Terahertz (THz) radiation has important applications in spectroscopy, imaging, and space science. Fiber optics for the THz region have been limited to rigid hollow metallic waveguides or short lengths of solid-core transparent dielectrics such as sapphire and plastic. We have fabricated flexible, hollow polycarbonate waveguides with interior Cu coatings for broadband THz transmission using simple liquid-phase chemistry techniques. The losses for these hollow-core guides were measured using a tunable, cw single-mode far IR laser. The losses for the best guides were found to be less than four dB/m and the single mode of the laser was preserved for the smaller bore waveguides.

The increase in delays in the National Airspace System (NAS) has been the subject of several studies in recent years. These reports contain delay statistics over the entire NAS, along with some data specific to individual airports, however, a comprehensive characterization and comparison of the delay distributions is absent. Historical delay data for these airports are summarized. The various causal factors related to aircraft, airline operations, change of procedures and traffic volume are also discussed. Motivated by the desire to improve the accuracy of demand prediction in enroute sectors and at airports through probabilistic delay forecasting, this paper analyzes departure and arrival data for ten major airports in the United States that experience large volumes of traffic and significant delays. To enable such an analysis, several data fields for every aircraft departing from or arriving at these ten airports in a 21day period were extracted from the Post Operations Evaluation Tool (POET) database. Distributions that show the probability of a certain delay time for a given aircraft were created. These delay-time probability density functions were modeled using Normal and Poisson distributions with the mean and standard deviations derived from the raw data. The models were then improved by adjusting the mean and standard deviation values via a least squares method designed to minimize the fit error between the raw distribution and the model. It is shown that departure delay is better modeled using a Poisson distribution, while the enroute and arrival delays fit the Normal distribution better. Finally, correlation between the number of departures, number of arrivals and departure delays is examined from a time-series modeling perspective.

The spectral performance of freestanding resonant metal-mesh bandpass filters operating with center frequencies ranging from 585 GHz to 2.1 THz is presented. These filters are made up of a 12-µm-thick copper film with an array of cross-shaped apertures that fill a circular area with a 50-mm diameter. The filters exhibit power transmission in the range 97-100% at their respective center frequencies and stop-band rejection in excess of 18 dB. The theoretically predicted nondiffracting properties of the meshes are experimentally verified through high-resolution beam mapping. Scalability of the filter spectra with mesh dimensions is demonstrated over a wide spectral range. Several modeling methods are considered, and results from the models are shown.

Crystalline solid-state oxides that exhibit resistance to radiation-induced structural damage are being considered as materials for the immobilization of waste actinide elements. In this regard, compounds adopting the monazite (REPO4; RE = La to Gd) or xenotime (RE′PO4; RE′ = Tb to Lu and Y) structures are being investigated for this application. Both of these structures coexist in natural samples which leads to the formation of solid solutions. In this study, multiple series of solid solutions (La1–x Yb x PO4, La1–x Y x PO4, and Sm1–x Ho x PO4) were synthesized and investigated by powder X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XANES and XPS were performed to examine the influence of crystal structure on spectra. Examination of P K- and P L2,3-edge XANES spectra indicated that a positive shift in absorption energy and change in line shape occur with an increase in the concentration of xenotime structure. Analysis of Sm and Ho M5-edge XANES spectra showed that the spectral intensity changes because of a charge-transfer mechanism. The XPS spectra exhibited only a minor shift in binding energy depending on the structure. It has been established in this study that XANES can distinguish between samples that adopt the monazite or xenotime structure.

Aviation technologies and concepts have reached a level of maturity that may soon enable an era of on-demand mobility (ODM) fueled by quiet, efficient, and largely automated air taxis. However, successfully bringing such a system to fruition will require introducing ordersof-magnitude more aircraft to a given airspace volume than can be accommodated by the traditional air traffic control system, among other important technical challenges. The airspace integration problem is further compounded by requirements to set aside appropriate ground infrastructure for take-off and landing areas and ensuring these new aircraft types and their operations do not overly burden traditional airspace users and air traffic control. These challenges for ODM may be significantly reduced by extending the concepts and technologies developed to manage small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) at low altitudethe UAS traffic management (UTM) system-to higher altitudes and aircraft with humans onboard in controlled airspace, or by equipping ODM aircraft with advanced sensors, algorithms, and interfaces. The precedent of operational freedom inherent in visual flight rules and the technologies developed for large UAS and commercial aircraft automation will contribute to the evolution of an ODM system enabled by UTM. This paper describes the set of air traffic services, normally provided by the traditional air traffic system, that an ODM system would implement to achieve the high densities needed for ODM's economic viability. Finally, the paper proposes a framework for integrating, evaluating, and deploying low-, medium-, and high-density ODM concepts that build on each other to ensure operational and economic feasibility at every step.