Sub‐picosecond Raman spectrometer for time‐resolved studies of structural dynamics in heme proteins

We describe a pump–probe Raman spectrometer based on a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser, an optical parametric generator and two optical parametric amplifiers for time‐resolved studies, with emphasis on the structural dynamics in heme proteins. The system provides a 100‐fs pump pulse tunable in the range 500–600 nm and a transform‐limited sub‐picosecond probe pulse tunable in the range 390–450 nm. The spectrometer has spectral (25 cm⁻¹) and temporal (∼0.7 ps) resolutions which constitute an effective compromise for identifying transient heme protein species and for following their structural evolution by spontaneous Raman scattering in the time range 0.5 ps to 2 ns. This apparatus was applied to time‐resolved studies of a broad range of heme proteins, monitoring the primary dynamics of photoinduced heme coordination state and structural changes, its interaction with protein side‐chains and diatomic gaseous ligands, as well as heme vibrational cooling. The treatment of transient Raman spectra is described in detail, and the advantages and shortcomings of spontaneous resonance Raman spectroscopy for ultrafast heme proteins studies are discussed. We demonstrate the efficiency of the constructed spectrometer by measuring Raman spectra in the sub‐picosecond and picosecond time ranges for the oxygen‐storage heme protein myoglobin and for the oxygen‐sensor heme protein FixLH in interaction with the diatomic gaseous ligands CO, NO, and O₂. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Time‐resolved coherent anti‐Stokes Raman spectroscopy impulsively excited by supercontinuum

Time‐resolved coherent anti‐Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) impulsively excited by a supercontinuum (SC) is investigated. We show that it is critical to optimize the temporal overlapping of the constituent solitons of a SC in order to impulsively excite vibrational modes over a broad frequency range. The cross‐correlation frequency‐resolved optical gating technique is utilized to retrieve the optical response function of molecules under SC impulsive excitation, and background‐free CARS with spectral resolution significantly better than the bandwidth of the probe pulses is achieved. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy

Advances in the field of Femtosecond Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy (FSRS), a new time‐resolved structural technique that provides complete vibrational spectra on the ultrafast timescale, are reviewed. When coupled with a femtosecond optical trigger, the time evolution of a reacting species can be monitored with unprecedented <25 femtosecond temporal and 5 cm^‐1 spectral resolution. New technological and theoretical advances including the development of tunable FSRS and a background‐free FSRS format are discussed. The most recent experimental studies focus on ultrafast reaction dynamics in electronically excited states: isomerization in cyanobacterial phytochrome, ultrafast spin flipping in a solar cell sensitizer, and excited state proton transfer in green fluorescent protein. The use of FSRS to directly map multidimensional reactive potential energy surfaces and to probe the mechanism of reactive internal conversion is prospectively discussed.     

Analytical derivation of a formula for the reduction of computation time by the voxel crossing technique used in room acoustical simulation

Computation times of room acoustical simulation algorithms still suffer from the time consuming search for ray-wall-intersections. Spatial subdivision may speed up ray tracing considerably. For room acoustics, where the number of surface polygons (walls) is not so high, the voxel technique appears suitable. The voxel crossing algorithm is very fast. However, its performance was not yet investigated up to now. Voxels are small cubes by which the space is subdivided periodically. The advantage: Only in the rare case a voxel intersects a wall the intersection point needs to be computed. In this paper, by estimating the probabilities of such intersections, an analytical formula is derived, by which the optimum degree of spatial subdivision and the factor of acceleration of the algorithm can be forecasted. It turns out that the computation time increases only with instead of with K₀ (the number of polygons of the room). Thus, on a modern PC, computation time for a full room acoustical simulation even for highly complicated rooms may be reduced by a factor in the order of 100, i.e. to a few seconds.     

Piezoelectricity of ordered (ScxGa1-xN) alloys from first principles

First-principles calculations are performed to compute the e₃₃ piezoelectric coefficients of GaN, ScN and (Sc_xGa_1-xN) alloys exhibiting an alternation of hexagonal GaN, with hexagonal ScN along the c-axis. For Sc compositions larger than 50%, each atom has nearly five nearest neighbors (i.e., the ground state exhibits a phase that is five-fold coordinated). On the other hand, Sc-deficient (Sc, Ga) N alloys adopt a ground-state that is four-fold coordinated). The magnitude of e₃₃ in the Sc-deficient ideally ordered (Sc_0.25Ga_0.75N) is found to be larger than the magnitude of the corresponding e₃₃ coefficients resulting from the compositional weighted average over the hexagonal (h-ScN) and the wurtzite (w-GaN) parent compounds. On the other hand, the e₃₃ coefficients of the Sc-rich ordered (Sc_0.75Ga_0.25N) is found to be negligibly small. In addition, e₃₃ piezoelectric coefficients in ordered (Sc_0.5Ga_0.5N) exhibit quite large magnitudes, due to the nonpolar to polar transition occurs at Sc composition x = 0.5, and thus can bridge the corresponding coefficients of (Ga, In) N and ferroelectric alloys. The microscopic origins for this huge enhancement in the piezoelectric behavior in Sc-low and Sc-intermediate alloys and the role of each atom are revealed and discussed.     

GPON体系结构研究

千兆比特无源光网络(GPON)是一种面向下一代网络(NGN)的接入技术,它具有速率高、传输距离长、效率高和可伸缩性强等关键优势.同时,GPON支持引入更高带宽的以太网新业务,并能低成本提供传统的语音服务.介绍了GPON的标准化进展,分析了GPON的系统结构和协议参考模型,并给出了传输汇聚层的分层结构.     

Line width analysis of a tunable optical filter based on free-space optics

The line width of a tunable optical filter based on free-space optics was analyzed. The relationship between the line width and the Gaussian beam waist was theoretically derived and experimentally verified. The experimental results meet the theoretical analysis well, which is beneficial for the design of a tunable optical filter based on free-space optics.     

新时代背景下大学物理基础课程教学的讨论

本文讨论的是＂以怎样的理念实施大学物理基础课程教学,才能使学生的学习训练获得最大收益＂.文章首先回顾近30年来教学思想随时代发展的变化,然后提出新时代背景下大学物理基础课程教学＂以学生为中心,使广大学生在知识、能力、素质上获得全面提高＂的新理念.     

基于光学传输矩阵的太赫兹时域光谱分析

提出了基于光学传输矩阵的提取太赫兹时域光谱光学参数的理论方法。相比于传统的提取主脉冲方法,该方法在未来可以推广用以分析主脉冲与次脉冲无法分辨的太赫兹时域光谱。利用该方法得到了蓝宝石(α-Al2O3)样品在0.3~1.0太赫兹频段的复折射率。通过与利用提取主脉冲方法得到的复折射率的结果比较,验证了基于光学传输矩阵的理论分析方法的可靠性和精确性。所提出的方法为今后主次脉冲无法分辨的太赫兹时域光谱的准确分析提供了坚实的理论基础。     

一种实现MSD加法的光学方法

三值光学计算机系统结合光强与光的偏振方向表示三值信息,其核心器件——三值逻辑光学处理器是按照降值设计理论完成的,该处理器能完成所有19683种二元三值逻辑运算.本文旨在提出一种实现加法运算的新方法——用三值逻辑光学处理器实现加法.为了解决加法的串行进位延时问题,使用改良符号数表示进行数据编码,从而实现全并行无进位加法.用三值光学计算机与改良符号数表示相结合的方法实现加法既能够充分发挥三值光学计算机位数巨大的优势以及三值逻辑光学处理器能完成所有二元三值逻辑运算的特性,同时又发挥了改良符号数加法的无进位特点.经实验证明该方法具有可行性和正确性,是实现光学加法器的一种新思路.