Surface Impedance Determination via Numerical Resolution of the Inverse Helmholtz Problem

Assigning boundary conditions, such as acoustic impedance, to the frequency domain thermoviscous wave equations (TWE), derived from the linearized Navier-Stokes equations (LNSE) poses a Helmholtz problem, solution to which yields a discrete set of complex eigenfunctions and eigenvalue pairs. The proposed method -- the inverse Helmholtz solver (iHS) -- reverses such procedure by returning the value of acoustic impedance at one or more unknown impedance boundaries (IBs) of a given domain, via spatial integration of the TWE for a given real-valued frequency with assigned conditions on other boundaries. The iHS procedure is applied to a second-order spatial discretization of the TWEs on an unstructured staggered grid arrangement. Only the momentum equation is extended to the center of each IB face where pressure and velocity components are co-located and treated as unknowns. The iHS is finally closed via assignment of the surface gradient of pressure phase over the IBs, corresponding to assigning the shape of the acoustic waveform at the IB. The iHS procedure can be carried out independently for different frequencies, making it embarrassingly parallel, and able to return the complete broadband complex impedance distribution at the IBs in any desired frequency range to arbitrary numerical precision. The iHS approach is first validated against Rott's theory for viscous rectangular and circular ducts. The impedance of a toy porous cavity with a complex geometry is then reconstructed and validated with companion fully compressible unstructured Navier-Stokes simulations resolving the cavity geometry. Verification against one-dimensional impedance test tube calculations based on time-domain impedance boundary conditions (TDIBC) is also carried out. Finally, results from a preliminary analysis of a thermoacoustically unstable cavity are presented.Comment: As submitted to AIAA Aviation 201

Structure And Properties of Nanoparticles Formed under Conditions of Wire Electrical Explosion

Structure and properties of nanoparticles formed under conditions of wire electrical explosion were studied. It was shown that the state of WEE power particles can be characterized as a metastable state. It leads to an increased stability of nanopowders at normal temperatures and an increased reactivity during heating, which is revealed in the form of threshold phenomena.Comment: Submitted on behalf of TIMA Editions (http://irevues.inist.fr/tima-editions

Condensation of Silica Nanoparticles on a Phospholipid Membrane

The structure of the transient layer at the interface between air and the aqueous solution of silica nanoparticles with the size distribution of particles that has been determined from small-angle scattering has been studied by the X-ray reflectometry method. The reconstructed depth profile of the polarizability of the substance indicates the presence of a structure consisting of several layers of nanoparticles with the thickness that is more than twice as large as the thickness of the previously described structure. The adsorption of 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine molecules at the hydrosol/air interface is accompanied by the condensation of anion silica nanoparticles at the interface. This phenomenon can be qualitatively explained by the formation of the positive surface potential due to the penetration and accumulation of Na+ cations in the phospholipid membrane.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Photon splitting in atomic fields

Photon splitting due to vacuum polarization in the electric field of an atom is considered. We survey different theoretical approaches to the description of this nonlinear QED process and several attempts of its experimental observation. We present the results of the lowest-order perturbation theory as well as those obtained within the quasiclassical approximation being exact in the external field strength. The experiment where photon splitting was really observed for the first time is discussed in details. The results of this experiment are compared with recent theoretical estimations.Comment: 45 pages, 24 figure

Noise thermometry applied to thermoelectric measurements in InAs nanowires

We apply noise thermometry to characterize charge and thermoelectric transport in single InAs nanowires (NWs) at a bath temperature of 4.2 K. Shot noise measurements identify elastic diffusive transport in our NWs with negligible electron-phonon interaction. This enables us to set up a measurement of the diffusion thermopower. Unlike in previous approaches, we make use of a primary electronic noise thermometry to calibrate a thermal bias across the NW. In particular, this enables us to apply a contact heating scheme, which is much more efficient in creating the thermal bias as compared to conventional substrate heating. The measured thermoelectric Seebeck coefficient exhibits strong mesoscopic fluctuations in dependence on the back-gate voltage that is used to tune the NW carrier density. We analyze the transport and thermoelectric data in terms of approximate Mott's thermopower relation and to evaluate a gate-voltage to Fermi energy conversion factor

Local noise in a diffusive conductor

The control and measurement of local non-equilibrium configurations is of utmost importance in applications on energy harvesting, thermoelectrics and heat management in nano-electronics. This challenging task can be achieved with the help of various local probes, prominent examples including superconducting or quantum dot based tunnel junctions, classical and quantum resistors, and Raman thermography. Beyond time-averaged properties, valuable information can also be gained from spontaneous fluctuations of current (noise). From these perspective, however, a fundamental constraint is set by current conservation, which makes noise a characteristic of the whole conductor, rather than some part of it. Here we demonstrate how to remove this obstacle and pick up a local noise temperature of a current biased diffusive conductor with the help of a miniature noise probe. This approach is virtually noninvasive and extends primary local measurements towards strongly non-equilibrium regimes.Comment: minor revision, accepted in Scientific Report