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Air Force Institute of Technology

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Silicon Hybrid Wafer Scale Integration (Wsi) Used To Fabricate A Hilbert Transform Integrated Circuit Module, Daniel J. Gaughan Dec 1990

Silicon Hybrid Wafer Scale Integration (Wsi) Used To Fabricate A Hilbert Transform Integrated Circuit Module, Daniel J. Gaughan

Theses and Dissertations

This research was performed in order to develop a superior processing schedule for fabricating Wafer-Scale Integration (WSI) circuit modules. This technology allows the design of circuitry that spans the entire surface of a silicon substrate wafer. The circuit element employed in this research was the Hilbert transform, a digital phase-shifting circuit. The transform was incorporated into a three Integrated Circuit (IC) die package that consisted of a mechanically supportive silicon wafer, three IC die, and a planarizing silicon wafer. The die were epoxied into this wafer using a Teflon block as a flat, and the combination was epoxied onto the …

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Network Reduction Using Error Prediction, Michael V. Gilsdorf Dec 1990

Network Reduction Using Error Prediction, Michael V. Gilsdorf

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates gradient descent learning algorithms for multi-layer feed forward neural networks. A technique is developed which uses error prediction to reduce the number of weights/nodes in a network. The research begins by studying the first and second order back-prop training algorithms along with their convergence properties. A network is reduced by making an estimate of the amount of error which would occur when a weight(s) is removed. This error estimate is then used to determine if a particular weight is essential to the operation of the network. If not, it is removed and the network retrained. The process …

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A Method Of Moments Solution For The Electric Currents On An Aperture-Fed, Stacked Patch Microstrip Antenna, William L. Irvin Dec 1990

A Method Of Moments Solution For The Electric Currents On An Aperture-Fed, Stacked Patch Microstrip Antenna, William L. Irvin

Theses and Dissertations

This study presents a method of moments solution for the surface currents and charge distributions on an aperture-fed, stacked patch antenna. To make the solution independent of the antenna excitation technique, an aperture magnetic current distribution is assumed, and the spatial Green's functions of the antenna are used to calculate the tangential fields on the antenna patches and coefficients for a finite series expression of the surface currents and charge densities. The Green's functions of the antenna are modeled with polynomials that are a function of the radial distance separating observer and source locations. The method of moments solution is …

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Gabor Filters And Neural Networks For Segmentation Of Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery, Albert P. L'Homme Dec 1990

Gabor Filters And Neural Networks For Segmentation Of Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery, Albert P. L'Homme

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates Gabor filters and artificial networks for autonomous segmentation of 1 foot by 1 foot) high resolution polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Processing involved frequency correlation between the SAR imagery and biologically motivated Gabor functions. Methods for selecting the Gabor tuning parameters from the endless choices of frequency, rotation, standard deviation and bandwidth are discussed. Using these parameters, resulting Gabor correlation images were reduced in speckle, and more detailed. This research used cosine Gabor functions and operated on single polarization HH magnitude data. Following selection of the appropriate Gabor features, multiple Gabor representations were generated and converted for …

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Design And Fabrication Of An Implantable Cortical Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Electrode Array, Pierre K. Lefevre Dec 1990

Design And Fabrication Of An Implantable Cortical Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Electrode Array, Pierre K. Lefevre

Theses and Dissertations

This research furthered the processing steps of the AFIT 16 by 16 implantable cortical semiconductor integrated circuit electrode array, or brain chip. The areas of interest include the brain chip electron ics, metallization, ionic permeation, and implantation. The electronics and metallization are heavily covered. A high speed, single clock divide-by-two circuit was modified with a reset transistor and cascaded to form a ripple counter. This device had stable operation at specific source voltage and clock voltage and frequency. A 7-stage inverter with 10 unmodified divide-by-two circuits cascaded operated between 1.7 and 8 volts, and between 39 Khz and 1 Mhz, …

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Analysis And Testing Of A Bistatic Radar Cross Section Measurement Capability For The Afit Anechoic Chamber, Timothy D. Mccool Dec 1990

Analysis And Testing Of A Bistatic Radar Cross Section Measurement Capability For The Afit Anechoic Chamber, Timothy D. Mccool

Theses and Dissertations

This research effort examined the feasibility of performing bistatic radar cross section (RCS) measurements in the AFIT anechoic chamber. The capability was established to measure the bistatic RCS of a target versus frequency and versus target azimuth angle. In either case, one of three bistatic angles (angle between transmit and receive antennas) is available: 45 degrees, 90 degrees, and 135 degrees. Accurate bistatic RCS measurements were obtained using a CW radar and utilizing background subtraction, bistatic calibration, and software range gating. Simple targets were selected for validation purposes since their bistatic RCS could be predicted. These consisted of spheres and …

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Rule-Based Frequency Domain Speech Coding, Vance M. Mcmillan Dec 1990

Rule-Based Frequency Domain Speech Coding, Vance M. Mcmillan

Theses and Dissertations

A speech processing system is designed to simulate the transmission of speech signals using a speech coding scheme. The transmitter portion of the simulation extracts a minimized set of frequencies in Fourier space which represents the essence of each of the speech timeslices. These parameters are then adaptively quantized and transmitted to a receiver portion of the coding scheme. The receiver then generates an estimate of the original timeslice from the transmitted parameters using a sinusoidal speech model. After initial design, the thesis investigates how each of the design parameters affect the human perceived quality of speech. This is done …

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Multi-Input Multi-Output Flight Control System Design For The Yf-16 Using Nonlinear Qft And Pilot Compensation, Russell B. Miller Dec 1990

Multi-Input Multi-Output Flight Control System Design For The Yf-16 Using Nonlinear Qft And Pilot Compensation, Russell B. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Nonlinear Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) and pilot compensation techniques are used to design a 2x2 flight control system for the YF-16 aircraft over a large range of plant uncertainty. The design is based on numerical input- output time histories generated with a FORTRAN implemented nonlinear simulation of the YF-16. The first step of the design process is the generation of a set of equivalent linear time-invariant (LTI) plant models to represent the actual nonlinear plant. It has been proven that the solution to the equivalent plant problem is guaranteed to solve the original nonlinear problem. Standard QFT techniques are then …

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Moving-Bank Multiple Model Adaptive Estimation And Control Applied To A Large Flexible Space Structure, Robert B. Moyle Dec 1990

Moving-Bank Multiple Model Adaptive Estimation And Control Applied To A Large Flexible Space Structure, Robert B. Moyle

Theses and Dissertations

The performance of moving-bank multiple model adaptive estimation (MMAE) and control (MMAC) algorithms for large space structure control is analyzed in this thesis. The performance of a six-state filter model and associated controller are evaluated on the basis of estimation/control performance against a 24-estate truth model. A model developed using finite element analysis is used to approximate a large flexible space structure. The space structure is configured as a two-bay truss which is attached to a large central hub, where the mass of the hub is considered to be much more larger than the mass of the flexible structure. The …

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Quantization Noise Characteristics Resulting From Gaussian, Negative- Exponential, And Sinusoidal Random Input Signals, Van N. Osborne Dec 1990

Quantization Noise Characteristics Resulting From Gaussian, Negative- Exponential, And Sinusoidal Random Input Signals, Van N. Osborne

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the trade-off between the number of quantization levels and the resulting noise characteristics for three classes of commonly occurring input signals, namely, those signals possessing Gaussian, negative-exponential and random sinusoidal distributions. This study derived expressions for the mean-squared error, output spectrum and error spectrum by expanding the nonlinear quantization function into a summation of orthogonal polynomials matched to the corresponding input signal distribution. Once accomplished, orthogonality properties were applied to provide usable expressions. A set of three Fortran 77 programs were developed- each of which applied to one of the studied input …

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Pulsed Compression For Aerosol Ranging With Coherent Pulse-Doppler Lidar Systems, Jerry L. Rogers Dec 1990

Pulsed Compression For Aerosol Ranging With Coherent Pulse-Doppler Lidar Systems, Jerry L. Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a thorough review of conventional matched filter radar theory as it applies to aerosol sensing lidar. Basic matched-filter radar theory and the complex, dense aerosol target model eventually lead to a general derivation of the matched-filter radar receiver response to a dense aerosol target environment. The matched-filter response is obtained in terms of a two dimensional convolution of the target scattering function and the radar ambiguity function. The range and radial velocity resolution of various radar signals were compared using the matched-filter radar receiver and scattering function models. Pulse compression radar signals were compared to the simple …

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The Radar Range Equation For The Detection Of Steady Targets In Weibull Clutter, Leon C. Rountree Dec 1990

The Radar Range Equation For The Detection Of Steady Targets In Weibull Clutter, Leon C. Rountree

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the detection characteristics of a steady target immersed in radar clutter characterized by returns statistically modeled according to a Weibull probability density function are developed. A detector model is developed by modifying an envelope detection scheme used to detect deterministic signals in Gaussian noise. By examining the statistics of the detector output under alternate hypotheses, an expression for the probability of detection (P sub d) is developed in terms of the probability of false alarm (P sub fa), the signal-to-clutter ratio (SCR), and the Weibull skewness parameter (b), which is a function of the type of terrain …

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Radar Image Processing For The Afit Anechoic Chamber, Brian K. Sanders Dec 1990

Radar Image Processing For The Afit Anechoic Chamber, Brian K. Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to begin development of an Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging capability for the AFIT anechoic chamber. This began with an evaluation of the capabilities and limitations of the existing radar system and the chamber itself for this application. Then, after deciding on the image processing approach, software had to be written to collect the data necessary for image processing. This constituted the majority of this study, and resulted in a versatile, user-friendly program that automates the process of collecting data for high-resolution radar images. The program checks that the data to be collected will …

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Characterization Of An Air-To-Air Optical Heterodyne Communication System, Rebecca N. Seeger Dec 1990

Characterization Of An Air-To-Air Optical Heterodyne Communication System, Rebecca N. Seeger

Theses and Dissertations

The primary goal of this research was to determine the feasibility of air-to-air optical communications systems using coherent detection in a turbulent environment. Secondary goals were to determine (1) the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) degradation due to turbulence and (2) the effect of varying the wavelength (1.5, 830, 904 nm), altitude (5000-12500 m), path length (40-160 km) and aperture side length (1-15 cm) on the turbulence affected SNR. The research was conducted under the following assumptions: (1) ideal transmitter and receiver, (2) equally sized, uniformly weighted, square transmitter and receiver apertures, (3) ideal tracking by the receiver, and (4) zero losses …

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Establishment Of A Fabrication And Measurement Capability For Aperture-Fed Stacked Patch Microstrip Antennas At The Air Force Institute Of Technology, Christopher I. Terry Dec 1990

Establishment Of A Fabrication And Measurement Capability For Aperture-Fed Stacked Patch Microstrip Antennas At The Air Force Institute Of Technology, Christopher I. Terry

Theses and Dissertations

Much time and effort has been applied to accurately model aperture- fed stacked patch microstrip antennas at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). The results of this study provide AFIT with the capability to fabricate and measure these antennas for comparison of measured radiation characteristics to the predicted characteristics. Basic microstrip patch antenna theory is reviewed, as well as the motivation leading to the development of aperture-fed stacked patch microstrip antennas. The fabrication process used to produce the two antennas manufactured for this study is described in detail. The construction of a small anechoic chamber for pattern measurements is …

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Angle Of Arrival Detection Through Artificial Neural Network Analysis Of Optical Fiber Intensity Patterns, Scott Thomas Dec 1990

Angle Of Arrival Detection Through Artificial Neural Network Analysis Of Optical Fiber Intensity Patterns, Scott Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

The optical sensors of United States Air Force reconnaissance vehicles, such as satellites, are subject to temporary or permanent blinding from hostile (or threat) laser radiation. By detecting and determining the angle of arrival (AOA) of the hostile radiation, the reconnaissance vehicle may be able to protect its optical sensors by taking evasive maneuvers or by shutting down the optical sensor (such as closing a shutter) until the threat has passed. In addition, the vehicle can relay information to its ground terminal allowing the intelligence community to determine the source of the hostile laser radiation. This thesis demonstrated that an …

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Design Of A Linear Gaussian Control Law For An Adaptive Optics System, Mark Alan Von Bokern Dec 1990

Design Of A Linear Gaussian Control Law For An Adaptive Optics System, Mark Alan Von Bokern

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers the design of a linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) controller for a ground-based adaptive-optics telescopes. The incoming aberrated image is reflected from a 97-element piezoelectric mirror, then measured with a Hartmann-type wavefront sensor. A Kalman filter processes the outputs of the wavefront sensor and obtains estimates of system states. A linear quadratic regulator processes these state estimates and determines an appropriate set of commands for the deformable mirror. Atmospheric distortion is modeled as a set of fourteen Zernike coefficients whose dynamic behavior is produced by excitation of a set of shaping filters by zero-mean Gaussian white noise. The …

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Automatic Flight Control System Design For An Unmanned Research Vehicle Using Discrete Quantitative Feedback Theory, David G. Wheaton Dec 1990

Automatic Flight Control System Design For An Unmanned Research Vehicle Using Discrete Quantitative Feedback Theory, David G. Wheaton

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the application of non-minimum phase (NMP) w'- plane discrete MIMO (multiple-input-multiple-output) Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) to the design of a three-axis rate-commanded automatic flight control system for an unmanned research vehicle (URV). The URV model used has seven inputs and three outputs derived from the small-angle perturbation equations of motion. Plant parameter uncertainty consists of six flight conditions derived from variations in the aircraft center of gravity, airspeed, and gross weight. A weighting matrix delts is used to post-multiply the plants for blending the seven effector inputs into three effective rate-command inputs and resulting in an effective …

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Te Scattering From A Dielectric Coated Conducting Strip, William D. Wood Jr. Dec 1990

Te Scattering From A Dielectric Coated Conducting Strip, William D. Wood Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Consider a plane wave incident on a conducting strip of infinite length coated on one side with a thin, uniform coating of lossless dielectric, and let the incident magnetic field vector be parallel to the edges of the strip. From first principles we develop the integral equations relating the total, incident, and scattered fields in the dielectric. We expand the fields in the dielectric slab as the sum of three plane waves (the 'forced' wave and two oppositely-directed surface waves). The phase constants in the x and y directions are known and the wave amplitudes are found using least-squared- error-point-matching. …

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An Evaluation Of An Ada Implementation Of The Rete Algorithm For Embedded Flight Processors, F. Jesse Fanning Dec 1990

An Evaluation Of An Ada Implementation Of The Rete Algorithm For Embedded Flight Processors, F. Jesse Fanning

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to design and develop an expert system shell in Ada, and to evaluate the shell's execution and size performance to determine its suitability for real-time operation on the MIL-STD-1750A embedded flight processor. The expert system shell uses the CLIPS/Ada inference engine, a forward-chaining Ada implementation of Rete. The expert system shell design is presented along with an overview of the target environment--the MIL-STD-1750A VHSIC Avionic Modular Processor (VAMP) running under the Ada Avionics Real-Time Software (AARTS) Operating System. Theoretical and empirical complexity analyses of the inference engine are presented and discussed in view of …

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Characterization Of Radar Signals Using Neural Networks, Daniel R. Zahirniak Dec 1990

Characterization Of Radar Signals Using Neural Networks, Daniel R. Zahirniak

Theses and Dissertations

Recent work concerning artificial neural networks has focused on decreasing network training times. Kernel Classifier networks, using radial basis functions (RBFs) as the kernel function, can be trained quickly with little performance degradation. Short training times are critical for systems which must adapt to changing environments. The function of Kernel Classifier networks is based on the principle that multivariate functions can be approximated via linear combinations of RBFs. RBFs can also perform probability density estimations, making classifications approximating a Baye's optimal descriminant. Methods used to set the RBF centers included matching the training data, Kohonen Training, K-Means Clustering and placement …

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A Compact Optical Associative Memory Using Dynamic Holographic Storage Media And Photorefractive Gain And Attenuation Elements, Thomas J. Burns Dec 1990

A Compact Optical Associative Memory Using Dynamic Holographic Storage Media And Photorefractive Gain And Attenuation Elements, Thomas J. Burns

Theses and Dissertations

This research effort implemented a compact optical associative memory architecture consisting of a Fabry-Perot Confocal Resonator (FPCR) optical processing environment, two dynamically reprogrammable Lithium Niobate volume holograms, and Barium Titanate gain and attenuation elements. The reduced physical dimensions of the compact optical processing environment make it more adaptable to military applications than previous associative memory designs. The FPCR employs Mangin mirrors designed to reduce spherical aberrations in off-axis rays. The orientation of the gain element's grating vector angle and the model used to predict the profile of the attenuation element were unique to this research effort. The object stored in …

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Optical Image Segmentation Using Wavelet Filtering Techniques, Christopher P. Veronin Dec 1990

Optical Image Segmentation Using Wavelet Filtering Techniques, Christopher P. Veronin

Theses and Dissertations

This research effort successfully implemented an automatic, optically based image segmentation scheme for locating potential targets in a cluttered FLIR image. Such a design is critical to achieve real-time segmentation and classification for machine vision applications. The segmentation scheme used in this research was based on texture discrimination and employs orientation specific, bandpass spatial filters as its main component. The orientation specific, bandpass spatial filters designed during this research include symmetrically located circular apertures implemented on heavy, black aluminum foil; cosine and sine Gabor filters implemented with detour-phase computer generated holography photoreduced onto glass slides; and symmetrically located circular apertures …

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Using Error Detection And Correction Coding For A Turbulent Atmospheric Optical Communications Link, Mark A. Cloutier Dec 1990

Using Error Detection And Correction Coding For A Turbulent Atmospheric Optical Communications Link, Mark A. Cloutier

Theses and Dissertations

Probability of bit error (Pb) performance for a turbulent, atmospheric, optical, communications link with convolutional error detection and correction coding was investigated. The codes investigated were all rate 1/2 codes with constraint lengths ranging from 3 to 7. It was assumed that the coded data stream was sufficiently interleaved so that the turbulent channel could be considered memoryless. A theoretical bound on Pb, given by Viterbi for a memoryless channel, was used to plot curves of Pb versus the signal intensity of last transmitter. These curves were plotted for three different levels of atmospheric turbulence and three …

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Detection Of High Altitude Aircraft Wake Vortices Using Infrared Doppler Lidar: An Assessment, Michael J. Estes Dec 1990

Detection Of High Altitude Aircraft Wake Vortices Using Infrared Doppler Lidar: An Assessment, Michael J. Estes

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigated the feasibility of air-to-air detection of high altitude aircraft wake vortices at long ranges using infrared Doppler lidar. The purpose of this technique is to detect otherwise stealthy aircraft. Three laser wavelengths were analyzed: 1.064, 2.091, and 9.115 microns. Analysis revealed that the spectral width of the return signal from an aircraft wake presented a good signature for detection. Based on the analysis, a minimum signal-to-noise ratio of 0 db was established. Detection performance was then analyzed using signal-to-noise ratio calculations for backscatter by ambient atmospheric aerosols, jet engine exhaust soot particles, and condensation trail ice particles. …

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Nonlinear Interferometry: Optical Image Addition/Subtraction And Novelty Filters, Gordon T. Hengst Dec 1990

Nonlinear Interferometry: Optical Image Addition/Subtraction And Novelty Filters, Gordon T. Hengst

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigated the performance characteristics of a beam fanning novelty filter and designed a switchable optical image adder/subtractor. The filter spatial resolution, contrast ratio, onset time, and velocity response were measured for both z-cut and 45 deg. cut BaTiO3 crystals in the beam fanning configuration. Experimental results show that the special 45 deg. cut crystal produces the best overall beam fanning novelty filter. In addition, switchable optical image subtraction and addition were demonstrated for the first time using a modified Michelson interferometer configured with a phase-conjugating mirror and an adjustable length leg. The system demonstrated addition and subtraction with …

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An Optically Pumped Molecular Bromine Laser, Jon W. Morrison Dec 1990

An Optically Pumped Molecular Bromine Laser, Jon W. Morrison

Theses and Dissertations

An optically pumped molecular bromine laser was studied to investigate the quenching kinetics state of Br2. This included characterization of the pressure dependence of the laser output power. The approach was to excite molecular bromine in a sealed cell with a Nd:YAG pumped dye laser. Unresolved side fluorescence and amplified stimulated emission (ASE) spectra were recorded. ASE offered the advantage of a simpler optical system with no externally induced wavelength dependencies. Stimulated emission as a signal monitor offered greater resolution than side fluorescence spectra and facilitated spectroscopic assignment.

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Operating Characteristics Of Xenon Gas Discharges, Michael E. Ruark Dec 1990

Operating Characteristics Of Xenon Gas Discharges, Michael E. Ruark

Theses and Dissertations

The voltage-current and spectral line intensity-current characteristics were measured for four Xenon gas discharges. The four discharge configurations were made up of two tubes, each examined at pressures of 1 and 10 Torr. The first tube was a hot filament tube with a 1 cm radius, and the second a cold cathode type tube of radius .3 cm. Intensity dependence upon current was primarily linear in all cases with some important deviations. The hot filament tube at 10 Torr showed a large decrease in intensity between 4 and 6 mA in the 8409 angstrom line. This is thought to be …

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Energy Transfer In Singlet Oxygen And Bromine Monofluoride, Barrett F. Lowe Dec 1990

Energy Transfer In Singlet Oxygen And Bromine Monofluoride, Barrett F. Lowe

Theses and Dissertations

The interhalogen molecule, bromine monofluoride (BrF), is currently under study as a potential candidate for a visible chemical laser medium. Previous studies have shown a strong emission from BrF(B3π(O+)) in the presence of singlet oxygen. While singlet oxygen will pump BrF(X) to BrF(B), the exact mechanism is not known. Chemiluminescence observed from BrF(B) excited by oxygen in a gas flowtube was used to study the energy transfer mechanism. The objective of this research was fourfold. First, the pumping process was identified as a 3- Body Mechanism. Second, the observed vibrational distribution clearly showed the population of …

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Low Temperature Photoluminescence Study Of Holmium And Thulium Implanted Into Iii-V Semiconductors And Silicon, Eric Silkowski Dec 1990

Low Temperature Photoluminescence Study Of Holmium And Thulium Implanted Into Iii-V Semiconductors And Silicon, Eric Silkowski

Theses and Dissertations

Low temperature photoluminescence studies were performed on holmium implanted into InP, GaAs, and Si; and thulium implanted into AlGaAs, GaAs, and Si. Samples were annealed by the conventional furnace and rapid thermal techniques. None of the characteristic 4f emissions of holmium were found in the spectral region of .73 to 1.55 eV. AlGaAs:Tm showed strong thulium emissions in the .93 to 1.03 eV region. These emissions were studied and compared to those in GaAs:Tm. Low and high temperature annealed samples showed evidence of trivalent Tm centers. Temperature dependence studies showed that thulium 4f emissions were present above 200 K but …

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