Thermal measurement and modeling of multi-die packages

Thermal measurement and modeling of multi-die packages became a hot topic recently in different fields like RAM chip packaging or LEDs / LED assemblies, resulting in vertical (stacked) and lateral arrangement. In our present study we show results for a mixed arrangement: an opto-coupler device has been investigated with 4 chips in lateral as well as vertical arrangement. In this paper we give an overview of measurement and modeling techniques and results for stacked and MCM structures, describe our present measurement results together with our structure function based methodology of validating the detailed model of the package being studied. Also, we show how to derive junction-to-pin thermal resistances with a technique using structure functions.Comment: Submitted on behalf of TIMA Editions (http://irevues.inist.fr/tima-editions

Photon bunching in parametric down-conversion with continuous wave excitation

The first direct measurement of photon bunching (g2 correlation function) in one output arm of a spontaneous-parametric-down-conversion source operated with a continuous pump laser in the single-photon regime is demonstrated. The result is in agreement with the statistics of a thermal field of the same coherence length, and shows the feasibility of investigating photon statistics with compact cw-pumped sources. Implications for entanglement-based quantum cryptography are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, expanded introduction and experimental details added. Accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.

Discrete structure of ultrathin dielectric films and their surface optical properties

The boundary problem of linear classical optics about the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with a thin dielectric film has been solved under explicit consideration of its discrete structure. The main attention has been paid to the investigation of the near-zone optical response of dielectrics. The laws of reflection and refraction for discrete structures in the case of a regular atomic distribution are studied and the structure of evanescent harmonics induced by an external plane wave near the surface is investigated in details. It is shown by means of analytical and numerical calculations that due to the existence of the evanescent harmonics the laws of reflection and refraction at the distances from the surface less than two interatomic distances are principally different from the Fresnel laws. From the practical point of view the results of this work might be useful for the near-field optical microscopy of ultrahigh resolution.Comment: 25 pages, 16 figures, LaTeX2.09, to be published in Phys.Rev.

Ferromanganese micronodules from the surficial sediments of Georges Bank

Ferromanganese micronodules have been found on Georges Bank, off the U.S. northeast coast, distributed throughout the surficial sediments within an area about 125 km long and at least 12 km wide. These coarse, sand-sized concretions have precipitated from metal-rich interstitial waters and contain many of the textural and structural features common to other neritic nodules. Most of the nodules have accreted around detrital grains, and X-ray powder diffraction analyses indicate the presence of geothite and vernadite (δ-MnO2) in the ferromanganese layers. Chemical analyses of the micronodules, when compared with similar data on deep-sea manganese nodules, reveal lower Mn/Fe ratios, significantly higher concentrations of V and As, comparable values of Mo, and an order of magnitude less of Co, Ni, Ce and most other metals

The outcome of protoplanetary dust growth: pebbles, boulders, or planetesimals? I. Mapping the zoo of laboratory collision experiments

The growth processes from protoplanetary dust to planetesimals are not fully understood. Laboratory experiments and theoretical models have shown that collisions among the dust aggregates can lead to sticking, bouncing, and fragmentation. However, no systematic study on the collisional outcome of protoplanetary dust has been performed so far so that a physical model of the dust evolution in protoplanetary disks is still missing. We intend to map the parameter space for the collisional interaction of arbitrarily porous dust aggregates. This parameter space encompasses the dust-aggregate masses, their porosities and the collision velocity. With such a complete mapping of the collisional outcomes of protoplanetary dust aggregates, it will be possible to follow the collisional evolution of dust in a protoplanetary disk environment. We use literature data, perform own laboratory experiments, and apply simple physical models to get a complete picture of the collisional interaction of protoplanetary dust aggregates. In our study, we found four different types of sticking, two types of bouncing, and three types of fragmentation as possible outcomes in collisions among protoplanetary dust aggregates. We distinguish between eight combinations of porosity and mass ratio. For each of these cases, we present a complete collision model for dust-aggregate masses between 10^-12 and 10^2 g and collision velocities in the range 10^-4 to 10^4 cm/s for arbitrary porosities. This model comprises the collisional outcome, the mass(es) of the resulting aggregate(s) and their porosities. We present the first complete collision model for protoplanetary dust. This collision model can be used for the determination of the dust-growth rate in protoplanetary disks.Comment: accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic

Probing the interface magnetism in the FeMn/NiFe exchange bias system using magnetic second harmonic generation

Second harmonic generation magneto-optic Kerr effect (SHMOKE) experiments, sensitive to buried interfaces, were performed on a polycrystalline NiFe/FeMn bilayer in which areas with different exchange bias fields were prepared using 5 KeV He ion irradiation. Both reversible and irreversible uncompensated spins are found in the antiferromagnetic layer close to the interface with the ferromagnetic layer. The SHMOKE hysteresis loop shows the same exchange bias field as obtained from standard magnetometry. We demonstrate that the exchange bias effect is controlled by pinned uncompensated spins in the antiferromagnetic layer.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Using quantum key distribution for cryptographic purposes: a survey

The appealing feature of quantum key distribution (QKD), from a cryptographic viewpoint, is the ability to prove the information-theoretic security (ITS) of the established keys. As a key establishment primitive, QKD however does not provide a standalone security service in its own: the secret keys established by QKD are in general then used by a subsequent cryptographic applications for which the requirements, the context of use and the security properties can vary. It is therefore important, in the perspective of integrating QKD in security infrastructures, to analyze how QKD can be combined with other cryptographic primitives. The purpose of this survey article, which is mostly centered on European research results, is to contribute to such an analysis. We first review and compare the properties of the existing key establishment techniques, QKD being one of them. We then study more specifically two generic scenarios related to the practical use of QKD in cryptographic infrastructures: 1) using QKD as a key renewal technique for a symmetric cipher over a point-to-point link; 2) using QKD in a network containing many users with the objective of offering any-to-any key establishment service. We discuss the constraints as well as the potential interest of using QKD in these contexts. We finally give an overview of challenges relative to the development of QKD technology that also constitute potential avenues for cryptographic research.Comment: Revised version of the SECOQC White Paper. Published in the special issue on QKD of TCS, Theoretical Computer Science (2014), pp. 62-8