Opposite effects of NO2_2 on electrical injection in porous silicon gas sensors

The electrical conductance of porous silicon fabricated with heavily doped p-type silicon is very sensitive to NO$_2$. A concentration of 10 ppb can be detected by monitoring the current injection at fixed voltage. However, we show that the sign of the injection variations depends on the porous layer thickness. If the thickness is sufficiently low -- of the order of few \micro\meter{} -- the injection decreases instead of increasing. We discuss the effect in terms of an already proposed twofold action of NO$_2$, according to which the free carrier density increases, and simultaneously the energy bands are bent at the porous silicon surface.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, requires SIunits packag

Long-working-distance grating coupler for integrated optical devices

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Role of microstructure in porous silicon gas sensors for NO2_2

Electrical conductivity of porous silicon fabricated form heavily doped p-type silicon is very sensitive to NO$_2$, even at concentrations below 100 ppb. However, sensitivity strongly depends on the porous microstructure. The structural difference between sensitive and insensitive samples is independently confirmed by microscopy images and by light scattering behavior. A way to change the structure is by modifying the composition of the electrochemical solution. We have found that best results are achieved using ethanoic solutions with HF concentration levels between 13% and 15%.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, package SIunits require

Distortion-corrected phase demodulation using phase-generated carrier with multitone mixing

We present a novel phase generated carrier (PGC) demodulation technique for homodyne interferometers which is robust to modulation depth variations and source intensity fluctuations. By digitally mixing the waveform with a multitone synthetic function (a linear combination of harmonics of the modulating signal), distortion can become negligible even in presence of large variations of the modulation depth. The technique only requires two mixers and can also provide the DC component of the phase in real time, without needing any previously recorded data or ellipse-fitting algorithms. We validate the technique with simulated waveforms and with experimental data from a wavelength metering experiment using an integrated unbalanced interferometer on-chip, showing that the technique corrects distortion without increasing the noise with respect to the standard PGC technique

Application of Raman and Brillouin Scattering Phenomena in Distributed Optical Fiber Sensing

We present a review of the basic operating principles and measurement schemes of standalone and hybrid distributed optical fiber sensors based on Raman and Brillouin scattering phenomena. Such sensors have been attracting a great deal of attention due to the wide industrial applications they offer, ranging from energy to oil and gas, transportation and structural health monitoring. In distributed sensors, the optical fiber itself acts as a sensing element providing unique measurement capabilities in terms of sensing distance, spatial resolution and number of sensing points. The most common configuration exploits optical time domain reflectometry, in which optical pulses are sent along the sensing fiber and the backscattered light is detected and processed to extract physical parameters affecting its intensity, frequency, phase, polarization or spectral content. Raman and Brillouin scattering effects allow the distributed measurement of temperature and strain over tens of kilometers with meter-scale spatial resolution. The measurement is immune to electromagnetic interference, suitable for harsh environments and highly attractive whenever large industrial plants and infrastructures have to be continuously monitored to prevent critical events such as leakages in pipelines, fire in tunnels as well as structural problems in large infrastructures like bridges and rail tracks. We discuss the basic sensing mechanisms based on Raman and Brillouin scattering effects used in distributed measurements, followed by configurations commonly used in optical fiber sensors. Hybrid configurations which combine Raman and Brillouin-based sensing for simultaneous strain and temperature measurements over the same fiber using shared resources will also be addressed. We will also discuss advanced techniques based on pulse coding used to overcome the tradeoff between sensing distance and spatial resolution affecting both types of sensors, thereby allowing measurements over tens of kilometers with meter-scale spatial resolution, and address recent advances in measurement schemes employing the two scattering phenomena

FPGA-Based High-Speed Optical Fiber Sensor Based on Multitone-Mixing Interferometry

We report a real-time high-speed fiber Bragg grating (FBG) interrogator based on a fiber-optic interferometer. The signal processing is performed by using a low-cost field-programmable gate array (FPGA) system, which is programed to implement a phase-generated carrier (PGC) demodulation algorithm with multitone mixing (MTM) to provide distortion-free signals with high tolerance to modulation depth variations and light intensity fluctuations. The system can stream data at rates up to 1 MS/s and allows multiplexed processing up to two channels. Experimental results show simultaneous measurements of two FBGs, one of which was actuated at frequencies up to 100 kHz. The system features a 3-dB bandwidth of 280 kHz, and a dynamic wavelength resolution of 4.7 fm/Hz ^{mathrm {1/2}}. We also demonstrate a strong reduction of distortion using the MTM approach with respect to the standard technique. Finally, we study the origin of the noise, demonstrating a reduction in common noise sources by using one of the FBGs as a reference. The system can measure FBGs centered at any position within the spectral band of the source, is polarization-independent, and is easily scalable to more than two measurement channels from the same interferometer

Frozen-hydrated chromatin from metaphase chromosomes has an interdigitated multilayer structure

Cryo-electron tomography and small-angle X-ray scattering were used to investigate the chromatin folding in metaphase chromosomes. The tomographic 3D reconstructions show that frozen-hydrated chromatin emanated from chromosomes is planar and forms multilayered plates. The layer thickness was measured accounting for the contrast transfer function fringes at the plate edges, yielding a width of similar to 7.5 nm, which is compatible with the dimensions of a monolayer of nucleosomes slightly tilted with respect to the layer surface. Individual nucleosomes are visible decorating distorted plates, but typical plates are very dense and nucleosomes are not identifiable as individual units, indicating that they are tightly packed. Two layers in contact are similar to 13 nm thick, which is thinner than the sum of two independent layers, suggesting that nucleosomes in the layers interdigitate. X-ray scattering of whole chromosomes shows a main scattering peak at similar to 6 nm, which can be correlated with the distance between layers and between interdigitating nucleosomes interacting through their faces. These observations support a model where compact chromosomes are composed of many chromatin layers stacked along the chromosome axis

Er:Ta₂O₅ waveguide optimization & spectroscopy

The optimization of erbium-doped Ta thin film waveguides deposited by magnetron sputtering is described. Background losses below 0.4dB/cm have been obtained before post-annealing. A broad photoluminescence spectrum centered at 1534nm is obtained, and the photoluminescence power and fluorescence lifetime increase with post-annealing, yielding promising results for compact amplifiers

H^s versus C^0-weighted minimizers

We study a class of semi-linear problems involving the fractional Laplacian under subcritical or critical growth assumptions. We prove that, for the corresponding functional, local minimizers with respect to a C^0-topology weighted with a suitable power of the distance from the boundary are actually local minimizers in the natural H^s-topology.Comment: 15 page