4,897 research outputs found
Investigation of the reinforcement of ductile metals with strong, high modulus discontinuous brittle fibers Quarterly report
Factors affecting reinforcement of aluminum with boron carbide whisker
Study of the growth parameters involved in synthesizing boron carbide filaments Second quarterly report
Growth parameters in synthesis of boron carbide whisker
Detection of the ultranarrow temporal correlation of twin beams via sum-frequency generation
We demonstrate the ultranarrow temporal correlation (6 fs full width half
maximum) of twin beams generated by parametric down-conversion, by using the
inverse process of sum-frequency generation. The result relies on an achromatic
imaging of a huge bandwith of twin beams and on a careful control of their
spatial degrees of freedom. The detrimental effects of spatial filtering and of
imperfect imaging are shown toghether with the theoretical model used to
describe the results
High-sensitivity imaging with multi-mode twin beams
Twin entangled beams produced by single-pass parametric down-conversion (PDC)
offer the opportunity to detect weak amount of absorption with an improved
sensitivity with respect to standard techniques which make use of classical
light sources. We propose a differential measurement scheme which exploits the
spatial quantum correlation of type II PDC to image a weak amplitude object
with a sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit imposed by shot-noise.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
Spin-dependent direct gap emission in tensile-strained Ge films on Si substrates
The circular polarization of direct gap emission of Ge is studied in
optically-excited tensile-strained Ge-on-Si heterostructures as a function of
doping and temperature. Owing to the spin-dependent optical selection rules,
the radiative recombinations involving strain-split light (cG-LH) and heavy
hole (cG-HH) bands are unambiguously resolved. The fundamental cG-LH transition
is found to have a low temperature circular polarization degree of about 85%
despite an off-resonance excitation of more than 300 meV. By photoluminescence
(PL) measurements and tight binding calculations we show that this
exceptionally high value is due to the peculiar energy dependence of the
optically-induced electron spin population. Finally, our observation of the
direct gap doublet clarifies that the light hole contribution, previously
considered to be negligible, can dominate the room temperature PL even at low
tensile strain values of about 0.2%
Coherent imaging of a pure phase object with classical incoherent light
By using the ghost imaging technique, we experimentally demonstrate the
reconstruction of the diffraction pattern of a {\em pure phase} object by using
the classical correlation of incoherent thermal light split on a beam splitter.
The results once again underline that entanglement is not a necessary feature
of ghost imaging. The light we use is spatially highly incoherent with respect
to the object (m speckle size) and is produced by a
pseudo-thermal source relying on the principle of near-field scattering. We
show that in these conditions no information on the phase object can be
retrieved by only measuring the light that passed through it, neither in a
direct measurement nor in a Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) scheme. In general, we
show a remarkable complementarity between ghost imaging and the HBT scheme when
dealing with a phase object.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures. Published in Physical Review A. Replaced
version fixes some problems with Figs. 1, 4 and 1
Contrasting multi-taxa diversity patterns between abandoned and non-intensively managed forests in the southern Dolomites
The abandonment of silvicultural activities can lead to changes in species richness and composition of biological communities, when compared to those found in managed forests. The aim of this study was to compare the multi-taxonomical diversity of two mature silver fir-beech-spruce forests in the southern Dolomites (Italy), corresponding to the European Union habitat type 9130. The two sites share similar ecological and structural characteristics, but differ in their recent management histories. In the last 50 years, one site underwent non-intensive management, while the other was left unmanaged and was included in a forest reserve. The species richness and composition of eight taxa were surveyed in the two sites between 2009 and 2011. The difference in mean species richness between the two forest management types was tested through permutation tests, while differences in species composition were tested by principal coordinates analysis and the permutational multivariate analysis of variance. Mean species richness of soil macrofungi, deadwood lichens, bark beetles, and longhorn beetles were significantly higher in the abandoned than in the non-intensively managed forests. Deadwood fungi and epiphytic lichens did not differ in mean species richness between the two study sites, while mean species richness of ground beetles and birds were higher in the non-intensively managed than in the abandoned forest. Significant differences in species composition between the two sites were found for all the taxa, except for longhorn beetles. These results indicate that improving forest landscape heterogeneity through the creation of a mosaic of abandoned and extensively managed forests should better fulfill the requirements of ecologically different taxa
Experimental evidence of high-resolution ghost imaging and ghost diffraction with classical thermal light
High-resolution ghost image and ghost diffraction experiments are performed
by using a single source of thermal-like speckle light divided by a beam
splitter. Passing from the image to the diffraction result solely relies on
changing the optical setup in the reference arm, while leaving untouched the
object arm. The product of spatial resolutions of the ghost image and ghost
diffraction experiments is shown to overcome a limit which was formerly thought
to be achievable only with entangled photons.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Eating fermented: Health benefits of lab-fermented foods
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are involved in producing a considerable number of fermented products consumed worldwide. Many of those LAB fermented foods are recognized as beneficial for human health due to probiotic LAB or their metabolites produced during food fermentation or after food digestion. In this review, we aim to gather and discuss available information on the health-related effects of LAB-fermented foods. In particular, we focused on the most widely consumed LAB-fermented foods such as yoghurt, kefir, cheese, and plant-based products such as sauerkrauts and kimchi
Spatial correlations in hexagons generated via a Kerr nonlinearity
We consider the hexagonal pattern forming in the cross-section of an optical
beam produced by a Kerr cavity, and we study the quantum correlations
characterizing this structure. By using arguments related to the symmetry
broken by the pattern formation, we identify a complete scenario of six-mode
entanglement. Five independent phase quadratures combinations, connecting the
hexagonal modes, are shown to exhibit sub-shot-noise fluctuations. By means of
a non-linear quantum calculation technique, quantum correlations among the mode
photon numbers are demonstrated and calculated.Comment: ReVTeX file, 20 pages, 7 eps figure
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