Strong Modification of the Nonlinear Optical Response of Metallic Subwavelength Hole Arrays

The influence of hole shape on the nonlinear optical properties of metallic subwavelength hole arrays is investigated. It is found that the amount of second harmonics generated can be enhanced by changing the hole shape. In part this increase is a direct result of the effect of hole shape on the linear transmission properties. Remarkably, in addition to enhancements that follow directly from the linear properties of the array, we find a hot hole shape. For rectangular holes the effective nonlinear response is enhanced by more than 1 order of magnitude for one particular aspect ratio. This enhancement can be attributed to slow propagation of the fundamental wavelength through the holes which occurs close to the hole cutoff

Giant bubble pinch-off

Self-similarity has been the paradigmatic picture for the pinch-off of a drop. Here we will show through high-speed imaging and boundary integral simulations that the inverse problem, the pinch-off of an air bubble in water, is not self-similar in a strict sense: A disk is quickly pulled through a water surface, leading to a giant, cylindrical void which after collapse creates an upward and a downward jet. Only in the limiting case of large Froude number the neck radius $h$ scales as $h(-\log h)^{1/4} \propto \tau^{1/2}$, the purely inertial scaling. For any finite Froude number the collapse is slower, and a second length-scale, the curvature of the void, comes into play. Both length-scales are found to exhibit power-law scaling in time, but with different exponents depending on the Froude number, signaling the non-universality of the bubble pinch-off.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Figure quality was reduced considerably and converted to greyscale to decrease file siz

Faraday, Jets, and Sand

When a 6-mm layer of fine sand with an average grain size of 40 µm is poured into a cylindrical container and shaken vertically, thin jets are seen to emerge from an airy cloud of grains, almost like protuberances from the corona of the sun. A quasi two-dimensional setup reveals the jet-formation process: The sand accumulates in ripples, and below each of them air is entrained by the convective motion of the grains. Air bubbles form at the bottom and slowly rise through the sand. Every time a bubble reaches the surface, it creates a void, which thereupon collapses and focuses into a jet. Gallery of Fluid Motion Award-winning entry 200