Design of Photonic Crystal Semiconductor Optical Amplifier With Polarization Independence

Slow-light effects in photonic crystal (PC) waveguides can enhance light-mater interaction near the photonic band edge, which can be used to design a short cavity length semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). In this paper, a novel SOA based on slow-light effects in PC waveguides (PCSOA) is presented. To realize the amplification of the optical signal with polarization independence, a PCSOA is designed with a compensated structure. The cascaded structure leads to a balanced amplification to the TE and TM polarized light.

Carrier transport assisted by dopants in doped poly(N-vinylcarbozole) light-emitting diodes

We have investigated the transient electroluminescence (EL) onset of the double-layer light-emitting devices made from poly(N-vinylcarbozole) (PVK) doped with 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB) and tris(8-hydroxy-quinoline) aluminium (Alq(3)). For the double-layered device in which PVK was doped with 0.1 wt% DCJTB, the EL onset of PVK lags that of DCJTB and Alq(3), while the EL onset of DCJTB and Alq(3) is simultaneous. However, the EL emission of the double-layered device of PVK/Alq(3) originates only from Alq(3). The results show that DCJTB dopants can not only help to tunnel electrons from Alq(3) zone to PVK but can also assist electrons transfer in PVK under high electric field by hopping between DCJTB molecules or from DCJTB to PVK sites at a low doping concentration of 0.1 wt%. When the DCJTB doping concentration is 4.0 wt%, the EL onset of Alq(3) lags that of DCJTB. The difference in the EL onsets of DCJTB, Alq(3) and PVK is attributed to the slow build-up of the internal space charge in the vicinity of the interface between PVK and Alq(3). The electron potential difference of the interface between Alq(3) and PVK doped by DCJTB can be adjusted by changing the DCJTB doping concentration in double-layer devices.

Slow highly charged ions induced electron emission from clean Si surfaces

The electron emission yields from the interaction of slow highly charged ions (SHCI) He2+, O2+ and Ne2+ with clean Si surface are measured separately. It is found that electron emission yield gamma increases proportionally to projectile kinetic energy E-p/M-p, ranging from 0.75 keV/u to 10.5 keV/u (i.e. 3.8 x 10(5) m/s <= v(p) <= 1.42 x 10(6) m/s), and it is higher for heavy ions (O2+ and Ne2+) than for light ion (He2+). For O2+ and Ne2+, gamma increases with Z(p) decreasing in our energy range, and it shows quite different from the result for higher projectile kinetic energy. After calculating the stopping power by using TRIM 2006, it is found that the fraction of secondary electrons induced by recoil atoms increases significantly at lower projectile energy, thereby leads to the differences in gamma for heavy ions O2+ and Ne2+ between lower and higher projectile kinetic energy.

Enhancing the Performance of the Organic Light-emitting Device (OLED) by Thermal Treatment

A comparative study on the annealing of the ITO substrates and the organic layers were conducted on Organic light-emitting device (OLED). We fabricated four devices with the structure of Al/Alq(3)/TPD: PVK/NiO/ITO/Glass, and investigated the effect of heat on device performance by selectively annealing. When the TPD: PVK layers were annealed at 90 degrees C with 30 min annealing time and the ITO substrates were annealed at 300 degrees C with a constant annealing time (100 min). We find the OLED shows obvious performance improvement in brightness and current efficiency, which is attributable to the fact that annealing reduces defects and improves the interface structures of the organics and the organic/ITO interfaces. On the other hand, an appropriate annealing would slow the transportation of the hole, thus finally leads to more balanced electron and hole.

Effects of different light sources and illumination methods on growth and body color of shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei

Shrimps Litopenaeus vannamei with initial body weight of 2.108 +/- 0.036 g were sampled for specific growth rates (SGR) and body color measurements for 50 days under different light sources (incandescent lamp, IL; cool-white fluorescent lamp, FL; metal halide lamp, MHL; and control without lamp) and different illumination methods (illumination only in day, IOD, and illumination day and night, IDN). Body color of L. vannamei was measured according to the free astaxanthin concentration (FAC) of shrimp. The SGR, food intake (FI), feed conversion efficiency (FCE) and FAC of shrimps showed significant differences among the experimental treatment groups (P < 0.05). Maximum and minimum SGR occurred under IOD by MHL and IDN by FL, respectively (difference 56.34%). The FI of shrimp for the control group did not rank lowest among treatments, confirming that shrimp primarily use scent, not vision, to search for food. FI and FCE of shrimps were both the lowest among treatment groups under IDN by FL and growth was slow, thus FL is not a preferred light source for shrimp culture. Under IOD by MHL, shrimps had the highest FCE and the third highest FI among treatment groups ensuring rapid growth. FAC of shrimp were about 3.31 +/- 0.20 mg/kg. When under IOD by MHL and IDN by FL, FAC was significantly higher than the other treatments (P < 0.05). To summarize, when illuminated by MHL, L. vannamei had not only vivid body color due to high astaxanthin concentration but also rapid growth. Therefore, MHL is an appropriate indoor light source for shrimp super-intensive culture. SGR of shrimp was in significantly negative correlation to FAC of shrimp (P < 0.05). Thus, when FAC increased, SGR did not always follow, suggesting that the purpose of astaxanthin accumulation was not for growth promotion but for protection against intense light. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Nanomechanical Device Based on Light-Driven Proton Pumps

In this paper, a hybrid device based on a microcantilever interfaced with bacteriorhodopsin (bR) is constructed. The microcantilever, on which the highly oriented bR film is self-assembled, undergoes controllable and reversible bending when the light-driven proton pump protein, bR, on the microcantilever surface is activated by visible light. Several control experiments are carried out to preclude the influence of heat and photothermal effects. It is shown that the nanomechanical motion is induced by the resulting gradient of protons, which are transported from the KCl solution on the cytoplasmic side of the bR film towards the extracellular side of the bR film. Along with a simple physical interpretation, the microfabricated cantilever interfaced with the organized molecular film of bR can simulate the natural machinery in converting solar energy to mechanical energy.

Evaluation of influence of multiple scattering effect in light-scattering-based applications

The extinction cross sections of a system containing two particles are calculated by the T-matrix method, and the results are compared with those of two single particles with single-scattering approximation. The necessity of the correction of the refractive indices of water and polystyrene for different incident wavelengths is particularly addressed in the calculation. By this means, the volume fractions allowed for certain accuracy requirements of single-scattering approximation in the light scattering experiment can be evaluated. The volume fractions calculated with corrected refractive indices are compared with those obtained with fixed refractive indices which have been rather commonly used, showing that fixed refractive indices may cause significant error in evaluating multiple scattering effect. The results also give a simple criterion for selecting the incident wavelength and particle size to avoid the 'blind zone' in the turbidity measurement, where the turbidity change is insensitive to aggregation of two particles.

A characteristics study on the performance of a 2-stage light gas gun

In order to obtain an overall and systematic understanding of the performance of a two-stage light gas gun (TLGG), a numerical code to simulate the process occurring in a gun shot is advanced based on the quasi-one-dimensional unsteady equations of motion with the real gas effect,;friction and heat transfer taken into account in a characteristic formulation for both driver and propellant gas. Comparisons of projectile velocities and projectile pressures along the barrel with experimental results from JET (Joint European Tons) and with computational data got by the Lagrangian method indicate that this code can provide results with good accuracy over a wide range of gun geometry and loading conditions.

Effect of grain size on slow fatigue crack propagation and plastic deformation near crack tip

Fatigue crack growth and its threshold are investigated at a stress ratio of 0.5 for the three-point bend specimen made of Austenitic stainless steel. The effect of grain size on the crack tip plastic deformation is investigated. The results show that the threshold value Δkth increases linearly with the square root of grain size d and the growth rate is slower for materials with larger grain size. The plastic zone size and ratio for different grain sizes are different at the threshold. The maximum stress intensity factor is kmax and σys is the yield strength. At the same time, the characteristics of the plastic deformation development is discontinuous and anti-symmetric as the growth rate is increased from 2·10—8 to 10−7 mm/cycle.

Splitting the fast and slow motions in molecular dynamics simulations based on the change of cold potential well bottom

Abstract. The atomic motion is coupled by the fast and slow components due to the high frequency vibration of atoms and the low frequency deformation of atomic lattice, respectively. A two-step approximate method was presented to determine the atomic slow motion. The first step is based on the change of the location of the cold potential well bottom and the second step is based on the average of the appropriate slow velocities of the surrounding atoms. The simple tensions of one-dimensional atoms and two-dimensional atoms were performed with the full molecular dynamics simulations. The conjugate gradient method was employed to determine the corresponding location of cold potential well bottom. Results show that our two-step approximate method is appropriate to determine the atomic slow motion under the low strain rate loading. This splitting method may be helpful to develop more efficient molecular modeling methods and simulations pertinent to realistic loading conditions of materials.

Beam splitter entangler for light fields

We propose an experimentally feasible scheme to generate various types of entangled states of light fields by using beam splitters and single-photon detectors. Two beams of light fields are incident on two beam splitters respectively with each beam being asymmetrically split into two parts in which one part is supposed to be so weak that it contains at most one photon. We let the two weak output modes interfere at a third beam splitter. A conditional joint measurement on both weak output modes may result in an entanglement between the other two output modes. The conditions for the maximal entanglement are discussed based on the concurrence. Several specific examples are also examined.

Reflection and refraction of light at the interface of a uniaxial bicrystal

This paper deals with a theoretical analysis of the reflection and refraction of light at the interface of a bicrystal by use of Maxwell's equations. For a general case, the formulas of Snell's Law and the four Fresnel coefficients for the reflection and refraction of extraordinary light at the interface of a uniaxial bicrystal are derived for the first time, as well as the Brewster angle value. The condition for total reflection is presented and the electromagnetic fields distributions at both sides of a bicrystal are presented when total reflection occurs.

Group velocity of probe light pulse in an open lambda system

The group velocity of the probe light pulse (GVPLP) propagating through an open Lambda-type atomic system with a spontaneously generated coherence is investigated when the weak probe and strong driving light fields have different frequencies. It is found that adjusting the detuning or Rabi frequency of the probe light field can realize switching of the GVPLP from subluminal to superluminal. Changing the relative phase between the probe and driving light. elds or atomic exit and injection rates can lead to GVPLP varying in a wider range, but cannot induce transformation of the property of the GVPLP. The absolute value of the GVPLP always increases with Rabi frequency of the driving light field increasing. For subluminal and superluminal propagation, the system always exhibits the probe absorption, and GVPLP is mainly determined by the slope of the steep dispersion.