We report on experiments performed at low temperatures on aluminum covered silicon nanoelectromechanical resonators. The substantial difference observed between the mechanical dissipation in the normal and superconducting states measured within the same device unambiguously demonstrates the importance of normal-state electrons in the damping mechanism. The dissipative component becomes vanishin...

We report the characterization of a suspended microchannel resonator (SMR) for viscosity measurements in a low viscosity regime (<10 mPa s) using two measurement schemes. First, the quality factor (Q-factor) of the SMR was characterized with glycerol-water mixtures. The measured Q-factor at 20 °C exhibits a bilinear behavior with the sensitivity of 1281 (mPa s)(-1) for a lower (1-4 mPa s) and 3...

In this paper, I systematically investigated Micro-Cavity PhotoThermal Spectroscopy (MC-PTS), a novel technique for ultra-sensitive detection of chemical molecular species. I first derive the photothermal enhancement factor and noise characteristics of the technique using a generic theoretical model, followed by numerical analysis of a design example using chalcogenide glass micro-disk cavities...

This paper proposed to take advantages of resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) to measure the mechanical properties of human dentin specimen. The resonant spectroscopy of the dentin specimen was obtained between the frequency bands 155 and 575 kHz, and resonant frequencies were extracted by linear predictive filter and then by Levenberg-Marquardt method. By inverse problem approach, 13 experi...

The influence of the surrounding cavity on the efficiency of different types of polaritonic emitters of THz radiation has been analysed. It is demonstrated that THz lasing threshold in realistic structures cannot be achieved without a THz cavity, due to destruction of polaritons via excitonic Mott transition. Even modest values of cavity quality factor (not exceeding 50) provide significant qua...

Maintenance costs of Information Systems (ISs) are high today and are growing. Part of the costs come from low software quality. The software quality can be measured when it is maintained. By improving the quality of maintenance prone modules future maintenance costs may be curtailed. In this article we will discuss how to measure software quality and we will also present a prototype that has b...

We consider a single electron in a 1D quantum dot with a static slanting Zeeman field. By combining the spin and orbital degrees of freedom of the electron, an effective quantum two-level (qubit) system is defined. This pseudospin can be coherently manipulated by the voltage applied to the gate electrodes, without the need for an external time-dependent magnetic field or spin-orbit coupling. Si...

We present a toy model of mildly super-Eddington, optically thin accretion onto a compact star in the Schwarzschild metric, which predicts periodic variations of luminosity when matter is supplied to the system at a constant accretion rate. These are related to the periodic appearance and disappearance of the Eddington Capture Sphere. In the model the frequency is found to vary inversely with t...

We demonstrate theoretically that the resonance frequencies of high-Q microcavities in two-dimensional photonic crystal membranes can be tuned over a wide range by introducing a subwavelength dielectric tip into the cavity mode. Three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations show that by varying the lateral and vertical positions of the tip, it is possible to tune the resonator fre...

It is widely accepted that there are differing views; this paper asks whether a framework, incorporating these different viewpoints, can be constructed. These multiple perspectives of quality are a result of the commonly held view that quality is a multi-dimensional entity, with many factors 2. Kitchenham favours the ’fitness for needs’ definition, 3 which is an extension of Juran’s ”fitness fo...