Automatic PCM guard-band selector and calibrator

Automatic method for selection of proper guard band eliminates human error and speeds up calibration process. There is also an option which allows a single channel to be calibrated, independently of other channels. Entire system is designed on 3- by 4-inch printed-circuit cards and may be used with any pulse code modulation system

Processes and process development in Japan

The commercialization of solar power generation necessitates the development of low cost manufacturing method of silicon suitable for solar cells. The manufacturing methods of semiconductor grade silicon (SEG-Si) and the development of solar grade silicon (SOG-Si) in foreign countries was investigated. It was concluded that the most efficient method of developing such materials was the hydrogen reduction process of trichlorosilane (TCS), using a fluidized bed reactor. The low cost reduction of polysilicon requires cost reductions of raw materials, energy, labor, and capital. These conditions were carefully reviewed. The overall conclusion was that a development program should be based on the TCS-FBR process and that the experimental program should be conducted in test facilities capable of producing 10 tons of silicon granules per year

Collinear-to-Spiral Spin Transformation without Changing Modulation Wavelength upon Ferroelectric Transition in Tb1-xDyxMnO3

Lattice modulation and magnetic structures in magnetoelectric compounds Tb1-xDyxMnO3 have been studied around the ferroelectric (FE) Curie temperature T_C by x-ray and neutron diffraction. Temperature-independent modulation vectors through T_C are observed for the compounds with 0.50< x < 0.68. This indicates that ferroelectricity with a polarization (P) along the c axis in the RMnO3 series cannot be ascribed to such an incommensurate-commensurate transition of an antiferromagnetic order as was previously anticipated. Neutron diffraction study of a single crystal with x=0.59 shows that the FE transition is accompanied by the transformation of the Mn-spin alignment from sinusoidal (collinear) antiferromagnetism into a transverse spiral structure. The observed spiral structure below T_C is expected to produce P along the c axis with the `inverse' Dzialoshinski-Moriya interaction, which is consistent with the observation.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

The small-scale structure of photospheric convection retrieved by a deconvolution technique applied to Hinode/SP data

Solar granules are bright patterns surrounded by dark channels called intergranular lanes in the solar photosphere and are a manifestation of overshooting convection. Observational studies generally find stronger upflows in granules and weaker downflows in intergranular lanes. This trend is, however, inconsistent with the results of numerical simulations in which downflows are stronger than upflows through the joint action of gravitational acceleration/deceleration and pressure gradients. One cause of this discrepancy is the image degradation caused by optical distortion and light diffraction and scattering that takes place in an imaging instrument. We apply a deconvolution technique to Hinode/SP data in an attempt to recover the original solar scene. Our results show a significant enhancement in both, the convective upflows and downflows, but particularly for the latter. After deconvolution, the up- and downflows reach maximum amplitudes of -3.0 km/s and +3.0 km/s at an average geometrical height of roughly 50 km, respectively. We found that the velocity distributions after deconvolution match those derived from numerical simulations. After deconvolution the net LOS velocity averaged over the whole FOV lies close to zero as expected in a rough sense from mass balance.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Effect of disorder outside the CuO2_{2} planes on TcT_{c} of copper oxide superconductors

The effect of disorder on the superconducting transition temperature $T_{c}$ of cuprate superconductors is examined. Disorder is introduced into the cation sites in the plane adjacent to the CuO$_{2}$ planes of two single-layer systems, Bi$_{2.0}$Sr$_{1.6}$Ln$_{0.4}$CuO$_{6+\delta}$ and La$_{1.85-y}$Nd$_{y}$Sr$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4}$. Disorder is controlled by changing rare earth (Ln) ions with different ionic radius in the former, and by varying the Nd content in the latter with the doped carrier density kept constant. We show that this type of disorder works as weak scatterers in contrast to the in-plane disorder produced by Zn, but remarkably reduces $T_{c}$ suggesting novel effects of disorder on high-$T_{c}$ superconductivity.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Let

Quantum Phase Transitions to Charge Order and Wigner Crystal Under Interplay of Lattice Commensurability and Long-Range Coulomb Interaction

Relationship among Wigner crystal, charge order and Mott insulator is studied by the path-integral renormalization group method for two-dimensional lattices with long-range Coulomb interaction. In contrast to Hartree-Fock results, the solid stability drastically increases with lattice commensurability. The transition to liquid occurs at the electron gas parameter $r_s \sim 2$ for the filling $n=1/2$ showing large reduction from $r_s \sim 35$ in the continuum limit. Correct account of quantum fluctuations are crucial to understand charge-order stability generally observed only at simple fractional fillings and nature of quantum liquids away from them.Comment: 4 pages including 7 figure