ALBERT

Description: A new method of pump-coupling in diode-pumped alkali vapor amplifier is reported, which uses ring-LD to tightly surround the alkali vapor cell for directly coupled side-pumping. The kinetic and fluid dynamic modeling, numerical approaches of the ring-LD side-pumped configuration are proposed and applied to the static and the flowing-gas Cs vapor amplifiers. Pump intensity and temperature distribution in the cell are simulated. Influences of some important factors on laser power are calculated and analyzed. Comparisons of different pumped configurations are made, demonstrating the highest utilizing efficiency of pump power of the ring-LD side-pumped configuration. Thus the model is very helpful for designing high-power side-pumped alkali vapor amplifiers.

Description: Within the frame of the one-electron approximation, we calculate the electron binding energies of the \(\hbox {Na}_{55}^-\) cluster which allows for the identification of the icosahedral structure of the cluster through comparison with experimental photoelectron spectroscopy data. The surface of the icosahedral cluster is represented as a slightly deformed spherical surface, and the corresponding splitting of the energy levels caused by this symmetry reduction is calculated. Subsequently, we demonstrate that the calculated energies of photoelectrons agree very well with the experimental values. This gives an unambiguous demonstration of the role of the cluster structure in photoelectron spectra, whereas electronic shell filling effects are less important.

Description: Turbulent mixing is highly important in flows that involve heat and mass transfer. Information on turbulent heat flux is needed to validate the mixing models implemented in numerical simulations. The calculation of turbulent heat fluxes requires instantaneous information on temperature and velocity. Even using minimally intrusive laser optical methods, simultaneous measurement of temperature and velocity is still a challenge. In this study, thermographic phosphor particles are used for simultaneous thermometry and velocimetry: conventional particle image velocimetry is combined with temperature-dependent spectral shifts of BAM:Eu 2+ phosphor particles upon UV excitation. The novelty of this approach is the analysis of systematic errors and verification using the well-known properties of a heated turbulent jet issuing into a low velocity, cold coflow. The analysis showed that systematic errors caused by laser fluence, multiple scattering, or preferential signal absorption can be reduced such that reliable measurement of scalar fluxes becomes feasible, which is a prerequisite for applying the method to more complex heat transfer problems.

Description: Multicolor deep-ultraviolet femtosecond pulses are generated in a spectral range of 220–300 nm with pulse energies exceeding 1 μJ. Pulses with shorter wavelengths are also generated with the shortest wavelength of 185 nm. These pulses are generated through cascaded four-wave mixing induced in hydrogen gas by use of three-color femtosecond pump pulses at 1200, 800, and 267 nm. The third pulse dramatically enhances the intensities of the multicolor deep-ultraviolet pulses. The cross-phase modulation induced by the two intense near-infrared pulses broadens the spectral width of each multicolor emission, resulting in a spectral width supporting a transform-limited duration shorter than 10 fs.

Description: In this work, we present a modification to conventional X-rays fluorescence using electrons as excitation source and compare it with the traditional X-ray excitation for the study of pigments. For this purpose, we have constructed a laser-based source capable to produce X-rays as well as electrons. Because of the large penetration depth of X-rays, the collected fluorescence signal is a combination of several material layers of the artwork under study. However, electrons are stopped in the first layers, allowing a more superficial analysis. We show that the combination of both excitation sources can provide extremely valuable information about the structure of the artwork.

Description: A correction for the undesirable effects of direct and indirect cross-interference from water vapour on ammonia (NH 3 ) measurements was developed using an optical laser sensor based on cavity ring-down spectroscopy. This correction relied on new measurements of the collisional broadening due to water vapour of two NH 3 spectral lines in the near infra-red (6548.6 and 6548.8 cm −1 ), and on the development of novel stable primary standard gas mixtures (PSMs) of ammonia prepared by gravimetry in passivated gas cylinders at 100 μmol mol −1 . The PSMs were diluted dynamically to provide calibration mixtures of dry and humidified ammonia atmospheres of known composition in the nmol mol −1 range and were employed as part of establishing a metrological traceability chain to improve the reliability and accuracy of ambient ammonia measurements. The successful implementation of this correction will allow the extension of this rapid on-line spectroscopic technique to exposure chamber validation tests under controlled conditions and ambient monitoring in the field.

Description: In this paper, we analyze the influence of large-scale segmentation errors in the morphology of high-performance optical gratings. It is thus assumed that the optical grating under consideration (typical lateral extends S are 10–1000 mm) can be spatially decomposed into a great many but unique sub-segments ( \(\ll S\) ; typical extends are 10–100  \(\upmu \mathrm{m}\) ). Any violation of the perfect periodicity will result in the generation of stray light, especially Rowland ghosts, which radiate into a small angular region around the grating’s diffraction orders. In this paper, we focus on three different kinds of segmentation errors. On the one hand, there are statistic as well as deterministic alignment errors between otherwise perfect sub-segments. On the other hand, we analyze the effect of chirping of geometrical parameters, i.e., the groove width, within every sub-segment. Most importantly, we find that the particular type of imperfection results in a unique characteristic of the according stray light spectrum which thus acts as a fingerprint. We come to this conclusion on three different ways. First, we rely on a simple theoretical model that is based on scalar diffraction theory. Second, we have performed rigorous numerical simulations for a high aspect ratio purely dielectric spectrometer grating ( \(\hbox {period} = {667}\,\mathrm{nm}\) ). Third, the very same grating was then fabricated by e-beam lithography and its stray light spectrum was measured with a purposely designed optical setup. Eventually, all different routes to analyze the problem turn out to be in very good agreement, and we are confident that stray light measurements can be used as an important tool in the detection of fabrication imperfections.

Description: We report diffusion coefficients of optically pumped lithium atoms in helium buffer gas. The free-induction decay and the spin-echo signals of ground-state atoms were optically detected in an external magnetic field with the addition of field gradient. Lithium hot vapor was produced in a borosilicate-glass cell at a temperature between 290 and \(360\,^{\circ }\hbox {C}\) . The simple setup using the glass cells enabled lithium atomic spectroscopy in a similar way to other alkali-metal atoms and study of the collisional properties of lithium atoms in a hot-vapor phase.

Description: We propose and demonstrate a laser frequency stabilization scheme which generates a dispersion-like tunable Doppler-free dichroic lock (TDFDL) signal. This signal offers a wide tuning range for lock point (i.e. zero-crossing) without compromising on the slope of the locking signal. The method involves measurement of magnetically induced dichroism in an atomic vapour for a weak probe laser beam in the presence of a counter-propagating strong pump laser beam. A simple model is presented to explain the basic principles of this method to generate the TDFDL signal. The spectral shift in the locking signal is achieved by tuning the frequency of the pump beam. The TDFDL signal is shown to be useful for locking the frequency of a cooling laser used for magneto-optical trap (MOT) for 87 Rb atoms.

Description: Detection of multiple transitions in NO and H 2 O using multi-mode absorption spectroscopy, MUMAS, with a quantum cascade laser, QCL, operating at 5.3 μm at scan rates up to 10 kHz is reported. The linewidth of longitudinal modes of the QCL is derived from pressure-dependent fits to experimental MUMAS data. Variations in the spectral structure of the broadband, multi-mode, output of the commercially available QCL employed are analysed to provide accurate fits of modelled MUMAS signatures to the experimental data.