The effect of Cr concentration on emission cross-section and fluorescence lifetime in Cr,Yb : YAG crystal

The emission cross-section, and fluorescence lifetime of Cr,Yb:YAG with different concentration of Cr4+ and Yb:YAG were measured. With the increase of Cr concentration in Cr,Yb:YAG, the emission cross-section keeps constant and fluorescence lifetime decreases. The quantum efficiency decreases and the energy transfer efficiency from Yb3+ to Cr4+ increase as the Cr concentration increases in Cr-Yb-co-doped Cr,Yb:YAG system. The nonradiative Yb3+ --> Cr4+ energy transfer-is consistent with an electric dipole-dipole interaction mechanism. The optimum Cr concentration for Cr,Yb:YAG was estimated. Also the potential of Cr,Yb:YAG as a self-Q-switched laser crystal was discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Laser performance of monolithic Cr,Nd : YAG self-Q-switched laser

The self-Q-switched laser performance of monolithic Cr4+.,Nd3+:YAG concave-planar resonator with 5-mm length was studied experimentally and theoretically. The slope efficiency is as high as 24% and pump threshold is as low as 64 mW. The pulse width, the single pulse energy and the pulse repetition rate of monolithic Cr,Nd:YAG self-Q-switched laser were measured as a function of absorbed pump power. With the increase of pump power, the pulse width decreases and the pulse energy and the pulse repetition rate increase. The average output power of 91 mW with pulse width of 7 ns at repletion rate of 35.5 kHz was obtained at the maximum absorbed pump power of 440 mW, the peak power is as high as 370 W. The theoretical prediction of pulse energy, pulse width and pulse repetition rate as a function of absorbed pump power based on rate equations is in a good agreement with our experimental data. This can lead to develop the diode laser-pumped monolithic self-Q-switched solid-state microchip lasers. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Dependence of the Yb3+ emission cross section and lifetime on temperature and concentration in yttrium aluminum garnet

Measurements are reported of the spectroscopic properties (absorption and emission spectra, stimulated-emission cross section, and radiative lifetime) of (YbxY1-x)(3)Al5O12 for nominal x values of 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 at temperatures of 15-300 K. The emission cross sections of Yb:YAG with different Yb 31 concentrations were determined by use of the Fuchtbauer-Ladenburg formula and the reciprocity method. At low temperatures, the product (sigmatau) of the effective stimulated-emission cross section and the radiative lifetime is greater than at room temperature for all concentrations. Product sigmatau is nearly independent of Yb3+ concentration at a given temperature. These results will aid in the design of high-power thin disk lasers by use of highly doped Yb:YAG. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America

Performance of the self-Q-switched Cr,Yb : YAG laser

We report on the spectral properties of Cr, Yb:YAG crystal co-doped with 0.025 at.% Cr and 10 at.% Yb are reported. Using a continuous wave Ti:sapphire laser as a pumping source, we have demonstrated the self-Q-switched Cr,Yb:YAG laser at room temperature. 1 c obtained an average output power as much as 75 mW at 1.03 mum with a pulse width (FWHM) as short as 0.4 mus. The laser experiment demonstrated that the Cr,Yb:YAG crystal exactly combines the Cr4+ saturable absorber and Yb3+ gain medium. The Cr, Yb: YAG crystal can be a most promising self-Q-switched laser crystal for compact and efficient solid-state lasers

Unveiling Protein Functions through the Dynamics of the Interaction Network

Protein interaction networks have become a tool to study biological processes, either for predicting molecular functions or for designing proper new drugs to regulate the main biological interactions. Furthermore, such networks are known to be organized in sub-networks of proteins contributing to the same cellular function. However, the protein function prediction is not accurate and each protein has traditionally been assigned to only one function by the network formalism. By considering the network of the physical interactions between proteins of the yeast together with a manual and single functional classification scheme, we introduce a method able to reveal important information on protein function, at both micro- and macro-scale. In particular, the inspection of the properties of oscillatory dynamics on top of the protein interaction network leads to the identification of misclassification problems in protein function assignments, as well as to unveil correct identification of protein functions. We also demonstrate that our approach can give a network representation of the meta-organization of biological processes by unraveling the interactions between different functional classes

First Large-Scale DNA Barcoding Assessment of Reptiles in the Biodiversity Hotspot of Madagascar, Based on Newly Designed COI Primers

BACKGROUND: DNA barcoding of non-avian reptiles based on the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene is still in a very early stage, mainly due to technical problems. Using a newly developed set of reptile-specific primers for COI we present the first comprehensive study targeting the entire reptile fauna of the fourth-largest island in the world, the biodiversity hotspot of Madagascar. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Representatives of the majority of Madagascan non-avian reptile species (including Squamata and Testudines) were sampled and successfully DNA barcoded. The new primer pair achieved a constantly high success rate (72.7-100%) for most squamates. More than 250 species of reptiles (out of the 393 described ones; representing around 64% of the known diversity of species) were barcoded. The average interspecific genetic distance within families ranged from a low of 13.4% in the Boidae to a high of 29.8% in the Gekkonidae. Using the average genetic divergence between sister species as a threshold, 41-48 new candidate (undescribed) species were identified. Simulations were used to evaluate the performance of DNA barcoding as a function of completeness of taxon sampling and fragment length. Compared with available multi-gene phylogenies, DNA barcoding correctly assigned most samples to species, genus and family with high confidence and the analysis of fewer taxa resulted in an increased number of well supported lineages. Shorter marker-lengths generally decreased the number of well supported nodes, but even mini-barcodes of 100 bp correctly assigned many samples to genus and family. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The new protocols might help to promote DNA barcoding of reptiles and the established library of reference DNA barcodes will facilitate the molecular identification of Madagascan reptiles. Our results might be useful to easily recognize undescribed diversity (i.e. novel taxa), to resolve taxonomic problems, and to monitor the international pet trade without specialized expert knowledge

Reply to comments on 'Ti : sapphire crystal used in ultrafast lasers and amplifiers'

This letter is intended as a reply to the comments of C.P. Khattak and F. Schmid directed to our original paper [1] which described the growth of large size, high quality Ti:sapphire crystals by temperature gradient technology (TGT) used in high peak power laser and amplifier systems. The important issue for growing large size, high quality Ti:sapphire crystal is to control the titanium concentration along the growth direction. The large size, high quality Ti:sapphire crystals can be grown by Heat exchange method (HEM) and temperature gradient technology (TGT). The growth orientation of Ti:sapphire crystal along 〈0 0 0 1〉 is more difficult than growth along other orientations. The difficulty of growing 〈0 0 0 1〉 oriented sapphire crystal is attributed to the weakened effect of the main glide system and the close packed direction along the 〈0 0 0 1〉 orientation. The 〈0 0 0 1〉 oriented sapphire crystal is the desirable orientation for minimizing birefringence and this orientation is used for many optical applications such as laser gain medium, windows, etc. Therefore, growth of 〈0 0 0 1〉 oriented sapphire crystal would be more desirable to achieve better material utilization for high quality optical applications and reduce the cutting lose and cost from other oriented sapphire crystals