Enhanced optical forces between coupled resonant metal nanoparticles

We investigate numerically the optical forces between noble metal nanoparticles sustaining localized surface plasmon resonances. Our results first point out enhanced binding optical forces compared with dielectric nanoparticles and nonresonant metallic nanoparticles. We also show that under suitable illumination conditions, short-range forces tend to make the nanoparticles cluster, leading to intense and localized hot spots in the interstices. This effect corroborates recent experimental observations of an enhanced Raman signal in trapped metal sphere ensembles.     

Cascaded Raman generation in optical fibers: influence of chromatic dispersion and Rayleigh backscattering

We study experimentally the influence of chromatic dispersion and Rayleigh backscattering on cascaded Raman generation in silica optical fibers. Effects ranging from enhanced spectral broadening of the Stokes orders to generation of higher Stokes order at unexpected wavelengths are observed. Additionally, we show that four-wave-mixing processes can quench the noisy Rayleigh lasing lines generated in power Raman amplifiers. Our observations are confirmed by numerical simulations.     

Observation of bistability and hysteresis in optical binding of two dielectric spheres

Using a dual-beam fiber optic trap, we have experimentally observed bistability and hysteresis in the equilibrium separations of a pair of optically bound dielectric spheres in one dimension. These observations are in agreement with our coupled system model in which the dielectric spheres modify the field propagation, and the field self-consistently determines the optical forces on the spheres. Our results reveal hitherto unsuspected complexity in the coupled light-sphere system.     

A model for the optical flares from the Galactic transient SWIFT J195509+261406

The Galactic hard X-ray transient SWIFT J195509+261406 was first observed as gamma-ray burst GRB 070610. Within 3 days after the burst, more than forty optical flares had been observed. Here, we propose that this peculiar event should be associated with a white dwarf. The hard X-ray burst itself may be triggered by a collision between two planets orbiting the white dwarf. Some cracked fragments produced in the collision then fell onto the surface of the white dwarf over several days, giving birth to the observed optical flares via cyclotron radiation. Our model can satisfactorily explain the basic features of the observations.     

Monitor-outside-a-monitor effect and self-similar fractal structure in the eigenmodes of unstable optical resonators

A novel mechanism is proposed for the generation of self-similar structure over a limited range of length scales. Our mechanism, which we call the monitor-outside-a-monitor effect, comprises repeated magnification and addition of small-scale structure. We invoke this mechanism to explain recent observations of fractal structure in the eigenmodes of unstable optical resonators [G. P. Karman et al., Nature (London) 402, 138 (1999)].     

Structural,electronic, and optical properties of bulk Cu2Se

By using first-principles calculations within the density functional theory and the many-body perturbation theory, we investigate the structural, electronic, and optical properties of bulk Cu₂Se with a recently discovered low-temperature layered configuration. We demonstrate that the effects of the van der Waals forces significantly modify the interlayer binding and distance in the layered Cu₂Se, while the band gap is invariant. Our density functional theory and post-processing GW calculations reveal that for the layered structure, GW correction remedies the serious band-gap underestimation of the density functional theory from 0.12 eV to 0.99 eV. By solving the Bethe–Salpeter equation, we find that the optical gap of the layered Cu₂Se is 0.86 eV, which is in close agreement with previous experimental observations. In addition, we show that the high-temperature fluorite structure has no band gap, even after GW correction, explaining that the band gap controversy among the theories stems from different structural models. This work may serve as an important guide in designing and evaluating photovoltaic devices using Cu₂Se-based materials.     

Calculation of linear and nonlinear optical absorption coefficients of a spherical quantum dot with parabolic potential

In the effective mass approximation, we calculated the binding energy and wave function for the 1s-, 1p-, 1d- and 1f-states of a spherical quantum dot (QD) with parabolic potential by using a combination of quantum genetic algorithm (QGA) and Hartree-Fock-Roothaan (HFR) method. In addition, we also investigated the linear and the third-order nonlinear optical absorption coefficients as a function of the incident photon energy for the 1s-1p, 1p-1d and 1d-1f transitions. Our results are shown that the existence of impurity has great influence on optical absorption coefficients. Moreover, the optical absorption coefficients are strongly affected by the incident optical intensity, relaxation time, parabolic potential and dot radius.     

Suppression of noise in a noisy optical trap

We have experimentally explored and clarified the concept of noise suppression in intrinsically noisy systems by adding noise at the input using a microscopic bead held in a moving and intensity-modulated optical trap. By coupling the stiffness of the optical trap to its position, we have explicitly constructed an experimental model system in which added fluctuations in the trap position result in reduced variance of the observed bead position as compared to a stationary trap. This reduction in variance and the spectral properties of the observed output noise agree with theoretical predictions. Our experiment demonstrates that the essential aspect of noise reduction in such a system is that the added fluctuations drive the system into states with a reduced intensity of intrinsic noise sufficiently often.     

功能光学纳米Ag薄膜的制备及其光学特性研究

对以热蒸发法制备的超薄Ag薄膜,扫描电子显微镜结果显示其呈纳米尺度的颗粒状,由透射谱测量发现其具有表面等离子体激元特征.检测到不同条件制备纳米Ag薄膜的表面等离子体共振吸收峰的位移规律,且纳米Ag材料具有选择性的透过、反射特性.通过不同的制备条件,得到了在长波范围内透过率超过90％、在表面等离子体共振峰值位置处反射率接近50％且峰位可调的光学薄膜材料.这种薄膜材料有望成为应用在薄膜太阳电池中间层中具有潜在性光管理功能的光学薄膜材料. 关键词： 热蒸发 纳米Ag薄膜 表面等离子体激元 光管理     

Saturated absorption spectroscopy of acetylene molecules with an optical nanofiber

We performed saturated absorption spectroscopy of acetylene (C?H?) ν? + ν? band transitions with an optical nanofiber (ONF). Owing to high-intensity light around the ONF, we observed a Lamb dip at relatively low-power laser (~10 mW) without a cavity. Our results showed that the simple ONF spectrometer is advantageous for performing saturation absorption spectroscopy and serves as a practical low-cost wavelength reference in the optical fiber communication band.     

Imageless microscopy of surface patterns using optical waveguides

Recent experiments using a grating coupled low-index nanoporous silica supported monomode waveguide have demonstrated that living cells can cause heavy distortion of the grating coupler resonance lines, in some cases even leading to a separation into two resonance peaks. These findings stand in contrast to previously reported data, where simple peak broadening was observed during cell attachment and spreading using less sensitive waveguide designs. In order to explain these observations, we apply the local interference method to simulate the effects of inhomogeneity patterns on the surface of grating coupled planar optical waveguides and obtain the resonant peaks for the modes. It is shown that analyte inhomogeneities affect both the position and shape of the resonant peaks. Depending on the deposited cell or domain size, refractive index contrast and waveguide design, peak shift, peak deformations or peak splitting can be observed. On the basis of simulation data, characteristic parameters of the resonant peaks such as peak width at half maxima, overall width, central position and peak integral are connected for the first time to quantitative parameters of the inhomogeneity patterns; like analyte covered sensor area, surface averaged effective refractive index and domain size. Our results indicate that by careful investigations of the incoupling resonant peaks, quantitative information about sample inhomogeneities at the micrometer scale can be obtained, thus allowing for a new generation of simple, low cost, label free and imageless optical sensors, which are well suited for high throughput screening applications. PACS 42.82.Et     

Kinetic modeling of thermoluminescence,optical absorption and bleaching in LiF:Mg,Ti

In this paper we describe some aspects of our recent work which treats via kinetic simulations the experimentally observed linear/supralinear/saturating dose response of the thermoluminescence, optical absorption and behavior of optical bleaching at various photon energies in irradiated LiF:Mg,Ti (TLD-100) system in a physically realistic scenario. The results of the simulations are in good agreement with the experimental observations and this can be considered as a validation of the details of the proposed models.     

Damped precession of the magnetization vector of superparamagnetic nanoparticles excited by femtosecond optical pulses

The ultrafast magnetization and electron dynamics of superparamagnetic cobalt nanoparticles, embedded in a dielectric matrix, have been investigated using femtosecond optical pulses. Our experimental approach allows us to bypass the superparamagnetic thermal fluctuations and to observe the trajectory of the magnetization vector which exhibits a strongly damped precession motion. The magnetization precession is damped faster in the superparamagnetic particles than in cobalt films or when the particle size decreases, suggesting that the damping is enhanced at the metal dielectric interface. Our observations question the gyroscopic nature of the magnetization pathway when superparamagnetic fluctuations take place as we discuss in the context of Brown's model.     

超高斯型光脉冲在色散管理光纤系统中的传输

从描述超短光脉冲在光纤中传输的高阶非线性薛定谔方程入手,使用傅里叶变换的分裂算符法,通过计算机模拟,研究了超高斯光脉冲在色散管理光纤系统中的传输特性,并考察了超高斯光脉冲在加入随机噪声后传输的稳定性以及脉冲间的相互作用.     

Broadband gain-clamped linear quantum dash optical amplifiers

The linear optical gain of gain-clamped quantum dash semiconductor optical amplifiers (GCSOAs) has been investigated using the rate equation model. The gain spectrum of GCSOA for different wavelength detuning and different doping has been studied. Our analysis shows that the linear gain can be increased as the laser wavelength is detuned to high wavelength where the peak of the optical gain, which is found at wavelengths below the ground state wavelength, is shifted to lower wavelength as the laser wavelength is increased. We find that doping the dashes by either N-type or P-type enhances the linear optical gain and shifts the gain peak to lower wavelength. Moreover, we found that GCSOA with lightly N-type doping demonstrates large separation between the laser and the amplifier wavelength. Also we find that small inhomogeneous line broadening enhances the linear gain peak, shifts the gain peak to wavelength lower than the GS wavelength and widens the gain spectrum.     

氧碘化学激光中的增益光导效应

 发现和分析了氧碘化学激光中的增益光导效应。碘注入的不均匀等导致增益在该方向的不均匀。采用预混模型和Fabry Perot腔模型，推导了碘不均匀分布情况下的单重态氧的产额和激光束横向分布的解析表达式。计算结果表明，由于增益光导效应，引起激光横向分布的变化，可导致光束在碘注入方向的倾斜，以及输出功率的下降。     

Brownian particle in an optical potential of the washboard type

Experimental observations of the fluctuation-driven net transport of silica microspheres are presented in a two-dimensional optical potential of circular symmetry created by a Bessel light beam. The optical field is tailored to break symmetry and create a static tilted periodic (washboard) potential. As the tilt of potential exceeds a threshold, a transition between locked and running modes is observed. The running mode manifests itself by the rapid accumulation of particles at the beam center.     

On chip chiral and plasmonic hybrid dimer or tetramer: Generic way to reverse longitudinal and lateral optical binding forces

For both the longitudinal binding force and the lateral binding force, a generic way of controlling the mutual attraction and repulsion (usually referred to as reversal of optical binding force) between chiral and plasmonic hybrid dimers or tetramers has not been reported so far. In this paper, by using a simple plane wave and an onchip configuration, we propose a possible generic way to control the binding force for such hybrid objects in both the near-field region and the far-field region. We also investigate different inter-particle distances while varying the wavelengths of light for each inter-particle distance throughout the investigations. First of all, for the case of longitudinal binding force, we find that chiral-plasmonic hybrid dimer pairs do not exhibit any reversal of optical binding force in the near-field region nor in the far-field region when the wavelength of light is varied in an air medium. However, when the same hybrid system of nanoparticles is placed over a plasmonic substrate, a possible chip, it is possible to achieve a reversal of the longitudinal optical binding force. Later, for the case of lateral optical binding force, we investigate a setup where we place the chiral and plasmonic tetramers on a plasmonic substrate by using two chiral nanoparticles and two plasmonic nanoparticles, with the setup illuminated by a circularly polarized plane wave. By applying the left-handed and the right-handed circular polarization state of light, we also observe the near-field and the far-field reversal of lateral optical binding force for both cases. As far as we know, so far, no work has been reported in the literature on the generic way of reversing the longitudinal optical binding force and the lateral optical binding force of such hybrid objects. Such a generic way of controlling optical binding forces can have important applications in different fields of science and technology in the near future.     

Strain- and twist-engineered optical absorption of few-layer black phosphorus

Density functional and many-body perturbation theories calculations were carried out to investigate fundamental and optical bandgap, exciton binding energy and optical absorption property of normal and strain- and twist-engineered few-layer black phosphorus (BP). We found that the fundamental bandgaps of few layer BP can be engineered by layer stacking and in-plane strain, with linear relationships to their associated exciton binding energies. The strain-dependent optical absorption behaviors are also anisotropic that the position of the first absorption peak monotonically blue-shifts as the strain applies to either direction for incident light polarized along the armchair direction, but this is not the case for that along the zigzag direction. Given those striking properties, we proposed two prototype devices for building potentially more balanced light absorbers and light filter passes, which promotes further applications and investigations of BP in nanoelectronics and optoelectronics.     

Medium corrections to the first order optical potential for low-energy pion-4He scattering

We study the Pauli-principle corrections for low energy π-⁴He elastic scattering. In our approach we take into account explicitly the spin and isospin dependence of the Pauli-principle effect. Furthermore we discuss the combined effect of the Pauli-principle correction and the nuclear binding. Contrary to the Pauli principle we treat the binding corrections in an approximate way, using an effective mass for the residual nucleus. In our calculations we use the first-order optical potential of Celenza, Liu and Shakin. The Pauli-principle correction is found to have a considerable effect on the differential cross section. Our results indicate that the Pauli-principle corrections are largely compensated by the nuclear binding.