Terahertz quantum cascade lasers with a record output power up to ∼0.23 W in continuous wave mode were obtained. We show that the optimal 2.9-mm-long device operating at 3.11 THz has a low threshold current density of 270 A/cm2 at ∼15 K. The maximum operating temperature arrived at ∼65 K in continuous wave mode and the internal quantum efficiencies decreased from 0.53 to 0.19 for the devices with different cavity lengths. By using one convex lens with the effective focal length of 13 mm, the beam profile was collimated to be a quasi Gaussian distribution.

A series of fused-ring electron acceptors with indacenodithiophene as core, 2-(3-oxo-2,3-dihydroinden-1-ylidene) malononitrile as end groups, thiophene with different side chains as π bridge are designed, synthesized and applied in non-fullerene organic solar cells (OSCs). The effects of alkyl side chains on absorption, energy level, molecular packing, domain size, domain purity, charge transport and photovoltaic performance are systematically investigated. Via the steric hindrance effect, increase in carbon number of side chains slightly downshifts HOMO energy levels, upshifts LUMO energy levels and thereby increases open circuit voltage from 0.84 to 0.95 V gradually. Short circuit current, fill factor and efficiency vary non-monotonically with aliphatic carbon number of alkyl chains and reach maximum value simultaneously when carbon number is six.

Based on the requirements of underwater acoustic stealth, the classification and research background of acoustic coatings are introduced herein. The research significance of acoustic coatings is expounded from the perspective of both the military and civilian use. A brief overview of the conventional design process of acoustic coatings is presented, which describes the substrates used in different countries. Aimed at the local design of acoustic coatings, research progress on passive and semi-active/active sound absorption structure is summarized. Focused on the passive acoustic coatings; acoustic cavity design and optimization, acoustic performance of acoustic coatings with rigid inclusions or scatterers, and acoustic coatings with a hybrid structure are discussed. Moreover, an overview of the overall design of acoustic coatings based on the sound field characteristics of the submarine is also presented. Finally, the shortcomings of the research are discussed, breakthroughs in acoustic coating design research are forecast, and the key technical issues to be solved are highlighted.

Visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is well-known to be one of the research areas in robotics. There are many challenges in traditional point feature-based approaches, such as insufficient point features, motion jitter, and low localization accuracy in low-texture scenes, which reduce the performance of the algorithms. In this article, we propose an RGB-D SLAM system to handle these situations, which is named Point-Line Fusion (PLF)-SLAM. We utilize both points and line segments throughout the process of our work. Specifically, we present a new line segment extraction method to solve the overlap or branch problem of the line segments, and then a more rigorous screening mechanism is proposed in the line matching section. Instead of minimizing the reprojection error of points, we introduce the reprojection error based on points and lines to get a more accurate tracking pose. In addition, we come up with a solution to handle the jitter frame, which greatly improves tracking success rate and availability of the system. We thoroughly evaluate our system on the Technische Universität München (TUM) RGB-D benchmark and compare it with ORB-SLAM2, presumably the current state-of-the-art solution. The experiments show that our system has better accuracy and robustness compared to the ORB-SLAM2.

Terahertz digital holography is a combination of terahertz technology and digital holography. In digital holography, the imaging resolution is the key parameter in determining the detailed quality of a reconstructed wavefront. In this paper, the synthetic aperture method is used in terahertz digital holography and the in-line arrangement is built to perform the detection. The resolved capability of previous terahertz digital holographic systems restricts this technique to meet the requirement of practical detection. In contrast, the experimental resolved power of the present method can reach 125 μm, which is the best resolution of terahertz digital holography to date. Furthermore, the basic detection of a biological specimen is conducted to show the practical application. In all, the results of the proposed method demonstrate the enhancement of experimental imaging resolution and that the amplitude and phase distributions of the fine structure of samples can be reconstructed by using terahertz digital holography.