In situ imaging of field emission from individual carbon nanotubes and their structural damage

©2002 American Institute of Physics. The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://link.aip.org/link/?APPLAB/80/856/1DOI:10.1063/1.1446994Field emission of individual carbon nanotubes was observed by in situ transmission electron microscopy. A fluctuation in emission current was due to a variation in distance between the nanotube tip and the counter electrode owing to a "head-shaking" effect of the nanotube during field emission. Strong field-induced structural damage of a nanotube occurs in two ways: a piece-by-piece and segment-by-segment pilling process of the graphitic layers, and a concentrical layer-by-layer stripping process. The former is believed owing to a strong electrostatic force, and the latter is likely due to heating produced by emission current that flowed through the most outer graphitic layers

Robust fault detection for networked systems with communication delay and data missing

n this paper, the robust fault detection problem is investigated for a class of discrete-time networked systems with unknown input and multiple state delays. A novel measurement model is utilized to represent both the random measurement delays and the stochastic data missing phenomenon, which typically result from the limited capacity of the communication networks. The network status is assumed to vary in a Markovian fashion and its transition probability matrix is uncertain but resides in a known convex set of a polytopic type. The main purpose of this paper is to design a robust fault detection filter such that, for all unknown inputs, possible parameter uncertainties and incomplete measurements, the error between the residual signal and the fault signal is made as small as possible. By casting the addressed robust fault detection problem into an auxiliary robust H∞ filtering problem of a certain Markovian jumping system, a sufficient condition for the existence of the desired robust fault detection filter is established in terms of linear matrix inequalities. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed technique

Phase Reversal Diffraction in incoherent light

Phase reversal occurs in the propagation of an electromagnetic wave in a negatively refracting medium or a phase-conjugate interface. Here we report the experimental observation of phase reversal diffraction without the above devices. Our experimental results and theoretical analysis demonstrate that phase reversal diffraction can be formed through the first-order field correlation of chaotic light. The experimental realization is similar to phase reversal behavior in negatively refracting media.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Double In Situ Approach for the Preparation of Polymer Nanocomposite with Multi-functionality

A novel one-step synthetic route, the double in situ approach, is used to produce both TiO2nanoparticles and polymer (PET), and simultaneously forming a nanocomposite with multi-functionality. The method uses the release of water during esterification to hydrolyze titanium (IV) butoxide (Ti(OBu)4) forming nano-TiO2in the polymerization vessel. This new approach is of general significance in the preparation of polymer nanocomposites, and will lead to a new route in the synthesis of multi-functional polymer nanocomposites