Preparation and spectroscopic properties of Yb-doped and Yb-Al-codoped high silica glasses

Yb-doped and Yb-Al-codoped high silica glasses have been prepared by sintering nanoporous glasses. The absorption, fluorescent spectra and fluorescent lifetimes have been measured and the emission cross-section and minimum pump intensities were calculated. Codoping aluminum ions enhanced the fluorescence intensity of Yb-doped high silica glass obviously. The emission cross-sections of Yb-doped and Yb-Al-codoped high silica glasses were 0.65 and 0.82 pm(2), respectively. The results show that Yb-Al-codoped high silica glass has better spectroscopic properties for a laser material. The study of high silica glass doped with ytterbium is helpful for its application in Yb laser systems, especially for high-power and high-repetition lasers. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Spectroscopic properties of Nd3+-doped high silica glass prepared by sintering porous glass

A new kind of Nd3+, -doped high silica glass (SiO2 > 96% (mass fraction)) was obtained by sintering porous glass impregnated with Nd3+, ions. The absorption and luminescence properties of high silica glass doped with different Nd3+, concentrations were studied. The intensity parameters Omega(t) (t = 2, 4, 6), spontaneous emission probability, fluorescence lifetime, radiative quantum efficiency, fluorescence branching ratio, and stimulated emission cross section were calculated using the Judd-Ofelt theory. The optimal Nd3+ concentration in high silica glass was 0.27% (mole fraction) because of its high quantum efficiency and emission intensity. By comparing the spectroscopic parameters with other Nd3+ doped oxide glasses and commercial silicate glasses, the Nd3+-doped high silica glasses are likely to be a promising material used for high power and high repetition rate lasers.

High prevalence of HIV-1 and hepatitis C virus coinfection among injection drug users in the southeastern region of Yunnan, China

The southeastern region of Yunnan province is a key site for drug trafficking and HIV-1 infection spread from the west of Yunnan and Laos to southeastern China. To investigate the prevalence of HIV-1 infection and hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection among injection drug users (IDUs) in southeastern Yunnan, three cohorts of 285 addicts, including 242 IDUs and 43 oral drug users, living in the cities of Gejiu and Kaiyuan and the county of Yanshan were studied. HIV-1 and HCV infections were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and/or polymerase chain reaction. Data on the age, sex, risk behavior, drug use history, employment, ethnic background, and marriage status were obtained by interview. The overall prevalence of HIV-1 infection was 71.9%. The rate of HCV coinfection among 138 HIV-1-infected IDUs was 99.3%. Most HIV-infected IDUs were 20 to 35 years old (86.7%) and were ethnic Han (75.9%), suggesting that the epidemic in Yunnan is no longer confined to non-Han ethnic minorities, HIV prevalence in female IDUs (81.2%) was significantly higher than in male IDUs (68.2%) (p <.05). The prevalence of HIV infection reached 68.4% after 1 year of injection drug use. Needle/syringe sharing is the major high risk factor for the spread of HIV-1 and HCV infections. Large-scale educational campaigns are urgently needed to reduce the spread of HIV and HCV infection in these regions.

High transmission of slow light in the photonic crystal waveguide bends

We present the research on the transmission characteristic of slow-light-mode in the photonic crystal line-defect waveguide bends on SOL After optimizing the structure parameters in the vicinity of the bends, the normalized transmission efficiency of slow-light-mode through the photonic crystal 60 degree and 120 degree waveguide bends are as high as 80% and 60% respectively, which are 10 times higher than that in the undeformed case. To slow down light further, we design novel coupled cavity waveguide bend structures with high quality-factor. High normalized transmission efficiency of 75% and low group velocity of c/170 ( c is the light velocity in vacuum) are realized. These results are beneficial to enhance the slow light effect of photonic crystal structures and improve the miniaturization and integration of photonic crystal slow light devices.

High efficiency operation of butt joint line-defect-waveguide microlaser in two-dimensional photonic crystal slab

Butt joint line-defect-waveguide microlasers are demonstrated on photonic crystal slabs with airholes in a triangular lattice. Such microlaser is designed to increase the output power from the waveguide edge directly. The output power is remarkably enhanced to 214 times higher by introducing chirped structure in the output waveguide. The lasing mode operates in the linear dispersion region of the output waveguide so that the absorption loss due to the band-edge effect is reduced. The laser resonance is illustrated theoretically using the finite difference time domain method. A practical high power efficiency of 20% is obtained in this microlaser. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

High performance 1689-nm quantum well diode lasers

1689-nm diode lasers used in medical apparatus have been fabricated and characterized. The lasers had pnpn InP current confinement structure, and the active region consisted of 5 pairs of InGaAs quantum wells and InGaAsP barriers. Stripe width and cavity length of the laser were 1.8 and 300 pm, respectively. After being cavity coated. and transistor outline (TO) packaged, the lasers showed high performance in practice. The threshold current was about 13 +/- 4 mA, the operation current and the lasing spectrum were about 58 6 mA and 1689 +/- 6 nm at 6-mW output power, respectively. Moreover, the maximum output power of the lasers was above 20 mW.

Design of quantum cascade microcavity lasers based on Q factor versus etching depth

The choice of the etching depth for semiconductor microcavities is a compromise between a high Q factor and a difficult technique in a practical fabricating process. In this paper, the influences of the etching depth on mode Q factors for mid-infrared quantum cascade microcylinder and microsquare lasers around 4.8 and 7.8 mu m are simulated by three-dimensional (3D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) techniques. For the microcylinder and the microsquare resonators, the mode Q factors of the whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) increase exponentially and linearly with the increase in the etching depth, respectively Furthermore, the mode Q factors of some higher order transverse WGMs may be larger than that of the fundamental transverse WGM in 3D microsquares. Based on the field distribution of the vertical multilayer slab waveguide and the mode Q factors versus the etching depth, the necessary etching depth is chosen at the position where the field amplitude is 1% of the peak value of the slab waveguide. In addition, the influences of sidewall roughness on the mode Q factors are simulated for microsquare resonators by 2D FDTD simulation. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America

High-performance quantum-dot superluminescent diodes

By inclining the injection stripe of a multiple layer stacked self-assembled InAs quantum dot (SAQD) laser diode structure of 6degrees with respect to the facets, high-power and broad-band superluminescent diodes (SLDs) have been fabricated. It indicates that high-performance SLD could be easily realized by using SAQD as the active region.

High-Q TM whispering-gallery modes in three-dimensional microcylinders

We present a generation condition for realizing high-Q TM whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) in semiconductor microcylinders. For microcylinders with symmetry or weak asymmetry vertical waveguiding, we show that TM WGMs can have a high Q factor, with the magnitude of 10(4) at the radius of the microcylinder of 1 mu m, by three-dimensional numerical simulation. The Q factor of TE WGMs is much less than that of TM WGMs in the semiconductor microcylinders due to a vertical radiation loss caused by mode coupling with the vertical propagating mode. The results open up a possible application of TM WGMs in semiconductor microcylinders for efficient current injection microlasers and single photon sources.

End-pumped continuous-wave passively modelocked Nd : YVO4 laser with low pump power

A simple cw mode-locked solid-state laser, which is end-pumped by a low-power laser diode, was demonstrated by optimizing the laser-mode size inside the gain medium. The optimum ratio between mode and pump spot sizes inside the laser crystal was estimated for a cw mode-locked laser, taking into account the input pump power. Calculation and experiment have shown that the optimum ratio was about 3 when the pump power is 2 W, which is different from the value regularly used in passively mode-locked solid-state lasers. This conclusion is also helpful in increasing the efficiency of high-power ultrashort lasers. (C) 2006 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Influence of output waveguide on mode quality factor in semiconductor microlasers with an equilateral triangle resonator

Semiconductor microlasers with an equilateral triangle resonator (ETR) and an output waveguide are proposed and analyzed by the finite-difference time-domain technique and the Pade approximation. The numerical results show that microlasers with an output waveguide still have a high-quality factor (Q factor) and are suitable to realize directional emission. For the ETR with a 0.46-mum-width opening in one of the vertices connected to the output waveguide, we have the Q factor of 1.5x10(3) and 2.5x10(2) for the TM fundamental mode at the wavelength of 1.55 mum, as the side length of the ETR is 5 and 3 mum. The simulated intensity distributions are presented for the fundamental mode in the ETR with a side length of 3 mum and an opening of 0.23 mum. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)01749-6].

A voltage-adjustable three-phase rectifier with constant power flow

An three phase adjustable output voltage rectifier with constant power flow based on waveform gap patching principle is resented. By patching the gapes in the phase currents in parallel way as well as the ripple of the output voltage in series way, it implements the constant power flow from the three-phase line to the DC output without using any line frequency (and its harmonics) energy storage components. Principally, by treating only 22.4% power of the needed power output, this rectifier can supply constant power flow with adjustable output voltages without bring about any harmonic interferences to the power utility and achieve unite power factor.

A novel ultra low power temperature sensor for UHF RFID tag chip

A novel ultra low power temperature sensor for UHF RFID tag chip is presented. The sensor consists of a constant pulse generator, a temperature related oscillator, a counter and a bias. Conversion of temperature to digital output is fulfilled by counting the number of the clocks of the temperature related oscillator in a constant pulse period. The sensor uses time domain comparing, where high power consumption bandgap voltage references and traditional ADCs are not needed. The sensor is realized in a standard 0.18 mu m CMOS process, and the area is only 0.2mm(2). The accuracy of the temperature sensor is +/- 1 degrees C after calibration. The power consumption of the sensor is only 0.9 mu W.

On-Chip All-Optical Passive 3.55 Gbit/s NRZ-to-PRZ Format Conversion Using a High-Q Silicon-Based Microring Resonator

We report the experimental result of all-optical passive 3.55 Gbit/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) to pseudo-return-to-zero (PRZ) format conversion using a high-quality-factor (Q-factor) silicon-based microring resonator notch filter on chip. The silicon-based microring resonator has 23800 Q-factor and 22 dB extinction ratio (ER), and the PRZ signals has about 108 ps width and 4.98 dB ER.

Stress and resistivity controls on in situ boron doped LPCVD polysilicon films for high-Q MEMS applications

The simultaneous control of residual stress and resistivity of polysilicon thin films by adjusting the deposition parameters and annealing conditions is studied. In situ boron doped polysilicon thin films deposited at 520 ℃ by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) are amorphous with relatively large compressive residual stress and high resistivity. Annealing the amorphous films in a temperature range of 600-800 ℃ gives polysilicon films nearly zero-stress and relatively low resistivity. The low residual stress and low resistivity make the polysilicon films attractive for potential applications in micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) devices, especially in high resonance frequency (high-f) and high quality factor (high-Q MEMS resonators. In addition, polysilicon thin films deposited at 570 ℃ and those without the post annealing process have low resistivities of 2-5 mΩ·cm. These reported approaches avoid the high temperature annealing process (> 1000℃), and the promising properties of these films make them suitable for high-Q and high-f MEMS devices.