Single-laser light source for CARS microscopy based on soliton self-frequency shift in a microstructured fiber

A femtosecond light source comprising two high-intensity beams at different wavelengths is applied to coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy. One wavelength is supplied by a Titanium?:?Sapphire oscillator, while the other is derived from that via soliton-self-frequency shift in a microstructured fiber. Clear CARS images are acquired with the frequency difference adjusted to resonances of polystyrene and lipids.     

Detuning and the Raman spectral gap

Stimulated Raman scattering from a hot inhomogenous plasma is considered with collisional and Landau damping taken into account. For low Z targets absolute Raman scattering is dominant, these resonances being highly sensitive to frequency detuning. This is particularly so at longer wavelengths, resulting in gap in the spectrum. This sensitivity is diminished for high Z targets with the result that significant gain is possible over all wavelengths between the Landau cutoff and twice the wavelength of the laser light.     

Brillouin spectroscopy of nonlinear magnetoacoustic resonances in a layered YIG/GGG structure

Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy is used to visualize the spatial structure of magnetoacoustic resonances in an yttrium iron garnet (YIG) film on a gadolinium–gallium garnet (GGG) substrate under the strong influence of nonlinear processes of three magnon decay. It is shown that the decay processes result in the simultaneous excitation of magnetoacoustic resonances at two frequencies: those of the input signal and its half frequency. The distribution of coupled magnetic and elastic waves becomes much more complicated and the excitation threshold of magnetoacoustic resonances arises.     

Particle Manipulation by Ultrasonic Standing Wave Fields to complement dynamic light scattering experiments

Dynamic light scattering is a widely used technique for the sizing of colloidal suspensions. It is capable of measuring particles across the size range from approximately 1 nm to several microns. However the larger particle sizes tend to pose problems for the interpretation of the scattered light signal either by virtue of their light scattering efficiency relative to the smaller species present or the departure of the scattered light signal from Gaussian statistics. Rapid removal of such particles in-situ could extend the use of dynamic light scattering particularly in on-line analysis or laboratory automated measurement. In this paper a method is demonstrated for the in-situ removal of larger particles in suspension by means of ultrasonic standing waves and concurrent dynamic light scattering measurement. The theory behind ultrasonic particle manipulation and its effect on the motion of the particles is discussed. Data from a scattering cell designed to incorporate the ultrasonic technology is presented showing that dynamic light scattering measurements may be carried out under such conditions. Varying the energy density of the ultrasonic field allows particles greater than a defined cut-off diameter to be removed from the measurement region. Theory shows that the minimum cut-off size may be as small as 100 nm. Results presented here demonstrate complete removal at a lower diameter threshold of approximately 2000 nm.     

A three-body scattering problem in the molecular mass limit

A three-body problem is studied that involves the scattering of a heavy particle from a bound state of a heavy and a light particle. For fairly large mass ratios we find many partial waves involved in the scattering with both elastic and inelastic resonances present. It is also found that virtually all of the breakup inelasticity is in the odd partial waves, if the heavy particles are identical bosons. The same problem is solved in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation and it is found that the effective potential between the heavy particles develops an imaginary part in the odd partial waves and thus gives a quantitative account of the three-body results including the inelasticity. The linear combination of nuclear orbitais method is applied to the same problem and is found to be inadequate.     

Brillouin scattering studies of rare gas solids

Abstract

The scattering of light by elementar excitations in the matter is results in two phenomena, discriminated by the zero wavevector frequency of the excitation: if this frequency is zero, one deals with Brillouin scattering, and with Raman scattering in the other case. Brillouin scattering results from the interaction of light with thermal excitations (acoustic phonons in a crystal) of a material, or, from a classical point of view, with density waves. Contrary to Raman scattering, the selection rules allow always the observation of at least one mode. It is a powerful technic in the study of rare gases under pressure: at ambient temperature, rare gases crystallize in the face centered cubic structure (except helium which structure was recently found to be hexagonal) and are therefore Raman and infrared inactive.

Experimental results will be reviewed on rare gases and rare gas mixtures in the fluid phase, like He-Ne and He-H₂. These results will be discussed in relation with recent measurements of the frequency of global oscillations of Jupiter.     

Coherent scattering of an atom in the field of a standing wave under conditions of initial quantum correlation of subsystems

Coherent scattering of a two-level atom in the field of a quantized standing wave of a micromaser is considered under conditions of initial quantum correlation between the atom and the field. Such a correlation can be produced by a broadband parametric source. The interaction leading to scattering of the atom from the nonuniform field occurs in the dispersion limit or in the wing of the absorption line of the atom. Apart from the quantized field, the atom simultaneously interacts with two classical counterpropagating waves with different frequencies, which are acting in the plane perpendicular to the atom’s propagation velocity and to the wavevector of the standing wave. Joint action of the quantized field and two classical waves induces effective two-photon and Raman resonance interaction on the working transition. The effective Hamiltonian of the interaction is derived using the unitary transformation method developed for a moving atom. A strong effect is detected, which makes it possible to distinguish the correlated initial state of the atom and the field in the scattering of atom from the state of independent systems. For all three waves, scattering is not observed when systems with quantum correlation are prepared using a high-intensity parametric source. Conversely, when the atom interacts only with the nonuniform field of the standing wave, scattering is not observed in the case of the initial factorized state.     

The relationship of angle resolved light scattering from surface optical resonances to the surface enhanced Raman effect

For a given mildly rough Ag surface, the angle resolved pattern bears the same shape for elastic light scattering, for Raman scattering from adsorbed pyridine or cyanide, or for the luminescence background. This result suggests that surface enhanced Raman scattering is closely related to topographically related surface optical resonances.     

Scattering of sound waves by a turbulent wake

In this investigation, the Doppler shifted power spectrum of the scattering cross-section is obtained for plane acoustic waves scattered by fluid flow fluctuations appropriate to a turbulent wake. The wake considered in this paper is assumed almost homogeneous and isotropic and of low Reynolds number.It is shown that the evaluation of the Doppler scattering cross-section essentially reduces to the calculation of the wave number converted and frequency shifted energy spectrum function of the turbulent flow fluctuations. In prescribing the low Reynolds number turbulence spectrum, inertial forces are assumed negligible. Convective effects of the macro-eddies, which cause a Doppler shift in the scattered waves, are considered using a Lagrangian-type of space-time velocity correlation.After finding the spectrum of turbulent fluctuations, the Doppler shifted power spectrum of the scattering cross-section, which characterizes the scattered waves, is obtained explicitly for the far field approximation.     

Theory of electronic light scattering in lateral superlattices with Rashba spin–orbit coupling under quantizing electric and magnetic fields

The influence of an in-plane electric and out-of-plane magnetic field on the electronic light scattering is calculated for a lateral semiconductor superlattice within Rashba spin–orbit interaction. Sharp resonances are predicted to appear when the Raman shift matches one frequency of the Wannier–Stark ladder. The spin–orbit interaction gives rise to a dispersion of the exact one-particle eigenstates and an associated finite width of the Raman line, which can be tuned by the electric and magnetic field. When the Bloch frequency is located in this Raman line, a Fano resonance is observed.     

Two-level atoms moving in strong biharmonic and monochromatic counterpropagating fields

The polarization and power spectra of radiation of two-level atoms moving in a field of biharmonic and monochromatic counterpropagating waves are computer simulated. It is shown that, as the frequencies of the counterpropagating waves are scanned with respect to the central frequency of the Doppler contour in the intensity distribution of groups of atoms moving at velocities that satisfy the resonance conditions for multiphoton transitions between quasi-energy levels, apart from well-known sub-Doppler resonances, narrow peaks appear. Such resonances should also occur for the stimulated light pressure force.     

Line shapes and threshold resonances for the scattering of waves from surfaces

An analytical study of threshold resonances in scattering of scalar waves from periodic surfaces is presented. Resonances are found with a variety of line shapes which provide characteristic information on the surface potential. The analytical predictions on line shapes are supported numerically. These resonances should be observed in atom-surface scattering and in scattering of light from large-amplitude gratings. We think that these resonances may be important for the field enhancement on surfaces.     

Scattering of light waves by electron electrostatic waves in laser produced plasmas

The propagation of light waves in an underdense plasma is studied using one-dimensional Vlasov-Maxwell numerical simulation.It is found that the light waves can be scattered by electron plasma waves as well as other heavily and weakly damping electron wave modes,corresponding to stimulated Raman and Brilluoin-like scatterings.The stimulated electron acoustic wave scattering is also observed as a high scattering level.High frequency plasma wave scattering is also observed.These electron electrostatic wave modes are due to a non-thermal electron distribution produced by the wave-particle interactions.The collision effects on stimulated electron acoustic wave and the laser intensity effects on the scattering spectra are also investigated.     

Kapitza-Dirac diffraction without standing waves: diffraction without a grating?

We discuss electron diffraction from two counterpropagating light waves with two different frequencies. We show that, even though these waves do not form a standing wave, electron diffraction similar to the conventional Kapitza-Dirac effect, i.e., scattering on a standing wave, is still possible. The nonlinear response of the electron to the laser fields creates a stationary diffraction grating from which the same electron scatters.     

Hyper-Raman scattering by vibrational excitations in crystals,glasses and liquids

Results of experimental study of hyper-Raman scattering by phonons and polaritons in centrosymmetric and noncentrosymmetric crystals, inorganic oxide glasses and molecular liquids are discussed. Experimental techniques developed for investigation of this weak scattered light are described. We discuss a number of interesting results such as (a) detection of silent modes forbidden in Raman scattering and infrared absorption, (b) determination of the soft mode frequency damping at various temperatures, (c) the study of vibrational polaritons and their resonances with vibrational excitations in centrosymmetrical media, and (d) existence of the vibrational spectra dependence on both value and orientation of momentum transferred to vibrational system in the scattering process in glasses and liquids.     

The development of an optical Doppler technique for measuring flow velocities

For a generalized scheme of LDV, the expressions describing the light intensity distribution in a photo-receiver plane with regard to the size of the scattering particles have been calculated using Fourier optics.The LDV signal should be considered as a narrow-band stochastic process representing the sum of random phase radio frequency pulses arising from each light scattering particle. Then the expected error of the mean velocity measurement is equal to half the reciprocal of the number of interference fringes squared and the input signal-to-noise ratio is equal to the square root of the product of Doppler frequency, fringe number and averaging time.The device developed by the authors includes d.c. optical signal compensation. The device is described and the results of its use are given.     

Resonant light pressure forces in a strong standing laser wave

The light pressure forces acting on a two-level atom in a strong standing laser wave are calculated. It is shown that at strong saturation of a resonant atomic transition the velocity dependence of these forces include sharp variations due to multiphoton resonances. At small atomic velocities these multiphoton resonances may even change the sign of the forces. The results obtained are important for many applications of resonant light pressure, e.g. in cooling and trapping of atoms in standing laser waves.     

Class of model problems in three-body quantum mechanics that admit exact solutions

An approach to solving scattering problems in three-body systems for cases where the mass of one of the particles is extremely small in relation to the masses of the other two particles and where the pair potentials of interaction between the particles involved are separable is developed. Exact analytic solutions to such model problems are found for the scattering of a light particle on two fixed centers and on two interacting heavy particles. It is shown that new resonances and a dynamical resonance enhancement may appear in a three-body system.