The Convective Instabilities in a Liquid-Vapor System with a Non-equilibrium Evaporation Interface

Rayleigh-Marangoni-B,nard instability in a system consisting of a horizontal liquid layer and its own vapor has been investigated. The two layers are separated by a deformable evaporation interface. A linear stability analysis is carried out to study the convective instability during evaporation. In previous works, the interface is assumed to be under equilibrium state. In contrast with previous works, we give up the equilibrium assumption and use Hertz-Knudsen's relation to describe the phase change under non-equilibrium state. The influence of Marangoni effect, gravitational effect, degree of non-equilibrium and the dynamics of the vapor on the instability are discussed.

Experimental Study on the Combined Evaporation Effect and Thermocapillary Convection in a Thin Liquid Layer

The coupling mechanisms and flow characteristics of thermocapillary convection in a thin liquid layer with evaporating interface were studied. The planar liquid layer, with the upper surface open to air, was imposed externally horizontal temperature differences. The measured average evaporating rates and interfacial temperature profiles indicated the relative importance of evaporation effect and thermocapillary convection under different temperature gradients. A temperature jump was found at the interface, which was thought to be related to the influence of evaporation effect. All above mentioned results were repeated in a rarely evaporating liquid to compare the influence of evaporation effect.

Effect of vacuum-induced coherence on lasing without inversion in an equispaced three-level ladder system

The effects of vacuum-induced coherence (VIC) on the properties of the absorption and gain of the probe field in an equispaced three-level ladder atomic system are investigated. It is found that lasing without inversion (LWI) is remarkably enhanced due to the effect of VIC in the case of the small incoherent pump rate.

Vacuum heating in the interaction of ultrashort, relativistically strong laser pulses with solid targets

An analytical fluid model for vacuum heating during the oblique incidence by an ultrashort ultraintense p-polarized laser on a solid-density plasma is proposed. The steepening of an originally smooth electron density profile as the electrons are pushed inward by the laser is included self-consistently. It is shown that the electrons being pulled out and then returned to the plasma at the interface layer by the wave field can lead to a phenomenon like wave breaking since the front part of the returning electrons always move slower than the trailing part. This can lead to heating of the plasma at the expense of the wave energy. An estimate for the efficiency of laser energy absorption by the vacuum heating is given. It is also found that for the incident laser intensity parameter, a(L)> 0.5, the absorption rate peaks at an incident angle 45 degrees-52 degrees and it reaches a maximum of 30% at a(L)approximate to 1.5.

Electron acceleration by a propagating laser pulse in vacuum

Electrons accelerated by a propagating laser pulse of linear or circular polarization in vacuum have been investigated by one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations and analytical modeling. A stopping target is used to stop the laser pulse and extract the energetic electrons from the laser field. The effect of the reflected light is taken into account. The maximum electron energy depends on the laser intensity and initial electron energy. There is an optimal acceleration length for electrons to gain maximum energy where electrons meet the peak of the laser pulse. The optimal acceleration length depends strongly on the laser pulse duration and amplitude. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Luminescence studies of Ce : YAG using vacuum ultraviolet synchrotron radiation

Photoluminescence spectrum of Ce:YAG single crystal was studied employing vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) synchrotron radiation. Intrinsic absorption edge at about 52,000 cm(-1) was observed in the absorption spectrum. From the VUV excitation spectrum, the energy of the highest d-component of 53,191 cm(-1) (188 nm) for the Ce3+ ions in YAG was obtained at 300 K. The disappearance of the third 5d level at 37,735 cm(-1) (265 nm) in absorption and excitation spectra in our samples may be due to the impurity Fe3+ ions absorption. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influence of LiB3O5 structure on microstructure and optical properties of ZrO2, thin films prepared by electron beam evaporation

ZrO2 thin films were deposited bill using an electron beam evaporation technique on three kinds of lithium triborate (LiB3O5 or LBO) substrates with the surfaces at specified crystalline orientations. The influences of the LBO structure on the structural and optical properties of ZrO2 thin films are studied by spectrophotometer and x-ray diffraction. The results indicate that the substrate structure has obvious effects on the structural end optical properties of the film: namely. the ZrO2 thin film deposited on the X-LBO, Y-LBO and Z-LBO orients to m(-212), m(021) and o(130) directions. It is also found that the ZrO2 thin film with m(021) has the highest refractive index and the least lattice misfit.

Laser conditioning of ZrO2 : Y2O3/SiO2 mirror coatings prepared by E-beam evaporation

Laser conditioning effects of the dielectric mirror coatings with different designs were investigated. Simple quarter-wave ZrO2:Y2O3/SiO2 mirrors and half-wave SiO2 over-coated ZrO2:Y2O3/SiO2 mirror coatings were fabricated by E-beam evaporation (EBE). The absorbance of the samples before and after laser conditioning was measured by surface thermal lensing (STL) technology and the defects density was detected under Nomarski microscope. The enhancement of the laser damage resistance was found after laser conditioning. The dependence of the laser conditioning on the coating design was also observed and the over-coated sample obtained greatest enhancement, whereas the absorbance of the samples did not change obviously. During the sub-threshold fluence raster scanning, the minor damage about defects size was found and the assumption of pre-damage mechanism, based on the functional damage concept, was put forward. The improvement of the laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) was attributed to the benign damage of the defects and the dependence on the coating design owed to the damage growth behavior of different coating designs. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Layer uniformity of glancing angle deposition

Some results of an investigation on the layer thickness uniformity of glancing angle deposition are presented. A zirconia monolayer has been deposited by glancing angle deposition to analyze the layer thickness uniformity. The experimental results indicate that the thickness variation over the substrate is less than 0. 1%, which is considered as good uniformity. It is found that the non-uniformity of experimental results is larger than that of the theoretical results. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Optical, structural and laser-induced damage threshold properties of HfO2 thin films prepared by electron beam evaporation

We prepare HfO2 thin films by electron beam evaporation technology. The samples are annealed in air after deposition. With increasing annealing temperature, it is found that the absorption of the samples decreases firstly and then increases. Also, the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) increases firstly and then decreases. When annealing temperature is 473K, the sample has the highest LIDT of 2.17J/cm(2), and the lowest absorption of 18 ppm. By investigating the optical and structural characteristics and their relations to LIDT, it is shown that the principal factor dominating the LIDT is absorption.

Study of Al2O3/MgF2 HR coatings at 355 nm

With the present work we tried to study the effective methods to improve the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) and reflectance of HR coatings at 355 nm. The work presented in this paper wits part of an ongoing study about vacuum annealing. It was dedicated to study the effects Of Vacuum annealing with different temperature gradients on the structure, optical properties and laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of 355nm Al2O3/MgF2HR coatings. A number of samples were prepared by electron beam evaporation using the same deposition process with an optimal deposition temperature of 280 degrees C. After deposition, samples were annealed in the coating chamber for 3 h with different temperature gradients. Morphologies of the samples were observed by Leica-DMRXE. Microscope, Structure of the samples had been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Transmittance and reflectance of the samples were measured by Lambda 900 Spectrometer, The LIDT of the samples was measured by a 355 nm Nd:YAG laser with a pulse width of 8 ns. It was found that the temperature gradient of vacuum annealing had significant effects on the morphology, structure, absorption, and LIDT of the samples, (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Y2O3 stabilized ZrO2 thin films deposited by electron beam evaporation: Structural, morphological characterization and laser induced damage threshold

Four kinds of Y2O3 stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ) thin films with different Y2O3 content have been prepared on BK7 substrates by electron-beam evaporation method. Structural properties and surface morphology of thin films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra and scanning probe microscope. Laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) was determined. It was found that crystalline phase and microstructure of YSZ thin films was dependent on Y2O3 molar content. YSZ thin films changed from monoclinic phase to high temperature phase (tetragonal and cubic) with the increase of Y2O3 content. The LIDT of stabilized thin film is more than that of unstabilized thin films. The reason is that ZrO2 material undergoes phase transition during the course of e-beam evaporation resulting in more numbers of defects compared to that of YSZ thin films. These defects act as absorptive center and the original breakdown points. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High laser-induced damage threshold HfO2 films prepared by ion-assisted electron beam evaporation

HfO2 films were deposited by electron beam evaporation with different deposition parameters. The properties such as refractive index, weak absorption, and laser induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) of these films have been investigated. It was found that when pulsed Nd:YAG 1064 nm laser is used to investigate LIDT of films: Metallic character is the main factor that influences LIDTs of films obtained from Hf starting material by ion-assisted reaction, and films prepared with higher momentum transfer parameter P have fewer metallic character; The ion-assisted reaction parameters are key points for preparing high LIDT films and if the parameters are chose properly, high LIDT films can be obtained. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.