Scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) is a high-resolution nondestructive method useful for nearsurface material elastic property quantification as well as crack size determination for surface and subsurface cracks. Scanning acoustic microscopy was developed by Quate et a1. [1, 2] and has been extensively studied by a number of researchers [3-11]. The most important contrast phenomenon in SAM is t...

Conventional descriptions of transverse waves in an elastic solid are limited by an assumption of infinitesimally small gradients of rotation. By assuming a linear response to variations in orientation, we derive an exact description of a restricted class of rotational waves in an ideal isotropic elastic solid. The result is a nonlinear equation expressed in terms of Dirac bispinors. This resul...

Gigahertz acoustic waves propagating on the surface of a metal halfspace are detected using different all-optical detection schemes, namely, deflectometry and beam distortion detection techniques. Both techniques are implemented by slightly modifying a conventional reflectometric setup. They are then based on the measurement of the reflectivity change but unlike reflectometric measurements, the...

We demonstrate how a mechanical point-contact technique can provide information on the wavenumber of spin waves excited by high-density electrical current in magnetic multilayers. By varying the size of point-contacts, we have been able to control the size of the excitation volume and therefore the wavelength of current-induced spin waves. This leads to a technique with in situ sensitivity to w...

We discover a strong localization of flexural (bi-Laplacian) waves in rigid thin plates. We show that clamping just one point inside such a plate not only perturbs its spectral properties, but essentially divides the plate into two independently vibrating regions. This effect progressively appears when increasing the plate eccentricity. Such a localization is qualitatively and quantitatively di...

A transport theory for atomic matter waves in low-dimensional waveguides is outlined. The thermal fluctuation spectrum of magnetic near fields leaking out of metallic microstructures is estimated. The corresponding scattering rate for paramagnetic atoms turns out to be quite large in micrometer-sized waveguides (approx. 100/s). Analytical estimates for the heating and decoherence of a cold atom...

The phases of primordial gravity waves is analysed in detail within a quantum mechanical context following the formalism developed by Grishchuk and Sidorov. It is found that for physically relevant wavelengths both the phase of each individual mode and the phase difference between modes are randomly distributed. The phase sum between modes with oppositely directed wave-vectors, however, is not ...

We study the spectrum of gravitational waves generated from inflation in the Randall-Sundrum braneworld. Since the inflationary gravitational waves are of quantum-mechanical origin, the initial configuration of perturbations in the bulk includes Kaluza-Klein quantum fluctuations as well as fluctuations in the zero mode. We show, however, that the initial fluctuations in Kaluza-Klein modes have ...

Investigations of the mechanical properties of cells are essential for linking mechanical deformation and loading to injury mechanisms at the cellular level. This is especially important when studying traumatic brain injury (TBI). Neurons and astrocytes are susceptible to damage mechanisms arising from various loading scenarios, ranging from motor vehicle accidents to sports injuries and pressu...