New results on the superdeformed band in192Hg

New results on the¹⁹²Hg superdeformed band have been obtained with EUROGAM. The experiment has been performed with the¹⁶⁰Gd(³⁶S,4n) reaction at 159 MeV. Above 800 keV the γ-ray energies differ from the previously published ones. Thus the rise of the dynamical moment of inertia $\mathfrak{F}^{(2)} $ above ?ω=0.4 MeV is no longer observed. This is in better agreement with recent cranked Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations.     

Wavelength-independent all-fiber mode converters

We have used two different photonic crystal fiber (PCF) techniques to make all-fiber mode converters. An LP(01) to LP(11) mode converter was made by the ferrule technique on a drawing tower, and an LP(01) to LP(02) mode converter was made by controlled hole inflation of an existing PCF on a tapering rig. Both devices rely on adiabatic propagation rather than resonant coupling; so high extinction was achieved across a wide wavelength range.     

Fiber four-wave mixing source for coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy

We present a fiber-format picosecond light source for coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy. Pulses from a Yb-doped fiber amplifier are frequency converted by four-wave mixing (FWM) in normal-dispersion photonic crystal fiber to produce a synchronized two-color picosecond pulse train. We show that seeding the FWM process overcomes the deleterious effects of group-velocity mismatch and allows efficient conversion into narrow frequency bands. The source generates more than 160 mW of nearly transform-limited pulses tunable from 775 to 815 nm. High-quality coherent Raman images of animal tissues and cells acquired with this source are presented.     

Enantioselective rhodium-catalysed addition of boronic acids using C2-symmetric aryl diphosphite ligands

The enantioselective rhodium-catalysed conjugate addition of aryl boronic acids to dehydroalanine derivatives has been successfully carried out in the presence of C₂-symmetric aryl diphosphite ligand (R,R,R-4) to prepare unnatural amino acid esters. The products have been obtained in up to 72% ee and with good isolated yield.