7,983 research outputs found
Astrophotonic micro-spectrographs in the era of ELTs
The next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT), with diameters up to
39 meters, will start opera- tion in the next decade and promises new
challenges in the development of instruments. The growing field of
astrophotonics (the use of photonic technologies in astronomy) can partly solve
this problem by allowing mass production of fully integrated and robust
instruments combining various optical functions, with the potential to reduce
the size, complexity and cost of instruments. In this paper, we focus on
developments in integrated micro-spectrographs and their potential for ELTs. We
take an inventory of the identified technologies currently in development, and
compare the performance of the different concepts. We show that in the current
context of single-mode instruments, integrated spectrographs making use of,
e.g., a photonic lantern can be a solution to reach the desired performance.
However, in the longer term, there is a clear need to develop multimode devices
to improve overall the throughput and sensitivity, while decreasing the
instrument complexity.Comment: 9 pages. 2 figures. Proceeding of SPIE 9147 "Ground-based and
Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V
Integrated optics for astronomical interferometry. I. Concept and astronomical applications
We propose a new instrumental concept for long-baseline optical single-mode
interferometry using integrated optics which were developed for
telecommunication. Visible and infrared multi-aperture interferometry requires
many optical functions (spatial filtering, beam combination, photometric
calibration, polarization control) to detect astronomical signals at very high
angular resolution. Since the 80's, integrated optics on planar substrate have
become available for telecommunication applications with multiple optical
functions like power dividing, coupling, multiplexing, etc. We present the
concept of an optical / infrared interferometric instrument based on this new
technology. The main advantage is to provide an interferometric combination
unit on a single optical chip. Integrated optics are compact, provide
stability, low sensitivity to external constrains like temperature, pressure or
mechanical stresses, no optical alignment except for coupling, simplicity and
intrinsic polarization control. The integrated optics devices are inexpensive
compared to devices that have the same functionalities in bulk optics. We think
integrated optics will fundamentally change single-mode interferometry.
Integrated optics devices are in particular well-suited for interferometric
combination of numerous beams to achieve aperture synthesis imaging or for
space-based interferometers where stability and a minimum of optical alignments
are wished.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accpeted by Astronomy and Astrophysics
Supplement Serie
Shuttle flight pressure instrumentation: Experience and lessons for the future
Flight data obtained from the Space Transportation System orbiter entries are processed and analyzed to assess the accuracy and performance of the Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) pressure measurement system. Selected pressure measurements are compared with available wind tunnel and computational data and are further used to perform air data analyses using the Shuttle Entry Air Data System (SEADS) computation technique. The results are compared to air data from other sources. These comparisons isolate and demonstrate the effects of the various limitations of the DFI pressure measurement system. The effects of these limitations on orbiter performance analyses are addressed, and instrumentation modifications are recommended to improve the accuracy of similar fight data systems in the future
Role of pseudospin in quasiparticle interferences in epitaxial graphene probed by high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy
Pseudospin, an additional degree of freedom related to the honeycomb
structure of graphene, is responsible of many of the outstanding electronic
properties found in this material. This article provides a clear understanding
of how such pseudospin impacts the quasiparticle interferences of monolayer
(ML) and bilayer (BL) graphene measured by low temperature scanning tunneling
microscopy and spectroscopy. We have used this technique to map, with very high
energy and space resolution, the spatial modulations of the local density of
states of ML and BL graphene epitaxialy grown on SiC(0001), in presence of
native disorder. We perform a Fourier transform analysis of such modulations
including wavevectors up to unit-vectors of the reciprocal lattice. Our data
demonstrate that the quasiparticle interferences associated to some particular
scattering processes are suppressed in ML graphene, but not in BL graphene.
Most importantly, interferences with 2qF wavevector associated to intravalley
backscattering are not measured in ML graphene, even on the images with highest
resolution. In order to clarify the role of the pseudospin on the quasiparticle
interferences, we use a simple model which nicely captures the main features
observed on our data. The model unambiguously shows that graphene's pseudospin
is responsible for such suppression of quasiparticle interferences features in
ML graphene, in particular for those with 2qF wavevector. It also confirms
scanning tunneling microscopy as a unique technique to probe the pseudospin in
graphene samples in real space with nanometer precision. Finally, we show that
such observations are robust with energy and obtain with great accuracy the
dispersion of the \pi-bands for both ML and BL graphene in the vicinity of the
Fermi level, extracting their main tight binding parameters
CPPD crystal deposition disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
The aim of this study was to assess the frequency and the outcome of patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis in which calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) crystal deposits were found to coexist in synovial fluid analysis. Such association was more frequent than previously believed with CPPD crystals found in 25.8% of 93 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. As a group, a trend toward a worse outcome was suggested by more frequent prostheses of the lower lim
Infrared Imaging of Capella with the IOTA Closure Phase Interferometer
We present infrared aperture synthesis maps produced with the upgraded IOTA
interferometer. Michelson interferograms on the close binary system Capella
(Alpha Aur) were obtained in the H-band between 2002 November 12 and 16 using
the IONIC3 beam combiner. With baselines of 15m < B < 38m, we were able to
determine the relative position of the binary components with milliarcsecond
(mas) precision and to track their movement along the approx. 14 degree arc
covered by our observation run. We briefly describe the algorithms used for
visibility and closure phase estimation. Three different Hybrid Mapping and
Bispectrum Fitting techniques were implemented within one software framework
and used to reconstruct the source brightness distribution. By dividing our
data into subsets, the system could be mapped at three epochs, revealing the
motion of the stars. The precise position of the binary components was also
determined with model fits, which in addition revealed I_Aa/I_Ab=1.49 +/- 0.10
and apparent stellar uniform-disk (UD) diameters of Theta_Aa=8.9 +/- 0.6 mas
and Theta_Ab=5.8 +/- 0.8 mas.
To improve the u, v-plane coverage, we compensated this orbital motion by
applying a rotation-compensating coordinate transformation. The resulting
model-independent map with a beam size of 5.4 x 2.6 mas allows the resolution
of the stellar surfaces of the Capella giants themselves.Comment: Accepted by the Astronomical Journal (2005-03-21
Origin of Rashba-splitting in the quantized subbands at Bi2Se3 surface
We study the band structure of the topological
insulator (111) surface using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We
examine the situation where two sets of quantized subbands exhibiting different
Rashba spin-splitting are created via bending of the conduction (CB) and the
valence (VB) bands at the surface. While the CB subbands are strongly Rashba
spin-split, the VB subbands do not exhibit clear spin-splitting. We find that
CB and VB experience similar band bending magnitudes, which means, a
spin-splitting discrepancy due to different surface potential gradients can be
excluded. On the other hand, by comparing the experimental band structure to
first principles LMTO band structure calculations, we find that the strongly
spin-orbit coupled Bi 6 orbitals dominate the orbital character of CB,
whereas their admixture to VB is rather small. The spin-splitting discrepancy
is, therefore, traced back to the difference in spin-orbit coupling between CB
and VB in the respective subbands' regions
Transmission measurement at 10.6 microns of Te2As3Se5 rib-waveguides on As2S3 substrate
The feasibility of chalcogenide rib waveguides working at lambda = 10.6
microns has been demonstrated. The waveguides comprised a several microns thick
Te2As3Se5 film deposited by thermal evaporation on a polished As2S3 glass
substrate and further etched by physical etching in Ar or CF4/O2 atmosphere.
Output images at 10.6 microns and some propagation losses roughly estimated at
10dB/cm proved that the obtained structures behaved as channel waveguides with
a good lateral confinement of the light. The work opens the doors to the
realisation of components able to work in the mid and thermal infrared up to 20
microns and even more.Comment: The following article appeared in Vigreux-Bercovici et al., Appl.
Phys. Lett. 90, 011110 (2007) and may be found at
http://link.aip.org/link/?apl/90/01111
Quasiparticle Chirality in Epitaxial Graphene Probed at the Nanometer Scale
Graphene exhibits unconventional two-dimensional electronic properties
resulting from the symmetry of its quasiparticles, which leads to the concepts
of pseudospin and electronic chirality. Here we report that scanning tunneling
microscopy can be used to probe these unique symmetry properties at the
nanometer scale. They are reflected in the quantum interference pattern
resulting from elastic scattering off impurities, and they can be directly read
from its fast Fourier transform. Our data, complemented by theoretical
calculations, demonstrate that the pseudospin and the electronic chirality in
epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001) correspond to the ones predicted for ideal
graphene.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, minor change
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