Gain-assisted propagation of electromagnetic energy in subwavelength surface plasmon polariton gap waveguides

The propagation of electromagnetic energy via coupled surface plasmon polariton modes in a metal-insulator-metal heterostructure is analyzed analytically for a core material exhibiting optical gain. It is shown that a sufficiently large gain can completely compensate for the absorption losses due to energy dissipation in the metallic boundaries, enabling long-range transport with a confinement below the diffraction limit for on-chip switching and sensing applications. For a free-space wavelength of 1500 nm, lossless propagation in a gold-semiconductor-gold waveguide with a core size of 50 nm is predicted for a gain coefficient γ = 4830 cm⁻¹, comparable to that of semiconductor gain media. The gain requirements decrease with the use of low-index nanocrystal-doped glasses or polymers as core materials.     

Training Effect and Hysteretic Behaviour of Angular Dependence of Exchange Bias in Co/IrMn Bilayers

The training effect and the hysteresis behaviour of the angular dependence of exchange bias are extensively investigated upon the variation of the IrMn layer thickness tXrMn in a series of Co/IrMn bilayers. When tIrMn is very small, both of them are negligible. Then they increase very sharply with increasing tUMn and then reach maxima at almost the same value OftXrMn. Finally they both decrease when tIrMn is further increased. The similar variation trends suggest that these phenomena arise from irreversible change of antiferromagnet spin orientations, according to the thermal activation model.     

Thermochemistry of the solid complex Gd(Et<Subscript>2</Subscript>dtc)<Subscript>3</Subscript>(phen)

Summary A ternary solid complex Gd(Et₂dtc)₃(phen) has been obtained from reactions of sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (NaEt₂dtc), 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) and hydrated gadolinium chloride in absolute ethanol. The title complex was described by chemical and elemental analyses, TG-DTG and IR spectrum. The enthalpy change of liquid-phase reaction of formation of the complex, Δ_rH^Θ_m(l), was determined as (-11.628±0.0204) kJ mol^-1 at 298.15 K by a RD-496 III heat conduction microcalorimeter. The enthalpy change of the solid-phase reaction of formation of the complex, Δ_rH^Θ_m(s), was calculated as (145.306±0.519) kJ mol^-1 on the basis of a designed thermochemical cycle. The thermodynamics of reaction of formation of the complex was investigated by changing the temperature of liquid-phase reaction. Fundamental parameters, the apparent reaction rate constant (k), the apparent activation energy (E), the pre-exponential constant (A), the reaction order (n), the activation enthalpy (Δ_rH^Θ_≠), the activation entropy (Δ_rS^Θ_≠), the activation free energy (Δ_rG^Θ_≠) and the enthalpy (Δ_rH^Θ_≠), were obtained by combination of the thermodynamic and kinetic equations for the reaction with the data of thermokinetic experiments. The constant-volume combustion energy of the complex, Δ_cU, was determined as (-18673.71±8.15) kJ mol^-1 by a RBC-II rotating-bomb calorimeter at 298.15 K. Its standard enthalpy of combustion, Δ_cH^Θ_m, and standard enthalpy of formation, Δ_fH^Θ_m, were calculated to be (-18692.92±8.15) kJ mol^-1 and (-51.28±9.17) kJ mol^-1, respectively.     

Realization of MMI Power Splitter by UV-light Imprinting Technique Using Hybrid Sol-Gel SiO2 Materials

An efficient fabrication scheme of buried ridge waveguide devices is demonstrated by UV-light imprinting technique using organic-inorganic hybrid sol-gel Zr-doped SiO2 materials. The refractive indices of a guiding layer and a cladding layer for the buried ridge waveguide structure are 1.537 and 1.492 measured at 1550nm, respectively. The tested results show more circular mode profiles due to existence of the cladding layer. A buried ridge single-mode waveguide operating at 1550 nm has a low propagation loss （0.088 dB/cm） and the 1× 2 MMI power splitter exhibits uniform outputs, with a very iow splitting loss of 0.029 dB at 1549nm.     

Optical and paramagnetic properties of titanium centres in ZnS

ZnS:Ti crystals grown by different methods are investigated at low temperatures (2 K K) by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and optical spectroscopies, mainly with regard to their photoluminescence properties, including excitation and sensitisation spectra. The more familiar lattice-neutral Ti²⁺(d ² ) ion on a cubic site (AN) presents an isotropic EPR signal with g=1.928 observable up to 80 K. Signals of axial PN and AS sites are detected in the same temperature range. This Ti²⁺ ion exhibits the transition in emission, structured by no-phonon lines (NPL) of centres in various environments, with the AN site represented at 3613 cm^-1, and the ³ T ₁ (F) and ³ T ₁ (P) bands in excitation spectra. Substitutional Ti³⁺(d ¹ ) is identified by an anisotropic EPR spectrum at T = 3.5 K, indicating a quasistatic Jahn-Teller effect at the doubly degenerate ² E(D) ground state, while in the first excited vibronic state a quasidynamic JT effect in the strain-split vibronic ² E/² A ₂ manifold is found. A new luminescence band centred at 4500 cm^-1 with NPL structures near 5000 cm^-1 represents AN, PN and AS sites in the transition. Charge-transfer processes are described in a one-particle model, depicting the Ti³⁺/Ti²⁺ donor level at 12 900 cm^-1 below the conduction-band edge. Received: 3 October 1997 / Revised: 17 December 1998 / Accepted: 18 May 1998     

Luminescence of ZnO nanocrystals capped with an organic dye

ZnO nanocrystals capped with an organic dye Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) were investigated by photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) techniques. PL and CL spectra showed a remarkable decrease in visible emission intensity after ZnO nanocrystals were capped with Rh6G, indicating that dangling bonds and defect states existing at the surface of ZnO nanocrystals were significantly passivated. Rh6G on the ZnO surface exhibited a monomer-like emission, and the intensity and the position of the emission were dependent on the dye concentration.     

4f-electric quadrupolar effects on the lattice constants and magnetism of RCu2Ge2 (R=rare-earths)

The temperature dependence of the lattice constants of the alloys, RCu₂Ge₂ (R=Nd, Tb, Dy, Ho and Tm) shows the existence of a lattice strain due to the alignment of the 4f-electric quadrupole at low temperatures. This strain could be related to the deviation of the Néel temperatures (T _N ) from that predicted by de Gennes scaling, thereby indicating the role of the quadrupole on the magnetism. On the other hand, in PrCu₂Ge₂, for which the enhancement ofT _N is the largest in thisR series, the lattice constants interestingly behave as if the 4f-quadrupole moment is almost quenched and the anomalous magnetism in this case is attributed to some degree of 4f-delocalisation.     

Magnetic hyperfine fields for Sn atoms in rare-earth intermetallides: huge deviation from proportionality between Bhf and Sz

The magnetic hyperfine fields for ¹¹⁹Sn impurity atoms, localized in Ga sites of ferromagnetic intermetallic compounds RGa (R=Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, and Tm), were measured by the Mössbauer spectroscopy technique. At T=5 K, the hyperfine field value (B_hf) varies from 3.3 T in TmGa to 28.0 T in GdGa. Huge deviation from the proportionality between B_hf and the projection of the R³⁺ ion spin (S_z=(g−1)J) was found. As the atomic number of the R element increases, the B_hf/S_z ratio drastically decreases from 12.6 T for PrGa to 3.3 T for TmGa. This unexpected result can be explained by the strong dependency of B_hf value on the relationship between the Sn-R atomic separation (R_nn) and the radius of the magnetic 4f shell (R_4f). In the framework of this concept, the available experimental data for Sn atom in the rare-earth compounds with non-magnetic sp elements were considered. The data may be described by the universal dependency on the single parameter, λ=R_nn/R_4f.     

Ab initio electron theory for hard-magnetic rare-earth-transition-metal intermetallics

For the development of new hard-magnetic materials a better understanding of the physical mechanisms which determine the intrinsic magnetic material parameters are of invaluable importance. In this review it is demonstrated that the modern ab initio electron theory yields a considerable help in this direction and may provide data on quantities which are hard to determine reliably by experiments. As an example, theoretical results are reported for the intrinsic magnetic material parameters (local magnetic moments, local magnetic hyperfine fields, crystal-field parameters and effective exchange interactions) of the series R₂Fe₁₄B (R = rare earth).