Simulating Function Generators and Oscilloscopes in a Virtual Laboratory Environment

This paper discusses the development of a virtual laboratory for simulating electronic instruments commonly used in science and engineering courses, such as function generators and digital storage oscilloscopes. Mathematical equations are used to represent continuous signals and ensure signal integrity, while C# delegates are adopted to enable communication between simulated devices. The approach allows for loose coupling between software components and high cohesion of individual components, and can be applied to other virtual laboratory developments. The virtual laboratory provides a means for students to gain hands-on experience with electronic instruments and improve their understanding of theoretical concepts

Hypersonic Wake Diagnostics Using Laser Induced Fluorescence Techniques

A review of recent research performed in iodine that involves a two photon absorption of light at 193 nm will be discussed, and it's potential application to velocimetry measurements in a hypersonic flow field will be described. An alternative seed atom, Krypton, will be presented as a good candidate for performing nonintrusive hypersonic flow diagnostics. Krypton has a metastable state with a lifetime of approximately 43 s which would prove useful for time of flight measurement (TOF) and a sensitivity to collisions that can be utilized for density measurements. Calculations using modest laser energies and experimental values show an efficiency of excited state production to be on the order of 10(exp -6) for a two photon absorption at 193 nm

The Influence of Particle Concentration and Bulk Characteristics on Polarized Oceanographic Lidar Measurements

Oceanographic lidar measurements of the linear depolarization ratio, δ, contain information on the bulk characteristics of marine particles that could improve our ability to study ocean biogeochemistry. However, a scarcity of information on the polarized light-scattering properties of marine particles and the lack of a framework for separating single and multiple scattering effects on δ have hindered the development of polarization-based retrievals of bulk particle properties. To address these knowledge gaps, we made single scattering measurements of δ for several compositionally and morphologically distinct marine particle assemblages. We then used a bio-optical model to explore the influence of multiple scattering and particle characteristics on lidar measurements of δ made during an expedition to sample a mesoscale coccolithophore bloom. Laboratory measurements of linear depolarization revealed a complex dependency on particle shape, size, and composition that were consistent with scattering simulations for idealized nonspherical particles. Model results suggested that the variability in δ measured during the field expedition was driven predominantly by shifts in particle concentration rather than their bulk characteristics. However, model estimates of δ improved when calcite particles were represented by a distinct particle class, highlighting the influence of bulk particle properties on δ. To advance polarized lidar retrievals of bulk particle properties and to constrain the uncertainty in satellite lidar retrievals of particulate backscattering, these results point to the need for future efforts to characterize the variability of particulate depolarization in the ocean and to quantify the sensitivity of operational ocean lidar systems to multiple scattering

Coupled Dynamics of Spin Qubits in Optical Dipole Microtraps: Application to the Error Analysis of a Rydberg-Blockade Gate

Single atoms in dipole microtraps or optical tweezers have recently become a promising platform for quantum computing and simulation. Here we report a detailed theoretical analysis of the physics underlying an implementation of a Rydberg two-qubit gate in such a system—a cornerstone protocol in quantum computing with single atoms. We focus on a blockade-type entangling gate and consider various decoherence processes limiting its performance in a real system. We provide numerical estimates for the limits on fidelity of the maximally entangled states and predict the full process matrix corresponding to the noisy two-qubit gate. We consider different excitation geometries and show certain advantages for the gate realization with linearly polarized driving beams. Our methods and results may find implementation in numerical models for simulation and optimization of neutral atom based quantum processors

BEYOND THE BORN APPROXIMATION: A PRECISE COMPARISON OF e + p AND e − p ELASTIC SCATTERING IN THE CEBAF LARGE ACCEPTANCE

How well we know the structure of the proton depends on our knowledge of the form factors of the proton. The ratio of the electromagnetic form factors of the proton measured by the Rosenbluth and the polarization transfer methods differ by a factor of 3 at four momentum transfer squared (Q 2)=5.6 GeV 2. The two photon exchange (TPE) effect is the leading candidate to explain this discrepancy. The theoretical estimates of the TPE effect are model dependent so precise measurement is required to resolve this problem. The TPE effect can be measured in a model independent way by measuring the ratio of positron-proton to electron-proton elastic scattering cross-sections. We produced a simultaneously mixed electron-positron beam in the engineering test run conducted in October 2006 and measured the e + p/e − p ratio using the CEBAF large acceptance spectrometer (CLAS). Due to the luminosity constraint our kinematic coverage is limited to low Q2 and high ε (longitudinal polarization of the virtual photon). We continued our background study through GEANT4 simulation developed for the test run design in order to find more background sources and to design required shielding. The simulation is validated by using the test run data and is used further to optimize the luminosity for the final experiment. We are able to increase the luninosity by an order of magnitude for the upcoming final run. The final experiment will extend the data in high Q2 and low ε region where TPE effec

Argon Metastable and Resonant Level Densities in Ar and Ar/Cl² Discharges Used for the Processing of Bulk Niobium

A comparative analysis of two popular spectroscopy techniques is conducted in a coaxial cylindrical capacitively coupled discharge designed for the plasma processing of superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities. The density of the metastable and resonant levels in Ar is measured in both Ar and Ar/Cl2 discharges to properly characterize the unique discharge system and aid in the development of a cavity etching routine. The first method, deemed the “branching fraction method,” utilizes the sensitivity of photon reabsorption of radiative decay to measure the lower state (metastable and resonant) densities by taking ratios of spectral lines with a common upper level. This method has been gaining popularity as it does not require any a priori knowledge about the electron energy distribution. The second method is a tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy technique that measures the thermal Doppler broadening of spectral lines, from which the neutral gas temperature and lower state density of the transition can be evaluated. The two methods were conducted in tandem, while external parameters that were empirically determined to be important to the etching mechanism of SRF cavities are varied. Relationships between the excited state densities and the external parameters are presented for both spectroscopy methods and conclusions about the effects of these parameters on the discharge are stated when appropriate