Ringing artifacts | EPFL Graph Search

In signal processing, particularly , ringing artifacts are artifacts that appear as spurious signals near sharp transitions in a signal. Visually, they appear as bands or "ghosts" near edges; audibly, they appear as "echos" near transients, particularly sounds from percussion instruments; most noticeable are the pre-echos. The term "ringing" is because the output signal oscillates at a fading rate around a sharp transition in the input, similar to a bell after being struck. As with other artifacts, their minimization is a criterion in filter design. Introduction The main cause of ringing artifacts is due to a signal being bandlimited (specifically, not having high frequencies) or passed through a low-pass filter; this is the frequency domain description. In terms of the time domain, the cause of this type of ringing is the ripples in the sinc function, which is the impulse response (time domain representation) of a perfect low-pass filter. Mathematically, this is called

Elimination of ringing artifacts by finite-element projection in FFT-based homogenization

Ali Falsafi, Till Junge

Micromechanical homogenization is often carried out with Fourier-accelerated methods that are prone to ringing artifacts. We here generalize the compatibility projection introduced by Vond.rejc et al. (2014) [24] beyond the Fourier basis. In particular, we formulate the compatibility projection for linear finite elements while maintaining Fourier-acceleration and the fast convergence properties of the original method. We demonstrate that this eliminates ringing artifacts and yields an efficient computational homogenization scheme that is equivalent to canonical finite-element formulations on fully structured grids. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc.

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE2022

Synthesis of carbon nanotubes and characterization of nanotubes as atomic force microscopy tips

Yanki Keles

This thesis describes the synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and the evaluation of them as tips of atomic force microscope (AFM) probes. Both arc-discharge and CVD grown nanotubes were investigated as AFM tips. Two methods were used to produce nanotube tipped AFM probes: (i) nanotubes were directly grown on the apex of AFM probes by CVD and (ii) pre-grown nanotubes were mechanically attached onto the apex of AFM probes. The first part of the thesis describes experiments that sought to control the growth of carbon nanotubes by chemical vapor deposition. The effects of various parameters e.g. catalyst, the carbon source, the addition of hydrogen and the growth temperature, on carbon nanotube growth were investigated. Ethylene was found to lead to better quality nanotubes than the acetylene. Grown nanotubes' quality was found to improve upon flow of hydrogen during the synthesis. Nanotubes synthesized on 3 nm iron film at 840°C using ethylene and hydrogen led to utilizable carbon nanotube tipped AFM probes. The second part of the thesis focuses on the mechanical production of nanotube tipped AFM probes in high resolution electron microscopes using nanomanipulators. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was found to be more convenient than transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to carry out the nanomanipulation process. Both arc-discharge and CVD grown nanotubes were successfully attached onto the AFM probes using a custom made nanomanipulator. Nanotubes were glued onto the probes by focused electron beam (FEB) induced amorphous carbon deposits. FEB irradiation deposited amorphous carbon performed more reliable attachment on CVD nanotubes than the arc-discharge nanotubes. The last part of the thesis describes tapping mode AFM measurements done using nanotube tipped AFM probes. Different nanotube tipped probes were investigated as AFM tips for scanning colloidal gold particles with different diameters and gratings from Digital Instruments™ AFMs. High resolution AFM images were obtained by arc-discharge nanotube tips. CVD grown nanotubes were shown to be more resilient to tip crashes than the arc-discharge grown nanotubes. However, all the AFM images acquired from the scans by CVD nanotubes had the same kind of ringing artifact, in good agreement with a previously reported data about the artifacts of the CVD nanotube tipped AFM probes. Open ends of the CVD nanotubes, lack of crystallinity and the defects in their structure are suggested to be the reason for these artifacts.

EPFL2006

Low-Dose Prostate Cancer Brachytherapy with Radioactive Palladium-Gold Nanoparticles

Marc-André Fortin

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the leading causes of death among men. Low-dose brachytherapy is an increasingly used treatment for PCa, which requires the implantation of tens of radioactive seeds. This treatment causes discomfort; these implants cannot be removed, and they generate image artifacts. In this study, the authors report on intratumoral injections of radioactive gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) as an alternative to seeds. The particles (Pd-103:Pd@Au-PEG and Pd-103:Pd@Au-198:Au-PEG; 10-14 nm Pd@Au core, 36-48 nm hydrodynamic diameter) are synthesized by a one-pot process and characterized by electron microscopy. Administrated as low volume (2-4 mu L) single doses (1.6-1.7 mCi), the particles are strongly retained in PCa xenograft tumors, impacting on their growth rate. After 4 weeks, a tumor volume inhibition of 56% and of 75%, compared to the controls, is observed for Pd-103:Pd@Au-PEG NPs and Pd-103:Pd@Au-198: Au-PEG NPs, respectively. Skin necrosis is observed with Au-198; therefore, Au NPs labeled with Pd-103 only are a more advisable choice. Overall, this is the first study confirming the impact of Pd-103@Au NPs on tumor growth. This new brachytherapy procedure could allow tunable doses of radioactivity, administered with smaller needles than with the current technologies, and leading to fewer image artifacts.

Wiley2017

Synthesis of carbon nanotubes and characterization of nanotubes as atomic force microscopy tips

Yanki Keles

EPFL2006