Characterization of the Intra-Unit-Cell magnetic order in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d

As in YBa2Cu3O6+x and HgBa2CuO8+d, the pseudo-gap state in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d is characterized by the existence of an intra-unit-cell magnetic order revealed by polarized neutron scattering technique. We report here a supplementary set of polarized neutron scattering measurements for which the direction of the magnetic moment is determined and the magnetic intensity is calibrated in absolute units. The new data allow a close comparison between bilayer systems YBa2Cu3O6+x and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d and rise important questions concerning the range of the magnetic correlations and the role of disorder around optimal doping.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, submitted to physical review

Phase Properties of Laser High-Order Harmonics Generated on Plasma Mirrors

International audienceAs a high-intensity laser-pulse reflects on a plasma mirror, high-order harmonics of the incident frequency can be generated in the reflected beam. We present a numerical study of the phase properties of these individual harmonics, and demonstrate experimentally that they can be coherently controlled through the phase of the driving laser field. The harmonic intrinsic phase, resulting from the generation process, is directly related to the coherent sub-laser-cycle dynamics of plasma electrons, and thus constitutes a new experimental probe of these dynamics

Coherent Wake Emission of High-Order Harmonics from Overdense Plasmas

International audienc

Effect of tcdR Mutation on Sporulation in the Epidemic Clostridium difficile Strain R20291

Citation: Girinathan, B. P., Monot, M., Boyle, D., McAllister, K. N., Sorg, J. A., Dupuy, B., & Govind, R. (2017). Effect of tcdR Mutation on Sporulation in the Epidemic Clostridium difficile Strain R20291. Msphere, 2(1), 14. doi:10.1128/mSphere.00383-16Clostridium difficile is an important nosocomial pathogen and the leading cause of hospital-acquired diarrhea. Antibiotic use is the primary risk factor for the development of C. difficile-associated disease because it disrupts normally protective gut flora and enables C. difficile to colonize the colon. C. difficile damages host tissue by secreting toxins and disseminates by forming spores. The toxin-encoding genes, tcdA and tcdB, are part of a pathogenicity locus, which also includes the tcdR gene that codes for TcdR, an alternate sigma factor that initiates transcription of tcdA and tcdB genes. We created a tcdR mutant in epidemic-type C. difficile strain R20291 in an attempt to identify the global role of tcdR. A site-directed mutation in tcdR affected both toxin production and sporulation in C. difficile R20291. Spores of the tcdR mutant were more heat sensitive than the wild type (WT). Nearly 3-fold more taurocholate was needed to germinate spores from the tcdR mutant than to germinate the spores prepared from the WT strain. Transmission electron microscopic analysis of the spores also revealed a weakly assembled exosporium on the tcdR mutant spores. Accordingly, comparative transcriptome analysis showed many differentially expressed sporulation genes in the tcdR mutant compared to the WT strain. These data suggest that regulatory networks of toxin production and sporulation in C. difficile strain R20291 are linked with each other. IMPORTANCE C. difficile infects thousands of hospitalized patients every year, causing significant morbidity and mortality. C. difficile spores play a pivotal role in the transmission of the pathogen in the hospital environment. During infection, the spores germinate, and the vegetative bacterial cells produce toxins that damage host tissue. Thus, sporulation and toxin production are two important traits of C. difficile. In this study, we showed that a mutation in tcdR, the toxin gene regulator, affects both toxin production and sporulation in epidemic-type C. difficile strain R20291

High-contrast 10-fs OPCPA-based Front-End for the Apollon-10PW laser (Orale)

International audienceWe present a high-contrast 10-fs Front-End for Ti:sapphire PW-lasers within the Apollon-10PW project. This injector uses OPCPA pumped at 100 Hz by Yb-based CPA chain. Combination of OPCPA and XPW permits a >10 12 contrast ratio

Report of the ICES\NAFO Joint Working Group on Deep-water Ecology (WGDEC), 11–15 March 2013, Floedevigen, Norway.

On 11 February 2013, the joint ICES/NAFO WGDEC, chaired by Francis Neat (UK) and attended by ten members met at the Institute for Marine Research in Floedevi-gen, Norway to consider the terms of reference (ToR) listed in Section 2. WGDEC was requested to update all records of deep-water vulnerable marine eco-systems (VMEs) in the North Atlantic. New data from a range of sources including multibeam echosounder surveys, fisheries surveys, habitat modelling and seabed imagery surveys was provided. For several areas across the North Atlantic, WGDEC makes recommendations for areas to be closed to bottom fisheries for the purposes of conservation of VMEs

XUV interferometry using high-order harmonics: Application to plasma diagnostics

In this paper, we present and compare the two different XUV interferometric techniques using high-order harmonics that have been developed so far. The first scheme is based on the interference between two spatially separated phase-locked harmonic sources while the second uses two temporally separated harmonic sources. These techniques have been applied to plasma diagnostics in feasibility experiments where electron densities up to a few 1020 e[minus sign/cm3 have been measured with a temporal resolution of 200 fs. We present the main characteristics of each technique and discuss their respective potentials and limitations

Space- and time-resolved observation of extreme laser frequency upshifting during ultrafast-ionization

A 65-fs, 800-nm, 2-TW laser pulse propagating through a nitrogen gas jet has been experimentally studied by 90 Thomson scattering. Time-integrated spectra of scattered light show unprecedented broadening towards the blue which exceeds 300 nm. Images of the scattering region provide for the first time a space- and time-resolved description of the process leading quite regularly to such a large upshift. The mean shifting rate was as high as dk/dt3A ̊/fs, never observed before. Interferometry shows that it occurs after partial laser defocusing. Numerical simulations prove that such an upshift is consistent with a laser-gas late interaction, when laser intensity has decreased well below relativistic values (a0 1) and ionization process involves most of the laser pulse. This kind of interaction makes spectral tuning of ultrashort intense laser pulses possible in a large spectral range. VC 2013 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4818602

Internal frequency conversion extreme ultraviolet interferometer using mutual coherence properties of two high-order-harmonic sources

International audienceWe report on an innovative two-dimensional imaging extreme ultraviolet (XUV) interferometer operating at 32 nm based on the mutual coherence of two laser high order harmonics (HOH) sources, separately generated in gas. We give the first evidence that the two mutually coherent HOH sources can be produced in two independent spatially separated gas jets, allowing for probing centimeter-sized objects. A magnification factor of 10 leads to a micron resolution associated with a subpicosecond temporal resolution. Single shot interferograms with a fringe visibility better than 30% are routinely produced. As a test of the XUV interferometer, we measure a maximum electronic density of 3×10^20 cm^−3 1.1 ns after the creation of a plasma on aluminum target

Efficient cross polarized wave generation for compact, energy-scalable, ultrashort laser sources

International audienceThe generation of high contrast and ultrashort laser pulses via a compact and energy-scalable cross polarized wave filter is presented. The setup incorporates a waveguide spatial filter into a single crystal XPW configuration, enabling high energy and high intensity transmission, efficient contrast enhancement and pulse shortening at the multi-mJ level. Excellent XPW conversion of up to 33% (global efficiency: 20%, intensity transmission: 40%) led to an output energy of 650 ?J for an input of 3.3 mJ. Additionally, efficient conversion under specific input phase conditions, allowed pulse shortening from 25 fs to 9.6 fs, indicating the prospective application of this setup as a high energy, ultrabroad laser source. © 2010 Optical Society of America