Large enhancement of the effective second-order nonlinearity in graphene metasurfaces

Using a powerful homogenization technique, one- and two-dimensional graphene metasurfaces are homogenized both at the fundamental frequency (FF) and second harmonic (SH). In both cases, there is excellent agreement between the predictions of the homogenization method and those based on rigorous numerical solutions of Maxwell equations. The homogenization technique is then employed to demonstrate that, owing to a double-resonant plasmon excitation mechanism that leads to strong, simultaneous field enhancement at the FF and SH, the effective second-order susceptibility of graphene metasurfaces can be enhanced by more than three orders of magnitude as compared to the intrinsic second-order susceptibility of a graphene sheet placed on the same substrate. In addition, we explore the implications of our results on the development of new active nanodevices that incorporate nanopatterned graphene structures.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure

The ISM Interactions of a Runaway LBV Nebula in the LMC

New observations of the Magellanic Cloud Luminous Blue Variable candidate S119 (HD269687) show the relationship of the star to its environs. Echelle spectroscopy and high-resolution HST imagery reveal an expanding bubble centered on the star. This bubble appears in both Halpha and [NII] and is noticeably brighter on the near (blue-shifted) side. The systemic velocity of both the expanding bubble and the star itself (as seen by the very broad Halpha emission feature in the stellar spectrum) is V_hel=160 km/s whereas the velocity of the superposed LMC ISM is 250-300 km/s. ISM absorption features seen in FUSE spectra reveal components at both stellar and LMC velocities. Thus we conclude that S119 is located within the LMC ISM and that the bubble is interacting strongly with the ISM in a bow shock.Comment: 5 pages in EmulateApJ format, 3 figures Accepted by ApJL See http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu/~danforth/s119

A Simplified Scheme of Estimation and Cancellation of Companding Noise for Companded Multicarrier Transmission Systems

Nonlinear companding transform is an efficient method to reduce the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of multicarrier transmission systems. However, the introduced companding noise greatly degrades the bit-error-rate (BER) performance of the companded multicarrier systems. In this paper, a simplified but effective scheme of estimation and cancellation of companding noise for the companded multicarrier transmission system is proposed. By expressing the companded signals as the summation of original signals added with a companding noise component, and subtracting this estimated companding noise from the received signals, the BER performance of the overall system can be significantly improved. Simulation results well confirm the great advantages of the proposed scheme over other conventional decompanding or no decompanding schemes under various situations

Impact of global warming on Chinese wheat productivity:

"Climate change continues to have major impact on crop productivity all over the world. While many researchers have evaluated the possible impact of global warming on crop yields using mainly indirect crop simulation models, there are relatively few direct assessments on the impact of observed climate change on past crop yield and growth. We use a 1979-2000 Chinese crop-specific panel dataset to investigate the climate impact on Chinese wheat yield growth. We find that a 1 percent increase in wheat growing season temperature reduces wheat yields by about 0.3 percent. This negative impact is less severe than those reported in other regions. Rising temperature over the past two decades accounts for a 2.4 percent decline in wheat yields in China while the majority of the wheat yield growth, 75 percent, comes from increased use of physical inputs. We emphasize the necessity of including such major influencing factors as physical inputs into the crop yield-climate function in order to have an accurate estimation of climate impact on crop yields." Authors' AbstractGlobal warming, Climate, Wheat production,