Photonic generation of microwave signals using dual-wavelength single-longitudinal-mode fiber lasers

Photonic generation of microwave signals is demonstrated with a dual-wavelength single-longitudinal-mode erbium-doped fiber ring laser. Microwave signal with a frequency of 21.07 GHz is obtained by aligning the reflection band of a uniform fiber Bragg grating to the two transmission peaks within a fiber Bragg grating-based Fabry-Perot filter. Stable dual-wavelength single-longitudinal-mode operation is guaranteed by means of the combined filtering effect of a saturable absorber and the Fabry-Perot filter. This approach provides an effective solution to the photonic generation of high-frequency microwave signals.     

A molecular dynamics study on melting point and specific heat of Ni<Subscript>3</Subscript>Al alloy

Using the Embedding Atom Method (EAM) for highly undercooled Ni₃Al alloy, the melting point and the specific heat were studied by a molecular dynamics simulation. The simulation of melting point was carried out by means of the sandwich method and the NVE ensemble method, and the results show a good agreement, whereas are larger than the experimental value of 1663 K. This difference is attributed to the influence of surface melting on experimental results, which causes the smaller measurements compared with the thermodynamic melting point. The simulated specific heat of Ni₃Al alloy weakly and linearly increases with the increase of undercooling in the temperature range from 800 K to 2000 K. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50395101)     

Spherical shape BaO-ZnO-B<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>-SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> glass powders prepared by spray pyrolysis

Fine-sized BaO-ZnO-B₂O₃-SiO₂ (BZBS) glass powders were directly prepared by high temperature spray pyrolysis. The hollow glass powders prepared at low preparation temperature of 1000 °C had a low density of 2.65 g/cm³. However, the densities of the BZBS powders obtained at preparation temperatures of 1200 and 1400 °C were each 3.92 and 4.13 g/cm³. The mean size of the BZBS glass powders prepared by spray pyrolysis at preparation temperature of 1400 °C was 0.98 μm. The glass transition temperature (T_g) of the prepared BZBS glass powders was 518.9 °C. The dielectric layers formed from the prepared BZBS glass powders with a dense structure had a clean surface and a dense inner structure without voids at the firing temperature of 580 °C. The transparencies of the dielectric layers formed from the prepared BZBS glass powders were higher than 90% within the visible range. PACS 42.70.Ce; 85.60.Pg; 71.55.Jv     

Investigation on the conformational changes of bovine serum albumin in a wide pH range from 2 to 12

The conformation of bovine serum albumin largely depends on its microenvironment pH and affects its physical functions and applications. In this study, we investigated the effects of pH (wide range 2–12) on the conformation of bovine serum albumin based on spectroscopic signals by various spectroscopic means including fluorescence, synchronous fluorescence, resonance light scattering, UV-visible absorption, and circular dichroism. The changes in spectroscopic signals, such as peak position and intensity, showed that the structure of bovine serum albumin varied significantly with pH. The conformation of bovine serum albumin was compact at pH 6–7, as indicated by the largest peak position values and peak intensities in the fluorescence, synchronous fluorescence, and RLS spectra. The structure of bovine serum albumin became loose in the acidic or alkaline environment, as indicated by the decreased peak position values and peak intensities. The microenvironment of the amino acid residues of bovine serum albumin also varied with pH, as indicated by the changing peak position values. At pH 7, the hydrophobicity of the tyrosine and tryptophan residues was the weakest, as indicated by the minimum synchronous fluorescence signals. In addition, the secondary structure of bovine serum albumin, especially α-helix, varied with pH. The content of α-helix reached the maximum value of 68% at pH 6–8, whereas it decreased in the acidic or alkaline environment. The study provides valuable details for studying the physiological function and applications of serum albumins.     

Current and strain-induced spin polarization in InGaN/GaN superlattices

The lateral current-induced spin polarization in InGaN/GaN superlattices (SLs) without an applied magnetic field is reported. The fact that the sign of the nonequilibrium spin changes as the current reverses and is opposite for the two edges provides a clear signature for the spin Hall effect. In addition, it is discovered that the spin Hall effect can be strongly manipulated by the internal strains. A theoretical work has also been developed to understand the observed strain-induced spin polarization. Our result paves an alternative way for the generation of spin polarized current.     

Scale-invariant structure of energy fluctuations in real earthquakes

Earthquakes are obviously complex phenomena associated with complicated spatiotemporal correlations, and they are generally characterized by two power laws: the Gutenberg-Richter (GR) and the Omori-Utsu laws. However, an important challenge has been to explain two apparently contrasting features: the GR and Omori-Utsu laws are scale-invariant and unaffected by energy or time scales, whereas earthquakes occasionally exhibit a characteristic energy or time scale, such as with asperity events. In this paper, three high-quality datasets on earthquakes were used to calculate the earthquake energy fluctuations at various spatiotemporal scales, and the results reveal the correlations between seismic events regardless of their critical or characteristic features. The probability density functions (PDFs) of the fluctuations exhibit evidence of another scaling that behaves as a q-Gaussian rather than random process. The scaling behaviors are observed for scales spanning three orders of magnitude. Considering the spatial heterogeneities in a real earthquake fault, we propose an inhomogeneous Olami-Feder-Christensen (OFC) model to describe the statistical properties of real earthquakes. The numerical simulations show that the inhomogeneous OFC model shares the same statistical properties with real earthquakes.     

Pseudospin Wave State in One-Dimensional Half-Filled Hubbard Model

All the eigenfunctione with spin S = (M - 1)/2 of one-dimeneional half-filled Hubbard model are obtained by ueing a eimple method (M is the number of the sites). These eigenfunctions depend on U, t, and the momentum k. It ie shown that the eigenetates we obtained can describe varioue kinde of pseudospin waves with wave vector k and these pseudoepin wave etates are accompanied with a charge transferring. This is in agreement with the exact diagonalisation results for emall eitee ring.     

Local magnetic order in57Fe doped Y(Ce)Co4B

In order to monitor the peculiar temperature dependence of the magnetization of the compounds YCo₄B and CeCo₄B from an atomistic point of view, samples doped with 1%⁵⁷Fe were studied by Mössbauer spectroscopy. From the two Co-sites present in this structure (2c, 6i), only the latter were found to be equipped by Fe. In the case of the Y-compound, the change of direction of the easy axis of magnetization could be confirmed. The broad maximum observed for the magnetization of the Ce-compound is not reflected by the⁵⁷Fe hyperfine field.     

Investigations on optically controlled millimeter wave Gunn oscillators

There is a growing interest in optically controlled millimeter wave oscillators. In this paper, we have investigated the external-circuit impedances of an optically controlled millimeter wave subharmonic Gunn diode oscillator, which is illuminated by GaAs/GaAlAs laser beam. The variation of the external-circuit impedances looking outward from the Gunn diode with respect to the optical injection plasma density are calculated based on a field analysis method. The results give some useful conclusions for optically controlled millimeter wave Gunn diode oscillator design. Experimentally an optical tuning frequency shift of 7MHz is achieved at W-band.