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Polymer-based actuators have gained extensive attention owing to their potential applications in aerospace, soft robotics, etc. However, poor mechanical properties, the inability of multi-stimuli response and programmable deformation, and the costly fabrication procedure have significantly hindered their practical application. Herein, these issues are overcome via a simple and scalable one-step molding method. The actuator is fabricated by hot-pressing commercial unidirectional carbon fiber/epoxy prepregs with a commodity PC membrane. Notable CTE differences between the CF and PC layers endow the bilayer actuator with fast and reliable actuation deformation. Benefiting from the high strength of CF, the actuator exhibits excellent mechanical performance. Moreover, the anisotropy of CF endows the actuator with design flexibility. Furthermore, the multifunction of CF makes the actuator capable of responding to thermal, optical, and electrical stimulation simultaneously. Based on the bilayer actuator, we successfully fabricated intelligent devices such as light-driven biomimetic flowers, intelligent grippers, and gesture-simulating apparatuses, which further validate the programmability and multi-stimuli response characteristics of this actuator. Strikingly, the prepared gripper possesses a grasping capacity approximately 31.2 times its own weight. It is thus believed that the concept presented paves the way for building next-generation robust robotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enormous concerns focus on the high-power and wide bandwidth traveling-wave tube (TWT) for its outstanding performance. In this article, a shape-optimized staggered double-vane slow-wave structure (SWS) for terahertz (THz) sheet beam TWT is proposed. The shape-optimized staggered double-vane SWS takes the advantages of higher interaction impedance, lower transmission loss, and lower phase velocity than conventional staggered double-vane SWSs. The shape-optimized staggered double-vane SWS with 85 periods is designed, fabricated, and cold tested. The measured transmission loss of the shape-optimized staggered double-vane SWS is less than 0.79 dB/cm in the frequency range of 0.211–0.26 THz, which is in good agreement with the simulation results. Furthermore, the beam–wave interaction analysis of a sheet beam TWT with this SWS is given. The output power is predicted to be >100 W with 3-dB bandwidth of >50 GHz. The results show that the shape-optimized staggered double-vane SWS is a very promising scheme to construct a high-power and wideband THz TWT for future applications such as communication and imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel electron-optical system (EOS) for ${G}$ -band traveling-wave tubes (TWT) is investigated by simulation and verified by experiment. The EOS includes a sheet beam electron gun, a tunable periodic cusped magnetic focusing (TPCMF), and a collector. An elliptical focus electrode (FE) featuring a simple geometry and easy fabrication is utilized to compress the pencil beam into the sheet beam with a cross section of 0.4 mm $\times0.1$ mm. The electron gun with a cylindrical cathode of 0.8 mm diameter generates the sheet beam with voltage of 22 kV and current of 115 mA. Based on the sheet beam electron gun, the TPCMF with easy assembly and compact size is then proposed. The experimental results show that the beam transmission is 92.1% within a beam tunnel (its length 21.2 mm and cross section 0.8 mm $\times0.15$ mm). The EOS is suitable for ${G}$ -band TWT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of cross-linked hydroxyl-terminated polyether and poly(ε-caprolactone) HTPE/PCL binders were prepared by varying the relative mass contents of PCL to HTPE. The correlations between the microstructures and macroscopic mechanical properties of HTPE/PCL binders at a wide temperature range of − 50 to 70 °C were investigated. The cross-linking network structures of HTPE/PCL binders were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR), and the universal testing machine was used to characterize the mechanical properties of HTPE/PCL binders. It is found that the influence of adding PCL on the physical cross-linking network structures is not obvious, but it reduces the degree of microphase separation. For the chemical cross-linking network structures of HTPE/PCL binders, the cross-linking density (Ve) demonstrates an increasing tendency with enhancing PCL mass content, but the molecular weight between the cross-linking points (Mc) shows an opposite change trend. The addition of PCL can improve the maximum tensile strength (σm) of HTPE/PCL binders under the wide temperature range of − 50 to 70 °C. The HTPE/PCL binder with 40 wt% PCL possesses the better mechanical properties; its σm increases from 0.63 to 0.81 MPa at 20 °C, 1.64 to 3.06 MPa at − 50 °C and 0.57 to 0.68 MPa at 70 °C separately comparing with the HTPE binder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the reversed Cherenkov radiation excited in metamaterials, a novel S-band reversed Cherenkov radiation amplifier (RCRA) with two output ports is proposed in this paper. Its metamaterial slow-wave structure (MSWS) consists of a hollow circular waveguide periodically loaded with all-metal double-ridge complementary electric split-ring resonators (CeSRRs). The CeSRR exhibits subwavelength and strong resonance characteristics, which lead to miniaturization and high interaction impedance of the MSWS. The period of the MSWS is optimized using the phase velocity jump technique to further increase the output power and electronic efficiency. The simulation results demonstrate that when the microwave signal of 7.8 W at 2.286 GHz is inputted at port 2, the output power at port 1 is 307 W, and the saturated output power and saturated gain at port 3 are 5.48 kW and 28.47 dB, respectively. Notably, the total electronic efficiency of the RCRA is predicted as 33.84%. The RCRA features high electronic efficiency and miniaturization and may meet special application scenarios that require two output microwave signals at the same frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroxyl-terminated polyether (HTPE) propellant and HTPE/Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) propellant were compared to explore the effects of introducing PCL to HTPE propellant on the mechanical and thermal properties at the wide temperature range of − 50 °C to 70 °C. The energetic properties of HTPE and HTPE/PCL propellants were also evaluated, the ideal specific impulse and density of HTPE/PCL propellant were found to be slightly enhanced comparing with those of HTPE propellant. The tensile mechanical properties results revealed that the introduction of PCL could improve the maximum tensile strength (σm) of HTPE/PCL propellant at the wide temperature range of − 50 °C to 70 °C, its σm increased from 0.38 to 0.75 MPa at 20 °C, 0.25 to 0.48 MPa at 70 °C and 4.01 to 4.77 MPa at − 50 °C separately comparing with those of HTPE propellant. The thermal decomposition behavior at 0.1 MPa showed that the introduction of PCL could promote RDX and AP in HTPE/PCL propellant to decompose. Bu-NENA was hardly to evaporate from HTPE/PCL propellant at higher pressure, which was beneficial to its thermal decomposition. The introduction of PCL could be more effective to inhibit the evaporation of Bu-NENA from HTPE/PCL propellant at 0.1 MPa, the activation energy of evaporation of HTPE and HTPE/PCL propellants was 53.66 kJ mol−1 and 77.90 kJ mol−1, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An all-metal metamaterial slow-wave structure (MSWS), which comprises a hollow circular waveguide loaded by periodically arranged complementary electric split-ring resonators (CeSRRs), is proposed. Due to the CeSRRs with the characteristics of both subwavelength and strong resonance, the MSWS has both compact size and high interaction impedance relative to conventional SWS. Based on the reversed Cherenkov radiation in the MSWS, a compact reversed Cherenkov radiation oscillator (RCRO) with high efficiency is developed. The measured electronic efficiency is 19.54%, and measured output power is 10.16 kW at 2.221 GHz under the conditions that the beam voltage is 26 kV, the beam current is 2.0 A, and axial magnetic flux density is ∼962 G. The experimental results clearly show that the brand-new RCRO can be applied to large-scale scientific facilities, medical imaging, microwave heating, microwave disinfection and sterilization, and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We proposed an all-metal metamaterial slow-wave structure (MSWS) that consists of a circular waveguide periodically loaded with complementary electric split-ring resonators (CeSRRs). We set up an equivalent circuit theoretical model of MSWS and analyzed its high-frequency characteristics. Also, based on the surface current distribution on the CeSRR obtained by using the eigenmode solver in the CST Microwave Studio, a method of calculating the resonant frequency of the CeSRR was proposed. Furthermore, an MSWS with RF coupling port was designed, simulated, fabricated, and experimentally characterized. The dispersion characteristics of MSWS obtained by interpreting the experimental transmission characteristics agreed well with those predicted by theory as well as simulation. Based on the results of simulation and experiment, a concept of “resonance-coupling” was proposed for the passband of MSWS for frequencies below the cutoff frequency of an empty circular waveguide. The role of the slot-line in the CeSRR in influencing the performance of MSWS was also analyzed. The proposed MSWS has wide potential applications in vacuum electron devices, such as backward-wave oscillator and extended interaction klystron. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]