This paper proposes a composite non-singular fast terminal sliding mode attitude control scheme based on a reduced-order extended state observer for the stratospheric airship’s attitude system affected by multiple disturbances. First, the feedback linearisation method is applied to address the nonlinearity of the attitude motion model and achieve decoupling of the model in three channels. Second, the overall disturbances, encompassing airship parameter perturbations and external disturbances, are treated as an aggregate. A reduced-order extended state observer is designed for each channel to formulate a composite non-singular fast terminal sliding mode surface. In the control design phase, the hyperbolic sine function is adopted as replacement for the sign function to ensure the continuity of the control signal. The estimated disturbances are incorporated in the control law design to directly offset the effects of multiple disturbances on the attitude motion of the airship. Third, based on Lyapunov theory, it has been proven that the control law can drive the attitude tracking error to converge to zero within a finite time. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control scheme exhibits favorable disturbance rejection capability, as well as higher tracking accuracy and faster response speed.

A new approach is proposed to analyze Bremsstrahlung X-rays that are emitted from laser-produced plasmas (LPP) and are measured by a stack type spectrometer. This new method is based on a spectral tomographic reconstruction concept with the variational principle for optimization, without referring to the electron energy distribution of a plasma. This approach is applied to the analysis of some experimental data obtained at a few major laser facilities to demonstrate the applicability of the method. Slope temperatures of X-rays from LPP are determined with a two-temperature model, showing different spectral characteristics of X-rays depending on laser properties used in the experiments.

The method for measuring synchronization error of ultra-short pulses was introduced based on the principle of non-collinear cross-correlation. The analytical expression for the measurement was deduced according to the cross-correlation signal. The influences of angular error on the measurement were analyzed by simulated experiments. The incident angle and the angular error tolerance were both required to be considered and determined for the synchronization error measurement of ultra-short pulses. The results provide a theoretical basis for the measurement and control of the synchronization error in the coherent beam combination, plasma parameter diagnosis, etc.

The c-oriented La1.8Sr0.2CuO4 and La1.9Sr0.1CuO4 bilayer films were deposited on (001) SrTiO3 single-crystal substrates by using the pulsed laser deposition technique. The effects of deposition parameters on the quality of thin films were investigated. The crystal structures and surface morphologies were characterized by means of XRD and SEM, and the results showed that an as-prepared film deposited with the optimized parameters has high quality. Then La1.8Sr0.2CuO4/La1.9Sr0.1CuO4 bilayers structure was prepared using the optimized parameters for each corresponding layer, and the electrical transport properties were measured. Interesting rectifying properties were observed at both room and low temperatures, and the rectifying ratio at low temperature was found to be much higher than that at room temperature.

Nanostructuring is one of the effective approaches to lower the thermal conductivity of thermoelectric materials for improving its figure of merit. The nano-sized uniform skutterudite Co1−xNixSb3 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.075, 0.125, 0.15, and 0.25) thermoelectric powders were synthesized in triethylene glycol solution by using CoCl2, NiCl2, and SbCl3 as precursors and NaBH4 as the reductant. Different synthesis conditions were studied to pursue pure and uniform skutterudite CoSb3 powders. The powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscope, and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. Experimental results show that a Ni-doped skutterudite Co1−xNixSb3 single phase was obtained at 290 °C for 12 h. The powders are spherical, small, and uniform. As x increases from 0 to 0.25, the unit-cell parameter a increases from 0.9044 to 0.9065 nm and the particle size increases from 10 to 30 nm.

The aim of this work is to study the effect of Nb element doping on the microstructure and electrical properties of lead zirconate stannum titanate (PZST) ceramic and to improve phase transition properties of PZST. Nb-doped Pb(Zr,Sn,Ti)O3 ceramic samples were prepared by the conventional mixed oxide method. Phase transitions induced by temperature, pressure, and electric field were measured with electric dielectric permittivity, hydrostatic pressure, and hysteresis. The microstructure of the samples was observed by electron scanning microscope to discuss the effect of Nb doping on PZST ceramics. The experiment results indicated that the remnant polarization (Pr), dielectric constant, phase transition, and microstructure were strongly dependent on Nb doping content.

Glass-forming ability (GFA) in relation to microstructure evolution in the ternary Fe–Nb–B and Fe–Zr–B and quaternary Fe–(Nb,Zr)–B systems was systematically studied in a three-dimensional composition space. Through navigating, it was revealed that alloys with the optimum glass-forming ability (GFA) are coupled with composition regions surrounded by competing crystalline phases. Alloys Fe71Nb6B23, Fe77Zr4B19, and Fe71(Nb0.8Zr0.2)6B23 were illustrated to be the best glass formers in the ternary Fe–Nb–B and Fe–Zr–B systems and the quaternary Fe–(Nb,Zr)–B system, respectively, with a critical size for amorphous formation up to 2 mm. They were compared with the theoretical predictions on the basis of an efficient dense-packing model, and good agreements were obtained.

This Paper investigates the bending behavior of piezoelectric laminates under combined mechanical and electrical loading. The laminate has a PZT - 5H ceramic core sandwiched by graphite/epoxy plates. Three-point bending tests and in-situ acoustic emission measurements were conducted on the PZT-5H laminates preloaded by an applied electric field. The results show that the PZT-5H core fractures first and then delaminaton occurs along the tensile stressed interface between the PZT ceremic and the graphite/epoxy layer. Finite element analysis was performed to analyze stresses in the sandwich structure under combined mechanical and electrical loading. Consequently, the bending strength of the PZT core was evaluated from the experiment data. The electric field, either positive or negative, reduces the fracture strength of the pzt core.

We have performed photoluminescence (PL) measurements at liquid nitrogen temperature under high pressure up to 5.5 GPa and in the temperature range 10-300 K at atmospheric pressure on {(ZnSe)30(ZnSe0.92Te0.08)30(ZnSe)30[(CdSe)1(ZnSe)2]9}x5 multiple quantum wells. The PL peaks, EB, E1 and Ew corresponding to the band edge luminescence in ZnSe barrier layer, the transitions from the first conduction subband to the heavy-hole subband in ZnSe0.92Te0.08 layers and [(CdSe)1(ZnSe)2]9 ultra short period superlattice quantum well (SPSLQW) layers have been observed. Experimental results show that ZnSe0.92Te0.08/ZnSe forms a type-I superlattice (SL) in contrast to the type-II ZnSe/ZnTe SL. The pressure coefficients of the EB, E1 and Ew exciton peaks have been determined as 67, 63 and 56 meV/GPa, respectively. With increasing temperature (or pressure), the E1 peak-intensity drastically decreases which is attributed to the thermal effect (or the appearance of many defects in ZnSe0.92Te0.08 under higher pressure).