Room-Temperature Power-Stabilized Narrow-Linewidth Tunable Erbium-Doped Fiber Ring Laser Based on Cascaded Mach-Zehnder Interferometers with Different Free Spectral Range for Strain Sensing

An automatically power-stabilized (with power fluctuation <0.155 dB), narrow-linewidth (0.0171 nm), wavelength-tunable (10.69 nm) erbium-doped fiber laser has been proposed by cascading two fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZI) without using any temperature controlling device. One of the MZIs (here called the 1st MZI) is composed of two 3 dB couplers to form interference patterns while the other MZI (here termed the 2nd MZI) is constructed with a tapered seven-core fiber (SCF) and based on the principle of supermode interference. For the two MZIs, the free spectral range (FSR), the passband bandwidth and the extinction ratio (ER) at 1560 nm are 0.37 nm, 0.19 nm, 16.6 dB and 13.93 nm, 7.93 nm, 10.1 dB, respectively. Due to the major difference between the two FSR values, the 1st MZI and the 2nd MZI respectively play a role in controlling the laser linewidth and suppressing the homogeneous broadening effect to reach to a satisfactory level of power stability. The 2nd MZI is also used to fine tune the laser wavelength by applying strain to the tapered SCF (TSCF) over the spectral range of 1570.22-1559.33 nm, with an incremental step of 0.37 nm being used. The side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of the tunable fiber laser can be up to 45 dB. By appropriately adjusting the polarization controller, dual wavelength lasing can also be achieved. For single wavelength lasing, the 3 dB laser linewidth is 0.0171 nm. The power fluctuation, without a temperature controlling device being used and operating at room temperature, is found to be less than 0.155 dB over 1 hour while the central wavelength drift is less than 0.19 nm

Multimode Interference 3 dB Splitters in Hollow Core Metallic Waveguides for Low-Loss THz Wave Transmission

A multimode interference half-power splitter on hollow core polysterene-coated metallic waveguide is demonstrated in this study. The modal properties, propagation length, optical field evolution, and dispersion of the aforementioned device have been investigated using the full vectorial finite-element-based modal analysis and beam propagation method, as well as the finite-difference time-domain approach

The whole and its parts : why and how to disentangle plant communities and synusiae in vegetation classification

Most plant communities consist of different structural and ecological subsets, ranging from cryptogams to different tree layers. The completeness and approach with which these subsets are sampled have implications for vegetation classification. Non‐vascular plants are often omitted or sometimes treated separately, referring to their assemblages as “synusiae” (e.g. epiphytes on bark, saxicolous species on rocks). The distinction of complete plant communities (phytocoenoses or holocoenoses) from their parts (synusiae or merocoenoses) is crucial to avoid logical problems and inconsistencies of the resulting classification systems. We here describe theoretical differences between the phytocoenosis as a whole and its parts, and outline consequences of this distinction for practise and terminology in vegetation classification. To implement a clearer separation, we call for modifications of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature and the EuroVegChecklist. We believe that these steps will make vegetation classification systems better applicable and raise the recognition of the importance of non‐vascular plants in the vegetation as well as their interplay with vascular plants

Pulse Dynamics of an All-Normal-Dispersion Ring Fiber Laser Under Four Different Pulse Regimes

Based on the coupled Ginzburg-Landau equations and Jones matrices of the waveplates considered, a numerical model of an all-normal-dispersion fiber laser mode-locked by nonlinear polarization rotation has been proposed. The operating characteristics of the fiber laser discussed were studied numerically. It has been found that the proposed all-normal-dispersion mode-locked fiber laser (AND-MLFL) could deliver dissipative solitons (DSs) with a M-shaped and U-shaped spectrum, the splitting pulse with a divided spectrum and the amplifier similaritons. The evolution of the intra-cavity pulse and spectrum has been calculated under different regimes and the effects of group velocity dispersion (GVD) and nonlinearity are analyzed. When the fiber laser delivers DSs or causes pulse splitting, nonlinear effects dominate the pulse evolution. With the increase of the accumulated nonlinear phase shift, the operation states change from DS with a M-shaped spectrum to a U-shaped spectrum, and then to the splitting pulse. In the case of amplifier similaritons, both the GVD and nonlinearity play important roles in pulse evolution. The effect of nonlinear polarization rotation and filtering on the pulse reshaping has been analyzed. When the fiber laser delivers DSs with a M-shaped spectrum, the filter has a very weak effect on the pulse and on spectral reshaping. However, when the fiber laser operates in the amplifier similariton state, the filter plays a key role in pulse and spectral reshaping, whereas the nonlinear polarization rotation become less dominant. The dependence of the operational states on the filter bandwidth, fiber length, small signal gain coefficient and orientation of waveplates has also been calculated. A Yb-doped doubled-cladding fiber laser, mode-locked by nonlinear polarization rotation, has also been demonstrated and all of the four pulse regimes are obtained experimentally

The Historical Context of the Gender Gap in Mathematics

This chapter is based on the talk that I gave in August 2018 at the ICM in Rio de Janeiro at the panel on "The Gender Gap in Mathematical and Natural Sciences from a Historical Perspective". It provides some examples of the challenges and prejudices faced by women mathematicians during last two hundred and fifty years. I make no claim for completeness but hope that the examples will help to shed light on some of the problems many women mathematicians still face today

Thermal conductivity through the nineteenth century

As a material property and as a metaphor, thermal conductivity occupies an important position in physical, biological and geological sciences. Yet, its precise measurement is dependent on using electricity as a proxy because flowing heat cannot directly be measured.Comment: Submitted to Physics Today. 4,500 words, 4 figure

Cauchy's infinitesimals, his sum theorem, and foundational paradigms

Cauchy's sum theorem is a prototype of what is today a basic result on the convergence of a series of functions in undergraduate analysis. We seek to interpret Cauchy's proof, and discuss the related epistemological questions involved in comparing distinct interpretive paradigms. Cauchy's proof is often interpreted in the modern framework of a Weierstrassian paradigm. We analyze Cauchy's proof closely and show that it finds closer proxies in a different modern framework. Keywords: Cauchy's infinitesimal; sum theorem; quantifier alternation; uniform convergence; foundational paradigms.Comment: 42 pages; to appear in Foundations of Scienc

Archaeology and Desertification in the Wadi Faynan: the Fourth (1999) Season of the Wadi Faynan Landscape Survey

Reproduced with permission of the publisher. © 2000 Council for British Research in the Levant. Details of the publication are available at: http://www.cbrl.org.uk/Publications/publications_default.shtmThis report describes the fourth season of fieldwork by an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and geographers working together to reconstruct the landscape history of the Wadi Faynan in southern Jordan. The particular focus of the project is the long-term history of inter-relationships between landscape and people, as a contribution to the study of processes of desertification and environmental degradation. The 1999 fieldwork contributed significantly towards the five Objectives defined for the final two field seasons of the project in 1999 and 2000: to map the archaeology outside the ancient field systems flooring the wadi that have formed the principal focus of the archaeological survey in the previous seasons; to use ethnoarchaeological studies both to reconstruct modern and recent land use and also to yield archaeological signatures of land use to inform the analysis of the survey data; to complete the survey of ancient field systems and refine understanding of when and how they functioned; to complete the programme of geomorphological and palaeoecological fieldwork, and in particular to refine the chronology of climatic change and human impacts; and to complete the recording and classification of finds