Shelf life of fresh fruits and vegetables is greatly influenced by environmental conditions. Increasing temperature usually results in accelerated loss of quality and shelf-life reduction, which is not physically visible until too late in the supply chain to adjust logistics to match shelf life. A blackberry study showed that temperatures inside pallets varied significantly and 57% of the berri...

Expressions describing the resonant frequency and quality factor of a dynamically driven, polymer-coated microcantilever in a viscous liquid medium have been obtained. These generalized formulas are used to describe the effects the operational medium and the viscoelastic coating have on the device sensitivity when used in liquid-phase chemical sensing applications. Shifts in the resonant freque...

A cryogenic differential accelerometer has been developed to test the weak equivalence principle to a few parts in 10(15) within the framework of the general relativity accuracy test in an Einstein elevator experiment. The prototype sensor was designed to identify, address, and solve the major issues associated with various aspects of the experiment. This paper illustrates the measurements cond...

We demonstrate a 165-mu;m oblate spheroidal microcavity with a free spectral range of 383.7 GHz (3.06 nm), a resonance bandwidth of 23 MHz (quality factor Q approximately 10(7)) at 1550 nm, and finesse F>/=10(4) . The highly oblate spheroidal dielectric microcavity combines a very high Q factor, typical of microspheres, with a vastly reduced number of excited whispering-gallery modes (by 2 orde...

We propose a design for high quality factor two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal cavities on silicon-on-insulator (SOI). A quality factor of up to 1.2×10(7) with a modal volume of 2.35(λ/n)(3) is simulated. A very high quality factor of 200,000 is experimentally demonstrated for a 2D cavity fabricated on SOI.

Elastic and anelastic properties of a member of the BiFeO3-CaFeO2.5 perovskite solid solution (BCFO), which is known to have multiple instabilities, have been investigated by resonant ultrasound spectroscopy. This phase, with 64% Bi and 36% Ca on the A site, is antiferromagnetic (TN ∼650 K) and has an ordered arrangement of oxygen vacancies with tetragonal lattice geometry. The inverse mechanic...

A new microcavity design is proposed and structures are realized with a two-dimensional photonic-crystal slab. The cavity consists of seven defect holes that encompass a hexagon and is designed to reduce vertical light leakage. From a direct transmission measurement, a Q value of 816+/-30 is achieved at lambda =1.55 mum . This high- Q cavity will permit the realistic realization of spontaneous-...

Microscale and nanoscale mechanical resonators have recently emerged as ubiquitous devices for use in advanced technological applications, for example, in mobile communications and inertial sensors, and as novel tools for fundamental scientific endeavours. Their performance is in many cases limited by the deleterious effects of mechanical damping. In this study, we report a significant advancem...

Extinction cross-section spectra of split-ring-resonator dimers have been measured at near-infrared frequencies with a sensitive spatial modulation technique. The resonance frequency of the dimer's coupled mode as well as its extinction cross-section and its quality factor depend on the relative orientation and separation of the two split-ring resonators. The findings can be interpreted in term...

Strontium optical lattice clocks have the potential to simultaneously interrogate millions of atoms with a high spectroscopic quality factor of 4 × 1017 Previously, atomic interactions have forced a compromise between clock stability, which benefits from a large number of atoms, and accuracy, which suffers from density-dependent frequency shifts. Here we demonstrate a scalable solution that tak...