Multiwatt, tunable, diode-pumped CW Yb:GdCOB laser

We demonstrate that Yb-doped Ca₄GdO(BO₃)₃ (GdCOB) crystals are suitable for the development of high-power diode-pumped lasers emitting at around 1.04 μm. A 15%-doped Yb:GdCOB crystal was longitudinally pumped with a cw fiber-coupled diode emitting 10 W at 976 nm. While 5.2 W of diode power was absorbed, we obtained 3.2 W of 1043-μm laser light, with a beam quality factor M² equal to 3, and 2.5 W in a diffraction-limited beam. Furthermore, the laser is continuously tunable between 1018 and 1086 nm. Thermal effects have been investigated with a Shack–Hartmann wavefront analyser: although thermal lensing is not negligible, it does not affect the performance of the laser with the resonator design we used. Received: 1 August 2000 / Revised version: 18 September 2000 / Published online: 21 February 2001     

Mercury speciation and total trace element determination of low-biomass biological samples

Current approaches to mercury speciation and total trace element analysis require separate extraction/digestions of the sample. Ecologically important aquatic organisms--notably primary consumers such as zooplankton, polychaetes and amphipods--usually yield very low biomass for analysis, even with significant compositing of multiple organisms. Individual organisms in the lower aquatic food chains (mussels, snails, oysters, silversides, killifish) can also have very low sample mass, and analysis of whole single organisms is important to metal uptake studies. A method for the determination of both methyl Hg and total heavy metal concentrations (Zn, As, Se, Cd, Hg, Pb) in a single, low-mass sample of aquatic organisms was developed. Samples (2 to 50 mg) were spiked with enriched with (201)MeHg and (199)Hg, then leached in 4 M HNO(3) at 55 degrees C for extraction of MeHg. After 16 h, an aliquot (0.05 mL) was removed to determine mercury species (methyl and inorganic Hg) by isotope dilution gas chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The leachate was then acidified to 9 M HNO(3) and digested in a microwave at 150 degrees C for 10 min, and total metal concentrations were determined by collision cell ICP-MS. The method was validated by analyzing five biological certified reference materials. Average percent recoveries for Zn, As, Se, Cd, MeHg, Hg(total) and Pb were 99.9%, 103.5%, 100.4%, 103.3%, 101%, 97.7%, and 97.1%, respectively. The correlation between the sum of MeHg and inorganic Hg from the speciation analysis and total Hg by conventional digestion of the sample was determined for a large sample set of aquatic invertebrates (n = 285). Excellent agreement between the two measured values was achieved. This method is advantageous in situations where sample size is limited, and where correlations between Hg species and other metals are required in the same sample. The method also provides further validation of speciation data, by corroborating the sum of the Hg species concentrations with the total Hg concentration.     

Finite Size Scaling of the Dynamical Free-Energy in a Kinetically Constrained Model

We determine the finite size corrections to the large deviation function of the activity in a kinetically constrained model (the Fredrickson-Andersen model in one dimension), in the regime of dynamical phase coexistence. Numerical results agree with an effective model where the boundary between active and inactive regions is described by a Brownian interface.     

10 Gbit/s Silicon modulator and germanium detector chip-to-chip optical link

Experimental results of a high-speed silicon optical modulator based on carrier depletion in a pipin diode and Germanium photodetectors are presented. 10 Gbit/s data transmission is obtained for both optoelectronic devices, with for the optical modulator an extinction ratio (ER) higher than 8 dB and insertion loss (IL) lower than 6 dB and for Ge photodetector, a zero-bias operating at 10 Gbit/s. Finally, a 10 Gbit/s optical link combining Si modulator and Ge photodetector is demonstrated.     

Compact wavelength-insensitive fabrication-tolerant silicon-on-insulator beam splitter

A star coupler-based beam splitter for rib waveguides is reported. A design method is presented and applied in the case of silicon-on-insulator rib waveguides. Experimental results are in good agreement with simulations. Excess loss lower than 1 dB is experimentally obtained for star coupler lengths from 0.5 to 1 μm. Output balance is better than 1 dB, which is the measurement accuracy, and broadband transmission is obtained over 90 nm.     

Observation of the single step links of the yrast superdeformed band in 194Pb

The EUROGAMarray has been used to investigate the decay out of the yrast superdeformed (SD) band in ¹⁹⁴Pb. Eigth single step decays from the lowest observed SD states to low-lying states at normal deformation (ND) have been identified. From this observation, the excitation energy (4877 ± 1.5 keV) and the spin (6⁺) of the lowest observed SD state in ¹⁹⁴Pb are established.     

High‐temperature kinetics of the reaction between CN and hydrocarbons using a novel high‐enthalpy flow tube

More than 70 molecules of varied nature have been identified in the envelopes of carbon‐rich stars through their spectral fingerprints in the microwave or far infrared regions. Many of them are carbon chain molecules and radicals, and a significant number are unique to the circumstellar medium. The determination of relevant laboratory kinetics data is critical to keep up with the development of the high spectral and spatial resolution observations and of the refinement of chemical models. Neutral–neutral reactions of the CN radical with unsaturated hydrocarbons could be a dominant route in the formation of cyanopolyynes, even at low temperatures and deserve a detailed laboratory investigation. The approach we have developed aims to bridge the temperature gap between resistively heated flow tubes and shock tubes. The present kinetic measurements are obtained using a new reactor combining a high‐enthalpy source with a flow tube and a pulsed laser photolysis–laser‐induced fluorescence system to probe the undergoing chemical reactions. The high‐enthalpy flow tube has been used to measure the rate constant of the reaction of the CN radical with propane (C₃H₈), propene (C₃H₆), allene (C₃H₄), 1,3‐butadiene (1,3‐C₄H₆), and 1‐butyne (C₄H₆) over a temperature range extending from 300 to 1200 K. All studied reactions of CN with unsaturated hydrocarbons are rapid, with rate coefficients greater than 10^?10 cm³ · molecule^?1 · s^?1 and exhibit slight negative temperature dependence above room temperature. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 44: 753–766, 2012     

Simulating Rare Events in Dynamical Processes

Atypical, rare trajectories of dynamical systems are important: they are often the paths for chemical reactions, the haven of (relative) stability of planetary systems, the rogue waves that are detected in oil platforms, the structures that are responsible for intermittency in a turbulent liquid, the active regions that allow a supercooled liquid to flow…. Simulating them in an efficient, accelerated way, is in fact quite simple.     

Complex oscillations and waves of calcium in pancreatic acinar cells

We perform a bifurcation analysis of a model of Ca²⁺ wave propagation in the basal region of pancreatic acinar cells. The model we consider was first presented in Sneyd et al. [J. Sneyd, K. Tsaneva-Atanasova, J.I.E. Bruce, S.V. Straub, D.R. Giovannucci, D.I. Yule, A model of calcium waves in pancreatic and parotid acinar cells, Biophys. J. 85 (2003) 1392–1405], where a partial bifurcation analysis was given of the model in the absence of diffusion. We obtain more complete information about bifurcations of the diffusionless model via numerical studies, then analyse the spatially extended model by numerical investigation of the travelling wave equations and direct numerical solution of the model equations. We find solitary waves in the model equations arising from homoclinic bifurcations in the travelling wave equations. The solitary waves exist and appear to be stable for a significant interval of the primary bifurcation parameter (i.e., the concentration of inositol trisphosphate) but are eventually replaced by irregular spatio-temporal behaviour. The homoclinic bifurcations are related to a number of complicated mathematical structures in the travelling wave equations, including an anomalous homoclinic-Hopf bifurcation, heteroclinic bifurcations between an equilibrium and a periodic orbit, and homoclinic bifurcations of periodic orbits.