Iomdina, E. N., Seliverstov, S., Sianosyan, A., Teplyakova, K., Rusova, A., & Goltsman, G. (2016). The prospects of using the radiation for the assessment of corneal and scleral hydration. In Acta Ophthalmol. (Vol. 94).
Abstract: Purpose
An adequate water balance (hydration extent) is one of the basic factors of normal eye function, including its external shells – the cornea and the sclera. THz systems creating images in reflected beams are likely to become ideal instruments of noninvasive testing of corneal and scleral hydration degree as THz radiation is highly sensitive to water content. The paper aims at studying the transmittance and reflectance spectra of the cornea and the sclera of rabbit and human eyes, as well as those of the whole rabbit eye, in the frequency range of 0.13–0.32 THz.
Methods
The experiments were carried out on 3 corneas and 3 rabbit scleras, 2 whole rabbit eyes, and 3 human healthy adult scleras using a specially developed THz system based on reliable and easy‐to‐use continuous wave sources: a backward‐wave oscillator and an avalanche transit‐time diode.
Results
The transmittance spectra of the cornea and the sclera and the dependence of the reflection coefficient of these tissues in THz range on water percentage content were determined. Comparison of the rabbit cornea hydrated from 73.2% to 76.3% concentration by mass demonstrated an approximately linear relationship between THz reflectivity and water concentration. The decrease of free water concentration by 1% leads to a drop of the reflectance coefficient by 13%. The parameters studied displayed noticeable differences between the sclera and the cornea of rabbits and between rabbit sclera and human sclera.
Conclusions
Preliminary results demonstrate that the proposed technique, based on continuous THz radiation, may be used to create a device for noninvasive testing of corneal and scleral hydration, which has good potential of wide‐scale practical application.
The work was supported by the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (grant No.15‐29‐03843)
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Kardakova, A., Shishkin, A., Semenov, A., Goltsman, G. N., Ryabchun, S., Klapwijk, T. M., et al. (2016). Relaxation of the resistive superconducting state in boron-doped diamond films. Phys. Rev. B, 93(6), 064506.
Abstract: We report a study of the relaxation time of the restoration of the resistive superconducting state in single crystalline boron-doped diamond using amplitude-modulated absorption of (sub-)THz radiation (AMAR). The films grown on an insulating diamond substrate have a low carrier density of about 2.5×1021cm−3 and a critical temperature of about 2K. By changing the modulation frequency we find a high-frequency rolloff which we associate with the characteristic time of energy relaxation between the electron and the phonon systems or the relaxation time for nonequilibrium superconductivity. Our main result is that the electron-phonon scattering time varies clearly as T−2, over the accessible temperature range of 1.7 to 2.2 K. In addition, we find, upon approaching the critical temperature Tc, evidence for an increasing relaxation time on both sides of Tc.
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Tarkhov, M., Claudon, J., Poizat, J. P., Korneev, A., Divochiy, A., Minaeva, O., et al. (2008). Ultrafast reset time of superconducting single photon detectors. Appl. Phys. Lett., 92(24), 241112 (1 to 3).
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Vodolazov, D. Y., Korneeva, Y. P., Semenov, A. V., Korneev, A. A., & Goltsman, G. N. (2015). Vortex-assisted mechanism of photon counting in a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector revealed by external magnetic field. Phys. Rev. B, 92(10), 104503 (1 to 9).
Abstract: We use an external magnetic field to probe the detection mechanism of a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector. We argue that the hot belt model (which assumes partial suppression of the superconducting order parameter Δ across the whole width of the superconducting nanowire after absorption of the photon) does not explain observed weak-field dependence of the photon count rate (PCR) for photons with λ=450nm and noticeable decrease of PCR (with increasing the magnetic field) in a range of the currents for photons with wavelengths λ=450–1200nm. Found experimental results for all studied wavelengths can be explained by the vortex hot spot model (which assumes partial suppression of Δ in the area with size smaller than the width of the nanowire) if one takes into account nucleation and entrance of the vortices to the photon induced hot spot and their pinning by the hot spot with relatively large size and strongly suppressed Δ.
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Khosropanah, P., Gao, J. R., Laauwen, W. M., Hajenius, M., & Klapwijk, T. M. (2007). Low noise NbN hot electron bolometer mixer at 4.3 THz. Appl. Phys. Lett., 91, 221111 (1 to 3).
Abstract: We have studied the sensitivity of a superconducting NbN hot electron bolometer mixer integrated with a spiral antenna at 4.3 THz. Using hot/cold blackbody loads and a beam splitter all in vacuum, we measured a double sideband receiver noise temperature of 1300 K at the optimum local oscillator (LO) power of 330 nW, which is about 12 times the quantum noise (hnu/2kB). Our result indicates that there is no sign of degradation of the mixing process at the superterahertz frequencies. Moreover, a measurement method is introduced which allows us for an accurate determination of the sensitivity despite LO power fluctuations.
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