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    Resonant terahertz light absorption by virtue of tunable hybrid interface phonon-plasmon modes in semiconductor nanoshells
    (Basel : MDPI AG, 2019) Nika, D.L.; Pokatilov, E.P.; Fomin, V.M.; Devreese, J.T.; Tempere, J.
    Metallic nanoshells have proven to be particularly versatile, with applications in biomedical imaging and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Here, we theoretically demonstrate that hybrid phonon-plasmon modes in semiconductor nanoshells offer similar advantages in the terahertz regime. We show that, depending on tm,n,nhe doping of the semiconductor shells, terahertz light absorption in these nanostructures can be resonantly enhanced due to the strong coupling between interface plasmons and phonons. A threefold to fourfold increase in the absorption peak intensity was achieved at specific values of electron concentration. Doping, as well as adapting the nanoshell radius, allowed for fine-tuning of the absorption peak frequencies.
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    Validation study for measuring absorption and reduced scattering coefficients by means of laser-induced backscattering imaging
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2019) Zude-Sasse, Manuela; Hashim, Norhashila; Hass, Roland; Polley, Nabarun; Regen, Christian
    Decoupling of optical properties appears challenging, but vital to get better insight of the relationship between light and fruit attributes. In this study, nine solid phantoms capturing the ranges of absorption (μa) and reduced scattering (μs’) coefficients in fruit were analysed non-destructively using laser-induced backscattering imaging (LLBI) at 1060 nm. Data analysis of LLBI was carried out on the diffuse reflectance, attenuation profile obtained by means of Farrell's diffusion theory either calculating μa [cm−1] and μs’ [cm−1] in one fitting step or fitting only one optical variable and providing the other one from a destructive analysis. The nondestructive approach was approved when calculating one unknown coefficient non-destructively, while no ability of the method was found to analysis both, μa and μs’, non-destructively. Setting μs’ according to destructive photon density wave (PDW) spectroscopy and fitting μa resulted in root mean square error (rmse) of 18.7% in comparison to fitting μs’ resulting in rmse of 2.6%, pointing to decreased measuring uncertainty, when the highly variable μa was known. The approach was tested on European pear, utilizing destructive PDW spectroscopy for setting one variable, while LLBI was applied for calculating the remaining coefficient. Results indicated that the optical properties of pear obtained from PDW spectroscopy as well as LLBI changed concurrently in correspondence to water content mainly. A destructive batch-wise analysis of μs’ and online analysis of μa may be considered in future developments for improved fruit sorting results, when considering fruit with high variability of μs’. © 2019 The Authors
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    Temperature-Dependent Reinforcement of Hydrophilic Rubber Using Ice Crystals
    (Washington, DC : ACS Publications, 2017-2-2) Natarajan, Tamil Selvan; Stöckelhuber, Klaus Werner; Malanin, Mikhail; Eichhorn, Klaus-Jochen; Formanek, Petr; Reuter, Uta; Wießner, Sven; Heinrich, Gert; Das, Amit
    This is the first study on the impact of ice crystals on glass transition and mechanical behavior of soft cross-linked elastomers. A hydrophilic elastomer such as epichlorohydrin-ethylene oxide-allyl glycidyl ether can absorb about ∼40 wt % of water. The water-swollen cross-linked network exhibits elastic properties with more than 1500% stretchability at room temperature. Coincidently, the phase transition of water into solid ice crystals inside of the composites allows the reinforcement of the soft elastomer mechanically at lower temperatures. Young's modulus of the composites measured at -20 °C remarkably increased from 1.45 to 3.14 MPa, whereas at +20 °C, the effect was opposite and the Young's modulus decreased from 0.6 to 0.03 MPa after 20 days of water treatment. It was found that a part of the absorbed water, ∼74% of the total absorbed water, is freezable and occupies nearly 26 vol % of the composites. Simultaneously, these solid ice crystals are found to be acting as a reinforcing filler at lower temperatures. The size of these ice crystals is distributed in a relatively narrow range of 400-600 nm. The storage modulus (E′) of the ice crystal-filled composites increased from 3 to 13 MPa at -20 °C. The glass transition temperature (-37 °C) of the soft cross-linked elastomer was not altered by the absorption of water. However, a special transition (melting of ice) occurred at temperatures close to 0 °C as observed in the dynamic mechanical analysis of the water-swollen elastomers. The direct polymer/filler (ice crystals) interaction was demonstrated by strain sweep experiments and investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. This type of cross-linked rubber could be integrated into a smart rubber application such as in adaptable mechanics, where the stiffness of the rubber can be altered as a function of temperature without affecting the mechanical stretchability either below or above 0 °C (above the glass temperature region) of the rubber.