Widely ultra-narrow linewidth 104 nm tunable all-fiber compact erbium-doped ring laser

A widely tunable narrow linewidth compact erbium-doped all-fiber ring laser with 104 nm tuning range was reported. An all-fiber Fabry-Perot filter (FFP-TF) was used to realize the laser tuning output, and the wavelength at constant voltage had high time stability. With the 8 m length erbium-doped fiber as gain medium, we realized widely tunable laser from 1513 to 1617 nm with the linewidth less than 40 pm at any wavelength. Pumped by the 976 nm laser diode, the fiber laser worked with slope efficiency of above 10% and threshold of less than 21 mW.     

Efficient and compact intracavity-frequency-doubled Nd:LuVO<Subscript>4</Subscript>/LBO laser at 538 nm end-pumped by a fiber-coupled laser diode

We report a diode-pumped Nd:LuVO₄ laser emitting at 1076 nm, based on the ⁴ F _3/2−⁴ I _11/2 transition, generally used for a 1066 nm emission. A power of 689 mW at 1076 nm has been achieved in continuous-wave (CW) operation with a fiber-coupled laser diode emitting 17.8 W at 809 nm. Intracavity second-harmonic generation (SHG) in CW mode has also been demonstrated with a power of 105 mW at 538 nm by using a LiB₃O₅ (LBO) nonlinear crystal.     

Long pulse duration of the UV laser with a multi-reflected cavity: Experiment and modeling

The long pulse operation of ultraviolet (UV) laser attributed to multi-reflection is presented on an acousto-optic (AO) Q-switched ultraviolet laser system blocking green light inside a cavity. The ultraviolet laser with the highest average power of 456 mW is obtained with 20 kHz repetition-rate. The numerical simulation of UV pulse broadening was studied using Gaussian curve approximation. The conclusion suggests that the short multi-reflected cavity and high incident pump power will be beneficial to alleviate the width broadening effect. The results, for the first time, would provide the technology for controlling the pulse width of an AO Q-switched DUV laser.     

Beam controller using nonlinear embedded optical transformation

Flexible and adjustable beam splitters, expanders/compressors and the cloak are presented based on a universal two-dimensional transformation formula for the embedded transformation optics. Nonlinear transformation results by the suggested formula under different conditions reveal several interesting phenomena and potential applications. All beam controllers are achieved by the nonlinear coordinate transformation.     

Half-metallic ferromagnetism in rocksalt and zinc-blende MS (M=Li, Na and K): A first-principles study

First-principles full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method is used to investigate the electronic structure and magnetic properties of hypothetical zinc-blende and rocksalt LiS, NaS and KS. We find that all the compounds except rocksalt LiS exhibit half-metallic ferromagnetism with an integer magnetic moment of 1.00 μ_B per formula unit. The ferromagnetism results from the spin-polarization of p states of anion S. Total energies calculations indicate the rocksalt phase is lower in energy than the zinc-blende one. The total energy differences are about 0.38, 0.36 and 0.32 eV per formula unit for LiS, NaS and KS, respectively. Meanwhile, it is shown that rocksalt NaS and KS have the half-metallic gaps of 0.22 and 0.41 eV, respectively, and the half-metallic gaps are 0.03, 0.46 and 0.65 eV for zinc-blende LiS, NaS and KS, respectively. We also find the half-metallicity is robust against the lattice contraction up to 7% and 13% for rocksalt NaS and KS, respectively. Although rocksalt LiS is nonmagnetic and metallic at the equilibrium lattice constant, it shows half-metallic ferromagnetism when the lattice constant is larger than 5.40 Å.     

Factors affecting perception thresholds of vertical whole-body vibration in recumbent subjects: Gender and age of subjects, and vibration duration

Some factors that may affect human perception thresholds of the vertical whole-body vibrations were investigated in two laboratory experiments with recumbent subjects. In the first experiment, the effects of gender and age of subjects on perception were investigated with three groups of 12 subjects, i.e., young males, young females and old males. For continuous sinusoidal vibrations at 2, 4, 8, 16, 31.5 and 63 Hz, there were no significant differences in the perception thresholds between male and female subjects, while the thresholds of young subjects tended to be significantly lower than the thresholds of old subjects. In the second experiment, the effect of vibration duration was investigated by using sinusoidal vibrations, at the same frequencies as above, modulated by the Hanning windows with different lengths (i.e., 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 s) for 12 subjects. It was found that the peak acceleration at the threshold tended to decrease with increasing duration of vibration. The perception thresholds were also evaluated by the running root-mean-square (rms) acceleration and the fourth power acceleration method defined in the current standards. The differences in the threshold of the transient vibrations for different durations were less with the fourth power acceleration method. Additionally, the effect of the integration time on the threshold was investigated for the running rms acceleration and the fourth power acceleration. It was found that the integration time that yielded less differences in the threshold of vibrations for different durations depended on the frequency of vibration.     

The structural, electronic and optical properties of CdxZn1 − xSe ternary alloys

The structural, electronic, and optical properties of Cd_xZn_1 − xSe alloys are investigated using the first-principles plane-wave pseudopotential method within the LDA approximations. In particular, the lattice constant, bulk modulus, electronic band structures, density of state, and optical properties such as dielectric functions, refractive index, extinction coefficient and energy loss function are calculated and discussed. Our results agree well with the available data in the literature.     

Growth, optical properties and laser performance of NdxLu1−xVO4 series crystals

Nd_xLu_1−xVO₄ (x = 0, 0.005, 0.02, 0.023, 0.03 and 0.05) series crystals have been grown by the Czochralski method. The results of X-ray powder diffraction experiments show that these crystals belong to the zircon-type structure. The cutoff wavelength of LuVO₄ is 330 nm and the transmittance is about 80% in 540-3010 nm. The functional relation of absorption coefficient α at 808 nm on Nd³⁺-doped concentration N_d in units of atomic % is obtained to be α = 7.649 N_d. The results of Judd-Ofelt analysis show that there is no obvious concentration quenching effect below 3 at.% doped concentrations. The highest output power at 1.06 μm is 1090 mW for Nd_0.02Lu_0.98VO₄ at the pumping power of 6.58 W of a laser diode, the optical-optical conversion efficiency is 16.6% and slope efficiency is 19.4%.     

Spin-glass behavior and magnetocaloric effect in melt-spun TbCuAl alloys

Magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effects of amorphous and crystalline TbCuAl ribbons are investigated by measuring their ac susceptibilities including a nonlinear term and dc magnetizations. The in-phase third harmonic ac susceptibility is found to be negative. It can be well fitted by the expression at high temperatures, indicating a spin-glass behavior in amorphous TbCuAl alloy. ΔT_f(ω)/[T_f(ω)Δlog₁₀ω], a possible distinguishing criterion to judge the presence of a spin-glass behavior is ∼0.011. The frequency-dependent data can be well fitted by the conventional critical slowing down law and the spin-glass transition temperature is obtained to be 20.1 K. The maximum of magnetic entropy change reaches 4.5 J kg⁻¹ K⁻¹ for a field change of 0-50 000 Oe, while the crystalline TbCuAl compound experiences a simple ferromagnetic-to-paramagnetic phase transition. The peak value of magnetic entropy change is obtained at the Curie temperature and reaches 14.4 J kg⁻¹ K⁻¹ for the same field change, which is much larger than that of amorphous TbCuAl alloy.     

Film thickness dependence of electro-optic effect in epitaxial BaTiO3 thin films

Based on the phenomenological Landau-Devonshire theory, we investigate the film thickness dependence of ferroelectric and electro-optic properties of epitaxial BaTiO₃ thin films grown on SrTiO₃ and MgO substrates. By using the effective substrate lattice parameter concept, the film thickness dependence of misfit strain is incorporated into the theory. Therefore, the film thickness dependence of ferroelectric and electro-optic properties in epitaxial BaTiO₃ thin films can be explained. Moreover, a large quadratic electro-optic effect was obtained in the BaTiO₃ thin films, which is in good agreement with the experimental result of BaTiO₃ thin films on the MgO substrate.