: Fibers, Fragments, and Mesothelioma

Abstract Thirty-one sets of data containing lengths and widths of micron- and submicron-sized particles of amphibole asbestos fibers and fragmented amphibole particles and four sets containing summary data are compared in this study. The goals are to describe characteristics of amphibole asbestos fiber populations across asbestos occurrences, to determine which correlate most closely with the generally accepted relative risks for mesothelioma, and to describe the characteristics of amphibole cleavage fragment populations for which an excess risk for mesothelioma has not been established. The analysis shows that modal widths of asbestos fibers vary among geologic occurrences, many asbestos dust populations display multimodal widths, the modes occur at different widths, and the tendency for fibers to disaggregate into component fibrils varies. It also shows that all exposures associated with elevated mesothelioma contain abundant fibers >5 μm in length that have widths 5 μm and W ≤ 0.33 μm and L > 10 μm and W ≤ 0.33 μm. Such particles are absent or occur only in trace amounts in amphibole cleavage fragment populations. Asbestos fibers with such small widths are, for the most part, excluded from occupational exposure assessments which rely on optical microscopy or transmission electron microscopy (TEM) equivalents, compounding the already difficult assessment of risk from inhalation of elongated amphibole particles in a mixed dust environment, especially mining. If we are to understand the outcomes of occupational exposures and the responses observed in animal and cell culture experimentation, the abundance and characteristics of the narrowest elongated mineral particles in the exposure should be established by electron microscopy.

Study of Reversed Shear Alfvén Eigenmodes with Down Sweeping Frequency in HL-2A Experiment atqmin∼ 1

The reserved shear Alfven eigenmodes (RSAEs) whose frequencies sweep down have been observed in HL-2A plasmas at qmin ∼ 1 during current ramp-up and NBI+ECRH recently. The kinetic Alfven eigenmode code (KAEC), which is a non-perturbative kinetic/magnetohydrodynamic eigenvalue code for calculating kinetic damping of shear Alfven eigenmodes, is used to investigate the modes according to the experimental data. It is found that the kinetic reversed shear Alfven eigenmodes (KRSAEs) with downsweeping frequency and localized radial structure would appear, which are consistent with the observations. The theoretical analysis for the existence of the mode and the scaling of the mode width are provided. It is shown that the mode width of KRSAEs is proportional to the square root of thermal ion Larmor radius.

High resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy of spin waves in ultra‐thin cobalt films

Electron energy loss spectroscopy has successfully established itself as the experimental method to study exchange‐dominated, high‐momentum spin waves in ultra‐thin films. Because of insufficient energy resolution, previous studies were limited to spin waves in the high energy range and to wave vectors larger than about q|| = 0.4 Å−1. In this regime, spin waves are strongly damped by decay into Stoner excitations. Furthermore, the spin wave signal of a multilayer film consists of several overlapping modes. After implementation of several technical modifications, our electron spectrometer now enables the study of spin waves with an energy resolution down to 2 meV, and thereby the discrimination of several spin wave modes in ultra‐thin films as well as the study of the intrinsic width of modes down to 1 meV. Examples are presented for fcc and hcp cobalt films and discussed in terms of current theoretical models. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lattice Dynamics, Dielectric Constants, and Phase Diagram of Bismuth Layered Ferroelectric Bi3Ti1−xWxNbO9+δ Ceramics

Lattice dynamics and phase transitions of Aurivillius ferroelectric Bi3Ti1−xWxNbO9+δ (BTWN100x, 0 ≤ x ≤ 15%) ceramics have been investigated by temperature‐dependent Raman spectra (80–800 K) and far‐infrared (FIR) reflectance spectra (6–300 K). The frequency, intensity, and line width of phonon modes as well as complex dielectric functions of BTWN100x ceramics have been extracted by fitting Raman and FIR reflectance spectra with the multi‐Lorentzian oscillator model. It was found that the dielectric constants at a certain frequency region become lower with increasing W compositions at room temperature due to the compressive stress on W–O bands. Moreover, the temperature‐dependent behavior of optical phonon modes in BTWN100x ceramics indicates that there are two intermediate phases during the phase transition from paraelectric I4/mmm to ferroelectric A21am phase on cooling. The phase diagram of BTWN100x ceramics as a function of W composition has been improved.

The evolution of biomass-burning aerosol size distributions due to coagulation: dependence on fire and meteorological details and parameterization

Abstract. Biomass-burning aerosols have a significant effect on global and regional aerosol climate forcings. To model the magnitude of these effects accurately requires knowledge of the size distribution of the emitted and evolving aerosol particles. Current biomass-burning inventories do not include size distributions, and global and regional models generally assume a fixed size distribution from all biomass-burning emissions. However, biomass-burning size distributions evolve in the plume due to coagulation and net organic aerosol (OA) evaporation or formation, and the plume processes occur on spacial scales smaller than global/regional-model grid boxes. The extent of this size-distribution evolution is dependent on a variety of factors relating to the emission source and atmospheric conditions. Therefore, accurately accounting for biomass-burning aerosol size in global models requires an effective aerosol size distribution that accounts for this sub-grid evolution and can be derived from available emission-inventory and meteorological parameters. In this paper, we perform a detailed investigation of the effects of coagulation on the aerosol size distribution in biomass-burning plumes. We compare the effect of coagulation to that of OA evaporation and formation. We develop coagulation-only parameterizations for effective biomass-burning size distributions using the SAM-TOMAS large-eddy simulation plume model. For the most-sophisticated parameterization, we use the Gaussian Emulation Machine for Sensitivity Analysis (GEM-SA) to build a parameterization of the aged size distribution based on the SAM-TOMAS output and seven inputs: emission median dry diameter, emission distribution modal width, mass emissions flux, fire area, mean boundary-layer wind speed, plume mixing depth, and time/distance since emission. This parameterization was tested against an independent set of SAM-TOMAS simulations and yields R2 values of 0.83 and 0.89 for Dpm and modal width, respectively. The size distribution is particularly sensitive to the mass emissions flux, fire area, wind speed, and time, and we provide simplified fits of the aged size distribution to just these input variables. The simplified fits were tested against 11 aged biomass-burning size distributions observed at the Mt. Bachelor Observatory in August 2015. The simple fits captured over half of the variability in observed Dpm and modal width even though the freshly emitted Dpm and modal widths were unknown. These fits may be used in global and regional aerosol models. Finally, we show that coagulation generally leads to greater changes in the particle size distribution than OA evaporation/formation does, using estimates of OA production/loss from the literature.

Widely Tunable Single-Photon Source from a Carbon Nanotube in the Purcell Regime.

The narrow emission of a single carbon nanotube at low temperature is coupled to the optical mode of a fiber microcavity using the built-in spatial and spectral matching brought by this flexible geometry. A thorough cw and time-resolved investigation of the very same emitter both in free space and in cavity shows an efficient funneling of the emission into the cavity mode together with a strong emission enhancement corresponding to a Purcell factor of up to 5. At the same time, the emitted photons retain a strong sub-Poissonian statistics. By exploiting the cavity feeding effect on the phonon wings, we locked the emission of the nanotube at the cavity resonance frequency, which allowed us to tune the frequency over a 4THz band while keeping an almost perfect antibunching. By choosing the nanotube diameter appropriately, this study paves the way to the development of carbon-based tunable single-photon sources in the telecom bands.

Laser Linewidth and Spectral Resolution in Infrared Scanning Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy System

Sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG-VS) is a robust technique for interfacial investigation at molecular level. The performance of SFG-VS mostly depends on the spectral resolution of the SFG system. In this research, a simplified function was deduced to calculate the spectral resolution of picosecond SFG system and the lineshape of SFG spectra based on the Guassian shaped functions of IR beam and visible beam. The function indicates that the lineshpe of SFG spectra from nonresonant samples can be calculated by the Guassian widths of both IR beam and visible beam. And the Voigt lineshape of SFG spectra from vibrational resonant samples can be calculated by the Homogeneous broadening (Lorentzian width) and Inhomogeneous broadening (Guassian width) of vibrational modes, as well as the Guassian widths of both IR beam and visible beam. Such functions were also applied to verify the spectral resolution of the polarization-resolved and frequency-resolved picosecond SFG-VS system which was developed by our group recently. It is shown that the linewidths of IR beams that generated from current laser system are about 1.5 cm−1. The calculated spectral resolution of current picosecond IR scanning SFG-VS system is about 4.6 cm−1, which is consist with he spctral resolution shown in the spectra of cholesterol monolayer (3.5–5 cm−1).

Phonon properties in different types of single-walled carbon nanotube thin films probed by Raman spectroscopy

We report a temperature-dependent (70–450 K) Raman study of single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) thin films as a function of their thickness and the conductivity type of the nanotubes used to fabricate these films. The CNT films Raman G mode positions and widths exhibit two apparent regimes, a nonlinear temperature dependence at low temperatures (<270 K), which is explained by the phenomenon of optical phonon decay, and a linear temperature dependence above 270 K. The first-order temperature coefficient, determined for the linear regime, depends on the film thickness and type of CNTs, changed up to 20%. In addition, we observed another factor causing phonon shifts that is not related to the temperature but strongly depend on the film thickness and conductivity type of the CNTs. Finally, we ascertained the local temperature changes of the film samples upon laser heating as a function of the global temperature, demonstrating significant differences in the heating process, suggesting that heat evacuation efficiency depends type of the film, its thickness and global temperature. These results contribute to the understanding of the thermal properties and heat dissipation in CNT films, which are crucial for use in a variety of future applications.

Myths about normal faulting

Abstract Analyses of normal faults in mechanically layered strata reveal that material properties of rock layers strongly influence fault nucleation points, fault extent (trace length), failure mode (shear v. hybrid), fault geometry (e.g. refraction through mechanical layers), displacement gradient (and potential for fault tip folding), displacement partitioning (e.g. synthetic dip, synthetic faulting, fault core displacement), fault core and damage zone width, and fault zone deformation processes. These detailed investigations are progressively dispelling some common myths about normal faulting held by industry geologists, for example: (i) that faults tend to be linear in dip profile; (ii) that imbricate normal faults initiate due to sliding on low-angle detachments; (iii) that friction causes fault-related folds (so-called normal drag); (iv) that self-similar fault zone widening is a direct function of fault displacement; and (v) that faults are not dilational features and/or important sources of permeability.

Narrow line width frequency comb source based on an injection-locked III-V-on-silicon mode-locked laser.

In this paper, we report the optical injection locking of an L-band (∼1580 nm) 4.7 GHz III-V-on-silicon mode-locked laser with a narrow line width continuous wave (CW) source. This technique allows us to reduce the MHz optical line width of the mode-locked laser longitudinal modes down to the line width of the source used for injection locking, 50 kHz. We show that more than 50 laser lines generated by the mode-locked laser are coherent with the narrow line width CW source. Two locking techniques are explored. In a first approach a hybrid mode-locked laser is injection-locked with a CW source. In a second approach, light from a modulated CW source is injected in a passively mode-locked laser cavity. The realization of such a frequency comb on a chip enables transceivers for high spectral efficiency optical communication.

Temperature Evolution of Phonon Properties in Few-Layer Black Phosphorus

We present the results of Raman measurements of few-layer black phosphorus in a temperature range between 4 and 400 K. The BP Raman mode positions, widths, and intensity ratios exhibit apparent nonlinear temperature dependences, which we attributed to the phenomenon of optical phonon decay into two or three acoustic phonons. These results pave the way for a deeper understanding of the phonon and thermal properties of black phosphorus.

High-resolution emission spectroscopy of random lasing in GaN films pumped by UV-pulsed laser

We report on room temperature photoluminescence on GaN films grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). A NdYAG pulsed-laser at 266nm illuminates the films. Two components, at 363nm and 370nm, are identified in the near band edge structure on the spectra. A laser threshold of 700±150kWcm−2 is evidenced and corresponds to random lasing in the GaN film. A drastic narrowing of the spectral bandwidth from 5.2 to 1.8nm is observed at 370nm. High-resolution spectroscopy measurements show laser mode widths thinner than 50pm leading to a high quality factor Q=7750. Low-resolution measurements show redshift from 370.0 to 373.1nm for one component and from 363.1nm to 363.9nm for the other. Interpretation of this redshift is discussed.

Structure of wave-particle resonances and Alfvén mode saturation

The dynamics of beta-induced Alfvén eigenmodes driven by anisotropic co-passing or counter-passing fast ions, in a low-shear magnetic equilibrium, is investigated by self-consistent hybrid MHD-particle simulations with the XHMGC code. Though the modes exhibit similar structure and frequency in both cases and the linear growth rate is 10% larger for counter-passing ions than for co-passing ions, the nonlinear saturation amplitude is much larger in co-passing case. Moreover, different scalings for the saturation amplitude with increasing growth rates are observed in the two cases. It is shown that these differences are caused by the different radial dependence of resonance frequencies of co-passing and counter-passing fast ions: flat in the former case, steep in the latter case, so that the resonance width is, respectively, larger (in the former case) or smaller (in the latter case) than the mode width.

Variable-Temperature Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy of Single-Molecule Fluctuations and Dynamics.

Structure, dynamics, and coupling involving single-molecules determine function in catalytic, electronic or biological systems. While vibrational spectroscopy provides insight into molecular structure, rapid fluctuations blur the molecular trajectory even in single-molecule spectroscopy, analogous to spatial averaging in measuring large ensembles. To gain insight into intramolecular coupling, substrate coupling, and dynamic processes, we use tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) at variable and cryogenic temperatures, to slow and control the motion of a single molecule. We resolve intrinsic line widths of individual normal modes, allowing detailed and quantitative investigation of the vibrational modes. From temperature dependent line narrowing and splitting, we quantify ultrafast vibrational dephasing, intramolecular coupling, and conformational heterogeneity. Through statistical correlation analysis of fluctuations of individual modes, we observe rotational motion and spectral fluctuations of the molecule. This work demonstrates single-molecule vibrational spectroscopy beyond chemical identification, opening the possibility for a complete picture of molecular motion ranging from femtoseconds to minutes.

Quantum uncertainty in the beam width of spatial optical modes

We theoretically investigate the quantum uncertainty in the beam width of transverse optical modes and, for this purpose, define a corresponding quantum operator. Single mode states are studied as well as multimode states with small quantum noise. General relations are derived, and specific examples of different modes and quantum states are examined. For the multimode case, we show that the quantum uncertainty in the beam width can be completely attributed to the amplitude quadrature uncertainty of one specific mode, which is uniquely determined by the field under investigation. This discovery provides us with a strategy for the reduction of the beam width noise by an appropriate choice of the quantum state.

Analysis of long‐term aerosol size distribution data from Jungfraujoch with emphasis on free tropospheric conditions, cloud influence, and air mass transport

AbstractSix years of aerosol size distribution measurements between 20 and 600 nm diameters and total aerosol concentration above 10 nm from March 2008 to February 2014 at the high‐alpine site Jungfraujoch are presented. The size distribution was found to be typically bimodal with mode diameters and widths relatively stable throughout the year and the observation period. New particle formation was observed on 14.5% of all days without a seasonal preference. Particles typically grew only into the Aitken mode and did not reach cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) sizes on the time scale of several days. Growth of preexisting particles in the Aitken mode, on average, contributed very few CCN. We concluded that the dominant fraction of CCN at Jungfraujoch originated in the boundary layer. A number of approaches were used to distinguish free tropospheric (FT) conditions and episodes with planetary boundary layer (PBL) influence. In the absence of PBL injections, the concentration of particles larger than 90 nm (N90, roughly corresponding to the CCN concentration) reached a value ~40 cm−3 while PBL influence caused N90 concentrations of several hundred or even 1000 cm−3. Comparing three criteria for free tropospheric conditions, we found FT prevalence for 39% of the time with over 60% during winter and below 20% during summer. It is noteworthy that a simple criterion based on standard trace gas measurements appeared to outperform alternative approaches.

Experimental analysis of multi-lambda injection locking in single mode Fabry–Pérot laser diode

In this paper, we propose multi-lambda injection locking in a single mode Fabry–Pérot laser diode and experimentally analyze its effect on various characteristics of Fabry–Pérot laser diode. We consider mode of the injected beam, number of input injected beams, wavelength detuning, and injected power as important parameters in the analysis of suppression of the dominant mode and hysteresis width. The power required for injection locking is proportional to wavelength detuning, which is one of the important parameters for implementing latching device, switching device, and various other optical devices using single mode Fabry–Pérot laser diode. In multi-lambda injection locking, the amount of power required for the injected beam with and without suppression of self-injected mode plays an important role, and hence, is taken into account in our experiment. The spectrum domain output of three- and four-input NAND gate is shown to verify the concept of multi-lambda injection locking. We observe ON/OFF contrast ratio of more than 40dB when all beams are injection locked, whereas about 1.5dB ON/OFF contrast ratio in all other combinations of input beam injection. The analysis of multi-lambda injection locking can be used for multi-input optical devices such as multi-input logic gates, latches, and switches.

Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model v5.0 against size-resolved measurements of inorganic particle composition across sites in North America

Abstract. This work evaluates particle size–composition distributions simulated by the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model using micro-orifice uniform deposit impactor (MOUDI) measurements at 18 sites across North America. Size-resolved measurements of particulate SO42−, NO3−, NH4+, Na+, Cl−, Mg2+, Ca2+, and K+ are compared to CMAQ model output for discrete sampling periods between 2002 and 2005. The observation sites were predominantly in remote areas (e.g., National Parks) in the USA and Canada, and measurements were typically made for a period of roughly 1 month. For SO42− and NH4+, model performance was consistent across the USA and Canadian sites, with the model slightly overestimating the peak particle diameter and underestimating the peak particle concentration compared to the observations. Na+ and Mg2+ size distributions were generally well represented at coastal sites, indicating reasonable simulation of emissions from sea spray. CMAQ is able to simulate the displacement of Cl− in aged sea spray aerosol, though the extent of Cl− depletion relative to Na+ is often underpredicted. The model performance for NO3− exhibited much more site-to-site variability than that of SO42− and NH4+, with the model ranging from an underestimation to overestimation of both the peak diameter and peak particle concentration across the sites. Computing PM2.5 from the modeled size distribution parameters rather than by summing the masses in the Aitken and accumulation modes resulted in differences in daily averages of up to 1 μg m−3 (10 %), while the difference in seasonal and annual model performance compared to observations from the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE), Chemical Speciation Network (CSN), and Air Quality System (AQS) networks was very small. Two updates to the CMAQ aerosol model – changes to the assumed size and mode width of emitted particles and the implementation of gravitational settling – resulted in small improvements in modeled size distributions.

Mid-infrared multi-mode absorption spectroscopy using interband cascade lasers for multi-species sensing.

An interband cascade laser (ICL) operating at 3.7 μm has been used to perform multimode absorption spectroscopy, MUMAS, at scan rates up to 10 kHz. Line widths of individual modes in the range 10-80 MHz were derived from isolated lines in the MUMAS signatures of HCl. MUMAS data for methane covering a spectral range of 30 nm yielded a detection level of 30 μbar·m for 1 s measurement time at 100 Hz. Simultaneous detection of methane, acetylene, and formaldehyde in a gas mixture containing all three species is reported.

Graphene surface plasmon polaritons with opposite in-plane electron oscillations along its two surfaces

We predict the existence of a surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode that can be guided by a graphene monolayer, regardless of the sign of the imaginary part of its conductivity. In this mode, in-plane electron oscillations along two surfaces of graphene are of opposite directions, which is very different from conventional SPPs on graphene. Significantly, coating graphene with dielectric films yields a way to guide the SPPs with both sub-wavelength mode widths and ultra-long propagation distances. In particular, the mode characteristics are very sensitive to the chemical potential of graphene, so the graphene-based waveguide can find applications in many optoelectronic devices.