Photoinduced stable second-harmonic generation in chalcogenide glasses

We report on photoinduced second-harmonic generation (SHG) in chalcogenide glasses. Fundamental and second-harmonic waves from a nanosecond pulsed Nd:YAG laser were used to induce second-order nonlinearity in chalcogenide glasses. The magnitude of SHG in 20Ge . 20As . 60S glass was 10(4) larger than that of tellurite glass with a composition of 15Nb(2)O(5) . 85TeO(2) (mol.%). Moreover, no apparent decay of photoinduced SHG in 20Ge . 20As . 60S glass was observed after optical poling at room temperature. We suggest that the large and stable value of X-(2) is due to the induced defect structures and large X-(3) of the chalcogenide glasses. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America

Blue upconversion luminescence generation in Ce3+: Gd2SiO5 crystals by infrared femtosecond laser irradiation

Blue frequency-upconversion fluorescence emission has been observed in Ce3+-doped Gd2SiO5 single crystals, pumped with 120-fs 800 nm IR laser pulses. The observed fluorescence emission peaks at about 440nm is due to 5d -> 4f transition of Ce3+ ions. The intensity dependence of the blue fluorescence emission on the IR excitation laser power obeys the cubic law, demonstrating three-photon absorption process. Analysis suggested that three-photon simultaneous absorption induced population inversion should be the predominant frequency upconversion mechanism. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.

Structure and magnetic properties of CoNiP nanowire arrays embedded in AAO template

Ternary CoNiP nanowire (NW) arrays have been synthesized by electrochemical deposition inside the nanochannels of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template. The CoNiP NWs deposited at room temperature present soft magnetic properties, with both parallel and perpendicular coercivities less than 500 Oe. In contrast, as the electrolyte temperature (T-elc) increases from 323 to 343 K, the NWs exhibit hard magnetic properties with coercivities in the range of 1000-2500 Oe. This dramatic increase in coercivities can be attributed to the domain wall pinning that is related to the formation of Ni and Co nanocrystallites and the increase of P content. The parallel coercivity (i.e. the applied field perpendicular to the membrane surface) maximum as high as 2500 Oe with squareness ratio up to 0.8 is achieved at the electrolyte temperature of 328 K. It has been demonstrated that the parallel coercivity of CoNiP NWs can be tuned in a wide range of 200-2500 Oe by controlling the electrolyte temperature, providing an easy way to control magnetic properties and thereby for their integration with magnetic-micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Generation of 210 fs laser pulses at 1093 nm by a self-starting mode-locked Yb:GYSO laser

We report the first demonstration, to our knowledge, of the femtosecond laser operation by using a new alloyed Yb:GYSO crystal as the gain medium. With a 5 at. % Yb3+-doped sample and chirped mirrors for dispersion compensation, we obtained pulses as short as 210 fs at the center wavelength of 1093 nm. The average mode-locking power is 300 mW, and the pulse repetition frequency is 80 MHz. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America