Up to 30 mW of broadly tunable CW green-to-orange light, based on sum-frequency mixing of Cr:forsterite and Nd:YVO4 lasers

Efficient generation of continuous-wave (CW) tunable light in the yellow region is reported. The method is based on sum-frequency mixing of a tunable Cr⁴⁺:forsterite laser with a Nd:YVO₄ laser. A periodically poled lithium niobate crystal was placed intra-cavity in a Nd:YVO₄ laser, and the Cr⁴⁺:forsterite laser was single-passed through the non-linear media. With this setup, it was possible to generate up to 3 mW of yellow light smoothly tunable from 573 to 587 nm. This is the highest output demonstrated to date for a tunable diode pumped solid-state CW laser in this wavelength region. The ways to improve the efficiency further are discussed.     

Index of refraction engineering in five-level dressed interacting ground states atoms

We present a five-level atomic system in which the index of refraction of a probe laser can be enhanced or reduced below unity with vanishing absorption in the region between pairs of absorption and gain lines formed by dressing of the atoms with a control laser and rf/microwave fields. By weak incoherent pumping of the population into a single metastable state, one can create several narrow amplifying resonances. At frequencies between these gain lines and additional absorption lines, there exist regions of vanishing absorption but resonantly enhanced index of refraction. In Rb vapors with density N in units of cm(-3), we predict an index of refraction up to n≈√(1+1.2×10(-14)N) for the D1 line, which is more than an order of magnitude larger than other proposals for index of refraction enhancement. Furthermore, the index can be readily reduced below 1 by simply changing the sign of the probe or rf field detunings. This enhancement is robust with respect to homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening.     

All-channel tunable optical dispersion compensator based on linear translation of a waveguide grating router

We propose and demonstrate a compact tunable optical dispersion compensation (TODC) device with a 100 GHz free spectral range capable of mitigating chromatic dispersion impairments. The TODC is based on longitudinal movement of a waveguide grating router, resulting in chromatic dispersion compensation of ±1000 ps/nm. We employed our TODC device for compensating 42.8 Gbit/sec differential phase-shifting keying signal, transmitted over 50 km fiber with a -2 dB power penalty at 10??.     

Kaleidoscope of exotic quantum phases in a frustrated XY model

The existence of quantum spin liquids was first conjectured by Pomeranchuk some 70 years ago, who argued that frustration in simple antiferromagnetic theories could result in a Fermi-liquid-like state for spinon excitations. Here we show that a simple quantum spin model on a honeycomb lattice hosts the long sought for Bose metal with a clearly identifiable Bose surface. The complete phase diagram of the model is determined via exact diagonalization and is shown to include four distinct phases separated by three quantum phase transitions.     

Dislocation-density-based constitutive modelling of tensile flow and work-hardening behaviour of P92 steel

The flow and work-hardening behaviour of tempered martensitic P92 steel have been investigated using phenomenological constitutive model in the temperature range 300–873 K for the strain rates ranging from 3.16 × 10^?5 to 1.26 × 10^?3 s^?1. The analysis indicated that the hybrid model reduced to Estrin–Mecking (E–M) one-internal-variable model at intermediate and high temperatures. Further, the analysis also indicated that dislocation dense martensite lath/cell boundaries and precipitates together act as effective barriers to dislocation glide in P92 steel. The flow behaviour of the steel was adequately described by the E–M approach for the range of temperatures and strain rates examined. Three distinct temperature regimes have been obtained for the variations in work-hardening parameters with respect to temperature and strain rate. Signatures of dynamic strain ageing in terms of the anomalous variations in work-hardening parameters at intermediate temperatures and the dominance of dynamic recovery at high temperatures have been observed. The evaluation of activation energy suggested that deformation is controlled by the dominance of cross-slip of dislocations at room and intermediate temperatures, and climb of dislocations at high temperatures.     

Torsion balances with fibres of zero length

Torsion balances have good immunity to tilt and low rotational stiffness. However precise control of the position of the suspended torsion ‘bob’ is difficult in the presence of ground vibrations and tilt and this is a limiting factor in applications where Casimir forces or putative non-Newtonian short-range forces are being measured. We describe how the desirable characteristics of torsion balances can be reproduced in a rigid body that is suspended using applied forces rather than a torsion fibre. The suspension system can then provide a more precise control of the degrees of freedom of the suspended body. We apply these ideas to a superconducting levitated torsion balance, developed by the authors, and a generic electrostatic suspension. We present results of preliminary experiments that provide support for our analyses.     

Probing buried interfaces with non-linear optical spectroscopy

The importance of buried interfaces in our everyday lives and in current scientific research is highlighted, along with experimental difficulty associated with studying such systems. We present an overview of the application of second harmonic generation and sum-frequency spectroscopy to the study of buried interfaces. Several examples from the current literature are presented, ranging from chemical and biological, to electrical and magnetic interfaces. The importance of this work in the context of ongoing research in these areas is discussed. Finally, we provide a snapshot of the state of the art in non-linear optical spectroscopy by mentioning several new directions that are likely to have a large impact on future research into the physics and chemistry of buried interfaces.     

Porous solgel fiber as a transducer for highly sensitive chemical sensing

A novel solgel process for making porous silica fiber and doping the fiber core with sensing material is described. A CoCl(2) -doped solgel fiber was fabricated and was used to construct an active-core optical fiber moisture sensor. Test results show that the sensitivity of the active-core optical fiber sensor is much higher than that of an evanescent-wave-based optical fiber sensor.