Effective enhancement of the non-Hermitian corner skin effect in reciprocal photonic crystals.

With the rich physical phenomena arising from non-Hermitian systems, the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) has become a current research hotspot. Nowadays, the corner skin effect based on non-reciprocal photonic crystals has been proposed. Considering the complexity of realizing non-reciprocity, the corner skin effect based on reciprocal photonic crystals is well worth investigating. In this Letter, a non-Hermitian reciprocal geometry-dependent corner skin effect based on two-dimensional photonic crystals is presented, which is manifested as the distribution of eigenstates on the corners of a particular geometry by applying open boundary conditions in both directions of photonic crystals. For the better application of the NHSE in the future, such as highly sensitive sensors and lasers, a new, to the best of our knowledge, method that can effectively enhance the performance of the NHSE in photonic crystals is proposed. The method introduces both gain and loss in an ideal photonic crystal to enhance the non-Hermitian specificity of the system, which improves the performance of the non-Hermitian corner skin effect of photonic crystals by 64.5%. Furthermore, this geometry-dependent corner skin effect is corroborated with the spectral topology.

High directionality of surface radiation for surface emitting distributed feedback lasers.

Improving the directionality of surface radiation is the key to increase the output power and the differential quantum efficiency of grating-coupled surface-emitting distributed feedback lasers. We proposed a scheme to realize the high directionality of surface radiation. In the structure, the second-order grating is fabricated on the p-side of the epitaxial wafer. A SiO2/Si3N4 multilayer reflector arranged above the grating is used to redirect the upward-diffracted beam. The design of the intermediate layer between the grating and the reflector is an important part of achieving high directionality, because the adjustment of its thickness can be used to phase the redirected light with the downward-diffracted light. The calculation results show that the directionality of this structural scheme can reach more than 98% which meets the device requirements. This design provides a reference for surface-emitting distributed feedback lasers with high performance and high stability.

Dual-wavelength operation of a tapered laser diode based on a composite DBR grating near 1.03 µm.

A novel monolithic dual-wavelength tapered laser diode based on a composite distributed Bragg reflection (DBR) grating is demonstrated. The composite DBR grating, composed of two sub-gratings with different effective refractive indices, is designed. With the aid of the lateral expansion effect of the optical field in the ridge waveguide, the dual-wavelength operation of tapered laser diode is realized by using the composite DBR grating as a narrow linewidth filter. At the ridge current of 190-300 mA and the heat sink temperature of 20℃, the tapered laser diode obtains dual-wavelength emission with wavelengths of 1025.4 nm and 1036.2 nm, respectively. The linewidths of both wavelengths are less than 36 pm, and the minimum power difference between the two wavelengths is 1.2 dB. The spectral distance between the two wavelengths can be modulated from 10.4 nm to 10.9 nm by adjusting the heat sink temperature of the tapered laser diode from 13.8℃ to 20.7℃.

High-power distributed feedback lasers with high-order surface curved gratings.

A novel, to the best of our knowledge, broad-area distributed feedback laser with high-order surface curved gratings has been fabricated based on standard near ultraviolet lithography. The characteristics of increasing output power and mode selection are achieved simultaneously by using a broad-area ridge as well as an unstable cavity structure composed of curved gratings and a high-reflectivity coated rear facet. Suppression of high-order lateral modes is realized by setting current injection/non-injection regions and asymmetric waveguides. This DFB laser emitting around 1070 nm has achieved a spectral width of 0.138 nm and a maximum output power of 915 mW kink-free optical power. The threshold current and side-mode suppression ratio of the device are 370 mA and 33 dB, respectively. The simple manufacturing process and stable performance give this high-power laser broad application prospects in the fields of light detection and ranging, laser pumps, optical disk access, etc.

Simulation analysis of the near and far fields of an ARROW laser array with narrow slots.

We studied a periodic slot-based three-core antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide laser array structure. Periodic narrow slots are used to define functional areas in the array, which directly avoids the epitaxial regrowth in the fabrication of traditional antiguide arrays. A comparative study confirmed the feasibility of the scheme. Moreover, the calculation results show that, with the increase of the width of the antiguide core, the power ratio of the main lobe in the far field increases, and the divergence angle of the main lobe and the angle between the secondary lobe and the main lobe decrease. This law provides ideas for the optimization of the array structure.

Simulation analysis of high-order high-duty-cycle surface gratings.

High-order surface grating distributed feedback lasers are known to operate with a fundamental mode, narrow linewidth, high power, and high slope efficiency. The adoption of high-order surface gratings can avoid epitaxial re-growth necessary for the fabrication of conventional buried gratings, which simplifies the fabrication process and reduces device cost. It is essential for the design and optimization of device structure to clarify the influence of the change of grating structure parameters on grating characteristics (coupling and loss). Based on Lumerical's Mode Solutions and multiple grating samples, we evaluated the coupling and loss coefficients of surface gratings as a function of duty cycle, order, and V-groove topography. As the order increases, the duty cycle corresponding to the peak value of the grating coupling coefficient increases gradually and approaches one. The grating coupling coefficient decreases with increasing order but increases at some specific orders. At high duty cycles, the width of the grating groove corresponding to the peak of the coupling coefficient remains substantially in the range of 100-150 nm, which is close to the length of a quarter-wavelength in the grating groove filling material. Regarding the grating groove morphology, the fabrication difficulty of the V-shaped groove grating is obviously less than that of the rectangular groove grating, but its coupling coefficient is slightly smaller than that of the rectangular shaped groove grating of the same depth. The larger the V-shaped groove width, the smaller the peak coupling coefficient and the corresponding sidewall inclination will be. Losses decrease with increasing duty cycle and decreasing sidewall inclination of the V-groove.

Self-powered photodetectors with a position-controlled array based on ZnO nanoclusters.

A self-powered ultraviolet (UV) photodetector (PD) with a position-controlled array based on zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoclusters (NCs) has been proposed. The structure of the special array makes it possible to reduce the light loss and improve the light trap. The PD innovatively modifies the structure of ZnO PDs, which is distinguished from other traditional devices. The results demonstrate that the ZnO NC array can spontaneously generate the carrier and successfully achieve the detection at zero bias under the radiation of UV light. In this study, the structure is fabricated with two different substrates of silicon (Si) and GaN. At zero bias voltage, the Si-based PD under 365 nm shows the responsivity and external quantum efficiency (EQE) reaching up to 14.1 mA/W and 4.79%, respectively, and the responsivity of the GaN-based detector can be obtained up to 59.9 mA/W; its parameter of EQE is 20.04%, the photocurrent is 10-5A, and the on/off ratio is 174. Our findings indicate that this structure of the device has potential for applications that require detection of light.

Research on the reconfigurable bottle beam based on adjusting the spot shape of the incident beam.

An optical system was designed that can generate a bottle beam with a reconfigurable function. The incident beam is produced by transmitting a circular Gaussian beam through the oblique circular aperture, effectively forming the elliptic beam spot. Due to the asymmetry of the elliptically limited Gaussian beam, the bottle beam with locally vanishing light intensity is generated after the optical system. The results show that the bottle beam can be opened and closed freely by the oblique circular aperture, which is of great significance to particle capture.

Polarization-stabilized tunable VCSEL with internal-cavity sub-wavelength grating.

In this paper, a tunable VCSEL with internal-cavity sub-wavelength grating structure at 850nm was demonstrated. Utilizing the birefringence and anti-reflection characteristics of the sub-wavelength grating, the tunable VCSEL with wide wavelength tuning range and stable TE polarization mode was achieved. The relationships between the parameters of sub-wavelength grating and the transmittance/effective index of two polarization modes were analyzed. The tuning efficiency, polarization mode and wavelength tuning range of the tunable VCSEL with internal-cavity sub-wavelength structure were studied. Simultaneously, the MEMS cantilever structure with 'bowknot' shape on the end of the cantilever was designed, which can effectively avoid the concentration of stress distribution and reduce the maximum stress. The results show that the wavelength tuning range is 22.7nm, the peak output power is 1.6mW at 20°C, and the polarization suppression ratio is more than 20dB.

Design of bottle beam based on dual-beam for trapping particles in air.

An optical system structure, consisting of a tunable bottle beam, was designed to capture micron absorbing particles in air. Using a 670 nm semiconductor laser as the light source, a bottle beam was formed with beam shaping elements, a double-axicon lens, and parabolic annular mirrors. Taking a particle of carbon nanoclusters as an example, the capturing effect of the bottle beam on a particle was analyzed. By adjusting the size of the bottle beam, the capture performance for particles of different radii could be optimized. When the optical power of the conical doughnut hollow beam was P=0.05 W, the composite bottle beam could capture a particle of carbon nanoclusters smaller than 237 µm.

Thermal management of a semiconductor laser array based on a graphite heat sink.

Thermal analysis of a semiconductor laser array is carried out by establishing a packaging structure model of the array based on the use of copper as the base heat sink. A novel composite heat sink structure for a high-power semiconductor laser array with copper-implanted graphite microholes is proposed. The relationship between the location and quantity of microholes and the junction temperature of the semiconductor laser array is analyzed by numerical simulation. The packaging structure is found to effectively reduce the temperature generated by the semiconductor laser array in the process of operation, and the highest temperature is reduced by 4.52 K. Since the laser diode bar is composed of multiple emitters, the temperature of the intermediate emitters is higher than that of the edge emitters. The structure of the graphite heat sink is optimized to improve the temperature uniformity of the semiconductor laser array emitter. Without changing the parameters of the semiconductor laser array device, the temperature difference is calculated, and a reduction from 7.68 to 2 K is shown.

1.6-µm-wavelength dissipative solitons mode-locked fiber laser based on the optimization of passive fibers distribution.

We present the results of numerical simulation of a dissipative solitons mode-locked fiber laser working over 1.6 µm. First, systematic and computationally intensive analysis of high-energy-pulse nonlinear phase shift of a fiber laser was conducted, and we numerically simulated dissipative solitons pulse evolution. In addition, we employed a method named A/B ratio to decrease B-integral by changing the distribution of passive fiber in the ring cavity. This method inhibited the accumulation of nonlinear phase shift and effectively enlarged the pulse energy from 0.8 nJ to 3.6 nJ. Finally, we optimized linear chirp of the pulse by using a designed larger-mode-area fiber, and ultimately a 2.82-kW, 650-fs pulse was obtained.

Integrated beam shaping and polarization beam combining design for fiber-coupled semiconductor laser stacks system.

The beam quality mismatch in the fast and slow axes of laser diode stacks limits their applications. An effective beam-shaping method was proposed based on a pair of step prisms. Using this technique, we can eliminate the lightless areas and achieve polarization multiplexing of laser diode stacks. Two laser diode stacks consisting of eight bars were coupled into a fiber with a core diameter of 200 µm and a numerical aperture of 0.22. The simulation results demonstrated that the output power can reach 1083 W and the optical-optical efficiency was 84.6%.

Beam shaping for kilowatt fiber-coupled diode lasers by using one-step beam cutting-rotating of prisms.

The beam quality mismatch of laser diode stacks in both axes limits many direct applications for fiber or solid laser pumping and material processing. In this paper, a one-step cutting-rotating beam shaping system has been designed to homogenize the beam quality of two polarization-multiplexing laser diode stacks. Coupling laser diode stacks consisting of eight bars into a standard fiber with a core diameter of 600 µm and an NA of 0.22 is achieved. The simulative result shows that the system will have an output power over 1056 W. By using the technique, the production of compact and high brightness fiber-coupling diode lasers can be directly used for laser cladding and laser surface hardening processes.

Rotational dynamics of confined C60 from near-infrared Raman studies under high pressure.

Peapods present a model system for studying the properties of dimensionally constrained crystal structures, whose dynamical properties are very important. We have recently studied the rotational dynamics of C(60) molecules confined inside single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) by analyzing the intermediate frequency mode lattice vibrations using near-infrared Raman spectroscopy. The rotation of C(60) was tuned to a known state by applying high pressure, at which condition C(60) first forms dimers at low pressure and then forms a single-chain, nonrotating, polymer structure at high pressure. In the latter state the molecules form chains with a 2-fold symmetry. We propose that the C(60) molecules in SWNT exhibit an unusual type of ratcheted rotation due to the interaction between C(60) and SWNT in the "hexagon orientation," and the characteristic vibrations of ratcheted rotation becomes more obvious with decreasing temperature.

Deficiency of PPP6C protects TNF-induced necroptosis through activation of TAK1.

Necroptotic cell death is mediated by a super-molecular complex called necrosome which consists of receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 and 3 (RIPK1, RIPK3) and mixed-lineage kinase domain-like protein (MLKL). The role of these kinases has been extensively investigated in the regulation of necroptosis. However, whether the protein phosphatase is involved in necroptosis is still largely unknown. Here, we identified protein phosphatase 6 catalytic subunit (PPP6C) promotes TNF-induced necroptosis by genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 library screening. We found that PPP6C deficiency protects cells from TNF-induced necroptosis in a phosphatase-activity-dependent manner. Mechanistically, PPP6C acts as a TGF-ß activated kinase 1 (TAK1) phosphatase to inactivate its kinase activity. Deletion of PPP6C leads to hyperactivation of TAK1 and reduced RIPK1 kinase activity upon TNF stimulation. We further showed that heterozygous deletion of Ppp6c in mouse gastrointestinal tract alleviates necroptosis-related tissue injury and inflammation. Thus, our study identifies PPP6C as an important regulator of necroptosis and highlights a central role of phosphatase in the regulation of necroptosis-related diseases.

Mechanosensitive Channel PIEZO1 Senses Shear Force to Induce KLF2/4 Expression via CaMKII/MEKK3/ERK5 Axis in Endothelial Cells.

Shear stress exerted by the blood stream modulates endothelial functions through altering gene expression. KLF2 and KLF4, the mechanosensitive transcription factors, are promoted by laminar flow to maintain endothelial homeostasis. However, how the expression of KLF2/4 is regulated by shear stress is poorly understood. Here, we showed that the activation of PIEZO1 upregulates the expression of KLF2/4 in endothelial cells. Mice with endothelial-specific deletion of Piezo1 exhibit reduced KLF2/4 expression in thoracic aorta and pulmonary vascular endothelial cells. Mechanistically, shear stress activates PIEZO1, which results in a calcium influx and subsequently activation of CaMKII. CaMKII interacts with and activates MEKK3 to promote MEKK3/MEK5/ERK5 signaling and ultimately induce the transcription of KLF2/4. Our data provide the molecular insight into how endothelial cells sense and convert mechanical stimuli into a biological response to promote KLF2/4 expression for the maintenance of endothelial function and homeostasis.

Enhancing Q-Switched Fiber Laser Performance Based on Reverse Saturable and Saturable Absorption Properties of CuCrO2 Nanoparticle-Polyimide Films.

We demonstrate CuCrO2 (CCO) nanoparticle (NP)-polyimide (PI) composite film as a saturable absorber (SA) to regulate the output characteristics of passively Q-switched fiber laser at 1.55 µm. Based on the reverse saturable and saturable absorptions of the CCO NP-PI film, the passively Q-switched fiber laser expressed two stages with the increase of pump power for substantial performance enhancement. Reverse saturation absorption is observed to introduce appropriate cavity loss, which constructs effective pathways for promoting both the modulation depth and over threshold degree, as well as reducing the photon lifetime. In particular, our results realized the pulse duration and repetition rate compressing simultaneously for the first time. The second stage output laser exhibits a peak power of 1016 mW and a single pulse energy of 183 nJ, which are about 88 and 9 times higher than those of the first stage. Furthermore, the optical-optical conversion efficiency is up to 1270%. All of these can evidently demonstrate the importance of the appropriate cavity loss design for optimizing the Q-switched pulse laser output characteristics.

Synthesis of high-density nanocavities inside TiO2-B nanoribbons and their enhanced electrochemical lithium storage properties.

Single crystalline TiO2-B nanoribbons with high-density nanocavities were successfully synthesized via a simple hydrothermal route. The as-prepared TiO2-B nanoribbons exhibited a large Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) surface area of about 305 m(2)/g because of the high-density nanocavities inside the thin nanoribbons. Electrochemical measurements indicated that the TiO2-B nanoribbons with dense nanocavities showed discharge specific capacity higher than those of TiO2-B nanotubes and nanowires. It was found that the dense nanocavities have an important influence on the electrochemical lithium intercalation properties.

Morphology and electrical characteristics of p-type ZnO microwires with zigzag rough surfaces induced by Sb doping.

Sb-doped p-type ZnO microwires with zigzag rough surfaces were synthesized by two zone chemical vapor deposition. The zigzag morphology characteristics analyzed by high resolution scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy show the existence of surface defects caused by Sb doping. The incorporation of Sb into a ZnO lattice induces lattice imperfection, which is the origin of the zigzag rough surface. Photoluminescence and electrical properties of the obtained Sb-doped ZnO microwires were determined. The crossed structure microwire-based p-n homojunction device was fabricated by applying as-synthesized Sb-doped p-type ZnO microwires and undoped n-type ZnO microwires. The doped microwires demonstrate reproducible p-type conduction and enhanced rectifying behavior with increasing Sb doping concentration. The results demonstrated that the optimizable optical and electrical characteristics, controlled by increasing the doping concentration, are reflected in the surface morphology changes which would be helpful for characterizing the doping effects in micro/nanoscale materials.