Analysis of non-linear refractive index influences on four-wave mixing conversion efficiency in semiconductor optical amplifiers

In this paper, we have analyzed the influences of non-linear refractive index on the four-wave mixing (FWM) characteristics in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). It has been shown that the generated FWM signal characteristics can be modified due to the variation of non-linear refractive index of the SOA's medium. The wave propagation in the SOA has been modeled using the nonlinear propagation equation taking into account gain spectrum dynamics, gain saturation, which depends on carrier depletion, carrier heating, spectral hole-burning, group velocity dispersion, self-phase modulation and two photon absorption. Simulation of optical wave evolution in the SOA has been carried out using the finite-difference beam propagation method (FD-BPM) both in time and spectral domains. Our simulation results confirm that higher FWM conversion efficiency and lower time bandwidth product are achieved for higher absolute values of non-linear refractive index. Moreover, non-linear refractive index is more efficacious for high power propagated waves in SOAs. Finally, we have studied the modification of waveguide refractive index due to the propagation of optical pulses. We have also shown that when |n₂|=1 cm²/TW, refractive index variation is in the order of 10^?4 to 10^?7 for high and low power input pulses, respectively.     

Temperature tunable random laser using superconducting materials

We propose that spectral intensity of superconductor based random lasers can be made tunable by changing temperature. The two fluid model and wavelength dependent dispersion formula have been employed to describe the optical response of the superconducting materials. Random laser characteristics have been calculated using the one dimensional FDTD method. Our simulation results reveal that the emission spectrum can be manipulated through the ambient temperature of the system. It is observed that transition from metal phase to pure superconducting phase leads to the enhancement of the laser emission. Furthermore, spatial distribution of the fields in one dimensional disordered media is very sensitive to the system temperature.     

Index for vehicle acoustical comfort inside a passenger car

Sound quality is among the main factors that influence customers’ preference for choosing good automobile products. It all started more than 10 years ago and grows up so fast due to high competition in the automotive industries. A-weighted noise levels and sound power are usually utilised to measure the noise but they are not adequate to characterise the impact sound inside a car. The most popular approach to determine sound quality of a product is to define an annoyance or specific index, which involves both subjective and objective evaluations. Subjective and objective tests should be studied concurrently in order to determine the sound quality inside a passenger car. This approach is used in this paper to evaluate vehicle comfort index according to most frequently used sound quality metrics, namely; Zwicker loudness, sharpness, roughness and fluctuation strength. As a result researchers of different fields of automotive acoustics investigations can use this index according to the type of road (international road roughness) without any need to perform time-consuming jury tests. The metrics are correlated with jury test results that show which of them and how much has affected the acoustical comfort of the vehicle. The relation between road roughness and vehicle acoustical comfort index is another point of interest in this research.     

Self-assembly of boehmite nanopetals to form 3D high surface area nanoarchitectures

A flower-like boehmite nanostructure was prepared through a template-free chemical route by the self-assembly process of nanosize petals 800–1000 nm long, 200–250 nm wide, 20–50 nm thick and having an average crystallite size of about 2.21 nm. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), DTA/TGA analyses and Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (BET-N₂) analyses were used in order to characterize the product obtained. XRD results exhibited that the obtained nanostructures composed of pure orthorhombic AlOOH phase. The effects of Cl⁻ ions and TEA on the growth of boehmite three-dimensional nanoarchitectures in the presence of NO₃^-\mathrm{NO}_{3}^{-} ions were investigated. BET analyses of as-prepared material demonstrate that this nanostructure material has a high specific surface area, as high as 123 m² g⁻¹.     

Soliton and other solutions to the (1+2)-dimensional chiral nonlinear Schrödinger equation

The (1+2)-dimensional chiral nonlinear Schrödinger equation (2D-CNLSE) as a nonlinear evolution equation is considered and studied in a detailed manner. To this end, a complex transform is firstly adopted to arrive at the real and imaginary parts of the model, and then, the modified Jacobi elliptic expansion method is formally utilized to derive soliton and other solutions of the 2D-CNLSE. The exact solutions presented in this paper can be classified as topological and nontopological solitons as well as Jacobi elliptic function solutions.     

Reflection and transmission at normal incidence onto air-saturated porous materials and direct measurements based on parametric demodulated ultrasonic waves

The present work is related to the characterization of air-saturated porous media by using parametric demodulated ultrasonic waves. One uses two different powerful ultrasonic emitters working either at 47 kHz or at 162 kHz which are electronically amplitude modulated over the 200 Hz-4 kHz or 2 kHz-40 kHz bandwidths respectively. The demodulation process takes place in air, due to its nonlinearity enabling to generate audio range acoustical waves or alternatively low frequency ultrasonic waves which can be used to characterize porous materials in the reflection configuration at normal incidence. Some appropriate theoretical calculations are introduced for three configurations of interest, i.e. a porous slab, a porous layer mounted onto a rigid plate, and a porous half space, in the case of the equivalent-fluid model. Comparisons between theoretical modeling and experimental data are provided and prospective industrial applications are discussed.     

Organically modified montmorillonite and chitosan–phosphotungstic acid complex nanocomposites as high performance membranes for fuel cell applications

Nanocomposite membranes based on polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) of chitosan/phosphotungstic acid (PWA) and different types of montmorillonite (MMT) were prepared as alternative membranes to Nafion for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) applications. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed an electrostatically fixed PWA within the PEC membranes, which avoids a decrease in proton conductivity at practical condition. Various amounts of pristine as well as organically modified MMT (OMMT) (MMT: Cloisite Na, OMMT: Cloisite 15A, and Cloisite 30B) were introduced to the PEC membranes to decrease in methanol permeability and, thus, enhance efficiency and power density of the cells. X-ray diffraction patterns of the nanocomposite membranes proved that MMT (or OMMT) layers were exfoliated in the membranes at loading weights of lower than 3 wt.%. Moreover, the proton conductivity and the methanol permeability as well as the water uptake behavior of the manufactured nanocomposite membranes were studied. According to the selectivity parameter, ratio of proton conductivity to methanol permeability, the PEC/2 wt.% MMT 30B was identified as the optimum composition. The DMFC performance tests were carried out at 70 °C and 5 M methanol feed and the optimum membrane showed higher maximum power density as well as acceptable durability compared to Nafion 117. The obtained results indicated that owing to the relatively high selectivity and power density, the optimum nanocomposite membrane could be considered as a promising polyelectrolyte membrane (PEM) for DMFC applications.     

Electroluminescence and Photoluminescence of Conjugated Polymer Films Prepared by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition of Naphthalene

Polymer light-emitting devices were fabricated utilizing plasma polymerized thin films as emissive layers. These conjugated polymer films were prepared by RF plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition using naphthalene as monomer. The effect of different applied powers on the chemical structure and optical properties of the conjugated polymers was investigated. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopies confirmed that a conjugated polymer film with a 3-D cross-linked network was developed. By increasing the power, products tended to form as highly cross-linked polymer films. The fabricated devices showed broadband Electroluminescence (EL) emission peaks with center at 535–550 nm. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of plasma polymers showed different excimeric emissions, resulted from crosslinked architecture. As the plasma power increased, the optical properties showed two different domains; up to 200 W, EL, PL and UV–Vis spectra red-shifted and broadened significantly. At higher powers, a reverse behavior was observed. Also, the relation between the film structure and plasma species was investigated using optical emission spectroscopy.     

Thermodynamics and Phase Transition of Topological Dilatonic Lifshitz-Like Black Holes

It is known that scalar-tensor gravity models can be studied in Einstein and Jordan frames. In this paper, a model of scalar-tensor gravity in Einstein's frame is considered to calculate the Lifshitz-like black hole solutions with different horizon topologies. Thermodynamic properties and first order van der Waals-like phase transition are studied, and it is found that the Lifshitz parameter affects the phase structure. In addition, thermal stability is investigated by using the behavior of heat capacity and various methods of geometrical thermodynamics.