Formation of Ti–Zr–Cu–Ni bulk metallic glasses

Formation of bulk metallic glass in quaternary Ti–Zr–Cu–Ni alloys by relatively slow cooling from the melt is reported. Thick strips of metallic glass were obtained by the method of metal mold casting. The glass forming ability of the quaternary alloys exceeds that of binary or ternary alloys containing the same elements due to the complexity of the system. The best glass forming alloys such as Ti34Zr11Cu47Ni8 can be cast to at least 4-mm-thick amorphous strips. The critical cooling rate for glass formation is of the order of 250 K/s or less, at least two orders of magnitude lower than that of the best ternary alloys. The glass transition, crystallization, and melting behavior of the alloys were studied by differential scanning calorimetry. The amorphous alloys exhibit a significant undercooled liquid region between the glass transition and first crystallization event. The glass forming ability of these alloys, as determined by the critical cooling rate, exceeds what is expected based on the reduced glass transition temperature. It is also found that the glass forming ability for alloys of similar reduced glass transition temperature can differ by two orders of magnitude as defined by critical cooling rates. The origins of the difference in glass forming ability of the alloys are discussed. It is found that when large composition redistribution accompanies crystallization, glass formation is enhanced. The excellent glass forming ability of alloys such as Ti34Zr11Cu47Ni8 is a result of simultaneously minimizing the nucleation rate of the competing crystalline phases. The ternary/quaternary Laves phase (MgZn2 type) shows the greatest ease of nucleation and plays a key role in determining the optimum compositions for glass formation

The Economics of Testing for Biotech Grain: Application to StarLink Corn

StarLink corn, a variety not approved for human use, disrupted the marketing system in 2000 because of inadvertent commingling. This paper provides an overview of the economics of testing grain for biotech content. What are the risks facing buyers and sellers, and how are these influenced by testing protocols? How do market premiums and discounts, testing costs, and prior beliefs affect the incentives to test? A conceptual model is developed in which sellers choose whether to pre-test grain prior to shipment. Through simulation analysis, we illustrate the impact of market premiums and other variables on testing incentives and buyer risk.biotechnology, grain marketing, quality risk, StarLink, testing, Crop Production/Industries,

Topology optimization of freeform large-area metasurfaces

We demonstrate optimization of optical metasurfaces over $10^5$--$10^6$ degrees of freedom in two and three dimensions, 100--1000+ wavelengths ($\lambda$) in diameter, with 100+ parameters per $\lambda^2$. In particular, we show how topology optimization, with one degree of freedom per high-resolution "pixel," can be extended to large areas with the help of a locally periodic approximation that was previously only used for a few parameters per $\lambda^2$. In this way, we can computationally discover completely unexpected metasurface designs for challenging multi-frequency, multi-angle problems, including designs for fully coupled multi-layer structures with arbitrary per-layer patterns. Unlike typical metasurface designs based on subwavelength unit cells, our approach can discover both sub- and supra-wavelength patterns and can obtain both the near and far fields

Enhancement of the superconducting gap by nesting in CaKFe4As4 - a new high temperature superconductor

We use high resolution angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory with experimentally obtained crystal structure parameters to study the electronic properties of CaKFe4As4. In contrast to related CaFe2As2 compounds, CaKFe4As4 has high Tc of 35K at stochiometric composition. This presents unique opportunity to study properties of high temperature superconductivity of iron arsenic superconductors in absence of doping or substitution. The Fermi surface consists of three hole pockets at $\Gamma$ and two electron pockets at the $M$ point. We find that the values of the superconducting gap are nearly isotropic, but significantly different for each of the FS sheets. Most importantly we find that the overall momentum dependence of the gap magnitudes plotted across the entire Brillouin zone displays a strong deviation from the simple cos(kx)cos(ky) functional form of the gap function, proposed in the scenario of the Cooper-pairing driven by a short range antiferromagnetic exchange interaction. Instead, the maximum value of the gap is observed for FS sheets that are closest to the ideal nesting condition in contrast to the previous observations in some other ferropnictides. These results provide strong support for the multiband character of superconductivity in CaKFe4As4, in which Cooper pairing forms on the electron and the hole bands interacting via dominant interband repulsive interaction, enhanced by FS nesting}.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Adiabatic self-tuning in a silicon microdisk optical resonator

We demonstrate a method for adiabatically self-tuning a silicon microdisk resonator. This mechanism is not only able to sensitively probe the fast nonlinear cavity dynamics, but also provides various optical functionalities like pulse compression, shaping, and tunable time delay

Nanoalloy composition-temperature phase diagram for catalyst design: Case study of Ag-Au

By coupling a cluster expansion with density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we determine the configurational thermodynamics (site preferences and occupations) for alloyed nanoparticles (NPs) as functions of composition (c) and temperature (T), exemplified using a 55-atom Ag-Au truncated cuboctahedron NP. The c−T phase diagram for site occupations gives detailed design information for alloyed NP, especially the thermodynamically stable active sites for catalysis and how they change with stoichiometry and processing temperature. Generally, Ag prefers core and Au prefers shell, agreeing with our universal core-shell preference assessed from DFT impurity segregation energies but with interesting multishell configurations having specific active sites

A proposal for highly tunable optical parametric oscillation in silicon micro-resonators

We propose a novel scheme for continuous-wave pumped optical parametric oscillation (OPO) inside silicon micro-resonators. The proposed scheme not only requires a relative low lasing threshold, but also exhibits extremely broad tunability extending from the telecom band to mid infrared

High-efficiency degenerate four wave-mixing in triply resonant nanobeam cavities

We demonstrate high-efficiency, degenerate four-wave mixing in triply resonant Kerr $\chi^(3)$ photonic crystal (PhC) nanobeam cavities. Using a combination of temporal coupled mode theory and nonlinear finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, we study the nonlinear dynamics of resonant four-wave mixing processes and demonstrate the possibility of observing high-efficiency limit cycles and steady-state conversion corresponding to $\approx 100$% depletion of the pump light at low powers, even including effects due to losses, self- and cross-phase modulation, and imperfect frequency matching. Assuming operation in the telecom range, we predict close to perfect quantum efficiencies at reasonably low $\sim$ 50 mW input powers in silicon micrometer-scale cavities

The Economics of Testing for Biotech Grain: Application to StarLink Corn

StarLink corn, a biotech variety not approved for human food use, disrupted the marketing system in 2000 because of inadvertent commingling. Testing protocols have since been established for detection of StarLink in corn shipments to Japan. Domestic food manufacturers, anxious to avoid risks of contamination and product recalls, also test for StarLink kernels. This paper provides an overview of the economics of testing. What are the risks facing buyers and sellers, and how are these influenced by different testing protocols? How do market premiums and discounts, testing costs, and prior beliefs affect the incentives to test? A conceptual model is developed in which sellers can choose whether to pre-test grain prior to shipment. Simulation analysis is used to illustrate the impact of market premiums and other variables on testing incentives and buyer risk.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,