Laser ablation of microparticles for nanostructure generation

The process of laser ablation of microparticles has been shown to generate nanoparticles from microparticles; but the generation of nanoparticle networks from microparticles has never been reported before. We report a unique approach for the generation of nanoparticle networks through ablation of microparticles. Using this approach, two samples containing microparticles of lead oxide (Pb₃O₄) and nickel oxide (NiO), respectively, were ablated under ambient conditions using a femtosecond laser operating in the MHz repetition rate regime. Nanoparticle networks with particle diameter ranging from 60 to 90 nm were obtained by ablation of microparticles without use of any specialized equipment, catalysts or external stimulants. The formation of finer nanoparticle networks has been explained by considering the low pressure region created by the shockwave, causing rapid condensation of microparticles into finer nanoparticles. A comparison between the nanostructures generated by ablating microparticle and those by ablating bulk substrate was carried out; and a considerable reduction in size and narrowed size distribution was observed. Our nanostructure fabrication technique will be a unique process for nanoparticle network generation from a vast array of materials.     

Femtosecond pulsed laser ablation of thin gold film

Laser micromachining on 1000 nm-thick gold film using femtosecond laser has been studied. The laser pulses that are used for this study are 400 nm in central wavelength, 150 fs in pulse duration, and the repetition rate is 1 kHz. Plano-concave lens with a focal length of 19 mm focuses the laser beam into a spot of 3 μm (1/e² diameter). The sample was translated at a linear speed of 400 μm/s during machining. Grooves were cut on gold thin film with laser pulses of various energies. The ablation depths were measured and plotted. There are two ablation regimes. In the first regime, the cutting is very shallow and the edges are free of molten material. While in the second regime, molten material appears and the cutting edges are contaminated. The results suggest that clean and precise microstructuring can be achieved with femtosecond pulsed laser by controlling the pulse energy in the first ablation regime.     

Steric inhibition of pi-stacking: 1,3,6,8-tetraarylpyrenes as efficient blue emitters in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs)

The sterically congested tetraarylpyrenes 1-3, which can be readily accessed by Suzuki coupling, exhibit no-aggregation (pi-stacking) behavior in both solution and solid states. The indisposed tendency of 1-3 toward crystallization and their moderate molecular dimensions permit exploitation as blue light emitting materials in OLEDs with respectable device performances.     

Photochromism of arylchromenes: remarkable modification of absorption properties and lifetimes of o-quinonoid intermediates

[reaction: see text] A significant pi-conjugation in 6- and 7-arylchromenes manifests dramatically in the absorption properties of their photogenerated o-quinonoid intermediates. This in conjunction with facile synthesis via Suzuki coupling may render a myriad of photochromic arylchromenes with wide-ranging spectrokinetic properties readily accessible.     

Combination of Cyanine Behaviour and Giant Hyperpolarisability in Novel Merocyanine Dyes: Beyond the Bond Length Alternation (BLA) Paradigm

Merocyanine dyes that exhibit antithetic cyanine‐like behaviour and giant first‐order hyperpolarisability (β) values have been designed. These cyanine‐type dyes open up an intriguing route towards molecular‐based electro‐optic materials as well as new second‐harmonic generation dyes for imaging.     

Density field of supersonic separated flow past an afterbody nozzle using tomographic reconstruction of BOS data

The background oriented Schlieren (BOS) technique has been applied to determine the density field in an oblique shock-separated turbulent boundary flow. Measurements were made for two cases, namely, with/without jet flow from the afterbody which is a nozzle. In addition, oil flow and Schlieren visualizations were carried out—the results show certain upstream features of interest including shock excursions. The mean density field from BOS is discussed along with results from conventional Schlieren flow visualization. The data extracted from the mean density field obtained through BOS have been compared for the jet-off and jet-on cases. The data obtained also show the mean density in the base region (jet-off case) to be about 50% of the freestream density and match the isentropic values for the underexpanded jet at the exit. The study involving shock–boundary interaction, movement of freestream shock over the afterbody in the presence of a jet plume provides understanding of flow physics in a flow regime where whole field velocity measurements are extremely difficult.     

A PIV study of a supersonic impinging jet

The characteristics of supersonic impinging jets are investigated using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The purpose of the experiments is to understand the jet induced forces on STOVL aircraft while hovering close to the ground. For this purpose, a large diameter circular plate was attached at the nozzle exit. The oscillations of the impinging jet generated due to a feedback loop are captured in the PIV images. The instantaneous velocity field measurements are used to describe flow characteristics of the impinging jet. The important flow features such as oscillating shock waves, slipstream shear layers and large scale structures are captured clearly by the PIV. The presence of large scale structures in the impinging jet induced high entrainment velocity in the near hydrodynamic field, which resulted in lift plate suction pressures. A passive control device is used to interfere with the acoustic waves travelling in the ambient medium to suppress the feedback loop. As a consequence, the large scale vortical structures disappeared completely leading to a corresponding reduction in the entrainment.     

A CCD-based polarization interferometric technique for testing waveplates

A CCD-based polarization interferometric technique is developed to test waveplates. A Babinet compensator is used to produce interference fringes for polarized input and the retardance introduced by the waveplate when inserted in the optical beam is calculated from the fringe shifts using the phase matching technique. A theoretical model is fitted with the observed fringe shifts to get an accuracy of 0.5° in the retardance calculation. The experimental set-up and the measurement of retardance for zero-order and high-order quarter waveplates are discussed. The retardance calculation for a zero-order waveplate is found to be more accurate than the high-order waveplate. This technique can also be used to measure an arbitrary amount of retardance produced by any birefringent waveplate and also to determine its optic axis direction.     

Femtosecond pulsed laser ablation with spatial filtering

With the rise in demand for miniaturized features with better acute edge acuity and negligible thermal damage zone, one of the key vital areas lies in the refinement of the quality of the laser beam itself. Spatial filter is routinely used in optical micromachining systems to smoothen the Gaussian profile of the machining spot in order to obtain a feature of the desired quality. However, its profile smoothening effect has never been investigated for femtosecond pulsed laser micromachining process since the extremely high peak power of femtosecond pulses will cause damage on the filtering aperture of spatial filter. During the development of an acousto-optical micromachining system using femtosecond pulses, we found that if the damage of the filtering aperture can be circumvented, spatial filter can improve the machining quality of femtosecond pulse ablation, especially when ablation is conducted at low-fluency range (just above the ablation threshold fluency). In this paper, we investigate and demonstrate both the improvement and potential that beam refinement can bring about. In our experiment, a series of test patterns were ablated with a 400 nm second-harmonic Ti:Sapphire femtosecond laser of 150 fs duration at varying pulse energy ranging from 31 to 39 nJ. The specimen used in the experiment is a platinum- (Pt) sputtered coating of 100 nm thickness on a quartz substrate. The results show a significant improvement in the constancy of the shape as well as the size of ablated feature, revealing an improved beam profile and beam energy distribution due to spatial filtering.