Growth and defect characterization of L-arginine phosphate monohydrate

L-arginine phosphate monohydrate (LAP) is a relatively new organic nonlinear optical material. In this paper, the results of our recent investigations on the growth of this crystal are presented. The growth of the undesirable micro-organisms was prevented by protecting the solution surface by placing a thick layer of n-hexane over it. Colouration of the solution could be avoided by keeping the growth temperature low and by protecting it from light. The effect of pH value of the solution on the solubility and habit was analysed. The grown crystals were characterized by means of X-ray topography.

Defect characterization of KTP single crystals

Potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) is a relatively new nonlinear optical material with excellent combination of physical properties. This paper presents the combined etching and X-ray topographic studies carried out on KTP crystals with a view to characterizing their defects. KTP crystals employed in this investigation were grown from flux. Optical microscopic study of habit faces revealed growth layers and growth hillocks on (100) and (011) faces respectively. Etching of (011) habit faces proved that growth hillocks corresponded to the emergence point of dislocation out crops on these faces. The suitability of the new etchant to reveal dislocation was confirmed by etching the matched pairs obtained by cleaving. The defects present in the crystal were also studied by X-ray topography. The defect configuration in these crystals is characteristic of crystals grown from solution. The dislocations arc predominantly linear with their origin either at the nucleation centre or inclusions. In general, grown crystals were found to have low dislocation density and often large volumes of crystals free from dislocation could be obtained.

Gray track formation in KTiOPO4 by swift ion irradiation

Potassium titanyl phosphate single crystals were irradiated with 48 MeV lithium ions at fluences varying from 5×1012 to 1016 ions/cm2. The defects created in the crystal have been characterized using x-ray rocking curve measurements, optical transmittance, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. From x-ray rocking curve studies, the full width at half maximum for the irradiated samples was observed to increase, indicating lattice strain caused by the energetic ions. Optical transparency of these samples was found to decrease upon irradiation. The irradiated samples exhibited a broadband luminescence in the 700–900 nm region, for fluences above 5×1013 ions/cm2. The results indicate that ion-beam-induced optical effects in KTiOPO4 single crystals are very similar to the ones obtained for crystals with “gray tracks,” which are attributed to the electronic transitions in the Ti3+ levels.

Dielectric properties of Li2O–3B2O3 glasses

The frequency and temperature dependences of the dielectric constant and the electrical conductivity of the transparent glasses in the composition Li2O–3B2O3 were investigated in the 100 Hz–10 MHz frequency range. The dielectric constant and the loss in the low frequency regime were electrode material dependent. Dielectric and electrical relaxations were, respectively, analyzed using the Cole–Cole and electric modulus formalisms. The dielectric relaxation mechanism was discussed in the framework of electrode and charge carrier (hopping of the ions) related polarization using generalized Cole–Cole expression. The frequency dependent electrical conductivity was rationalized using Jonscher’s power law. The activation energy associated with the dc conductivity was 0.80±0.02 eV, which was ascribed to the motion of Li+ ions in the glass matrix. The activation energy associated with dielectric relaxation was almost equal to that of the dc conductivity, indicating that the same species took part in both the processes. Temperature dependent behavior of the frequency exponent (n) suggested that the correlated barrier hopping model was the most apposite to rationalize the electrical transport phenomenon in Li2O–3B2O3 glasses. These glasses on heating at 933 K/10 h resulted in the known nonlinear optical phase LiB3O5.

Near-resonant two-photon absorption in luminescent CdTe quantum dots

We report the nonlinear optical absorption studies in two differently sized water-soluble cadmium telluride quantum dot (QD) samples, exhibiting first excitonic absorption peaks at 493 nm and 551 nm, respectively. An optical limiting behavior is observed for near-resonant excitation at 532 nm using nanosecond laser pulses, originating from the effective two-photon absorption (TPA) mechanism. The effective TPA coefficient (beta(eff)) is measured to be in the range of 10(-12) m/W. This is one order of magnitude higher than the TPA coefficient (beta) reported for off-resonant excitation. At this excitation wavelength, the smaller QD shows a relatively weaker photoluminescence and stronger nonlinear absorption. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3687695]

Porous Three Dimensional Arrays of Plasmonic Nanoparticles

Plasmonic interactions in a well-defined array of metallic nanoparticles can lead to interesting optical effects, such as local electric field enhancement and shifts in the extinction spectra, which are of interest in diverse technological applications, including those pertaining to biochemical sensing and photonic circuitry. Here, we report on a single-step wafer scale fabrication of a three-dimensional array of metallic nanoparticles whose sizes and separations can be easily controlled to be anywhere between fifty to a few hundred nanometers, allowing the optical response of the system to be tailored with great control in the visible region of the spectrum. The substrates, apart from having a large surface area, are inherently porous and therefore suitable for optical sensing applications, such as surface enhanced Raman scattering, containing a high density of spots with enhanced local electric fields arising from plasmonic couplings.

Polymorphism and tautomeric preference in fenobam and the utility of NLO response to detect polymorphic impurities

Crystal structures of polymorphs and solvatomorphs of the potential anxiolytic drug fenobam exhibit an exclusive preference for one of the two possible tautomeric structures. A novel methodology based on nonlinear optical response has been successfully employed to detect the presence of a polymorphic impurity in a mixture of polymorphs.

Simple theoretical analysis of the effective electron mass in semiconductor nanowires

In this paper we study the effective electron mass (EEM) in Nano wires (NWs) of nonlinear optical materials on the basis of newly formulated electron dispersion relation by considering all types of anisotropies of the energy band constants within the framework of k . p formalism. The results for NWs of III-V, ternary and quaternary semiconductors form special cases of our generalized analysis. We have also investigated the EEM in NWs of Bi, IV-VI, stressed Kane type materials, Ge, GaSb and Bi2Te3 by formulating the appropriate 1D dispersion law in each case by considering the influence of energy band constants in the respective cases. It has been found that the 1D EEM in nonlinear optical materials depend on the size quantum numbers and Fermi energy due to the anisotropic spin orbit splitting constant and the crystal field splitting respectively. The 1D EEM is Bi, IV-VI, stressed Kane type semiconductors and Ge also depends on both the Fermi energy and the size quantum numbers which are the characteristic features of such NWs. The EEM increases with increase in concentration and decreasing film thickness and for ternary and quaternary compounds the EEM increases with increase in alloy composition. Under certain special conditions all the results for all the materials get simplified into the well known parabolic energy bands and thus confirming the compatibility test.

Growth and characterization of L-histidinium 2-nitrobenzoate single crystals: A new NLO material

Crystals of a new nonlinear optical (NLO) material, viz., L-histidinium 2-nitrobenzoate (LHNB) (1) were grown by slow evaporation of an aqueous solution containing equimolar concentrations of L-histidine and 2-nitrobenzoic acid. The structure of the title compound which crystallizes in the non-centrosymmetric monoclinic space group P2(1) was elucidated using single crystal X-ray intensity data. The UV-Vis-NIR spectrum of 1 reveals its transparent nature while the vibrational spectra confirm the presence of the functional groups in 1. The thermal stability and second harmonic generation (SHG) conversion efficiency of 1 were also investigated. (C) 2012 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Effect of ultrasonic treatment on surface crystallization of calcium bismuth borate glasses

Transparent glasses in CaO-Bi2O3-B2O3 system were fabricated via the conventional melt-quenching technique. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) carried out on the as-quenched samples confirmed their amorphous and glassy nature respectively. The surface crystallization behaviour of these glasses with and without ultrasonic surface treatment (UST) was monitored using XRD, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The volume fraction, depth of crystallization and the (001) orientation factor for the heat treated samples with and without UST were compared. The ultrasonically-treated samples on subsequent heat treatment were found to crystallize at lower temperatures associated with the highest degree of orientation factor (0.95) in contrast with those of non-UST samples. These surface crystallized glasses were found to exhibit nonlinear optical behaviour emitting green light (532 nm) when they were exposed to the infrared radiation (1064 nm) using Nd:YAG laser.

Dopant-configuration controlled carrier scattering in graphene

Controlling optical and electronic properties of graphene via substitutional doping is central to many fascinating applications. Doping graphene with boron (B) or nitrogen (N) has led to p- or n-type graphene; however, the electron mobility in doped-graphene is severely compromised due to increased electron-defect scattering. Here, we demonstrate through Raman spectroscopy, nonlinear optical and ultrafast spectroscopy, and density functional theory that the graphitic dopant configuration is stable in graphene and does not significantly alter electron-electron or electron-phonon scattering, that is otherwise present in doped graphene, by preserving the crystal coherence length (L-a).

High speed liquid crystal over silicon display based on the flexoelectro-optic effect.

One of the key technologies to evolve in the displays market in recent years is liquid crystal over silicon (LCOS) microdisplays. Traditional LCOS devices and applications such as rear projection televisions, have been based on intensity modulation electro-optical effects, however, recent developments have shown that multi-level phase modulation from these devices is extremely sought after for applications such as holographic projectors, optical correlators and adaptive optics. Here, we propose alternative device geometry based on the flexoelectric-optic effect in a chiral nematic liquid crystal. This device is capable of delivering a multilevel phase shift at response times less than 100 microsec which has been verified by phase shift interferometry using an LCOS test device. The flexoelectric on silicon device, due to its remarkable characteristics, enables the next generation of holographic devices to be realized.

Imaging properties of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscope

The coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscope with the combination of confocal and CARS techniques is a remarkable alternative for imaging chemical or biological specimens that neither fluoresce nor tolerate labelling. CARS is a nonlinear optical process, the imaging properties of CARS microscopy will be very different from the conventional confocal microscope. In this paper, the intensity distribution and the polarization property of the optical field near the focus was calculated. By using the Green function, the precise analytic solution to the wave equation of a Hertzian dipole source was obtained. We found that the intensity distributions vary considerably with the different experimental configurations and the different specimen shapes. So the conventional description of microscope (e.g. the point spread function) will fail to describe the imaging properties of the CARS microscope.

The intensity distributions of collected signals in coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy with the combining of confocal and CARS techniques is a remarkable alternative for imaging chemical or biological specimens that neither fluoresce nor tolerate labeling. The CARS is a nonlinear optical process, the imaging properties of CARS microscopy will be very different from the conventional confocal microscopy. In this paper, we calculated the propagation of CARS signals by using the wave equation in medium and the slowly varying envelope approximation (SVEA), and find that the intensity angular distributions vary considerably with the different experimental configurations and the different specimen shapes. So the conventional description of microscopy (e.g.. the point spread function) will fail to descript the imaging properties of CARS microscopy. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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.