Characterization of an actively linearized ultrabroadband chirped laser with a fiber-laser optical frequency comb

The optical frequency sweep of an actively linearized, ultrabroadband, chirped laser source is characterized through optical heterodyne detection against a fiber-laser frequency comb. Frequency sweeps were measured over approximately 5 THz bandwidths from 1530 nm to 1570 nm. The dominant deviation from linearity resulted from the nonzero dispersion of the fiber delay used as a reference for the sweep linearization. Removing the low-order dispersion effects, the residual sweep nonlinearity was less than 60 kHz rms, corresponding to a constant chirp with less than 15 ppb deviation across the 5 THz sweep.     

Surface-assisted one-dimensional self-assembly of a perylene based semiconductor molecule

Chloroform-vapor annealing of thin films of propoxyethyl perylene tetracarboxylic diimide (PE-PTCDI, an n-type semiconductor) deposited on glass or mica leads to formation of well-defined one-dimensional self-assemblies (e.g. nanobelts), which show optically uniaxial properties as demonstrated by the linearly polarized emission.     

Phase diagram of a geometrically frustrated triangular-lattice antiferromagnet in a magnetic field

The magnetic phase diagram of a geometrically frustrated triangular-lattice antiferromagnet is evaluated as a function of magnetic field and anisotropy using a trial spin state built from harmonics of a fundamental ordering wave vector. A noncollinear incommensurate state, observed to be chiral and ferroelectric in CuFeO2, appears above a collinear state with 4 sublattices (SLs). The apparent absence of multiferroic behavior for predicted chiral, noncollinear 5-SL states poses a challenge to theories of the ferroelectric coupling in CuFeO2.     

High-resolution heteronuclear correlation spectroscopy in solid state NMR of aligned samples

A new two-dimensional scheme is proposed for accurate measurements of high-resolution chemical shifts and heteronuclear dipolar couplings in NMR of aligned samples. Both the (1)H chemical shifts and the (1)H-(15)N dipolar couplings are evolved in the indirect dimension while the (15)N chemical shifts are detected. This heteronuclear correlation (HETCOR) spectroscopy yields high-resolution (1)H chemical shifts split by the (1)H-(15)N dipolar couplings in the indirect dimension and the (15)N chemical shifts in the observed dimension. The advantages of the HETCOR technique are illustrated for a static (15)N-acetyl-valine crystal sample and a (15)N-labeled helical peptide sample aligned in hydrated lipid bilayers.     

Expectation-maximization for Bayes-adaptive POMDPs

Bayes-adaptive POMDPs (BAPOMDPs) are partially observable Markov decision problems in which uncertainty in the state-transition and observation-emission probabilities can be captured by a prior distribution over the model parameters. Existing approaches to solving BAPOMDPs rely on model and trajectory sampling to guide exploration and, because of the curse of dimensionality, do not scale well when the degree of model uncertainty is large. In this paper, we begin by presenting two expectation-maximization (EM) approaches to solving BAPOMPs via finite-state controller (FSC) optimization, which at their foundation are extensions of existing EM algorithms for BAMDPs to the more general BAPOMDP setting. The first is a sampling-based EM algorithm that optimizes over a finite number of models drawn from the BAPOMDP prior, and as such is only appropriate for smaller problems with limited model uncertainty; the second approach leverages variational Bayesian methods to ensure tractability without sampling, and is most appropriate for larger domains with greater model uncertainty. Our primary novel contribution is the derivation of the constrained VB-EM algorithm, which addresses an unfavourable preference that often arises towards a certain class of policies when applying the standard VB-EM algorithm. Through an empirical study we show that the sampling-based EM algorithm is competitive with more conventional sampling-based approaches in smaller domains, and that our novel constrained VB-EM algorithm can generate quality solutions in larger domains where sampling-based approaches are no longer viable.