Surface-plasmon enhanced ultrafast third-order optical nonlinearities in ellipsoidal gold nanoparticles embedded bismuthate glasses

Ellipsoidal gold nanoparticles embedded bismuthate glasses have been prepared via a facile melt-annealing approach. Femtosecond Z-scan measurement shows that the nanocomposites exhibit a maximum third-order nonlinear susceptibility chi((3)) of 4.88 x 10(-10) esu at 800 nm, which is two orders higher than that of the host glass. Optical Kerr shutter measurement demonstrates ultrafast response time (in scale of sub-picosecond) of the intraband transition enhanced third-order nonlinearities. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.X112021sciescopu

Optical properties of the Ge-Ga-Te-Cu far-infrared-transmitting chalcogenide glasses

International audienc

An alcohol-dispersed conducting polymer complex for fully printable organic solar cells with improved stability

Efficient and stable organic solar cells via full coating are highly desirable. Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is a classic conducting polymer complex and widely used for hole collection in fully printable devices. However, PEDOT:PSS is typically dispersed in water and exhibits strong acidity that deteriorates device efficiency and stability. Here we report an alcohol-dispersed formulation (denoted as PEDOT:F) by adopting perfluorinated sulfonic acid ionomers as counterions. The ionomers have a special advantage of having two solubility parameters and can be dispersed in water or alcohols, which enables us to prepare PEDOT:F formulations dispersed in alcohols. The alcohol-dispersed formulation has good wetting properties and low acidity, which avoids the drawbacks of aqueous PEDOT:PSS. Fully printable organic photovoltaics (from bottom electrode to top electrode) based on PEDOT:F were obtained with a power conversion efficiency of 15% and could retain 83% of the initial efficiency under continuous illumination at maximum power point tracking for 1,330 h

Changing Epidemiology of Human Brucellosis, China, 1955–2014

Brucellosis, a zoonotic disease, was made statutorily notifiable in China in 1955. We analyzed the incidence and spatial–temporal distribution of human brucellosis during 1955–2014 in China using notifiable surveillance data: aggregated data for 1955–2003 and individual case data for 2004–2014. A total of 513,034 brucellosis cases were recorded, of which 99.3% were reported in northern China during 1955–2014, and 69.1% (258, 462/374, 141) occurred during February–July in 1990–2014. Incidence remained high during 1955–1978 (interquartile range 0.42–1.0 cases/100,000 residents), then decreased dramatically in 1979–1994. However, brucellosis has reemerged since 1995 (interquartile range 0.11–0.23 in 1995–2003 and 1.48–2.89 in 2004–2014); the historical high occurred in 2014, and the affected area expanded from northern pastureland provinces to the adjacent grassland and agricultural areas, then to southern coastal and southwestern areas. Control strategies in China should be adjusted to account for these changes by adopting a One Health approach