We have developed a threedimensional imaging laser radar featuring 3-cm range resolution and single-photon sensitivity. This prototype direct-detection laser radar employs compact, all-solid-state technology for the laser and detector array. The source is a Nd:YAG microchip laser that is diode pumped, passively Q-switched, and frequency doubled. The detector is a gated, passively quenched, two-dimensional array of silicon avalanche photodiodes operating in Geigermode. After describing the system in detail, we present a three-dimensional image, derive performance characteristics, and discuss our plans for future imaging three-dimensional laser radars.
We report measurements of heat transport and shadowgraph flow visualizations for a binary mixture with separation ratio y~-0.12. Beyond a Hopf bifurcation from pure conduction, a traveling-wave state involving a single frequency develops and consists of a small number of convection rolls concentrated near the sidewall toward which it is moving. Thus about 60% of our cell is left in the pure conduction state. At a slightly larger Rayleigh number, the traveling wave becomes amplitude modulated by a second, lower frequency.
Measurements of the Fourier components of the axial variation of the velocity component w in a Taylor–Couette apparatus containing ten pairs of vortices at various average wavenumbers q, as a function of ε≡R/Rc−1, are reported. For all values of q studied, excellent agreement with the perturbation expansion of Davey [J. Fluid Mech. 14, 336 (1962)] for the amplitudes of the Fourier components was obtained, provided the power law dependence on ε was taken as a function of ε̃≡ε−εm(q). Here εm(q) is the marginal stability curve, below which the laminar flow state is stable against perturbations of wavenumber q. The wavenumber dependence of the leading coefficients in the expansions for the fundamental and first harmonic was also measured, and it was found that while the coefficient for the fundamental was independent of q, the coefficient for the first harmonic monotonically decreased with increasing q, over the range studied.
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