Numerical Study on the Stress–Strain Cycle of Thermal Self-Compressing Bonding

Thermal self-compressing bonding(TSCB) is a new solid-state bonding method pioneered by the authors. With electron beam as the non-melted heat source, previous experimental study performed on titanium alloys has proved the feasibility of TSCB. However, the thermal stress–strain process during bonding, which is of very important significance in revealing the mechanism of TSCB, was not analysed. In this paper, finite element analysis method is adopted to numerically study the thermal elasto-plastic stress–strain cycle of thermal self-compressing bonding. It is found that due to the localized heating, a non-uniform temperature distribution is formed during bonding, with the highest temperature existed on the bond interface. The expansion of high temperature materials adjacent to the bond interface are restrained by surrounding cool materials and rigid restraints, and thus an internal elasto-plastic stress–strain field is developed by itself which makes the bond interface subjected to thermal compressive action. This thermal self-compressing action combined with the high temperature on the bond interface promotes the atom diffusion across the bond interface to produce solid-state joints. Due to the relatively large plastic deformation, rigid restraint TSCB obtains sound joints in relatively short time compared to diffusion bonding.

Self-compression of 1.8-μm pulses in gas-filled hollow-core fibers

We numerically study the self-compression of the optical pulses centered at 1.8-μm in a hollow-core fiber （HCF） filled with argon. It is found that the pulse can be self-compressed to 2 optical cycles when the input pulse energy is 0.2-mJ and the gas pressure is 500-mbar （1 bar=10^5 Pa）. Inducing a proper positive chirp into the input pulse can lead to a shorter temporal duration after self-compression. These results will benefit the generation of energetic few-cycle mid-infrared pulses.

Self-compression of femtosecond pulses in argon with a power close to the self-focusing threshold

Self-compression of femtosecond pulses in noble gases with an input power close to the self-focusing threshold has been investigated experimentally and theoretically. It is demonstrated that either multiphoton ionization （MPI） or space-time focusing and self-steepening effects can induce pulse shortening, but they predominate at different beam intensities during the propagation. The latter effects play a key role in the final pulse self-compression. By choosing an appropriate focusing parameter, action distance of the space-time focusing and self-steepening effects can be lengthened, which can promote a shock pulse structure with a duration as short as two optical cycles. It is also found that, for our calculation cases in which an input pulse power is close to the self-focusing threshold, either group velocity dispersion （GVD） or multiphoton absorption （MPA） has a negligible influence on pulse characteristics in the propagation process.