Single-Photon Detection at Telecom Wavelengths

A single-photon detector based on an InGaAs avalanche photodiode has been developed for use at telecom wavelengths. A suitable delay and sampling gate modulation circuit are used to prevent positive and negative transient pulses from influencing the detection of true photon induced avalanches. A monostable trigger circuit eliminates the influence of avalanche peak jitter, and a dead time modulation feedback control circuit decreases the afterpulsing. From performance tests we lind that at the optimum operation point, the quantum efficiency is 12% and the dark count rate 1.5 × 10^-6 ns^-1, with a detection rate of 500 kHz.     

Chaotic Dynamics of a Periodically Modulated Josephson Junction

We study the chaotic dynamics of a periodically modulated Josephson junction with damping. The general solution of the first-order perturbed equation is constructed by using the direct perturbation technique. It is theoretically found that the boundedness conditions of the general solution contain the Melnikov chaotic criterion. When the perturbation conditions cannot be satisfied, numerical simulations demonstrate that the system can step into chaos through a period doubling route with the increase of the amplitude of the modulating term. Regulating specific parameters can effectively suppress the chaos.     

Effects of E2 and El-E2 Interference on Coulomb Dissociation of 19C

We investigate the effects of higher order multipole transitions, in particular electric quadrupole （E2） and El-E2 interference, on the Coulomb dissociation of 19 C within the framework of the first order eikonal approximation. The sensitivity of the total Coulomb breakup cross section and the longitudinal momentum distribution of the core fragment to these effects are checked. The breakup occurs predominately through the dipole transition and the contribution of E2 transition to the total cross section is found to be within the range from 1 to 3% of that of El. It is further observed that the El-E2 interference term contributes nothing to the integrated cross section. On the other hand, the longitudinal momentum distribution is observed to be insensitive to the E2 transition while the El-E2 interference introduces a small asymmetry in its shape.     

Strengthened Hyper-Raman Lines with the Coherent Superposition State

High-order harmonic generations from a one-dimensional Coulomb potential atom are calculated with the initial state prepared as a coherent superposition between its ground and first excited states. When the energy difference of the two states is small, we can choose proper laser pulse such that the first excited state can be excited only to other bound states instead of being ionized. We show that only the hyper-Raman lines are observable instead of the harmonics. The energy difference of the ground and the first excited state can be deduced from the highest peak of the hyper-Raman lines. We further show that the similar results can be obtained by using a combination of two laser pulses with different frequencies interacting with the atom initially at the ground state.     

A Bidirectional, Diode-Pumped, Passively Mode-Locked Nd：YVO4 Ring Laser with a Low-Temperature-Grown Semiconductor Saturable Absorber Mirror

We report the operation of a bidirectional picosecond pulsed ring Nd：YVO4 laser based on a low-temperaturegrown semiconductor saturable absorber mirror. Except for the laser crystal, the six-mirror ring laser cavity has no intra-cavity elements such as focusing lens or mirror. The bidirectional mode locked pluses are obtained at the repetition rate of 117.5 MHz, pulse duration of 81 ps, power of 2 × 200 mW.     

Low Timing Jitter and Tunable Dual-Wavelength Picosecond Pulse Generation from a Fabry--Pérot Laser Diode with External Injection

A novel scheme to generate tunable dual-wavelength optical pulses with low timing jitter at arbitrary repetition rates is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The pulses are generated from a gain-switched Fabry-Pérot laser diode with two external cw beams for injection seeding simultaneously. The cw light is generated by two independent distributed feedback laser diodes, and their wavelengths can be tuned independently by two temperature controllers. The dual-wavelength pulses with the pulse width of 57 ps, the timing jitter of 340 fs, are obtained. The sidemode-suppression ratio of the output pulses is better than 23dB over a 10-nm wavelength tuning range.     

Chemical Oxidation of La2CuO4 Epitaxial Thin Films Grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Chemical oxidation is used to induce superconductivity in La2CuO4 expitaxial thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition technique. Details about the influence of oxidation time on structural, surface morphology, Raman spectra, and electrical properties have been investigated. The results convince that successful uptake of oxygen occurs in the oxidized films, and the content of the inserted oxygen increases with increasing oxidation interval. The possible mechanism for the excess oxygen insertion into the film is also discussed.     

Coherent Structures in Transition of a Flat-Plate Boundary Layer at Ma = 0.7

Direct numerical simulation （DNS） of a spatially evolving fiat-plate boundary layer transition process at free stream Mach number 0. 7 is performed. Tollmien-Schlichting （T-S） waves are added on the inlet boundary as the disturbances before transition. Typical coherent structures in the transition process are investigated based on the second invariant of velocity gradient tensor. The instantaneous shear stress and the mean velocity profile in the transition region are studied. In our view, the fact that the peak value of shear stress in the stress concentration area increases and exceeds a threshold value during the later stage of the trallsition process plays an important role in the laminar breakdown process.     

Topological Effects on the Performance of Transportation Networks

We investigate the influence of the network topology on the performance （characterized by the total system cost and maximal tratffic volume） of transportation networks, where the weights are not static （constant）, but dynamic （a function of the flow on the link）. Four classes of networks are used in the simulation, including regular networks, random networks, small-world networks and scale-free networks. The initial simulation results show that topologies play important roles on the performance of transportation networks, and random networks have better performance than other networks. Also, we find that there are distinct difference of the link flow distribution for various networks in both the distribution function form and the span between the minimum and the maximum of the link flow, explaining the difference of the performance among distinct networks. These findings will be useful in network design problems of transportation systems.     

Flat Supercontinuum Generation at 1550 nm in a Dispersion-Flattened Microstructure Fibre Using Picosecond Pulse

The generation of a flat supercontinuum of over 80nm in the 1550nm region by injecting 1.6ps 10 GHz repetition rate optical pulses into an 80-m-long dispersion-flattened microstructure fibre is demonstrated. The fibre has small normal dispersion with a variation smaller than 1.5 （ps·nm^-1·km^-1） between 1500 and 1650nm. The generated supercontinuum ranging from 1513 to 1591 nm has the flatness of ±1.5 dB and it is not so flat in the range of several nanometres around the pump wavelength 1552nm. Numerical simulation is also used to study the effect of optical loss, fibre parameters and pumping conditions on supercontinuum generation in the dispersion-flattened microstructure fibre, and can be used for further optimization to generate flat broad spectra.