Fast and broadband fiber dispersion measurement with dense wavelength sampling

We report on a method to obtain dispersion measurements from spectral-domain low-coherence interferograms which enables high accuracy (~ps/(nm·km)), broadband measurements and the determination of very dense (up to 20 points/nm over 500 nm) data sets for both dispersion and dispersion slope. The method exploits a novel phase extraction algorithm which allows the phase associated with each sampling point of the interferogram to be calculated and provides for very accurate results as well as a fast measurement capability, enabling close to real time measurements. The important issue of mitigating the measurement errors due to any residual dispersion of optical elements and to environmental fluctuations was also addressed. We performed systematic measurements on standard fibers which illustrate the accuracy and precision of the technique, and we demonstrated its general applicability to challenging problems by measuring a carefully selected set of microstructured fibers: a lead silicate W-type fiber with a flat, near-zero dispersion profile; a hollow core photonic bandgap fiber with strongly wavelength dependent dispersion and dispersion slope; a small core, highly birefringent index guiding microstructured fiber, for which polarization resolved measurements over an exceptionally wide (~1000 nm) wavelength interval were obtained

Advances and limitations in the modelling of fabricated photonic bandgap fibers

Copyright © 2006 IEEEWe model fabricated silica photonic bandgap fibers and achieve good agreement between simulated and measured properties. We identify the size of the SEM bitmap image as the ultimate limit to the accurate calculation of surfaces modes within the bandgapF. Poletti, M. N. Petrovich, R. Amezcua-Correa, N. G. Broderick, T. M. Monro and D. J. Richardsonhttp://eprints.soton.ac.uk/47883

The investigation of hydrogen accumulation in zirconium alloy by thermostimulated gas evolution method

Thermostimulated gas evolution from zirconium alloy saturated by hydrogen E_125 versus deformation degree has been studied. Samples of zirconium were subjected to straining with relative lengthening 2,5; 5,0 and 10,0 %, then they were saturated with hydrogen by electrolyte method at current density 0,5 A/sm2 during 4 hours. Or vice versa, they were first saturated with hydrogen being subjected to deformation afterwards. The deformation of alloy samples results in trap formation with different energies of hydrogen bond. In this case both bond energy and hydrogen quantity caught in traps depends on both deformation size and succession of «deformation-saturation» actions. The values of hydrogen bond energies in traps are estimated. Types of traps are defined

Gamow-Teller strength in 54Fe and 56Fe

Through a sequence of large scale shell model calculations, total Gamow-Teller strengths ($S_+$ and $S_-$) in $^{54}$Fe and $^{56}$Fe are obtained. They reproduce the experimental values once the $\sigma\tau$ operator is quenched by the standard factor of $0.77$. Comparisons are made with recent Shell Model Monte Carlo calculations. Results are shown to depend critically on the interaction. From an analysis of the GT+ and GT$-$ strength functions it is concluded that experimental evidence is consistent with the $3(N-Z)$ sum rule.Comment: 6 pages, RevTeX 3.0 using psfig, 7 Postscript figures included using uufile

Halo Excitation of 6^6He in Inelastic and Charge-Exchange Reactions

Four-body distorted wave theory appropriate for nucleon-nucleus reactions leading to 3-body continuum excitations of two-neutron Borromean halo nuclei is developed. The peculiarities of the halo bound state and 3-body continuum are fully taken into account by using the method of hyperspherical harmonics. The procedure is applied for A=6 test-bench nuclei; thus we report detailed studies of inclusive cross sections for inelastic $^6$He(p,p')$^6$He$^*$ and charge-exchange $^6$Li(n,p)$^6$He$^*$ reactions at nucleon energy 50 MeV. The theoretical low-energy spectra exhibit two resonance-like structures. The first (narrow) is the excitation of the well-known $2^+$ three-body resonance. The second (broad) bump is a composition of overlapping soft modes of multipolarities $1^-, 2^+, 1^+, 0^+$ whose relative weights depend on transferred momentum and reaction type. Inelastic scattering is the most selective tool for studying the soft dipole excitation mode.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. C., 11 figures using eps

Do Hadronic Charge Exchange Reactions Measure Electroweak L = 1 Strength?

An eikonal model has been used to assess the relationship between calculated strengths for first forbidden beta decay and calculated cross sections for (p,n) charge exchange reactions. It is found that these are proportional for strong transitions, suggesting that hadronic charge exchange reactions may be useful in determining the spin-dipole matrix elements for astrophysically interesting leptonic transitions.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to Physical Review