Linear and nonlinear optical properties of carbon nanotube-coated single-mode optical fiber gratings

This paper was published in OPTICS LETTERS and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.36.002104. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law[EN] Single-wall carbon nanotube deposition on the cladding of optical fibers has been carried out to fabricate an all-fiber nonlinear device. Two different nanotube deposition techniques were studied. The first consisted of repeatedly immersing the optical fiber into a nanotube supension, increasing the thickness of the coating in each step. The second deposition involved wrapping a thin film of nanotubes around the optical fiber. For both cases, interaction of transmitted light through the fiber core with the external coating was assisted by the cladding mode resonances of a tilted fiber Bragg grating. Ultrafast nonlinear effects of the nanotube-coated fiber were measured by means of a pump-probe pulses experiment. © 2011 Optical Society of America.This work was financially supported by the European Commission under the FP7 EURO-FOS Network of Excellence (ICT-2007-2-224402), the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia SINADEC project (TEC2008-06333), and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The work of G. E. Villanueva was supported by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia Formación de Profesorado Universitario programs. The work of P. Pérez-Millán was supported by the Juan de la Cierva program, JCI-2009-05805.Villanueva Ibáñez, GE.; Jakubinek, M.; Simard, B.; Oton Nieto, CJ.; Matres Abril, J.; Shao, L.; Pérez Millán, P.... (2011). Linear and nonlinear optical properties of carbon nanotube-coated single-mode optical fiber gratings. Optics Letters. 36(11):2104-2106. https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.36.002104S210421063611Sakakibara, Y., Rozhin, A. G., Kataura, H., Achiba, Y., & Tokumoto, M. (2005). Carbon Nanotube-Poly(vinylalcohol) Nanocomposite Film Devices: Applications for Femtosecond Fiber Laser Mode Lockers and Optical Amplifier Noise Suppressors. Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 44(4A), 1621-1625. doi:10.1143/jjap.44.1621Chow, K. K., Yamashita, S., & Song, Y. W. (2009). A widely tunable wavelength converter based on nonlinear polarization rotation in a carbon-nanotube-deposited D-shaped fiber. Optics Express, 17(9), 7664. doi:10.1364/oe.17.007664Set, S. Y., Yaguchi, H., Tanaka, Y., & Jablonski, M. (2004). Ultrafast Fiber Pulsed Lasers Incorporating Carbon Nanotubes. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 10(1), 137-146. doi:10.1109/jstqe.2003.822912Chow, K. K., Tsuji, M., & Yamashita, S. (2010). Single-walled carbon-nanotube-deposited tapered fiber for four-wave mixing based wavelength conversion. Applied Physics Letters, 96(6), 061104. doi:10.1063/1.3304789Chow, K. K., & Yamashita, S. (2009). Four-wave mixing in a single-walled carbon-nanotube-deposited D-shaped fiber and its application in tunable wavelength conversion. Optics Express, 17(18), 15608. doi:10.1364/oe.17.015608Choi, S. Y., Rotermund, F., Jung, H., Oh, K., & Yeom, D.-I. (2009). Femtosecond mode-locked fiber laser employing a hollow optical fiber filled with carbon nanotube dispersion as saturable absorber. Optics Express, 17(24), 21788. doi:10.1364/oe.17.021788Chan, C.-F., Chen, C., Jafari, A., Laronche, A., Thomson, D. J., & Albert, J. (2007). Optical fiber refractometer using narrowband cladding-mode resonance shifts. Applied Optics, 46(7), 1142. doi:10.1364/ao.46.001142Kingston, C. T., Jakubek, Z. J., Dénommée, S., & Simard, B. (2004). Efficient laser synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes through laser heating of the condensing vaporization plume. Carbon, 42(8-9), 1657-1664. doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2004.02.020Jakubinek, M. B., Johnson, M. B., White, M. A., Guan, J., & Simard, B. (2010). Novel Method to Produce Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Films and Their Thermal and Electrical Properties. Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 10(12), 8151-8157. doi:10.1166/jnn.2010.3014Vallaitis, T., Koos, C., Bonk, R., Freude, W., Laemmlin, M., Meuer, C., … Leuthold, J. (2008). Slow and fast dynamics of gain and phase in a quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifier. Optics Express, 16(1), 170. doi:10.1364/oe.16.00017

Temperature Dependence of Thermal Conductivity Enhancement in Single-walled Carbon Nanotube/polystyrene Composites

The thermal conductivity of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)/polystyrene composites, prepared by a method known to produce a uniform distribution of SWCNT bundles on the micrometer length scale, was measured in the temperature range from approximately 140 to 360 K. The thermal conductivity enhancement (50% for 1 mass % at 300 K) is reasonably constant above room temperature but is reduced at the lower temperatures. This result is consistent with the expected, large contribution of interfacial thermal resistance in SWCNT/polymer composites. Enhancements in electrical conductivity show that 1 mass % loading is in the region of the electrical percolation threshold

Boron Nitride Nanotubes: Force Field Parameterization, Epoxy Interactions, and Comparison with Carbon Nanotubes for High-Performance Composite Materials

Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) are a very promising reinforcement for future high-performance composites because of their excellent thermo-mechanical properties. To take full advantage of BNNTs in composite materials, it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the wetting characteristics of various high-performance resins. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations provide an accurate and efficient approach to establish the contact angle values of engineering polymers on reinforcement surfaces, which offers a measure for the interaction between the polymer and reinforcement. In this research, MD simulations and experiments are used to determine the wettability of various epoxy systems on BNNT surfaces. The reactive interface force field (IFF-R) is parameterized and utilized in the simulations to accurately describe the interaction of the epoxy monomers with the BNNT surface. The effect of the epoxy monomer type, hardener type, local atomic charges, and temperature on the contact angle is established. The results show that contact angles decrease with increases in temperature for all the epoxy/hardener systems. The bisphenol-A-based epoxy system demonstrates better wettability with the BNNT surface than the bisphenol-F based epoxy system. Furthermore, the MD predictions demonstrate that these observations are validated with experimental results, wherein the same contact angle trends are observed for macroscopic epoxy drops on nonwoven nanotube papers. As wetting properties drive the resin infusion in the reinforcement materials, these results are important for the future manufacturing of high-quality BNNT/epoxy nanocomposites for high-performance applications such as aerospace and aeronautical vehicles

From pre-ceramic polymer to high-toughness ceramic: An SLA 3D printing approach

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SPH fluids for viscous jet buckling

We present a novel meshfree technique for animating\ud free surface viscous liquids with jet buckling effects, such as\ud coiling and folding. Our technique is based on Smoothed Particle\ud Hydrodynamics (SPH) fluids and allows more realistic and\ud complex viscous behaviors than the preceding SPH frameworks\ud in computer animation literature. The viscous liquid is modeled\ud by a non-Newtonian fluid flow and the variable viscosity under\ud shear stress is achieved using a viscosity model known as Cross\ud model. The proposed technique is efficient and stable, and our\ud framework can animate scenarios with high resolution of SPH\ud particles in which the simulation speed is significantly accelerated\ud by using Computer Unified Device Architecture (CUDA)\ud computing platform. This work also includes several examples\ud that demonstrate the ability of our technique.FAPESP - processos nos. 2013/19760-5 e 2014/11981-5FAPES - processos no. 53600100/11CNP

Graphene -- Based Nanocomposites as Highly Efficient Thermal Interface Materials

We found that an optimized mixture of graphene and multilayer graphene - produced by the high-yield inexpensive liquid-phase-exfoliation technique - can lead to an extremely strong enhancement of the cross-plane thermal conductivity K of the composite. The "laser flash" measurements revealed a record-high enhancement of K by 2300 % in the graphene-based polymer at the filler loading fraction f =10 vol. %. It was determined that a relatively high concentration of single-layer and bilayer graphene flakes (~10-15%) present simultaneously with thicker multilayers of large lateral size (~ 1 micrometer) were essential for the observed unusual K enhancement. The thermal conductivity of a commercial thermal grease was increased from an initial value of ~5.8 W/mK to K=14 W/mK at the small loading f=2%, which preserved all mechanical properties of the hybrid. Our modeling results suggest that graphene - multilayer graphene nanocomposite used as the thermal interface material outperforms those with carbon nanotubes or metal nanoparticles owing to graphene's aspect ratio and lower Kapitza resistance at the graphene - matrix interface.Comment: 4 figure