Synchronization and coherent combining of two pulsed fiber lasers

We demonstrate a scalable architecture for coherent combining of pulsed fiber lasers.A new method for generating synchronous pulsed fiber lasers by direct phase modulation is proposed and investigated.It is shown that phase modulated mutually coupled laser array can be a steady synchronous pulsed fiber laser source.The synchronous pulsed fiber lasers are coherently combined with an invariable phase difference of π in adjacent lasers.Neither active phase control nor polarization control is taken in our experiment.     

Synthesis of nanosized Si composite anode material for Li-ion batteries

A simple method was proposed to prepare nanosized Si composite anode materials for lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. The preparation started with the shock-type ball milling of silicon in liquid media of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/dimethylformamide (DMF) solution, forming slurry where the nano-Si particles were uniformly dispersed, followed by the drying of the slurry to remove DMF. The nanosized Si composite anode material was obtained after the pyrolysis of the mixture at 300 °C where the pyrolyzed PAN provided a conductive matrix to relieve the morphological change of Si during cycling. As-prepared composite presented good cyclability for lithium storage. The proposed process paves an effective way to prepare high performance Si, Sn, Sb and their alloys based composite anode materials for Li-ion batteries.     

Ultrabroadband superoscillatory lens composed by plasmonic metasurfaces for subdiffraction light focusing

Conventional optics is diffraction limited due to the cutoff of spatial frequency components, and evanescent waves allow subdiffraction optics at the cost of complex near‐field manipulation. Recently, optical superoscillatory phenomena were employed to realize superresolution lenses in the far field, but suffering from very narrow working wavelength band due to the fragility of the superoscillatory light field. Here, an ultrabroadband superoscillatory lens (UBSOL) is proposed and realized by utilizing the metasurface‐assisted law of refraction and reflection in arrayed nanorectangular apertures with variant orientations. The ultrabroadband feature mainly arises from the nearly dispersionless phase profile of transmitted light through the UBSOL for opposite circulation polarization with respect to the incident light. It is demonstrated in experiments that subdiffraction light focusing behavior holds well with nearly unchanged focal patterns for wavelengths spanning across visible and near‐infrared light. This method is believed to find promising applications in superresolution microscopes or telescopes, high‐density optical data storage, etc.

     

INTERLAYER EXCHANGE COUPLING IN COMPLEX MAGNETIC MULTILAYERS

We extend the hole confinement model of Edwards et al. to the problem of two kinds of complex magnetic sandwich structures. One is the magnetic sandwich covered on both sides by nonmagnetic films(case 1) and the other is that covered by magnetic films(case 2). The interlayer exchange coupling and the angular dependence of coupling energy in the two cases are investigated systematically. For case 1, our results show that the magnetic and outer nonmagnetic films influence significantly the oscillation behavior of exchange coupling and the appearance of noncollinear exchange coupling is very sensitive to the thickness of magnetic and outer nonmagnetic layers. Our results also show that the nonoscillatory component of the coupling generally varies with the thickness of magnetic(outer nonmagnetic) films and the results in the case where the thickness of both magnetic(outer nonmagnetic) films vary simultaneously are significantly different from that in the case where the thickness of one of the two magnetic(outer nonmagnetic) films is fixed while the other is varied, which is qualitatively in agreement with the experimental measurements. For case 2, the exponential dependence of exchange coupling on the thickness of the intermagnetic layer has been obtained, similar to the Parkin's experimental results for giant magnetoresistance.     

Different sound decay patterns and energy feedback in coupled volumes

Different non-exponential decays such as the concave and the convex double sloped decays in the coupled rooms provide distinct sound qualities. These are commonly considered to occur in the less reverberant sub-room and the more reverberant sub-room, respectively. However, numerical simulations and experiments in this paper show that the demarcation line is not located along the physical boundaries (e.g., the partition and the coupling aperture), but in the more reverberant sub-room. The sound field with the concave double sloped decay penetrates into the auxiliary sub-room to an extent which is influenced by the difference between the two natural reverberations of the sub-rooms. Furthermore the sound energy flows in different regions are investigated, demonstrating how energy feedback leads to the concave double sloped decay.     

Tight focusing of a double-ring-shaped, azimuthally polarized beam

We study the focusing properties of a double-ring-shaped azimuthally polarized beam through an annular high NA objective lens. It is shown that a subwavelength focal hole (～0.5λ) with a quite long depth of focus (～26λ) is achieved near the focus. This kind of nondiffracting focal hole is called dark channel, which may have applications in atom optical experiments, such as with atomic lenses, atom traps, and atom switches.     

A pigment (CuS) identified by micro‐Raman spectroscopy on a Chinese funerary lacquer ware of West Han Dynasty

A blue pigment was identified by micro‐Raman spectroscopy, X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM)/energy dispersive X‐ray (EDX) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD). The test sample, a funerary lacquer tray, belongs to West Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 8) of China and was decorated with faint blue patterns. The result from Raman spectroscopy showed that the faint blue is covellite (CuS) due to the presence of a characteristic peak at 474.5 cm⁻¹, which further was confirmed by XRF, SEM–EDX and XRD. This research indicated that CuS had been used as a blue pigment to decorate lacquer wares from the West Han Dynasty in China. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental investigation on partially coherent higher-order non-diffractive beams

We experimentally study the generation of a partially coherent non-diffractive beam by focusing a partially coherent vortex beam with an axicon. The investigation results show that when the partially coherent vortex beam is focused by the axicon, the beam is transferred into a partially coherent higher-order non-diffractive beam. In the non-diffractive zone, the transverse intensity distribution of the partially coherent higher-order non-diffractive beam is invariant during propagation. In addition, the range of the non-diffractive zone is related to the coherence of the partially coherent vortex beam. The poorer the coherence of the partially coherent vortex beam, the shorter the range of the non-diffractive zone.