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We present an electrically switchable graphene terahertz (THz) modulator with a tunable-by-design optical bandwidth and we exploit it to compensate the cavity dispersion of a quantum cascade laser (QCL). Electrostatic gating is achieved by a metal-grating used as a gate electrode, with an HfO2/AlOx gate dielectric on top. This is patterned on a polyimide layer, which acts as a quarter wave resonance cavity, coupled with an Au reflector underneath. We get 90% modulation depth of the intensity, combined with a 20 kHz electrical bandwidth in the 1.9 _ 2.7 THz range. We then integrate our modulator with a multimode THz QCL. By adjusting the modulator operational bandwidth, we demonstrate that the graphene modulator can partially compensates the QCL cavity dispersion, resulting in an integrated laser behaving as a stable frequency comb over 35% of the laser operational range, with 98 equidistant optical modes and with a spectral coverage of ~ 1.2 THz. This has significant potential for frontier applications in the terahertz, as tunable transformation-optics devices, active photonic components, adaptive and quantum optics, and as a metrological tool for spectroscopy at THz frequencies., 22 pages, 6 figures

Background To evaluate the prevalence, risk factors and treatment of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in Turkey and to establish screening criteria for this condition. Methods A prospective cohort study (TR-ROP) was performed between 1 April 2016 and 30 April 2017 in 69 neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Infants with a birth weight (BW)=1500 g or gestational age (GA) 1500 g or GA> 32 weeks with an unstable clinical course were included in the study. Predictors for the development of ROP were determined by logistic regression analyses. Results The TR-ROP study included 6115 infants: 4964 (81%) with a GA 32 weeks. Overall, 27% had any stage of ROP and 6.7% had severe ROP. A lower BW, smaller GA, total days on oxygen, late-onset sepsis, frequency of red blood cell transfusions and relative weight gain were identified as independent risk factors for severe ROP in infants with a BW=1500 g. Of all infants, 414 needed treatment and 395 (95.4%) of the treated infants had a BW

This study reports on the in-situ preparation of HfB2-HfO2 composite powders at room temperature by means of mechanochemical synthesis (MCS) from HfCl4-B2O3-Mg powder blends. The effects of milling duration and excess amounts of B(2)O3 and Mg reactants (20 and 30 wt%) on the HfB2 formation mechanism were investigated. After MCS and purification, HfB2, HfO2 and Mg2Hf5O12 phases were obtained. The Mg2Hf5O12 phase decomposed during the annealing treatment conducted at 1000 degrees C under Ar flow. The as-synthesized, purified, annealed and subsequently leached powders were characterized with an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), stereomicroscope (SM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and particle size analyzer (PSA). The HfB2-Hf-O2 composite powders with an average particle size of 140 nm and predominantly rounded morphology were consolidated with cold pressing/pressureless sintering (PS) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) techniques. The relative density values of the HfB2-Hf-O2 composites obtained by means of PS (with 2 wt% Co) and SPS techniques were 91.82 % and 93.79 %, respectively. A relatively high densification rate for the HfB2-Hf(O2 )ceramic was achieved by means of Co addition, which was considered a promising sintering aid for HfB2-based ceramics. The HfB2-HfO2 composite sample consolidated with SPS exhibited hardness, wear volume loss amount and friction coefficient values of 18.45 GPa, 4.30 mm(3) and 0.60, respectively.

This work demonstrates an attractive low-cost route to obtain large area and high-quality graphene films by using the ultra-smooth copper foils which are typically used as the negative electrodes in lithium-ion batteries. We first compared the electronic transport properties of our new graphene film with the one synthesized by using commonly used standard copper foils in chemical vapor deposition (CVD). We observed a stark improvement in the electrical performance of the transistors realized on our graphene films. To study the optical properties on large area, we transferred CVD based graphene to transparent flexible substrates using hot lamination method and performed large area optical scanning. We demonstrate the promise of our high quality graphene films for large areas with ∼400 cm 2 flexible optical modulators. We obtained a profound light modulation over a broad spectrum by using the fabricated large area transparent graphene supercapacitors and we compared the performance of our devices with the one based on graphene from standard copper. We propose that the copper foils used in the lithium-ion batteries could be used to obtain high-quality graphene at much lower-cost, with the improved performance of electrical transport and optical properties in the devices made from them.

Color is a fact affected from the properties of the raw material to the final finishing processes which are the most important ones. In the study, the effect of the finishing processes to CIELab values, consequently the changing on the color were determined, and then these values were tried to be predicted using artificial neural networks (ANN) on different topology. In this way, the color changing concerning on chemical finishing process can be determined in advance and the necessary precaution can be taken without having trouble by changes on the dyeing recipes and process parameters.

Stretch woven fabrics are widely used because of their good elongation and recovery (residual extension) properties. Several parameters and test method are used to measure the properties of these fabrics. Each different set of test parameters means a different test application. Sometimes, repeating tests for different test involves wasting time and labour. In this study, the test results were used to try and predict elongation and recovery using neural network and linear regression models. Certain test parameters such as rate of extension, gauge length (jaw separation), and maximum load were selected as input variables. The accuracies of predictions of elongation in the direction of warp and weft by both models were found to be similar and satisfactory. The predictions for the recovery test showed differences as to fabric warp and weft direction. All the statistical results indicate that predicting the fabrics' test results from an unseen data set is very good for both models.

Graphene integrated photonics provides several advantages over conventional Si photonics. Single layer graphene (SLG) enables fast, broadband, and energy-efficient electro-optic modulators, optical switches and photodetectors (GPDs), and is compatible with any optical waveguide. The last major barrier to SLG-based optical receivers lies in the current GPDs' low responsivity when compared to conventional PDs. Here we overcome this by integrating a photo-thermoelectric GPD with a Si microring resonator. Under critical coupling, we achieve >90% light absorption in a ~6 μm SLG channel along a Si waveguide. Cavity-enhanced light-matter interactions cause carriers in SLG to reach ~400 K for an input power ~0.6 mW, resulting in a voltage responsivity ~90 V/W, with a receiver sensitivity enabling our GPDs to operate at a 10-9 bit-error rate, on par with mature semiconductor technology, but with a natural generation of a voltage, rather than a current, thus removing the need for transimpedance amplification, with a reduction of energy-per-bit, cost, and foot-print.

Graphene integrated photonics provides several advantages over conventional Si photonics. Single layer graphene (SLG) enables fast, broadband, and energy-efficient electro-optic modulators, optical switches and photodetectors (GPDs), and is compatible with any optical waveguide. The last major barrier to SLG-based optical receivers lies in the current GPDs’ low responsivity when compared to conventional PDs. Here we overcome this by integrating a photo-thermoelectric GPD with a Si microring resonator. Under critical coupling, we achieve >90% light absorption in a ~6 μm SLG channel along a Si waveguide. Cavity-enhanced light-matter interactions cause carriers in SLG to reach ~400 K for an input power ~0.6 mW, resulting in a voltage responsivity ~90 V/W, with a receiver sensitivity enabling our GPDs to operate at a 10−9 bit-error rate, on par with mature semiconductor technology, but with a natural generation of a voltage, rather than a current, thus removing the need for transimpedance amplification, with a reduction of energy-per-bit, cost, and foot-print.