Polymer nanocomposites reinforced with montmorillonite

Purpose: Light microscope with polarized light has been used for observation layered zone, visible thanks to polarization of the light, inside polymer-polymer composites and nanocomposites Aim of work has been concentrated on investigation of nanocomposites as promising engineering materials, basing on composition of polypropylene and montmorillonite as reinforcement in the shape of nanoparticles of 2:1 silicate. Design/methodology/approach: Conventional and non-conventional injection molding process has been used for obtaining nanocomposites. In non-conventional process has been used the special mold for inducing the shear rates, additionally equipped with external computer to control melt manipulation of solidifying polymer inside mold cavity Findings: Highly developed structure consisted of multilayer zone between skin and core mainly responsible for reinforcement and improvement of fracture toughness of polymer composites and nanocomposites Research limitations/implications: Nanocomposites of polymer blends and montmorillonite were moulded by direct injection moulding according to melt temperature and stroke time-number combination included in design of experiments. Practical implications: Application of special injection moulding technique provides to structure development and gives possibility to create multilayer zone, which strengthen material. Besides strengthening obtaining of such nanocomposites is cheap thanks to application of low cost injection moulding technique and not expensive polyolefines with developed structure, without using additional fillers (e.g. compatybilizers). Originality/value: Very wide application of polymer composites and nanocomposites as engineering materials used for various industries like building engineering, automotive and aerospace.- (undefined

Global entangling properties of the coupled kicked tops

We study global entangling properties of the system of coupled kicked tops testing various hypotheses and predictions concerning entanglement in quantum chaotic systems. In order to analyze the averaged initial entanglement production rate and the averaged asymptotic entanglement different ensembles of initial product states are evolved. Two different ensembles with natural probability distribution are considered: product states of independent spin-coherent states and product states of arbitrary states. It appears that the choice of either of these ensembles results in significantly different averaged entanglement behavior. We investigate also a relation between the averaged asymptotic entanglement and the mean entanglement of the eigenvectors of an evolution operator. Lower bound on the averaged asymptotic entanglement is derived, expressed in terms of the eigenvector entanglement.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, RevTe

TEM investigations of laser texturized polycrystalline silicon solar cell

Purpose: The presented in this paper research results concern investigation of phase transformation of the surface structure of polycrystalline silicon solar cell. The surface of boron doped polycrystalline silicon wafers were texturised by means of diode-pumped pulsed neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet laser crystal (Nd:YAG). Investigations were carried out on transmission electron microscope (TEM) to observe the changes that occurred after laser treatment of the surface layer. Changes in microstructure of the surface layer of solar cells under the influence of the laser beam are presented using the analysis phase and dislocations present in the microstructure. Observations were carried out on prepared thin foils. Moreover, diffraction patterns from selected regions of textured wafers were solved to qualify phase transformations under influence of laser beam. Design/methodology/approach: Investigations were carried out on the Transmission Electron Microscope JEM 3010 supplied by JEOL with 300 kV accelerating voltage equipped with an electronic camera configured with a computer. The microstructure was obtained in the bright field image as well dark field working in a magnification range of 10000x to ca. 100000x. Phases identification was performed by means of selected area diffraction (SAD) method, where for diffraction pattern calculations the computer software “Eldyf” was used, kindly supplied by the Institute of Materials Science, University of Silesia. Findings: The research included analyze of the influence of laser treatment conditions on geometry, roughness and size of laser made surface texture of silicon wafer applied for solar cells. Research limitations/implications: Paper contributes to research on silicon surface processing using laser beam. Practical implications: Conducted investigations may be applied in optimisation process of solar cell surface processing. Originality/value: The range of possible applications increases for example as materials for solar cells placed on building constructions, elements in electronics and construction parts in automobile industry

General framework for estimating the ultimate precision limit in noisy quantum-enhanced metrology

The estimation of parameters characterizing dynamical processes is central to science and technology. The estimation error changes with the number N of resources employed in the experiment (which could quantify, for instance, the number of probes or the probing energy). Typically, it scales as 1/N^(1/2). Quantum strategies may improve the precision, for noiseless processes, by an extra factor 1/N^(1/2). For noisy processes, it is not known in general if and when this improvement can be achieved. Here we propose a general framework for obtaining attainable and useful lower bounds for the ultimate limit of precision in noisy systems. We apply this bound to lossy optical interferometry and atomic spectroscopy in the presence of dephasing, showing that it captures the main features of the transition from the 1/N to the 1/N^(1/2) behaviour as N increases, independently of the initial state of the probes, and even with use of adaptive feedback.Comment: Published in Nature Physics. This is the revised submitted version. The supplementary material can be found at http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v7/n5/extref/nphys1958-s1.pd

Effects of imperfect noise correlations on decoherence-free subsystems: SU(2) diffusion model

We present a model of an N-qubit channel where consecutive qubits experience correlated random rotations. Our model is an extension to the standard decoherence-free subsystems approach (DFS) which assumes that all the qubits experience the same disturbance. The variation of rotations acting on consecutive qubits is modeled as diffusion on the SU(2) group. The model may be applied to spins traveling in a varying magnetic field, or to photons passing through a fiber whose birefringence fluctuates over the time separation between photons. We derive an explicit formula describing the action of the channel on an arbitrary N-qubit state. For N=3 we investigate the effects of diffusion on both classical and quantum capacity of the channel. We observe that nonorthogonal states are necessary to achieve the optimal classical capacity. Furthermore we find the threshold for the diffusion parameter above which coherent information of the channel vanishes.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, improved clarity, more discussion, many new references and the title change

Experimental quantum-enhanced estimation of a lossy phase shift

When standard light sources are employed, the precision of the phase determination is limited by the shot noise. Quantum entanglement provides means to exceed this limit with the celebrated example of N00N states that saturate the ultimate Heisenberg limit on precision, but at the same time are extremely fragile to losses. In contrast, we provide experimental evidence that appropriately engineered quantum states outperform both standard and N00N states in the precision of phase estimation when losses are present.Comment: 5 page

The elusive Heisenberg limit in quantum enhanced metrology

We provide efficient and intuitive tools for deriving bounds on achievable precision in quantum enhanced metrology based on the geometry of quantum channels and semi-definite programming. We show that when decoherence is taken into account, the maximal possible quantum enhancement amounts generically to a constant factor rather than quadratic improvement. We apply these tools to derive bounds for models of decoherence relevant for metrological applications including: dephasing,depolarization, spontaneous emission and photon loss.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, presentation imporved, implementation of the semi-definite program finding the precision bounds adde