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(1 - 9 of 9)
- Title
- Stress-induced phase change sintering: A novel approach to the fabrication of barium chloride transparent ceramic scintillators.
- Creator
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Shoulders, William, Gaume, Romain, Coffey, Kevin, Sohn, Yongho, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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For the precise in-field identification of dangerous radioisotopes, the desire for higher resolution, cheaper, and more rugged gamma-ray scintillator detectors has pushed the materials science community to investigate new compounds and processing techniques.(&)nbsp; One particular solution is Eu:BaCl2 transparent ceramics processed by the novel phase-change sintering technique. Typically, optical transparency in BaCl2 would be limited by birefringence scattering at grain boundaries due to...
Show moreFor the precise in-field identification of dangerous radioisotopes, the desire for higher resolution, cheaper, and more rugged gamma-ray scintillator detectors has pushed the materials science community to investigate new compounds and processing techniques.(&)nbsp; One particular solution is Eu:BaCl2 transparent ceramics processed by the novel phase-change sintering technique. Typically, optical transparency in BaCl2 would be limited by birefringence scattering at grain boundaries due to mismatch in refractive index.(&)nbsp; Traditional ceramic processing routes would also predispose this volatile and hygroscopic material to the formation of defects, which interrupt the energy transfer in the scintillation process. Literature shows that these challenges have prevented halide gamma-ray scintillator ceramics, including Ce:LaBr3, Eu:SrI2, and Ce:Cs2LiYCl6, from reaching the performance of their single-crystalline counterparts. The sintering method explored in this thesis utilizes a polymorphic orthorhombic to cubic phase transition followed by plastic deformation.(&)nbsp; The experimental implementation of this method necessitated the design of a unique airtight hot-pressing device, capable of developing conditions for this phase conversion, and the synthesis of high purity powders. Systematic experiments on powder synthesis and on densification were carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach and understand the conditions for phase-change sintering. These experiments, supported by characterizations including x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and thermal analysis, lead to the production of optically isotropic cubic barium chloride ceramic samples. Finally, the optical and scintillation properties of Eu:BaCl2 ceramic samples were investigated, revealing an energy resolution of 6% at 662 keV, an unprecedented value for a halide ceramic scintillator.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006844, ucf:51779
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006844
- Title
- Barium Based Halide Scintillator Ceramics for Gamma Ray Detection.
- Creator
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Shoulders, William, Gaume, Romain, Coffey, Kevin, Sohn, Yongho, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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As our understanding of ceramic processing methods for the purpose of fabricating polycrystalline optical materials has increased over the past few decades, the race is on to bring ceramic technology to markets where single crystalline materials have traditionally been used. One such market is scintillators. This Master's thesis focuses specifically on a class of materials attractive for use as gamma-ray scintillators. These barium based halides can potentially be utilized in fields...
Show moreAs our understanding of ceramic processing methods for the purpose of fabricating polycrystalline optical materials has increased over the past few decades, the race is on to bring ceramic technology to markets where single crystalline materials have traditionally been used. One such market is scintillators. This Master's thesis focuses specifically on a class of materials attractive for use as gamma-ray scintillators. These barium based halides can potentially be utilized in fields applications ranging from ionizing radiation detection in the field to high-energy physics experimentation. Barium bromide iodide and barium chloride single crystals have already showed high light yield, fast scintillation decay, and high energy resolution, all desirable properties for a scintillator. This work attempts to show the likelihood of moving towards polycrystalline scintillators to take advantage of the lower processing temperature, higher manufacturing output, and overall reduced cost. The experiments begin with identifying appropriate sintering conditions for hot pressed ceramics of BaBrI and BaCl2. Possible sources of optical loss in the first phase of hot pressed samples are investigated using a wide range of characterization tools. Preliminary luminescence and scintillation measurements are reported for a translucent sample of BaBrI. Recommendations are made to move toward highly transparent ceramics with scintillation properties approaching those measured in single crystal samples.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0005258, ucf:50576
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005258
- Title
- COMPARISON OF THEORETICAL MODELS OF POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY TO THE EXPERIMENTAL VALUE FOR SPECTRUM OF IRRADIANCE FLUCTUATIONS.
- Creator
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Hershberger, Craig, Phillips, Ronald, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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A propagation experiment was designed, assembled, and conducted on an extended range to verify theoretical temporal models for weak to strong fluctuation theory. Laser light intensity was propagated over terrain at the Kennedy Space Center (Florida), and detected using optical receivers at a distance of 13.3 Km from the optical source. The intensity data from the experiment was used to generate an experimental Power Spectral Density (PSD) function. The theoretical Mutual Coherence Function ...
Show moreA propagation experiment was designed, assembled, and conducted on an extended range to verify theoretical temporal models for weak to strong fluctuation theory. Laser light intensity was propagated over terrain at the Kennedy Space Center (Florida), and detected using optical receivers at a distance of 13.3 Km from the optical source. The intensity data from the experiment was used to generate an experimental Power Spectral Density (PSD) function. The theoretical Mutual Coherence Function (MCF) and Wave Structure Function (WSF) as set forth by Andrews/Phillips , were evaluated to determine the effective relationship between the statistical moments of the random optical field and the laser light intensity. Two scales of interest were identified (refractive large-scale and diffractive small-scale) and plotted revealing the characteristic shape of each component. In addition, statistical principles applied to the correlation/covariance function relationship and a graphical convolution process were used to generate a theoretical PSD function. Further, utilizing Taylor's "frozen turbulence" hypothesis an analysis of the theoretical temporal covariance function was performed. Functional forms for refractive and diffractive log-irradiance components were developed and used to generate a second theoretical PSD function. Finally, the experimental and theoretical Power Spectral Density functions are plotted on the same graph and a comparison is performed.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- Identifier
- CFE0002403, ucf:47734
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002403
- Title
- THE SCINTILLATION INDEX IN MODERATE TO STRONG TURBULENCE FOR THE GAUSSIAN BEAM WAVE ALONG A SLANT PATH.
- Creator
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Thomas, Fredrick, Young, Cynthia, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Scintillation is one of the most common statistics in the literature of mathematical modeling of laser propagation through random media. One approach to estimating scintillation is through the Rytov approximation, which is limited to weak atmospheric turbulence. Recently, an improvement of the Rytov approximation was developed employing a linear filter function technique. This modifies the Rytov approximation and extends the validity into the moderate to strong regime. In this work, an...
Show moreScintillation is one of the most common statistics in the literature of mathematical modeling of laser propagation through random media. One approach to estimating scintillation is through the Rytov approximation, which is limited to weak atmospheric turbulence. Recently, an improvement of the Rytov approximation was developed employing a linear filter function technique. This modifies the Rytov approximation and extends the validity into the moderate to strong regime. In this work, an expression governing scintillation of a Gaussian beam along an uplink slant path valid in all regimes of turbulence is presented, as well as results for the limiting cases of a plane wave and a spherical wave.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2005
- Identifier
- CFE0000670, ucf:46509
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000670
- Title
- EFFECT OF INNER SCALE ATMOSPHERIC SPECTRUM MODELS ON SCINTILLATION IN ALL OPTICAL TURBULENCE REGIMES.
- Creator
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Mayer, Kenneth, Young, Cynthia, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Experimental studies have shown that a "bump" occurs in the atmospheric spectrum just prior to turbulence cell dissipation.1,3,4 In weak optical turbulence, this bump affects calculated scintillation. The purpose of this thesis was to determine if a "non-bump" atmospheric power spectrum can be used to model scintillation for plane waves and spherical waves in moderate to strong optical turbulence regimes. Scintillation expressions were developed from an "effective" von Karman spectrum using...
Show moreExperimental studies have shown that a "bump" occurs in the atmospheric spectrum just prior to turbulence cell dissipation.1,3,4 In weak optical turbulence, this bump affects calculated scintillation. The purpose of this thesis was to determine if a "non-bump" atmospheric power spectrum can be used to model scintillation for plane waves and spherical waves in moderate to strong optical turbulence regimes. Scintillation expressions were developed from an "effective" von Karman spectrum using an approach similar to that used by Andrews et al.8,14,15 in developing expressions from an "effective" modified (bump) spectrum. The effective spectrum extends the Rytov approximation into all optical turbulence regimes using filter functions to eliminate mid-range turbulent cell size effects to the scintillation index. Filter cutoffs were established by matching to known weak and saturated scintillation results. The resulting new expressions track those derived from the effective bump spectrum fairly closely. In extremely strong turbulence, differences are minimal.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2007
- Identifier
- CFE0001559, ucf:47141
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001559
- Title
- FADE STATISTICS FOR A LASERCOM SYSTEM AND THE JOINT PDF OF A GAMMA-GAMMA DISTRIBUTED IRRADIANCE AND ITS TIME DERIVATIVE.
- Creator
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Stromqvist Vetelino, Frida, Young, Cynthia, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The performance of lasercom systems operating in the atmosphere is reduced by optical turbulence, which causes irradiance fluctuations in the received signal. The result is a randomly fading signal. Fade statistics for lasercom systems are determined from the probability density function (PDF) of the irradiance fluctuations. The expected number of fades per second and their mean fade time require the joint PDF of the fluctuating irradiance and its time derivative. Theoretical integral...
Show moreThe performance of lasercom systems operating in the atmosphere is reduced by optical turbulence, which causes irradiance fluctuations in the received signal. The result is a randomly fading signal. Fade statistics for lasercom systems are determined from the probability density function (PDF) of the irradiance fluctuations. The expected number of fades per second and their mean fade time require the joint PDF of the fluctuating irradiance and its time derivative. Theoretical integral expressions, as well as closed form, analytical approximations, were developed for the joint PDF of a gamma-gamma distributed irradiance and its time derivative, and the corresponding expression for the expected number of fades per second. The new approximation for the conditional PDF of the time derivative of a gamma-gamma irradiance is a zero mean Gaussian distribution, with a complicated irradiance depending variance. Fade statistics obtained from experimental data were compared to theoretical predictions based on the lognormal and gamma-gamma distributions. A Gaussian beam wave was propagated through the atmosphere along a horizontal path, near ground, in the moderate-to-strong optical turbulence. To characterize the propagation path, a new method that infers atmospheric propagation parameters was developed. Scintillation theory combined with a numerical scheme was used to infer the structure constant, Cn2, the inner scale and the outer scale from the optical measurements. The inferred parameters were used in calculations for the theoretical PDFs. It was found that fade predictions made by the gamma-gamma and lognormal distributions provide an upper and lower bound, respectively, for the probability of fade and the number of fades per second for irradiance data collected in the moderate-to-strong fluctuation regime. Aperture averaging effects on the PDF of the irradiance fluctuations were investigated by comparing the irradiance distributions for the three receiver apertures at two different values of the structure parameter and, hence, different values of the coherence radius. For the moderate-to-strong fluctuation regime, the gamma-gamma distribution provides a good fit to the irradiance fluctuations collected by finite-sized apertures that are significantly smaller than the coherence radius. For apertures larger than or equal to the coherence radius, the irradiance fluctuations appear to be lognormally distributed.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0001440, ucf:47069
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001440
- Title
- EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRAL STREAK CAMERA.
- Creator
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Szilagyi, John, Richardson, Martin, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The recent development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) sources has increased the need for diagnostic tools, and has opened up a previously limited portion of the spectrum. With ultrafast laser systems and spectroscopy moving into shorter timescales and wavelengths, the need for nanosecond scale imaging of EUV is increasing. EUVÂÂÂÂ's high absorption has limited the number of imaging options due...
Show moreThe recent development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) sources has increased the need for diagnostic tools, and has opened up a previously limited portion of the spectrum. With ultrafast laser systems and spectroscopy moving into shorter timescales and wavelengths, the need for nanosecond scale imaging of EUV is increasing. EUVÂÂÂÂ's high absorption has limited the number of imaging options due to the many atomic resonances in this spectrum. Currently EUV is imaged with photodiodes and X-ray CCDs. However photodiodes are limited in that they can only resolve intensity with respect to time and X-ray CCDs are limited to temporal resolution in the microsecond range. This work shows a novel approach to imaging EUV light over a nanosecond time scale, by using an EUV scintillator to convert EUV to visible light imaged by a conventional streak camera. A laser produced plasma, using a mass-limited tin based target, provided EUV light which was imaged by a grazing incidence flat field spectrometer onto a Ce:YAG scintillator. The EUV spectrum (5 nm-20 nm) provided by the spectrometer is filter by a zirconium filter and then converted by the scintillator to visible light (550 nm) which can then be imaged with conventional optics. Visible light was imaged by an electron image tube based streak camera. The streak camera converts the visible light image to an electron image using a photocathode, and sweeps the image across a recording medium. The streak camera also provides amplification and gating of the image by the means of a micro channel plate, within the image tube, to compensate for low EUV intensities. The system provides 42 ns streaked images of light with a temporal resolution of 440 ps at a repetition rate of 1 Hz. Upon calibration the EUV streak camera developed in this work will be used in future EUV development.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- Identifier
- CFE0003558, ucf:48905
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003558
- Title
- THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DATA CODES AND HARDWARE SELECTION TO MITIGATE SCINTILLATION EFFECTS ON FREE SPACE OPTICAL DATA TRANSMISSION.
- Creator
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Stein, Keith, Phillips, Ronald, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The design of an optical communication link must plan for the random effects of atmospheric turbulence. This study analyses data from an experiment which transmitted from a laser located 8 meters above ground over a 13 Km range to coherent detection devices approximately 162 meters above ground. The effects of a fading and surging beam wave were considered in regards to code techniques for error correction, amplitude modulation and hardware architecture schemes. This study simulated the use...
Show moreThe design of an optical communication link must plan for the random effects of atmospheric turbulence. This study analyses data from an experiment which transmitted from a laser located 8 meters above ground over a 13 Km range to coherent detection devices approximately 162 meters above ground. The effects of a fading and surging beam wave were considered in regards to code techniques for error correction, amplitude modulation and hardware architecture schemes. This study simulated the use of arrays and large apertures for the receiving devices, and compared the resultant scintillation index with the theoretical calculations.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0001204, ucf:46945
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001204
- Title
- THE PDF OF IRRADIANCE FOR A FREE-SPACE OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS CHANNEL: A PHYSICS BASED MODEL.
- Creator
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Wayne, David, Phillips, Ronald, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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An accurate PDF of irradiance for a FSO channel is important when designing a laser radar, active laser imaging, or a communications system to operate over the channel. Parameters such as detector threshold level, probability of detection, mean fade time, number of fades, BER, and SNR are derived from the PDF and determine the design constraints of the receiver, transmitter, and corresponding electronics. Current PDF models of irradiance, such as the Gamma-Gamma, do not fully capture the...
Show moreAn accurate PDF of irradiance for a FSO channel is important when designing a laser radar, active laser imaging, or a communications system to operate over the channel. Parameters such as detector threshold level, probability of detection, mean fade time, number of fades, BER, and SNR are derived from the PDF and determine the design constraints of the receiver, transmitter, and corresponding electronics. Current PDF models of irradiance, such as the Gamma-Gamma, do not fully capture the effect of aperture averaging; a reduction in scintillation as the diameter of the collecting optic is increased. The Gamma-Gamma PDF of irradiance is an attractive solution because the parameters of the distribution are derived strictly from atmospheric turbulence parameters; propagation path length, Cn2, l0, and L0. This dissertation describes a heuristic physics-based modeling technique to develop a new PDF of irradiance based upon the optical field. The goal of the new PDF is three-fold: capture the physics of the turbulent atmosphere, better describe aperture averaging effects, and relate parameters of the new model to measurable atmospheric parameters. The modeling decomposes the propagating electromagnetic field into a sum of independent random-amplitude spatial plane waves using an approximation to the Karhunen-Loeve expansion. The scattering effects of the turbulence along the propagation path define the random-amplitude of each component of the expansion. The resulting PDF of irradiance is a double finite sum containing a Bessel function. The newly developed PDF is a generalization of the Gamma-Gamma PDF, and reduces to such in the limit. An experiment was setup and performed to measure the PDF of irradiance for several receiver aperture sizes under moderate to strong turbulence conditions. The propagation path was instrumented with scintillometers and anemometers to characterize the turbulence conditions. The newly developed PDF model and the GG model were compared to histograms of the experimental data. The new PDF model was typically able to match the data as well or better than the GG model under conditions of moderate aperture averaging. The GG model fit the data better than the new PDF under conditions of significant aperture averaging. Due to a limiting scintillation index value of 3, the new PDF was not compared to the GG for point apertures under strong turbulence; a regime where the GG is known to fit data well.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- Identifier
- CFE0003209, ucf:48576
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003209
