All fiber supercontinuum light source using photonic crystal fibers pumped by nanosecond fiber laser pulses

A novel compact supercontinuum (SC) source using the single mode photonic crystal fibers (PCF) pumped with an all fiber MOPA fiber laser is demonstrated experimentally. A bandwidth of 700 nm is achieved by operating the pumping fiber laser at a wavelength of 1064 nm, pulse duration of 10 ns, repetition rate of 50 kHz and peak power of 1 kW. The SC generation is initiated through modulation instability (MI) which breakups the nanosecond pump pulses into picosecond or femtosecond pulses, and further broadened through nonlinear effects of PCF.     

Characteristic of high-organized PS/BPS photonic crystals

B2O3-P2O5-SiO2 (BPS) three-dimensional (3D) high-organized polystyrene (PS) opals and inverse opals with large domain were fabricated and characterized.     

The pertinence of expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) to the efficacy of cryopreservation in HELAs

HELAs (Hela cells, passed cells of human cervical carcinoma) were heat or cold treated (named heat or cold shock) and then resumed normal culture for 2, 4 or 8 hours respectively. The expressions of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and 90 (HSP90) of the HELAs were measured by Northern and Western blotting. HELAs after 4-hour culture were exposed to or cryopreserved with different concentration of dimethyl sulfoxide (Me2SO, 2.5%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% respectively, V/V). Meanwhile, the HELAs after different culture time (2, 4 and 6 hours of culture) were cryopreserved with 5% Me2SO. After exposure or cryopreservation, the number of live HELAs was counted and the survival rate was calculated. The results showed that heat shock increased the expression of HSP70 and HSP90 of HELAs, while cold shock decreased the expression of the two proteins. When the concentrations of Me2SO were 10%, 15% and 20%, the survival rates of HELAs after exposure to Me2SO or cryopreservation were much lower than those when the concentrations were small. The survival rates of the heat shocked HELAs were significantly higher than those of the cold shocked and control HELAs. After cryopreservation with 5% Me2SO, the survival rate of heat shocked HELAs group with 2 hours culture time was the lowest among all the groups of HELAs with different cultural time. From the results of this study, we conclude that the expressions of HSP70 and HSP90 in HELAs increased significantly after heat shock, while cold shock decreased the expressions of these two proteins. The over-expressions of HSPs in the heat shocked HELAs could protect the cells from both injury caused by potential toxicity of high concentrations of Me2SO and cryoinjury caused by the freeze-thawing/cryopreservation procedure.     

Transmission-mode GaN photocathode based on graded Al_xGa_(1-x)N buffer layer

We create a GaN photocathode based on graded Alx Ga1-x N buffer layers to overcome the influence of buffer-emission layer interface on the photoemission of transmission-mode GaN photocathodes.A gateshaped spectral response with a 260-nm starting wavelength and a 375-nm cut-off wavelength is obtained.Average quantum efficiency is 15% and short wavelength responses are almost equivalent to long wavelength ones.The fitted interface recombination velocity is 5×104 cm/s,with negligible magnitude,proving that the design of the graded buffer layers is efficient in obtaining good interface quality between the buffer and the emission layer.     

Effect of the laser fluence on the surface characterization of β-FeSi2 films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

Single-phase β-FeSi₂ films on silicon (1 0 0) were fabricated by pulse laser deposition. The structure and crystal quality of the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The field scanning electron microscopy showed that the film thickness increases with the increasing of the laser fluence. Moreover, atomic force microscopy observations revealed the changes of surface properties with different laser fluence. Based upon all experimental results, it is found that 7 J/cm² is the most favorable for the formation of β-FeSi₂ thin films.     

An Inexact SQP Newton Method for Convex SC<Superscript>1</Superscript> Minimization Problems

In this paper, we present a globally and superlinearly convergent inexact SQP Newton method for solving large scale convex SC ¹ minimization problems under mild conditions. In particular, the BD-regularity assumption made by Pang and Qi in Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 85 (1995), pp. 633–648 is replaced by a much more realistic assumption. Our numerical experiments conducted on least squares semidefinite programming with lower and upper bounds demonstrate that our inexact SQP Newton method is much more efficient than its exact version and is competitive with existing methods when the number of simple constraints is very large.     

ABCD rule for Gaussian beam propagation in the context of quantum optics derived by the IWOP technique

The development of technique of integration within an ordered product (IWOP) of operators extends the Newton-Leibniz integration rule, originally applying to permutable functions, to the non-commutative quantum mechanical operators composed of Dirac’s ket-bra, which enables us to obtain the images of directly mapping symplectic transformation in classical phase space parameterized by [A, B; C, D] into quantum mechanical operator through the coherent state representation, we call them the generalized Fresnel operators (GFO) since they correspond to Fresnel transforms in Fourier optics. Based on GFO we find the ABCD rule for Gaussian beam propagation in the context of quantum optics (both in one-mode and two-mode cases) whose classical correspondence is just the ABCD rule in matrix optics. The entangled state representation is used in discussing the two-mode case.     

Strain relaxation and surface morphology of high indium content InAlAs metamorphic buffers with reverse step

Low-temperature step-graded high indium content InAlAs (In% = 0.75) metamorphic buffer layers with reverse step layer grown on GaAs substrate by molecular beam epitaxy are investigated in this paper. The composition and the strain relaxation of the top InAlAs layer are determined by high-resolution triple-axis X-ray diffraction measurements, which show that the top InAlAs layer is nearly fully relaxed and the growth parameters for these samples have little influence on the strain relaxation ratio. Surface morphology is observed by reflection high-energy electron diffraction pattern and atomic force microscopy. The surface morphology is found to depend strongly on both the growth temperature and the As flux. Compared with other samples, the sample growth under the optimized conditions has the smallest value of root mean square surface roughness. Furthermore, the ω − 2θ and ω scans of the triple-axis X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy result also show the sample grown under the optimized conditions has good crystalline quality.     

Diode-pumped intra-cavity doubled Nd:LuVO4 laser at 458 nm

We have demonstrated a diode-pumped intra-cavity frequency doubling Nd:LuVO₄ laser operating at 916 nm with a Z-folded cavity. A 10-mm long LBO crystal, cut for critical type I phase matching at 912 nm, is used for the experiment. A maximum output power of 330 mW at 458 nm has been achieved at pump power of 22 W. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency and slope efficiency is 1.5% and 2.3%, respectively. The power instability at the maximum output power in 30 min is better than 3%.     

Measurement of the elastic constants of a columnar SiC thin film

The technique of resonant ultrasound spectroscopy was used to measure the elastic properties of a polycrystalline cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) thin film. The film, grown on a silicon (100) substrate, was 1.69 microns thick with columnar crystalline grains and a (111) texture. The substrate with the film was placed between two transducers and the resonant frequencies were measured; measurements were repeated after selective, timed dry etching of the film, allowing a determination of the elastic constants of the film alone. The film elastic constants, c(11)=371 and c(12)=146 GPa, were within a few percent of the literature values (c(11)=386, c(12)=136 GPa) of crystalline 3C-SiC. However, the film elastic constant c(44), 111 GPa, was significantly smaller than the bulk literature value, 254 GPa. For the film, c44 approximately (c(11)-c(12))/2, indicating that, quite unlike a bulk 3C-SiC crystal, the thin film is elastically isotropic.