Two-Photon Absorption Enhancement by the Inclusion of a Tropone Ring in Distorted Nanographene Ribbons

A new family of distorted ribbon-shaped nanographenes was designed, synthesized, and their optical and electrochemical properties were evaluated, pointing out an unprecedented correlation between their structural characteristics and the two-photon absorption (TPA) responses and electrochemical band gaps. Three nanographene ribbons have been prepared: a seven-membered-ring-containing nanographene presenting a tropone moiety at the edge, its full-carbon analogue, and a purely hexagonal one. We have found that the TPA cross-sections and the electrochemical band gaps of the seven-membered-ring-containing compounds are higher and lower, respectively, than those of the fully hexagonal polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). Interestingly, the inclusion of additional curvature has a positive effect in terms of non-linear optical properties of those ribbons.     

Correlating Charge-Carrier Dynamics with Efficiency in Quantum-Dot Solar Cells: Can Excitonics Lead to Highly Efficient Devices?

The photovoltaic performance of quantum-dot solar cells strongly depends on the charge-carrier relaxation and recombination processes, which need to be modulated in a favorable way to obtain maximum efficiency. Recently, significant efforts have been devoted to investigate the carrier dynamics of nanocrystal sensitizers, both in solution and deposited on TiO₂ photoanodes, with the aim to correlate the excitonics with solar-energy conversion efficiency. This Minireview summarizes some proof of the concepts that efficiency can be directly correlated to the exciton dynamics of quantum-dot solar cells. The presented findings are based on CdSeS alloy, CdSe/CdS core/shell, Au/CdSe nanohybrids, and Mn-doped CdZnSSe nanocrystals, where the favourable excitonic processes are optimized to enhance the efficiency. Future prospects and limitations are addressed as well.     

Inorganic Molecular Electride Mg4O3: Structure,Bonding, and Nonlinear Optical Properties

Growing demands of material science and, in particular, in the field of nonlinear optics (NLO) encourage us to look for stable highly polarizable molecules with excess diffuse electrons. An unusual class of compounds called electrides comply with these requirements. Many attempts have been made, yet only few electrides have been synthesized as solids and none of them as molecular species. In this paper, a new theoretically designed molecular species with electride characteristics is reported. The idea of this molecular electride comes from the formation of electride-like features in the MgO crystal with defect F-centers. The geometry of the investigated molecule can be described as a Mg₄O₄ cube with one oxygen atom removed. In Mg₄O₃, two 3s electrons are pushed out from the inner area of the molecule forming a diffuse electride multicentered bond. Our calculations show that this electride-like cluster possesses a noticeably large first hyperpolarizability β=5733 au. At the same time, a complete cube Mg₄O₄ and Mg₄O₃²⁺ without electride electron pair have much smaller β: 0 au and 741 au, respectively. This fact indicates the decisive role of the electride electron pair in NLO properties. Additionally, vertical detachment energies of isomers (VDE), excitation energies ΔE, polarizabilities α, and IR spectra were calculated. These properties, including β, are supposed to be observable experimentally and can serve as indirect evidence of the stable molecular electride formation.     

The study of wave motion in the Talbot interferometer with a lens

We present the study of the wave motion in the Talbot interferometer with an additional element such as a lens for all related audiences. Our solutions are in the analytic form. A general principle of the Talbot effect, which is the optical near-field effect, is the Fresnel diffraction. The Fresnel integral is rather complicated. We therefore introduce an alternative method which is based on the wave propagation through the transmission functions of the grating and the lens. Our method has been proved by a simple experimental setup.     

Curvature investigation in tapered fibers and its application to sensing and mode conversion

Non-adiabatic tapered fibers are basic photonic components used in a wide range of applications. Here we investigate a way to increase their utility through the controllable bending of one of their tapered sections. The experiments carried out explain, for the first time, the mechanics of this approach showing how these tapers can be used to build more sensitive sensors. Their use as highly efficient mode converters is also discussed.     

光纤中基于双布里渊增益线的受激布里渊散射快光

为了解决受激布里渊散射快光在高吸收区产生损耗的问题,通过分析普通单模光纤中双线泵浦产生的双布里渊增益线特性及在增益峰间实现脉冲的超光速传输理论,利用有限元法数值模拟了双布里渊增益线处受激布里渊散射引起的快光特性。结果表明,当频率分离因子大于0.596时,可以观察到双增益峰;当频率分离因子在1~5.25范围内时,两个泵浦波产生的双增益峰之间可以明显地产生快光;当频率分离因子为1.75时,在双布里渊增益线之间的最大时间提前可达25 ps。当频率分离因子为2.42时,三阶色散所对应的归一化色散长度为无穷大,三阶色散可以得到完全补偿;当频率分离因子大于2.464时,脉冲展宽因子趋近于1,可以实现无畸变传输,但时间提前量小于13.52 ps。本文的研究结论对于在布里渊增益区实现快光具有一定的理论意义,并对设计基于受激布里渊散射快光器件具有理论指导作用。     

Impact of higher-order effects on dissipative soliton in metamaterials

We study the influence of higher-order effects such as third order dispersion (TOD), fourth order dispersion (FOD), quintic nonlinearity (QN), self steepening (SS) and second order nonlinear dispersion (SOND) on the dynamics of dissipative soliton (DS) in metamaterials. Considering each higher-order effect as a perturbation to the system and following Lagrangian variational method, we demonstrate stable dynamics of DS as a result of the interplay between different higher-order effects. We also perform numerical analysis to confirm the analytical results.