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Dispersed fluorescence ͑DF͒ spectroscopy is used to explore the rovibrational structure of highly excited S 0 formaldehyde ͑H 2 CO͒. A narrowband laser excites formaldehyde molecules to a single S 1 rovibronic quantum state, and the resulting fluorescence is dispersed with a monochromator. DF spectra of ten vibrational levels with excitation in 2 , the carbon-oxygen stretch, and 4 , the out-of-plane bend, have been recorded, and the effective A, B, and C rotational constants are extracted. Five of the effective A rotational constants and seven of the effective B and C rotational constants are new to the literature. The dependence of these effective rotational constants on vibrational state are both calculated and discussed with regard to both the present and previous experiments. Particular attention is given to the manner in which that the effective A rotational constant depends on increasing excitation in 4 due to the strong A-axis 4 / 6 Coriolis interaction. For states where v 2 is less than two, quantitatively accurate values for the nonlinear dependence of the A rotational constant on quanta in 2 and 4 is achieved by a simultaneous consideration of the strong A-axis 4 / 6 Coriolis interaction and the 1 1 ↔4 2 , 1 1 ↔6 2 , and 5 1 ↔2 1 6 1 Fermi interactions.

Conventional diagnostic ultrasound scanners are bulky and require significant amounts of electrical power during operation. Reducing the size, weight, and consumption of electrical power is made easier through the use of highly integrated compact transmit and receive electronics that may be incorporated in the transducer handle. This necessitates the use of low voltage transmitters and low power receive preamplifiers. Conventional scanners typically use approximately 100-V pulses during transmit; therefore, decreasing the transmit voltage to 15 V decreases the transmit sensitivity. Conventional receive electronics that are located at the scanner degrade the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) because the array element cannot efficiently drive the coaxial cable. Transmit sensitivity and received SNR can be radically improved using a multilayer/single-layer hybrid array making integration of electronics into the transducer handle more feasible. In this paper, we discuss the design, fabrication, and testing of a 5-MHz hybrid linear array. The hybrid array included 16 multilayer transmit elements (10 Omega impedance) and 24 single-layer receive elements at a half wavelength element pitch. Low voltage transmitters with an output resistance of 7 Omega and high impedance JFET preamplifiers using 15 V for biasing were located adjacent to the hybrid array in the transducer handle. The transmit sensitivity and received SNR of the hybrid array were compared with a conventional array using 50-Omega transmitters and receive preamplifiers at the scanner. The transmit sensitivity improved by 12.8 dB, and the received SNR improved by 7.8 dB, yielding an overall improvement of 20.6 dB, which compared well with predictions from the KLM model. Images of phantoms and in vivo images of the kidney obtained with the Siemens Model 1200 phased array system showed the increased SNR using the hybrid array. Estimates of penetration in tissue mimicking phantoms (alpha=0.5 dB/(cm MHz)) improved by 7 cm compared with the control.

In medical ultrasound imaging, two-dimensional (2-D) array transducers are necessary to implement dynamic focusing in two dimensions, phase correction in two dimensions and high speed volumetric imaging. However, the small size of a 2-D array element results in a small clamped capacitance and a large electrical impedance, which decreases the transducer signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We have previously shown that SNR is improved using transducers made from multi-layer PZT, due to their lower electrical impedance. In this work, we hypothesize that SNR is further increased using a hybrid array configuration: in the transmit mode, a 10 Omega electronic transmitter excites a 10 Omega multi-layer array element; in the receive mode, a single layer element drives a high impedance preamplifier located in the transducer handle. The preamplifier drives the coaxial cable connected to the ultrasound scanner. For comparison, the following control configuration was used: in the transmit mode, a 50 Omega source excites a single layer element, and in the receive mode, a single layer element drives a coaxial cable load. For a 5x102 hybrid array operating at 7.5 MHz, maximum transmit output power was obtained with 9 PZT layers according to the KLM transmission line model. In this case, the simulated pulse-echo SNR was improved by 23.7 dB for the hybrid configuration compared to the control. With such dramatic improvement in pulse-echo SNR, low voltage transmitters can be used. These can be fabricated on integrated circuits and incorporated into the transducer handle.