Physics Commons^™

High Energy Coupled Nucleon Tranpsort In One Dimension, Stanley L. Lamkin

Physics Theses & Dissertations

The problem of energetic nucleon transport through extended bulk matter is considered in the context of the 'straight ahead' approximation. The applicable form of the Boltzmann transport equation is derived and solved in one dimension. The production term for secondary generation nucleons due to nuclear fragmentation includes 'coupling' of the flux to other types of nucleon projectiles. A physically motivated perturbation series approach is developed to enhance solution convergence. The Boltzmann operator is inverted and the flux is computed using a numerical marching scheme. The secondary production integrals are optimized for second order accuracy using a set of analytical benchmarks. …

Flow Simulations About Steady-Complex And Unsteady Moving Configurations Using Structured-Overlapped And Unstructured Grids, James Charles Newman Iii

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The limiting factor in simulating flows past realistic configurations of interest has been the discretization of the physical domain on which the governing equations of fluid flow may be solved. In an attempt to circumvent this problem, many Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) methodologies that are based on different grid generation and domain decomposition techniques have been developed. However, due to the costs involved and expertise required, very few comparative studies between these methods have been performed. In the present work, the two CFD methodologies which show the most promise for treating complex three-dimensional configurations as well as unsteady moving boundary …

Unsteady Flow Simulations About Moving Boundary Configurations Using Dynamic Domain Decomposition Techniques, Guan-Wei Yen

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A computational method is developed to solve the coupled governing equations of an unsteady flowfield and those of rigid-body dynamics in six degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF). This method is capable of simulating the unsteady flowfields around multiple component configurations with at least one of the components in relative motion with respect to the others. Two of the important phenomena that such analyses can help us to understand are the unsteady aerodynamic interference and the boundary-induced component of such a flowfield. By hybridizing two dynamic domain decomposition techniques, the grid generation task is simplified, the computer memory requirement is reduced, and the governing …

Feasibility Of Using Ultrasonic Cavitation To Produce Silica Sol, Gary L. Vines

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Feasibility Analysis For Predicting A Kinetic Kill Zone For Aircraft Homing Missile Defense, Mark E. Ennis

Theses and Dissertations

An extended Kalman filter is used to predict a kinetic kill zone for use in aircraft self defense versus homing missiles. The analysis is limited to an in-the-plane analysis and focuses on finding the model parameters which have the largest impact on the predicted kill zone. No attempt is made to optimize the design of the filter model itself. The analysis computes the kill zone relative to an assumed aircraft trajectory using strictly filter computed statistics. No Monte-Carlo simulations are used throughout the thesis. The filter assumed to be on the evading aircraft, uses an onboard laser radar (ladar) to …

Calibration Of Photoluminescence Experiment, Chihchuan Daniel Lee

Theses

Photoluminescence in a semiconductor at room temperature is quite difficult to distinguish from the many nonlasing optical lines from the laser, therefore, a blank test is very important. In so doing, the noises of the detector has to be taken into account. The calibration, however, mainly depends on the detector and is less dependent on other components. Instead of using black-body radiation light source and pyroelectric detector, we use globar lamp and PbS detector; because of the difficulty in the former case in doing alignment of optical path (invisible) and operating at a lower signal level from the detector. The …

Photoluminescence Study Of Gallium Arsenide, Aluminum Gallium Arsenide, And Gallium Antimonide Thin Films Grown By Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition, John Mark Koons

Theses

The photoluminescence produced by four MOCVD grown epitaxial thin film samples was studied to give insight into sample quality. The four samples under this study were GaAs on a GaAs substrate, Al_.25Ga_.75As on a GaAs substrate, Al_.30Ga_.7OAs on a GaAs substrate, and GaSb on a GaSb substrate. Excitation was achieved through the use of the 514.0 nm line of an argon ion laser, and sample cooling was attained by use of a cryostat cooler using helium gas to attain a low temperature limit of 10°K. The GaAs and Al_.30Ga_{.7O …}

A Theoretical Study Of The Semiconductor Laser Structures With Lateral Discontinuity In The Optical Cavity, Yi Cai

Theses

A theoretical study of the semiconductor laser structures with lateral discontinuity in the optical resonant cavity is presented in this thesis. Specifically, the lateral discontinuity is referred to the lateral expansion structure newly invented for increasing the power output of semiconductor lasers while keeping single mode operation.

In the first part of the thesis (Chapter 2 and Chapter 3), an explicit expression for calculating the lateral discontinuity problems is formulated by the incorporation of mode-matching method. Our approach is based on the mode expansion theory developed for lossless micro-wave and optical fiber waveguides, but the effect of gain in active …

External Cavity Laser Power Stabilizer, Jie Ding

Theses

In this thesis, we want to design a stabilizer which does not depend on laser source--with external cavity.

In the first part of the thesis ( Chapter 2 and 3 ), we discuss the wave propagation in crystals and the modulation of optical radiation. From the main two types electro-optic modulations, Phase Modulation and Transverse Modulation, we know that the transverse modulation shows an increase in the frequency limit or useful crystal length of (1-c0/ncm)^-1, and we will use this type modulation in this thesis.

The second part of the thesis is the procedure of design and experiment. …

Einstein's Equations In Vacuum Spacetimes With Two Spacelinke Killing Vectors Using Affine Projection Tensor Geometry, Miles D. Lawrence

Theses and Dissertations

Einstein's equations in vacuum spacetimes with two spacelike killing vectors are explored using affine projection tensor geometry. By doing a semi-conformal transformation on the metric, a new "fiducial" geometry is constructed using a projection tensor fields. This fiducial geometry provides coordinate independent information about the underlying structure of the spacetime without the use of an explicit form of the metric tensor.

Production And Extraction Of Polarized Electrons From An Optically Pumped Helium Discharge, Raymond James Vandiver

Doctoral Dissertations

"Polarized electron sources are needed to study the spin dependent processes in atomic and molecular systems. This area of physics has enjoyed much success in the past decade due to the development of polarized electron sources of high electron polarization and current. We have investigated the production and extraction of polarized electrons from an optically pumped helium discharge.

We have directly extracted electrons with polarizations between 6% and 7% at currents greater than 200 µA from a helium DC discharge where the helium 2³S₁ metastable atoms are optically pumped to nearly 100% polarization. These high metastable polarizations …

Collisions Of Atomic Hydrogen With Oxygen, Sulfur, Sodium And Halogen Anions At Low Energies, James Anthony Fedchak

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Total electron detachment and charge transfer cross sections, $\sigma\sb{\rm e}$(E) and $\sigma\sb{\rm ct}$(E), have been measured for collisions of the negative ions O$\sp{-}$, S$\sp{-}$, F$\sp{-}$, Cl$\sp{-}$, Br$\sp{-}$, I$\sp{-}$, Na$\sp{-}$, and K$\sp{-}$ with atomic hydrogen for laboratory energies ranging from 2 to 500 eV. For the systems F$\sp{-}$, Cl$\sp{-}$, Br$\sp{-}$, O$\sp{-}$ and S$\sp{-}$ + H, $\sigma\sb{\rm e}$(E) displays no barrier for associative detachment; the results are found to be adequately described by simple curve-crossing models based upon available intermolecular potentials, or by classical orbiting models which assume that the anion interacts with the H atom via an attractive potential of the …

Photoabsorption Spectra Of Hydrogen And Alkali Atoms In Electric Fields, Jing Gao

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

A systematic study of the photoabsorption spectra of highly excited hydrogen and alkali atoms in electric fields is presented, based on the semiclassical closed-orbit theory. In most respects, hydrogen and alkali atoms behave similarly, because the excited alkali atoms have a single electron outside of a small ionic core, and the core only produces small shifts of energy levels and small phase shifts of scattered wave functions.;For hydrogen, the classical motion of the excited electron is regular and closed orbits can be enumerated. Above the zero-field ionization threshold, the system is rather simple. There is only one closed orbit, called …

Modal Properties And Spontaneous Emission Factor In Unstable-Resonator Semiconductor Lasers, Gang Yao

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

An experimental study has been carried out on the spectral, modal, and dynamical properties of a monolithic unstable-resonator semiconductor laser. Due to the large loss and the non-power-orthogonal nature of the transverse and longitudinal modes in the unstable resonator, the spontaneous emission factor, defined as the ratio of the power of the spontaneous emission entering the lasing mode to the total power of the spontaneous emission, is much larger than that of a regular Fabry-Perot cavity of the same dimension. The large spontaneous emission factor has profound effects on the lasing properties. For a 100-{dollar}\mu{dollar}m-wide and 500-{dollar}\mu{dollar}m-long stripe-geometry unstable resonator …

Models For Water Outgassing From Metal Surfaces, Minxu Li

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

In this study, the outgassing rate from an electropolished stainless steel surface following exposures to H{dollar}\sb2{dollar}O vapor under various conditions was measured. The results of the experiments showed that the outgassing rate is proportional to {dollar}p\sb0\sp{lcub}n{rcub}{dollar}, where {dollar}p\sb0{dollar} is the H{dollar}\sb2{dollar}O exposure pressure and n is about 0.25. The outgassing rate is not as strongly dependent on the system temperature as one would expect if the temperature is kept the same during exposure and pump-down. The outgassing rate is also a function of the exposure time for the first several hours of exposure, indicating that the adsorption saturation time is …

The Modeling Of Phosphorus Dynamics In A Lake System, Todd N. Swift

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

We have constructed a basic closed stock and flow model of lake phosphorus cycling that includes three stock concentrations: inorganic phosphorus, phosphorus in living organic material, and phosphorus in dead organic material. Stocks are connected by flows that are made stock dependent in a plausible manner. The model exhibits two equilibrium points, one stable and the other unstable, with an interesting crossover between them. Below a certain total phosphorus threshold, stable equilibrium is characterized by all of the phosphorus stock residing in the inorganic form, suggesting the collapse of the biological system. Above the threshold, this is not true. We …

Low Internal Magnetic Fields In Anisotropic Superconductors, Allan J. Greer Jr.

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This thesis is a theoretical, numerical study of the magnetic fields which exist in the anisotropic, high temperature superconductors like $YBa\sb2Cu\sb3O\sb{7-\delta}$, or YBCO for short, using both the anisotropic London theory and simulations based on existing muon spin rotation techniques. The thesis first describes the muon spin rotation ($\mu$SR) techniques, and then gives a brief discussion of superconductivity with regard to the London theory of anisotropic, type II superconductors. Next, numerical results of the application of this theory to YBCO are presented. Three dimensional surface plots of the magnetic field components within the flux line lattice (FLL) are shown, as …

Muon Transfer From Muonic Deuterium To Carbon, David William Viel

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Negative muons were brought to rest in a gas mixture of 30 torr CH$\sb4$ and 570 torr D$\sb2$, using the cyclotron trap at PSI. The muons formed muonic deuterium atoms which diffused through the mixture and transferred their muons to the carbon of the CH$\sb4$ molecules. A planar germanium detector and a silicon detector were used to observe x-rays from the initial muon cascade in the deuterium, and from subsequent cascade in the muonic carbon after transfer. A transfer rate of (4.5 $\pm$ 1.8) $\times$ 10$\sp{10}$/sec was found which agrees well with a previous result measured at 50 bar of …

A Thermoelastic Model Applied To Stress Control In Laser Heating Of Ceramics, Jeff Alexander Wagner

Theses

Localized laser heating is widely used in materials processing. In extending these techniques to materials with relatively low thermal conductivities and ductilities such as ceramics and glasses, existing methods must be modified to control the high thermal stresses which are associated with the localized heating of these materials. Thermal profiles must be designed to minimize damage to regions adjacent to the processed area. To achieve this with single beam sources the power and radius can be varied in time, or the beam can be moved across the surface in a programmed pattern to achieve the desired thermal profile.

In this …

Multigrid Acceleration Of Time-Dependent Solutions Of Navier-Stokes Equations, Sarafa Oladele Ibraheem

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Recent progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics is encouraging scientists to look at fine details of flow physics of problems in which natural unsteady phenomena have hitherto been neglected. The acceleration methods that have proven very successful in steady state computations can be explored for time dependent computations. In this work, an efficient multigrid methods is developed to solve the time-dependent Euler and Navier-Stokes equations. The Beam-Warming ADI method is used as the base algorithm for time stepping calculations. Application of the developed algorithm proved very efficient in selected steady and unsteady test problems. For instance, the inherent unsteadiness present in …

Glueball Wave Functions And Production Cross Sections, Anthony B. Wakely

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Three topics are studied in this dissertation.;Using QCD sum rules, I first calculate the first few moments of the distribution amplitude of the pseudoscalar glueball, a bound state of gluons. The distribution amplitude is the momentum wave function integrated over the transverse momentum. QCD sum rules are a method of finding hadronic parameters using perturbative QCD. I use an approximation in which the glueball is treated as a narrow resonance. The moments of the distribution amplitude then give the corresponding first few coefficients of the distribution amplitude for the glueball expanded in Gegenbauer polynomials. The distribution amplitude is rather close …

A Relativistic Model Of Pion Nucleon Scattering And Pion Photoproduction On A Single Nucleon, Yohanes Surya

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Pion nucleon scattering is described by a manifestly covariant wave equation in which the pion is restricted to its mass-shell. The kernel of the equation includes nucleon (N), Roper (N*), delta ({dollar}\Delta{dollar}) and {dollar}D\sb{lcub}13{rcub}{dollar} poles, with their corresponding crossed pole terms approximated by contact interactions, and contact {dollar}\sigma{dollar}- and {dollar}\rho{dollar}-like exchange terms. The {dollar}\pi NN{dollar} vertex is treated as a mixture of {dollar}\gamma\sp5{dollar} and {dollar}\gamma\sp\mu\gamma\sp5{dollar} coupling, with a mixing parameter {dollar}\lambda{dollar} chosen so that the dressed nucleon pole will be unshifted by the interaction. Chiral symmetry is maintained at threshold. The resonance contributions are fully unitarized by the equation, with …

Polarization Transfer Coefficient Measurements In The Deuteron Breakup Reaction Hydrogen-1(Polarized Deuteron,Polarized Proton)X At 2.1 Gev, Naipor Eric Cheung

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The polarization of the protons emerging at 0$\sp\circ$ from the inclusive deuteron breakup reaction $\sp1$H($\vec d,\vec p$)X was measured using a deuteron beam with kinetic energy of 2.1 GeV. The momentum of the protons was selected by the magnetic spectrometer SPES4 and the polarization was measured with the polarimeter POMME. This experiment was performed at eight different proton momenta. When those momenta are Lorentz transformed to the deuteron rest frame, they corresponded to values from 0.00 to 0.34 GeV/c. The result of the measurements is expressed in terms of polarization transfer coefficient which is defined as the ratio of the …

System Design Analysis Of A Lightweight Laser Satellite Terminal, Brian C. Page

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the technological feasibility of a man- portable satellite laser communications system. Areas of interest were an end- to-end system analysis on the communications link evaluation of atmospheric effects and evaluation of semi-conductor lasers as the laser source. A literature search revealed that satellite laser communication research is primarily directed at inter-satellite links. There have been some proposed systems for space-to-ground laser communications systems, but they all utilize large fixed ground stations. The focus of this research effort is directed at a small man-portable ground station capitalizing on recent advances in semiconductor laser devices. Baseline satellite communication systems …

The Effects Of Optical Feedback On Polarization Of Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers, Gregory J. Vansuch

Theses and Dissertations

Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers VCSELs are a type of semiconductor laser with a cavity oriented orthogonally to the planes of material growth. These lasers differ from conventional edge emitting lasers in several important ways. They have symmetric output beams and they are easily built into two dimensional arrays, making them very attractive as photonic components. The characteristic of interest in this thesis is polarization. While the asymmetric cavities of edge emitters exhibit a clear preference for light polarized in a particular direction, the cylindrically symmetric cavity of a VCSEL has no clear preference. Therefore, it should be relatively easy …

Spectroscopic And Vibrational Energy Transfer Studies In Molecular Bromine, Courtney D. Holmberg

Theses and Dissertations

Vibrational transfer and electronic quenching in the lower vibrational levels (v' < 3) of the B³π(0_u⁺) state of ⁷⁹Br₂ were investigated using spectrally resolved, temporally resolved laser induced fluorescence techniques. Spectrally resolved emissions from collisionally populated Br₂(B) vibrational levels were observed for Br₂ and rare gas collision partners. Vibrational transfer was efficient in the non-predissociative vibrational levels and was adequately described by the Montroll-Shuler model for harmonic oscillators. A single fundamental rate coefficient for vibrational transfer from v' = 1 to v' = 0, k_v(1,0), characterizes vibrational relaxation. For Br₂, the …

Infrared Fluorescence Studies Of Electronic-To-Vibrational Energy Transfer In A Br2:No System, Michael R. Hawks

Theses and Dissertations

Steady-state photolysis techniques were used to study electronic-to- vibrational energy transfer mechanisms from atomic bromine to nitric oxide. Molecular bromine was photodissociated by 488nm radiation to produce equal parts Br(²P_1/2) and Br(²P_3/2). Side fluorescence intensity from Br(²P_1/2) at 2.7 µm and from NO (v=1 and 2) around 5.3 µm measured as a function of bromine pressure and nitric oxide pressure. The branching ratio collisional transfer into the first and second states of NO was determined, and previously reported rates for quenching of NO by molecular bromine were verified.

Predicting Nonlinear Time Series, James C. Gainey Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Predicting future values of a time series has many practical uses in real-time signal processing and understanding. This thesis implements an Adaptive Time Delay Neural Network ATNN capable of user-defined degeneration to the more common Time Delay Neural Network TDNN. Time delays along axons or at the synapses, which vary in biological systems, motivate this research. The ATNNTDNN test results and time series prediction capabilities are compared to those of the Real-Time Recurrent Learning RTRL algorithm. To show the advantages and disadvantages of using TDNN and ATNN for prediction versus the RTRL, the networks were applied to two problems incommensurate …

Improved Quality Of Reconstructed Images Through Sifting Of Data In Statistical Image Reconstruction, Craig A. Stoudt

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. Air Force employs adaptive optics systems to produce images of exo-atmospheric objects. Typically, a large set of short exposure images are collected, re-centered to compensate for random image motion, averaged together to improve the signal to noise ratio, and then processed to form a reconstructed image. It is known that some short exposure images will be better than others, so some researchers have suggested that image quality can be improved by selecting a subset of the short exposure images according to some quality criterion, and then processing the average of this subset to form a single, high quality …

A Non-Homogeneous, Spatio-Temporal, Wavelet Multiresolution Analysis And Its Application To The Analysis Of Motion, Thomas J. Burns

Theses and Dissertations

This research presents a multiresolution wavelet analysis tool for analyzing motion in time sequential imagery. A theoretical framework is developed for constructing an L2R wavelet multiresolution analysis from three non-identical spatial and temporal L2R wavelet multiresolution analyses. This framework provides the flexibility to tailor the spatio-temporal frequency characteristics of the three dimensional wavelet filter to match the frequency behavior of the analyzed signal. An unconventional, discrete multiresolution wavelet decomposition algorithm is developed which yields a rich set of independent spatio-temporally oriented frequency channels for analyzing, the size and speed characteristics of moving objects. Unlike conventional wavelet decomposition methods, this algorithm …