There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Although gold is the subject of one of the most ancient themes of investigation in science, its renaissance now leads to an exponentially increasing number of publications, especially in the context of emerging nanoscience and nanotechnology with nanoparticles and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). We will limit the present review to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), also called gold colloids. AuNPs are the most stable metal nanoparticles, and they present fascinating aspects such as their assembly of multiple types involving materials science, the behavior of the individual particles, size-related electronic, magnetic and optical properties (quantum size effect), and their applications to catalysis and biology. Their promises are in these fields as well as in the bottom-up approach of nanotechnology, and they will be key materials and building block in the 21st century. Whereas the extraction of gold started in the 5th millennium B.C. near Varna (Bulgaria) and reached 10 tons per year in Egypt around 1200-1300 B.C. when the marvelous statue of Touthankamon was constructed, it is probable that “soluble” gold appeared around the 5th or 4th century B.C. in Egypt and China. In antiquity, materials were used in an ecological sense for both aesthetic and curative purposes. Colloidal gold was used to make ruby glass 293 Chem. Rev. 2004, 104, 293−346

Gold nanoparticles: assembly, supramolecular chemistry, quantum-size-related properties, and applications toward biology, catalysis, and nanotechnology.

Deposits of clastic carbonate-dominated (calciclastic) sedimentary slope systems in the rock record have been identified mostly as linearly-consistent carbonate apron deposits, even though most ancient clastic carbonate slope deposits fit the submarine fan systems better. Calciclastic submarine fans are consequently rarely described and are poorly understood. Subsequently, very little is known especially in mud-dominated calciclastic submarine fan systems. Presented in this study are a sedimentological core and petrographic characterisation of samples from eleven boreholes from the Lower Carboniferous of Bowland Basin (Northwest England) that reveals a >250 m thick calciturbidite complex deposited in a calciclastic submarine fan setting. Seven facies are recognised from core and thin section characterisation and are grouped into three carbonate turbidite sequences. They include: 1) Calciturbidites, comprising mostly of highto low-density, wavy-laminated bioclast-rich facies; 2) low-density densite mudstones which are characterised by planar laminated and unlaminated muddominated facies; and 3) Calcidebrites which are muddy or hyper-concentrated debrisflow deposits occurring as poorly-sorted, chaotic, mud-supported floatstones. These

Phd by thesis

The rise in output power from rare-earth-doped fiber sources over the past decade, via the use of cladding-pumped fiber architectures, has been dramatic, leading to a range of fiber-based devices with outstanding performance in terms of output power, beam quality, overall efficiency, and flexibility with regard to operating wavelength and radiation format. This success in the high-power arena is largely due to the fiber’s geometry, which provides considerable resilience to the effects of heat generation in the core, and facilitates efficient conversion from relatively low-brightness diode pump radiation to high-brightness laser output. In this paper we review the current state of the art in terms of continuous-wave and pulsed performance of ytterbium-doped fiber lasers, the current fiber gain medium of choice, and by far the most developed in terms of high-power performance. We then review the current status and challenges of extending the technology to other rare-earth dopants and associated wavelengths of operation. Throughout we identify the key factors currently limiting fiber laser performance in different operating regimes—in particular thermal management, optical nonlinearity, and damage. Finally, we speculate as to the likely developments in pump laser technology, fiber design and fabrication, architectural approaches, and functionality that lie ahead in the coming decade and the implications they have on fiber laser performance and industrial/scientific adoption.

High power fiber lasers: current status and future perspectives [Invited]

An overview of analog microwave photonics will be presented. The performance requirements for externally-modulated analog microwave photonic links will be reviewed with specific emphasis placed on modulator efficiency, laser noise, detected photocurrent, and link linearity.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/6387506/6403300/06403360.pdf

Microwave photonics

In this paper, we summarize the fundamental properties and review the latest developments in high power fiber lasers. The review is focused primarily on the most common fiber laser configurations and the associated cladding pumping issues. Special attention is placed on pump combination techniques and the parameters that affect the brightness enhancement observed in single-mode and multimode high power fiber lasers. The review includes the major limitations imposed by fiber nonlinearities and other parasitic effects, such as optical damage, transverse modal instabilities and photodarkening. Finally, the paper summarizes the power evolution in continuous-wave and pulsed ytterbium-doped fiber lasers and their impact on industrial applications.

High Power Fiber Lasers: A Review

Presents an efficient method for the design of complex fiber Bragg gratings. The method relies on the synthesis of the impulse response of the grating by means of a differential layer-peeling algorithm. The algorithm developed takes into account all the multiple reflections inside the grating, giving an exact solution to the inverse scattering problem. Its low algorithmic complexity enables the synthesis of long fiber gratings. The method is illustrated by designing several filters with interest for optical fiber communication systems: dispersionless bandpass filters and second- and third order dispersion compensators.

An efficient inverse scattering algorithm for the design of nonuniform fiber Bragg gratings

A new and flexible technique for producing photorefractive fibre gratings with a uniform phase mask is demonstrated. By slowly moving the fibre relative to the mask as the writing beam is scanned, wavelength shifts, pure apodisation and phase-shifted gratings can be achieved.

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Moving fibre/phase mask-scanning beam technique for enhanced flexibility in producing fibre gratings with uniform phase mask

Selective excitation of spheroidal whispering gallery modes and bottle modes in a robust bottle microresonator fabricated straightforwardly from a short section of optical fiber is demonstrated. Characteristic resonance spectra of long-cavity bottle modes were obtained by using a tapered fiber to excite evanescently bottle microresonator at different points along its axis. Compared to bare-fiber cylindrical resonators, the bottle microresonator results in a 35x increase of the observed Q factor.

Selective excitation of whispering gallery modes in a novel bottle microresonator

We present experimental results of complex grating structures fabricated with uniform phase masks by the moving fiber-scanning beam approach. Pure apodized gratings with side-mode-suppression levels in excess of 40 dB, self-apodized linearly chirped gratings, and phase shifted gratings with narrow-band transmission peaks have all been realized.

Michalis N. Zervas

Papers

High Power Fiber Lasers: A Review

An efficient inverse scattering algorithm for the design of nonuniform fiber Bragg gratings

Moving fibre/phase mask-scanning beam technique for enhanced flexibility in producing fibre gratings with uniform phase mask

Selective excitation of whispering gallery modes in a novel bottle microresonator

Complex grating structures with uniform phase masks based on the moving fiber-scanning beam technique.