NASA Tech Briefs, July 2005

Thin-Film Resistance Heat-Flux Sensors Circuit Indicates that Voice-Recording Disks are Nearly Full Optical Sensing of Combustion Instabilities in Gas Turbines Topics include: Crane-Load Contact Sensor; Hexagonal and Pentagonal Fractal Multiband Antennas; Multifunctional Logic Gate Controlled by Temperature; Multifunctional Logic Gate Controlled by Supply Voltage; Power Divider for Waveforms Rich in Harmonics; SCB Quantum Computers Using iSWAP and 1-Qubit Rotations; CSAM Metrology Software Tool; Update on Rover Sequencing and Visualization Program; Selecting Data from a Star Catalog; Rotating Desk for Collaboration by Two Computer Programmers; Variable-Pressure Washer; Magnetically Attached Multifunction Maintenance Rover; Improvements in Fabrication of Sand/Binder Cores for Casting; Solid Freeform Fabrication of Composite-Material Objects; Efficient Computational Model of Hysteresis; Gauges for Highly Precise Metrology of a Compound Mirror; Improved Electrolytic Hydrogen Peroxide Generator; High-Power Fiber Lasers Using Photonic Band Gap Materials; Ontology-Driven Information Integration; Quantifying Traversability of Terrain for a Mobile Robot; More About Arc-Welding Process for Making Carbon Nanotubes; Controlling Laser Spot Size in Outer Space; or Software-Reconfigurable Processors for Spacecraft

Simulation Studies of Nanomagnet-Based Architecture

We report a simulation study on interacting ensembles of Co nanomagnets that can perform basic logic operations and propagate logic signals, where the state variable is the magnetization direction. Dipole field coupling between individual nanomagnets drives the logic functionality of the ensemble and coordinated arrangements of the nanomagnets allow for the logic signal to propagate in a predictable way. Problems with the integrity of the logic signal arising from instabilities in the constituent magnetizations are solved by introducing a biaxial anisotropy term to the Gibbs magnetic free energy of each nanomagnet. The enhanced stability allows for more complex components of a logic architecture capable of random combinatorial logic, including horizontal wires, vertical wires, junctions, fanout nodes, and a novel universal logic gate. Our simulations define the focus of scaling trends in nanomagnet-based logic and provide estimates of the energy dissipation and time per nanomagnet reversal

Particle Computation: Complexity, Algorithms, and Logic

We investigate algorithmic control of a large swarm of mobile particles (such as robots, sensors, or building material) that move in a 2D workspace using a global input signal (such as gravity or a magnetic field). We show that a maze of obstacles to the environment can be used to create complex systems. We provide a wide range of results for a wide range of questions. These can be subdivided into external algorithmic problems, in which particle configurations serve as input for computations that are performed elsewhere, and internal logic problems, in which the particle configurations themselves are used for carrying out computations. For external algorithms, we give both negative and positive results. If we are given a set of stationary obstacles, we prove that it is NP-hard to decide whether a given initial configuration of unit-sized particles can be transformed into a desired target configuration. Moreover, we show that finding a control sequence of minimum length is PSPACE-complete. We also work on the inverse problem, providing constructive algorithms to design workspaces that efficiently implement arbitrary permutations between different configurations. For internal logic, we investigate how arbitrary computations can be implemented. We demonstrate how to encode dual-rail logic to build a universal logic gate that concurrently evaluates and, nand, nor, and or operations. Using many of these gates and appropriate interconnects, we can evaluate any logical expression. However, we establish that simulating the full range of complex interactions present in arbitrary digital circuits encounters a fundamental difficulty: a fan-out gate cannot be generated. We resolve this missing component with the help of 2x1 particles, which can create fan-out gates that produce multiple copies of the inputs. Using these gates we provide rules for replicating arbitrary digital circuits.Comment: 27 pages, 19 figures, full version that combines three previous conference article

Hyper-Ramsey Spectroscopy of Optical Clock Transitions

We present non-standard optical Ramsey schemes that use pulses individually tailored in duration, phase, and frequency to cancel spurious frequency shifts related to the excitation itself. In particular, the field shifts and their uncertainties of Ramsey fringes can be radically suppressed (by 2-4 orders of magnitude) in comparison with the usual Ramsey method (using two equal pulses) as well as with single-pulse Rabi spectroscopy. Atom interferometers and optical clocks based on two-photon transitions, heavily forbidden transitions, or magnetically induced spectroscopy could significantly benefit from this method. In the latter case these frequency shifts can be suppressed considerably below a fractional level of 10^{-17}. Moreover, our approach opens the door for the high-precision optical clocks based on direct frequency comb spectroscopy.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure