Dynamic behavior of internal elements of high-frequency integrated circuits studied by time-resolved optical-beam-induced current (OBIC) method

Propagation Delays and Extracellular Potentials. There is increasing evidence that the complex microscopic structure of the myocardium (distribution of cell‐to‐cell connections) plays an important role in determining propagation of excitation in cardiac muscle. To study this phenomenon, extracellular potentials must be measured with microscopic spatial resolution in cardiac tissue. In this article, the relationships between propagation delays across cardiac gap junctions and extracellular potential waveforms are analyzed using a one‐dimensional model of a propagating action potential, for different degrees of cellular coupling. The central question addressed by this study is whether propagation discontinuities at the cellular level can be detected by microscopic resolution extracellular potential measurements, and whether the discrete junctional propagation delay can be measured by extracellular electrodes. Results demonstrate that the discontinuous nature of propagation at the cellular level is reflected as nonuniformities in the local (microscopic) conduction velocity measured by extracellular electrodes with microscopic resolution (interelectrode distance of 50 μm); the degree of nonuniformities in the microscopic velocity is amplified as a result of decreased cellular coupling. These observations are in agreement with recent experimental findings. Propagation time between the middle regions of adjacent cells can be estimated accurately from extracellular potentials at these sites. In contrast, two extracellular electrodes positioned at opposite ends of the gap junction (electrode spacing of 5 μm) cannot detect or measure the propagation delay across the junction. This limitation results from the fact that extracellular potentials do not reflect only the localized underlying electrical sources on such a microscopic scale. As cells become less coupled, irregularities appear in the unipolar extracellular potential waveforms. The simulations relate these irregularities to depolarization of individual cells in the fiber. Under the condition of reduced cellular coupling, the depolarization events of neighboring cells are sufficiently separated in time to appear as separate events in the extracellular waveforms.

Optical beam-induced current (OBIC) mapping is widely used to characterize semiconductor lasers, particularly for failure analysis, in which the reliability has been a critical issue to be resolved spectrally and temporally. OBIC microscopy is advantageous for its non-invasiveness, when compared with electron beam-induced current (EBIC) microscopy. However, for high-speed devices, conventional OBIC methods may be limited in observing the spectral responses adequately. In this work, we present a modified OBIC microscopy based on a tunable ultrafast laser, to address the need for spectral resolving for precision failure spot analysis in vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) diodes. The spectral OBIC response of VCSEL diodes is investigated by varying the irradiation wavelengths. Importantly, the ultrafast mode-locked laser provides broadband wavelength range to investigate photocurrent responses of the VCSELs sample. Specifically, the OBIC, electroluminescence (EL) detection, and the reflectance of the normal and the electrostatic discharge (ESD) damaged VCSELs are compared. We have found the ESD damaged VCSELs showing a redshifted spectral response.

Ultrafast time resolution in scanning probe microscopy of repetitive phenomena

Troposcatter propagation delay is one of the most significant sources of errors in troposcatter time comparison. The existing methods of calculating troposcatter propagation delay face problems in terms of effectively reflecting the influence of the meteorological environment on troposcatter propagation delay, due to the insufficient spatial and temporal resolution of the meteorological data. This article proposes a high-precision calculation method for troposcatter propagation delay based on atmospheric reanalysis data. The troposcatter propagation path and the refractive index along the troposcatter data were obtained by combining 3D ray tracing with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ Reanalysis 5 (ERA5), with high spatial and temporal resolution. This found the hour-level time delay in troposcatter. The geometric delay, path delay, and total propagation delay of the troposcatter were calculated and analyzed via 12 scattering links in 6 typical geographical regions. It was found that the path delay was the main cause of the propagation delay of troposcatter, and that the proportion of geometric delay in the total propagation delay increased along with an increase in link distance. The propagation delay changed noticeably in different seasons. The path delay was higher in summer and lower in winter, the geometric delay was lower in summer and higher in winter, and the total propagation delay was mainly high in summer and low in winter. There were differences in delay date, seasonal fluctuation amplitude, and in hourly fluctuation standard deviation among different geographic areas.

Charge carrier recombination and generation analysis in materials and devices by electron and optical beam microscopy

Dynamical equations of intra-cavity optical parametric oscillator synchronously pumped by SESAM mode-locked laser

Even though breast cancer is a cancer with relatively easy early diagnostic and has an appropriate treatment, it has high mortality rates in Brazil. This is in part because the disease is diagnosed only in advanced stages, but also because the whole information contained in the mammograms is not used by physicians and radiologists. There are many parameters to be considered in assessing the quality of a mammogram image. Among these parameters are contrast, spatial resolution, the signal-to-noise ratio, and the efficiency of the applied dose. Even with the improvement of the quality of radiographs, many structures, such as small microcalcifications, are not always identified by radiologists in the images. To determine the lowest detectable structures in digital mammograms, we made a numerical analysis of a few digital mammography using simulators, determining the spatial and intensity resolutions, and studying the noise and its distribution. With this, we could determine the detection levels, quantifying the probability that any point is due to statistical noise or a real change in breast density. This is the first step towards early detection of microcalcifications. In our work, it was possible to detect even the smallest microcalcifications of the simulator, 0.18 mm in diameter, with false alarm probability smaller than 1/1000.

Due to the limitations of hardware technology, satellite sensors cannot obtain images with high temporal, spatial, and spectral resolutions at the same time. Current spatiotemporal fusion methods try to solve the contradiction between temporal resolution and spatial resolution, which cannot achieve good reconstruction accuracy partly because the data sources are from heterogeneous platforms with long chains difficult to be modeled. Different from the crossing-platform fusion, this work proposes to improve the spatial and temporal resolutions on a single platform. For the 2-m panchromatic images, 8-m multispectral images, and 16-m wide-field-view images captured by the Gaofen-1 satellite, our goal is to produce 2-m multispectral images with high temporal resolutions. Two convolutional neural networks are built to solve this spatiotemporal-spectral fusion issue with pansharpening and spatiotemporal fusion in serial. In the validation stage, the 2-m multispectral images are built and evaluated with the panchromatic images and 8-m multispectral images. The digital and visual evaluations show that our method can produce visually acceptable fusion quality, which may enhance the feasibility of the Gaofen-1 data.

Location resolved transient thermal analysis to investigate crack growth in solder joints

In this study, the analysis of the lowest spatial resolution for measuring weld cracks based on the magnetic flux leakage (MFL) test method was developed. MFL detection is a widely used method of pipeline nondestructive testing. The spatial resolution of the MFL sensors influences the data amount and detection accuracy. The magneto-optical detection technique can be used to solve the problem of insufficient spatial resolution, but the amount of data is very large and redundant. Using the lowest spatial resolution with ensuring accuracy can reduce the amount of data and decrease the time cost of analyzing data. A girth weld crack is a common and complex defect that occurs in pipelines, and high spatial resolution is required to ensure its detection accuracy. In this study, the MFL of weld cracks and its influencing factors were investigated. Based on the frequency domain analysis, the lowest spatial resolution was obtained, which was verified by experiments.

Expanding accessible 3D sample size in lab-based X-ray nanotomography without compromising resolution

This chapter discusses the principle of the super-resolution optical microscope by electron beam excitation and the experimental results of bio-imaging. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an optical microscope with higher spatial resolution in order to elucidate the interaction between multiple molecules or micro-organs and the mechanism of information transmission. The super-resolution microscopes have been reported to achieve a spatial resolution of about 20 nm, which has been difficult to observe with conventional optical microscopes. A thin fluorescent thin film with high quantum efficiency is required for EXA microscope in order to obtain an image with high spatial resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, the spatial resolution of the EXA microscope is higher than that of the phase contrast microscope, which is the factor that enables the EXA microscope to clearly observe the cell outline. Since the EXA microscope has high spatial resolution, they were clearly resolved as some granules.

The use of moiré interferometry as an aid to standard test-method development for textile composite materials

Abstract: We describe the recent progress made in our laboratory on the time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy by the combination of stable short-duration pulses from a CW mode-locked laser and a time-correlated single-photon counting method. Particular emphasis is placed on the achievement of high time resolution with side-on and microchannel-plate photomultipliers. We also discuss the limitation of using this method in the picosecond time range. Several applications of this spectroscopy such as the measurements of fluorescence decay characteristics and time behavior of fluorescence depolarization are reported. It is also shown that the high sensitivity of this method with pico-second time resolution is very suitable for the temporal rejection of cumbersome background-fluorescence in Raman spectroscopy. Finally, we present a novel method of photon time-of-flight fluorescence spectroscopy, in which an optical fiber is employed as a dispersive element.

An improved method of obtaining variable pulse spacing for use in a cw SHG autocorrelation interferometer is described.