Direct experimental characterization of the Bose-Einstein distribution of spatial fluctuations of spontaneous parametric down-conversion

We present, to the best of our knowledge, the first experimental demonstration by direct detection of the Bose-Einstein photon-number distribution of highly spatially multi-mode but temporally single mode spontaneous parametric down-conversion.Received: 20 November 2003, Published online: 6 January 2004PACS: 42.50.-p Quantum optics - 42.50.Ar Photon statistics and coherence theory - 42.65.-k Nonlinear optics - 42.65.Lm Parametric down conversion and production of entangled photons     

Gain in phase sensitive parametric image amplification

We report an experiment of type 2 parametric image amplification in a phase sensitive configuration. In the spatial frequency domain, the parametric gain corresponds to amplification or deamplification, depending on the relative phase of the input image with respect to the pump wave and on the spatial frequencies of the input image.     

Proteophenes – Amino Acid Functionalized Thiophene-based Fluorescent Ligands for Visualization of Protein Deposits in Tissue Sections with Alzheimer's Disease Pathology

Protein deposits composed of specific proteins or peptides are associated with several neurodegenerative diseases and fluorescent ligands able to detect these pathological hallmarks are vital. Here, we report the synthesis of a class of thiophene-based ligands, denoted proteophenes, with different amino acid side-chain functionalities along the conjugated backbone, which display selectivity towards specific disease-associated protein aggregates in tissue sections with Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. The selectivity of the ligands towards AD associated pathological hallmarks, such as aggregates of the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide or tau filamentous inclusions, was highly dependent on the chemical nature of the amino acid functionality, as well as on the location of the functionality along the pentameric thiophene backbone. Finally, the concept of synthesizing donor-acceptor-donor proteophenes with distinct photophysical properties was shown. Our findings provide the structural and functional basis for the development of new thiophene-based ligands that can be utilized for optical assignment of different aggregated proteinaceous species in tissue sections.     

Spatial and temporal properties of parametric fluorescence around degeneracy in a type I LBO crystal

We present a theoretical and experimental study of the spatio-temporal properties of the spontaneous parametric emission generated in a type I LBO crystal around degeneracy. The number of quasi-phase-matched modes is shown to be equal to the number of spatio-temporal degrees of freedom of the image that can be parametrically amplified. From this number, we demonstrate the possibility of predicting the total number of photons generated by parametric fluorescence. Correlation is observed between spatial intensity fluctuations corresponding to pairs of signal-idler modes. Received 18 February 1999 and Received in final form 9 June 1999     

Synthesis and Characterization of Thiophene-based Donor–Acceptor–Donor Heptameric Ligands for Spectral Assignment of Polymorphic Amyloid-β Deposits

Protein deposits are associated with many devastating diseases and fluorescent ligands able to visualize these pathological entities are essential. Here, we report the synthesis of thiophene-based donor–acceptor–donor heptameric ligands that can be utilized for spectral assignment of distinct amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregates, one of the pathological hallmarks in Alzheimer's disease. The ability of the ligands to selectively distinguish Aβ deposits was abolished when the chemical composition of the ligands was altered. Our findings provide the structural and functional basis for the development of new fluorescent ligands that can distinguish between aggregated proteinaceous species consisting of the same peptide or protein. In addition, such ligands might aid in interpreting the potential role of polymorphic Aβ deposits in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.     

Properties of the He ground state from He neutron knockout

The unbound nucleus ⁷He, produced in neutron-knockout reactions with a 240 MeV/u ⁸He beam in a liquid-hydrogen target, has been studied in an experiment at the ALADIN-LAND setup at GSI. From an R-matrix analysis the resonance parameters for ⁷He as well as the spectroscopic factor for the ⁶He(0⁺) + n configuration in its ground-state have been obtained. The spectroscopic factor is 0.61 confirming that ⁷He is not a pure single-particle state. An analysis of ⁵He data from neutron-knockout reactions of ⁶He in a carbon target reveals the presence of an s  -wave component at low energies in the α+n$\alpha +\mathrm{n}$ relative energy spectrum.     

Computationally efficient implementation of combustion chemistry in parallel PDF calculations

In parallel calculations of combustion processes with realistic chemistry, the serial in situ adaptive tabulation (ISAT) algorithm [S.B. Pope, Computationally efficient implementation of combustion chemistry using in situ adaptive tabulation, Combustion Theory and Modelling, 1 (1997) 41–63; L. Lu, S.B. Pope, An improved algorithm for in situ   adaptive tabulation, Journal of Computational Physics 228 (2009) 361–386] substantially speeds up the chemistry calculations on each processor. To improve the parallel efficiency of large ensembles of such calculations in parallel computations, in this work, the ISAT algorithm is extended to the multi-processor environment, with the aim of minimizing the wall clock time required for the whole ensemble. Parallel ISAT strategies are developed by combining the existing serial ISAT algorithm with different distribution strategies, namely purely local processing (PLP), uniformly random distribution (URAN), and preferential distribution (PREF). The distribution strategies enable the queued load redistribution of chemistry calculations among processors using message passing. They are implemented in the software x2f_mpi$x2f\_\mathit{mpi}$, which is a Fortran 95 library for facilitating many parallel evaluations of a general vector function. The relative performance of the parallel ISAT strategies is investigated in different computational regimes via the PDF calculations of multiple partially stirred reactors burning methane/air mixtures. The results show that the performance of ISAT with a fixed distribution strategy strongly depends on certain computational regimes, based on how much memory is available and how much overlap exists between tabulated information on different processors. No one fixed strategy consistently achieves good performance in all the regimes. Therefore, an adaptive distribution strategy, which blends PLP, URAN and PREF, is devised and implemented. It yields consistently good performance in all regimes. In the adaptive parallel ISAT strategy, the type and extent of redistribution is determined “on the fly” based on the prediction of future simulation time. Compared to the PLP/ISAT strategy where chemistry calculations are essentially serial, a speed-up factor of up to 30 is achieved. The study also demonstrates that the adaptive strategy has acceptable parallel scalability.     

Retrieval of spatial shot-noise in the full dynamic range of calibrated CCD cameras

The pixel by pixel calibration of a scientific CCD camera allows Poissonian statistics of the spatial fluctuations of an uniform enlightening to be retrieved in the full range of the camera dynamic. The procedure works efficiently for thermal as well as for laser sources, provided that the wavelength and the coherence properties of the source are chosen in order to avoid the formation of equal thickness fringes in the chip (etaloning effect). Calibration allows also the comparison at the shot noise level of images recorded at different places on the chip. Received 9 September 2002 / Received in final form 16 October 2002 Published online 21 January 2003