Nano-effect enhanced cooperative luminescence of Yb^(3+) clusters in bulk materials

In order to improve the multi-ion cooperative transition, we proposed and exploited a novel nanoscale effect, namely the nanoshell effect in bulk materials. Based on the effect, an optimal material structure was designed by coating the surfaces of Ca F_(2):Yb^(3+)micron size particles with ZrO_(2). An about 2 times higher intensity of cooperative luminescence is observed upon laser excitation at 980 nm. Dynamical analysis exhibits that the novel effect plays a key role in improving the performance of cooperative transitions. Our results also suggest that the nanoshell effect in bulk materials is likely to be significant in some special cases, which have not been reported yet in the literature.

Significant enhancement of multiple resonant sidebands in a soliton fiber laser

Resonant sidebands in soliton fiber lasers have garnered substantial interest in recent years due to their crucial role in understanding soliton propagation and interaction dynamics.However,most previous studies and applications were restricted to focusing on only the first few low-order resonant sidebands because higher-order sidebands usually decay exponentially as their wavelengths shift far away from the soliton center and are negligibly weak.Here we report numerically and experimentally significant enhancement of multiple resonant sidebands in a soliton fiber laser mode-locked by a nonlinear polarization evolution mechanism.The birefringence and the gain profile of the laser cavity were shown to be critical for this phenomenon.Multiple intense resonant sidebands were generated whose maximum intensity was more than 30 d B higher than that of the soliton,which is the highest yet reported,to our knowledge.To accurately predict the wavelengths of all high-order resonant sidebands,an explicit formula was derived by taking the third-order dispersion effect into account.The temporal features of multiple orders of resonant sidebands were characterized,which all exhibit exponentially decaying leading edges.This study provides insight into understanding the properties of high-order resonant sidebands in a soliton laser and opens possibilities for constructing multi-wavelength laser sources.

Cooperative energy acceptor of three Yb^(3+) ions

Our previous work first reported the cooperative sensitized luminescence from Cu2＋ or Pb2＋ by three clustered Yb^3＋ ions, in which three NIR photons can be converted into a high energy photon. Could a reverse process happen that a high energy photon is cut into three NIR photons？ This work demonstrated an example of three-photon quantum cutting （QC） phosphor, CaF2：Ce^3＋,Yb^3＋, in which three clustered Yb^3＋ ions （Yb^3＋-trimer） cooperatively and indirectly received a 306 nm ultraviolet （UV） photon energy transferred from a Ce^3＋ ion in 5d excited state and emitted three 975 nm near-infrared （NIR） photons. The cluster destruction experiments were designed to verify the necessity of the presence of Yb^3＋-trimers for QC. The dynamical analysis on luminescence of Ce^3＋ ions confirmed the energy transfer from Ce^3＋ ions to Yb^3＋-trimers. The doping concentration effect on luminescence was investigated. Furthermore, the maximum energy transfer （ET） efficiency and the corresponding QC efficiency were estimated to be 61% and 222%, respectively. Therefore, the reported three-photon QC phosphor has an attractive prospect in efficiently harvesting solar energy for silicon solar cells.

Passively Q-switched erbium doped fiber laser using a gold nanostars based saturable absorber

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate an all-fiber passively Q-switched erbium doped fiber laser(EDFL) by using gold nanostars(GNSs) as a saturable absorber(SA) for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. In comparison with other gold nanomorphologies, GNSs have multiple localized surface plasmon resonances, which means that they can be used to construct wideband ultrafast pulse lasers. By inserting the GNS SA into an EDFL cavity pumped by a 980 nm laser diode, a stable passively Q-switched laser at 1564.5 nm was achieved for a threshold pump power of 40 mW. By gradually increasing the pump power from 40 to 120 mW, the pulse duration decreases from 12.8 to 5.3 μs and the repetition rate increases from 10 to 17 kHz. Our results indicate that the GNSs are a promising SA for constructing pulse lasers.

Growth regularity and phase diagrams of NaLu_(0.795−x)Y_(x)F_(4) upconversion nanocrystals synthesized by automatic nanomaterial synthesizer

The growth regularities of nanomaterials are often concealed by the contingency of preparation. Therefore, it is always very difficult to figure out growth regularities of nanomaterials due to the accompanying undulation of products. A series of precise synthesis was performed by using an automatic nanomaterial synthesizer (ANS) in order to explore the growth regularity of complex NaREF4 (RE: rare earth) upconversion nanocrystals (UCNCs). The use of ANS significantly enhances the experimental controllability, repeatability, and success rate. Mass experimental research exhibited that the NaLu_(0.795−x)Y_(x)F_(4):Yb^(3+)/Tm^(3+) (x = 0−0.795) UCNCs can vary their sizes continuously in a wide range to accurately meet the experimenter’s design merely by controlling the concentration of Y^(3+). A notable growth regularity was obtained and intuitively shown in growth phase diagrams. Furthermore, in the case of having excellent monodispersity, pure hexagonal phase, and uniform morphology, the prepared UCNCs still retained superior upconversion luminescent (UCL) properties. The regular changes in UCL properties further confirmed the growth regularity of the UCNCs. After analyzing the experimental data, we found that NaLu_(0.795−x)Y_(x)F_(4) combined the advantages of NaYF_(4) and NaLuF_(4) hosts with desired sizes. These results provide a guidance for the exploration of growth regularities of other similar nanomaterials and also for the structure design of the required nanomaterials.

Exposure to perfluorooctane sulfonate reduced cell viability and insulin release capacity of β cells

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances(PFAS)are found to have multiple adverse outcomes on human health.Recently,epidemiological and toxicological studies showed that exposure to PFAS had adverse impacts on pancreas and showed association with insulin abnormalities.To explore how PFAS may contribute to diabetes,we studied impacts of perfluorooctane sul-fonate(PFOS)on cell viability and insulin release capacity of pancreatic β cells by using in vivo and in vitro methods.We found that 28-day administration with PFOS(10 mg/(kg body weight·day))caused reductions of pancreas weight and islet size in male mice.PFOS admin-istration also led to lower serum insulin level both in fasting state and after glucose infusion among male mice.For cell-based in vitro bioassay,we used mouse β-TC-6 cancer cells and found 48-hr exposure to PFOS decreased the cell viability at 50 μmol/L.By measuring insulin content in supernatant,48-hr pretreatment of PFOS(100 μmol/L)decreased the insulin re-lease capacity of β-TC-6 cells after glucose stimulation.Although these concentrations were higher than the environmental concentration of PFOS,it might be reasonable for high con-centration of PFOS to exert observable toxic effects in mice considering mice had a faster removal efficiency of PFOS than human.PFOS exposure(50 μmol/L)to β-TC-6 cells induced intracellular accumulation of reactive oxidative specie(ROS).Excessive ROS induced the re-active toxicity of cells,which eventually invoke apoptosis and necrosis.Results in this study provide evidence for the possible causal link of exposure to PFOS and diabetes risk.

Broadband mid-infrared nonlinear optical modulator enabled by gold nanorods:towards the mid-infrared regime

Mid-infrared pulsed lasers operating around the 3 μm wavelength regime are important for a wide range of applications including sensing, spectroscopy, imaging, etc. Despite the recent advances in technology, the lack of a nonlinear optical modulator operating in the mid-infrared regime remains a significant challenge. Here, we report the third-order nonlinear optical response of gold nanorods(GNRs) ranging from 800 nm to the mid-infrared regime(2810 nm) enabled by their size and overlapping behavior-dependent longitudinal surface plasmon resonance. In addition, we demonstrate a wavelength-tunable Er3+-doped fluoride fiber laser modulated by GNRs, which can deliver pulsed laser output, with the pulse duration down to 533 ns, tunable wavelength ranging from 2760.2 to 2810.0 nm, and spectral 3 d B bandwidth of about 1 nm. The experimental results not only validate the GNRs’ robust mid-infrared nonlinear optical response, but also manifest their application potential in high-performance broadband optoelectronic devices.