The nonlinear refraction and absorption dependence on the thermal effect for 4 ns pulse duration in binuclear Zn(II) phthalocyanine solution

The influence of thermal effect on the third-order nonlinear optical properties of binuclear Zn(II) phthalocyanine in chloroform solution was studied. The nonlinear refraction and absorption of the sample was measured by using Z-scan technique with 4 ns laser pulses at 532 nm wavelength. The opposite signs of the effective nonlinear refraction index were observed by changing the focal length of focusing lens from 10 cm to 20 cm in the experimental setup. Changing the focusing lens increased the beam waist radius from 7 μm to 20 μm. The nonlinear absorption coefficient was reduced about 200 times based on changing the fluence or beam waist radius. The drastic changes in the third-order nonlinear optical parameters were attributed to thermal effect. To investigate the role of thermal effects even further the effective nonlinear refraction and absorption coefficients were studied by using different repetition rates, input powers and concentrations.     

Measurement of two-photon absorption using the photo-thermal lens effect

We report on new schemes for pump-probe photo-thermal lens methods aimed for measuring the two-photon absorption coefficient of a given material. We show that by focusing a probe beam in the presence of a nearly collimated pump beam, we create a thermal lens which yields measurement of the two-photon absorption coefficient of nitrobenzene of (3.9 ± 0.3) 10⁻¹⁰ cm/W at 532 nm. We also show that when the pump field is focused in the presence of a nearly collimated probe beam the width of the z-scan signature of a two-photon absorption process is nearly one order of magnitude smaller than that of a one-photon process. We show experimental evidence of the effect obtained for nitrobenzene.     

Photothermal techniques with a top-hat beam excitation

A flatly topped circular beam (“top-hat beam”) is employed as the excitation beam for photothermal deflection and surface thermal lens techniques. The Fresnel diffraction model is applied to describe the photothermal signals. The theoretical comparison between a Gaussian beam and a top-hat beam excited photothermal signal amplitudes shows that the use of the top-hat beam excitation improves the measurement sensitivity of the photothermal techniques. Experimental results for both photothermal deflection and surface thermal lens are presented. The potential applications of the top-hat beam excited photothermal techniques are highlighted.     

Study of thermal diffusivity of nanofluids with bimetallic nanoparticles with Au(core)/Ag(shell) structure

The thermal diffusivity of Au/Ag nanoparticles with core/shell structure, at different compositions (Au/Ag = 3/1, 1/1, 1/3, 1/6), was measured by using the mismatched mode of the dual-beam thermal lens (TL) technique. This study determines the effect of the bimetallic composition on the thermal diffusivity of the nanofluids. In these results we find a lineal increment of the nanofluid it thermal diffusivity when the Ag shell thickness is increased. Our results show that the nanoparticle structure is an important parameter to improve the heat transport in composites and nanofluids. These results could have importance for applications in therapies and photothermal deliberation of drugs. Complementary measurements with UV-vis spectroscopy and TEM, were used to characterize the Au(core)/Ag(shell) nanoparticles.     

Blind phase shift extraction and wavefront retrieval by two-frame phase-shifting interferometry with an unknown phase shift

An iterative algorithm to extract the arbitrary unknown phase shift in two-frame phase-shifting interferometry and then reconstruct the complex object wave is proposed. In combination with the least square principle and some calculation formulae we developed, this algorithm allows us to find the value of unknown phase shift by using only two interferograms without additional knowledge or measurement. Computer simulations have shown that this algorithm works well for both the smooth and diffusing objects to a very high accuracy over a wide range of the phase shift from 0.4 to 2.5 rad.     

Improved optical response and photocatalysis for N-doped titanium oxide (TiO2) films prepared by oxidation of TiN

In order to improve the photocatalytic activity, N-doped titanium oxide (TiO₂) films were obtained by thermal oxidation of TiN films, which were prepared on Ti substrates by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD). The dominating rutile TiO₂ phase was found in films after thermal oxidation. According to the results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the residual N atoms occupied O-atom sites in TiO₂ lattice to form TiON bonds. UV-vis spectra revealed the N-doped TiO₂ film had a red shift of absorption edge. The maximum red shift was assigned to the sample annealed at 750 °C, with an onset wavelength at 600 nm. The onset wavelength corresponded to the photon energy of 2.05 eV, which was nearly 1.0 eV below the band gap of pure rutile TiO₂. The effect of nitrogen was responsible for the enhancement of photoactivity of N-doped TiO₂ films in the range of visible light.     

Two-colour laser excitation as a way to set an absolute energy scale in photodetachment-microscopy based electron spectrometry

A two-colour laser technique is developed for photodetachment microscopy, by means of microwave modulation of a CW single-mode dye laser. A phase modulation regime is achieved through an electro-optical LiNbO₃ crystal excited at the frequency 1.95 GHz. The two first sidebands created are selected by rejection of the other orders through a plane Fabry-Perot interferometer. With the resulting two-colour radiation, the photodetachment microscopy technique is applied to a beam of ³²S⁻ ions. It is shown that the superposition of the two resulting interference patterns can be used as a ‘spectral vernier’ to remove the uncertainty on the electric field and absolute energy scale. Without any initial assumption on the value F of the electric field in the laser-ion interaction region, a measure of F and of the electron affinity ^eA of Sulfur can be obtained. Putting 16 recordings of two-colour photodetachment interferograms together, with the only condition that F be the same for all experiments, one gets ^eA(³²S) = 16752.978(11) cm⁻¹, which is quite compatible, even though not as accurate, with the most recently recommended value ^eA(³²S) = 16752.9760(42) cm⁻¹. A proposal is made for going from an incoherent to a coherent two-colour photodetachment scheme, which would make photodetachment interferograms sensitive to a new degree of freedom.     

A simple theoretical extension to the analysis of photothermal deflection signal for low thermal diffusivity evaluation

A modified amplitude method to analyze the photothermal probe beam deflection signal for the determination of low thermal diffusivity values of materials is proposed. This simple theoretical model, which is an extension of the amplitude method proposed by Quelin et al., takes into account the dependence of the photothermal signal on the height of the probe beam above the sample surface which affects mirage measurements when the thermal diffusivity of the coupling medium is greater than that of the sample. The present work is similar to the modification to the phase method proposed by Bertolotti et al. for determination of low thermal diffusivity. The method can be applied irrespective of whether the sample is optically transparent or optically opaque and is independent of thickness.     

Biphotonic effect of azo-dye-doped liquid crystals using the sequential Z-scan technique

This study investigates the biphotonic effect of azo-dye-doped liquid crystals (ADDLCs) using the sequential Z-scan technique. A spot on the sample is illuminated by a green light for 6 s, and then the same spot is illuminated simultaneously with a red light and a green light for 6 s. Measurements are made by scanning the sample near the beam waist of the green laser. The results show that the biphotonic effect is important to the nonlinear coefficient of the sample. The variations of the optical Kerr constant with intensity of red light are measured. Measurement results demonstrate that the molecular reorientation of liquid crystals induced by the photoisomerization of the azo dyes dominates at low red-light intensity, but the thermal effect compensates for the molecular reorientational nonlinearity of the sample at high red-light intensity.     

超连续谱干涉方法测量古依相移

利用两束超连续光干涉得到的信号,测量了透镜焦点附近飞秒激光脉冲的古依(Gouy)相移。根据得到的光谱干涉信号,利用傅里叶变换得到相对相位值。激光光束在聚焦透镜后的束腰半径可以由成像方法测得。根据测量得到的激光光束束腰半径,用非线性拟合的方法得到了古依相移曲线,拟合曲线与实验结果符合得非常好。给出了古依相位在焦点前后1 mm区域内的移动量。     

Theoretical investigation on thermal lensing effects of Yb:KY(WO4)2 in diode-pumped lasers

Based on the features of laser diode end-pumped lasers, a thermal model of Yb:KY(WO₄)₂(Yb:KYW) with square cross-section was established. Considering the heat transfer on side faces, the anisotropic of thermal conductivity and the latest reports about thermo-optic coefficient, thermal expansion coefficient and thermal conductivity, temperature distribution, end-pumped face distortion and thermal lens focal length of Yb:KYW were more precisely obtained using finite difference method to solve Poisson equation in a rectangular Cartesian coordinate for the first time. At the pump power of 14 W, the highest temperature located at the center of end-pumped face was 243.8 °C, the highest distortion was 0.28 μm, and the thermal lens focal length was 5.4 cm along z-axis and −4.9 cm along x-axis. The results show that thermal lensing effects in the b-cut Yb:KYW were mainly determined by the anisotropic thermal expansion of Yb:KYW, and further present thermal lensing effects become weaker after considering the heat transfer. This work is significant for compensating the thermal lensing effect and improving the resonator stability of diode-pumped anisotropy crystal lasers.     

Focal shift and focal switch of flat-topped Mathieu-Gaussian beams passing through an apertured lens system

By introducing a hard aperture function into a finite sum of complex Gaussian functions, an approximate analytical expression predominating the distribution of axial intensity for the flat-topped Mathieu-Gauss (FTMG) beams passing through a system with the aperture and lens separated has been derived. The focal shift and the focal switch effect of FTMG beams passing through the system is studied in detail. Numerical calculations have shown that the position of real focal plane is not coincident with the geometrical focus but is somewhat shifted toward the lens. The focal shift and focal switch of FTMG beams take place when the relative separation s/f = 1 by a suitable choice of beam parameter and truncation parameter, for example, the beam parameter is smaller than its corresponding critical value or the truncation parameter is between its two corresponding critical values.     

Thermal conductivities of solid and liquid phases for neopentylglycol, aminomethylpropanediol and their binary alloy

The variations of thermal conductivities of solid phases versus temperature for neopentylglycol (NPG), 2-amino-2-methyl-1,3-propanediol (AMPD) and AMPD-42.2 mol% NPG alloy were measured with a radial heat flow apparatus. From the graphs of the solid phases thermal conductivity variations versus temperature, the thermal conductivities of the solid phases at their melting temperature and temperature coefficients for same materials were also found to be 0.22±0.01, 0.45±0.02 and 0.32±0.02 W/Km and 0.0047, 0.0031 and 0.0043 K⁻¹, respectively. The thermal conductivity ratios of liquid phase to solid phase for the same materials at their melting temperature are found to be 1.07, 1.12 and 0.74 with a Bridgman type directional solidification apparatus, respectively. Thus, the thermal conductivities of liquid phases for pure NPG, pure AMPD and AMPD-42.2 mol% NPG alloy at their melting temperature were evaluated to be 0.24, 0.50 and 0.23 W/Km, respectively, by using the values of solid phase thermal conductivities and the thermal conductivity ratios of liquid phase to solid phase.     

Laser processing of micro-optical components in quartz

Laser induced backside wet etching combined with the diffractive gray tone phase mask has been used for the fabrication of a micro-lens array with a single lens diameter of 1 mm and a micro-prism in quartz. The micro-lens array was tested as beam homogenizer for high power XeCl excimer laser yielding a clear improvement in the quality of the laser beam.The optimum fluence range for fabrication of micro-lenses by laser induced backside wet etching using 1.4 M pyrene in THF solution and 308 nm irradiation wavelength is 1-1.6 J/cm². The etching mechanisms of LIBWE are based on a combination of pressure and temperature jumps at quartz-liquid interface.     

Magnetic and optical properties of self-organized InMnAs quantum dots

Ten layers of self-assembled InMnAs quantum dots with InGaAs barrier were grown on high resistivity (1 0 0) p-type GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The presence of ferromagnetic structure was confirmed in the InMnAs diluted magnetic quantum dots. The ten layers of self-assembled InMnAs quantum dots were found to be semiconducting, and have ferromagnetic ordering with a Curie temperature, T_C=80 K. It is likely that the ferromagnetic exchange coupling of sample with T_C=80 K is hole mediated resulting in Mn substituting In and is due to the bound magnetic polarons co-existing in the system. PL emission spectra of InMnAs samples grown at temperature of 275, 260 and 240 °C show that the interband transition peak centered at 1.31 eV coming from the InMnAs quantum dot blueshifts because of the strong confinement effects with increasing growth temperature.     

Top-hat cw-laser-induced time-resolved mode-mismatched thermal lens spectroscopy for quantitative analysis of low-absorption materials

Thermal lens spectroscopy is a highly sensitive and versatile photothermal technique for material analysis, providing optical and thermal properties. To use less expensive multimode non-Gaussian lasers for quantitative analysis of low-absorption materials, this Letter presents a theoretical model for time-resolved mode-mismatched thermal lens spectroscopy induced by a cw laser with a top-hat profile. The temperature profile in a sample was calculated, and the intensity of the probe beam center at the detector plane was also derived using the Fresnel diffraction theory. Experimental validation was performed with glass samples, and the results were found well consistent with literature values of the thermo-optical properties of the samples.     

Effect of the spiral phase element on the radial-polarization (0, 1) LG beam

Radially-polarized beams can be strongly amplified without significant birefringent-induced aberrations. However, radially-polarized beam is a high-order beam, and therefore has to be transformed into a fundamental Gaussian beam for reduction the beam-propagation factor M². In effort to transform the radially-polarized beam to a nearly-Gaussian beam, we consider effect of a spiral phase element (SPE) on the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) (0, 1)^∗ beam with radial polarization, and compare this with the case when the input beam is a LG (0, 1)^∗ beam with spiral phase and uniform or random polarization. The LG (0, 1)^∗ beam with radial polarization, despite its identity in intensity profile to the beam with spiral phase, has distinctly different properties when interacting with the SPE. With the SPE and spatial filter, we transformed the radially-polarized (0, 1)^∗ mode with M² = 2.8 to a nearly-Gaussian beam with M² = 1.7. Measured transformation efficiency was 50%, and the beam brightness P/(M²)² was practically unchanged. The SPE affects polarization state of the radially-polarized beam, leading to appearance of spin angular momentum in the beam center at the far-field.     

Analysis on the laser beam pointing instability induced fringe shift and contrast dilution from different interferometers used for writing fiber Bragg grating

This paper presents an analysis on the effect of laser beam pointing instability on the fringe shift and hence the contrast dilution of superposed fringes from two beam interferometers. The interferometers analyzed are those commonly used in writing fiber Bragg grating (FBG) such as phase mask, bi-prism and phase mask based Talbot/Holographic type. The beam pointing instability is incorporated as slight change in the angle between two interfering beams. The relative immunity of different interferometers to laser beam pointing is discussed vs location of FBG writing plane from the beam splitter. The effect of the beam pointing was minimum in proximity FBG writing by phase mask. The effect, in terms of fringes contrast dilution, was worst in case of large length interferometers e.g. phase mask based-Talbot interferometer. For intermediate length prism interferometers, the effect was moderate. For a given length interferometer, the fringe shift was directly proportional to beam pointing angle and inversely proportional to fringe separation. Theoretical analysis is verified experimentally by studying the fringe instability of interference pattern formed by a bi-prism of angle 2^o with the copper vapour laser (CVL, λ = 510 nm) beams of different beam pointing instabilities.     

Nonlinear change of on-axis pressure and intensity maxima positions and its relation with the linear focal shift effect

A comprehensive experimental, analytical and numerical study of the true focal region drift relative to the geometrical focus (focal shift effect) in acoustic focused beams and its nonlinear evolution is presented. For this aim, the concept of Fresnel number, proportional to the linear gain, is introduced as a convenient parameter for characterizing focused sources. It is shown that the magnitude of the shift is strongly dependent on the Fresnel number of the source, being larger for weakly focused systems where a large initial shift occurs. Analytical expressions for axial pressure distributions in linear regime are presented for the general case of truncated Gaussian beams. The main new contribution of this work is the examination of the connection between the linear and nonlinear stages of the focal shift effect, and its use for the estimation of the more complicated nonlinear stage. Experiments were carried out using a continuous-wave ultrasonic beam in water, radiated by a focused source with nominal frequency f = 1 MHz, aperture radius a = 1.5 cm and geometrical focal distance R = 11.7 cm, corresponding to a Fresnel number N_F = 1.28. The maximum measured shifts for peak pressure and intensity were 4.4 and 1.1 cm, respectively. The evolution of the different maxima with the source amplitude, and the disparity in their axial positions, is interpreted in terms of the dynamics of the nonlinear distortion process. Analytical results for the particular case of a sound beam with initial Gaussian distribution are also presented, demonstrating that the motion of peak pressure and peak intensity may occur in opposite directions.     

Depth resolved Doppler broadening measurement of layered Al-Sn samples

The accumulation of positrons in a two-dimensional layer of tin embedded in aluminum is examined by Doppler broadening spectroscopy (DBS). For this purpose samples are grown out of high purity materials consisting of a step-shaped layer (0.1-200 nm) of tin on a substrate of aluminum and covered by an aluminum layer of constant thickness (200 nm).The positron implantation profile is varied by different positron acceleration energies of up to 15 keV. The pre-thermal implantation profile of the monoenergetic positron beam is examined since the effect of thermal positron diffusion is less significant at tin layers thicker than 50 nm. At thin layers (<50 nm), the positrons greatly accumulate either at the aluminum-tin interface or in the tin layer due to its higher positron affinity compared to aluminum. Thus a very high sensitivity of the measurement for low densities of tin is observed. Consequently from the experimental results, a sensitivity threshold for the detection of a low amount of tin in an aluminum matrix with DBS is determined. The DB results are compared to theory by an approximation for pre-thermal implantation in layered materials.