9,881 research outputs found
Plasmonic Nanostructure Design for Efficient Light Coupling into Solar Cells
We demonstrate that subwavelength scatterers can couple sunlight into guided modes in thin film Si and GaAs plasmonic solar cells whose back interface is coated with a corrugated metal film. Using numerical simulations, we find that incoupling of sunlight is remarkably insensitive to incident angle, and that the spectral features of the coupling efficiency originate from several different resonant phenomena. The incoupling cross section can be spectrally tuned and enhanced through modification of the scatterer shape, semiconductor film thickness, and materials choice. We demonstrate that, for example, a single 100 nm wide groove under a 200 nm Si thin film can enhance absorption by a factor of 2.5 over a 10 ÎŒm area for the portion of the solar spectrum near the Si band gap. These findings show promise for the design of ultrathin solar cells that exhibit enhanced absorption
Solid particle erosion and viscoelastic properties of thermoplastic polyurethanes
The wear resistance of several thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) having different chemical nature and micronscale
arrangement of the hard and soft segments has been investigated by means of erosion and abrasion tests. The goal was
correlating the erosion performances of the materials to their macroscopic mechanical properties. Unlike conventional tests,
such as hardness and tensile measurements, viscoelastic analysis proved to be a valuable tool to study the erosion resistance
of TPUs. In particular, a strict correlation was found between the erosion rate and the high-frequency (~10^7 Hz) loss modulus.
The latter reflects the actual ability of TPU to dissipate the impact energy of the erodent particles
Fingerprinting dark energy
Dark energy perturbations are normally either neglected or else included in a
purely numerical way, obscuring their dependence on underlying parameters like
the equation of state or the sound speed. However, while many different
explanations for the dark energy can have the same equation of state, they
usually differ in their perturbations so that these provide a fingerprint for
distinguishing between different models with the same equation of state. In
this paper we derive simple yet accurate approximations that are able to
characterize a specific class of models (encompassing most scalar-field models)
which is often generically called "dark energy". We then use the approximate
solutions to look at the impact of the dark energy perturbations on the dark
matter power spectrum and on the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect in the cosmic
microwave background radiation.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, minor changes to match published versio
Analysis of second harmonic generation in photonic-crystal-assisted waveguides
We study second harmonic generation in a planar dielectric waveguide having a
low-index, polymer core layer, bounded by two multilayer stacks. This geometry
allows exceptionally strong confinement of the light at the fundamental
wavelength inside the core region with virtually zero net propagation losses
for distances that exceed several centimeters, provided material and scattering
losses are neglected. A phase-matched configuration of the waveguide is
reported in which the pump signal is the lowest-order mode of the waveguide,
and the generated second harmonic signal corresponds to the third propagation
mode of the waveguide. Using a polymer waveguide core, having chi(2)=100 pm/V,
we predict a conversion efficiency of approximately 90% after a propagation
distance of 2 mm, using peak pump intensities inside the core of the waveguide
of 1.35 GW/cm^2. If the waveguide core contains polymer layers with different
glass transition temperatures, the layers can be poled independently to
maximize the overlap integral, and similar pump depletions may be achieved over
a distance of approximately 500 microns.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, 330k
Experimental observation of optical rotation generated in vacuum by a magnetic field
We report the experimental observation of a light polarization rotation in
vacuum in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. Assuming that data
distribution is Gaussian, the average measured rotation is (3.9+/-0.5)e-12
rad/pass, at 5 T with 44000 passes through a 1m long magnet, with lambda = 1064
nm. The relevance of this result in terms of the existence of a light, neutral,
spin-zero particle is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters Comment to
version 2: minor changes to abstract and final discussion. Added 2 references
Comment to version 3: corrected minor typographical errors, eliminated the
distinction between scalar and pseudoscalar in the particle interpretation of
the resul
Experimental study of laser detected magnetic resonance based on atomic alignment
We present an experimental study of the spectra produced by
optical/radio-frequency double resonance in which resonant linearly polarized
laser light is used in the optical pumping and detection processes. We show
that the experimental spectra obtained for cesium are in excellent agreement
with a very general theoretical model developed in our group and we investigate
the limitations of this model. Finally, the results are discussed in view of
their use in the study of relaxation processes in aligned alkali vapors.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. A. Related to
physics/060523
- âŠ