High-intensity pulsed ion beam (HIPIB) technology is developed as an advanced manufacturing method for components with improved wear, corrosion and/or fatigue performance, etc. Robust HIPIB equipment with stable repetitive operation, long-lifetime, and easy maintenance are desired for industrial applications, on which stability of ion beam parameters is critical to achieve consistent result of reproducibility. Here, magnetically insulated ion diodes (MIDs) as ion source with durable graphite anode are investigated in a simple self-magnetic field configuration under repetitive operation. Influence of background pressure on ion beam generation and transportation is emphasized since ion beam sources were intrinsically a vacuum-based system. Comparative experiments were conducted on two types of HIPIB equipment, that is, TEMP-6 and TEMP-4M, differing in vacuum packages where turbo-molecular pump or oil diffusion pump was used. Both the HIPIB equipments are operated on a bipolar pulse mode, that is, a first negative pulse of 150–200 kV with pulse duration 450–500 ns to generate anode plasma on explosive electron emission, and a second positive pulse of 200–250 kV with 120 ns to accelerate the ions. Ion beam energy density up to 8 J/cm2 is achievable using MIDs of geometrical focusing configuration, and the total energy, energy density distribution along cross-section, deflection and divergence, and charge neutralization of the ion beams are assessed under background pressures in a wide range of two orders of magnitude, that is, 1–100 mPa. No appreciable change in the parameters is observed up to 50 mPa, and merely a slight increase in the beam deflection from about ±3 mm to about ±4 mm at the focal point over 50 mPa. The stability of ion beam at the varied pressure is mainly facilitated by the higher pressure up to several Pa in anode–cathode gap during plasma generation and good neutralizing effect for ion beam transportation.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a modern non-contact method of diagnostic examination which makes it possible to visualize a section of the retina as close as possible to its post-mortem histological section, and enables to distinguish individual layers of the human retina in a cross-section. The software pre-installed in such devices contains many different tools, but this is still not enough for a faster, more complete and accurate analysis of the obtained scans in order to make the correct diagnosis and choose the best treatment. There are more and more new and improved technologies for image processing in the world, which sets new tasks to develop additional software that can complement and expand the functionality of diagnostic equipment. This paper proposes a method of morphometric assessment of pathological conditions of the retina and chorioidea based on optical coherence tomography scans. This method is based on the algorithm for automated segmentation of the borders of the macular macular zone pathological focus, the algorithm for calculation of the area and volume of the pathological focus which together with other algorithms for analysis of the morphometric parameters of the human eye can be used for differential diagnostics of the pathological changes in the macular zone, for more precise diagnosis of the age-related macular degeneration (AMD) stage to prescribe a certain type and volume of treatment for stabilization and improvement of the central pontine visual functions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.