A broadband,quasi‐continuous,mid‐infrared supercontinuum generated in a chalcogenide glass waveguide

The production of a broadband supercontinuum spanning from 1.8 μm to >7.5 μm is reported which was created by pumping a chalcogenide glass waveguide with ≈320 fs pulses at 4 μm. The total power was ≈20 mW and the source brightness was 100 that of current synchrotrons. This source promises to be an excellent laboratory tool for infrared microspectroscopy.     

Accurate Computation of Traffic Workload Distributions

In traffic modeling, the computation of workload distributions plays a prominent role, since they influence the quality of service parameters. This paper deals with different ways to determine the workload distributions of a GI/GI/1 service system accurately. We discuss two different techniques, the polynomial factorization approach and the Wiener–Hopf factorization. These methods factorize the server system's characteristic polynomial to compute the workload. Starting with classical algorithms to obtain initial approximations, we enhance them using verification techniques to guarantee the correctness of the results.     

Direct detonation initiation with thermal deposition due to pore collapse in energetic materials – towards the coupling between micro- and macroscale

In this work we investigate the initiation of detonations in energetic materials through thermal power deposition due to pore collapse. We solve the reactive Euler equations, with the energy equation augmented by a power deposition term. The deposition term is partially based on previous results of simulations of pore collapse at the microscale, modelled at the macroscale as hotspots. It is found that a critical size of the hotspots exists. If the hotspots exceed the critical size, direct initiation of detonation can be achieved even with a low power input, in contrast to the common assumption that a sufficient power is necessary to initiate detonation. We show that sufficient power is necessary only when the size of the hotspots is below the critical size. In this scenario, the so-called ‘explosion in the explosion’, the initial ignition does not lead to a detonation directly, but detonation occurs later as a result of shock-to-detonation transition in the region processed by the shock wave generated by the initial ignition.     

Density-based kinetics for mesoscale simulations of detonation initiation in energetic materials

In this work we present one- and two-dimensional mesoscale simulations of detonation initiation in energetic materials. We solve the reactive Euler equations, with the energy equation augmented by a power deposition term. The reaction rate at the mesoscale is modelled using a density-based kinetics scheme, adapted from standard ‘Ignition and Growth’ models. The deposition term is based on previous results of simulations of void collapse at the microscale, modelled at the mesoscale as hot spots. For an isolated hot spot in a homogeneous medium, it is found that a critical size of the hot spots exists. If the hot spots exceed the critical size, initiation of detonation can be achieved. For sub-critical hot-spot sizes, we show that it takes a collection of hot spots to achieve detonation. We also carry out two-dimensional mesoscale simulations of random packs of HMX crystals in a binder, and show that the transition between no detonation and detonation depends on the number density of the hot spots, the initial radius of the hot spot, the post-shock pressure of an imposed shock, and the amplitude of the power deposition term.     

Level-crossing under nearly monochromatic excitation by a narrow-band cw dye laser

The shape of level-crossing signals under excitation by a narrow-band tunable dye laser has been investigated. The light of the laser was scattered on a highly collimated atomic beam of Na. The laser radiation (bandwidth about 3 MHz) was fairly monochromatic compared with the natural line-width of the 3 ²P_{$\text{3}\text{2}$} state (10 MHz). The form of the zero-field level-crossing signal of this state depends strongly on the frequency of the exciting radiation. The experimental results agree well with calculated signal shapes.     

Synthesis of the C1-C17 segment of phorboxazole B

The C1-C17 bis-oxane subunit 22 of phorboxazole B is efficiently synthesized by exploiting differential reactivities between similar substituents on the hydropyran rings in 4. Selective dihydroxylation of the equatorial vinyl group, hydroboration of the axial vinyl group, and intramolecular Mitsunobu lactonization serve to fully differentiate the similar hydropyrans.     

Lifetime measurements using stepwise excitation by two pulsed dye lasers

The 4²D level of sodium was populated in a stepwise excitation process involving two pulsed dye lasers. The lifetime of the 4²D level was derived from the decay of the fluorescence intensity.