Leaky-mode resonant gratings on a fibre facet

Numerical investigation shows that an optimised leaky-mode resonant diffraction gratings fabricated in \({\mathrm{{Ta}}}_2{\mathrm{{O}}}_5\) layer deposited on the facet of an optical fibre can have a modal reflectance peak of more than 95%, 3 dB spectral bandwidth of about 50 nm and polarization extinction ratio of almost 18 dB. The grating is intended to be employed as a high-reflectance, wavelength- and polarization-dependent mirror in a fibre laser. We compare results of 2D and 3D modelling, investigate influence of grating parameters on spectral shape of modal reflectance and discuss fabrication tolerances.     

Dual-wavelength CW diode-end-pumped a-cut Nd:YVO4 laser at 1064.5 and 1085.5 nm

A simple and compact dual-wavelength continuous wave (CW) laser-diode end-pumped laser operating simultaneously at 1,064.5 and 1,085.5 nm in a single a-cut Nd:YVO₄ has been demonstrated. We have used two Nd:YVO₄ crystals with different Nd⁺³ concentrations and lengths; 0.1 %-14 mm and 0.25 %-12 mm. The maximum total output power of 5 and 6.18 W, including 1,064.5 and 1,085.5 nm, is achieved at the incident pump power of 22 and 18 W, with a slope efficiency 23.3 and 32.9 %, respectively, for the crystals of 0.1 %-14 mm and 0.25 %-12 mm. The calculations show both wavelengths lasing at 1,064.5 and 1,085.5 nm can possess the same threshold when reflectivity of the output coupler at 1,064.5 nm is less than 87.5 % and, at this condition, the reflectivity of the output coupler at 1,085.5 nm increases nearly linearly with that of 1,064.5 nm.     

Surface disorder in c-Si induced by swift heavy ions

The disorders induced in crystalline silicon (c-Si) through the process of electronic energy loss in the swift heavy ion irradiation were investigated. A number of silicon <1 0 0> samples were irradiated with 65 MeV oxygen ions at different fluences, 1×10¹³ to 1.5×10¹⁴ ions/cm², and characterized by the Raman spectroscopy, the optical reflectivity, the X-ray reflectivity, the atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The intensity, redshift, phonon coherence length and asymmetric broadening associated with the Raman peaks reveal that stressed and disordered lattice zones are produced in the surface region of the irradiated silicon. The average crystallite size, obtained by analyzing Raman spectrum with the phonon confinement model, was very large in the virgin silicon but decreased to<100 nm dimension in the ion irradiated silicon. The results of the X-ray reflectivity, AFM and optical reflectivity of 200–700 nm radiation indicate that the roughness of the silicon surface has enhanced substantially after ion irradiation. The diffusion of oxygen in silicon surface during ion irradiation is evident from the oscillation in the X-ray reflectivity spectrum and the sharp decrease in the reflectivity of 200–400 nm radiation. The rise in temperature, estimated from the heat spike model, was high enough to melt the local silicon surface. The results of XRD indicate that lattice defects have been induced and a new plane <2 1 1> has been formed in the silicon <1 0 0>after ion irradiation. The results of the present study show that the energy deposited in crystalline silicon through the process of electronic energy loss ～0.944 keV/nm per ion is sufficient to induce disorders of appreciable magnitude in the silicon surface even at a fluence of ～10¹³ ions/cm².     

Spectral mirror for ultra-short, high peak power, multi-PW Ti:sapphire lasers

A multilayer mirror for spectral filtering adapted to ultra-short and multi-PW Ti:Sa laser has been designed, manufactured and characterized. The method used to determine both the reflectivity shape and the coating design leads to global compensation of gain narrowing, saturation and spectral phase. The result is a spectral control on 200 nm range while keeping a flat spectral phase. This kind of filter will enable obtaining 15 fs pulse duration for multi-PW laser systems based on Ti:Sa.     

LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 cathode materials for LIB prepared by spray pyrolysis I: the spectral, structural, and electro-chemical properties

Layered lithium ion battery cathode material LiNi_1/3Co_1/3Mn_1/3O₂ with uniform particle size of about 6 μm was synthesized by a spray pyrolysis method. Infrared and X-ray diffraction analyses show that the pyrolysis at 1,000 °C for 2 s in the tube furnace eliminates nearly all the organic components but is still not enough for the complete crystallization of LiNi_1/3Co_1/3Mn_1/3O₂ materials. Therefore, further annealing at 850 °C is needed. The prepared LiNi_1/3Co_1/3Mn_1/3O₂ cathode materials show excellent electrochemical performances. By increasing the C-rates, the cell shows discharge capacities of 159.3, 148.2, 133.7, and 125.7 mAh g^?1 at 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, and 1C rates, respectively. Only 2.1 mAh g^?1 capacity loss is observed when back to 0.1C rate. Moreover, LiNi_1/3Co_1/3Mn_1/3O₂ cathode retains 96, 97.7, 97.1, 94.5, and 97.1 % of its initial discharge capacities after 20 cycles at 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, and back to 0.1C rates, respectively. More than 97 % coulombic efficiencies are observed at all the current densities in 20 cycles.     

An Inverter-Based,CMOS, Low-Power Optical Receiver Front-End

In this paper, a low-power optical receiver front-end which consists of a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and three stages of limiting amplifier (LA) for 2.5 Gb/s applications is proposed in 0.18 µm CMOS technology. The proposed TIA benefits from a modified inverter structure, in which the input resistance is properly reduced due to the use of diode-connected transistors in comparison with conventional inverter circuit. Also, an active inductor is used in parallel with a diode-connected transistor at the output node, which provides a low output resistance, while it resonates with the load capacitance to extend the ?3 dB frequency bandwidth. Moreover, three stages of LAs are used to obtain extra gain, in which each LA cell uses active inductor load. However, HSPICE simulations for the proposed TIA circuit show a 42.24 dBΩ transimpedance gain, 1.96 GHz frequency bandwidth, 11.7 pA/√Hz input referred noise, and only 972 µW of power consumption at 1.5 V supply. Also, simulation results for the whole receiver system show a 75.6 dB gain, 1.7 GHz frequency bandwidth, and 6.54 mW of power consumption at 1.5 V supply. Finally, simulation results indicate that the proposed receiver system has good performances to be used as a low-power optical receiver front-end.     

High pressure equation of state of rubidium

The pressure-volume relation of rubidium metal is studied by high-pressure x-ray diffraction up to 110 kbar at room temperature. In addition, pressure scans of the near-infrared reflectivity are recorded up to 250 kbar. Rubidium undergoes a bcc to fcc structural transition (Rb I → Rb II) at 70 ± 2 kbar. Other phase transitions occur at 128 ± 3, 160 ± 5 and 190 ± 5 kbar on the ruby pressure scale. The pressure-volume relation and the near-infrared reflectivity provide evidence for a pressure-induced 5s → 4d electronic transition similar to the well-known 6s → 5d transition in cesium metal.     

Investigation on high power phase compensation of strong aberrations via stimulated Brillouin scattering

The strong wave-front aberrations compensated by stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugate mirror (SBS-PCM) in a high power laser were investigated experimentally. The wave-front fluctuation of the 10 Hz 500 mJ Nd:YAG laser is 0.5λ. Transmitting through a random phase plate (RPP), it increases to 8.6λ. While using SBS-PCM in place of a high reflection mirror, the distortion induced by the RPP is compensated, and the wave-front fluctuation becomes 0.9λ. At the same time, obvious breakdown phenomena in the SBS cell were observed, and the reflectivity is unstable. A rotating wedge plate is introduced into the phase conjugating mirror to make the focus of the SBS cell rotate and optical breakdown is avoided effectively. The reflectivity becomes stable around about 70% and the instability is changed from ±4.1% to ±0.9%. Besides, the compensated wave-front fluctuation is only 0.6λ, which is near to the original wave-front distribution. The results show that the reflectivity of the SBS-PCM is very high and stable when there are no other nonlinear effects such as optical breakdown. Thus the compensating effects for strong wave-front errors are perfect.     

TCO/Ag/TCO transparent electrodes for solar cells application

Among transparent electrodes, transparent conductive oxides (TCO)/metal/TCO structures can achieve optical and electrical performances comparable to, or better than, single TCO layers and very thin metallic films. In this work, we report on thin multilayers based on aluminum zinc oxide (AZO), indium tin oxide (ITO) and Ag deposited by RF magnetron sputtering on soda lime glass at room temperature. The TCO/Ag/TCO structures with thicknesses of about 50/10/50 nm were deposited with all combinations of AZO and ITO as top and bottom layers. While the electrical conductivity is dominated by the Ag intralayer irrespective of the TCO nature, the optical transmissions show a dependence on the nature of the top and bottom TCOs, mainly due to the change in the reflectivity of the multilayers. Structural, electrical and optical properties are studied to optimize the structure for very thin transparent electrodes suitable for photovoltaic applications.     

Induced moment due to perpendicular field cycling in trained exchange bias system

Depth-sensitive polarized neutron scattering in specular and off-specular mode has recently revealed that perpendicular field cycling brings about a modification in the interfacial magnetization of a trained exchange coupled interface. We show here by various model fits to our neutron reflectivity data that a restoration of the untrained state is not possible in the case of our polycrystalline multilayer specimen. This is due a magnetic moment at the interface induced only after perpendicular field cycling, changing the initial field-cooled state.     

Nanosecond laser pulse induced vertical movement of thin gold films on silicon determined by a modified Michelson interferometer

The vertical movement of a 40 nm thin Au film on a silicon substrate during intense nanosecond (ns) laser irradiation is determined on the nm vertical and ns time scales using an optimized Michelson interferometer. The balanced setup with two detectors uses the inverse interference signal and accounts for transient reflectivity changes during irradiation. We show that a change in phase shift upon reflection must be taken into account to gain quantitative results. Three distinct fluence regimes can be distinguished, characterized by transient reflectivity behavior, dewetting processes and film detachment. Maximum displacement velocities are determined to be 0.6 m/s and 1.9 m/s below and above the melting threshold of the metal, respectively. Flight velocities of detaching liquid films are found to be between 30 and 70 m/s for many nanoseconds.     

Design and fabrication of highly dispersive semiconductor double-chirped mirrors

We report on the development of semiconductor double-chirped mirrors with the group delay dispersion of ?3,800 ± 100 fs² in the wavelength range between 1,058 ÷ 1,064 nm and reflectivity of 99.1 %. The simplified plane-wave reflection transfer method was used to design the mirror multilayer stack. The mirror contains an epitaxial AlAs/GaAs structure topped with a SiNx antireflective layer.     

Temperature dependence of optical properties of InAs quantum dots grown on GaAs(113)A and (115)A substrates

We have investigated the temperature dependence of photoluminescence (PL) peak position of InAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) grown on GaAs(11N)A (N = 3, 5) substrates. The interband transition energy is calculated by the resolution of the 3D Schrödinger equation for a parallelepipedic InAs QD, with a width of about 8 nm and a height around 3 nm. Experimentally, it was found that the PL spectra quenches at about 160 K. In addition, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) has an abnormal evolution with varying temperature. The latter effect maybe due to the carrier repopulation between QDs. The disorientation of the GaAs substrate and the low width of terraces which was presented in the high index surfaces have an important contribution in the PL spectra. Despite the non-realist chosen shape of QD and the simplest adopted model, theoretical and experimental results revealed a clear agreement.     

Synthesis of selenium/EDTA-derived porous carbon composite as a Li–Se battery cathode

The carbon substrate with unique 3D macroporous structure has been prepared through the immediate carbonization of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and KOH mixture. The porous carbon composed of micro- and small mesoporous (2–5 nm) structure has a BET specific surface area of 1824.8 m² g^?1. The amorphous and nanosized Se is uniformly encapsulated into the porous structure of porous carbon using melting diffusion route, and the weight content of Se in target Se/C composite can be as high as ~50 %. As an Li–Se battery cathode, the Se/C composite delivers a reversible (2nd) discharge capacity of 597.4 mAh g^?1 at 0.24C and retains a discharge capacity of 538.4 mAh g^?1 at 0.24C after 100 cycles. Furthermore, the composite also has a stable capacity of 291.0 mAh g^?1 at a high current of 4.8C. The high specific area and good porous size of EDTA-derived carbon substrate may a be responsibility for the excellent electrochemical performances of Se/C composite.     

Improvement of the Performance of an Acousto-Optical Q-Switched Nd:YAG 946 nm Laser Using a Convex–Plane Cavity

We improve the performance of an acousto-optical Q-switched Nd:YAG 946 nm laser using a convex–plane cavity. We obtain the highest output average power of 2.3 W with a pulse width of 15.3 ns in a 10 kHz 946 nm laser with a convex–plane cavity. The maximum peak power 15.0 kW is about three times higher than that in a plane–plane cavity. Also we investigate the output performances of the pulsed 946 nm laser with the convex–plane cavity at 20 and 50 kHz.     

The facile in situ preparation and characterization of C/FeOF/FeF<Subscript>3</Subscript> nanocomposites as LIB cathode materials

C/FeOF/FeF₃ nanocomposite was synthesized by a facile in situ partial oxidation method. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) showed a special texture comprised of interpenetrating nanodomains of FeOF and FeF₃. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements revealed that the introduction of nanodomain FeOF enhanced both the electronic and ionic conductivity of the composite material. Therefore, the improvement of electron and lithium-ion dynamics resulted in the significant enhancement of the electrochemical performances of the material at ambient temperature. At a current density of 20 mA g^?1 within potential range 1.5–4.5 V, the specific capacities of the first ten circles were maintained at about 400 mAh g^?1 _. This material also exhibited excellent cycling capacity retention capability especially for high C rates. When the current density further increased to 100 and 200 mA g^?1, a steady capacity of 80 and 60 mAh g^?1 was observed, respectively. Furthermore, nearly no capacity loss was observed for the followed cycles. The discharge platforms based on intercalation and conversion reaction were also heightened by about 0.4 V, which increased the contribution of high voltage capacities. Compared to C/FeF₃, C/FeOF/FeF₃ is showing more of capacitive behavior, which also contributes to the high specific capacity delivered and is believed to be closely related to the enlarged nanodomain interfaces between two electrochemical active materials. An expansion-cracking-oxidation mechanism was proposed to explain the formation of this interpenetrating nanodomains of FeOF and FeF₃.     

Acetonitrile mediated facile synthesis and self-assembly of silver vanadate nanowires into 3D spongy-like structure as a cathode material for lithium ion battery

We report the facile, one-step acetonitrile-mediated synthesis and self-assembly of β-AgVO₃ nanowires into three-dimensional (3D) porous spongy-like hydrogel (~ 4 cm diameter) as cathode material for lithium ion battery of high performance and long-term stability. 3D structures made with superlong, very thin, and monoclinic β-AgVO₃ nanowires exhibit high specific discharge capacities of 165 mAh g^?1 in the first cycle and 100 mAh g^?1 at the 50th cycle, with a cyclic capacity retention of 53% at a current density of 50 mA g^?1. 3D structures are synthesized by reaction between ammonium vanadate and silver nitrate solution containing 5 mL of acetonitrile followed by a hydrothermal treatment at 200 °C for 12 h. Acetonitrile (used here for the first time in the silver vanadate synthesis) plays an important role in the self-assembly of the silver vanadate nanowires. A tentative growth mechanism for the 3D structure and lithium ions intercalation into β-AgVO₃ nanowires has been discussed and described.     

Urea-assisted solvothermal synthesis of monodisperse multiporous hierarchical micro/nanostructured ZnCo<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript> microspheres and their lithium storage properties

High-quality monodisperse multiporous hierarchical micro/nanostructured ZnCo₂O₄ microspheres have been fabricated by calcinating the Zn_1/3Co_2/3CO₃ precursor prepared by urea-assisted solvothermal method. The as-prepared products are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) measurement to study the crystal phase and morphology. When tested as anode material for lithium ion batteries, the multiporous ZnCo₂O₄ microspheres exhibit an initial discharge capacity of 1,369 mAh g^?1 (3,244.5 F cm^?3) and retain stable capacity of 800 mAh g^?1 (1,896 F cm^?3) after 30 cycles. It should be noted that the good electrochemical performances can be attributed to the porous structure composed of interconnected nanoscale particles, which can promote electrolyte diffusion and reduce volume change during discharge/charge processes. More importantly, this ZnCo₂O₄ 3D hierarchical structures provide a large number of active surface position for Li⁺ diffusion, which may contribute to the improved electrochemical performance towards lithium storage.     

X-ray scattering study of interfacial roughness in Nb/PdNi multilayers

Specular and diffuse X-ray scattering are used to study interfacial roughness in Nb/Pd_0.81Ni_0.19 multilayers deposited by dc UHV sputtering. The data are analyzed to extract information about the correlated behavior of interface roughness in both the lateral and vertical directions. X-ray reflectivity is treated quantitatively by computer-aided simulation and modelling in order to extract values also for the layers thickness. From the analysis of the diffusive spectra of the reflectivity maps the roughness correlation has been evaluated.     

Mo/Si多层膜在质子辐照下反射率的变化

为了检验应用在极紫外波段空间太阳望远镜上Mo/Si多层膜反射镜在空间辐射环境下反射率的变化情况, 模拟了部分空间太阳望远镜运行轨道的辐射环境, 利用不同能量和剂量的质子对Mo/Si多层膜反射镜进行辐照实验.辐照前后反射率测量结果显示,由于带电粒子的辐照损伤,质子辐照会使Mo/Si多层膜反射镜的反射率降低,且质子能量越低、剂量越大,对多层膜的反射率影响越明显. 当质子能量E=160keV,剂量＝6×10¹¹/mm²时,反射率降低4.1%;能量E=100keV,剂量=6×10¹¹/mm²时, 反射率降低5.7%;能量E=50keV,剂量=8×10¹²/mm²时,反射率降低10.4%. 用原子力显微镜测量辐照后Mo/Si多层膜反射镜的表面粗糙度比辐照前明显增加,致使散射光线能量逐渐增大并最终导致反射率的降低. 关键词： 质子辐照 Mo/Si多层膜反射镜 辐照损伤