Effect of Nd3+ concentration on CW and pulsed performance of fiber-coupled diode laser pumped Nd:YVO4 laser at 1064 nm

The effect of Nd³⁺ concentration on the CW and Q-switched laser performances at 1064 nm from Nd: YVO₄ has been studied under diode laser pumping in identical laser configuration. The Nd³⁺ concentrations used were 1, 2 and 3 at.% in YVO₄ crystals. Under the CW operations we have compared the thermal lensing effect, slope efficiencies and also the beam quality at the fourth-order degeneracy configuration. Q-switching was done with the help of an acousto-optic modulator and we have compared the pulses obtained from Nd: YVO₄ laser with different doping concentration. It was found that the 1 at.%-doped crystal is the best, offering highest optical-to-optical conversion efficiency (55%), lowest fractional heat load (24%), highest pulse energy (80 μJ) and shortest pulse width (20 ns). It was also found that there was not much difference in performances for 2 and 3 at.%-doped crystals both in CW and Q-switched configurations.     

Working group report: Heavy-ion physics and quark-gluon plasma

This is the report of Heavy Ion Physics and Quark-Gluon Plasma at WHEPP-09 which was part of Working Group-4. Discussion and work on some aspects of quark-gluon plasma believed to have created in heavy-ion collisions and in early Universe are reported.     

Shortest Path Problem on a Network with Imprecise Edge Weight

A network with its arc lengths as imprecise number, instead of a real number, namely, interval number and triangular fuzzy number is considered here. Existing ideas on addition and comparison between two imprecise numbers of same type are introduced. To obtain a fuzzy shortest path from a source vertex to all other vertices, a common algorithm is developed which works well on both types of imprecise numbers under consideration. In the proposed algorithm, a decision-maker is to negotiate with the obtained fuzzy shortest paths according to his/her view only when the means are same but the widths are different of the obtained paths. Otherwise, a fuzzy optimal path is obtained to which the decision-maker always satisfies with different grades of satisfaction. All pairs fuzzy shortest paths can be found by repeated use of the proposed algorithm.     

Efficient Transformation of Furfuryl Alcohol Into Ethyl Levulinates via Alcoholysis Reaction Catalyzed by SnO2/H-Mordenite Catalyst

Catalysis Surveys from Asia - Catalytic production of ethyl levulinate by alcoholysis of furfuryl alcohol with ethanol was investigated over H-mordenite supported Sn catalyst under atmospheric N2...     

Analysis of the nonlinear vibration of a two-mass–spring system with linear and nonlinear stiffness

An analytical approach is developed for areas of nonlinear science such as the nonlinear free vibration of a conservative, two-degree-of-freedom mass–spring system having linear and nonlinear stiffnesses. The main contribution of this research is twofold. First, it introduces the transformation of two nonlinear differential equations for a two-mass system using suitable intermediate variables into a single nonlinear differential equation and, more significantly, the treatment of a nonlinear differential system by linearization coupled with Newton’s method. Secondly, the major section is the solving of the governing nonlinear differential equation where the displacement of the two-mass system can be obtained directly from the linear second-order differential equation using a first-order variational approach. The aforementioned approach proposed by J.H. He, who actually developed the method, is exactly He’s variational method. This approach is an explicit method with high validity for resolving strong nonlinear oscillation system problems. Two examples of nonlinear two-degree-of-freedom mass–spring systems are analyzed, and verified with published results and exact solutions. The method can be easily extended to other nonlinear oscillations and so could be widely applicable in engineering and science.