Optical phase conjugation in semiconductor-doped glasses

We have studied optical phase conjugation in two types of semiconductor-doped glasses. Corning 3.68 and Schott OG 530 at λ = 0.532 μm using picosecond pulses. We observe a slow nonlinearity in agreement with the slow decay of luminescence. The saturation of the reflectivity is strongly correlated with the absorption saturation of these glasses and may be interpreted in terms of a three-level system model.     

Origin of the resonant optical Kerr nonlinearity in Cd(S,Se)-doped glasses and related topics

After having reported preliminary results related to saturation, we first theoretically consider the various mechanisms contributing to the resonant optical Kerr effect in Cd(S, Se)-doped glasses. We obtain the expression for the expected effective susceptibility in different possible cases. This nonlinearity is studied experimentally using optical-phase conjugation in the low-intensity regime. We show that, by time resolving the nonlinear response of such glasses having experienced various degrees of photodarkening, we can clearly assess the origin of the resonant optical Kerr effect in these materials. Usually, a combination of a fast free-carrier contribution due to particles without traps and of a slow trapped-carrier one due to particles with traps is observed. For the free-carrier contribution, induced absorption is observed to be almost as important as absorption saturation. We also report frequency-dependent measurements and discuss the change in absorption spectrum and the increase of the nonradiative decay rate that accompany darkening.     

The optical kerr effect in small metal particles and metal colloids: The case of gold

We first consider theoretically the various mechanisms contributing to the Kerr nonlinearity in small gold particles. The major ones are the conduction electron intraband contribution, the saturation of direct interband transitions and the change in dielectric constant due to hot photoexcited electrons. We present experimental results obtained using optical phase conjugation in gold-doped glasses. By varying several parameters, we were able to ascertain the origin of the nonlinear response: the main contributions are the hotelectron and the interband contributions. All experimental results, including saturation behaviour, are fully understood.     

非晶合金及合金液体的局域五次对称性

简要回顾了从20世纪30年代至今,有关非晶合金及合金液体的局域结构五次对称性的实验、理论和模拟研究.在简单液体的早期研究中,人们已经意识到五次对称性在简单液体的无序结构、过冷和晶化等起着重要作用,二十面体短程序作为五次对称性的典型代表受到了广泛关注.自从Frank提出简单液体中二十面体短程序的结构单元,大量的理论和实验研究已经明确在简单液体、合金液体和金属玻璃中存在局域五次对称性,并且建立了局域五次对称性与合金液体复杂动力学行为、玻璃转变、液体-液体相变以及非晶合金的形变等统一的定量描述和物理图像,表明了局域五次对称性作为结构参量的简单、普遍和有效性.     

Origin of thermally induced second harmonic generation in PbO-B2O3 glasses

Optical second harmonic generation (SHG) with second-order nonlinearity χ((2)) as high as 2.1 pm/V has been achieved in water quenched PbO-B(2)O(3) glasses. No nonlinear depletion layer or microcrystals were observed in these glasses and the mechanism for nonlinearity has been explored in this Letter. Our results show that the possible mechanism for SHG in these glasses can be attributed to their low thermal conductivity that led to a large surface stress gradient, which broke the inversion symmetry of the glasses and subsequently induced the nonlinear effect. These findings suggest that low thermal conductivity induced high stress gradients to lead to large SHG.     

Self-organization and the physics of glassy networks

Network glasses are the physical prototype for many self-organized systems, ranging from proteins to computer science. Conventional theories of gases, liquids and crystals do not account for the strongly material-selective character of the glass-forming tendency, the phase diagrams of glasses or their optimizable properties. A new topological theory, only 25 years old, has succeeded where conventional theories have failed. It shows that (probably all slowly quenched) glasses, including network glasses, are the result of the combined effects of a few simple mechanisms. These glass-forming mechanisms are topological in nature and have already been identified for several important glasses, including chalcogenide alloys, silicates (window glass and computer chips) and proteins.     

Thermodynamic glass transition in finite dimensions

Using an effective potential method, a replica formulism is set up for describing supercooled liquids near their glass transition. The resulting potential is equivalent to that for an Ising spin glass in a magnetic field. Results taken from the droplet picture of spin glasses are then used to provide an explanation of the main features of fragile glasses.     

Signatures of structural recovery in colloidal glasses

Colloids near the glass concentration are often taken as models for molecular glasses. Yet, an important aspect of the dynamics of molecular glasses, structural recovery, has not been elucidated in colloids. We take advantage of a thermosensitive colloidal suspension to study the structural recovery after concentration jumps by using diffusing wave spectroscopy. The three classical aging signatures observed in molecular glasses are studied and the results are compared with those typical of molecular glasses. For the intrinsic isotherms, unlike molecular glasses, the colloid shows huge changes in relaxation time at equilibrium while the times required to reach the equilibrium state are nearly constant. For asymmetry of approach, we find a similar nonlinearity to that observed in the molecular glasses. For the memory experiment, while a memory effect is seen, the response is qualitatively different from that in molecular glasses.     

Large optical second-order nonlinearity of poled WO3-TeO2 glass

Second-harmonic generation, one of the second-order nonlinear optical properties of thermally and electrically poled WO>(3)-TeO>(2) glasses, has been examined. We poled glass samples with two thicknesses (0.60 and 0.86 mm) at various temperatures to explore the effects of external electric field strength and poling temperature on second-order nonlinearity. The dependence of second-harmonic intensity on the poling temperature is maximum at a specific poling temperature. A second-order nonlinear susceptibility of 2.1 pm/V was attained for the 0.60-mm-thick glass poled at 250 degrees C. This value is fairly large compared with those for poled silica and tellurite glasses reported thus far. We speculate that the large third-order nonlinear susceptibility of WO>(3)- TeO>(2) glasses gives rise to the large second-order nonlinearity by means of a X((2)) = 3X((3)) E(dc) process.     

Metallic liquids and glasses: atomic order and global packing

In this Letter, we have revealed the common structural behavior of metallic glasses through scrutinizing the evolution of pair distribution functions from metallic liquids to glasses and statistically analyzing pair distribution functions of 64 metallic glasses. It is found that the complex atomic configuration in metallic glasses can be interpreted globally as a combination of the spherical-periodic order and local translational symmetry. The implications of our study suggest that the glass transition could be visualized mainly as a process involving in local translational symmetry increased from the liquid to glassy states.     

Scenarii for slow dynamics and cooperative lengthscales in glass-formers

Glasses are often described as a genuine state of matter. The aim of this paper is to briefly review several ideas, old and new, about what makes glasses so special as a state of matter: glasses are liquids that do not flow, characterized by increasingly cooperative dynamics.     

A review of the dynamical susceptibility in different complex systems

The dynamical susceptibility has been introduced to characterize the dynamical heterogeneities in glass forming liquids. We have used it as a tool to investigate the slow dynamics of other disordered systems such as gels, granular media and spin glasses. We review here the results obtained via numerical simulations of different model systems. The comparative study of the behaviour of the dynamical susceptibility sheds some light on the significant differences in the complex slow dynamics of glasses, spin glasses, granular media, irreversible gels, and colloidal gels.     

On the saturation in a Čerenkov-type optical parametric oscillator

The saturation and radiation dynamics in a ?erenkov-type optical parametric oscillator are considered under the conditions that the ?erenkov radiation losses are negligible and the saturation is due to the Kerr nonlinearity and stimulated Raman emission in the medium.     

Optically encoded second-harmonic generation in germanosilicate glass by a femtosecond laser

Second-harmonic generation in germanosilicate glasses was encoded by coherent superposition of the 810-nm fundamental and the 405-nm second-harmonic light of a femtosecond laser. The difference spectra between the absorption spectra of the glasses before and after preparation were measured. An evident correlation between the induced second-order nonlinearity and the creation of a Ge electron center was observed, suggesting that a band-to-band transition by multiphoton absorption is probably responsible for the photoinduced second-harmonic generation.     

玻璃形成体系中的β弛豫

一定压强下对液体进行冷却,若避免晶化,则冷却中液体不可避免地转变为典型非晶态固体——玻璃.这种现象称为玻璃转变,是一种普遍存在的自然现象,涉及多体相互关联体系中众多基础理论问题.近几十年以来,玻璃转变问题的探索过程中,弛豫存在的普适性、其机理/物理图像及其对液体和玻璃性能认知的影响等一直是争论的热点.在梳理β弛豫研究进展的同时,本文尝试对未来β弛豫研究方向进行展望.     

Nonlinear ion transport in liquid and solid electrolytes

This paper describes nonlinear ion transport properties of liquid and solid electrolytes. Typically, the relation between ionic current density and electric field becomes nonlinear at electric fields above 50–100?kV/cm. We review the 1st and 2nd Wien effect found in classical strong and weak electrolyte solutions as well as the strong nonlinear ion transport effects observed for inorganic glasses and for polymer electrolytes. Furthermore, we give an overview over models describing nonlinear ion transport in electrolyte solutions, in glasses and in polymers. Recent results are presented for the nonlinear ionic conductivity of supercooled ionic liquids. We show that supercooled ionic liquids exhibit anomalous Wien effects, which are clearly distinct from the classical Wien effects. We also discuss the frequency dependence of higher-order conductivity and permittivity spectra of these liquids.     

Large Kerr effect in bulk Se-based chalcogenide glasses

High-speed optical communication requires ultrafast all-optical processing and switching capabilities. The Kerr nonlinearity, an ultrafast optical nonlinearity, is often used as the basic switching mechanism. A practical, small device that can be switched with ~1-pJ energies requires a large Kerr effect with minimal losses (both linear and nonlinear). We have investigated theoretically and experimentally a number of Se-based chalcogenide glasses. We have found a number of compounds with a Kerr nonlinearity hundreds of times larger than silica, making them excellent candidates for ultrafast all-optical devices.     

An Attempt to Prepare Metallic Glasses from Quasicrystals

Icosahedrons in supercooled liquids and glasses are considered to be of significance for the glass formation in alloy systems.Starting from the similarity of the local structure of quasicrystals to the icosahedrons in metallic glasses,a scheme is put forward to prepare metallic glasses based on a well-known quasicrystal Zr_(40)Ti_(40)Ni_(20).A series of(Zr_(40)Ti_(40)Ni_(20))_(100-x)Co_x metallic glasses are fabricated,and the optimized glass forming composition is determined at(Zr_(40)Ti_(40)Ni_(20))_(92)Co_8.The results show that the glass-forming ability of the alloys is closely related to the quasicrystalline phases.The mechanism of the enhanced glass-forming ability is discussed.     

Magnetostriction of ferromagnetic metallic glasses

Linear saturation magnetostrictions (295 K) of Fe_80t-xCo_xB₂₀, 0?x?80, and Fe_80?xNi_xB₂₀, 0?x?60 (at. %) glasses are reported. The saturation magnetostrictions of the Fe-Ni-base glasses vary as the sqaure of their respective saturation magnetizations. The behavior in the Fe-Co-base glasses is strikingly different. The compositional trends suggest a difference in origin of magnetostrictions between Fe-Ni-base and Co-containing glasses. When magnetostrictions for these glasses are compared with those for Fe-Co and Fe-Ni polycrystalline alloys, the most significant discrepancies appear in the Fe-rich compositions. This is probably related to the difference in short range order between the crystalline and non-crystalline Fe-rich alloys: α-Fe is 8-fold coordinated whereas all of the metallic glasses studied show ～ 12-fold metal coordination.