Properties of a vector soliton laser passively mode-locked by a fiber-based semiconductor saturable absorber operating in transmission

We experimentally demonstrate a passively mode-locked fiber laser employing a fiber-based semiconductor saturable absorber (SSA) operating in transmission. Polarization rotation locked vector solitons are observed in the laser. Due to the intrinsic dynamic feature of the laser, period-doubling of these vector solitons has also been observed. Furthermore, extra spectral sidebands are formed on the optical spectrum, caused by the energy exchange between the two orthogonal polarization components of the vector solitons. By careful reduction of the pump power together with fine adjustment to the cavity birefringence, period-one state can further be obtained. Additionally, the phase noise properties of the vector soliton fiber laser have also been characterized experimentally and analytically.     

Cucurbit[7]uril Disrupts Aggregate Formation Between Rhodamine B Dyes Covalently Attached to Glass Substrates

Dye aggregation is detrimental to the performance of high optical density dye-doped photonic materials. To overcome this challenge, the ability of cucurbit[7]uril (CB7) as a molecular host to disrupt aggregate formation on glass substrates was examined. Rhodamine B was covalently attached to glass slides by initially coating the surface with azidohexylsiloxane followed by copper-catalyzed “click” triazole formation with rhodamine B propargyl ester. The absorption and emission spectra of rhodamine B coated slides in water indicated diverse heterogeneous properties as surface dye density varied. Fluorescence quenching due to dye aggregation was evident at high surface dye density. Addition of aqueous cucurbit[7]uril (CB7) to the surface-tethered dyes perturbed the spectra to reveal a considerable reduction in heterogeneity, which suggested that the presence of a surface in close proximity does not significantly impair CB7’s ability to complex with tethered rhodamine B.     

The effects of binaural spectral resolution mismatch on Mandarin speech perception in simulated electric hearing

This study assessed the effects of binaural spectral resolution mismatch on the intelligibility of Mandarin speech in noise using bilateral cochlear implant simulations. Noise-vocoded Mandarin speech, corrupted by speech-shaped noise at 0 and 5?dB signal-to-noise ratios, were presented unilaterally or bilaterally to normal-hearing listeners with mismatched spectral resolution between ears. Significant binaural benefits for Mandarin speech recognition were observed only with matched spectral resolution between ears. In addition, the performance of tone identification was more robust to noise than that of sentence recognition, suggesting factors other than tone identification might account more for the degraded sentence recognition in noise.     

Manipulating supercontinuum generation by minute continuous wave

We report a simple triggering mechanism that greatly enhances and stabilizes supercontinuum generation by using an extremely weak cw light (~200,000 times weaker than the pump light). Such an active manipulation scheme can be enabled by a wide range of input conditions and circumvents complex techniques such as precise time delay tuning and dedicated feedback control. It thus offers a handy and versatile approach to control and optimize supercontinuum generation, expanding its range of applications, including ultrafast all-optical signal processing, spectroscopy, and imaging. The utility of the present technique for improving signal integrity in chirped pump optical parametric amplification is also demonstrated.     

Simultaneous pH and Temperature Measurements Using Pyranine as a Molecular Probe

Steep variations in concentration and temperature frequently occur in small fluid compartments such as those found in cells or microfluidic devices. A quantitative characterization of concentration and temperature gradients is therefore required before these systems can be fully understood. Although different spatially resolved fluorescence methods have been developed to measure either the temperature or the concentration of ions such as proton or calcium, often concentration measurements depend on temperature and vice versa. Here, we describe a method allowing simultaneous measurement of pH and temperature. This method is based on the detection of the blinking of the fluorescent pH indicator pyranine, a process due to its alternating between a basic form and an acidic form. Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy allows measuring both the protonation and deprotonation rates of pyranine, and each pair of rates can be uniquely related to a pair of pH and temperature values. We show, however, that the relationship between rates, pH and temperature, is very sensitive to the presence of other acid-base molecules in solution. We also show that it is influenced by the overall ionic strength of the solution, in a manner that depends on buffer composition.     

Self-phase-locked degenerate femtosecond optical parametric oscillator

We demonstrated a stable degenerate synchronously pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator (SPOPO) as a divide-by-2 subharmonic generator. The SPOPO exhibited passive all-optical self-phase-locking between the pump and signal/idler and thus required no external electronic feedback to produce the phase-locked subharmonic. We employed a type I phase-matched, 1-mm-long, periodically poled MgO:LiNbO3 crystal as the nonlinear gain element and an 80 MHz mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser with 180 fs pulses tuned at 775 nm as the pump. The SPOPO generated transform-limited 70 fs phase-locked output pulses centered at 1550 nm. The self-phase-locking operation was confirmed by separate beat-note measurement techniques with respect to the pump laser and with respect to an external cw laser.     

Improved device performance in nonpolar a ‐plane GaN LEDs using a Ni/Al/Ni/Au n‐type ohmic contact

The authors report upon the increased light‐output power (P_out) via a reduction in the forward voltage (V_f) for nonpolar a ‐plane GaN LEDs using Ni/Al/Ni/Au n‐type ohmic contacts. The specific contact resistivity of the Ni/Al/Ni/Au contact is found to be as low as 5.6 × 10^–5 whereas that of a typical Ti/Al/Ni/Au contact is 6.8 × 10^–4 Ω cm², after annealing at 700 °C. The X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy results show that the upward surface band bending is less pronounced for the Ni/Al contact compared to the Ti/Al contact, leading to a decrease in the effective Schottky barrier height (SBH). The V_f of the nonpolar LEDs decreases by 10% and P_out increases by 15% when the Ni/Al/Ni/Au scheme is used instead of the typical Ti/Al/Ni/Au metal scheme. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Development of an integrated optical system for warpage and hermeticity test of microdisplay

We have developed an integrated optical system to measure the warpage of a microdisplay product at post-packaging die-attach temperature and to test its hermeticity after manufacturing. This system is constructed based on the principle of Twyman/Green (T/G) interferometry and Newton interferometry. T/G interferometry is used to characterize warpage of the microdisplay's base-plate, while Newton interferometry is used to characterize the gap variance between face-plate and base-plate of the microdisplay. With these measurements, deformation and shape of the microdisplay can be comprehensively determined during its manufacturing process, which is critical for its quality test and reliability evaluation. Delicate mechanical system was designed to facilitate the optics integration and alignment. To evaluate the performance of the optical system itself, warpage of a sample was re-measured with Tailor–Hobson profilometer whose resolution is 10 nm, the results from these two testing systems agree well with each other. Some application examples of the integrated testing system were presented to verify its work efficiency.