Performance of a CW pumped Nd:YVO4 amplifier with kHz pulses

Until recently, simple and reliable high repetition-rate laser sources with nanosecond pulses much shorter than from conventional A-O Q-switch lasers were not available. However over the past 2 years we have developed such lasers based on proprietary fast E-O switching technology, which allows designs delivering 1 ns pulses and subnanosecond jitter for good synchronisation. The technology provides pulses with multi-kW peak power and repetition-rates to >100 kHz.Most recently, the performance of these short pulse lasers has been developed further by implementing oscillator/amplifier (master oscillator and power amplifier, MOPA) technology which increases the output to >1 W average power. Here we report on a simple model that has been used to predict the performance of the CW pumped Nd:YVO₄ amplifier used in the MOPA laser. The model is based on the well-known expressions for the saturated gain applying to laser pulses, but more usually applied to pulse-excited amplifiers. The model is shown to allow a good interpretation of the amplifier behaviour for kHz pulses and to be a useful tool for predicting the performance of the MOPA laser.     

Photoinduced intramolecular electron-transfer reactions in carbazole-fullerene and phenothiazine-fullerene linked compounds in benzene and benzonitrile as studied by fluorescence, transient absorption, time-resolved EPR, and magnetic field effects

Photoinduced intramolecular electron-transfer reactions in carbazole (Cz)-fullerene (C₆₀) (Cz(8)C₆₀) and phenothiazine (Ph)-C₆₀ (Ph(n)C₆₀ (n=8, 10, 12)) linked compounds have been investigated in benzene and benzonitrile by fluorescence, transient absorption, and time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance measurements, and by magnetic field effects on the decay rate constants of the photogenerated biradicals. In benzonitrile, photoinduced intramolecular electron transfer from Cz to the singlet excited state of C₆₀ (¹C₆₀ ^*) occurred in Cz(8)C₆₀, but not to the triplet excited state (³C₆₀ ^*), while the intramolecular electron-transfer to both¹C₆₀ ^* and³C₆₀ ^* occurred in Ph(n)C₆₀ (n=8, 10, 12). In benzene, on the other hand, no electron transfer to both¹C₆₀ ^* and³C₆₀ ^* took place in all linked compounds. These results were interpreted in terms of the different Gibbs free energy changes in the two solvents.     

Visualization of rigorous sum rules for Franck–Condon factors: spectroscopic applications to Xe2

A fully quantum mechanical approach to the calculation and normalization of the Franck–Condon factors for diatomic species is described. The treatment is based on the fundamental demand of completeness of the energy eigenfunctions, which results in the rigorous sum rule for the Franck–Condon overlap integrals. The importance of this general rule has been discussed and thoroughly illustrated in the case of diatomic xenon molecules. Exactly solvable reference potentials for this system have been constructed and a complete basis of the actual energy eigenstates (including both bound and scattering states) has been created. Several direct spectroscopic applications to xenon excimers are presented, and their good agreement with relevant experimental data demonstrated. In particular, a kinetic model is proposed to explain the observed oscillatory structures in the fluorescence spectra of Xe₂^* [Chem. Phys. Lett. 117 (1985) 301] related to their classical left turning points. The same model gives a uniform explanation to the well-known first and second emission continua of rare gases.     

Transition flow of rarefied gases: Current models and methods of simulation

Transition (molecular-viscous) isothermal channel flow of rarefied gases is considered. Present-day engineering physical models of transition gas flow and methods of simulation are analyzed and verified in terms of the kinetic theory on the micro-and macrolevels.     

The action of an electron beam on dust structures in a plasma

The action of an electron beam on ordered dust structures in glow and low-pressure RF discharges was studied experimentally. The electron beam produces destruction and dynamic displacement of the dust structure. In the center of a dust structure, an electron beam with a low electron energy (tens of eV) at currents up to 1 mA caused structural disordering and “melting” in the region of its action but did not excite external crystal regions. Local action of an electron beam with a high electron energy (25 keV) and a beam current above 10 mA caused deformation of the whole dust structure and shifted it in the horizontal direction so that it was carried away from the RF discharge zone. The effect of dust structure displacements can be used to locally remove particles from a plasma.     

Dynamic interaction of plasma flow with the hot boundary layer of a geomagnetic trap

The study of the interaction between collisionless plasma flow and stagnant plasma revealed the presence of an outer boundary layer at the border of a geomagnetic trap, where the super-Alfvén subsonic laminar flow changes over to the dynamic regime characterized by the formation of accelerated magnetosonic jets and decelerated Alfvén flows with characteristic relaxation times of 10–20 min. The nonlinear interaction of fluctuations in the initial flow with the waves reflected from an obstacle explains the observed flow chaotization. The Cherenkov resonance of the magnetosonic jet with the fluctuation beats between the boundary layer and the incoming flow is the possible mechanism of its formation. In the flow reference system, the incoming particles are accelerated by the electric fields at the border of boundary layer that arise self-consistently as a result of the preceding wave-particle interactions; the inertial drift of the incoming ions in a transverse electric field increasing toward the border explains quantitatively the observed ion acceleration. The magnetosonic jets may carry away downstream up to a half of the unperturbed flow momentum, and their dynamic pressure is an order of magnitude higher than the magnetic pressure at the obstacle border. The appearance of nonequilibrium jets and the boundary-layer fluctuations are synchronized by the magnetosonic oscillations of the incoming flow at frequencies of 1–2 mHz.     

Chemical Properties of the K2O-Al2O3-SiO2-P2O5 System Activated with Mn(II) Oxide

Synthesis and some chemical properties of the Al₂O-SiO₂-P₂O₅ system activated with MnO were studied.     

Recovering Beam Search: Enhancing the Beam Search Approach for Combinatorial Optimization Problems

A hybrid heuristic method for combinatorial optimization problems is proposed that combines different classical techniques such as tree search procedures, bounding schemes and local search. The proposed method enhances the classic beam search approach by applying to each partial solution corresponding to a node selected by the beam, a further test that checks whether the current partial solution is dominated by another partial solution at the same level of the search tree. If this is the case, the latter solution becomes the new current partial solution. This step allows to partially recover from previous wrong decisions of the beam search procedure and can be seen as a local search step on the partial solution. We present here the application to two well known combinatorial optimization problems: the two-machine total completion time flow shop scheduling problem and the uncapacitated p-median location problem. In both cases the method strongly improves the performances with respect to the basic beam search approach and is competitive with the state of the art heuristics.     

Degenerate nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws: Non classical geometrical theory

Kinetic selection principles have been shown to be useful and physically reasonable in nonlinear hyperbolic problems with large amplitude phase transitions. We refer to Abeyaratne and Knowles, [A-K], for discussion on the subject. They also have been used for degenerate nonlinear problems, where the genuine nonlinearity property of Lax is violated. This is the framework of Liu, [Li], in the kinetic situation of Hayes and Le Floch, [H-L], where their so-called non classical shocks may be seen as small amplitude phase transitions. Here, we describe the local geometry generated by the generic non genuinely nonlinear assumption. A geometric kinetic criterion can be used to select indeterminate simple waves and obtain the well-posedness of the local Riemann problem. A particular case is the entropic kinetic criterion of Hayes and Le Floch.

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Sunto Principi di selezione cinetica sono stati mostrati utili e fisicamente ragionevoli in problemi iperbolici con transizioni di fase di grande ampiezza. Ci riferiamo ad Abeyaratne e Knowles, [A-K], per discussioni sull'argomento. Detti principi sono stati usati per problemi nonlineari degeneri, dove la proprietà di genuina nonlinearità di Lax è violata. Questo è la prospettiva di Liu, [Li], nella situazione cinetica di Hayes e Le Floch, [H-L], dove i loro così detti urti non classici possono essere considerati come transizioni di fase di piccola ampiezza. Qui, descriviamo la geometria locale generata dall'ipotesi generica genuinamente nonlineare. Un criterio di geometria cinetica può essere usato per selezionare onde semplici indeterminate ed ottenere la buona posizione per il problema locale di Riemann. Un caso particolare è il criterio di entropia cinetico di Hayes e Le Floc.

     

Influence of the sample orientation in Sn<Subscript>2</Subscript>P<Subscript>2</Subscript>S<Subscript>6</Subscript> crystals on the hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficients

The influence of the sample orientation on the effective value of the hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficients d _h ⁽ⁱ⁾ of Sn₂P₂S₆ crystals has been studied. The hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficients d _h ⁽¹⁾ and d′ _h ⁽³⁾ , were measured, d _h ⁽¹⁾ =(244±3) pC/N and d′ _h ⁽³⁾ =(92±1) pC/N. The hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficient d _h ⁽³⁾ for orthogonal axis system was calculated to be d _h ⁽³⁾ =(87±2) pC/N. The, optimal orientation of the sample has been found as (Xy l)−20°-cut. Maximal value of the effective hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficient d _h ⁽¹⁾ equals 260 pC/N. Double rotated samples were also studied. The orientation of the samples insensitive to the pressure has been found. The theoretical mean value of hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficient (d _h ) _mean corresponding to randomly oriented Sn₂P₂S₆ grains in a poled composite has been calculated to be (d _h ) _mean =136 pC/N.