Novel technique for measuring dispersion and detuning of a UV written silica-on-silicon waveguide

We shall present a new method of measuring the dispersive properties of UV written waveguides in the silica-on-silicon platform used to fabricate planar Bragg gratings. The technique involves direct measurement of the modal refractive index of a waveguide produced in the material. The data obtained also provides additional information about the spectral range of Bragg grating inscription. This direct writing technique reported previously differs from fibre Bragg grating fabrication by the small spot size of the writing beam and permits detuning of the Bragg wavelength from 1250nm to 1625nm. The fabrication technique provides the exact period of the grating and thus interrogation of the gratings produces information on the effective index of the mode. A series of integrated gratings were fabricated in a direct UV written waveguide via the direct grating writing technique in order to measure the wavelength dependence of the refractive index of the material. The Sellmeier curve obtained is shown

On the most compact regular lattice in large dimensions: A statistical mechanical approach

In this paper I will approach the computation of the maximum density of regular lattices in large dimensions using a statistical mechanics approach. The starting point will be some theorems of Roger, which are virtually unknown in the community of physicists. Using his approach one can see that there are many similarities (and differences) with the problem of computing the entropy of a liquid of perfect spheres. The relation between the two problems is investigated in details. Some conjectures are presented, that need further investigation in order to check their consistency.Comment: 27 page

Realisation of photonic Hilbert transformer with a simple planar Bragg grating

Photonic Hilbert transformers (PHTs) are desirable for the direct processing of optical signals at high speeds and operation bandwidths, allowing optical networks to outperform current electronic technologies. We practically demonstrate a photonic Hilbert transformer in planar geometry; utilising a pi-phase shift planar Bragg grating with proper apodization profile. The device is fabricated by direct UV grating writing technology in silica-on-silicon [1]. The PHT has a pi-phase shift at the zero point of the frequency response, whereas the amplitude remains constant. The pi-phase shift in PHT is simply induced by placing a pi-phase shift in the refractive index modulation. The constant amplitude is achieved by precise apodization of the grating coupling strength, while the apodization profile is given by [2]. With our current direct UV writing technology, the proposed grating can be fabricated in a much higher accuracy then the conventional fibre Bragg grating manufacturing technique. We will present our latest work on more complex apodized gratings to obtain the ideal realisable frequency and temporal responses for PHTs

Simple planar Bragg grating devices for photonic Hilbert transform

Hilbert transformers are important devices widely used in information processing and signal analysis in the electronic domain. For example, for spectral efficiency improvement, it is used to construct the analytic signal for single sideband (SSB) modulation from a real signal. Photonic Hilbert transformers (PHTs) are proposed for a similar range of applications and would allow the direct processing of optical signals at bandwidths far beyond current electronic technologies

All-optical signal processing using planar Bragg gratings

The fabrication techniques of Bragg gratings broadly fall into two categories: that are holographic, and that are non-interferometric, based on the periodical UV radiation along the photosensitive medium. The fabrication technique in this work is the direct UV grating writing (DGW). This method involves focusing two crossed laser beams (lambda=244nm) into a photosensitive core layer. Precise translation of the sample and modulation of the interference pattern define the channel waveguide and simultaneously create grating structures, shown in Figure 1. First developed at Optoelectronics Research Centre in 2002, it has similarities to the UV writing techniques used for fiber Bragg grating inscription. Advanced grating properties such as chirp, phase shifts, and apodisation are introduced by adjusting the laser intensity and the translating speed

Energy Scaling of Minimum-Bias Tunes

We propose that the flexibility offered by modern event-generator tuning tools allows for more than just obtaining "best fits" to a collection of data. In particular, we argue that the universality of the underlying physics model can be tested by performing several, mutually independent, optimizations of the generator parameters in different physical regions. For regions in which these optimizations return similar and self-consistent parameter values, the model can be considered universal. Deviations from this behavior can be associated with a breakdown of the modeling, with the nature of the deviations giving clues as to the nature of the breakdown. We apply this procedure to study the energy scaling of a class of minimum-bias models based on multiple parton interactions (MPI) and pT-ordered showers, implemented in the Pythia 6.4 generator. We find that a parameter controlling the strength of color reconnections in the final state is the most important source of non-universality in this model.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 4 table

The contribution of optimal turbo fan transport aircraft climb schedule to air company economy

Today airlines are challenging two opposite goals: minimization of flight fuel consumption and minimization of elapsed flight time. A well‐known cost structure and cost generators represent significant pre‐conditions for defining cost optimization strategy in an airline company. Airline company management has a limited set of tools for cost managing, which include the following documents: Performance Engineers’ Manual and Aircraft Flight Manual. In this particular paper review we discuss the problem of vertical flight path of turbo‐fan aircraft, where we point out the impact of the choice of climb technique on the overall en route flight profile costs. In temporary aircraft flight preparation process, there is no stressing out the significance of the climb phase in minimizing costs of this particular flight phase. In the paper we show the procedure of defining optimal climbing resulting minimum costs, but also optimal function operational adjustment to the climb schedule. This way of the approximation of optimal function and its adjustment to the operational use enables the application of minimal cost climbing technique in operational use of transportation aircraft. On short‐haul flights, climb phase can reduce cruise flight length up to 60% of total range. In the paper, we show the impact of climb regime on flight profile of turbo‐fan aircraft considering the usage of time, fuel and costs. The impact is shown according to the data taken from the Performance Engineers Manual. The impact stresses the importance of minimum costs climbing regime to cutting down total flight costs. It also shows the conditions which need to be fulfilled in order to apply minimum costs climbing technique. We identify the scope of CAS speed during climb and TOC for flights minimum total expenses by using minimum costs climbing technique. Conditions for achieving minimum costs climbing technique are the results of the logarithmic differential. In order to achieve optimal numerical results we used Newton‐Raphson formula. Santrauka Šiandien oro transporte svarbūs du tikslai: skrydžio metu sunaudojamo kuro mažinimas ir skrydžio laiko trumpinimas. Žinoma kainos struktūra ir kainos komponentės yra reikšmingos išankstinės sąlygos, padedančios sudaryti kainos optimizavimo strategiją oro transporto bendrovėje. Oro transporto bendrovės valdytojai turi ribotą sąnaudų valdymo priemonių komplektą – tai „Priežiūros inžinieriaus vadovas“ ir „Orlaivio skrydžio vadovas“. Straipsnyje aptariama turbosraigtinio lėktuvo vertikalios skrydžio krypties problema, parodomas pasirinktos kilimo technikos poveikis bendrai skrydžio kainai. Dabartiniame lėktuvo ruošimosi skrydžiui procese nėra pabrėžiama kilimo fazės įtaka bendrų skrydžio sąnaudų mažinimui. Straipsnyje pateikiama procedūra, kaip nustatyti optimalų orlaivio kilimą mažiausiomis sąnaudomis, taip pat optimalumo funkcijos korekciją kilimo plane. Optimalumo funkcijos aproksimavimas ir jos naudojimas leidžia taikyti mažiausių sąnaudų kilimo techniką lėktuve. Trumpalaikiuose skrydžiuose kilimo fazė gali sumažinti kruizinio skrydžio trukmę iki 60 proc. Straipsnyje rodoma, kaip lėktuvo kilimo režimas daro poveikį turbosraigtinio lėktuvo skrydžiui laiko, kuro ir sąnaudų požiūriu remiantis duomeni mis, paimtais iš „Priežiūros inžinieriaus vadovo“. Skaičiai rodo, kaip minimalių sąnaudų kilimo režimas sumažina bendrąsias skrydžio sąnaudas. Straipsnyje taip pat atskleidžiamos sąlygos, kurios turi būti vykdytos norint pritaikyti minimalių sąnaudų kilimo techniką. Ją naudojant nustatytas lėktuvo skrydžio greitis ir pakilimo aukštis. Minimalių sąnaudų kilimo technikos sąlygos yra logaritminio diferencialo prendiniai. Optimaliems skaitmeniniams rezultatams gauti panaudota Niutono ir Rapsono formulė. First published online: 21 Oct 2010 Reikšminiai žodžiai: oro bendrovė, ekonomija, transporto lėktuvas, kilimas, techniniai duomenys, optimizavimas, sąnaudos

Cultural robotics : The culture of robotics and robotics in culture

Copyright 2013 Samani et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedIn this paper, we have investigated the concept of "Cultural Robotics" with regard to the evolution o social into cultural robots in the 21st Century. By defining the concept of culture, the potential development of culture between humans and robots is explored. Based on the cultural values of the robotics developers, and the learning ability of current robots, cultural attributes in this regard are in the process of being formed, which would define the new concept of cultural robotics. According to the importance of the embodiment of robots in the sense of presence, the influence of robots in communication culture is anticipated. The sustainability of robotics culture based on diversity for cultural communities for various acceptance modalities is explored in order to anticipate the creation of different attributes of culture between robot and humans in the futurePeer reviewe

Solidification of Al-Sn-Cu based immiscible alloys under intense shearing

The official published version of the Article can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2009 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM InternationalThe growing importance of Al-Sn based alloys as materials for engineering applications necessitates the development of uniform microstructures with improved performance. Guided by the recently thermodynamically assessed Al-Sn-Cu system, two model immiscible alloys, Al-45Sn-10Cu and Al-20Sn-10Cu, were selected to investigate the effects of intensive melt shearing provided by the novel melt conditioning by advanced shear technology (MCAST) unit on the uniform dispersion of the soft Sn phase in a hard Al matrix. Our experimental results have confirmed that intensive melt shearing is an effective way to achieve fine and uniform dispersion of the soft phase without macro-demixing, and that such dispersed microstructure can be further refined in alloys with precipitation of the primary Al phase prior to the demixing reaction. In addition, it was found that melt shearing at 200 rpm and 60 seconds will be adequate to produce fine and uniform dispersion of the Sn phase, and that higher shearing speed and prolonged shearing time can only achieve minor further refinement.This work is funded by the EPSRC and DT

Aberration-free ultra-thin flat lenses and axicons at telecom wavelengths based on plasmonic metasurfaces

The concept of optical phase discontinuities is applied to the design and demonstration of aberration-free planar lenses and axicons, comprising a phased array of ultrathin subwavelength spaced optical antennas. The lenses and axicons consist of radial distributions of V-shaped nanoantennas that generate respectively spherical wavefronts and non-diffracting Bessel beams at telecom wavelengths. Simulations are also presented to show that our aberration-free designs are applicable to high numerical aperture lenses such as flat microscope objectives