Estimation of electron density and temperature of semiconductor surfaces excited by ultra-short laser pulses

A simple technique, based on the interference principle, to obtain simultaneously the instantaneous electron density and temperature of ultra-short laser-excited semiconductor surface plasma is proposed and demonstrated. The interference of the incident laser and the surface plasmons forms nano-ripples on the surface. From the observed nano-ripple period, one can easily retrieve the density and temperature information. As a demonstration of the technique, the electron density and temperature are obtained for various band gap semiconductor materials based on the experimentally observed nano-ripples using 800 and 400 nm light in various ambient media and incident angles. The electron density estimated varied in the range of 2 $n_{\mathrm{c} }$ –10 $n_{\mathrm{c}}$ and the corresponding electron temperature in the range 10 $^{4}$ –10 $^{5}$ K, depending on the material band gap, the incident laser intensity, the ambient medium, the angle of incidence, and the laser wavelength. The information of the electron density and temperature is useful for choosing laser parameters (like fluence, wavelength, angle of incidence, ambient medium) and target materials (different band gap semiconductors) for obtaining a better size controllability of the nanostructure production. The information can also help one in obtaining essential plasma parameter inputs in the quest for understanding ultra-fast melting or understanding the pre-plasma conditions created by the pre-pulse of ultra-high intensity laser pulses.     

Waveguide laser modelling of Erbium/Ytterbium activated monoclinic double tungstates

Using the overlapping integral method, a rib waveguide laser of monoclinic potassium double tungstate, KRE $(\text{ WO}_{4})_{2}$ , co-doped with Erbium and Ytterbium has been modelled. The laser operation at 1.5 $\upmu $ m is based on an efficient pump scheme via the energy transfer from Yb $^{3+}$ to Er $^{3+}$ ions. The numerical simulation requires spectroscopic parameters of the ions involved and the waveguide geometry and index profiles. This model allows determining the laser power as a function of controllable parameters such as ions doping level, pump power, cavity length or reflectance of the input/output mirrors. It has been found that, for the standard doping level used in this matrix, the optimum cavity length is only few millimeters. Overall, using simulation tools is possible to optimize fabrication parameters, and thus saving effort in the development of experimental prototypes.     

Laser nanoablation of graphite

Experimental data on laser ablation of highly oriented pyrolitic graphite by nanosecond pulsed UV ( $\lambda =193$  nm) and green ( $\lambda =532$  nm) lasers are presented. It was found that below graphite vaporization threshold $\approx $ 1 J/cm $^{2}$ , the nanoablation regime can be realized with material removal rates as low as 10 $^{-3}$  nm/pulse. The difference between physical (vaporization) and physical–chemical (heating + oxidation) ablation regimes is discussed. Special attention is paid to the influence of laser fluence and pulse number on ablation kinetics. Possibility of laser-induced graphite surface nanostructuring has been demonstrated. Combination of tightly focused laser beam and sharp tip of scanning probe microscope was applied to improve material nanoablation.     

Passively Q-switched laser performance of a composite Nd:YVO_{4}/Nd:YVO_{4}/Nd:YVO_{4} crystal with GaAs saturable absorber

By using GaAs wafer as the saturable absorber, the laser-diode pumped passively Q-switched composite Nd:YVO \(_{4}\) laser has been successfully demonstrated. For this passively Q-switched operation, the average output power obtained is as high as 846 mW at the incident pump power of 5.31 W, while the pulse duration is as short as 14.5 ns. The largest single-pulse energy of 2.49 \(\upmu \) J and the highest peak power of 166 W are obtained. The GaAs saturable absorber with thickness of 400 \(\upmu \) m has shown more excellent laser performance comparing with 700 \(\upmu \) m thick GaAs.     

Growth of strongly textured FeCO 3 thin films for application in research of nuclear quantum optics with ultrashort-pulsed laser deposition

Growth of strongly textured $\mathrm{FeCO}_{3}$ thin films on substrates was achieved with ultrashort-pulsed laser deposition using 810-nm, 46-fs ablation pulses. The crystallinity and composition were verified with X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Using Mössbauer spectroscopy, it is shown that the deposited $\mathrm{FeCO}_{3}$ thin films possess the film quality required for application in research of nuclear quantum optics. It is found that a relatively low substrate temperature is crucial for growing a strongly textured film of $\mathrm{FeCO}_{3}$ while avoiding decomposition of $\mathrm{FeCO}_{3}$ into $\mathrm{Fe}_{2}\mathrm{O}_{3}$ and $\mathrm{CO}_{2}$ . This supports the importance of the use of ultrashort-pulsed laser deposition in providing adatoms with high mobility for attaining good crystallinity. The surface morphology was characterized by surface profilometry, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. It is found to be significantly affected by changing the ablation laser parameters, including laser fluence, pulse duration, and on-target spot size. The results show that the peak deposition flux must be below approximately 0.03 nm/pulse in order to grow a flat film.     

Is the CNMSSM more credible than the CMSSM?

“Post-sphaleron baryogenesis”, a fresh and profound mechanism of baryogenesis accounts for the matter–antimatter asymmetry of our present universe in a framework of Pati–Salam symmetry. We attempt here to embed this mechanism in a non-SUSY SO(10) grand unified theory by reviving a novel symmetry breaking chain with Pati–Salam symmetry as an intermediate symmetry breaking step and as well to address post-sphaleron baryogenesis and neutron–antineutron oscillation in a rational manner. The Pati–Salam symmetry based on the gauge group \(\mathrm{SU}(2)_L \times \mathrm{SU}(2)_{R} \times \mathrm{SU}(4)_C\) is realized in our model at \(10^{5}\) – \(10^{6}\)  GeV and the mixing time for the neutron–antineutron oscillation process having \(\Delta B=2\) is found to be \(\tau _{n-\bar{n}} \simeq 10^{8}\) – \(10^{10}\)  s with the model parameters, which is within the reach of forthcoming experiments. Other novel features of the model include low scale right-handed \(W^{\pm }_R\) , \(Z_R\) gauge bosons, explanation for neutrino oscillation data via the gauged inverse (or extended) seesaw mechanism and most importantly TeV scale color sextet scalar particles responsible for an observable \(n\) – \(\bar{n}\) oscillation which may be accessible to LHC. We also look after gauge coupling unification and an estimation of the proton lifetime with and without the addition of color sextet scalars.     

Oscillation behavior of quasi-three-level lasers with residual resonant absorption losses

A theoretical model is developed for a quasi-three-level laser with residual resonant absorption losses existing in the unpumped or weakly pumped region of the laser medium, by taking into account the saturation nature of such absorption losses, which is described by a normalized parameter $f$ f measuring the feasibility of absorption saturation with respect to the gain saturation. Depending on the magnitude of the parameter $f$ f , the quasi-three-level laser will exhibit entirely different oscillation characteristics, distinguishing it from the four-level laser.     

The Distribution of the Area Under a Bessel Excursion and its Moments

A Bessel excursion is a Bessel process that begins at the origin and first returns there at some given time \(T\) . We study the distribution of the area under such an excursion, which recently found application in the context of laser cooling. The area \(A\) scales with the time as \(A \sim T^{3/2}\) , independent of the dimension, \(d\) , but the functional form of the distribution does depend on \(d\) . We demonstrate that for \(d=1\) , the distribution reduces as expected to the distribution for the area under a Brownian excursion, known as the Airy distribution, deriving a new expression for the Airy distribution in the process. We show that the distribution is symmetric in \(d-2\) , with nonanalytic behavior at \(d=2\) . We calculate the first and second moments of the distribution, as well as a particular fractional moment. We also analyze the analytic continuation from \(d<2\) to \(d>2\) . In the limit where \(d\rightarrow 4\) from below, this analytically continued distribution is described by a one-sided Lévy \(\alpha \) -stable distribution with index \(2/3\) and a scale factor proportional to \([(4-d)T]^{3/2}\) .     

Warm-intermediate inflationary universe model with viscous pressure in high dissipative regime

Warm inflation model with bulk viscous pressure in the context of “intermediate inflation” where the cosmological scale factor expands as $a(t)=a_0\exp (At^f)$ , is studied. The characteristics of this model in slow-roll approximation and in high dissipative regime are presented in two cases: 1—Dissipative parameter $\Gamma $ as a function of scalar field $\phi $ and bulk viscous coefficient $\zeta $ as a function of energy density $\rho $ . 2— $\Gamma $ and $\zeta $ are constant parameters. Scalar, tensor perturbations and spectral indices for this scenario are obtained. The cosmological parameters appearing in the present model are constrained by recent observational data (WMAP7).     

Structural properties of TiO2 nanocrystallites condensed in vapor-phase for photocatalyst applications

We have synthesized titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanocrystallites by pulsed laser ablation (PLA) in oxygen (O₂) background gas for photocatalyst applications. Varying O₂ background gas pressure \( \left( {P_{{{\text{O}}_{ 2} }} } \right) \) or substrate target distance (D _TS), it was possible to change weight fraction of anatase phase in the anatase/rutile mixture from 0.2 to 1.0. Porosity of the deposited TiO₂ films increased with increasing \( \left( {P_{{{\text{O}}_{ 2} }} } \right) \) and D _TS. Relation between the process parameters and the formed crystal phases was explained from the point of cooling process in vapor-phase. Furthermore, rapid thermal annealing (RTA) was performed as post-annealing, suppressing sintering of the nanocrystallites. Photocatalytic activities of the TiO₂ nanocrystallites depended on the RTA temperature and following crystallinity restoring as well as the crystal phase: anatase or rutile.     

Charmonium production in proton-nucleon and proton-nucleus collisions

Systematic nuclear effects discovered in the production ofJ/ψ particles in high-energy proton-nucleus collisions cannot be explained within the conventional picture in which a heavy color singlet $Q\bar Q$ pair, after its production, experiences multiple scattering from nucleons of the residual nucleus. We propose to take into account color octet intermediate states formed in the primary production of the heavy-quark pairs. Using a perturbative QCD analysis we study the microscopic production mechanism for $Q\bar Q$ pairs through gluon-gluon fusion with subsequent color neutralization in a strongly interacting medium. The influence of the surrounding matter on this process is investigated.     

Fused fiber components for “eye-safe” spectral region around 2 \upmu m

Thulium-doped fiber lasers operating at wavelengths around 2  $\upmu $ m are rapidly developing a new class of coherent light sources with a high slope efficiency reaching 70 %. The 2- $\upmu $ m radiation sources have many advantages over the 1- $\upmu $ m sources, e.g., better eye-safety, relaxed non-linear limits and often more efficient material processing. Particularly important application of 2- $\upmu $ m fiber lasers is in a highly-efficient generation of wideband mid-infrared radiation through third order nonlinear effects in soft-glass fibers. In this paper we report on the development of passive components intended for fiber laser operation around 2  $\upmu $ m, namely fiber couplers and wavelength division multiplexers for combination of 1.6- and 2- $\upmu $ m radiation. Three commercially available fibers were used for the preparation of these components. The measured characteristics of the components are compared and the limitations are discussed, particularly the two-mode operation and high bend loss. Specific fiber designs are proposed in order to optimize the performance of the wavelength division multiplexer.     

Structural evolution of nanopores and cracks as fundamental constituents of ultrashort pulse-induced nanogratings

We present an extensive study of the underlying structure of femtosecond laser-induced nanogratings in fused silica. To explore the evolution of the three-dimensional structure of the nanopores and cracks, of which the nanogratings consist, we performed small angle X-ray scattering measurements as well as focused ion beam milling and scanning electron microscopy. Our results show that cracks with dimensions of (280  $\times $  25  $\times $  380) nm $^{3}$ and nanopores with typical diameters of (30  $\times $  25  $\times $  75) nm $^{3}$ are formed independent of various illumination parameters. With increasing number of laser pulses the smaller pores fuse to larger structures. Furthermore, the data suggest a cross-sectional change of the pores from cuboidal to ellipsoidal.     

Exclusive measurement of the pp → nnπ+π+ reaction at 1.1 GeV

First exclusive data for the $\ensuremath{pp \to nn\pi^+\pi^+}$ reaction have been obtained at CELSIUS with the WASA detector setup at a beam energy of T_p = 1.1 GeV. Total and differential cross-sections disagree with theoretical calculations, which predict the $ \Delta$ $ \Delta$ excitation to be the dominant process at this beam energy. Instead, the data require the excitation of one of the nucleons to a higher-lying $ \Delta$ state, preferably the $\ensuremath{\Delta(1600)P_{33}}$ , to be the leading process.     

Combinatorial sputtering in planetary type systems for alloy libraries with perpendicular gradients of layer thickness and composition realised by a timing approach

We present a combinatorial sputtering technique to fabricate alloy thin films with orthogonal gradients of thickness and stoichiometry in a planetary type sputtering system. Using this approach we prepared a library of planar Nb Josephson junctions with a magnetic compound layer made from Si and Fe on one wafer. The independent investigation of thickness and composition changes of the Fe \(_x\) Si \(_{1-x}\) layer allows the identification of transition regions where the phase difference of the superconducting order parameter across the barrier changes from 0 to \(\pi \) . A mapping technique which allows to identify the different coupling regimes depending on material properties might facilitate the fabrication of \(\pi \) junctions with tailored critical current, damping and normal resistance parameters for applications.     

Characteristics of tilted and off-axis partially coherent beams reflected back by a cat-eye optical lens in atmospheric turbulence

In this paper, taking the tilted and off-axis partially coherent beams as the active detection laser beams, the characteristics of the active detection laser beams reflected back by a cat-eye optical lens in atmospheric turbulence are studied analytically and numerically. The analytical expressions for the centroid position deviation γ, the average intensity, the mean-squared beam width and the far-field divergence angle at the receiver plane are derived. It is found that tilted and off-axis active detection laser beams cannot be reflected back by a cat-eye optical lens in the direction of the source. The absolute deviation $\left| \gamma \right|$ decreases as the beam coherence decreases. Therefore, partially coherent beams are more suitable as active detection laser beams than fully coherent ones. In addition, $\left| \gamma \right|$ decreases greatly due to the aperture effect, and the influence of turbulence on $\left| \gamma \right|$ is not monotonic. On the other hand, the influence of the beam coherence and the atmospheric turbulence on the average intensity, the mean-squared beam width and the far-field divergence angle at the receiver plane is also examined, and some interesting results are obtained. The results obtained in this paper are very useful for applications of the active laser detection.     

Low optical loss nano-structured \mathrm{TiO }_{2} planar waveguides by sol–gel route for photonic crystal applications

Nano-structured $\mathrm{TiO }_{2}$ planar waveguides were prepared by sol–gel route: titanium tetraisopropoxide was dissolved in isopropanol, and then hydrolyzed by adding a water/isopropanol mixture with a controlled hydrolysis ratio. The resulting sol was deposited by “dip-coating” on a glass substrate with a controlled withdrawal speed. The obtained films were annealed for 2 h at 350 and $500\,^{\circ }\mathrm C $ , respectively. The structural and morphological properties of the synthesized films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. Optical properties such as refractive index, thickness, number of propagating modes, and attenuation coefficient were measured at 632.8 nm by m-lines spectroscopy as a function of the elaboration parameters. The films exhibit diffraction pattern consistent with an anatase phase and the $\mathrm{TiO }_{2}$ planar waveguides are multimodes and demonstrate propagation losses as low as 0.3 dB/cm.     

Proton-antiproton annihilation into a \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{{\Lambda}}_{c}^{-} pair

The process p $ \bar{{p}}$ $ \rightarrow$ $ \Lambda_{c}^{+}$ $ \bar{{\Lambda}}_{c}^{-}$ is investigated within the handbag approach. It is shown to lowest order of perturbative QCD that, under the assumption of restricted parton virtualities and transverse momenta, the dominant dynamical mechanism, characterized by the partonic subprocess u $ \bar{{u}}$ $ \rightarrow$ c $ \bar{{c}}$ , factorizes in the sense that only the subprocess contains highly virtual partons, namely a gluon, while the hadronic matrix elements embody only soft scales and can be parameterized in terms of helicity flip and non-flip generalized parton distributions. Modelling the latter functions by overlaps of light-cone wave functions for the involved baryons we are able to predict cross-sections and spin correlation parameters for the process of interest.     

Optical properties of nano-multi-layered quantum dot: oscillator strength, absorption coefficient and refractive index

In this paper, the exact solution of Schrödinger equation for multi-layered quantum dot (MLQD) within the effective mass approximation and dielectric continuum model is obtained with finite and infinite confining potential (CP). The MLQD is a nano-structured semiconductor system that consists of a spherical core (GaAs) and a coated spherical shell (Ga $_{1-x}$ Al $_{x}$ As) as the whole dot is embedded inside a bulk material (Ga $_{1-y}$ Al $_{y}$ As). Using the obtained energies, wave functions and taking advantage of numeric calculations, the oscillator strength, refractive index and absorbtion coefficient change associated with intersubband electronic transition from the ground state to the first allowed excited state are investigated for different CPs (both finite and infinite) and shell thicknesses. The results show that all values of ground state energy for large core dot radius approach the same value (the energy of bulk material) independent of CPs and shell thicknesses. Also it is shown that the optical properties are strongly affected by the changes in CPs and shell thicknesses.     

Resonance ionisation mass spectrometry of krypton and its applications in planetary science

A new resonance ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometer for determining krypton isotope ratios in extraterrestrial samples is presented. Laser heating is used to extract gas from mg-size samples. A cryogenic sample concentrator is employed. Atoms continuously condense on a 75 K stainless steel substrate at the back plate of a Wiley-McLaren laser ion source from where they are desorbed by a pulsed 1064 nm laser and resonantly ionized in the plume. A three-colour (116.5 nm, 558.1 nm and 1064 nm) excitation scheme is used. Tuneable coherent Vacuum Ultraviolet (vuv) radiation near 116.5 nm is generated by four-wave sum frequency mixing of 252.5 nm and 1507 nm pulsed dye laser beams in a binary mixture of negatively and positively dispersive gases (Xe and Ar). Isotope effects have been observed that reduce the reproducibility of isotope ratio measurements between odd-mass, non-zero nuclear spin isotopes and even-mass, zero nuclear spin isotopes. This can be minimised and stabilised by controlling the laser fluences, experimental geometry, and the population of the magnetic sub-levels of the excited atomic states used in the ionisation process. Once stability is achieved, sample-standard bracketing (during which the known isotope ratios of a standard are determined before and after the measurements of the sample under the same conditions) allows precision and reproducibility of $\sim $ 1 % for the major isotope ratios to be achieved in samples $\sim 10^{6}$ krypton atoms. Detection limits of $<1000$ atoms/isotope have been demonstrated, ratios of $^{81}$ Kr in meteorites have been made with $\sim $ 5–10 % precision. Applications of the instrument in various areas of planetary science are also discussed.