Highly efficient Nd:GdVO4/BiBO laser at 456 nm under direct 880 nm diode laser pumping

The continuous-wave high-efficiency laser emission of Nd:GdVO₄ at the second-harmonic of 456 nm obtained by intracavity frequency doubling with an BiB₃O₆(BiBO) nonlinear crystal is investigated under pumping by diode laser at 880 nm into emitting level ⁴F_3/2. About 3.8 W at 456 nm with M² = 1.4 was obtained from a 5 mm-thick 0.4 at.% Nd:GdVO₄ laser medium and a 12 mm-long BiBO nonlinear crystal in a Z-type cavity for 13.9 W absorbed pump power. An optical-to-optical efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power was 0.274. Comparative results obtained for the pump with diode laser at 808 nm, into the highly-absorbing ⁴F_5/2 level, are given in order to prove the advantages of the 880 nm wavelength pumping.     

氢分子振动态与铯分子基态碰撞中转动-振动能量转移

利用受激拉曼泵浦将H2激发到v=1，J=3态，研究了H2(1, 3)态与Cs2分子碰撞(1, 3)态的弛豫及Cs2(X1+g)振动态的激发过程。利用相干反斯托克斯拉曼散射(CARS)检测H2的振转态分布，由CARS峰值得到密度比[H2(1, 3)]/[H2(0, 3)]和[H2(1, 1)]/[H2(1, 3)]，由H2(v=0)振转态的Boltzmann分布确定H2(0, 3)的密度，由此得到[H2(1, 3)]和[H2(1, 1)]态的密度。激光诱导荧光光谱(LIF)确定被碰撞激发的Cs2(X1+g, v=11-15)各态。利用单模半导体激光作瞬时光吸收，对于v= 11, 12, 13, 14和15，积分吸收系数(单位：106cm-1s-1)分别是6.5，7.9，7.0，6.1和4.7，结合H2(1, 3)的密度，得到H2(1, 3)Cs2(X1+g, v)的转移速率系数，对于v=11-15，分别是(单位：10-13cm-1s-1)1. 40. 6，1.70. 7，1.50. 6，1.30.5和1.00. 4。利用吸收线Doppler增宽测量分别得到了Cs2(X1+g, v=11-15)的平动能。     

NMR Hyperpolarization Techniques for Biomedicine

Recent developments in NMR hyperpolarization have enabled a wide array of new in vivo molecular imaging modalities, ranging from functional imaging of the lungs to metabolic imaging of cancer. This Concept article explores selected advances in methods for the preparation and use of hyperpolarized contrast agents, many of which are already at or near the phase of their clinical validation in patients.     

Optical bistability via quantum interference from incoherent pumping and spontaneous emission

We theoretically investigate the optical bistability (OB) in a V-type three-level atomic system confined in a unidirectional ring cavity via incoherent pumping field. It is shown that the threshold of optical bistability can be controlled by the rate of an incoherent pumping field and by interference mechanism arising from the spontaneous emission and incoherent pumping field. We demonstrate that the optical bistability converts to optical multi-stability (OM) by the quantum interference mechanism.     

A simplified PDMS microfluidic device with a built-in suction actuator for rapid production of monodisperse water-in-oil droplets

We previously established an automatic droplet-creation technique that only required air evacuation of a PDMS microfluidic device prior to use. Although the rate of droplet production with this technique was originally slow (∼10 droplets per second), this was greatly improved (∼470 droplets per second) in our recent study by remodeling the original device configuration. This improvement was realized by the addition of a degassed PDMS layer with a large surface area-to-volume ratio that served as a powerful vacuum generator. However, the incorporation of the additional PDMS layer (which was separate from the microfluidic PDMS layer itself) into the device required reversible bonding of five different layers. In the current study, we aimed to simplify the device architecture by reducing the number of constituent layers for enhancing usability of this microfluidic droplet generator while retaining its rapid production rate. The new device consisted of three layers. This comprised a degassed PDMS slab with microfluidic channels on one surface and tens of thousands of vacuum-generating micropillars on the other surface, which was simply sandwiched by PMMA layers. Despite its simplified configuration, this new device created monodisperse droplets at an even faster rate (>1000 droplets per second).     

Investigation of pumping mechanism for non‐Newtonian blood flow with AC electrothermal forces in a microchannel by hybrid boundary element method and immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann method

Efficient pumping of blood flow in a microfluidic device is essential for rapid detection of bacterial bloodstream infections (BSI) using alternating current (AC) electrokinetics. Compared with AC electro‐osmosis (ACEO) phenomenon, the advantage of AC electrothermal (ACET) mechanism is its capability of pumping biofluids with high electrical conductivities at a relatively high AC voltage frequency. In the current work, the microfluidic pumping of non‐Newtonian blood flow using ACET forces is investigated in detail by modeling its multi‐physics process with hybrid boundary element method (BEM) and immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann method (IB‐LBM). The Carreau–Yasuda model is used to simulate the realistic rheological behavior of blood flow. The ACET pumping efficiency of blood flow is studied in terms of different AC voltage magnitudes and frequencies, thermal boundary conditions of electrodes, electrode configurations, channel height, and the channel length per electrode pair. Besides, the effect of rheological behavior on the blood flow velocity is theoretically analyzed by comparing with the Newtonian fluid flow using scaling law analysis under the same physical conditions. The results indicate that the rheological behavior of blood flow and its frequency‐dependent dielectric property make the pumping phenomenon of blood flow different from that of the common Newtonian aqueous solutions. It is also demonstrated that using a thermally insulated electrode could enhance the pumping efficiency dramatically. Besides, the results conclude that increasing the AC voltage magnitude is a more economical pumping approach than adding the number of electrodes with the same energy consumption when the Joule heating effect is acceptable.     

高强度泵浦碱金属蒸气激光器的光参量振荡器

以电光调Q的Nd:YAG激光器为泵浦源,以磷酸氧钛钾（KTP）为非线性晶体,搭建了调谐范围为750~800 nm的光参量振荡器。信号光在中心波长780.2 nm处获得单脉冲能量113 mJ、脉宽15.43 ns、光斑直径5.5 mm的输出。用光栅单色仪测量信号光光谱宽度（FWHM）为0.38 nm。信号光通过120 ℃的铷蒸气池,观察到清晰的荧光轨迹。证明信号光能有效泵浦铷蒸气,可为铷激光器提供峰值功率7 MW的高强度脉冲泵浦源,进而研究铷激光器在高强度泵浦条件下的动力学过程和基础物理机制。     

High‐resolution stimulated Raman study of the first vibrational hot band of 14N2. Separate observation of the spectra of the ortho and para species.

We present high‐resolution stimulated Raman spectra of the first hot band of nitrogen, ¹⁴N₂, obtained under conditions of low sample pressure and temperature. The use of a Raman optical pumping system allowed us to transfer a significant amount of population to the v = 1 vibrational state, which made possible the observation of the aforementioned hot band with good S/N ratio without resorting to the use of high temperatures or pressures. This has resulted in a more precise and accurate determination of the peak positions than previously existing ones, which in turn has yielded improved values for the molecular constants obtained from the analysis. The rotational selectivity of the pumping process (only one rotational state is initially populated in v = 1), coupled with the negligible probability of nuclear spin interconversion in the time frame of the experiment, has allowed us to observe the hot band spectra of the ortho and para species of ¹⁴N₂ separately. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A laser pump-re-pump atomic magnetometer

We demonstrate experimentally an atomic magnetometer based on optical pumping theory, a magnetic resonance that is induced by a radio frequency field and dependent on the magnetic field strength. Compared with the conventional method using one radiation field, which is used not only as the probe beam but also as a pump beam, the additional re-pump beam can increase remarkably the amplitude of the signal. It is shown that the amplitude of the magnetic field resonance signal can increase more than 55% by using an additional re-pump beam, which makes the sensitivity of the magnetometer higher. Finally, we investigate the relation between amplitude of the signal and re-pump laser power, and calculate the atomic population in the trapping states with rate equations.     

Output Beam Quality of Edge Pumped Planar Waveguide Lasers with Confocal Unstable Resonators

Output beam quality of edge pumped planar waveguide lasers with confocal unstable resonators is investigated by diffraction methods, taking into account gain saturation, asymmetric pumping, and beam interaction. The influences of pumping uniformity, doping concentration, cavity length and effective Fresnel number are analyzed with respect to output beam quality and pumping efficiency. It is found that good beam quality and high efficiency can be obtained with asymmetric pumping and optimized negative branch confocal unstable resonators.