A novel ultracompact two-mode-interference wavelength division multiplexer for 1.5-/spl mu/m operation

A novel ultracompact 2/spl times/2 wavelength division multiplexer (WDM) for 1.55-/spl mu/m operation based on highly dispersive two-mode interference (TMI) was designed, theoretically modeled, and verified using a finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) method. A two-moded waveguide assisted with a dispersive tooth-shaped grating provided a mode-dependent reflection band of central wavelength at 1.55 /spl mu/m. The wavelengths of 1538 and 1572 nm that were at the band edges and had the lowest reflection losses and relatively high dispersion were selected for wavelength multiplexing. The result showed that the wavelengths were separated by grating dispersion in a coupler length of 75 /spl mu/m which was much shorter than the required length of 1.1 mm in a regular TMI multiplexer of no grating. Insertion loss of about 1.7 dB and channel contrast of about 12 dB were achieved.     

“Slow” active control of combustion instabilities by modification of liquid fuel spray properties

This paper describes an experimental investigation of the feasibility of using “slow” active control approaches, which “instantaneously” change liquid fuel spray properties, to suppress combustion instabilities. The objective of this control approach was to break up the feedback between the combustion process heat release and combustor pressure oscillations that drive the instability by changing the characteristics of the combustion process (e.g., the characteristic combustion time). To demonstrate the feasibility of such control, this study used a proprietary fuel injector (Nanomiser^TM), which can vary its fuel spray properties, to investigate the dependence of acoustics–combustion process coupling, i.e., the driving of combustion instabilities, upon the fuel spray properties. This study showed that by changing the spray characteristics it is possible to significantly damp combustion instabilities. Furthermore, using combustion zone chemiluminescence distributions, which were obtained by Abel’s deconvolution synchronized with measured acoustic data, it has been shown that the instabilities were mostly driven midway between the combustor centerline and wall, a short distance downstream from the flame holder, where the mean axial flow velocity is approximately zero in the vortex near the flame holder. The results of this study strongly suggest that a “slow” active control system that employs controllable fuel injectors could be effectively used to prevent the onset of detrimental combustion instabilities.     

Stability control of the electrooptic effect with new maleimide copolymers containing photoreactive tricyanopyrrolidene‐based chromophores

New photocrosslinkable maleimide copolymers have been synthesized by the attachment of a tricyanopyrrolidene‐based chromophore. The 2‐(3‐cyano‐4‐(2‐{4‐[hexyl‐(6‐hydroxy‐hexyl)‐amino]‐phenyl}‐vinyl)‐5‐oxo‐1‐{4‐[4‐(3‐oxo‐3‐phenyl‐propenyl)‐ phenoxy]‐butyl}‐1,5‐dihydro‐pyrrol‐2‐ylidene)‐malononitrile chromophore exhibits nonlinear optical activity and contains a chalcone moiety that is sensitive to UV light (λ = 330–360 nm) for crosslink formation. The maleimide monomers have also been functionalized with chalcone moieties. The resultant copolymers exhibit great processability, and one of them shows a maximum electrooptic coefficient of 90 pm/V at 1300 nm. We could control the thermal stability of the electrooptic coefficient with the newly synthesized photoreactive copolymers successfully. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 531–542, 2007     

Bio-Plasmonics: Nano/micro Structure of Surface Plasmon Resonance Devices for Biomedicine

We have reported a novel design of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) device, which uses alternating dielectric layers to enhance the SPR signal quality and modulate its resonant position. Admittance loci method of thin film design has been used in the design of such a device. The use of biomolecular thin film, such as DNAs or Porteins, in this design can result in resonant condition of wavelength changes as well. Bio-plasmonics is proposed for the research and development of novel devices, which use biomolecules as a part of the plasmon oscillation system to actively interact with nano/micro structure.     

Photoswitching of holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystals doped with chiral dopant

Chiral dopants were added to the formulation of holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystals and the effects studied in terms of grating formation dynamics, morphology, diffraction efficiency, contrast ratio and electro-optical properties of the films. A gradual increase of real-time diffraction efficiency, decrease of droplet size and increase of diffraction efficiency of the composite film were obtained with the addition and increasing content of chiral dopant, due to the increased viscosity of the liquid crystal (LC) doped with the chiral dopant leading to decreased droplet coalescence. The contrast ratio decreased with increasing content of chiral dopant due to the difficult orientation of LC molecules caused by the formation of a helical structure. Addition of a small amount of the chiral dopant increased the driving voltage slightly, whereas the decay time is decreased significantly as a result of the high twisting of the helical structure.     

Characterization of ultrashort optical pulses with third-harmonic-generation based triple autocorrelation

We present a method to obtain complete information of femtosecond pulses. By measuring triple-optical autocorrelation directly with third-harmonic generation, without spectral information, a temporal pulse shape can be obtained by analytical calculation without direction-of-time ambiguity. Combining the resulting optical pulse shape with its corresponding optical spectrum, the exact phase and color variations in time can all be recovered with a Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm through an iterative calculation with an O(n) complexity.     

A novel phase noise reduction technique in oscillators usingdefected ground structure

A new technique to reduce the phase noise in microwave oscillators is developed using the resonant characteristic of the defected ground structure (DGS). Two kinds of oscillators have been designed and measured for the examination of the reduction of phase noise by the DGS. The first adopts the DGS section under the microstrip line at the gate circuit, while the second has only the conventional microstrip line. Measurement shows reduced phase noise by 10-15 dB in the oscillator with the DGS compared to the conventional one     

Sortability of Multi-partitions

Recently, the theory of sortability of partition property has been shown to be an effective tool to prove the existence of an optimal partition with that property. In this paper, we extend the theory to multi-partition where the partition is on t types of components. We apply our results to settle an optimal assignment problem whose proof was incomplete as given in the literature.     

Cellulose dimethylphenylcarbamate-bonded carbon-clad zirconia for chiral separation in high performance liquid chromatography.

Porous zirconia particles are very robust material and have received considerable attention as a stationary phase support for HPLC. We prepared cellulose dimethylphenylcarbamate-bonded carbon-clad zirconia (CDMPCCZ) as a chiral stationary phase (CSP) for separation of enantiomers of a set of 14 racemic compounds in normal phase (NP) and reversed-phase (RP) liquid chromatography. Retention and enantioselectivity on CDMPCCZ were compared to those on CDMPC-coated zirconia (CDMPCZ) to see how the change in immobilization method of the chiral selector affects the retention and chiral selectivity. In NPLC, retention was longer and the number of resolved racemates was smaller on CDMPCCZ than on CDMPCZ. However, chiral selectivity factors for some resolved racemates were better on CDMPCCZ than on CDMPCZ. The longer retention on CDMPCCZ is likely due to strong, non-chiral discriminating interactions with the carbon layer on CDMPCZ. In RPLC only two racemates were resolved on CDMPCCZ, but retention times were shorter than, and resolutions were comparable to, those in NPLC, indicating a potential for improving chromatographic performance of the CDMPCCZ column in RPLC with optimized column preparation and separation conditions.