Physics Assignment

Ceramics
Introduction to ceramics
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous (e.g., a glass). Because most common ceramics are crystalline, the definition of ceramic is often restricted to inorganic crystalline materials, as opposed to the non crystalline glasses. The earliest ceramics were pottery objects made from clay, either by itself or mixed with other materials, hardened in fire. Later ceramics were glazed and fired to create a colored, smooth surface. Ceramics now include domestic, industrial and building products and art objects. In the 20th century, new ceramic materials were developed for use in advanced ceramic engineering; for example, in semiconductors.

Types of Ceramic Products

For convenience, ceramic products are usually divided into four sectors; these are shown below with some examples:

Structural, including bricks, pipes, floor and roof tiles Refractories, such as kiln linings, gas fire radiants, steel and glass making crucibles Whitewares, including tableware, wall tiles, pottery products and sanitary ware Technical, is also known as engineering, advanced, special, and in Japan, fine ceramics. Such items include tiles used in the Space Shuttle program, gas burner nozzles, ballistic protection, nuclear fuel uranium oxide pellets, biomedical

Physics Assignment
implants, jet engine turbine blades and missile nose cones. Frequently, the raw materials do not include clays.

Other applications of ceramics

Knife blades: the blade of a ceramic knife will stay sharp for much longer than that of a steel knife, although it is more brittle and can be snapped by dropping it on a hard surface. Vehicle ceramic brake discs due to high temperature abrasion resistance Advanced composite ceramic and metal matrices have been designed for most modern armoured fighting vehicles because they offer superior penetrating resistance against shaped charges such as high explosive antitank (HEAT) rounds and kinetic energy penetrators. Ceramics such as alumina and boron carbide have been used in ballistic armored vests to repel large-calibre rifle fire. Such plates are known commonly as small arms protective inserts (SAPIs). Similar material is used to protect cockpits of some military airplanes, because of the low weight of the material. Ceramic balls can be used to replace steel in ball bearings. Their higher hardness means they are much less susceptible to wear and can offer more than triple lifetimes. They also deform less under load, meaning they have less contact with the bearing retainer walls and can roll faster. In very high speed applications, heat from friction during rolling can cause problems for metal bearings, which are reduced by the use of ceramics. Ceramics are also more chemically resistant and can be used in wet environments where steel bearings would rust. In some cases, their electricity-insulating properties may also be valuable in bearings. The two major drawbacks to using ceramics are a significantly higher cost and susceptibility to damage under shock loads. In the early 1980s, Toyota researched production of an adiabatic ceramic engine which can run at a temperature of over 6000F (3300C). Ceramic engines are made of lighter materials and do not require a cooling system and hence allow a major weight reduction. Fuel efficiency of the engine is also higher at high temperature, as shown by Carnot's theorem. In a
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conventional metallic engine, much of the energy released from the fuel must be dissipated as waste heat to prevent a meltdown of the metallic parts. Despite all of these desirable properties, such engines are not in production because the manufacturing of ceramic parts in the requisite precision and durability is difficult. Imperfection in the ceramic leads to cracks, which can lead to potentially dangerous equipment failure. Such engines are possible in laboratory settings, but mass production is not feasible with current technology. Work is being done in developing ceramic parts for gas turbine engines. Currently, even blades made of advanced metal alloys used in the engines' hot section require cooling and careful limiting of operating temperatures. Turbine engines made with ceramics could operate more efficiently, giving aircraft greater range and payload for a set amount of fuel. Recent advances have been made in ceramics which include bioceramics, such as dental implants and synthetic bones. Hydroxyapatite, the natural mineral component of bone, has been made synthetically from a number of biological and chemical sources and can be formed into ceramic materials. Orthopedic implants coated with these materials bond readily to bone and other tissues in the body without rejection or inflammatory reactions so are of great interest for gene delivery and tissue engineering scaffolds. Most hydroxyapatite ceramics are very porous and lack mechanical strength, and are used to coat metal orthopedic devices to aid in forming a bond to bone or as bone fillers. They are also used as fillers for orthopedic plastic screws to aid in reducing the inflammation and increase absorption of these plastic materials. Work is being done to make strong, fully dense nano crystalline hydroxyapatite ceramic materials for orthopedic weight bearing devices, replacing foreign metal and plastic orthopedic materials with a synthetic, but naturally occurring, bone mineral. Ultimately, these ceramic materials may be used as bone replacements or with the incorporation of protein collagens, synthetic bones. High-tech ceramic is used in watchmaking for producing watch cases. The material is valued by watchmakers for its light weight, scratch resistance, durability and smooth touch. IWC is one of the brands that initiated the use
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of ceramic in watchmaking. The case of the IWC 2007 Top Gun edition of the Pilot's Watch double chronograph is crafted in black ceramic.

Types of ceramic materials

A ceramic material is often understood as restricted to inorganic "crystalline" oxide material. It is solid and inert. Ceramic materials are brittle, hard, strong in compression, weak in shearing and tension. They withstand chemical erosion that occurs in other materials subjected to acidic or caustic environments. Ceramics generally can withstand very high temperatures, such as temperatures that range from 1,000C to 1,600C (1,800F to 3,000F). Exceptions include inorganic materials that do not include oxygen, such as silicon carbide or silicon nitride. A glass is often not understood as a ceramic because of its amorphous (noncrystalline) character. However, glass making involves several steps of the ceramic process and its mechanical properties are similar to ceramic materials. Traditional ceramic raw materials include clay minerals such as kaolinite, whereas more recent materials include aluminium oxide, more commonly known as alumina. The modern ceramic materials, which are classified as advanced ceramics, include silicon carbide and tungsten carbide. Both are valued for their abrasion resistance, and hence find use in applications such as the wear plates of crushing equipment in mining operations. Advanced ceramics are also used in the medicine, electrical and electronics industries.

Crystalline ceramics
Crystalline ceramic materials are not amenable to a great range of processing. Methods for dealing with them tend to fall into one of two categories either make the ceramic in the desired shape, by reaction in situ, or by "forming" powders into the desired shape, and thensintering to form a solid body. Ceramic forming techniques include shaping by hand (sometimes including a rotation process called "throwing"), slip casting, tape casting (used for making very thin ceramic capacitors, e.g.), injection molding, dry pressing, and other variations. Details of these processes are
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described in the two books listed below. A few methods use a hybrid between the two approaches.

Noncrystalline ceramics
Noncrystalline ceramics, being glasses, tend to be formed from melts. The glass is shaped when either fully molten, by casting, or when in a state of toffee-like viscosity, by methods such as blowing to a mold. If later heat treatments cause this glass to become partly crystalline, the resulting material is known as a glass-ceramic.

Fibre-reinforced plastic
Fibre -reinforced polymer is a composite material made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres. The fibres are usually fibreglass, carbon, or aramid, while the polymer is usually an epoxy, vinylester or polyester thermosetting plastic. FRPs are commonly used in the aerospace, automotive, marine, and construction industries.

Process definition
A polymer is generally manufactured by polycondensation, polymerization or polyaddition. When combined with various agents to enhance or in any way alter the material properties of polymers the result is referred to as a plastic. Composite plastics refer to those types of plastics that result from bonding two or more homogeneous materials with different material properties to derive a final product with certain desired material and mechanical properties. Fibre reinforced plastics are a category of composite plastics that specifically use fibrous materials to mechanically enhance the strength and elasticity of plastics. The original plastic material without fibre reinforcement is known as the matrix. The matrix is a tough but relatively weak plastic that is reinforced by stronger stiffer reinforcing filaments or fibres. The extent that strength and elasticity are enhanced
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in a fibre reinforced plastic depends on the mechanical properties of the fibre and matrix, their volume relative to one another, and the fibre length and orientation within the matrix. Reinforcement of the matrix occurs by definition when the FRP material exhibits increased strength or elasticity relative to the strength and elasticity of the matrix alone.

Advantages and limitations

FRP allows the alignment of the glass fibres of thermoplastics to suit specific design programs. Specifying the orientation of reinforcing fibres can increase the strength and resistance to deformation of the polymer. Glass reinforced polymers are strongest and most resistive to deforming forces when the polymers fibres are parallel to the force being exerted, and are weakest when the fibres are perpendicular. Thus this ability is at once both an advantage or a limitation depending on the context of use. Weak spots of perpendicular fibres can be used for natural hinges and connections, but can also lead to material failure when production processes fail to properly orient the fibres parallel to expected forces. When forces are exerted perpendicular to the orientation of fibres the strength and elasticity of the polymer is less than the matrix alone. In cast resin components made of glass reinforced polymers such as UP and EP, the orientation of fibres can be oriented in twodimensional and three-dimensional weaves. This means that when forces are possibly perpendicular to one orientation, they are parallel to another orientation; this eliminates the potential for weak spots in the polymer

metallic glasses
An amorphous metal is a metallic material with a disordered atomic-scale structure. In contrast to most metals, which are crystalline and therefore have a
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highly ordered arrangement of atoms ,amorphous alloys are non-crystalline. Materials in which such a disordered structure is produced directly from the liquid state during cooling are called "glasses", and so amorphous metals are commonly referred to as "metallic glasses" or "glassy metals". However, there are several ways besides extremely rapid cooling in which amorphous metals can be produced, including physical vapor deposition, solid-state reaction, ion irradiation, melt spinning, and mechanical alloying. Some scientists do not consider amorphous metals produced by these techniques to be glasses. However, materials scientists commonly consider amorphous alloys to be a single class of materials, regardless of how they are prepared. In the past, small batches of amorphous metals have been produced through a variety of quick-cooling methods. For instance, amorphous metal wires have been produced by sputtering molten metal onto a spinning metal disk. The rapid cooling, on the order of millions of degrees a second, is too fast for crystals to form and the material is "locked in" a glassy state. More recently a number of alloys with critical cooling rates low enough to allow formation of amorphous structure in thick layers (over 1 millimeter) had been produced; these are known as bulk metallic glasses (BMG). Liquidmetal sells a number of titanium-based BMGs, developed in studies originally carried out at Caltech. More recently, batches of amorphous steel have been produced that demonstrate strengths much greater than conventional steel alloy

Properties
Amorphous metal is usually an alloy rather than a pure metal. The alloys contain atoms of significantly different sizes, leading to low free volume (and therefore up to orders of magnitude higher viscosity than other metals and alloys) in molten state. The viscosity prevents the atoms moving enough to form an ordered lattice. The material structure also results in low shrinkage during cooling, and resistance to plastic deformation. The absence of grain boundaries, the weak spots of crystalline materials, leads to better resistance to wear and corrosion. Amorphous metals, while technically glasses, are also much tougher and less brittle than oxide glasses and ceramics.Thermal conductivity of amorphous materials is lower than of crystals. As formation of amorphous structure relies on fast cooling, this limits the maximum achievable thickness of amorphous structures.
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To achieve formation of amorphous structure even during slower cooling, the alloy has to be made of three or more components, leading to complex crystal units with higher potential energy and lower chance of formation. The atomic radius of the components has to be significantly different (over 12%), to achieve high packing density and low free volume. The combination of components should have negative heat of mixing, inhibiting crystal nucleation and prolongs the time the molten metal stays in supercooled state.

The alloys of boron, silicon, phosphorus, and other glass formers with magnetic metals (iron, cobalt, nickel) are magnetic, with low coercivityand high electrical resistance. The high resistance leads to low losses by eddy currents when subjected to alternating magnetic fields, a property useful for e.g. transformer magnetic cores.

Amorphous alloys have a variety of potentially useful properties. In particular, they tend to be stronger than crystalline alloys of similar chemical composition, and they can sustain larger reversible ("elastic") deformations than crystalline alloys. Amorphous metals derive their strength directly from their non-crystalline structure, which does not have any of the defects (such as dislocations) that limit the strength of crystalline alloys. One modern amorphous metal, known as Vitreloy, has a tensile strength that is almost twice that of high-grade titanium. However, metallic glasses at room temperature are not ductile and tend to fail suddenly when loaded in tension, which limits the material applicability in reliability-critical applications, as the impending failure is not evident. Therefore, there is considerable interest in producingmetal matrix composite materials consisting of a metallic glass matrix containing dendritic particles or fibers of a ductile crystalline metal.

Perhaps the most useful property of bulk amorphous alloys is that they are true glasses, which means that they soften and flow upon heating. This allows for easy processing, such as by injection molding, in much the same way as polymers. As a result, amorphous alloys have been commercialized for use in sports equipment, medical devices, and as cases for electronic equipment.

Thin films of amorphous metals can be deposited via high velocity oxygen fuel technique as protective coatings.
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Applications
Amorphous metals (metallic glasses) exhibit unique softening behavior above their glass transition and this softening has been increasingly explored for thermoplastic forming of metallic glasses.

It has been shown that metallic glasses can be patterned on extremely small length scales ranging from 10 nm to several millimeters. It has been suggested that this may solve the problems of nanoimprint lithography where expensive nano-molds made of silicon break easily. Nano-molds made from metallic glasses are easy to fabricate and more durable than silicon molds.

Ti40Cu36Pd14Zr10 is believed to be noncarcinogenic, is about 3 times stronger than titanium, and its elastic modulus nearly matches bones. It has a high wear resistance and does not produce abrasion powder. The alloy does not undergo shrinkage on solidification. A surface structure can be generated that is biologically attachable by surface modification using laser pulses, allowing better joining with bone.

Mg60Zn35Ca5, rapidly cooled to achieve amorphous structure, is being investigated as a biomaterial for implantation into bones as screws, pins, or plates, to fix fractures. Unlike traditional steel or titanium, this material dissolves in organisms at a rate of roughly 1 millimeter per month and is replaced with bone tissue. This speed can be adjusted by varying the content of zinc.

Shape memory alloy

A shape memory alloy (SMA, smart metal, memory metal, memory alloy, muscle wire, smart alloy) is an alloy that "remembers" its
original, cold-forged shape: returning the pre-deformed shape by heating. This material is a lightweight, solid-state alternative to conventional actuators
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such as hydraulic, pneumatic, and motor-based systems. Shape memory alloys have applications in industries including medical and aerospace. The three main types of shape memory alloys are the copper-zinc-aluminiumnickel, copper-aluminium-nickel, and nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloys but SMAs can also be created by alloying zinc, copper, gold and iron. NiTi alloys are generally more expensive and change fromaustenite to martensite upon cooling; Mf is the temperature at which the transition to martensite completes upon cooling. Accordingly, during heating As and Af are the temperatures at which the transformation from martensite to austenite starts and finishes. Repeated use of the shape memory effect may lead to a shift of the characteristic transformation temperatures (this effect is known as functional fatigue, as it is closely related with a change of microstructural and functional properties of the material).

The transition from the martensite phase to the austenite phase is only dependent on temperature and stress, not time, as most phase changes are, as there is no diffusion involved. Similarly, the austenite structure receives its name from steel alloys of a similar structure. It is the reversible diffusionless transition between these two phases that results in special properties. While martensite can be formed from austenite by rapidly cooling carbon-steel, this process is not reversible, s

o steel does not have shape memory properties.

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In this figure, (T) represents the martensite fraction. The difference between the heating transition and the cooling transition gives rise tohysteresis where some of the mechanical energy is lost in the process. The shape of the curve depends on the material properties of the shape memory alloy, such as the alloying. and work hardening. One-way vs. two-way shape memory Shape memory alloys have different shape memory effects. Two common effects are one-way and two-way shape memory. A schematic of the effects is shown below.

The procedures are very similar: starting from martensite (a), adding a reversible deformation for the one-way effect or severe deformation with an irreversible amount for the twoway (b), heating the sample (c) and cooling it again (d).

One-way memory effect

When a shape memory alloy is in its cold state (below As), the metal can be bent or stretched and will hold those shapes until heated above the transition temperature. Upon heating, the shape changes to its original. When the metal
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Physics Assignment cools again it will remain in the hot shape, until deformed again. With the one-way effect, cooling from high temperatures does not cause a macroscopic shape change. A deformation is necessary to create the low-temperature shape. On heating, transformation starts at As and is completed at Af (typically 2 to 20 C or hotter, depending on the alloy or the loading conditions). As is determined by the alloy type and composition and can vary between 150 C and 200 C.

Two-way memory effect

The two-way shape memory effect is the effect that the material remembers two different shapes: one at low temperatures, and one at the high-temperature shape. A material that shows a shape memory effect during both heating and cooling is called two-way shape memory. This can also be obtained without the application of an external force (intrinsic two-way effect). The reason the material behaves so differently in these situations lies in training. Training implies that a shape memory can "learn" to behave in a certain way. Under normal circumstances, a shape memory alloy "remembers" its high-temperature shape, but upon heating to recover the hightemperature shape, immediately "forgets" the low-temperature shape. However, it can be "trained" to "remember" to leave some reminders of the deformed low-temperature condition in the high-temperature phases. There are several ways of doing this. A shaped, trained object heated beyond a certain point will lose the two-way memory effect, this is known as "amnesia".

Pseudo-elasticity
One of the commercial uses of shape memory alloy exploits the pseudo-elastic properties of the metal during the hightemperature (austenitic) phase. The frames of reading glasses have been made of shape memory alloy as they can undergo
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large deformations in their high-temperature state and then instantly revert back to their original shape when the stress is removed. This is the result of pseudoelasticity; the martensitic phase is generated by stressing the metal in the austenitic state and this martensite phase is capable of large strains. With the removal of the load, the martensite transforms back into the austenite phase and resumes its original shape. This allows the metal to be bent, twisted and pulled, before reforming its shape when released. This means the frames of shape memory alloy glasses are claimed to be "nearly indestructible" because it appears no amount of bending results in permanent plastic deformation. The martensite temperature of shape memory alloys is dependent on a number of factors including alloy chemistry. Shape memory alloys with transformation temperatures in the range of 601450 K have been made.

Crystal structures
Many metals have several different crystal structures at the same composition, but most metals do not show this shape memory effect. The special property that allows shape memory alloys to revert to their original shape after heating is that their crystal transformation is fully reversible. In most crystal transformations, the atoms in the structure will travel through the metal by diffusion, changing the composition locally, even though the metal as a whole is made of the same atoms. A reversible transformation does not involve this diffusion of atoms, instead all the atoms shift at the same time to form a new structure, much in the way a parallelogram can be made out of a square by pushing on two opposing sides. At different temperatures, different structures are preferred and when the structure is cooled through the transition temperature, the martensitic structure forms from the austenitic phase.

Manufacture
Shape memory alloys are typically made by casting, using vacuum arc melting or induction melting. These are specialist techniques
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used to keep impurities in the alloy to a minimum and ensure the metals are well mixed. The ingot is then hot rolled into longer sections and thendrawn to turn it into wire. The way in which the alloys are "trained" depends on the properties wanted. The "training" dictates the shape that the alloy will remember when it is heated. This occurs by heating the alloy so that the dislocations re-order into stable positions, but not so hot that the materialrecrystallizes. They are heated to between 400 C and 500 C for 30 minutes. Typical variables for some alloys are 500 C and for more than 5 minutes. They are then shaped while hot and are cooled rapidly by quenching in water or by cooling with air.

Properties
The copper-based and NiTi-based shape memory alloys are considered to be engineering materials. These compositions can be manufactured to almost any shape and size. The yield strength of shape memory alloys is lower than that of conventional steel, but some compositions have a higher yield strength than plastic or aluminum. The yield stress for Ni Ti can reach 500 MPa. The high cost of the metal itself and the processing requirements make it difficult and expensive to implement SMAs into a design. As a result, these materials are used in applications where the super elastic properties or the shape memory effect can be exploited. The most common application is in actuation. One of the advantages to using shape memory alloys is the high level of recoverable plastic strain that can be induced. The maximum recoverable strain these materials can hold without permanent damage is up to 8% for some alloys. This compares with a maximum strain0.5% for conventional steels.

Applications
Industrial
Aircraft
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Boeing, General Electric Aircraft Engines, Goodrich Corporation, NASA, and All Nippon Airways developed the Variable Geometry Chevron using shape memory alloy that reduces aircraft's engine noise.

Piping
The first consumer commercial application for the material was as a shape memory coupling for piping, e.g. oil line pipes for industrial applications, water pipes and similar types of piping for consumer/commercial applications.

Robotics
there have also been limited studies on using these materials in robotics, for example the hobbyist robot Stiquito (and "Roboterfrau Lara"), as they make it possible to create very light robots. Weak points of the technology are energy inefficiency, slow response times, and largehysteresis.Nitinol wire is also used in and in a few magic tricks, particularly those involving heat and shapeshifting.

Medicine
Shape memory alloys are applied in medicine, for example, as fixation devices for osteotomies in orthopaedic surgery, in dental braces to exert constant tooth-moving forces on the teeth. The late 1980s saw the commercial introdu ction of Nitinol as an enabling technology in a number of minimally invasive endovascular medical applications. While more costly than stainless steel, the self expanding properties of Nitinol alloys manufactured to BTR (Body Temperature Response), have provided an attractive alternative to balloon expandable devices in stent grafts where it gives the ability to adapt to the shape of certain blood vessels when exposed to body temperature. On average, 50% of all peripheral vascular stents currently available on the worldwide market are manufactured with Nitinol.

Optometry
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Eyeglass frames made from titanium-containing SMAs are marketed under the trademarks Flexon and TITANflex. These frames are usually made out of shape memory alloys that have their transition temperature set below the expected room temperature. This allows the frames to undergo large deformation under stress, yet regain their intended shape once the metal is unloaded again. The very large apparently elastic strains are due to the stress-induced martensitic effect, where the crystal structure can transform under loading, allowing the shape to change temporarily under load. This means that eyeglasses made of shape memory alloys are more robust against being accidentally damaged.

Materials
Alloys of metals having the memory effect at different temperatures and at different percentages of its solid solution contents.

Ag-Cd 44/49 at.% Cd Au-Cd 46.5/50 at.% Cd Cu-Al-Ni 14/14.5 wt.% Al and 3/4.5 wt.% Ni Cu-Sn approx. 15 at.% Sn Cu-Zn 38.5/41.5 wt.% Zn Cu-Zn-X (X = Si, Al, Sn) Fe-Pt approx. 25 at.% Pt Mn-Cu 5/35 at.% Cu Fe-Mn-Si Pt alloys Co-Ni-Al Co-Ni-Ga Ni-Fe-Ga

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Ti-Pd in various concentrations Ni-Ti (~55% Ni) Ni-Ti-Nb Ni-Mn-GaA

Sensor
sensor is a device that measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument. For example, a mercury-in-glass thermometer converts the measured temperature into expansion and contraction of a liquid which can be read on a calibrated glass tube. A thermocouple converts temperature to an output voltage which can be read by a voltmeter. For accuracy, most sensors are calibrated against known standards

Actuators
An actuator is a mechanical device for moving or controlling a mechanism or system. It is operated by a source of energy, usually in the form of an electric current, hydraulic fluid pressure or pneumatic pressure, and converts that energy into some kind of motion.

Examples and applications

Mmechanical actuators operate by conversion of rotary motion into linear motion, or vice versa. Conversion is

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Physics Assignment commonly made via a few simple types of mechanism including: screw: Screw jack, ball screw and roller screw actuators all operate on the principle of the simple machine known as the screw. By rotating the actuator's nut, the screw shaft moves in a line. By moving the screw shaft, the nut rotates. wheel and axle: Hoist, winch, rack and pinion, chain drive, belt drive, rigid chain and rigid belt actuators operate on the principle of the wheel and axle. By rotating a wheel/axle (e.g. drum, gear, pulley or shaft) a linear member (e.g. cable, rack, chain or belt) moves. By moving the linear member, the wheel/axle rotates. In engineering, actuators are frequently used as mechanisms to introduce motion, or to clamp an object so as to prevent motion. In electronic engineering, actuators are a subdivision of transducers. They are devices which transform an input signal (mainly an electrical signal) into motion. Specific examples include: electrical motors, pneumatic actuators, hydraulic actuators, linear actuators, comb drive,piezoelectric actuators and amplified piezoelectric actuators, thermal bimorphs, micromirror devices and electroactive polymers.

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Physics Assignment Motors are mostly used when circular motions are needed, but can also be used for linear applications by transforming circular to linear motion with a bolt and screw transducer. On the other hand, some actuators are intrinsically linear, such as piezoelectric actuators.

Thermodynamic efficiency
The efficiency of an actuator is a standard tool used to calculate or estimate the usefulness of any actuating mechanism. It is a dimensionless quantity which is lower than 1 expressing the energy conversion factor. For better explanation see Thermodynamic efficiency. Most of the wasted energy (due to friction, magnetic losses, eddy currents etc.) is thermally dissipated.

Photo detector
Photo sensors or photo detectors are sensors of light or other electromagnetic energy. There are several varieties:

Optical detectors, which are mostly quantum devices in which an individual photon produces a discrete effect.

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Chemical detectors, such as photographic plates, in which a silver halide molecule is split into an atom of metallic silver and a halogen atom. The photographic developer causes adjacent molecules to split similarly. Photoresistors or Light Dependent Resistors (LDR) which change resistance according to light intensity Photovoltaic cells or solar cells which produce a voltage and supply an electric current when illuminated Photodiodes which can operate in photovoltaic mode or photoconductive mode Photomultiplier tubes containing a photocathode which emits electrons when illuminated, the electrons are then amplified by a chain ofdynodes. Phototubes containing a photocathode which emits electrons when illuminated, such that the tube conducts a current proportional to the light intensity. Phototransistors, which act like amplifying photodiodes. Optical detectors that are effectively thermometers, responding purely to the heating effect of the incoming radiation, such as pyroelectric detectors, Golay cells, thermocouples and thermistors, but the latter two are much less sensitive. Cryogenic detectors are sufficiently sensitive to measure the energy of single x-ray, visible and near infra-red photons. Charge-coupled devices (CCD), which are used to record images in astronomy, digital photography, and digital cinematography. Although before the 1990s photographic plates were the most common in astronomy. Glass-backed plates were used rather than film, because they do not shrink or deform in going between wet and dry condition, or under other

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disturbances. Unfortunately, Kodak discontinued producing several kinds of plates between 1980 and 2000, terminating the production of important sky surveys. The next generation of astronomical instruments , such as the Astro-E2, include cryogenic detectors. In experimental particle physics, a particle detector is a device used to track and identify elementary particles.

LEDs reverse-biased to act as photodiodes. See LEDs as Photodiode Light Sensors

Biosensor
A biosensor is an analytical device for the detection of an analyte that combines a biological component with a physicochemical detector component. It consists of 3 parts:

the sensitive biological element (biological material (e.g. tissue, microorganisms, organelles, cell receptors, enzymes, antibodies, nucleic acids, etc.), a biologically derived material or biomimic) The sensitive elements can be created by biological engineering. the transducer or the detector element (works in a physicochemical way; optical, piezoelectric, electrochemical, etc.) that transforms the signal resulting from the interaction of the analyte with the biological element into another signal (i.e., transducers) that can be more easily measured and quantified; associated electronics or signal processors that are primarily responsible for the display of the results in a user-friendly way. This sometimes accounts for the most expensive part of the sensor device, however it is possible to generate a user friendly display that includes transducer and sensitive element(see Holographic Sensor).

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Principles of Detection
Photometric
Many optical biosensors based on the phenomenon of surface plasmon resonance are evanescent wave techniques. This utilises a property of gold and other materials; specifically that a thin layer of gold on a high refractive index glass surface can absorb laser light, producing electron waves (surface plasmons) on the gold surface. This occurs only at a specific angle and wavelength of incident light and is highly dependent on the surface of the gold, such that binding of a target analyte to a receptor on the gold surface produces a measurable signal.

Electrochemical
Electrochemical biosensors are normally based on enzymatic catalysis of a reaction that produces or consumes electrons (such enzymes are rightly called redox enzymes). The sensor substrate usually contains three electrodes; a reference electrode, a working electrode and a sink electrode. An auxiliary electrode (also known as a counter electrode) may also be present as an ion source. The target analyte is involved in the reaction that takes place on the active electrode surface, and the ions produced create a potential which is subtracted from that of the reference electrode to give a signal. We can either measure the current (rate of flow of electrons is now proportional to the analyte concentration) at a fixed potential or the potential can be measured at zero current (this gives a logarithmic response). Note that potential of the working or active electrode is space charge sensitive and this is often used. Further, the label-free and direct electrical detection of small peptides and proteins is possible by their intrinsic charges using biofunctionalized ionsensitive field-effect transistors.

Ion Channel Switch

An Ion Channel Switch (ICS) biosensor can be created using
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gramicidin, a dimeric peptide channel, in a tethered bilayer membrane. One peptide of gramicidin, with attached antibody, is mobile and one is fixed. Breaking the dimer stops the ionic current through the membrane. The magnitude of the change in electrical signal is greatly increased by separating the membrane from the metal surface using a hydrophilic spacer. Quantitative detection of an extensive class of target species, including proteins, bacteria, drug and toxins has been demonstrated using different membrane and capture configurations.

Others
Piezoelectric sensors utilise crystals which undergo an elastic deformation when an electrical potential is applied to them. An alternating potential (A.C.) produces a standing wave in the crystal at a characteristic frequency. This frequency is highly dependent on the elastic properties of the crystal, such that if a crystal is coated with a biological recognition element the binding of a (large) target analyte to a receptor will produce a change in the resonance frequency, which gives a binding signal. In a mode that uses surface acoustic waves (SAW), the sensitivity is greatly increased. This is a specialised application of the Quartz crystal microbalanceas a biosensor. Thermometric and magnetic based biosensors are rare.

Applications
There are many potential applications of biosensors of various types. The main requirements for a biosensor approach to be valuable in terms of research and commercial applications are the identification of a target molecule, availability of a suitable biological recognition element, and the potential for disposable portable detection systems to be preferred to sensitive laboratory-based techniques in some situations. Some examples are given below:

Glucose monitoring in diabetes patients historical market driver

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Other medical health related targets Environmental applications e.g. the detection of pesticides and river water contaminants Remote sensing of airborne bacteria e.g. in counter-bioterrorist activities Detection of pathogens Determining levels of toxic substances before and after bioremediation Detection and determining of organophosphate Routine analytical measurement of folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 and pantothenic acid as an alternative to microbiological assay Determination of drug residues in food, such as antibiotics and growth promoters, particularly meat and honey. Drug discovery and evaluation of biological activity of new compounds. Protein engineering in biosensors Detection of toxic metabolites such as mycotoxins

Scintillator
A scintillator is material which exhibits scintillation the property of luminescence when excited by ionizing radiation. Luminescent materials, when struck by an incoming particle, absorb its energy and scintillate, i.e. reemit the absorbed energy in the form of light. Sometimes, the excited state is metastable, so the relaxation back out of the excited state is delayed (necessitating anywhere from a few microseconds to hours depending on the
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material): the process then corresponds to either one of two phenomena, depending on the type of transition and hence the wavelength of the emitted optical photon: delayed fluorescence or phosphorescence(also called after-glow). A scintillation detector or scintillation counter is obtained when a scintillator is coupled to an electronic light sensor such as a photomultiplier tube (PMT) or a photodiode. PMTs absorb the light emitted by the scintillator and reemit it in the form of electrons via the photoelectric effect. The subsequent multiplication of those electrons (sometimes called photoelectrons) results in an electrical pulse which can then be analyzed and yield meaningful information about the particle that originally struck the scintillator. Vacuum photodiodes are similar but do not amplify the signal while silicon photodiodes accomplish the same thing directly in the silicon.

Types of scintillators
Organic crystals
Organic scintillators are aromatic hydrocarbon compounds which contain benzene ring structures interlinked in various ways. Their luminescence typically decays within a few nanoseconds.

Plastics
Plastic scintillators are solutions of organic scintillators in a solvent which is subsequently polymerized to form a solid. Some of the common solutes are p-Terphenyl, PBD, b-PBD, PBO, POPOP. The most widely used plastic solvents are polyvinyltoluene and polystyrene.[9] Plastics scintillators give a fast signal (a few ns) and a high light output. The number of emitted scintillation photons is best described
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by the convolution of an exponential decay and a Gaussian (rather than the exponential decay alone):[10]

where the function f is a Gaussian

Inorganic crystal
Preparing single crystal lead tungstatescintillators for the Electromagnetic Calorimeter (ECAL) on the Compact Muon Solenoid Inorganic scintillators are usually crystals grown in high temperature furnaces, for example, alkali metal halides, often with a small amount of activator impurity. The most widely used is NaI(Tl) (sodium iodide doped with thallium). Other inorganic alkali halide crystals are: CsI(Tl), CsI(Na),CsI(pure), CsF, KI(Tl), LiI(Eu). Some nonalkali crystals include: BaF2, CaF2(Eu), ZnS(Ag),CaWO4, CdWO4, YAG(Ce) (Y3Al5O12(C e)), GSO, LSO. (For more examples, see alsophosphors.

Gaseous scintillators
Gaseous scintillators consist of nitrogen and the noble gases helium, argon, krypton, and xenon, with helium and xenon receiving the most attention. The scintillation process is due to the deexcitation of single atoms excited by the passage of an incoming particle. This de-excitation is very rapid (~1 ns), so the detector response is quite fast. Coating the walls of the container with a wavelength shifter is generally necessary as those gases typically emit in the ultraviolet and PMTs respond better to the visible bluegreen region. In nuclear physics, gaseous detectors have been used to detect fission fragments or heavy charged particles.

Renogram
A MAG3 scan is a diagnostic imaging procedure that allows a nuclear medicine physician or radiologist to visualize the kidneys and learn more about how they are functioning. MAG3 is an acronym
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for mercapto acetyl tri glycine, a compound that is chelated with a radioactive element - technetium-99m.

Scan procedure
After injection into the venous system, the compound is excreted by the kidneys and its progress through the renal system can be tracked with a gamma camera. If the kidney is not getting blood for example, it will not be viewed at all, even if it looks structurally normal in medical ultrasonography or magnetic resonance imaging. If the kidney is getting blood, but there is an obstruction lower down, the contrast will not pass beyond the level of the obstruction, whereas if there is a partial obstruction then there is a delayed transit time for the MAG3 to pass. More information can be gathered by calculating time activity curves; with normal kidney perfusion, peak activity should be observed after 35 minutes. The relative quantitative information gives the differential function between each kidney's filtration activity.

Clinical use
The technique is very useful in evaluating the functioning of kidneys. It is widely used before renal transplantation to assess the vascularity of the kidney to be transplanted and with a test dose of captopril to highlight possible renal artery stenosis in the donor's other kidney, and later the performance of the transplant. The use of the test to identify reduced renal function after test doses of captopril (an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor drug) has also been used to identify the cause of hypertension in patients with renal failure. Initially there was uncertainty as to the usefulness, or best test parameter to identify renal artery stenosis, the eventual consensus was that the distinctive finding is of alteration in the differential function.

CT SCAN
X-ray computed tomography (CT) is a medical imaging method employingtomography created by computer processing. Digital geometry processing is used to generate a three27

Physics Assignment
dimensional image of the inside of an object from a large series of two-dimensional X-ray images taken around a single axis of rotation. CT produces a volume of data which can be manipulated, through a process known as "windowing", in order to demonstrate various bodily structures based on their ability to block the X-ray beam. Although historically the images generated were in the axial or transverse plane, orthogonal to the long axis of the body, modern scanners allow this volume of data to be reformatted in various planes or even as volumetric (3D) representations of structures. Although most common in medicine, CT is also used in other fields, such as nondestructive materials testing. Another example is archaeological uses such as imaging the contents of sarcophagi or theDigiMorph project at the University of Texas at Austin which uses a CT scanner to study biological and paleontological specimens.

The principle
Because contemporary CT scanners offer isotropic or near isotropic, resolution, display of images does not need to be restricted to the conventional axial images. Instead, it is possible for a software program to build a volume by "stacking" the individual slices one on top of the other. The program may then display the volume in an alternative manner.

Process
X-ray slice data is generated using an X-ray source that rotates around the object; X-ray sensors are positioned on the opposite side of the circle from the X-ray source. The earliest sensors were scintillation detectors, with photomultiplier tubes excited by (typically) cesium iodide crystals. Cesium iodide was replaced during the 1980s by ion chambers containing high pressure Xenon gas. These systems were in turn replaced by scintillation systems based on photo diodes instead of photomultipliers and modern scintillation materials with more desirable characteristics. Many data scans are progressively taken as the object is gradually passed through the gantry.
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Newer machines with faster computer systems and newer software strategies can process not only individual cross sections but continuously changing cross sections as the gantry, with the object to be imaged, is slowly and smoothly slid through the Xray circle. These are called helical or spiral CT machines. Their computer systems integrate the data of the moving individual slices to generate three dimensional volumetric information (3DCT scan), in turn viewable from multiple different perspectives on attached CT workstation monitors. This type of data acquisition requires enormous processing power, as the data are arriving in a continuous stream and must be processed in real-time.

Magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures. MRI makes use of the property of Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to image nuclei of atoms inside the body. An MRI machine uses a powerful magnetic field to align the magnetization of some atoms in the body, and radio frequency fields to systematically alter the alignment of this magnetization. This causes the nuclei to produce a rotating magnetic field detectable by the scannerand this information is recorded to construct an image of the scanned area of the body. Strong magnetic field gradients cause nuclei at different locations to rotate at different speeds. 3-D spatial information can be obtained by providing gradients in each direction. MRI provides good contrast between the different soft tissues of the body, which make it especially useful in imaging the brain, muscles, the heart, and cancers compared with othermedical imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT) or X-rays. Unlike CT scans or traditional X-rays, MRI uses no ionizing radiation.

How MRI works

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The body is largely composed of water molecules. Each water molecule has two hydrogen nuclei or protons. When a person goes inside the powerful magnetic field of the scanner, the magnetic moments of some of these protons change and align with the direction of the field. In an MRI machine a radio frequency transmitter is briefly turned on, producing an electromagnetic field. The photons of this field have just the right energy, known as the resonance frequency, to flip the spin of the aligned protons in the body. As the intensity and duration of application of the field increase, more aligned spins are affected. After the field is turned off, the protons decay to the original spin-down state and the difference in energy between the two states is released as a photon. It is these photons that produce the electromagnetic signal that the scanner detects. The frequency at which the protons resonate depends on the strength of the magnetic field. As a result of conservation of energy, this resonation frequency also dictates the frequency of the released photons. The photons released when the field is removed have an energy and therefore a frequency due to the amount of energy the protons absorbed while the field was active. It is this relationship between field-strength and frequency that allows the use of nuclear magnetic resonance for imaging. Additional magnetic fields are applied during the scan to make the magnetic field strength depend on the position within the patient, in turn making the frequency of the released photons dependent on position in a predictable manner. Position information can then be recovered from the resulting signal by the use of a Fourier transform. These fields are created by passing electric currents through specially-wound solenoids, known as gradient coils. Since these coils are within the bore of the scanner, there are large forces between them and the main field coils, producing most of the noise that is heard during operation. Without efforts to damp this noise, it can approach 130 decibels (dB) with strong fields (see also the subsection on acoustic noise). An image can be constructed because the protons in different tissues return to their equilibrium state at different rates, which is a
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difference that can be detected. Five different tissue variables spin density, T1 and T2 relaxation times and flow and spectral shifts can be used to construct images. By changing the parameters on the scanner, this effect is used to create contrast between different types of body tissue or between other properties, as in fMRI and diffusion MRI. Contrast agents may be injected intravenously to enhance the appearance of blood vessels, tumors or inflammation. Contrast agents may also be directly injected into a joint in the case of arthrograms, MRI images of joints. Unlike CT, MRI uses no ionizing radiation and is generally a very safe procedure. Nonetheless the strong magnetic fields and radio pulses can affect metal implants, including cochlear implants and cardiac pacemakers. In the case of cochlear implants, the US FDA has approved some implants for MRI compatibility. In the case of cardiac pacemakers, the results can sometimes be lethal, so patients with such implants are generally not eligible for MRI. MRI is used to image every part of the body, and is particularly useful for tissues with many hydrogen nuclei and little density contrast, such as the brain, muscle, connective tissue and most tumors.

MRI versus CT
A computed tomography (CT) scanner uses X-rays, a type of ionizing radiation, to acquire its images, making it a good tool for examining tissue composed of elements of a higher atomic number than the tissue surrounding them, such as bone and calcifications (calcium based) within the body (carbon based flesh), or of structures (vessels, bowel). MRI, on the other hand, uses non-ionizing radio frequency (RF) signals to acquire its images and is best suited for non-calcified tissue, though MR images can also be acquired from bones and teeth as well as fossils. CT may be enhanced by use of contrast agents containing elements of a higher atomic number than the surrounding flesh such as iodine orbarium. Contrast agents for MRI have paramagnetic properties, e.g., gadolinium and manganese.
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Both CT and MRI scanners are able to generate multiple twodimensional cross-sections (slices) of tissue and threedimensional reconstructions. Unlike CT, which uses only X-ray attenuation to generate image contrast, MRI has a long list of properties that may be used to generate image contrast. By variation of scanning parameters, tissue contrast can be altered and enhanced in various ways to detect different features. MRI can generate cross-sectional images in any plane (including oblique planes). In the past, CT was limited to acquiring images in the axial (or near axial) plane. The scans used to be called Computed Axial Tomography scans (CAT scans). However, the development of multi-detector CT scanners with nearisotropic resolution, allows the CT scanner to produce data that can be retrospectively reconstructed in any plane with minimal loss of image quality. For purposes of tumor detection and identification in the brain, MRI is generally superior. However, in the case of solid tumors of the abdomen and chest, CT is often preferred due to less motion artifact. Furthermore, CT usually is more widely available, faster, less expensive, and may be less likely to require the person to be sedated or anesthetized. MRI is also best suited for cases when a patient is to undergo the exam several times successively in the short term, because, unlike CT, it does not expose the patient to the hazards of ionizing radiation. Performance testing Performance Testing covers a broad range of engineering or functional evaluations where a material, product, system, or person is not specified by detailed material or component specifications: rather, emphasis is on the final measurable performance characteristics. Testing can be a qualitative or quantitative procedure. Performance testing can refer to the assessment of the performance of a human examinee. For example, a behind-the-wheel driving test is a performance test of whether a person is able to perform the functions of a competent driver of an automobile. In the computer industry, software performance testing is used to determine the speed or effectiveness of a computer, network,
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software program or device. This process can involve quantitative tests done in a lab, such as measuring the response time or the number of MIPS (millions of instructions per second) at which a system functions. Qualitative attributes such as reliability, scalability and interoperability may also be evaluated. Performance testing is often done in conjunction with stress testing.

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