Long-range surface plasmon polariton (LRSPP) modes in an asymmetrical system, in which the thin metal film is sandwiched between a semi-infinite substrate and a high permittivity polymer film with a finite thickness, are theoretically calculated and analyzed. Due to the high permittivity of the polymer film, at proper polymer film thicknesses, the index-matching condition of the dielectrics at both sides of the metal can be satisfied for supporting LRSPP modes, and the electromagnetic field above the metal can be localized well. It is found that these LRSPP modes have both long propagation lengths and subwavelength mode expansion above the metal at the optimal polymer film thicknesses. Furthermore, the requirements on the refractive index and the thickness of the polymer film to support LRSPP modes at the optimal thicknesses are found to be not critical.
The spatio-temporal varying characteristics of dissolved inorganic nitrogen, reactive phosphate (RP), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and dissolving oxygen (DO) in Tianjin coastal seawater were investigated based on observation from May 1996 to October 2006. The concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), RP and COD ascended gradually and their varying ranges were 0.103–2.432, 0.009–0.12, and 0.8–2.9 mg L−1, respectively. While DO in seawater decreased from 8.9 to 6.1 mg L−1 gradually. Those indicated that human-induced eutrophication occurred and the seawater quality deteriorated. The spatial distributions of DIN, RP and COD were largely uniform, where isopleths generally descended from estuarine zones and bays to the central areas and from northern area to southern area, indicating that continental input is the dominant source of those pollutants. Especially, peak zones of those pollutants usually appeared near estuaries, Tianjin harbors, and dumping site of dredged sediment, which indicates that the urban and industrial sewage, shipping waste, dredged soil were the main sources for those contaminants in seawater.
A dielectric-loaded (DL) waveguide is an attractive possibility for interaction circuits with high-power sources in the millimeter-wave regime down to tenths of millimeters, particularly for gyrotron-traveling-wave-tube amplifiers (gyro-TWTs). We present results on a systematic investigation of the influence of the periodically loaded lossy dielectric on the propagation characteristics of the operating modes, which reveals that a complex mode in the periodic system can be mapped to a corresponding mode in an empty waveguide or a uniform DL waveguide. Dielectric losses not only induce modal transitions between different modes with similar field structures and close phase velocities in the uniform system but also unify the discrete mode spectrum into a continuous spectrum in the periodic system. Since the lossy dielectric functions as a power sink, the higher order Bloch harmonic components arising from the structural periodicity are suppressed, and the mode spectrum of the lossy periodic system degenerates into that of an empty waveguide. This alleviates the potential danger of spurious oscillations induced by the higher order harmonic components, making the periodic lossy DL waveguide promising in a high-power millimeter-wave gyro-TWT
Submicron atmospheric particles in the Amazon Basin were characterized by a high-resolution aerosol mass spectrometer during the wet season of 2008. Patterns in the mass spectra closely resembled those of secondary-organic-aerosol (SOA) particles formed in environmental chambers from biogenic precursor gases. In contrast, mass spectral indicators of primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs) were insignificant, suggesting that PBAPs contributed negligibly to the submicron fraction of particles during the period of study. For 40% of the measurement periods, the mass spectra indicate that in-Basin biogenic SOA production was the dominant source of the submicron mass fraction, contrasted to other periods (30%) during which out-of-Basin organic-carbon sources were significant on top of the baseline in-Basin processes. The in-Basin periods had an average organic-particle loading of 0.6 mu g m(-3) and an average elemental oxygen-to-carbon (O:C) ratio of 0.42, compared to 0.9 mu g m(-3) and 0.49, respectively, during periods of out-of-Basin influence. On the basis of the data, we conclude that most of the organic material composing submicron particles over the Basin derived from biogenic SOA production, a finding that is consistent with microscopy observations made in a concurrent study. This source was augmented during some periods by aged organic material delivered by long-range transport. Citation: Chen, Q., et al. (2009), Mass spectral characterization of submicron biogenic organic particles in the Amazon Basin, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L20806, doi: 10.1029/2009GL039880.
Measurement of carbonaceous aerosols is complicated by positive and negative artifacts. An organic denuder with high efficiency for removing gaseous organics is an effective approach to eliminate the positive artifact, and it is a precondition for the accurate determination of SVOC by an adsorbent backup filter. Evaluations of different configurations of the organic denuder, and SVOC determined by different denuder-based samplers, both integrated and semi-continuous, are reviewed. A new equation for determination of the denuder efficiency is estimated, considering the efficiency of removing both the gaseous organics that could be adsorbed by the quartz and the gaseous passing through the quartz that could be subsequently adsorbed by the backup adsorbent filter. The origin of OC on the backup quartz filter, behind either quartz or Teflon filter, is quantitatively evaluated by the denuder-based method based on the data published. The backup-OC is shown to be dominated by either gaseous organics passing through the front filter or the evaporated particulate organic carbon depending on the sampling environment.