31,130 research outputs found
Compressive Direct Imaging of a Billion-Dimensional Optical Phase-Space
Optical phase-spaces represent fields of any spatial coherence, and are
typically measured through phase-retrieval methods involving a computational
inversion, interference, or a resolution-limiting lenslet array. Recently, a
weak-values technique demonstrated that a beam's Dirac phase-space is
proportional to the measurable complex weak-value, regardless of coherence.
These direct measurements require scanning through all possible
position-polarization couplings, limiting their dimensionality to less than
100,000. We circumvent these limitations using compressive sensing, a numerical
protocol that allows us to undersample, yet efficiently measure
high-dimensional phase-spaces. We also propose an improved technique that
allows us to directly measure phase-spaces with high spatial resolution and
scalable frequency resolution. With this method, we are able to easily measure
a 1.07-billion-dimensional phase-space. The distributions are numerically
propagated to an object placed in the beam path, with excellent agreement. This
protocol has broad implications in signal processing and imaging, including
recovery of Fourier amplitudes in any dimension with linear algorithmic
solutions and ultra-high dimensional phase-space imaging.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Added new larger dataset and fixed typo
Electrically tunable collective response in a coupled micromechanical array
We employ optical diffraction to study the mechanical properties of a grating array of suspended doubly clamped beams made of Au. The device allows application of electrostatic coupling between the beams that gives rise to formation of a band of normal modes of vibration (phonons). We parametrically excite these collective modes and study the response by measuring the diffraction signal. The results indicate that nonlinear effects strongly affect the dynamics of the system. Further optimization will allow employing similar systems for real-time mechanical spectrum analysis of electrical waveforms
Solcore: A multi-scale, python-based library for modelling solar cells and semiconductor materials
Computational models can provide significant insight into the operation
mechanisms and deficiencies of photovoltaic solar cells. Solcore is a modular
set of computational tools, written in Python 3, for the design and simulation
of photovoltaic solar cells. Calculations can be performed on ideal,
thermodynamic limiting behaviour, through to fitting experimentally accessible
parameters such as dark and light IV curves and luminescence. Uniquely, it
combines a complete semiconductor solver capable of modelling the optical and
electrical properties of a wide range of solar cells, from quantum well devices
to multi-junction solar cells. The model is a multi-scale simulation accounting
for nanoscale phenomena such as the quantum confinement effects of
semiconductor nanostructures, to micron level propagation of light through to
the overall performance of solar arrays, including the modelling of the
spectral irradiance based on atmospheric conditions. In this article we
summarize the capabilities in addition to providing the physical insight and
mathematical formulation behind the software with the purpose of serving as
both a research and teaching tool.Comment: 25 pages, 18 figures, Journal of Computational Electronics (2018
Sensor development programs at NASA Ames Research Center
Two sensor development programs being conducted at the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, NASA Ames Research Center are described, one in progress and the other being initiated. The ongoing program involves digital image velocimetry for velocity field measurements of time-dependent flows. The new program involves advanced acoustic sensors for wind tunnel applications
Improving Software Performance in the Compute Unified Device Architecture
This paper analyzes several aspects regarding the improvement of software performance for applications written in the Compute Unified Device Architecture CUDA). We address an issue of great importance when programming a CUDA application: the Graphics Processing Unit’s (GPU’s) memory management through ranspose ernels. We also benchmark and evaluate the performance for progressively optimizing a transposing matrix application in CUDA. One particular interest was to research how well the optimization techniques, applied to software application written in CUDA, scale to the latest generation of general-purpose graphic processors units (GPGPU), like the Fermi architecture implemented in the GTX480 and the previous architecture implemented in GTX280. Lately, there has been a lot of interest in the literature for this type of optimization analysis, but none of the works so far (to our best knowledge) tried to validate if the optimizations can apply to a GPU from the latest Fermi architecture and how well does the Fermi architecture scale to these software performance improving techniques.Compute Unified Device Architecture, Fermi Architecture, Naive Transpose, Coalesced Transpose, Shared Memory Copy, Loop in Kernel, Loop over Kernel
Power system applications of fiber optics
Power system applications of optical systems, primarily using fiber optics, are reviewed. The first section reviews fibers as components of communication systems. The second section deals with fiber sensors for power systems, reviewing the many ways light sources and fibers can be combined to make measurements. Methods of measuring electric field gradient are discussed. Optical data processing is the subject of the third section, which begins by reviewing some widely different examples and concludes by outlining some potential applications in power systems: fault location in transformers, optical switching for light fired thyristors and fault detection based on the inherent symmetry of most power apparatus. The fourth and final section is concerned with using optical fibers to transmit power to electric equipment in a high voltage situation, potentially replacing expensive high voltage low power transformers. JPL has designed small photodiodes specifically for this purpose, and fabricated and tested several samples. This work is described
NASA Thesaurus supplement: A four part cumulative supplement to the 1988 edition of the NASA Thesaurus (supplement 3)
The four-part cumulative supplement to the 1988 edition of the NASA Thesaurus includes the Hierarchical Listing (Part 1), Access Vocabulary (Part 2), Definitions (Part 3), and Changes (Part 4). The semiannual supplement gives complete hierarchies and accepted upper/lowercase forms for new terms
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