Time-Resolved Studies of a Rolled-Up Semiconductor Microtube Laser

We report on lasing in rolled-up microtube resonators. Time-resolved studies on these semiconductor lasers containing GaAs quantum wells as optical gain material reveal particularly fast turn-on-times and short pulse emissions above the threshold. We observe a strong red-shift of the laser mode during the pulse emission which is compared to the time evolution of the charge-carrier density calculated by rate equations

Optimizing the usage of pupillary based indicators for cognitive workload

The Index of Cognitive Activity (ICA) and its open-source alternative, the Index of Pupillary Activity (IPA), are pupillary-based indicators for cognitive workload and are independent of light changes. Both indicators were investigated regarding influences of cognitive demand, fatigue and inter-individual differences. In addition, the variability of pupil changes between both eyes (difference values) were compared with the usually calculated pupillary changes averaged over both eyes (mean values). Fifty-five participants performed a spatial thinking test, the R-Cube-Vis Test, with six distinct difficulty levels and a simple fixation task before and after the R-Cube-Vis Test. The distributions of the ICA and IPA were comparable. The ICA/IPA values were lower during the simple fixation tasks than during the cognitively demanding R-Cube-Vis Test. A fatigue effect was found only for the mean ICA values. The effects of both indicators were larger between difficulty levels of the test when inter-individual differences were controlled using z-standardization. The difference values seemed to control for fatigue and appeared to differentiate better between more demanding cognitive tasks than the mean values. The derived recommendations for the ICA/IPA values are beneficial to gain more insights in individual performance and behavior during, e.g., training and testing scenarios

Gate control of low-temperature spin dynamics in two-dimensional hole systems

We have investigated spin and carrier dynamics of resident holes in high-mobility two-dimensional hole systems in GaAs/Al$_{0.3}$Ga$_{0.7}$As single quantum wells at temperatures down to 400 mK. Time-resolved Faraday and Kerr rotation, as well as time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy are utilized in our study. We observe long-lived hole spin dynamics that are strongly temperature dependent, indicating that in-plane localization is crucial for hole spin coherence. By applying a gate voltage, we are able to tune the observed hole g factor by more than 50 percent. Calculations of the hole g tensor as a function of the applied bias show excellent agreement with our experimental findings.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

A seesaw-lever force-balancing suspension design for space and terrestrial gravity-gradient sensing

We present the design, fabrication, and characterization of a seesaw-lever force-balancing suspension for a silicon gravity-gradient sensor, a gravity gradiometer, that is capable of operation over a range of gravity from 0 to 1 g. This allows for both air and space deployment after ground validation. An overall rationale for designing a microelectromechanical systems(MEMS) gravity gradiometer is developed, indicating that a gravity gradiometer based on a torsion-balance, rather than a differential-accelerometer, provides the best approach. The fundamental micromachined element, a seesaw-lever force-balancing suspension, is designed with a low fundamental frequency for in-plane rotation to response gravity gradient but with good rejection of all cross-axis modes. During operation under 1 g, a gravitational force is axially loaded on two straight-beams that perform as a stiff fulcrum for the mass-connection lever without affecting sensitive in-plane rotational sensing. The dynamics of this suspension are analysed by both closed-form and finite element analysis, with good agreement between the two. The suspension has been fabricated using through-wafer deep reactive-ion etching and the dynamics verified both in air and vacuum. The sensitivity of a gravity gradiometer built around this suspension will be dominated by thermal noise, contributing in this case a noise floor of around 10 E/Hz−−−√10 E/Hz (1 E = 10−9/s2) in vacuum. Compared with previous conventional gravity gradiometers, this suspension allows a gradiometer of performance within an order of magnitude but greatly reduced volume and weight. Compared with previous MEMS gravity gradiometers, our design has the advantage of functionality under Earth gravity

Spacecraft potential control for Double Star

International audienceThe spacecraft potential of Double Star TC-1 is positive in large parts of the orbits due to the photo-effect from solar EUV irradiation. These positive potentials typically disturb low energy plasma measurements on board. The potential can be reduced, and thereby the particle measurements improved, by emitting a positive ion beam. This method has successfully been applied on several other spacecraft and it has also been chosen for TC-1. The instrument TC-1/ASPOC is a derivative of the Cluster/ASPOC instruments, from which it has inherited many features. The paper describes the adaptations and further developments made for the ion emitters and the electronics. The instrument performs very well and can support higher beam currents than on Cluster. The expected significant improvement of the low energy particle measurements on board was indeed observed. The modifications of the electron distributions are analysed for a one-time interval when the spacecraft was located in the magnetosheath. The change in the potential due to the ion beam was determined, and first studies of the 3-D electron distributions in response to the spacecraft potential control have been performed, which indicate that the method works as expected