Research activities at the PALS research infrastructure

The Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) Research Infrastructure (RI) in Prague, one of only four kJ-class laser facilities in EU, has been offering its beam time to European researchers for already 14 years, since 2004 in the framework of the LASERLAB-Europe consortium. Till June 2014, the PALS RI has provided 4313 experimental days for a total of 41 projects with 303 international users from 42 different research institutions. Its principal experimental facility is a terawatt sub-ns iodine laser (1315?nm) with an optional plasma-based zinc XUV laser (21.2?nm), and an auxiliary Ti:Sapphire fs laser (1?J, 70?fs) exploited for femtosecond plasma probing and experiments with synchronised femtosecond and sub-nanosecond laser pulses at mean laser intensities of up to 30?PW/cm². The lasers are equipped with several target facilities and rich sets of instruments for both active and passive plasma diagnostics. The PALS main research areas include development and applications of secondary laser sources of high-energy ions and both coherent and non-coherent high-intensity XUV radiation, laboratory astrophysical and inertial fusion-relevant studies. In this paper, the main results having been achieved at PALS in the framework of LASERLAB-EUROPE international access activities during the last four years are highlighted.     

Evanescent Wave-Guided Growth of an Organic Supramolecular Nanowire Array

The ordered assembly of molecules within a specific space of nanoscale, such as a surface, holds great promise in advanced micro-/nanostructure fabrication for various applications. Herein, we demonstrate the evanescent wave (EW)-guided organization of small molecules into a long-range ordered nanowire (NW) array. Experiment and simulation revealed that the orientation and periodicity of the NW array were feasibly regulated by altering the propagation direction and the wavelength of EW. The generality of this approach was demonstrated by using different molecule precursors. While existing studies on EW often took advantages of its near-field property for optical sensing, this work demonstrated the photochemical power of EW in the guided-assembly of small molecules for the first time. It also provides an enlightening avenue to periodic structure with fluorescence, promising for super-resolution microscopy and important devices applicable to optical and bio-related fields.     

LOBSTER: Local orbital projections,atomic charges,and chemical-bonding analysis from projector-augmented-wave-based density-functional theory

We present an update on recently developed methodology and functionality in the computer program Local Orbital Basis Suite Toward Electronic-Structure Reconstruction (LOBSTER) for chemical-bonding analysis in periodic systems. LOBSTER is based on an analytic projection from projector-augmented wave (PAW) density-functional theory (DFT) computations (Maintz et al., J. Comput. Chem. 2013 , 34, 2557), reconstructing chemical information in terms of local, auxiliary atomic orbitals and thereby opening the output of PAW-based DFT codes to chemical interpretation. We demonstrate how LOBSTER has been improved by taking into account time-reversal symmetry, thereby speeding up the DFT and LOBSTER calculations by a factor of 2. Over the recent years, the functionalities have also been continually expanded, including accurate projected densities of states (DOSs), crystal orbital Hamilton population (COHP) analysis, atomic and orbital charges, gross populations, and the recently introduced k -dependent COHP. The software is offered free-of-charge for non-commercial research.     

Mechanical wave momentum from the first principles

Axial momentum carried by waves in a uniform waveguide is considered based on the conservation laws and a kind of the causality principle. Specifically, we examine (without resorting to constitutive data) steady-state waves of an arbitrary shape, periodic waves which speed differs from the speed of its form and binary waves carrying self-equilibrated momentum. The approach allows us to represent momentum as a product of the wave mass and the wave speed. The propagating wave mass, positive or negative, is the excess of that in the wave over its initial value. This general representation is valid for mechanical waves of arbitrary nature and intensity. The finite-amplitude longitudinal and periodic transverse waves are examined in more detail. It is shown in particular, that the transverse excitation of a string or an elastic beam results in the binary wave. The closed-form expressions for the drift in these waves functionally reduce to the Stokes’ drift in surface water waves (a half the latter by the value). Besides, based on the general representation an energy–momentum relation is discussed and the physical meaning of the so-called “wave momentum” is clarified.     

Traveling waves for a reaction–diffusion–advection predator–prey model

In this paper we study a reaction–diffusion–advection predator–prey model in a river. The existence of predator-invasion traveling wave solutions and prey-spread traveling wave solutions in the upstream and downstream directions is established and the corresponding minimal wave speeds are obtained. While some crucial improvements in theoretical methods have been established, the proofs of the existence and nonexistence of such traveling waves are based on Schauder’s fixed-point theorem, LaSalle’s invariance principle and Laplace transform. Based on theoretical results, we investigate the effect of the hydrological and biological factors on minimal wave speeds and hence on the spread of the prey and the invasion of the predator in the river. The linear determinacy of the predator–prey Lotka–Volterra system is compared with nonlinear determinacy of the competitive Lotka–Volterra system to investigate the mechanics of linear and nonlinear determinacy.     

Coupled nonlinear waves in a composite magnetic-semiconducting medium

In this Letter we investigate the propagation of coupled nonlinear Alfven-spin and helicon-spin waves in a composite medium having the properties of both magnetic and semiconducting materials. We arrive at the nonlinear evolution equations for these coupled waves using the reductive perturbation method for which we obtain soliton solutions. We also discuss the limiting cases for the two materials separately.     

Doppler effects of an oscillating line source in shear flow with a free surface

The linearised water-wave radiation problem for the oscillating 2D submerged source in an inviscid shear flow with a free surface is investigated analytically. There is a nonzero surface velocity. The depth is infinite and the vorticity is uniform. The amplitudes radiated from the source are calculated analytically. Due to Doppler effects, there may be up to four different emitted waves, and there is resonance with zero group velocity and infinite amplitude.     

Ocean internal waves interpreted as oscillation travelling waves in consideration of ocean dissipation

Most studies of the synthetic aperture radar remote sensing of ocean internal waves are based on the solitary wave solutions of the Korteweg-de Vries （KdV） equation, and the dissipative term in the KdV equation is not taken into account. However, the dissipative term is very important, both in the synthetic aperture radar images and in ocean models. In this paper, the traveling-wave structure to characterize the ocean internal wave phenomenon is modeled, the results of numerical experiments are advanced, and a theoretical hypothesis of the traveling wave to retrieve the ocean internal wave parameters in the synthetic aperture radar images is introduced.     

Wavy film flow down a vertical plate: Comparisons between the results of integral approaches and full-scale computations

This paper is devoted to a theoretical analysis of nonlinear two-dimensional waves using the Navier-Stokes equations in their full statement. Steady-state travelling wave regimes have been found and an analysis of their linear stability has been carried out. It is shown that the flow regimes obtained using the Navier-Stokes equations are qualitatively different from the solutions of Shkadov’s integral approach starting from some values of the Kapitza number. It is also found that the wave regimes of the Navier-Stokes equations have an internal vortex at moderate Reynolds numbers. The results obtained using “the regularized integral model” are in excellent agreement with the Navier-Stokes calculations for Re/Ka ≤2. Unlike the solutions found using an integral approach, it is shown that only a few types of nonlinear waves exist when the full Navier-Stokes equations are considered. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Elastic properties of finite three-dimensional solid phononic-crystal slabs

We study theoretically, by means of layer-multiple scattering techniques, the propagation of elastic waves through finite slabs of phononic crystals consisting of metallic spheres in polyester matrix, embedded in air. We focus on the study of modes localized on the surfaces of the structure, investigating the physical parameters which influence and determine their appearance. Our results reveal the existence of absolute phononic frequency gaps in these finite structures, and point out the possibility, under an appropriate choice of the parameters, of tunable regions of frequency free of propagating and/or surface-localized modes. This could be very useful in the design of devices related to frequency filtering, waveguiding, etc.