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

For in vivo imaging, the short-wavelength infrared region (SWIR; 1000–2000 nm) provides several advantages over the visible and near-infrared regions: general lack of autofluorescence, low light absorption by blood and tissue, and reduced scattering. However, the lack of versatile and functional SWIR emitters has prevented the general adoption of SWIR imaging by the biomedical research community. Here, we introduce a class of high-quality SWIR-emissive indium-arsenide-based quantum dots (QDs) that are readily modifiable for various functional imaging applications, and that exhibit narrow and size-tunable emission and a dramatically higher emission quantum yield than previously described SWIR probes. To demonstrate the unprecedented combination of deep penetration, high spatial resolution, multicolor imaging and fast-acquisition-speed afforded by the SWIR QDs, we quantified, in mice, the metabolic turnover rates of lipoproteins in several organs simultaneously and in real time as well as heartbeat and breathing rates in awake and unrestrained animals, and generated detailed three-dimensional quantitative flow maps of the mouse brain vasculature.

Next-generation in vivo optical imaging with short-wave infrared quantum dots

Ieee transactions on antennas and propagation

This paper proposes a new fault-tolerant strategy to revamp performance of three-phase multilevel converters with a single faulty switch. The proposed fault-tolerant strategy is based on the application of a modified selective harmonic elimination (SHE) technique in conjunction with the fundamental phase-shift compensation method. The proposed fault-tolerant strategy makes the most use of the converter capacity in the faulty condition, generates balanced line voltages, and eliminates a wide range of lower order harmonics to limit the total harmonic distribution of the converter voltages in the faulty condition. In this paper, first, a brief background about cascaded H-bridge multilevel converters and SHE technique is provided. Then, the proposed fault-tolerant strategy and the modified SHE technique are presented. Finally, several experimental results are provided to validate the operation of the proposed strategy.

A New Fault-Tolerant Strategy Based on a Modified Selective Harmonic Technique for Three-Phase Multilevel Converters With a Single Faulty Cell

Measurements of two-photon fluorescence excitation (TPE) spectra are presented for 11 common molecular fluorophores in the excitation wavelength range 690 nm < λ < 1050 nm. Results of excitation by ∼100-fs pulses of a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser are corroborated by single-mode cw Ti:sapphire excitation data in the range 710 nm < λ < 840 nm. Absolute values of the TPE cross section for Rhodamine B and Fluorescein are obtained by comparison with one-photon-excited fluorescence, assuming equal emission quantum efficiencies. TPE action cross sections for the other nine fluorophores are also determined. No differences between one-photon- and two-photon-excited fluorescence emission spectra are found. TPE emission spectra are independent of excitation wavelength. With both pulsed and cw excitation the fluorescence emission intensities are strictly proportional to the square of the excitation intensity to within ±4% for excitation intensities sufficiently below excited-state saturation.

Measurement of two-photon excitation cross sections of molecular fluorophores with data from 690 to 1050 nm

Solid-state femtosecond lasers have stimulated the broad adoption of multiphoton microscopy in the modern laboratory. However, these devices remain costly. Fiber lasers offer promise as a means to inexpensively produce ultrashort pulses of light suitable for nonlinear microscopy in compact, robust and portable devices. Although encouraging, the initial methods reported in the biomedical engineering community to construct home-built femtosecond fiber laser systems overlooked fundamental aspects that compromised performance and misrepresented the significant financial and intellectual investments required to build these devices. Here, we present a practical protocol to fabricate an all-normal-dispersion ytterbium (Yb)-doped femtosecond fiber laser oscillator using commercially-available parts (plus standard optical components and extra-cavity accessories) as well as basic fiber splicing and laser pulse characterization equipment. We also provide a synthesis of established protocols in the laser physics community, but often overlooked in other fields, to verify true versus seemingly (partial or noise-like) mode-locked performance. The approaches described here make custom fabrication of femtosecond fiber lasers more accessible to a wide range of investigators and better represent the investments required for the proper laser design, fabrication and operation.

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Custom fabrication and mode-locked operation of a femtosecond fiber laser for multiphoton microscopy

On linearity of all optical asynchronous binary delta–sigma modulator

All-optical proteretic (reversed-hysteretic) bi-stable device

All optical asynchronous binary delta–sigma modulator

In this paper the electric field simulation of carbon nanotubes triode field emission devices is investigated. The geometry of CNTs and their arrangement on the substrate affect the screening effect and filed enhancement factor (β). In an array of nanotubes, for a distance smaller than the CNT length the screening effect is observed. The emission current density is related to the gate aperture and CNT shape. In a triode structure the screening effect occurs in the intertube distances about half of the CNT’s length due to the presence of the gate plate. Furthermore, the presence of the metal-oxide gate has a favorable effect to minimize the screening effect and allows one to increase the density of CNT’s in each array spot and to increase the cluster array density on the substrate, hence to increase the density of emission current and emitter sites where a high current density is required.

Nima Davoudzadeh

Papers

Custom fabrication and mode-locked operation of a femtosecond fiber laser for multiphoton microscopy

On linearity of all optical asynchronous binary delta–sigma modulator

All-optical proteretic (reversed-hysteretic) bi-stable device

All optical asynchronous binary delta–sigma modulator

Suppressed Field Emission Screening Effect and Electric Field Simulation of Carbon Nanotube-Based Triode Field Emitters