Scale-up of microbubble dispersion generator for aerobic fermentation

A laboratory-scale microbubble dispersion (MBD) generator was shown to improve oxygen transfer to aerobic microorganisms when coupled to the conventional air-sparger. However, the process was not demonstrated on a large scale to prove its practical application. We investigated the scale-up of a spinning-disk MBD generator for the aerobic fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast). A 1-L spinning-disk MBD generator was used to supply air for 1- and 50-L working volume fermentation of baker’s yeast. For the two levels investigated, the MBD generator maintained an adequate supply of surfactant-stabilized air microbubbles to the microorganisms at a relatively low agitation rate (150 rpm). There was a significant improvement in oxygen transfer to the microorganism relative to the conventional sparger. The volumetric mass transfer coefficient, k _L a, for the MBD system at 150 rpm was 765 h⁻¹ compared to 937 h⁻¹ for the conventional sparger at 500 rpm. It is plausible to surmise that fermentation using larger working volumes may further improve the k _L a values and the dissolved oxygen (DO) levels because of longer hold-up times and, consequently, improve cell growth. There was no statistically significant difference between the cell mass yield on substrate (0.43 g/g) under the MBD regime at an agitation rate of 150 rpm and that achieved for the conventional air-sparged system (0.53 g/g) at an agitation rate of 500 rpm. The total power consumption per unit volume of broth in the 50-L conventional air-sparged system was threefold that for the MBD unit for a similar product yield. Practical application of the MBD technology can be expected to reduce power consumption and therefore operating costs for aerobic fermentation.     

Experimental evidence for soliton explosions

We show, experimentally and numerically, that Ti:sapphire mode-locked lasers can operate in a regime in which they intermittently produce exploding solitons. This happens when the laser operates near a critical point. Explosions happen spontaneously, but external perturbations can trigger them. In stable operation, all explosions have similar features, but are not identical. The characteristics of the explosions depend on the intracavity dispersion.     

Nonlinear phase noise generated in air-silica microstructure fiber and its effect on carrier-envelope phase

We present measurements of the nonlinear phase noise that is due to amplitude-to-phase conversion in air-silica microstructure fiber that is utilized to broaden the frequency comb from a mode-locked femtosecond laser to an optical octave. When the octave of the continuum is employed to phase stabilize the laser-pulse train, this phase noise causes a change in the carrier-envelope phase of 3784-rad/nJ change in pulse energy. As a result, the jitter on the carrier-envelope phase that is due to fiber noise, from 0.03 Hz-55 kHz, is ~0.5rad .     

Carrier-envelope phase-controlled quantum interference of injected photocurrents in semiconductors

We demonstrate quantum interference control of injected photocurrents in a semiconductor using the phase stabilized pulse train from a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. Measurement of the comb offset frequency via this technique results in a signal-to-noise ratio of 40 dB (10 Hz resolution bandwidth), enabling solid-state detection of carrier-envelope phase shifts of a Ti:sapphire oscillator.     

Impulsive stimulated Raman scattering: comparison between phase-sensitive and spectrally filtered techniques

Impulsive stimulated Raman scattering is used to generate and control coherent phonons and other low-frequency modes. In transparent materials, pump-probe experiments are usually performed by spectrally resolving the probe beam and measuring the spectral shift as a function of pump-probe time delay. By measuring the optical phase of the probe pulse as a function of time delay, we find that the phonon signal can be increased by a factor alpha(omegadelta)(-1), where omega is the phonon frequency and delta is the pulse duration.     

Solid-state carrier-envelope phase stabilization via quantum interference control of injected photocurrents

We demonstrate carrier-envelope phase stabilization of a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser by use of quantum interference control of injected photocurrents in a semiconductor. No harmonic generation is required for this stabilization technique. Instead, interference between coexisting single- and two-photon absorption pathways in the semiconductor provides a phase comparison between different spectral components. The phase comparison, and the detection of the photocurrent that it produces, both occur within a single low-temperature-grown gallium arsenide sample. The carrier-envelope offset beat note fidelity is 30 dB in a 10-kHz resolution bandwidth. The out-of-loop phase-noise level is essentially identical to the best previous measurements with the standard self-referencing technique.     

Phase stabilization of an octave-spanning Ti:sapphire laser

We obtain direct stabilization of the carrier-envelope phase for a standard x-folded geometry, octave-spanning, Ti:sapphire laser. The in-loop accumulated carrier-envelope phase error is 0.175 rad (1.65 mHz to 102 kHz). Intracavity continuum generation, which is responsible for the octave bandwidth, is characterized through measurement of the beam parameters.     

Contactless photoconductive terahertz generation

We describe a pulsed terahertz (THz) emitter that uses a rapidly oscillating, high-voltage bias across electrodes insulated from a photoconductor. Because no carriers are injected from the electrodes, trap-enhanced electric fields do not form. The resulting uniform field allows excitation with a large laser spot, lowering the carrier density for a given pulse energy and increasing the efficiency of THz generation. Compared to a dc bias, less susceptibility to damage is observed.     

Ultrafast optical spectroscopy of spectral fluctuations in a dense atomic vapor

Transient four-wave mixing experiments with 100 fs pulses in a dense potassium vapor probe the electronic energy fluctuations that lead to optical decoherence. Echo-peak shift experiments yield a biexponential two-time correlation function of energy level fluctuations. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the slow component is a many-body excitonic contribution arising from long-range resonant interactions. The decay of the correlation function occurs on comparable time scales in theory and experiment.