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Generating Electromagnetic Nonuniformly Correlated Beams, Milo W. Hyde Iv, Xifeng Xiao, David G. Voelz Dec 2019

Generating Electromagnetic Nonuniformly Correlated Beams, Milo W. Hyde Iv, Xifeng Xiao, David G. Voelz

Faculty Publications

We develop a method to generate electromagnetic nonuniformly correlated (ENUC) sources from vector Gaussian Schell-model (GSM) beams. Having spatially varying correlation properties, ENUC sources are more difficult to synthesize than their Schell-model counterparts (which can be generated by filtering circular complex Gaussian random numbers) and, in past work, have only been realized using Cholesky decomposition—a computationally intensive procedure. Here we transform electromagnetic GSM field instances directly into ENUC instances, thereby avoiding computing Cholesky factors resulting in significant savings in time and computing resources. We validate our method by generating (via simulation) an ENUC beam with desired parameters. We find the …


E700xd Portable Doppler Radar Energy Systems Analysis, Brandon M. Bailey [*], Torrey J. Wagner, Jada Williams Dec 2019

E700xd Portable Doppler Radar Energy Systems Analysis, Brandon M. Bailey [*], Torrey J. Wagner, Jada Williams

Faculty Publications

Occurring in industrialized nations, inexpensive and abundantly available power is routinely taken for granted. However, energy resilience and to a lesser extent price are key concerns when considering potential solutions for disaster response, disaster relief, or military operations. The Department of Defense (DoD) currently uses a 5 kW generator to power the E700XD portable Doppler radar system when grid power is unavailable [1]. While the radar has an approximate power consumption of 2.5 kW, there is a potential for higher demand due to weather conditions [2]. This paper examines the cost of operating a currently installed generator, compared to the …


Gamma-Ray Radiation Effects In Graphene-Based Transistors With H-Bn Nanometer Film Substrates, E. J. Cazalas, Michael R. Hogsed, S. R. Vangala, Michael R. Snure, John W. Mcclory Nov 2019

Gamma-Ray Radiation Effects In Graphene-Based Transistors With H-Bn Nanometer Film Substrates, E. J. Cazalas, Michael R. Hogsed, S. R. Vangala, Michael R. Snure, John W. Mcclory

Faculty Publications

Radiation effects on graphene field effect transistors (GFETs) with hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) thin film substrates are investigated using 60Co gamma-ray radiation. This study examines the radiation response using many samples with varying h-BN film thicknesses (1.6 and 20 nm thickness) and graphene channel lengths (5 and 10 μm). These samples were exposed to a total ionizing dose of approximately 1 Mrad(Si). I-V measurements were taken at fixed time intervals between irradiations and postirradiation. Dirac point voltage and current are extracted from the I-V measurements, as well as mobility, Dirac voltage hysteresis, and the total number of GFETs that remain …


Multiple Pursuer Multiple Evader Differential Games, Eloy Garcia, David Casbeer, Alexander Von Moll, Meir Pachter Nov 2019

Multiple Pursuer Multiple Evader Differential Games, Eloy Garcia, David Casbeer, Alexander Von Moll, Meir Pachter

Faculty Publications

In this paper an N-pursuer vs. M-evader team conflict is studied. The differential game of border defense is addressed and we focus on the game of degree in the region of the state space where the pursuers are able to win. This work extends classical differential game theory to simultaneously address weapon assignments and multi-player pursuit-evasion scenarios. Saddle-point strategies that provide guaranteed performance for each team regardless of the actual strategies implemented by the opponent are devised. The players' optimal strategies require the co-design of cooperative optimal assignments and optimal guidance laws. A representative measure of performance is proposed and …


Measurement Of Electron Density And Temperature From Laser-Induced Nitrogen Plasma At Elevated Pressure (1–6 Bar), Ashwin P. Rao [*], Mark Gragston, Anil K. Patnaik, Paul S. Hsu, Michael B. Shattan Nov 2019

Measurement Of Electron Density And Temperature From Laser-Induced Nitrogen Plasma At Elevated Pressure (1–6 Bar), Ashwin P. Rao [*], Mark Gragston, Anil K. Patnaik, Paul S. Hsu, Michael B. Shattan

Faculty Publications

Laser-induced plasmas experience Stark broadening and shifts of spectral lines carrying spectral signatures of plasma properties. In this paper, we report time-resolved Stark broadening measurements of a nitrogen triplet emission line at 1–6 bar ambient pressure in a pure nitrogen cell. Electron densities are calculated using the Stark broadening for different pressure conditions, which are shown to linearly increase with pressure. Additionally, using a Boltzmann fit for the triplet, the electron temperature is calculated and shown to decrease with increasing pressure. The rate of plasma cooling is observed to increase with pressure. The reported Stark broadening based plasma diagnostics in …


Adaptive-Hybrid Redundancy With Error Injection, Nicholas S. Hamilton, Scott R. Graham, Timothy Carbino, James C. Petrosky, J. Addison Betances Nov 2019

Adaptive-Hybrid Redundancy With Error Injection, Nicholas S. Hamilton, Scott R. Graham, Timothy Carbino, James C. Petrosky, J. Addison Betances

Faculty Publications

Adaptive-Hybrid Redundancy (AHR) shows promise as a method to allow flexibility when selecting between processing speed and energy efficiency while maintaining a level of error mitigation in space radiation environments. Whereas previous work demonstrated AHR’s feasibility in an error free environment, this work analyzes AHR performance in the presence of errors. Errors are deliberately injected into AHR at specific times in the processing chain to demonstrate best and worst case performance impacts. This analysis demonstrates that AHR provides flexibility in processing speed and energy efficiency in the presence of errors


The Challenges Of Low-Energy Secondary Electron Emission Measurement, Matthew J. Vincie Nov 2019

The Challenges Of Low-Energy Secondary Electron Emission Measurement, Matthew J. Vincie

Theses and Dissertations

The phenomena known as secondary electron emission was discovered over a century ago. Yet it remains very difficult to model accurately due to the limited availability of reliable experimental data. With the growing use of computer simulations in hardware development, the need for accurate models has increased. This research focused on determining what factors may be causing measurement discrepancies and methods for increasing the accuracy of measurements. It was found that several assumptions are commonly invoked when these measurements are performed that may not always be consistent with reality. The violation of these assumptions leads to measurement bias that is …


Nonlinearities And Carrier Dynamics In Refractory Plasmonic Tin Thin Films, Heather George, Jennifer Reed, Manuel R. Ferdinandus, Clayton Devault, Alexei Lagutchev, Augustine Urbas, Theodore B. Norris, Vladimir M. Shalaev, Alexandra Boltasseva, Nathaniel Kinsey Oct 2019

Nonlinearities And Carrier Dynamics In Refractory Plasmonic Tin Thin Films, Heather George, Jennifer Reed, Manuel R. Ferdinandus, Clayton Devault, Alexei Lagutchev, Augustine Urbas, Theodore B. Norris, Vladimir M. Shalaev, Alexandra Boltasseva, Nathaniel Kinsey

Faculty Publications

Titanium nitride is widely used in plasmonic applications, due to its robustness and optical properties which resemble those of gold. Despite this interest, the nonlinear properties have only recently begun to be investigated. In this work, beam deflection and non-degenerate femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy (800 nm pump and 650 nm probe) were used to measure the real and imaginary transient nonlinear response of 30-nm-thick TiN films on sapphire and fused silica in the metallic region governed by Fermi-smearing nonlinearities. In contrast to other metals, it is found that TiN exhibits non-instantaneous positive refraction and reverse saturable absorption whose relaxation is dominated …


Insulation Sensitivity Analysis For An Optimized Fabric Shelter Off-Grid Hybrid Energy System, Jay F. Pearson [*], Torrey J. Wagner, Steven Schuldt Oct 2019

Insulation Sensitivity Analysis For An Optimized Fabric Shelter Off-Grid Hybrid Energy System, Jay F. Pearson [*], Torrey J. Wagner, Steven Schuldt

Faculty Publications

During military and disaster relief operations, connecting to an established electrical grid is rarely an option. In these situations, camps consisting of poorly insulated fabric shelters are predominantly powered by inefficient diesel generators that require frequent fuel resupply. In order to reduce the fuel demand of these generators, camps may utilize photovoltaic-battery systems. This paper presents an innovative cost-performance model capable of optimizing solar array size, battery backup system, and shelter insulation type to minimize the operating cost of powering a single fabric shelter. Model performance was evaluated using one year of insolation, weather and energy requirement data from a …


Target Detection In Heterogeneous Clutter With Low Resolution Radar, Kyle G. Stankowski Sep 2019

Target Detection In Heterogeneous Clutter With Low Resolution Radar, Kyle G. Stankowski

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis develops a framework for SAR target detection and super-resolution in low-resolution environments. The primary focus in this research is the background clutter heterogeneity that often accompanies low range and cross-range resolutions. A corrective model which accounts for clutter replacement is developed to define the detection and false alarm rates of the detector more accurately than a traditional model in which the radar return from the target supplements the existing clutter. In a heterogeneous clutter cell, the clutter replacement model leverages the different scattering distributions among the individual clutter types to generate a probability distribution function for the areas …


Adaptive-Hybrid Redundancy For Radiation Hardening, Nicolas S. Hamilton Sep 2019

Adaptive-Hybrid Redundancy For Radiation Hardening, Nicolas S. Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

An Adaptive-Hybrid Redundancy (AHR) mitigation strategy is proposed to mitigate the effects of Single Event Upset (SEU) and Single Event Transient (SET) radiation effects. AHR is adaptive because it switches between Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) and Temporal Software Redundancy (TSR). AHR is hybrid because it uses hardware and software redundancy. AHR is demonstrated to run faster than TSR and use less energy than TMR. Furthermore, AHR allows space vehicle designers, mission planners, and operators the flexibility to determine how much time is spent in TMR and TSR. TMR mode provides faster processing at the expense of greater energy usage. TSR …


Autonomous And Resilient Management Of All-Source Sensors For Navigation Assurance, Juan D. Jurado Sep 2019

Autonomous And Resilient Management Of All-Source Sensors For Navigation Assurance, Juan D. Jurado

Theses and Dissertations

All-source navigation has become increasingly relevant over the past decade with the development of viable alternative sensor technologies. However, as the number and type of sensors informing a system increases, so does the probability of corrupting the system with sensor modeling errors, signal interference, and undetected faults. Though the latter of these has been extensively researched, the majority of existing approaches have constrained faults to biases, and designed algorithms centered around the assumption of simultaneously redundant, synchronous sensors with valid measurement models, none of which are guaranteed for all-source systems. This research aims to provide all-source multi-sensor resiliency, assurance, and …


Digital Holography Efficiency Experiments For Tactical Applications, Douglas E. Thornton Sep 2019

Digital Holography Efficiency Experiments For Tactical Applications, Douglas E. Thornton

Theses and Dissertations

Digital holography (DH) uses coherent detection and offers direct access to the complex-optical field to sense and correct image aberrations in low signal-to-noise environments, which is critical for tactical applications. The performance of DH is compared to a similar, well studied deep-turbulence wavefront sensor, the self-referencing interferometer (SRI), with known efficiency losses. Wave optics simulations with deep-turbulence conditions and noise were conducted and the results show that DH outperforms the SRI by 10's of dB due to DH's strong reference. Additionally, efficiency experiments were conducted to investigate DH system losses. The experimental results show that the mixing efficiency (37%) is …


Nondestructive Electromagnetic Characterization Of Perfect-Electric-Conductor-Backed Uniaxial Materials, Adam L. Brooks Sep 2019

Nondestructive Electromagnetic Characterization Of Perfect-Electric-Conductor-Backed Uniaxial Materials, Adam L. Brooks

Theses and Dissertations

As the use of anisotropic materials in electromagnetic applications continues to proliferate, it becomes increasingly important to develop non-destructive evaluation methods for those materials in their installed configuration. In many applications, these materials are permanently affixed onto conducting bodies to reduce unwanted reflections, making it impossible to collect S21 or S12 transmission measurements as used in many techniques based on the well-known Nicolson-Ross-Weir algorithm. It also makes it impractical to reorient the sample to collect orthogonal measurements aligned with the optical axes of the anisotropic material. The goal of this research is to develop a two-reflection coefficient measurement …


Targeted Germanium Ion Irradiation Of Aluminum Gallium Nitride/Gallium Nitride High Electron Mobility Transistors, Melanie E. Mace Aug 2019

Targeted Germanium Ion Irradiation Of Aluminum Gallium Nitride/Gallium Nitride High Electron Mobility Transistors, Melanie E. Mace

Theses and Dissertations

Microscale beams of germanium ions were used to target different locations of aluminum galliumnitride/gallium nitride (AlGaN/GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) to determine location dependent radiation effects. 1.7 MeV Ge ions were targeted at the gap between the gate and the drain to observe displacement damage effects while 47 MeV Ge ions were targeted at the gate to observe ionization damage effects. Electrical data was taken pre, during, and post irradiation. To separate transient from permanent degradation, the devices were characterized after a room temperature anneal for at least 30 days. Optical images were also analyzed pre and post irradiation. …


Near-Field Effects On Partially Coherent Light Scattered By An Aperture, Milo W. Hyde Iv, Michael J. Havrilla Aug 2019

Near-Field Effects On Partially Coherent Light Scattered By An Aperture, Milo W. Hyde Iv, Michael J. Havrilla

Faculty Publications

We investigate how the near field affects partially coherent light scattered from an aperture in an opaque screen. Prior work on this subject has focused on the role of surface plasmons, and how they affect spatial coherence is well documented. Here, we consider other near-field effects that might impact spatial coherence. We do this by examining the statistics of the near-zone field scattered from an aperture in a perfect electric conductor plane—a structure that does not support surface plasmons. We derive the near-field statistics (in particular, cross-spectral density functions) by applying electromagnetic equivalence theorems and the Method of Moments. We …


System And Method For Radio Tomographic Image Formation, Richard K. Martin Aug 2019

System And Method For Radio Tomographic Image Formation, Richard K. Martin

AFIT Patents

A system and method for generating radio tomographic images is provided. A plurality of transceivers positioned around a region to be imaged is divided into a plurality of pixels. A control apparatus is configured to cause each of the plurality of transceivers in turn to send a signal to each of the other transceivers. The control apparatus is further configured to determine an attenuation in the received signals, generate weighing, derivative, and attenuation matrices from the signals, group the pixels into a plurality of provinces, select each province in turn and solve for a change in attenuation in each of …


3d Plasmonic Design Approach For Efficient Transmissive Huygens Metasurfaces, Bryan M. Adomanis, D. Bruce Burckel, Michael A. Marciniak Jul 2019

3d Plasmonic Design Approach For Efficient Transmissive Huygens Metasurfaces, Bryan M. Adomanis, D. Bruce Burckel, Michael A. Marciniak

Faculty Publications

In this paper we present a design concept for 3D plasmonic scatterers as high- efficiency transmissive metasurface (MS) building blocks. A genetic algorithm (GA) routine partitions the faces of the walls inside an open cavity into a M x N grid of voxels which can be either covered with metal or left bare, and optimizes the distribution of metal coverage needed to generate electric and magnetic modes of equal strength with a targeted phase delay (Φt) at the design wavelength. Even though the electric and magnetic modes can be more complicated than typical low order modes, with their spectral overlap …


Analyzing The Efficiency Of Horizontal Photovoltaic Cells In Various Climate Regions, Parker A. Hines, Torrey J. Wagner, Clay M. Koschnick, Steven J. Schuldt Jun 2019

Analyzing The Efficiency Of Horizontal Photovoltaic Cells In Various Climate Regions, Parker A. Hines, Torrey J. Wagner, Clay M. Koschnick, Steven J. Schuldt

Faculty Publications

This research presents the development of linear regression models to predict horizontal photovoltaic power output. We collected a dataset from 14 global Department of Defense (DoD) installations over a timeframe of one year using an experimental apparatus, resulting in 24,179 usable data points. We developed a linear model to predict power output, which incorporated site-specific weather and geographical characteristics, along with Köppen-Geiger climate classifications in order to determine the effect of adding climate to the model. After performing a Wald test between the full model and a reduced model without Köppen-Geiger climate variables, it was determined that including Köppen-Geiger climate …


Serious Game Design Using Mda And Bloom’S Taxonomy, Senobio V. Chavez Mar 2019

Serious Game Design Using Mda And Bloom’S Taxonomy, Senobio V. Chavez

Theses and Dissertations

The field of Serious Games (SG) studies the use of games as a learning tool and it has been in existence for over forty years. During this period the primary focus of the field has been designing systems to evaluate the educational efficacy of existing games. This translates to a lack of systems designed to aid in the creation of serious games, but this does not have to remain an issue. The rise in popularity of games means that there is no shortage of ideas on how to methodically create them for commercial production which can just as easily be …


Designing Liquid Crystal For Optoacoustic Detection, Michael T. Dela Cruz Mar 2019

Designing Liquid Crystal For Optoacoustic Detection, Michael T. Dela Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

This research impacts the development of a cost-saving, on-chip device that can replace a wide range of costly, bulky sensors for commercial and defense applications. In particular, the goals of this work were to design and test a sensor that uses the optical properties of liquid crystal (LC) to detect acoustic waves. This began with developing a method to fine-tune the optical features of the liquid crystal. Statistical analysis of select experimental variables, or factors, lead to ideal settings of those variables when creating the sensor. A two-factor and three-factor experiment were separately conducted and analyzed as a preliminary demonstration …


Side Channel Anomaly Detection In Industrial Control Systems Using Physical Characteristics Of End Devices, Ryan D. Harris Mar 2019

Side Channel Anomaly Detection In Industrial Control Systems Using Physical Characteristics Of End Devices, Ryan D. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are described by the Department of Homeland Security as systems that are so \vital to the United States that their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on our physical or economic security." Attacks like Stuxnet show that these systems are vulnerable. The end goal for Stuxnet was to spin centrifuges at a frequency rate outside of normal operation and hide its activity from the ICS operator. This research aims to provide a proof of concept for an anomaly detection system that would be able to detect an attack like Stuxnet by measuring the physical …


Autonomous Association Of Geo Rso Observations Using Deep Neural Networks, Ian W. Mcquaid Mar 2019

Autonomous Association Of Geo Rso Observations Using Deep Neural Networks, Ian W. Mcquaid

Theses and Dissertations

Ground-based non-resolved optical observations of resident space objects (RSOs) in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) represent the majority of the space surveillance network’s (SSN’s) deep-space tracking. Reliable and accurate tracking necessitates temporal separation of the observations. This requires that subsequent observations be associated with prior observations of a given RSO before they can be used to create or refine that RSO’s ephemeris. The use of astrometric data (e.g. topocentric angular position) alone for this association task is complicated by RSO maneuvers between observations, and by RSOs operating in close proximity. Accurately associating an observation with an RSO thus motivates the use of …


Multi-Sensor Data Fusion Between Radio Tomographic Imaging And Noise Radar, Christopher Vergara Mar 2019

Multi-Sensor Data Fusion Between Radio Tomographic Imaging And Noise Radar, Christopher Vergara

Theses and Dissertations

The lack of situational awareness within an operational environment is a problem that carries high risk and expensive consequences. Radio Tomographic Imaging (RTI) and noise radar are two proven technologies capable of through-wall imaging and foliage penetration. The intent of this thesis is to provide a proof of concept for the fusion of data from RTI and noise radar. The output of this thesis will consist of a performance comparison between the two technologies followed by the derivation of a fusion technique to produce a single image. Proposals have been made for the integration of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar with …


Displacement Damage Effects In Gesn Light Emitting Diodes, Kevin K. Choe Mar 2019

Displacement Damage Effects In Gesn Light Emitting Diodes, Kevin K. Choe

Theses and Dissertations

Potential future use on Earth-orbiting satellites calls for investigation into the suitability of GeSn based photonic devices in high energy proton environments. The electroluminescence (EL) intensity of Ge1-xSnx (x = 0, 0.02, 0.069, and 0.094) light emitting diodes was measured before and after irradiation by 2 MeV protons at relatively high fluence levels. The results showed that GeSn devices with higher Sn content were up to 10 times more resistant against proton displacement damage than the pure Ge (x = 0) devices. As Sn concentration increased, the band gap decreased, and V-P hole trap energy level moved further from the …


High Fidelity Satellite Navigation Receiver Front-End For Advanced Signal Quality Monitoring And Authentication, Andrew D. Braun Mar 2019

High Fidelity Satellite Navigation Receiver Front-End For Advanced Signal Quality Monitoring And Authentication, Andrew D. Braun

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last several years, interest in utilizing foreign satellite timing and navigation (satnav) signals to augment GPS has grown. Doing so is not without risks; foreign satnav signals must be vetted and determined to be trustworthy before use in military applications. Advanced signal quality monitoring methods can help to ensure that only authentic and reliable satnav signals are utilized. To effectively monitor and authenticate signals, the front-end must impress as little distortions upon the received signal as possible. The purpose of this study is to design, fabricate, and test the performance of a high-fidelity satnav receiver front-end for advanced …


Electromagnetic Characterization Of Conductor-Backed Media Using Stepped Rectangular Waveguide, Avian Y. Hughes Mar 2019

Electromagnetic Characterization Of Conductor-Backed Media Using Stepped Rectangular Waveguide, Avian Y. Hughes

Theses and Dissertations

A new single stepped-iris waveguide technique is used to nondestructively determine the permittivity and permeability of conductor-backed media. This thesis will demonstrate a proof-of-concept that obtains two independent reflection measurements with a magnetic radar absorbing material (magRAM). Using a two measurement procedure, in which, the first measurement will apply a single rectangular waveguide to a known conductor-backed absorbing material under test (MUT) and the second measurement will insert a stepped-iris in between the single rectangular waveguide and MUT reducing the aperture to retrieve two independent electromagnetic properties (i.e. permittivity and permeability). The theoretical reflection coefficients are obtained using a rigorous …


Machine Translation With Image Context From Mandarin Chinese To English, Brooke E. Johnson Mar 2019

Machine Translation With Image Context From Mandarin Chinese To English, Brooke E. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Despite ongoing improvements in machine translation, machine translators still lack the capability of incorporating context from which source text may have been derived. Machine translators use text from a source language to translate it into a target language without observing any visual context. This work aims to produce a neural machine translation model that is capable of accepting both text and image context as a multimodal translator from Mandarin Chinese to English. The model was trained on a small multimodal dataset of 700 images and sentences, and compared to a translator trained only on the text associated with those images. …


Active Control Of A Morphing Wing Aircraft And Failure Analysis For System Reliability, Madison J. Montgomery Mar 2019

Active Control Of A Morphing Wing Aircraft And Failure Analysis For System Reliability, Madison J. Montgomery

Theses and Dissertations

A morphing wing aircraft has the ability to increase the efficiency of an aircraft by better optimizing lift and drag characteristics during a flight. A morphing wing UAV was designed and constructed by AFRL/RQVS and required a means of control and method of characterizing the performance of the aircraft through flight testing. This research presents the design and construction of a control system capable of adjusting the morphing wing shape based on pilot commands and current flight status. The control system was tested and improved following a flight test crash utilizing failure mode analysis.


Improved Fabrication For Micromirror Arrays, Enoc Flores Mar 2019

Improved Fabrication For Micromirror Arrays, Enoc Flores

Theses and Dissertations

Micromirror devices which consisted of one SU-8 2050 layer, two different exposures, and a series of metal depositions were constructed and evaluated. By varying the exposure, a micromirror structure was fabricated with different thicknesses, a ratio of 1.083 µm/(mJ/cm2) was found. The initial design consisted of four layers. The pillar was made of one SU-8 layer, and the top portion had three layers in the following order: gold, SU-8, and gold. This design could not be released and did not have characteristics of a flat and conformal reflective surface. Several variations of the initial design were explored and all of …