Cascaded highly nondegenerate four-wave-mixing phenomenon in transparent isotropic condensed media

Broad-bandwidth light pulses with different frequencies, extending from the IR to the UV, are simultaneously generated when two noncollinear, ultrafast laser pulses from a visible dual-frequency laser propagate through bulk isotropic transparent media such as common glass. This phenomenon, which is believed to have been previously unreported, can be explained by a cascade of highly nondegenerate four-wave-mixing processes and corresponds to a coherent scattering effect with geometrically minimized phase mismatch. Frequency-upconverted beams were observed up to the 11th order.     

Causal structure and algebraic classification of non-dissipative linear optical media

In crystal optics and quantum electrodynamics in gravitational vacua, the propagation of light is not described by a metric, but an area metric geometry. In this article, this prompts us to study conditions for linear electrodynamics on area metric manifolds to be well-posed. This includes an identification of the timelike future cones and their duals associated to an area metric geometry, and thus paves the ground for a discussion of the related local and global causal structures in standard fashion. In order to provide simple algebraic criteria for an area metric manifold to present a consistent spacetime structure, we develop a complete algebraic classification of area metric tensors up to general transformations of frame. This classification, valuable in its own right, is then employed to prove a theorem excluding the majority of algebraic classes of area metrics as viable spacetimes. Physically, these results classify and drastically restrict the viable constitutive tensors of non-dissipative linear optical media.     

Quality control for optically flat surfaces

Multiple-beam interferometry at a range of frequencies is used in a device for testing optical flats to 0. 01 wavelength or better.     

Propagation of THz plasmon pulse on corrugated and flat metal surface

We report here experiments on surface plasmon excitation and propagation along corrugated and smooth aluminum surface in the terahertz frequency range. Narrowband plasmon excitation by a subpicosecond terahertz pulse is shown to be a transient process and plasmon propagation sufficiently changes its measured time profile. Plasmon propagation during its excitation and detection changes measured signal. We suggest to use parameters T (plasmon duration) and τ (plasmon lifetime) to describe the narrowband THz plasmon pulse. Plasmon duration and lifetime were defined and plasmon propagation lengths on smooth and corrugated surface were measured. Plasmon propagation length on flat surface turned out to be much smaller than it is predicted by the Drude model.     

Photoacoustic investigation of resonance absorption on corrugated surfaces

The PhotoAcoustic (PA) method has been used to study the optical resonance absorptions on corrugated surfaces. The resonance absorptions due to the excitations of surface plasmons and guide-waves of corrugated surfaces have been measured experimentally, and the effects of the groove depth and period of the corrugated surface on the absorption curve have been observed. Moreover, the differential method based on the rigorous use of electromagnetic theory is used to calculate the parameters of the grooves and the optical absorptivities of the samples. The theoretical results on the resonance absorption peaks are in good agreement with those of the PA experiments. Then, the parameters of the grooves can be estimated by the PA investigations.     

An isotropic cellular automaton for excitable media

We propose a new cellular automaton (CA) model, which reproduces isotropic time-evolution patterns observed in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. Although several CA models have been proposed exhibiting isotropic patterns of the reaction, most of them need complicated rules and a large number of neighboring cells. Our model can produce isotropic patterns from a simple probabilistic rule among a few (4 or 8) neighboring cells.     

Electromagnetic waves in isotropic and gyrotropic media

Maxwell’s equations are considered for waves in transparent inhomogeneous anisotropic and gyrotropic media with time dispersion. A uniaxial inhomogeneous crystal is taken for an anisotropic medium and an isotropic heterogeneous medium in a constant electric field for a gyrotropic medium. The solutions for flat-layered and cylindrical media are presented in terms of Hertz potentials. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 3, pp. 82–86, March, 2008.     

Modelling of isotropic double negative media for microwave applications

A composite medium consisting of two sublattices of dielectric spherical particles of high permittivity and different radii embedded in a dielectric matrix of smaller permittivity are considered. It has been shown that such a composite medium reveals properties of an isotropic double negative media (DNG) in a limited frequency range, when resonance oscillations of H_III mode in one kind of particles and E_III mode in another kind of particles are excited simultaneously. The E_III resonance and the H_III resonance give rise to the magnetic dipole momentum and the electric dipole momentum correspondingly. Averaging the magnetic momentum and the electric momentum over the cells belonging to the appropriate spherical particles gives the negative permittivity and permeability. The model of diffraction of a plane electromagnetic wave on a dielectric sphere is presented and compared with the mixing rule based consideration. The results obtained are rather close. Distribution of the electromagnetic wave outside the sphere is calculated. Influence of the dispersion of the sphere size and the dielectric permittivity on the effective parameters of the DNG material is estimated.     

Superposition rule for the magneto-optic effects in isotropic media

The two well-known magneto-optic phenomena: the Faraday and Cotton-Mouton effects describe behavior of optically isotropic medium in the external magnetic field which is parallel or perpendicular to the wave propagation direction, respectively. In this paper a superposition rule for both magneto-optic effects as a generalization of Faraday and Cotton-Mouton effects for any orientation of external magnetic field with regard to the wave propagation direction is presented.     

Anomalous postcritical refraction behavior for certain transversely isotropic media

Snell's law at the boundary between two transversely isotropic media with a vertical axis of symmetry (VTI media) can be solved by setting up a fourth order polynomial for the sine of the reflection/transmission angles. This approach reveals the possible presence of an anomalous postcritical angle for certain transversely isotropic media. There are thus possibly three incident angle regimes for the reflection/refraction of longitudinal or transverse waves incident upon a VTI medium: precritical, postcritical/preanomalous, and postanomalous. The anomalous angle occurs for certain strongly anisotropic media where the required root to the phase velocity equation must be switched in order to obey Snell's law. The reflection/transmission coefficients, polarization directions, and the phase velocity are all affected by both the anisotropy and the incident angle. The incident critical angles are also effected by the anisotropy.     

Photonic crystal wires for optical parametric oscillators in isotropic media

We investigate four wave mixing in photonic crystal wire microresonators realized in an isotropic medium. One-dimensional optical parametric oscillators are numerically analyzed by solving Maxwells equations in all dimensions and including material dispersion as well as nonlinear polarization. PACS 42.65.Yj; 42.70.Qs; 42.82.Gw     

Instantaneous phase shifting arrangement for microsurface profiling of flat surfaces

Phase shifting interferometry is a well-established technique for non-contact surface profile measurement. Though phase shifting technique has many advantages, it is marred by a few inaccuracies due to the vibration and mechanical movement of the phase shifter itself. Significant amount of work is reported to theoretically compensate these error sources. But for a few works, prominent achievements have not been reported in eliminating these error sources in phase shifting interferometry. In this paper, a novel optical layout, in combination with instantaneous phase shifting interferometry is described. Experiments were carried out with this setup on a super mirror with a λ/20 surface roughness, to demonstrate the validity of the principle.     

On general properties of phenomenological and state coefficients for isotropic viscoanelastic media

The aim of this work is the study of general properties of phenomenological and state coefficients in a thermomechanical model for viscoanelastic media proposed by one of us (VC), in which cross-effect between viscous and inelastic flow is neglected. In particular, after the specification of the low and high frequencies region, under physical considerations characterized by limiting the values of some functions connected to mechanical phenomena, generally valid behaviour for phenomenological and state coefficients as function of the frequency are deduced. It has been possible, from the entropy production, to determine some characteristics of the coefficients as function of frequency in order that this principle is satisfied. The application of the so obtained results to a polymeric material as PolyIsobutilene in these regions in which, in a first approximation, the medium shows a linear behaviour, confirms our deductions.     

Oxidation and reduction of rough and flat Au surfaces

Very recently, we have shown that the oxidation pattern of very small (<0.7 nm in particle height) and larger Au nanoparticles are dissimilar, i.e. lager particles form Au(III) species upon atomic oxygen exposures, whereas this was not found for the smaller Au nanoparticles. In the present work, we found that the oxidation pattern of a flat Au surface is analogous to those of the larger Au nanoparticles, whereas a rough surface shows a similar oxidation pattern as those of the smaller particles. This result confirms that an increase of the number of undercoordinated atoms of smaller nanoparticles should be responsible for different oxidation patterns. The oxygen species formed on flat Au surfaces can readily react with CO to CO₂, whereas the oxygen species of the rough Au surface is mostly inert to the CO-oxidation, also in agreement with the results for supported Au nanoparticles.     

Planar dye lasers in isotropic and anisotropic oriented media

Planar dye lasers in isotropic and anisotropic media are described. Isotropic structures supporting real modes are considered as well as leaky modes. The anisotropic structure is obtained with an oriented liquid crystal which can be made to lase in both the nematic and smectic phase.