SPM-induced spectral compression of picosecond pulses in a single-mode Yb-doped fiber amplifier

In a fiber amplifier, spectral compression due to self-phase modulation is demonstrated for ultrashort pulses. We report the generation of near-transform-limited picosecond pulses with peak powers of several kW at a repetition rate of 74 MHz and diffraction-limited beam quality in a Yb-doped fiber amplifier when seeding with a negative chirped pulse. Received: 17 September 2001 / Revised version: 22 November 2001 / Published online: 17 January 2002     

131 W 220 fs fiber laser system

We report on an ytterbium-doped photonic-crystal-fiber-based chirped-pulse amplification system delivering 131 W average power 220 fs pulses at 1040 nm center wavelength in a diffraction-limited beam. The pulse repetition rate is 73 MHz, corresponding to a pulse energy of 1.8 microJ and a peak power as high as 8.2 MW.     

A fluidic-muscle driven force-controlled parallel platform for physical simulation of virtual spatial force-displacement laws

Described in this paper is a six-legged Stewart-Gough parallel platform driven by a relatively new type of fluidic muscles. The advantage of the platform is that it is virtually free of stick-slip effects. Thus, the device is well-suited for fine-tuned force control and for physical simulation of virtual force-displacement laws. The legs of the platform are of type RRPS and are equipped with a coaxial coil spring and a fluidic muscle providing push and pull forces. Each leg is equipped with a force sensor, a pressure sensor, and a magnetostrictive position encoder. The control for the platform consists of six control loops for the six operated actuators with model-based force control comprising individual gas models as well as the rubber nonlinearities for each leg. The control law also includes the gas flow in the proportional directional control valve in 3/3-way function. The present paper describes the basic architecture of the platform, the dynamic models, as well as testbed results for the existing fluidic-muscle parallel platform DynaHex. It is shown that the presented control scheme leads to a stable force control of the platform for quasi-static motion. As an application, the device will be employed in fields of biomechanics, as well as in general environments requiring physical simulation.     

Distribution, structure, and dynamics of cesium and iodide ions at the H2O-CCl4 and H2O-vapor interfaces

Molecular dynamics simulations utilizing many-body potentials of H2O-CCl4 and H2O-vapor interfaces were carried out at different cesium and iodide ion concentrations to compare ion distribution, interfacial orientational and structural properties, and dynamics. It was found that cesium was repelled by both interfaces, and iodide was active at both interfaces, but to a much greater degree at the H2O-vapor interface. At the interface, the iodide dipole was strongly induced, orienting perpendicular to the interface for both systems, leading to stronger hydrogen bonds with water. For the H2O-CCl4 interface, though, there was a compensation between these strong hydrogen bonds and short to moderate ranged repulsion between iodide and CCl4. Hydrogen bond distance and angular distributions showed weaker water-water hydrogen bonds at both interfaces, but generally stronger water-iodide hydrogen bonds. Both translational and rotational dynamics of water were faster at the interface, while for CCl4, its translational dynamics was slower, but rotational dynamics faster at the interface. For many of the studied systems and species, translational diffusion was found to be anisotropic at both interfacial and bulk regions.     

Surface segregation of dissolved salt ions

Surface segregation of iodide, but not of fluoride or cesium ions, is observed by a combination of metastable impact electron spectroscopy (MIES) and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS(HeI)) of amorphous solid water exposed to CsI or CsF vapor. The same surface ionic behavior is also derived from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the corresponding aqueous salt solutions. The MIES results show the propensity of iodide, but not fluoride, for the surface of the amorphous solid water film, providing thus strong evidence for the suggested presence of heavier halides (iodide, bromide, and to a lesser extent chloride) at the topmost layer of aqueous surfaces. In contrast, no appreciable surface segregation of ions is observed in methanol, neither in the experiment nor in the simulation. Furthermore, the present results indicate that, as far as the thermodynamic aspects of solvation of alkali halides are concerned, amorphous solid water and methanol surfaces behave similarly as surfaces of the corresponding liquids.     

Electrodeposited Amorphous Tungsten‐doped Cobalt Oxide as an Efficient Catalyst for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Thin film of amorphous tungsten‐doped cobalt oxide (W:CoO) was successfully grown on a conducting electrode via an electrochemical oxidation process employing a [Co(WS₄)₂]^2? deposition bath. The W:CoO catalyst displays an attractive performance for the oxygen evolution reaction in an alkaline solution. In an NaOH solution of pH 13, W:CoO operates with a moderate onset overpotential of 230 mV and requires 320 mV overpotential to generate a catalytic current density of 10 mA cm^?2. A low Tafel slope of 45 mV decade^?1 was determined, indicating a rapid O₂‐evolving kinetics. The as‐prepared W:CoO belongs to the best cobalt oxide‐based catalysts ever reported for the oxygen evolution (OER) reaction.     

Mechanisms of micellization and rheology of PEO-PPO-PEO triblock copolymers with various architectures

Micelle formation was followed by micro-DSC and rheology for aqueous solutions of two copolymers of PEO-PPO-PEO, the Pluronic F127 (from BASF) and the EG56 (from PolymerExpert), a branched copolymer built with three chains of F127 type. It is shown that micellization is endothermic and that, for both polymers, the enthalpy of formation/melting is proportional to total concentration. The rheology of the solutions was carefully analyzed, before gelation for F127, and it reveals firstly the progressive changes of solubility of the unimers (decease of relative solution viscosity), followed by micelle formation over a 10 degrees C range. In this range, the micelle concentration dependence on temperature was deduced from enthalpy measurements and the corresponding volume fractions were derived. Viscosity was interpreted within the framework of well-known theories for hard sphere suspensions (Krieger-Dougherty or Quemada) based on an analogy between micelles and nanosized hairy grain suspensions. The gel state is achieved due to formation of the colloidal crystal. For EG56, the rheology is quite different; as the aggregation increases with temperature, a progression is observed from Newtonian to visco-elastic liquid. The characteristic frequency, defined by the relation G(') = G('), for EG56 varies with temperature and the corresponding times increase by two orders of magnitude according to an Arrhenius law. The frequency dependence of G(') and G(') at different temperatures can be superposed with a horizontal shift factor and a small amplitude adjustment. There is no elastic solid formation in this case. The "gelation" of these two copolymers is compared to the physical gelation of cold-set gels (gelatin).     

Molecular mechanism of transporting a polarizable iodide anion across the water-CCl4 liquid/liquid interface

The result of transferring a polarizable iodide anion across the H2O-CCl4 liquid/liquid interface was investigated in this study. The computed transfer-free energy profile or potential of mean force exhibits a minimum near the Gibbs dividing surface. These system characteristics are similar to those found in a corresponding study of iodide transfer across the H2O-vapor interface; however, the free energy minimum was lower at the H2O-vapor interface. Molecular dynamics simulations were also carried out to compare the concentrations of NaCl, NaBr, and NaI at the H2O-vapor and H2O-CCl4 interfaces. While the concentration of bromide and iodide ions were lower at the H2O-CCl4 interface when compared to the H2O-vapor interface, the chloride ion concentrations were similar at both interfaces. Analysis of the solvation structures of iodide and chloride ions revealed that the more polarizable iodide ion was less solvated than the chloride ion at the interface. This characteristic brought the iodide ion into greater contact with CCl4, resulting in repulsive interactions with CCl4 and reducing its tendency to move to the interface.