Fabrication of thick structures by sputtering

Deposit, 5500-gram of Cu-0.15 wt % Zr alloy, sputtered onto copper cylinder to average thickness of 12.29 mm. Structure was achieved with high-rate sputter deposition for about 100 hours total sputtering time. Material had twice the strength of unsputtered material at temperatures to 723 K and equivalent strength at nearly 873 K

Bothered bloggings and troubled tweets: constructions of stress and concerns for early-career academics

While recent studies suggest that stress is becoming more prominent for academics, very little research has been conducted on understanding the realities of stress for early-career academics. Through the employment of social constructionist epistemology and theory as a framework for research, our study examines how early-career academics language and construct experiences of stress and concern. We employed a constructionist thematic analysis. This involved selecting a sample of blogs and Twitter microblogs to code and identifying important themes, in relation to stress and concern. Through a preliminary analysis of blogs, we found that there were recurring concerns on work-life balance, a competitive culture that eroded collegiality and social support, and there were worries about the insecurity of work. Our analysis of Twitter tweets found a range of concerns. There were issues of health and wellbeing, being unfairly discriminated against and not recognised by senior academic staff, structural barriers in the application and access of research, publishing issues and advice in relation to accessibility of research outputs, a governmentality on the standards of academic conduct, and concerns on flexibility in relation to time and work life balance. The findings have implications for higher education institutions in the support and career development of early career academics

Design, fabrication and evaluation of chalcogenide glass Luneburg lenses for LiNbO3 integrated optical devices

Optical waveguide Luneburg lenses of arsenic trisulfide glass are described. The lenses are formed by thermal evaporation of As2S3 through suitably placed masks onto the surface of LiNbO3:Ti indiffused waveguides. The lenses are designed for input apertures up to 1 cm and for speeds of f/5 or better. They are designed to focus the TM sub 0 guided mode of a beam of wavelength, external to the guide, of 633 nm. The refractive index of the As2S3 films and the changes induced in the refractive index by exposure to short wavelength light were measured. Some correlation between film thickness and optical properties was noted. The short wavelength photosensitivity was used to shorten the lens focal length from the as deposited value. Lenses of rectangular shape, as viewed from above the guide, as well as conventional circular Luneburg lenses, were made. Measurements made on the lenses include thickness profile, general optical quality, focal length, quality of focal spot, and effect of ultraviolet irradiation on optical properties

An eccentrically perturbed Tonks-Girardeau gas

We investigate the static and dynamic properties of a Tonks-Girardeau gas in a harmonic trap with an eccentric $\delta$-perturbation of variable strength. For this we first find the analytic eigensolution of the single particle problem and use this solution to calculate the spatial density and energy profiles of the many particle gas as a function of the strength and position of the perturbation. We find that the crystal nature of the Tonks state is reflected in both the lowest occupation number and momentum distribution of the gas. As a novel application of our model, we study the time evolution of the the spatial density after a sudden removal of the perturbation. The dynamics exhibits collapses and revivals of the original density distribution which occur in units of the trap frequency. This is reminiscent of the Talbot effect from classical optics.Comment: Comments and suggestions are welcom

The Alzheimer variant of Lewy body disease: A pathologically confirmed case-control study

The objective of the study was to identify clinical features that distinguish patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), who were classified as Alzheimer's disease ( AD) patients, from patients with AD. We examined a group of 27 patients from our memory clinic, originally diagnosed with AD, of whom 6 were postmortem found to have DLB. For the present study, we compared cognitive, noncognitive and neurological symptoms between the two groups. We found that there were no differences on ratings of dementia and scales for activities of daily living. Patients with DLB performed better on the MMSE and the memory subtest of the CAMCOG, but there was no difference in any other cognitive domain. Furthermore, genetic risk factors, including family history of dementia or allele frequency of the apolipoprotein epsilon 4, did not discriminate between the two groups, and there were no differences on CCT scans. Taken together, our findings suggest that Lewy body pathology may be present in patients who do not show the typical clinical features which distinguish DLB from AD. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel

Approximate joint measurement of qubit observables through an Arthur-Kelly type model

We consider joint measurement of two and three unsharp qubit observables through an Arthur-Kelly type joint measurement model for qubits. We investigate the effect of initial state of the detectors on the unsharpness of the measurement as well as the post-measurement state of the system. Particular emphasis is given on a physical understanding of the POVM to PVM transition in the model and entanglement between system and detectors.Two approaches for characterizing the unsharpness of the measurement and the resulting measurement uncertainty relations are considered.The corresponding measures of unsharpness are connected for the case where both the measurements are equally unsharp. The connection between the POVM elements and symmetries of the underlying Hamiltonian of the measurement interaction is made explicit and used to perform joint measurement in arbitrary directions. Finally in the case of three observables we derive a necessary condition for the approximate joint measurement and use it show the relative freedom available when the observables are non-orthogonal.Comment: 22 pages; Late

Observing the Profile of an Atom Laser Beam

We report on an investigation of the beam profile of an atom laser extracted from a magnetically trapped $^{87}$Rb Bose-Einstein condensate. The transverse momentum distribution is magnified by a curved mirror for matter waves and a momentum resolution of 1/60 of a photon recoil is obtained. We find the transverse momentum distribution to be determined by the mean-field potential of the residing condensate, which leads to a non-smooth transverse density distribution. Our experimental data are compared with a full 3D simulation of the output coupling process and we find good agreement.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Development of sputtered high temperature coatings for thrust chambers

Adherent insulating coatings were developed for thrust chamber service. The coatings consisted of nickel and a ceramic, and were graded in composition from pure nickel at the thrust chamber wall to pure ceramic at the coating surface. The coatings were deposited by rf sputtering from a target with a reversed composition gradient, which was produced by plasma spraying powder mixtures. The effect of deposition parameters on coating characteristics and adherence is discussed

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle for simultaneous measurement of positive-operator-valued measures

A limitation on simultaneous measurement of two arbitrary positive operator valued measures is discussed. In general, simultaneous measurement of two noncommutative observables is only approximately possible. Following Werner's formulation, we introduce a distance between observables to quantify an accuracy of measurement. We derive an inequality that relates the achievable accuracy with noncommutativity between two observables. As a byproduct a necessary condition for two positive operator valued measures to be simultaneously measurable is obtained.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Phys. Rev.