Higher Order Nonlinear Effect and Limitation of Soliton Propagation in Dispersive-Nonlinear Medium for Dispersion-Shifted Fiber

A computer simulation of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation is carried out to evaluate the impact of nonlinear susceptibility of a single mode fiber on the transmission of a soliton pulse. The third and fifth order nonlinear susceptibilities are considered in the simulation. The results show that the output soliton pulse shape strongly depends on the third order nonlinear susceptibility and gets distorted when the full width half maximum (FWHM) pulse width is of the order of 10ps or less.     

From Bad Electrochemical Practices to an Environmental and Waste Reducing Approach for the Generation of Active Hydrogen Evolving Electrodes

The electrodeposition of noble metals using corresponding dissolved metal salts represents an interesting process for the improvement of the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) properties of less active substrate materials. The fact that only a small fraction of the dissolved noble metals reaches the substrate represents a serious obstacle to this common procedure. We therefore chose a different path. It was found that the HER activity of Ni42 alloy drastically increased (η=140 mV at j=10 mA cm^?2; pH 1) when a platinum counter electrode was used during polarization experiments in acid. This improvement was caused by a platinum transfer from the platinum anode to the steel cathode, a process which occurred simultaneously to the hydrogen evolution. The negligible accumulation of Pt (26 μg) in the electrolyte turns this straight‐forward transfer procedure into a highly cost‐effective, environmentally friendly, and waste reducing approach for the generation of cheap, stable and effective HER electrodes.     

Accessing the dynamics of end-grafted flexible polymer chains by atomic force-electrochemical microscopy. Theoretical modeling of the approach curves by the elastic bounded diffusion model and Monte Carlo simulations. Evidence for compression-induced lateral chain escape

The dynamics of a molecular layer of linear poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chains of molecular weight 3400, bearing at one end a ferrocene (Fc) label and thiol end-grafted at a low surface coverage onto a gold substrate, is probed using combined atomic force-electrochemical microscopy (AFM-SECM), at the scale of approximately 100 molecules. Force and current approach curves are simultaneously recorded as a force-sensing microelectrode (tip) is inserted within the approximately 10 nm thick, redox labeled, PEG chain layer. Whereas the force approach curve gives access to the structure of the compressed PEG layer, the tip-current, resulting from tip-to-substrate redox cycling of the Fc head of the chain, is controlled by chain dynamics. The elastic bounded diffusion model, which considers the motion of the Fc head as diffusion in a conformational field, complemented by Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, from which the chain conformation can be derived for any degree of confinement, allows the theoretical tip-current approach curve to be calculated. The experimental current approach curve can then be very satisfyingly reproduced by theory, down to a tip-substrate separation of approximately 2 nm, using only one adjustable parameter characterizing the chain dynamics: the effective diffusion coefficient of the chain head. At closer tip-substrate separations, an unpredicted peak is observed in the experimental current approach curve, which is shown to find its origin in a compression-induced escape of the chain from within the narrowing tip-substrate gap. MC simulations provide quantitative support for lateral chain elongation as the escape mechanism.     

Probing the structure and dynamics of end-grafted flexible polymer chain layers by combined atomic force-electrochemical microscopy. Cyclic voltammetry within nanometer-thick macromolecular poly(ethylene glycol) layers

The combined atomic force-electrochemical microscopy (AFM-SECM) technique was used in aqueous solution to determine both the static and dynamical properties of nanometer-thick monolayers of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chains end-grafted to a gold substrate surface. Approach of a microelectrode tip from a redox end-labeled PEG layer triggered a tip-to-substrate cycling motion of the chains' free ends as a result of the redox heads' oxidation at the tip and re-reduction at the substrate surface. As few as approximately 200 chains at a time could be addressed in such a way. Quantitative analysis of the data, in the light of a simple model of elastic bounded diffusion SECM positive feedback, gave access to the end-tethered polymer layer thickness and the end-to-end diffusion coefficient of the chains. The thickness of the grafted PEG layer was shown to increase with the chain surface coverage, while the end-to-end diffusion coefficient was found to be constant and close to the one predicted by Rouse dynamics. At close tip-substrate separation, slowing of the chains' motion, as a consequence of their vertical confinement within the tip-substrate gap, was observed and quantitatively modeled.     

A detailed analysis of cross-phase modulation effects on OOK and dpsk optical WDM transmission systems in the presence of GVD,SPM, and ASE noise

A performance analysis is carried out to evaluate the effect of cross-phase modulation (XPM) on a dispersion-managed 20 Gb/s optical wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) transmission system using either the on-off keying (OOK) or the different-phase-shifting keying (DPSK) modulation, in the presence of the group-velocity dispersion (GVD), self-phase modulation (SPM), and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). It is found that to achieve a bit error rate (BER) of 10⁻⁹ at a distance of 160 km, a 1.0 dB XPM power penalty is incurred for input channel power of 3 dBm in the OOK transmission and 7 dBm in the DPSK transmission. The power penalty increases with input channel powers and is inversely proportional and exhibits oscillations with respect to the channel separation. The oscillation is evenly spaced for the DPSK but not for the OOK and suggests the presence of optimum separation values. The XPM penalty decreases when a high dispersion fiber is used and increases linearly with increasing dispersion slope. Small residual dispersion can reduce the penalty of nonlinear effects.     

System degradation due to phase error induced crosstalk in WDM optical networks employing arrayed waveguide grating multi/demultiplexer

The phase error induced crosstalk within arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG) have been investigated theoretically as well as simulation. For WDM system, a crosstalk level of −21.9 dB causes a power penalty of 1 dB for 64 channels and less than 0.5 dB for 16 channels and 32 channels, respectively. For crosstalk level of −30 dB and below, the power penalty is negligible. Crosstalk due to phase error also causes higher power penalty at higher bit rate. Bit rate of 10, 20 and 40 Gbits/s causes power penalty of 1 dB with crosstalk level of −41.5, −46.25 and −49 dB, respectively.     

Comparisons of RZ-OOK and RZ-DPSK in dense OTDM-WDM systems using Q factor models

In view of the differential phase Q (DP-Q) and the traditional Q factor, we compared, using numerical simulations, the performances of the RZ-OOK and RZ-DPSK in dense OTDM-WDM systems. When signal pulse widths and optical filter bandwidths are optimized, there is no upper limit to the WDM channel bit rate (BR) in the purely linear back-to-back configuration. Here, RZ-DPSK performed increasingly better than RZ-OOK in a higher spectral density with Q gain increasing from 3 to 5 dB. In the nonlinear point-to-point configuration, a higher BR leads to increased performance penalties for both the RZ-DPSK and RZ-OOK, while the RZ-DPSK still outperforms RZ-OOK by up to 4 dB. The results obtained correlate with conventional results, indicating the potential of the DP-Q as a performance evaluation tool in numerical simulations.     

The effect of Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) in Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) in WDM mesh and ring topologies

In this paper, the impact of Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) in Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) is performance analyzed in three different setting in the number of hops in routes using fixed shortest path routing in 8-nodes mesh and 8-nodes ring topologies. Performance result shows the impact of SRS is more apparent in 8-nodes ring topology compared to 8-nodes mesh topology when the number of optical channel is 32 for all the setting of the number of hops in routes. Whereas when the number of channels is 16, the impact of SRS is not much different in both topologies. Furthermore, the impact of SRS is more apparent in 4-hops setting compared to 2-hops and 3-hops setting used in the routes. It suggests that in order to support more traffic request by higher optical channel, the acceptable connection due to SRS depletion to be established depends on the number of hops used in routing scheme indirectly depends on different network topology.     

A COMPARISON OF DIRECI AND LIPOSOMAL ANTIBODY CONJUGATES OF SULFONATED ALUMINUM PHTHALOCYANINES FOR SELECTIVE PHOTOIMMUNOTHERAPY OF HUMAN BLADDER CARCINOMA

Abstract There is a need to improve the selectivity of photodynamic therapy and for better targeting of tumor cells within specific tumor compartments. Selective in vitro phototoxicity of a human bladder carcinoma cell line 647V has been achieved by targeting sulfonated aluminum phthalocyanines (AlSPc) with monoclonal antibodies. Aluminum tetra-3 sulfonyl chloride phthalocyanine (PC) or rhodamine sulfonyl chloride were directly coupled to antibodies by a sulfonamide linkage and AlSPc or carboxyfluorescein were encapsulated in liposomes of the small unilamellar vesicle type (SUV) bearing antibody. Antibody E7 (IgM subclass), which recognized an antigenic determinant expressed on 647V but was absent on T24 a control human bladder carcinoma cell line, and a control IgM antibody were used. The effects of the two types of conjugate were compared. Immunofluorescence studies on living cells demonstrated specific cell surface localization of conjugates at 4°C and internalization at 37°C. Phototoxicity was measured by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2–5-diphenyltetrazolium) bromide assay after exposing A1SPc-sensitized cells to red light. Significant AlSPc dose-dependent phototoxicity of the order 4°C < 4°C plus 37°C < 37°C was observed with E7-SUV and E7-PC in the range 1–8 μM AlSPc. At equimolar AlSPc doses absolute toxicity was similar for the two conjugate types, but at equimolar antibody doses, the liposomal conjugate was more effective by up to 13-fold. Addition of urine during illumination decreased toxicity, which was attributed to the presence of protective elements. The results suggest that photosensitizers such as AlSPc could be used for antibody-directed therapy and in particular for selectively damaging tumor cells of the epithelial cell compartment in bladder carcinoma by intrabladder administration. The therapeutic ratio, which takes into account both specific and nonspecific toxicity, was greater for the liposome conjugate than for the direct conjugate indicating their greater suitability for in vivo instillation.