Effect of Irradiation with DC Plasma Jet on the Structure Phase Compositions and Properties of Powder Ni and Co – based Coatings

This paper presents new results of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) investigation of the structure-phase compositions of coatings on the base of Ni and Co deposited by plasma-detonation on steel substrates after their modification by DC plasma jet irradiation. The phase structures and morphology of precipitation of strengthening phases from solid solution are defined. The irradiation of the coatings leads to the evolution of the structural-phase state of coatings: an increase in the size of the diffusion zone between the coating and the substrate, an increase in the volume fraction of hardening intermetallic phases, the formation of sufficiently homogeneous fine-grained structure in the irradiated coatings and, consequently, a significant increase of hardness, corrosion and wear resistance of modified coatings. There is a mutual penetration of the substrate main element Fe in the coating and base coating elements (Ni and Co correspondingly) into the substrate as a result of the coating treatment by a pulse DC plasma jet

Optomechanical manipulation with hyperbolic metasurfaces

Auxiliary nanostructures introduce additional flexibility into optomechanical manipulation schemes. Metamaterials and metasurfaces capable to control electromagnetic interactions at the near-field regions are especially beneficial for achieving improved spatial localization of particles, reducing laser powers required for trapping, and for tailoring directivity of optical forces. Here, optical forces acting on small particles situated next to anisotropic substrates, are investigated. A special class of hyperbolic metasurfaces is considered in details and is shown to be beneficial for achieving strong optical pulling forces in a broad spectral range. Spectral decomposition of the Green functions enables identifying contributions of different interaction channels and underlines the importance of the hyperbolic dispersion regime, which plays the key role in optomechanical interactions. Homogenised model of the hyperbolic metasurface is compared to its metal-dielectric multilayer realizations and is shown to predict the optomechanical behaviour under certain conditions related to composition of the top layer of the structure and its periodicity. Optomechanical metasurfaces open a venue for future fundamental investigations and a range of practical applications, where accurate control over mechanical motion of small objects is required

Self-induced Torque in Hyperbolic Metamaterials

Optical forces constitute a fundamental phenomenon important in various fields of science, from astronomy to biology. Generally, intense external radiation sources are required to achieve measurable effects suitable for applications. Here we demonstrate

Purcell effect in Hyperbolic Metamaterial Resonators

The radiation dynamics of optical emitters can be manipulated by properly designed material structures providing high local density of photonic states, a phenomenon often referred to as the Purcell effect. Plasmonic nanorod metamaterials with hyperbolic dispersion of electromagnetic modes are believed to deliver a significant Purcell enhancement with both broadband and non-resonant nature. Here, we have investigated finite-size cavities formed by nanorod metamaterials and shown that the main mechanism of the Purcell effect in these hyperbolic resonators originates from the cavity hyperbolic modes, which in a microscopic description stem from the interacting cylindrical surface plasmon modes of the finite number of nanorods forming the cavity. It is found that emitters polarized perpendicular to the nanorods exhibit strong decay rate enhancement, which is predominantly influenced by the rod length. We demonstrate that this enhancement originates from Fabry-Perot modes of the metamaterial cavity. The Purcell factors, delivered by those cavity modes, reach several hundred, which is 4-5 times larger than those emerging at the epsilon near zero transition frequencies. The effect of enhancement is less pronounced for dipoles, polarized along the rods. Furthermore, it was shown that the Purcell factor delivered by Fabry-Perot modes follows the dimension parameters of the array, while the decay rate in the epsilon near-zero regime is almost insensitive to geometry. The presented analysis shows a possibility to engineer emitter properties in the structured metamaterials, addressing their microscopic structure

Nonlinear spectroscopy of excitonic states in transition metal dichalcogenides

Second-harmonic generation (SHG) is a well-known nonlinear spectroscopy method to probe electronic structure, specifically, in transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) monolayers. This work investigates the nonlinear dynamics of a strongly excited TMDC monolayer by solving the time evolution equations for the density matrix. It is shown that the presence of excitons qualitatively changes the nonlinear dynamics leading, in particular, to a huge enhancement of the nonlinear signal as a function of the dielectric environment. It is also shown that the SHG polarization angular diagram and its dependence on the driving strength are very sensitive to the type of exciton state. This sensitivity suggests that SHG spectroscopy is a convenient tool for analyzing the fine structure of excitonic states.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

5-(Sulfamoyl)thien-2-yl 1,3-oxazole inhibitors of carbonic anhydrase II with hydrophilic periphery

Hydrophilic derivatives of an earlier described series of carbonic anhydrase inhibitors have been designed, prepared and profiled against a panel of carbonic anhydrase isoforms, including the glaucoma-related hCA II. For all hydrophilic derivatives, computational prediction of intraocular permeability routes showed the predominance of conjunctival rather than corneal absorption. The potentially reactive primary or secondary amine periphery of these compounds makes them suitable candidates for bioconjugation to polymeric drug carriers. As was shown previously, the most active hCA II inhibitor is efficacious in alleviating intraocular pressure in normotensive rabbits with efficacy matching that of dorzolamide.Peer reviewe

Image Acquisition and Processing on Raspberry Pi in Matlab for 3D-Scanning

The paper presents the results of applying a special image processing method on the Raspberry Pi platform using Matlab. An image processing system has been developed using the necessary element base for quick image processing, including image transmission using a camera. A new algorithm for extracting lines on a recognizable image has been developed, which uses a gradient image processing technique. Images were obtained and this system was successfully tested on the Raspberry Pi 3. It is proposed to use this method for a robotic machine vision system, where the video camera is mounted on a robot manipulator that scans the surface

Purcell effect in Hyperbolic Metamaterial Resonators

The radiation dynamics of optical emitters can be manipulated by properly designed material structures providing high local density of photonic states, a phenomenon often referred to as the Purcell effect. Plasmonic nanorod metamaterials with hyperbolic dispersion of electromagnetic modes are believed to deliver a significant Purcell enhancement with both broadband and non-resonant nature. Here, we have investigated finite-size cavities formed by nanorod metamaterials and shown that the main mechanism of the Purcell effect in these hyperbolic resonators originates from the cavity hyperbolic modes, which in a microscopic description stem from the interacting cylindrical surface plasmon modes of the finite number of nanorods forming the cavity. It is found that emitters polarized perpendicular to the nanorods exhibit strong decay rate enhancement, which is predominantly influenced by the rod length. We demonstrate that this enhancement originates from Fabry-Perot modes of the metamaterial cavity. The Purcell factors, delivered by those cavity modes, reach several hundred, which is 4-5 times larger than those emerging at the epsilon near zero transition frequencies. The effect of enhancement is less pronounced for dipoles, polarized along the rods. Furthermore, it was shown that the Purcell factor delivered by Fabry-Perot modes follows the dimension parameters of the array, while the decay rate in the epsilon near-zero regime is almost insensitive to geometry. The presented analysis shows a possibility to engineer emitter properties in the structured metamaterials, addressing their microscopic structure