In situ decolorization monitoring of textile dyes for an optimized UV-LED/TiO2 reactor

Heterogeneous photocatalysis, using photocatalysts in suspension to eliminate diverse contaminants, including textile wastewater, has several advantages. Nevertheless, current absorbance and decolorization measurements imply sample acquisition by extraction at a fixed rate with consequent photocatalyst removal. This study presents online monitoring for the decolorization of six azo dyes, Orange PX-2R (OP2), Remazol Black B133 (RB), Procion Crimson H-EXL (PC), Procion Navy H-EXL (PN), Procion Blue H-EXL (PB), and Procion Yellow H-EXL (PY), analyzing the spectrum measured in situ by using the light scattering provided by the photocatalyst in suspension. The results obtained have corroborated the feasibility of obtaining absorbance and decolorization measurements, avoiding disturbances in the process due to a decrease in the volume in the reactor.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Second Harmonic Generation in Photonic Crystals

Photonic crystals emerged at the end of the last decade as a new frame to control the interaction between radiation and matter. The potential advances that such structures could report in photonics technology has lead to an increasing research focused on the implementation of photonic crystals possessing full photonic band gaps, hindering the fact that more simple structures, possessing band gaps in selected directions of space, may also provide strong control of the electromagnetic radiation leading to the observation of many new interesting phenomena. In fact, the scope of this control is not limited to a linear interaction and can be extended to nonlinear interactions of any order. In this work we present a study of the second order nonlinear interaction from nonlinear organic molecules placed within two different types of photonic crystals. First, we will discuss the enhancement and inhibition of the radiation at the second-harmonic frequency of a sheet of dipoles embedded in a 1D photonic crystal. The experimentally observed reflected second-harmonic intensity as a function of the angle of incidence shows sharp resonances corresponding to the excitation of the SH field in a local mode within the forbidden band in the structure, which position depends on the size of the defect, and additional resonance at the high angular band edge, which position is independent of the size of the defect. Comparison among these results and the SH intensity reflected by the same monolayer in free space (which presents a bell shaped radiation pattern as a function of the angle of incidence), shows an enhancement of the radiation at the resonances, and strong inhibition of the radiation at other angles within the gap. Theoretical simulation of the experiment shows a good agreement with the experimental results.A detailed analysis of the enhancement and inhibition phenomena occurring in these structures shows a clear dependence of the resulting intensity with the position of the monolayer within the defect and with the dipole orientation. The change in phase difference between the oscillating dipoles and the field at the SH frequency at the monolayer as it is moved within the defect is found to play a determining role in the final energy transfer to the second-harmonic field. The resulting enhancement and inhibition of the radiation may be studied in terms of a nonsymmetric contribution of the different components of the field to the energy transfer process.The second configuration studied in the present work consider the experimental demonstration of second-harmonic generation in a 3-dimensional macroscopically centrosymmetric lattice formed by spherical particles of optical dimensions. In such photonic crystals, the local breaking of the inversion symmetry at the surface of each sphere, allows for the existence of a nonvanishing second order interaction. The growth of the SH radiation is provided by the phase-matching mechanism caused by the bending of the photon dispersion curve near the Bragg reflection bands of this photonic crystal. Experimental evidence of this phase-matching mechanism, inherent of such crystals, is reported in this work. By measuring the SH intensity radiated from several crystals with different concentrations, we obtained the angular dependence of this type of emission and confirmed the surface character of the nonlinear interaction. A simplified theoretical model shows very good agreement with the experimental results. It is important to notice that in this mechanism of SHG, the nonlinearity of the molecule is independent of the phase-matching mechanism, that is inherent to the periodicity of the crystal. In conclusion, the results obtained show a clear influence of the photonic crystals in the radiated SH intensity, resulting in enhancement and inhibition of the dipoles radiation

Phase locked harmonic generation in the opaque region of GaAs

We demonstrate second and third harmonic generation from a GaAs substrate, well-below the absorption edge, in both transmission and reflection geometries. The pump is tuned at 1064 nm, in the transparency range, while the SH and the TH signals are tuned in the opaque spectral range of GaAs, at 532 nm and 355 nm, respectively. As expected, we find that the polarization of the generated signals is sensitive to the polarization of the pump. In our experiment, we work far from the phase matching condition and we account for both surface and bulk contributions, and show that the surface-generated SH components can be more intense than bulk-generated SH signals. The experimental results are contrasted with numerical simulations that include these two factors, using a hydrodynamic model that accounts for all salient aspects of the dynamics, including surface and bulk generated harmonic components.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Laser Ultrasound Inspection Based on Wavelet Transform and Data Clustering for Defect Estimation in Metallic Samples

Laser-generated ultrasound is a modern non-destructive testing technique. It has been investigated over recent years as an alternative to classical ultrasonic methods, mainly in industrial maintenance and quality control procedures. In this study, the detection and reconstruction of internal defects in a metallic sample is performed by means of a time-frequency analysis of ultrasonic waves generated by a laser-induced thermal mechanism. In the proposed methodology, we used wavelet transform due to its multi-resolution time frequency characteristics. In order to isolate and estimate the corresponding time of flight of eventual ultrasonic echoes related to internal defects, a density-based spatial clustering was applied to the resulting time frequency maps. Using the laser scan beam’s position, the ultrasonic transducer’s location and the echoes’ arrival times were determined, the estimation of the defect’s position was carried out afterwards. Finally, clustering algorithms were applied to the resulting geometric solutions from the set of the laser scan points which was proposed to obtain a two-dimensional projection of the defect outline over the scan plane. The study demonstrates that the proposed method of wavelet transform ultrasonic imaging can be effectively applied to detect and size internal defects without any reference information, which represents a valuable outcome for various applications in the industry. View Full-TextPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Material defect reconstruction by non-destructive testing with laser induced ultrasonics

Aligned with current research efforts and industrial applications on nondestructive testing, in this work, a hybrid system combining remotely induced laser ultrasonics with conventional transducer detection is studied for defects detection in metallic parts. The processing of the induced acoustic emission waves is proposed to be approached by means of a high-resolution volumetric signal processing procedure based on the synthetic aperture focusing technique for the benefit of the final 2D visualization of the defects. The advantages of the hybrid non-destructive testing approach and the performance of the processing technique are experimentally validated.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Methodology for lighting optimization applied to photocatalytic reactors

© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Replacement of conventional UV-lamps used in photocatalytic reactors by UV-LED sources with lower energy consumption and larger versatility has been proposed recently; However, the implementation of these types of sources in these reactors has not been studied in detail. In this article a methodology is proposed to find different LED arrays, whose distributions use the least amount of elements and optimum distance between them, using uniform irradiance models that satisfy the optical needs of photocatalytic processes. Experimental results presented show that it is possible to replace sources of high-energy consumption by LED arrays adapted to the specific needs of the photocatalytic reactor obtaining excellent oxidation results.The authors are grateful for the financial support for the author Tecilli Tapia (scholarship 417993) from National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACyT), and the Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control of INTEXTER, for the material providedPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Reevaluation of radiation reaction and consequences for light-matter interactions at the nanoscale

In the context of electromagnetism and nonlinear optical interactions, damping is generally introduced as a phenomenological, viscous term that dissipates energy, proportional to the temporal derivative of the polarization. Here, we follow the radiation reaction method presented in [G. W. Ford, Phys. Lett. A 157, 217 (1991)], which applies to non-relativistic electrons of finite size, to introduce an explicit reaction force in the Newtonian equation of motion, and derive a hydrodynamic equation that offers new insight on the influence of damping in generic plasmas, metal-based and/or dielectric structures. In these settings, we find new damping-dependent linear and nonlinear source terms that suggest the damping coefficient is proportional to the local charge density and nonlocal contributions that stem from the spatial derivative of the magnetic field. We discuss the conditions that could modify both linear and nonlinear electromagnetic responses.Postprint (published version

Controllable coherent backscattering of light in disordered media filled with liquid crystal

© 2018 [Optical Society of America]. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modifications of the content of this paper are prohibited.We have investigated multiple scattering of light in a disordered system based on liquid crystals for a temperature-controllable random laser. Coherent backscattering measurements at several temperatures have been well fitted by the theoretical model deduced for a random collection of spherical point scatters based on a diffusion approximation. The transport mean free path exclusively depends on the diffusivity of the liquid crystalline phase of the hybrid scattering system. It is shown how the laser threshold excitation intensity is strongly correlated with the transport mean free path.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Two-dimensional domain structures in Lithium Niobate via domain inversion with ultrafast light

Periodic inversion of ferroelectric domains is realized in a lithium niobate crystal by focused femtosecond near-infrared laser beam. One and two-dimensional domain patterns are fabricated. Quasi-phase matched frequency doubling of 815nm light is demonstrated in a channel waveguide with an inscribed periodic domain pattern with conversion efficiency as high as 17.45%.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Type I and type II second harmonic generation of conically refracted beams

Type I and type II second harmonic generation (SHG) of a beam transformed by the conical refraction phenomenon are presented. We show that, for type I, the second harmonic intensity pattern is a light ring with a point of null intensity while, for type II, the light ring possesses two dark regions. Taking into account the different two-photon processes involved in SHG, we have derived analytical expressions for the resulting transverse intensity patterns that are in good agreement with the experimental data. Finally, we have investigated the spatial evolution of the second harmonic signals, showing that they behave as conically refracted beams.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version