Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 1997. / Title from PDF t.p.

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2010. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed July 26, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 96-102).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-99).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). "April 2006." Includes bibliographical references (p. [117]-121). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.E.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). "31 May 2006." Includes bibliographical references (p. R1-R5). Also available via the World Wide Web.

This thesis deals with lasers, their general theory and application. Then a theoretical part describes laser micromachining and engraving. Experimental part of thesis deals with several experiments performed by powered fibre laser which is not primarily intended for the field of micromachining. Experiments were mainly evaluated by several types of microscopes where the amount of removed material was appraised. By particular experiments removed material was in accordance with used working parameters of laser and a significant role plays machining material. It emerges from the experiments that for the field of laser micromachining and engraving shorter pulses are more suitable (minimal pulse duration was 1 ms in experiment) and it is connected even with a way of removing material. Applied powered laser can be used for micromachining in specific fields of production.

No description available.

Thesis (PhD (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / Although the Class D topology offers several advantages, its use in audio amplification has previously been limited by the lack of competitiveness in fidelity compared to its linear counterparts. During the past decade, technological advances in semiconductor technology have awakened new interest since competitive levels of distortion could now be achieved. The output stage of such an amplifier is the primary limiting factor in its performance. In this dissertation, four non-ideal effects existing in this stage are identified and mathematically analysed. The analytical analysis makes use of a well-established mathematical model, based on the double Fourier series method, to model the imperfections introduced into a naturally sampled pulsewidth modulated waveform. The analysis is complemented by simulation using a strategy based on Newton’s numerical method. The theory is verified by a comparison between the analytical-, simulated- and experimental results.

Improving the knowledge of the spectral and temporal properties of plasma-based XUV lasers is an important issue for the ongoing development of these sources towards significantly higher peak power. The spectral properties of the XUV laser line actually control several physical quantities that are important for applications, such as the minimum duration that can be achieved (Fourier-transform limit). The shortest duration experimentally achieved to-date is ~1 picosecond. The demonstrated technique of seeding XUV laser plasmas with a coherent femtosecond pulse of high-order harmonic radiation opens new and promising prospects to reduce the duration to a few 100 fs, provided that the gain bandwidth can be kept large enough.XUV lasers pumped by collisional excitation of Ni-like and Ne-like ions have been developed worldwide in hot plasmas created either by fast electrical discharge, or by various types of high-power lasers. This leads to a variety of XUV laser sources with distinct output properties, but also markedly different plasma parameters (density, temperature) in the amplification zone. Hence different spectral properties are expected. The purpose of our work was then to investigate the spectral behaviour of the different types of existing collisional excitation XUV lasers, and to evaluate their potential to support amplification of pulses with duration below 1 ps in a seeded mode.The spectral characterization of plasma-based XUV lasers is challenging because the extremely narrow bandwidth (typically ∆λ/λ ~10-5) lies beyond the resolution limit of existing spectrometers in this spectral range. In our work the narrow linewidth was resolved using a wavefront-division interferometer specifically designed to measure temporal coherence, from which the spectral linewidth is inferred. We have characterized three types of collisional XUV lasers, developed in three different laboratories: transient pumping in Ni-like Mo, capillary discharge pumping in Ne-like Ar and quasi-steady state pumping in Ne-like Zn. Besides the accurate measurement of the temporal coherence of the laser in each case, we have studied the spectral behaviour when the laser is operated in the saturation regime and (in Ni-like Mo) when it is seeded with high-order harmonic radiation. We have also investigated the temporal behaviour of the Ni-like Mo transient XUV laser, using an ultrafast X-ray streak camera. Our linewidth measurements are compared with detailed numerical calculations including relevant broadening mechanisms as well as radiative transfer effects. The evolution of the spectral profile with amplification and saturation was studied for different plasma parameters, and corresponding Fourier-transform limit duration were evaluated.The shortest temporal coherence (ie the largest bandwidth) is measured for the quasi-steady state pumping XUV laser, which operates at the highest density and ionic temperature.

In a number of electrical engineering problems, so-called "crossing points" -- the instants at which two continuous-time signals cross each other -- are of interest. Often, particularly in applications using a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), only periodic samples along with a partial statistical characterization of the signals are available. In this situation, we are faced with the following problem: Given limited information about these signals, how can we efficiently and accurately estimate their crossing points? / For example, an audio amplifier typically receives its input from a digital source decoded into regular samples (e.g. from MP3, DVD, or CD audio), or obtained from a continuous-time signal using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). In a switching amplifier based on Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) or Click Modulation (CM), a signal derived from the sampled audio is compared against a deterministic reference waveform; the crossing points of these signals control a switching power stage. Crossing-point estimates must be accurate in order to preserve audio quality. They must also be simple to calculate, in order to minimize processing requirements and delays. / We consider estimating the crossing points of a known function and a Gaussian random process, given uniformly-spaced, noisy samples of the random process for which the second-order statistics are assumed to be known. We derive the Maximum A-Posteriori (MAP) estimator, along with a Minimum Mean-Squared Error (MMSE) estimator which we show to be a computationally efficient approximation to the MAP estimator. / We also derive the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) on estimator variance for the problem, which allows practical estimators to be evaluated against a best-case performance limit. We investigate several comparison estimators chosen from the literature. The structure of the MMSE estimator and comparison estimators is shown to be very similar, making the difference in computational expense between each technique largely dependent on the cost of evaluating various (generally non-linear) functions. / Simulations for both Pulse-Width and Click Modulation scenarios show the MMSE estimator performs very near to the Cramer-Rao bound and outperforms the alternative estimators selected from the literature.