Growth and characterization of non-linear optical crystal Cd3Zn3B4O12

Cd₃Zn₃B₄O₁₂ polycrystals were synthesized by solid-state and wet chemical reaction methods. Cd₃Zn₃B₄O₁₂ single crystals with millimeter grade were grown from the self-flux B₂O₃ (Cd:Zn:B = 1:1:1.5); and larger crystals were obtained from the PbO-0.85PbF₂ fluxes easily. As-grown crystals were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric, X-ray diffraction, infrared and Raman spectral analysis, respectively. The non-linear optical coefficient of the Cd₃Zn₃B₄O₁₂ crystal is 2.6 times as large as that of KH₂PO₄ crystal. Chemical etching shows that this crystal is very stable in neutral solution and not hygroscopic in air at room temperature.     

Phenomenological studies of optical properties of Cu nanowires

We report on the experimental observation of surface plasmon resonance in Cu nanowires fabricated by shadow deposition method. When the incident light is polarized perpendicular to the wire axes, plasmon maxima appeared at about 2.3 eV in the absorption spectra. Plasmon resonance appeared at lower photon energy when the incident light is polarized parallel to the wire axes. Resonance peaks move to lower energy when the nanowire widths are increased. We have found that finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation gives better results than Maxwell–Garnett model in explaining the relation between the light polarization and the energies of the observed absorption maxima.     

PbS/CoS–Pani composite semiconductor films

The synthesis and characterization of polyaniline (Pani) films embedded with PbS/CoS core–shell, having semiconductor characteristics are reported in this study. Mn²⁺ doped, PVA capped PbS/CoS core-shell particles dispersed in Pani matrix served as photoluminescent boosters. The absorption intensity of the core-shell particles–Pani hybrid increased significantly with wide spectrum response and hypsochromic effect. The Mott–Schottky plot showed a negative slope for PbS/CoS-Pani film, indicating typical p-type semiconductivity. The Tauc plot for PbS/CoS-Pani film revealed the direct transition type with a band gap of 2.36 eV. Solid state photovoltaic cells have been fabricated with PbS/CoS-Pani as the hole conductor. The cells show photocurrent of 0.93 mA/cm², voltage of 432 mV and energy conversion efficiency of 0.93%. The scanning electron micrograph revealed periodic arrangement in the polymer matrix. This arrangement of the core-shell particles in the continuous polymer matrix with high carrier density promises this material for the photoelectrochemical applications.     

Optical measuring systems and technologies for some urgent tasks in industry and science

Modern industry and science take novel optical measuring systems and laser technologies with high resolution and productivity for solving actual tasks,including safety problems for mining,oil,atomic and railway in-dustries.The TDI SIE's results in these trends are presented.     

Solution precursor plasma deposition of nanostructured ZnO coatings

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a wide band gap semiconducting material that has various applications including optical, electronic, biomedical and corrosion protection. It is usually synthesized via processing routes, such as vapor deposition techniques, sol-gel, spray pyrolysis and thermal spray of pre-synthesized ZnO powders. Cheaper and faster synthesis techniques are of technological importance due to increased demand in alternative energy applications. Here, we report synthesis of nanostructured ZnO coatings directly from a solution precursor in a single step using plasma spray technique. Nanostructured ZnO coatings were deposited from the solution precursor prepared using zinc acetate and water/isopropanol. An axial liquid atomizer was employed in a DC plasma spray torch to create fine droplets of precursor for faster thermal treatment in the plasma plume to form ZnO. Microstructures of coatings revealed ultrafine particulate agglomerates. X-ray diffraction confirmed polycrystalline nature and hexagonal Wurtzite crystal structure of the coatings. Transmission electron microscopy studies showed fine grains in the range of 10-40 nm. Observed optical transmittance (∼65-80%) and reflectivity (∼65-70%) in the visible spectrum, and electrical resistivity (48.5-50.1 mΩ cm) of ZnO coatings are attributed to ultrafine particulate morphology of the coatings.     

Multi-cabinet implementation for Load-Balanced Optical Switch

Load-Balanced Optical Switch (LBOS) [20] ensures close-to-100% throughout and all-optical transmission between linecards. In this paper, we extend LBOS for multi-cabinet implementation. The challenges lie in the fact that the practical implementation requirements in single-cabinet LBOS become un-scalable for multi-cabinet scenario. First of all, we remove the restriction on LBOS that propagation delay (t_p) between adjacent linecards must equal to the transmission time (t_pkt) for sending one packet. The delay t_p is relaxed to be any value, which can accommodate the long and unequal distances fibers among cabinets. Secondly, we outstrip the upper bound of switch size N = 160 in LBOS. The basic idea is that the adjacent linecards share an identical channel/wavelength. Then LBOS can be scaled to support the large switch size of multi-cabinet. Last but not least, a more feasible fair scheduler is devised to replace the original one in LBOS. The simulation results show that multi-cabinet LBOS yields a much better delay/throughput performance than other multi-cabinet optical switches (e.g. Fasnet [8]).     

Temperature dependence of the thermophysical properties of Neodymium doped borate glasses

We have experimentally measured the temperature dependence of the thermophysical properties of Nd₂O₃ doped borate glasses using a combination of the time resolved thermal lens technique with optical interferometry, thermal relaxation calorimetry and photoluminescence methods. Thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, fluorescence quantum efficiency, linear thermal expansion coefficient and thermal coefficient of the electronic polarizability were determined. The results showed the ability of these techniques to perform measurements very close to the glass transition region providing the absolute values of the measured physical quantities and the glass transition temperatures. In conclusion, it was observed that thermal lens and optical interferometry are advantageous methods for measurements as a function of temperature especially when low temperature scanning rate is required.     

Composition and concentration dependence of spectroscopic properties of Nd-doped tellurite and metaborate glasses

The spectroscopic properties of tellurite glasses of composition (in mol%) TNKNd: (70 − x)TeO₂-15Nb₂O₅-15K₂O-xNd₂O₃ (x = 0.1, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5) and TNLNd10: 69TeO₂-15Nb₂O₅-15Li₂O-1.0Nd₂O₃ and lithium metaborate glass of composition LBNNd10: 89LiBO₂-10Nb₂O₅-1.0Nd₂O₃ have been investigated using absorption and emission spectra and decay curve analysis. An energy level analysis has been carried out considering the experimental energy positions of the absorption and emission bands, using the free-ion Hamiltonian model. The spectral intensities have been calculated by using the Judd-Ofelt theory and in turn the radiative properties such as radiative transition probabilities, emission cross-sections, branching ratios and radiative lifetimes have been estimated. The decay curves at the lower concentrations are exponential while they show a non-exponential behavior at higher concentrations (?1.0 mol%) due to energy transfer processes. The effective lifetimes for the ⁴F_3/2 level are found to decrease with increase in Nd₂O₃ concentration for all the glasses under investigation. The non-exponential decay curves have been well-fitted to the Yokota-Tanimoto model with S = 6, indicating that the nature of energy transfer is of dipole-dipole type and energy migration also plays an important role. The results obtained have been compared with Nd³⁺-doped phosphate, fluorophosphate, lead borate, tellurite, germanate and silicate glasses and Nd³⁺-doped YAG ceramic and Ca₂Nb₂O₇ crystals.     

Effective accelerometer test beds for output enhancement of an inertial navigation system

This paper is submitted upon a research to enhance the output of an accelerometer widely used in inertial navigation units. In our study we introduce relatively simple and effective test beds to collect accurate and diverse reference data. We also carried out calibration runs with a highly accurate electromechanical shaking table. The proposed test beds compare well with sophisticated counterparts. The collected data is used to train artificial neural networks (ANNs) which would improve the accelerometer outputs by estimating the reference data from the actual sensor outputs. The ANN performance is compared with classic low pass filtering methods to provide a relative performance criterion. In this paper we focus on test beds rather than to give the details of the whole study. The test beds introduced in this research can be used for acquiring reference data for implementation of other different filter methods as well.     

Double beam pulsed laser deposition of composite films of poly(methyl methacrylate) and rare earth fluoride upconversion phosphors

The objective of the work is to demonstrate feasibility of producing functional polymer nanocomposite films for light emitting applications using the new double beam pulsed laser deposition (DPLD) technique. The existing pulsed laser deposition vacuum chamber has been modified to accommodate two laser beams of different wavelengths for the in situ ablation of two targets: a polymer host and a rare earth based highly efficient upconversion emitting inorganic dopant. Special provisions were made for cooling the target to control the ablation of the polymer without interrupting the process. Nanocomposite films of acrylic polymer and nanoparticles of the compounds of the rare earth elements were fabricated by the proposed method with near-infra-red laser radiation (1064-nm wavelength) ablating the polymer targets and visible radiation (532 nm) ablating the inorganic targets. The fabricated nanocomposite films were characterized using atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, optical fluorescence spectroscopy, and visual observation of the fluorescence. It was discovered that the produced polymer nanocomposite films retained the crystalline structure and the upconversion fluorescence properties of the initial rare earth compounds mainly due to the better control of the deposition process of the materials with substantially different properties. The proposed method can be potentially used for making a wide variety of composite films.