Controlled LED Lighting for Horticulture: A Review

As energy gradually becomes a more valuable commodity, the desire for reduced energy losses strengthens. Lighting is a critical field on this matter, as it accounts for a large percentage of the global electricity consumption and modern lighting systems are greatly more efficient than incandescent, discharge, and fluorescent lights. Previous research has proven that plants do not require the entire visible spectrum but react only to specific wavelengths, making it possible to control their growth and yield via artificial lighting. The flexibility of control of Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights allows for the combination of great energy losses reduction and controlled plant growth, achieving the improvement of two major parameters in a single action. This review paper summarizes the current research on the effect different light wavelengths have on specific plant species and discusses the applications of LED lighting for horticulture, yield storage, and disease protection.

Vectorial spin-orbital Hall effect of light upon tight focusing and its experimental observation in azopolymer films

Hall effect of light is a result of symmetry breaking in spin and/or orbital angular momentum(OAM)possessing optical system and is caused by e.g.refractive index gradient/interface between media or focusing of a spatially asymmetrical beam,similar to the electric field breaking the symmetry in spin Hall effect for electrons.The angular momentum(AM)conservation law in the ensuing asymmetric system dictates redistribution of spin and orbital angular momentum,and is manifested in spin-orbit,orbit-orbit,and orbit-spin conversions and reorganization,i.e.spin-orbit and orbit-orbit interaction.This AM restructuring in turn requires shifts of the barycenter of the electric field of light.In the present study we show,both analytically and by numerical simulation,how different electric field components are displaced upon tight focusing of an asymmetric light beam having OAM and spin.The relation between field components shifts and the AM components shifts/redistribution is presented too.Moreover,we experimentally demonstrate,for the first time,to the best of our knowledge,the spin-orbit Hall effect of light upon tight focusing in free space.This is achieved using azopolymers as a media detecting longitudinal or z component of the electrical field of light.These findings elucidate the Hall effect of light and may broaden the spectrum of its applications.

Theoretical research on the transverse spin of structured optical fields inside a waveguide

Structured optical fields inside a waveguide possess the transverse spin, i.e., the spin angular momentum perpendicular to the direction of the waveguide. The physical origin of the transverse spin can be attributed to the presence of an effective rest mass of photons in guided waves, or equivalently, to the existence of a longitudinal field component, such that the transverse and longitudinal fields together form an elliptical polarization plane. In contrary to the traditional viewpoint, the transverse spin of photons in guided waves is also quantized, and its quantization form is related to the ellipticity of the polarization ellipse. The direction of the transverse spin depends on the propagation direction of electromagnetic waves along the waveguide, such a spin-momentum locking may have important applications in spin-dependent unidirectional optical interfaces. By means of a coupling between the transverse spin of guided waves and some physical degrees of freedom, one can develop an optical analogy of spintronics, i.e., spinoptics.

Expanding or Static Universe: Emergence of a New Paradigm

The no-evolution, concordance expanding universe cosmology and no-evolution, static universe tired light model are compared against observational data on eight cosmology tests. The no-evolution tired light model is found to make a superior fit on all tests. Any attempts to introduce evolutionary corrections to improve the concordance cosmology fit on one test often worsen its fit on other tests. Light curve data of high redshift gamma ray bursts and quasars fail to support claims for cosmological time dilation due to expansion. Also, the SCP supernova light curve test results are considered to be flawed by selection effect biases. The big bang theory also has difficulty accounting for redshift quantization, for the multi-megaparsec periodicity seen in the distribution of galaxy superclusters, and for the discovery of galaxies at redshifts as high as z ~11.9. In overview, it is concluded that a static universe cosmology must be sought to explain the origin of the universe. One possible choice is a cosmology that predicts nonconservative tired-light redshifting in intergalactic space, the continuous creation of neutrons in space, the rate of matter creation scaling with both celestial body mass and temperature, galaxies growing progressively in size, and changing their morphology in the manner suggested by Jeans and Hubble.

Improved uniformity of deposited metallic layer on hybrid micro/nano-structured Si substrates fabricated by two-step laser ablation for SERS application

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS) has been widely used as an effective technique for lowconcentration molecules detections in the past decades. This work proposes a rapid and accessible process to fabricate SERS-active substrates with high uniformity and controllability based on two-step laser ablation. Laser beams directly ablate the surface of Si, concurrently creating microstructures and ejecting molten materials caused by the thermal effect that nucleate in ambient air. The nuclei grow into nanoparticles and deposit over the surface. These nanoparticles,together with microstructures, improve the light collection efficiency of the SERS-active substrates. Especially after Au thin film deposition, these nanoparticles can provide nanogaps as hotspots for SERS. By orthogonal experiment design,laser processing parameters for better performances are determined. Compared with substrates fabricated by single 1064 nm master oscillator power amplifier(MOPA) laser ablation, substrates ablated by the primary 1064 nm MOPA laser and secondary UV pulsed laser show more uniform nanoparticles’ deposition over the surface. The optimized largearea substrate has a SERS detection limit of 10^(-8)mol/L for 4-aminothiophenol(4-ATP), indicating the potential realworld applications for trace detection.

Highly Dispersed RuOOH Nanoparticles on Silica Spheres:An Efficient Photothermal Catalyst for Selective Aerobic Oxidation of Benzyl Alcohol

Photothermal catalysis represents a promising strategy to utilize the renewable energy source(e.g.,solar energy)to drive chemical reactions more efficiently.Successful and efficient photothermal catalysis relies on the availability of ideal photothermal catalysts,which can provide both large areas of catalytically active surface and strong light absorption power simultaneously.Such duplex requirements of a photothermal catalyst exhibit opposing dependence on the size of the catalyst nanoparticles,i.e.,smaller size is beneficial for achieving higher surface area and more active surface,whereas larger size favors the light absorption in the nanoparticles.In this article,we report the synthesis of ultrafine RuOOH nanoparticles with a size of 2–3 nm uniformly dispersed on the surfaces of silica(SiOx)nanospheres of hundreds of nanometers in size to tackle this challenge of forming an ideal photothermal catalyst.The ultrasmall RuOOH nanoparticles exhibit a large surface area as well as the ability to activate adsorbed molecular oxygen.The SiOx nanospheres exhibit strong surface light scattering resonances to enhance the light absorption power of the small RuOOH nanoparticles anchored on the SiOx surface.Therefore,the RuOOH/SiOx composite particles represent a new class of efficient photothermal catalysts with a photothermal energy conversion efficiency of 92.5%for selective aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzylaldehyde under ambient conditions.

Angle Compensation and Asymmetry Effect of Light Diffracted by Millimeter Liquid Surface Slosh Wave

The angle compensation method is adopted to detect sloshing waves by laser diffraction, in the case that the wavelength of the sloshing waves is much greater than that of the incident light. The clear diffraction pattern is observed to be of asymmetry, involving orders, position and interval of the diffraction spots that are discovered during the light grazing incidence. It is found that the larger the angle of incidence is, the more obvious the asymmetry is. The higher the negative diffraction orders are, the smaller the intervals between spots are. On the contrary~ in the positive region, the higher the diffraction orders are, the larger the spot intervals are. The positive interval is larger than that of the same negative diffraction order. If the incident angle reaches 1.558 rad in the experiment, all positive diffraction orders completely vanish. Based on the mechanism of phase modulation and with the Fourier transform method, the relations between the incident angle and position, interval spaces, and orders of diffraction spots are derived theoretically. The theoretical calculations are compared with the experimental data, and the comparison shows that the theoretical calculations are in good agreement with the experimental measurement.

Switching the direction of spin accumulation in the spin Hall effect of light by adjusting the optical axis of an uniaxial crystal

We theoretically and experimentally investigate a switchable spin Hall effect（SHE） of light in reflection near the Brewster angle at an air-uniaxial crystal interface.We find a large transverse spin splitting near the Brewster angle,whose sign can be altered by rotating the optical axis.As an analogy of the SHE in an electronic system,a switchable spin accumulation in the SHE of light is detected.We are able to switch the direction of the spin accumulation by adjusting the optical axis angle of the uniaxial crystal.These findings may give opportunities for photon spin manipulating and developing a new generation of nano-photonic devices.

Classification of Surface Quality of Automobile Lamp-Reflector

This paper introduces an installation for quickly classifying automobile's metal reflectors based on their roughness. The measuring principle and the mechanical structure are presented. Schematics of circuits and experimental results are given. Elimination and reduction of the effect of background lights or different bulbs on the measuring results are also described in detail.

Spin Hall effect of a light beam in anisotropic metamaterials

We theoretically investigate a switchable spin Hall effect of light （SHEL） in reflection for three specific dispersion relations at an air-anisotropic metamaterial interface. The displacements of horizontal and vertical polarization compo- nents vary with the incident angle at different dispersion relations. The transverse displacements can be obtained with the relevant metamaterial whose refractive index can be arbitrarily tailed. The results of the SHEL in the metamaterial provide a new way for manipulating the transverse displacements of a specific polarization component.

Localized Effect of Light Diffraction by Capillary Wave

The localized effect of light diffracted by a capillary wave is discovered by changing the wave amplitude. The localized range is related to the wave number and the amplitude. The dependence of the half maximum localized angle on the wave number and amplitude is analytically derived. Meanwhile, the analytic angular distribution of the diffraction light in the localized range is obtained. Experiments are carried out to achieve diffraction patterns to confirm the localized effect and to measure the angular distribution of the diffraction light intensity as well as to determine the localized range scales corresponding to different wave amplitudes. Theoretical curves of the light intensity angular distribution and localized interval widths related to surface acoustic wave amplitudes are compared with the experimental data. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical prediction.

Physics of Power Semiconductor Streamer Laser

It is considered the mechanism of streamer discharge in the wide-gap semiconductors as a highly effective method of the laser excitation on the basis of representation about the phenomenon of light self-trapping of the discharge, providing their high propagation velocity down to v- 5 ×10^9 sm/s, the crystallographic orientation, filamentary character at thickness of the channel about 1 μm and absence of destructions of a crystal.

Kerr effect and Kerr constant enhancement in vertically aligned deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystals

In this article,we review recently achieved Kerr effect progress in novel liquid crystal（LC） material：vertically aligned deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystal（VADHFLC）.With an increasing applied electric field,the induced inplane birefringence of LCs shows quadratic nonlinearity.The theoretical calculations and experimental details are illustrated.With an enhanced Kerr constant to 130 nm/V2,this VADHFLC cell can achieve a 2π modulation by a small efficient electric field with a fast response around 100 μs and thus can be employed in both display and photonics devices.

Evidences for a Unified Physics, in Full Accordance with the Newtonian Laws

We show that the speed of a longitudinal-extended, elastic (variable length), and massive particle, emitted by a source during an emission time T, at speed u (escape speed from all the masses in space), is invariant for every real measurement, (intending a measurement requiring an interaction light-matter), in spite of any reciprocal motion source-Observer. Thus we may argue that the light has to be composed of such particles (photons) moving at speed c = u. Compliance of these photons with Newtonian mechanics is shown for many effects, (like the Doppler effect, redshift, time dilation, etc.), highlighting the differences versus the Relativity. In the 2nd part, on the assumption that the electron charge can be considered as a point-particle fixed to the electron surface, always facing the atom nucleus during the electron revolution, we revised the light-matter interaction, showing that it only depends on the particular impacts between these photons and the circling electrons: for instance, on H atom, we found 137 circular orbits only, the last one being the ionization orbit, where the electron orbital speed becomes vi= c/1372. [Classical mechanics implies that orbiting electrons produce an electro-magnetic radiation causing their fall into the nucleus: on Section 3.5, the reason why the electron circular orbits are stable].

Effects of light intensity on reflective ghost imaging

In this letter, we analyze the effects of light intensity find that the brightness of reflective ghost image can on reflective ghost imaging with thermal source. We be changed by modulating the light intensity of the source and the splitting ratio of the beam splitter. The signal-to-noise ratio will be improved by increa.sing the light intensity of the source. More important, we can obtain the reflective ghost image with high image quality by adopting a low light intensity signal beam and a high light intensity reference beam, which is better than the classical optical imaging, because it can reduce the effects of light on the object.

Minimizing the effects of unmodulated light and uneven intensity profile on the holographic images reconstructed by pixelated spatial light modulators

A simple and effective approach is proposed to minimize the effect of unmodulated light and uneven intensity caused by the pixelated structure of the spatial light modulator in a holographic display. A more uniform image is produced by purposely shifting the holographic images of multiple reconstructed lights with different incident angles from the zero-diffraction-order and overlapping those selected different orders. The simulation and optical experimental results show that the influence of the zero-diffraction-order can be reduced, while keeping the good uniformity of the target images by this new approach.

Broadband spin Hall effect of light in single nanoapertures

With properties not previously available,optical metamaterials and metasurfaces have shown their great potential in the precise control of light waves at the nanoscale.However,the use of current metamaterials and metasurfaces is limited by the collective response of the meta-atoms/molecules,which means that a single element cannot provide the functionalities required by most applications.Here,we demonstrate for the first time that a single achiral nanoaperture can be utilized as a meta-macromolecule to achieve giant angular spin Hall effect of light.By controlling the spin-related momenta,we show that these nanoapertures can enable full control of the phase gradient at a deep-subwavelength level,thus forming unique building blocks for optical metasurfaces.As a proof-of-concept demonstration,a miniaturized Bessel-like beam generator and flat lens are designed and experimentally characterized.The results presented here may open a door for the development of meta-macromolecule-based metasurfaces for integrated optical systems and nanophotonics.

An actively ultrafast tunable giant slow-light effect in ultrathin nonlinear metasurfaces

A slow-light effect based on metamaterial-induced transparency(MIT)possesses great practical applications for integrated photonic devices.However,to date,only very weak slow-light effects have been obtained in metamaterials because of the intrinsic loss of metal.Moreover,no active control of slow-light has been achieved in metamaterials.Here,we report the realization of a giant slow-light effect on an ultrathin metasurface that consists of periodic arrays of gold nanoprism dimers with a thickness of 40 nm sandwiched between a multilayer-graphene micro-sheet/zinc oxide nanoparticle layer and a monolayer graphene/polycrystalline indium tin oxide layer.The strong field confinement of the plasmonic modes associated with the MIT ensures a tremendous reduction in the group velocity around the transparency window.A group index of more than 4×10^(3) is achieved,which is one order of magnitude greater than that of previous reports.A large tunable wavelength range of 120 nm is achieved around the center of the transparency window when the pump light intensity is only 1.5 kW cm^(-2).The response time is as fast as 42.3 ps.These results demonstrate the potential for the realization of various functional integrated photonic devices based on metasurfaces,such as all-optical buffers and all-optical switches.

Enhanced spin Hall effect of reflected light with guided-wave surface plasmon resonance

The photonic spin Hall effect(SHE) has been intensively studied and widely applied, especially in spin photonics.However, the SHE is weak and is difficult to detect directly. In this paper, we propose a method to enhance SHE with the guided-wave surface-plasmon resonance(SPR). By covering a dielectric with high refractive index on the surface of silver film, the photonic SHE can be greatly enhanced, and a giant transverse shift of horizontal polarization state is observed due to the evanescent field enhancement near the interface at the top dielectric layer and air. The maximum transverse shift of the horizontal polarization state with 11.5 μm is obtained when the thickness of Si film is optimum. There is at least an order of magnitude enhancement in contrast with the transverse shift in the conventional SPR configuration. Our research is important for providing an effective way to improve the photonic SHE and may offer the opportunity to characterize the parameters of the dielectric layer with the help of weak measurements and development of sensors based on the photonic SHE.

Effect of packing density and packing geometry on light extraction of Ⅲ-nitride light-emitting diodes with microsphere arrays

The finite-difference time-domain method was employed to calculate light extraction efficiency of thin-film flip-chip In Ga N/Ga N quantum well light-emitting diodes（LEDs） with TiO2 microsphere arrays. The extraction efficiency for LEDs with microsphere arrays was investigated by focusing on the effect of the packing density,packing configuration, and diameter-to-period ratio. The comparison studies revealed the importance of having a hexagonal and close-packed monolayer microsphere array configuration for achieving optimum extraction efficiency, which translated into a 3.6-fold enhancement in light extraction compared to that for a planar LED. This improvement is attributed to the reduced Fresnel reflection and enlarged light escape cone. The engineering of the far-field radiation patterns was also demonstrated by tuning the packing density and packing configuration of the microsphere arrays.