Influence of phosphate precursors on the structures of sodium aluminophosphate sols, gels and glasses

Transparent and homogeneous aluminophosphate gels and glasses have been widely synthesized through an aqueous sol-gel route, extending significantly the glass-forming range compared to that accessible via the melt-cooling route. Different phosphorus precursors, sodium polyphosphate (NaPO3) and orthophosphate species (NaH2PO4 and/or H3PO4) were compared with regard to the macroscopic properties and the microscopic structure of the resultant gels and glasses as characterized by extensive high-resolution liquid- and solid-state NMR. Sodium polyphosphate solution results in a substantially wider composition range of homogenous gel formation than orthophosphate solutions, and the two routes produce significant structural differences in the sol and xerogel states. Nevertheless, the structures of the glasses obtained upon gel annealing above 400 degrees C are independent of the P-precursors used. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of OH- content on emission properties in Er3+-doped tellurite glasses

A series of tellurite glasses of composition, 75TeO(2)-20ZnO-(5 - x)La2O3-xEr(2)O(3) (x = 0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 mol%) with different hydroxl content were prepared. The effect of Er3+ and OH- groups concentration on the emission properties of Er3+: I-4(13/2) -> I-4(15/2) transition in tellurite glasses was investigated. The constant KOH-Er for Er3+ in tellurite glasses, which represents the strength of interaction between Er3+ and OH- groups in the case of energy migration, was about 14 x 10(-19) cm(4) s(-1). The interaction parameter C-Er,C-Er for the migration rate of Er3+ : 4I(13/2) -> I-4(13/2) transition in tellurite glass was 46 x 10(-40) cm(2), which indicates that concentration quenching in Er3+-doped modified tellurite glass for a given Er3+ concentration is much stronger than in silicate and phosphate glasses. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Photoluminescence of undoped and B-doped ZnO in silicate glasses

Photoluminescence of undoped and B-doped ZnO in silicate glasses was investigated by varying the concentration of ZnO (3550 mol%) and B dopant (0-10 mol%) in the glass matrices. The broad and intense near band edge emissions were observed while the visible light emission was very weak. UV luminescence in all samples was red-shifted relative to the exciton transition in bulk ZnO and enhanced by decreased ZnO concentration due to higher degree of structural integrity and the lower aggregation degree of ZnO. Donor B dopant played the double roles of filling conduction bands to broaden band gap when its concentration was lower than 5 mol%, and emerging with conduction bands to narrow the gap when B dopant exceeded this value. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fluorescence properties and laser demonstrations of Nd-doped high silica glasses prepared by sintering nanoporous glass

Porous glass with high-SiO2 content was impregnated with Nd ions, and subsequently sintered at 1100 degrees C into a compact non-porous glass in air or reducing atmosphere. Sintering in a reducing atmosphere produced an intense violet-blue fluorescence at 394 nm. However, the sintering atmospheres almost did not affect the fluorescence properties in the infrared range. A good performance Nd3+-doped silica microchip laser operating at 1064 nm was demonstrated. The Nd-doped sintering glasses with high-SiO2 content are potential host materials for high power solid-state lasers and new transparent fluorescence materials. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Valence state change and refractive index change induced by femtosecond laser irradiation in Sm3+ doped fluoroaluminate glass

We report femtosecond laser induced valence state and refractive index change in transparent Sin(3+)-doped fluoroaluminate glass. The effect of annealing on the induced changes was studied and the thermal stability of these changes was discussed. The results show that the femtosecond laser induced valence state change is more stable than the induced refractive index change. The observed phenomenon could be applied to design the thermally erasable or stable storage medium. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Novel Bi-doped glasses for broadband optical amplification

Broadband infrared luminescence is observed in various Bi-doped oxide glasses prepared by conventional melting-quenching technique. The absorption spectrum of the Bi-doped germanium oxide glass consists of five broad peaks at below 370, 500, 700, 800 and 1000 nm. The fluorescence spectrum exhibits a broad peak at about 1300 nm with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of more than 300 nm when excited by an 808 nm laser diode. The fluorescence lifetime at room temperature decreases with increasing Bi2O3 concentration. Influence of the glass composition and melting atmosphere on the fluorescence lifetime and luminescent intensity is investigated. The mechanism of the broadband infrared luminescence is suggested. The product of stimulated emission cross-section and lifetime of the Bi-doped aluminophosphate glass is about 5.0 X 10(-24) cm(2) s. The glasses might be promising for applications in broadband optical fiber amplifiers and tunable lasers. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A new method of modeling cladding band structure of air-guiding photonic crystal fibers

Cladding band structure of air-guiding photonic crystal fibers with high air-filling fraction is calculated in terms of fiber shape variation. The fundamental photonic band gap dependence on structure parameters, air-filling fraction and spacing, is also investigated. The numerical results show that the band gap edges shift toward longer wavelength as the air-filling fraction is increased, whereas the relative band gap width increases linearly. For a fixed air-filling fraction, the band gap edges with respect to spacing keep constant. With this method, the simulation results agree well with the reported data. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bismuth-activated luminescent materials for broadband optical amplifier in WDM system

New broadband near infrared luminescence covering the whole work windows (1260-1625 nm) of the current wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system was found from bismuth-activated M2O-Al2O3-SiO2 (M = Li, Na) and Li2O-Ta2O5-SiO2 glasses at room temperature in the case of 808 nm-laser excitation. But the near infrared luminescence mechanism of the bismuth-activated glasses is not well understood up to now. The figure-of-merits of bandwidth and gain of the glasses are better than those of Er3+-doped silicate glasses and Ti3+ doped sapphire, implying they are the promising gain-medium candidates for the broadband amplifiers and the widely tunable laser sources. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Luminescence characteristics of Yb3+, La3+ codoped yttrium oxide nanopowders

Luminescence characteristics of Yb3+, La3+ codoped yttrium oxide nanopowders were investigated. The grain size and the crystallinity of (Yb0.05Y0.90La0.05)(2)O-3 nanopowders increase with the increase of calcination temperature. The average grain size of the nanopowders calcined at 1100 degrees C is 66 nm and its cooperative up-conversion luminescence centered at 498 nm was detected due to nanometer size effect and perfect crystallinity. However, the cooperative up-conversion luminescence of (Yb0.05Y0.90La0.05)(2)O-3 transparent ceramics was not detected. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

中国晚泥盆世两种木本石松植物的研究

木本石松植物在晚古生代植物群中一直引人注目，它们是最早在中、晚泥盆世发展乔木和异孢习性的陆生维管植物谱系之一。在这篇报告中，中国两种晚泥盆世（距今约354-370百万年）的木本石松植物被详细地研究了。这两项研究增进了我们对泥盆纪木本石松植物的进化发育生物学的认识。 作者从中国西北部新疆准噶尔盆地上泥盆统的地层中描述了一个新种新疆鳞孢穗Lepidostrobus xinjiangensis sp.nov.，它为我们研究晚泥盆世石松植物的生殖分化和系统发育关系提供了新的认识。这个孢子叶球不同于任何草本石松植物的生殖器官，而与木本石松植物的生殖器官更为相似，它符合鳞孢穗属Lepidostrobus的鉴别性状。它的每个孢子叶由一个楔形的叶柄和一个三角形的叶片构成。孢子叶水平地着生在穗轴上，呈低角度的螺旋排列。叶柄具有侧翼和一个远轴面的脊，其远端延伸为一个上翻的叶片和一个下翻的踵，形成了一种盾状的外貌。孢子囊呈辐向加长、背腹扁的卵球形，具有顶端的纵向开裂。每个孢子囊基部纵向着生在叶柄的近轴面上。在孢子囊中发现了一个柱状的亚孢原组织垫。一个可能的叶舌出现在叶柄近轴面靠孢子囊远端。这个生殖器官是一个小孢子叶球，含石松孢Lycospora型孢子，具有粒状纹饰和赤道凸缘。基于这个鳞孢穗新种，木本石松植物从泥盆纪到石炭纪以来的生殖分化和演化式样在一个系统发育的框架中被讨论了。作者提出，木本石松植物由两性孢子叶球和单孢子叶球所代表的生殖策略到了晚泥盆世已经发展得相当完备，这暗示着系统发育上生有鳞孢穗孢子叶球的木本石松植物比过去所认为得起源要早。 作者重新调查了一个过去描述于中国湖北晚泥盆世（弗拉斯期）黄家磴组地层中的斜方薄皮木Leptophloeum thombicum的树干，并提出关于这个木本石松植物生长结构的新观点。这个树干保存为压扁的硅化化石，具有不均匀渗矿化的初生维管组织和螺旋排列的斜方形叶座。叶座特征符合晚泥盆世广泛分布的植物斜方薄皮木Leptophloeum rhombicum Dawson的鉴别性状。分类上，斜方薄皮木被归入薄皮木科Leptophloeaceae和广义水韭目Isoetales s.l.。这个树干在不同水平的解剖特征证明，斜方薄皮木的个体发育可能符合一种有限的生长方式。结合过去的资料和当前的生长结构分析，作者提出斜方薄皮木具有假单轴分枝的习性，而不是过去所认为的那样长着等二叉分枝的树冠。作者重新复原了这个植物的总体生长形态，它由一个根座式根状茎、一个主干和侧枝三类主要的生长结构单元构成。当这些结果组合了近期的系统发育工作后，它表明斜方薄皮木已经发育了与一些晚泥盆世法门期和石炭纪木本石松植物相似的生长结构，可能代表了早期水韭目植物祖先的生长结构类型之一。

新生代孢粉分析与古气候定量重建的研究

定量重建地球生态系统的气候参数是当前国际古气候研究的目标之一. 自20世纪70年代以来, 尤其是在海洋学研究领域, 新技术的不断应用使得定量的古气候研究蓬勃发展. 相比之下陆地古气候参数的重建要困难得多, 陆地植物作为对环境的良好记录，一直备受重视. 近数十年来, 国际上广泛开展了利用植物材料定量研究气候的探索, 大量新的方法层出不穷. 德国科学家Mosbrugger和Utescher在1997年倡导的共存分析法(The Coexistence Approach)就是其中之一, 它依据现存最近亲缘类群原理以及植物分布与气候的关系原理, 找到化石植物群中各类群的现存最近亲缘类群对各气候参数的耐受范围; 并将各亲缘类群对同一气候参数的耐受范围叠加一起, 获得对该气候参数的共存区间, 用该区间作为对古气候参数的精确估测. 本文首先阐述在原文位于展开讨论的共存分析的理论基础——探讨植物分布与气候之间关系的耐受性理论. 并以此为指导, 对在该方法中气候台站的选用方法作了改进, 气象台站的选择应以植物的标本记录点为基础: 即使在某一特定的植物分布区内部也应该查看气象台站所在县级行政区域是否有该植物的标本采集信息, 并以此为依据来决定是否选用该气象台站的记录; 选用的气象台站的数量多寡应该以植物分布点的多少来决定. 以此为基础, 我们采用中国的植物分布与气象记录数据, 利用孢粉学的研究结果，定量重建了我国新生代三个地点的古气候参数, 结果如下: 1.内蒙古呼伦湖地区全新世初期气候 MAT: 4.4~10.2℃; MWMT: 22.9~24.1℃; MCMT: -18~-9.1℃; DT: 33.5~40.9℃; MAP: 354.3~686.7mm; MMaP: 103.8~191.9mm; MMiP: 2.7~7.3mm. 我们以扎赉诺尔地区的孢粉学研究为基础, 依据孢粉和盘星藻(Pediastrum Meyen)提供的环境信息并结合前人工作, 恢复了全新世初升温期的植被变化; 定量重建了10.4~10.2kaB.P.时的气候, 为全面理解呼伦湖地区的气候变化以及东亚的夏季风变化提供新的依据. 2.云南洱源上新世气候 MAT: 13.3~18.6℃; MWMT: 24.6~27.5℃; MCMT: 1.9~12.1℃; DT: 14.2~16.6℃; MAP: 619.9~1484.3mm; MMaP: 143.8~245.6mm; MMiP: 12.7~16.4mm. 该结果与羊邑、龙陵上新世古气候及三地的现代气候分析对比表明, 在上新世, 三地年均温符合纬向变化, 而降水量则基本一致. 在现代，洱源与羊邑在气候与植被上很相近, 且与上新世相差不大; 而龙陵地区则发生了显著的变化, 年均温比上新世低, 而降水量则大幅增加. 该变化指示了上新世以来作为青藏高原东部边缘的龙陵地区可能出现了地形的抬升. 3.吉林珲春始新世和中新世气候 始新世: MAT: 14.3~14.9℃; MWMT: 25~26.3℃; MCMT: 1.9~3.7℃; DT: 21.7~23℃; MAP: 797.5~1344mm; MMaP: 185.3~209.8mm; MMiP: 14.2~16.4mm. 中新世: MAT: 14.3~14.9℃; MWMT: 24.3~25.4℃; MCMT: 2.1~3.7℃; DT: 21.7~22.7℃; MAP: 658.7~817.7mm; MMaP: 158.9~174.6mm; MMiP: 7.4~7.6mm. 通过对两个时段的气候参数对比, 始新世时, 吉林珲春地区的气候属于北亚热带气候; 中新世时气候发生了改变, 归属于暖温带南部的气候, 改变了前人关于中新世也归属于被亚热带的认识, 这反映了我国东北部地区与全球新生代降温总趋势具有一定的同步性.