Realization of a Kerr-lens mode-locked vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser

Besides continuous wave (cw) operation, where light is emitted continuously over time, specially designed lasers can also generate short or even ultrashort pulses of light, the latter referred to as ultrafast lasers. So far, ultrafast laser systems have been used in different industrial and research areas such as biology, metrology or medicine. But these systems are subject to high costs and great complexity, limiting their use in new application areas that demand for low-cost and compact ultrafast laser sources, such as the optical clocking of microprocessors or free-space data communication. Semiconductor laserswould be ideally suited to meet this demand, however conventional semiconductor lasers are edge-emitters and their power cannot simply be scaled. The same is true for microcavity-based surfaceemitters. Moreover, the more powerful edge-emitters feature strongly asymmetric beam profiles, which makes them unsuitable for many ultrafast applications. Vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs), also known as semiconductor disk lasers (SDLs), are powerful and very flexible coherent light sources. They can be considered as a hybrid system between ion-doped solid state lasers and conventional semiconductor lasers. SDLs combines the advantages of semiconductor gain, e.g. wavelength versatility, high gain cross sections, and simple fabrication, with the benefits of the ion-doped bulk lasers, such as a high-Q external cavity and excellent beam quality. Furthermore, due to the 1-D heat flow, resulting from the arrangement as a thin film laser, very efficient heat removal enables power scaling via the pump area as well as the mode size. SDLs have proved to be versatile lasers which allow for various emission schemes which on the one hand include remarkably high-power multimode or single-frequency cw operation, and on the other hand two-color as well as mode-locked emission. Mode-locked SDLs offer numerous advantages over their solid-state pendants, such as their low-complexity, compactness, cost-efficiency, and an extremely wide range of accessible emission wavelengths (from visible to mid-infrared, based on the employed material system) and repetition rates. This makes ultrafast SDLs very interesting for various applications that rely on a compact, cost-efficient and mass-producible laser technology. SDLs can be passively mode-locked using different mode-locking techniques. While previously saturable absorbers such as semiconductor saturable-absorber mirrors (SESAMs)- either external, or even internal, like in a mode-locked integrated external-cavity surface emitting laser (MIXSEL) - and recently novel-material-based carbon-nanotube or graphene saturable absorbers were employed. Up to date, the presented mode-locking techniques have led to a great enhancement in average powers, peak powers and repetition rates that can be achieved with passively mode-locked SDLs. However, the power-sensitive, complex and costly absorber mirrors, which have to be carefully designed for a certain wavelength range, naturally impose limitations on the device performance. Fortunately, on the other hand, a newmode-locking methodwas presented and discussed in recent years which is referred to as self-mode-locking (SML) or saturable-absorber-free operation of mode-locked SDLs. In this context, motivated by the demand for overcoming the aforementioned limitations, the goal of this thesis was to further exploit the potential of mode-locked SDLs. Particularly, focus on the SML or saturable-absorber-free operation technique, which is considered a promising technique for the realization of compact, robust and cost-efficient modelocked devices. In this thesis, experimental results of SML operation of SDLs in the subpicosecond regime will be presented. We show that the SML scheme is not only applicable to quantum-well-based SDLs, but also to quantum-dot-based devices. Moreover, harmonic mode-locking with sub-ps pulses is demonstrated at discrete power levels. Furthermore, to extend the applications of ultrafast SDLs, we realized an ultra-bright single-photon-source by optically exciting a deterministically integrated single quantum-dot microlens using a mode-locked SDL. The compact and stable laser system allows for overcoming the limited repetition rates of commercial mode-locked Ti:sapphire lasers and to excite the single quantum-dot microlens with a pulse repetition rate close to 500 MHz and a pulse width of 4.2 ps at a wavelength of 508 nm, utilizing second-harmonic generation in an external nonlinear crystal

Effect of microwave irradiation on parametric resonance in intrinsic Josephson junctions

The effect of microwave irradiation on the phase dynamics of intrinsic Josephson junctions in high temperature superconductors is investigated. We demonstrate the influence of microwave's amplitude variation on the current-voltage characteristics and on the time dependence (temporal oscillations) of the electric charge in the superconducting layers. A remarkable changing of the longitudinal plasma wavelength at parametric resonance is shown. We demonstrate an effect of the microwave radiation on the width of the parametric resonance region.Comment: 6 pages, Manuscript for PLASMA-2012 conferenc

Conservation Biological Control Practices

Natural enemies are subjected to continuous deterioration in populations especially in modern agricultural systems characterized by complete removal of plants after harvesting as well as by insecticide applications. This complete removal of plants gives rise to disappearance of natural enemies after each crop season. Conservation biological control is the protection of NEs against adverse effects of pesticides and incompatible cultural practices and improving their efficiency via providing food sources. During non-crop periods, natural enemies may need of benefit from pollen and nectar. Preservation of natural enemies can be achieved by providing habitat and resources for NEs. This chapter aimed at discussing a suggested strategy for more efficient conservation biological control comprising collection, preservation and releasing the preserved natural enemies on target crops. The collection is mainly conducted before crop harvest and during winter from fruit orchards. Preservation greenhouses are dedicated for natural enemies rather than commercial production of crops. Natural enemies taken from preservation greenhouses are released in target crops during growing season. Different techniques used in collection, preservation and release of natural enemies are reviewed. Such a conservation biological control strategy might contribute to preserve the natural bio-diversity in the agricultural environment and provide natural alternatives to pesticides

Molecular genetic analysis of some North African barley germplasms

Isozyme and RAPD markers were used to characterize 29 barley accessions, which were collected from North Africa. In addition, resistance gene sequences were employed to develop molecular markers using RT-PCR approach. High level of polymorphism was found with both RAPD and isozyme markers, where RAPD showed that 60 % of amplified bands were polymorphic. Peroxidase showed three polymorphic loci (7 allelic bands). Isozymes cluster analysis successfully separated the barley accessions into three geographically distinct groups. RAPD investigation demonstrated that Egyptian accessions were grouped into two obvious groups. Moreover, the Tunisian accessions showed no distinct clustering, while high dissimilarities were revealed by the Algerian accessions. In the RT-PCR, from six primer pairs selected, primer pair AF092524P1P2 successfully amplified two specific amplicons of approximately (340 &amp; 220 bp) and (360 &amp; 270 bp), respectively in two Egyptian barley genotypes (El-Awamah and Awlad-Ali). One primer pair DN988165P1P2 gave only one specific amplicon in both barley genotypes of 250 and 270 bp, respectively. The markers developed could be used in improving barley crop by assisting in breeding selection of resistance genotypes.</p