Author: claimsbot

1. A Raman amplifier comprising at least one microstructured fiber, and at least one pump laser, optically connected to one end of said microstructured fiber, said pump laser being adapted for emitting a pump radiation at a wavelength \u03bbp, said microstructured fiber comprising a silica-based core surrounded by a plurality of capillary voids extending in the axial direction of the fiber, said core comprising at least one dopant added to silica, said dopant being suitable for enhancing Raman effect.
2. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein said microstructured fiber has a maximum Raman gain coefficient gR in a wavelength region between 1460 nm and 1650 nm, an attenuation \u03b1p at said wavelength \u03bbp and an effective area Aeff at said wavelength \u03bbp, wherein said maximum Raman gain coefficient gR said attenuation \u03b1p and said effective area Aeff are such that (gRAeff)\u03b1p is greater than or equal to 5 1WdB.
3. The Raman amplifier according to claim 2, wherein said maximum Raman gain coefficient gR, said attenuation \u03b1p and said effective area Aeff are such that (gRAeff)\u03b1p is greater than or equal to 10 1WdB.
4. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein said dopant is chosen from a group comprising germanium, phosphorus and boron.
5. The Raman amplifier according to claim 4, wherein said dopant is germanium.
6. The Raman amplifier according to claim 5, wherein a concentration of germanium is higher than or equal to 8% mol.
7. The Raman amplifier according to claim 6, wherein said concentration is higher than or equal to 20% mol.
8. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein an effective area Aeff of said microstructured fiber is lower than or equal to 10 \u03bcm2 at said wavelength \u03bbp.
9. The Raman amplifier according to claim 8, wherein said effective area is lower than or equal to 7 \u03bcm2 at said wavelength \u03bbp.
10. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein an effective area Aeff of said microstructured fiber is higher than or equal to 3 \u03bcm2 at said wavelength \u03bbp.
11. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein an attenuation \u03b1p of said microstructured fiber is lower than or equal to 10 dBkm at said wavelength \u03bbp.
12. The Raman amplifier according to claim 11, wherein said attenuation \u03b1p is lower than or equal to 5 dBkm at said wavelength \u03bbp.
13. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein a dispersion of said microstructured fiber is higher than or equal to 40 psnmkm in absolute value at a wavelength of 1550 nm.
14. The Raman amplifier according to claim 13, wherein said dispersion is higher than or equal to 70 psnmkm in absolute value at a wavelength of 1550 nm.
15. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein said microstructured fiber is single mode for wavelengths greater than or equal to 1430 nm.
16. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein a diameter of said voids is between 0.3 and 4.0 \u03bcm.
17. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein a distance between said voids is lower than 4.0 \u03bcm.
18. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein a ratio between a diameter d of said voids and a distance \u039b between said voids is higher than 0.35.
19. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein a distance \u039b between said voids is between 1.85 \u03bcm and 2.15 \u03bcm, and a ratio d\u039b between the diameter d of said voids and said distance \u039b is between 0.4 and 0.6.
20. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein a distance \u039b between said voids is lower than 2.0 \u03bcm, and a ratio d\u039b between the diameter d of said voids and said distance \u039b is higher than 0.7.
21. The Raman amplifier according to claim 1, wherein a length of said microstructured fiber is lower than or equal to 2000 m.
22. The Raman amplifier according to claim 19, wherein the length of said microstructured fiber is lower than or equal to 1000 m.
23. The Raman amplifier according to claim 19, wherein the length of said microstructured fiber is lower than or equal to 500 m.
24. A microstructured fiber suitable for guiding an optical signal having a wavelength lying in a wavelength band between 1460 and 1650 nm, comprising a core surrounded by a plurality of capillary voids extending in the axial direction of the fiber, said core comprising silica and a dopant suitable for enhancing Raman effect, said fiber being further suitable for guiding a pump radiation having a wavelength \u03bbpshifted with respect to at least one wavelength of said wavelength band in a lower wavelength region according to the Raman shift of said core, said fiber having a maximum Raman gain coefficient gR in said wavelength band, and an attenuation \u03b1p and an effective area Aeff at said wavelength \u03bbp, wherein said maximum Raman gain coefficient gR, said attenuation \u03b1p and said effective area Aeff are such that (gRAeff)\u03b1p is greater than or equal to 5 1WdB.
25. The microstructured fiber according to claim 24, wherein said maximum Raman gain coefficient gR, said attenuation \u03b1p and said effective area Aeff are such that (gRAeff)\u03b1p is greater than or equal to 10 1WdB.
26. The microstructured fiber according to claim 24 wherein said dopant is chosen from a group comprising germanium, phosphorus and boron.
27. A microstructured fiber comprising a core surrounded by a plurality of capillary voids extending in the axial direction of the fiber, said core comprising silica and germanium, wherein a concentration of germanium in said core is higher than or equal to 8%.
28. The microstructured fiber according to claim 27, wherein said concentration of germanium is higher than or equal to 20%.
29. The microstructured fiber according to claim 24 or 27, wherein an effective area Aeff of said microstructured fiber is lower than or equal to 10 \u03bcm2 at said wavelength \u03bbp.
30. The microstructured fiber according to claim 29, wherein said effective area is lower than or equal to 7 \u03bcm2 at said wavelength \u03bbp.
31. The microstructured fiber according to claim 24 or 27, wherein an effective area Aeff of said microstructured fiber is higher than or equal to 3 \u03bcm2 at said wavelength \u03bbp.
32. The microstructured fiber according to claim 24 or 27, wherein an attenuation \u03b1p of said microstructured fiber is lower than or equal to 10 dBkm at said wavelength \u03bbp.
33. The microstructured fiber according to claim 32, wherein said attenuation \u03b1p is lower than or equal to 5 dBkm at said wavelength \u03b1p.
34. The microstructured fiber according to claim 24 or 27, wherein a dispersion of said microstructured fiber is higher than or equal to 40 psnmkm in absolute value at a wavelength of 1550 nm.
35. The microstructured fiber according to claim 34, wherein said dispersion is higher than or equal to 70 psnmkm in absolute value at a wavelength of 1550 nm.
36. The microstructured fiber according to claim 24 or 27, wherein said microstructured fiber is single mode for wavelengths greater than or equal to 1430 nm.
37. The microstructured fiber according to claim 24 or 27, wherein a diameter of said voids is between 0.3 and 4.0 \u03bcm.
38. The microstructured fiber according to claim 24 or 27, wherein a distance between said voids is lower than 4.0 \u03bcm.
39. The microstructured fiber according to claim 24 or 27, wherein a ratio between a diameter d is said voids and a distance \u039b between said voids is higher than 0.35.
40. The microstructured fiber according to claim 24 or 27, wherein a distance \u039b between said voids is between 1.85 \u03bcm and 2.15 \u03bcm, and a ratio d\u039b between the diameter d or said voids and said distance \u039b is comprised 0.4 and 0.6.
41. The microstructured fiber according to claim 24 or 27, wherein a distance \u039b between said voids is lower than 2.0 \u03bcm, and a ratio d\u039b between the diameter d of said voids and said distance \u039b is higher than 0.7.
42. An optical transmission system comprising a transmitting station, a receiving station and an optical line between said transmitting station and said receiving station, said optical line comprising at least one Raman amplifier comprising at least one microstructured fiber and at least one pump laser, optically connected to one end of said microstructured fiber, said pump laser being adapted for emitting a pump radiation at a wavelength \u03bbp, said microstructured fiber comprising a silica-based core surrounded by a plurality of capillary voids extending in the axial direction of the fiber, said core comprising at least one dopant added to silica, said dopant being suitable for enhancing Raman effect.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

What is claimed is:

1. A process for sulfurization of workpiece in vacuum, including cleaning the surface of workpieces, loading the workpieces into vacuum chamber, vacuum pumping, heating the sulfur source for sublimating thereof, making the gaseous sulfur ionized in the presence of a high electrical field and sulfurizing the workpieces, removing the workpieces from the vacuum chamber, wherein after the workpieces being cleaned, putting them into the vacuum chamber that has a pressure-rising rate up to 103 Pah and a ultimate vacuum up to 0.1 Pa, vacuuming to 20 to 100 Pa; heating the workpieces placed on the cathode plate at 35 to 120 C. for 20 to 40 min while keeping a vacuity of 0.1 to 1 Pa for desorbing the substances adsorbed on the surface of the workpieces to make the surface activated; in a direct current electric field of 800 to 1000 V, while keeping the same temperature as above-mentioned ionizing the gaseous sulfur into positive sulfur ions and forming sulfur plasma; directly effecting sulfurization for 1 to 30 min; and finally charging a inert or reductive gas into the vacuum chamber to cool the workpieces and then removing the workpieces from the chamber.
2. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the process further includes a step for coating molybdenum disulfide of nanometer grade.

1. A method of forming a first strained semiconductor layer over an insulating layer comprising the steps of:
forming a stress-providing layer over a structure comprising a first semiconductor layer, said first semiconductor layer is located atop an insulating layer;
patterning said stress-providing layer and said first semiconductor layer into at least one island;
heating the structure containing said at least one island to a temperature that causes strain transfer from the stress-providing layer to the first semiconductor layer; and
removing the stress-providing layer to form a first strained semiconductor island layer directly atop said insulating layer.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said first semiconductor layer and said insulating layer are components of a preformed silicon-on-insulator substrate.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein said preformed silicon-on-insulator substrate is fabricated by separation by ion implantation of oxygen or a layer transfer process.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one implantation step is performed between said forming and patterning step.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein said at least one implantation step comprises implanting a dopant species into at least said insulating layer.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein said dopant species is boron.
7. The method of claim 4 wherein said at least one implantation step comprises implanting an energetic ion at, or near, an interface formed between the first semiconductor layer and the insulating layer.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein said energetic ion comprises hydrogen, deuterium, helium, oxygen, neon or mixtures and isotopes thereof.
9. The method of claim 7 wherein said energetic ion is a hydrogen ion.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein said patterning comprises lithography and etching.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein said first semiconductor layer comprises Si, SiC, SiGe, SiGeC, Ge, GaAs, InAs or InP.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein said stress-providing layer comprises a Ge-containing layer, a silicon nitride layer, a silicon carbide layer, a silicate glass or mixtures thereof.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein said heating step is performed at a temperature that causes the insulating layer to have a visco-elastic property.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein said heating is performed at a temperature that is about 900\xb0 C. or greater.
15. The method of claim 1 wherein said first strained semiconductor layer has a tensile strain.
16. The method of claim 1 wherein said first strained semiconductor layer has a compressive strain.
17. The method of claim 1 further comprising forming a second island having a second stress-providing layer that has a different stress then the stress in said stress-providing layer.
18. The method of claim 1 wherein said first semiconductor layer comprises IIIV or IIVI compound semiconductor, where II, III, V and VI represents groups from the Periodic Table of Elements.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A method of simultaneous tracking of multiple objects in a sequence of video frames captured by multiple cameras comprising:
extracting a foreground image from a background image in a frame;
segmenting objects from the foreground image;
tracking objects within the frame by identifying the largest connected components inside each objects region of interest;
globally tracking positions of objects over time across multiple frames;
fusing track data of objects obtained from multiple cameras to infer object positions; and
resolving conflicts to estimate most likely object positions over time.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein segmenting the objects from the foreground image comprises segmenting the objects from the foreground image by examining motion of the objects in the sequence of video frames.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein examining motion of the objects comprises using a two tier hierarchical median filter.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein segmenting objects from the foreground image comprises segmenting objects from the foreground image under varying illuminations of the foreground image and the objects.
5. The method of claim 3, wherein segmenting objects comprises computing a difference between a current frame and a field model to produce a difference image, applying a field template to clip a region of interest from the difference image to produce a clipped difference image, and enhancing the clipped difference image to produce an object image.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein globally tracking positions of objects over time comprises using a sequential Monte Carlo technique.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein fusing track data of objects comprises disambiguating disparities due to occlusion of objects.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the foreground image comprises a playing field for a sporting event and the objects comprise players participating in the sporting event.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising initializing object tracking processing by creating a foreground image template, calibrating the cameras, and identifying visible objects on a first frame.
10. An article comprising: a storage medium having a plurality of machine accessible instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor, the instructions provide for simultaneous tracking of multiple objects in a sequence of video frames captured by multiple cameras by
extracting a foreground image from a background image in a frame;
segmenting objects from the foreground image;
tracking objects within the frame by identifying the largest connected components inside each object’s region of interest;
globally tracking positions of objects over time across multiple frames;
fusing track data of objects obtained from multiple cameras to infer object positions; and
resolving conflicts to estimate most likely object positions over time.
11. The article of claim 10, wherein instructions for segmenting the objects from the foreground image comprise instructions for segmenting the objects from the foreground image by examining motion of the objects in the sequence of video frames.
12. The article of claim 11, wherein instructions for examining motion of the objects comprise instructions for implementing a two tier hierarchical median filter.
13. The article of claim 12, wherein instructions for segmenting objects from the foreground image comprise instructions for segmenting objects from the foreground image under varying illuminations of the foreground image and the objects.
14. The article of claim 12, wherein instructions for segmenting objects comprise instructions for computing a difference between a current frame and a field model to produce a difference image, applying a field template to clip a region of interest from the difference image to produce a clipped difference image, and enhancing the clipped difference image to produce an object image.
15. The article of claim 10, wherein instructions for globally tracking positions of objects over time comprise instructions implementing a sequential Monte Carlo technique.
16. The article of claim 10, wherein instructions for fusing track data of objects comprise instructions for disambiguating disparities due to occlusion of objects.
17. The article of claim 10, wherein the foreground image comprises a playing field for a sporting event and the objects comprise players participating in the sporting event.
18. The article of claim 10, further comprising instructions for initializing object tracking processing by creating a foreground image template, calibrating the cameras, and identifying visible objects on a first frame.
19. A system for simultaneous tracking of multiple objects in a three dimensional physical scene by analysis of a sequence of video frames comprising:
a plurality of video cameras to generate a plurality of sequences of video frames representing the scene over time; and
a processing system having at least one processor to simultaneously track the multiple objects, the processing system comprising
a field model generator component to extract a foreground image from a background image in a frame;
a segmentation component to segment objects from the foreground image;
a tracking component to track objects within the frame by identifying the largest connected components inside each object’s region of interest and to globally track positions of objects over time across multiple frames; and
a data fusion component to fuse track data of objects obtained from the plurality of video cameras to infer object positions, and to resolve conflicts to estimate most likely object positions over time.
20. The system of claim 19, wherein the segmentation component segments the objects from the foreground image by examining motion of the objects in the sequence of video frames.
21. The system of claim 20, wherein the segmentation component examines motion of the objects using a two tier hierarchical median filter.
22. The system of claim 21, wherein the segmentation component segments objects from the foreground image under varying illuminations of the foreground image and the objects.
23. The system of claim 21, wherein the segmentation component computes a difference between a current frame and a field model to produce a difference image, applies a field template to clip a region of interest from the difference image to produce a clipped difference image, and enhances the clipped difference image to produce an object image.
24. The system of claim 19, wherein the tracking component globally tracks positions of objects over time using a sequential Monte Carlo technique.
25. The system of claim 19, wherein the data fusion component disambiguates disparities due to occlusion of objects.
26. The system of claim 19, further comprising an initialization component to initialize object tracking processing by creating a foreground image template, calibrating the cameras, and identifying visible objects on a first frame.