Suppression of stimulated Brillouin and Raman scatterings using an alternating frequency laser and transverse magnetic fields

A novel scheme to suppress both stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS) and stimulated Raman scattering(SRS) by combining an alternating frequency(AF) laser and a transverse magnetic field is proposed. The AF laser allows the laser frequency to change discretely and alternately over time. The suppression of SBS is significant as long as the AF difference is greater than the linear growth rate of SBS or the alternating time of the laser frequency is shorter than the linear growth time of SBS. However, the AF laser proves ineffective in suppressing SRS, which usually has a much higher linear growth rate than SBS. To remedy that, a transverse magnetic field is included to suppress the SRS instability. The electrons trapped in the electron plasma waves(EPWs) of SRS can be accelerated by the surfatron mechanism in a transverse magnetic field and eventually detrapped. While continuously extracting energy from EPWs, the EPWs are dissipated and the kinetic inflation of SRS is suppressed. The one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation results show that both SBS and SRS can be effectively suppressed by combining the AF laser with a transverse magnetic field with tens of Tesla. The total reflectivity can be dramatically reduced by more than one order of magnitude. These results provide a potential reference for controlling SBS and SRS under the related parameters of inertial confinement fusion.

Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering on Self-assembled Nano Silver Film Prepared by Electrolysis Method

We demonstrate surface enhanced Raman scattering （SERS） detection of self-assembled nano silver film using a low-cost electrolysis strategy at a proper voltage and silver nitrate concentration in electrolyte. The concentration dependence of SERS from crystal violet （CV） molecules adsorbed to silver film was systematically studied. Importantly, the SERS surface enhancement factor of such nano silver film was 603, which was measured by a portable Raman spectrometer. The minimum concentration of detectable CV molecules can be as low as 10^-11 mol/L. The nano silver film prepared by this electrolysis method is an active, stable, cost-effective, and reusable SERS substrate.

Chemical Enhancement on Surface-Enhanced Resonance Raman Scattering of Au3-1,4-BenzenedithioI-Au3 Junction

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering （SERS） and surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering （SERRS） spectra of the 1,4-benzenedithiol molecule in the junction of two Au3 clusters have been calculated using density functional theory （DFT） and time-dependent DFT method. In order to investigate the contribution of charge transfer （CT） enhancement, the wavelengths of incident light are chosen to be at resonance with four representative excited states, which correspond to CT in four different forms. Compared with SERS spectrum, SERRS spectra are enhanced enormously with distinct enhancement factors, which can be attributed to CT resonance in different forms.

Resonant Raman Scattering and Photoluminescence Emissions from Above Bandgap Levels in Dilute GaAsN Alloys

The transitions of E0 ,E0 ＋A0, and E＋ in dilute GaAs（1-x） Nx alloys with x = 0.10% ,0.22% ,0.36% ,and 0.62% are observed by micro-photoluminescence. Resonant Raman scattering results further confirm that they are from the intrinsic emissions in the studied dilute GaAsN alloys rather than some localized exciton emissions in the GaAsN alloys. The results show that the nitrogen-induced E E＋ and E0 ＋ A0 transitions in GaAsN alloys intersect at a nitrogen content of about 0.16%. It is demonstrated that a small amount of isoelectronic doping combined with micro-photoluminescence allows direct observation of above band gap transitions that are not usually accessible in photoluminescence.

Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering of Aflatoxin B1 on Silver by DFT Method

The structure, electrostatic properties, and Raman spectra of aflatoxin B1 （AFB1） and AFB1-Ag complex are studied by density functional theory with B3LYP/6- 311G（d,p）/Lan12dz basis set. The results show that the surface-enhanced Raman scattering （SERS） and pre-resonance Raman spectra of AFB1-Ag complex strongly depend on the adsorption site and the excitation wavelength found to enhance 102-103 order compared to of the incident light. The SERS factors are normal Raman spectrum of AFB1 molecule due to the larger static polarizabilities of the AFB1-Ag complex, which directly results in the stronger chemical enhancement in SERS spectra. The pre-resonance Raman spectra of AFB1-Ag complex are explored at 266, 482, 785, and 1064 nm incident light wavelength, in which the enhancement factors are about 10^2-10^4, mainly caused by the charge-transfer excitation resonance. The vibrational modes are analyzed to explain the relationship between the vibrational direction and the enhanced Raman intensities.

Temperature-Dependent Raman Scattering of Phonon Modes and Defect Modes in GaN and p-Type GaN Films

Raman spectra of undoped GaN and Mg-doped GaN films grown by metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition on sapphire are investigated between 78 and 573K.A peak at 247cm -1 is observed in both Raman spectra of GaN and Mg-doped GaN.It is suggested that the defect-induced scattering is origin of the mode.The electronic Raman scattering mechanism and Mg-related local vibrational mode are excluded.Furthermore,the differences of E_2 and A_1(LO) modes in two samples are also discussed.The stress relaxation is observed in Mg-doped GaN.

Hybrid metal-insulator-metal structures on Si nanowires array for surface enhanced Raman scattering

Surface enhanced Raman scattering(SERS)is an efficient technique to detect low concentration molecules.In this work,periodical silicon nanowires(Si NWs)integrated with metal-insulator-metal(MIM)layers are employed as SERS substrates.Laser interference lithography(LIL)combined with reactive ion etching(RIE)is used to fabricate large-area periodic nanostructures,followed by decorating the MIM layers.Compared to MIM disks array on Si surface,the SERS enhancement factor(EF)of the MIM structures on the Si NWs array can be increased up to 5 times,which is attributed to the enhanced electric field at the boundary of the MIM disks.Furthermore,high density of nanoparticles and nanogaps serving as hot spots on sidewall surfaces also contribute to the enhanced SERS signals.Via changing the thickness of the insulator layer,the plasmonic resonance can be tuned,which provides a new localized surface plasmon resonance(LSPR)characteristic for SERS applications.

Quantitative and sensitive detection of prohibited fish drugs by surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Rapid and simple detections of two kinds of prohibited fish drugs, crystal violet （CV） and malachite green （MG）, were accomplished by surface-enhanced Raman scattering （SERS）. Based on the optimized Au/cicada wing, the detectable concentration of CV/MG can reach 10-7 M, and the linear logarithmic quantitative relationship curves between log/and logC allows for the determination of the unknown concentration of CV/MG solution. The detection of these two analytes in real environment was also achieved, demonstrating the application potential of SERS in the fast screening of the prohibited fish drugs, which is of great benefit for food safety and environmental monitoring.

Simultaneous measurements of global vibrational spectra and dephasing times of molecular vibrational modes by broadband time-resolved coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering spectrography

In broadband coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering （CARS） spectroscopy with supercontinuum （SC）, the simultaneously detectable spectral coverage is limited by the spectral continuity and the simultaneity of various spectral components of SC in an enough bandwidth. By numerical simulations, the optimal experimental conditions for improving the SC are obtained. The broadband time-resolved CARS spectrography based on the SC with required temporal and spectral distributions is realised. The global molecular vibrational spectrum with well suppressed nonresonant background noise can be obtained in a single measurement. At the same time, the measurements of dephasing times of various molecular vibrational modes can be conveniently achieved from intensities of a sequence of time-resolved CARS signals. It will be more helpful to provide a complete picture of molecular vibrations, and to exhibit a potential to understand not only both the solvent dynamics and the solute-solvent interactions, but also the mechanisms of chemical reactions in the fields of biology, chemistry and material science.

Determination of the transport properties in 4H-SiC wafers by Raman scattering measurement

The free carrier density and mobility in n-type 4H-SiC substrates and epilayers were determined by accurately analysing the frequency shift and the full-shape of the longitudinal optic phono-plasmon coupled （LOPC） modes, and compared with those determined by Hall-effect measurement and that provided by the vendors. The transport properties of thick and thin 4H-SiC epilayers grown in both vertical and horizontal reactors were also studied. The free carrier density ranges between 2× 10^18 cm^-3 and 8× 10^18 cm^-3with a carrier mobility of 30-55 cm2/（V.s） for ntype 4H-SiC substrates and 1× 10^16 -3× 10^16 cm^-3 with mobility of 290-490 cm2/（V.s） for both thick and thin 4H-SiC epilayers grown in a horizontal reactor, while thick 4H-SiC epilayers grown in vertical reactor have a slightly higher carrier concentration of around 8.1×10^16 cm^-3 with mobility of 380 cm2/（V.s）. It was shown that Raman spectroscopy is a potential technique for determining the transport properties of 4H-SiC wafers with the advantage of being able to probe very small volumes and also being non-destructive. This is especially useful for future mass production of 4H-SiC epi-wafers.

Surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering spectroscopy of single R6G molecules

Surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering （SERRS） of Rhodamine 6G （R6G） adsorbed on colloidal silver clusters has been studied. Based on the great enhancement of the Raman signal and the quench of the fluorescence, the SERRS spectra of R6G were recorded for the samples of dye colloidal solution with different concentrations. Spectral inhomogeneity behaviours from single molecules in the dried sample films were observed with complementary evidences, such as spectral polarization, spectral diffusion, intensity fluctuation of vibrational lines and even ＂breathing＂ of the molecules. Sequential spectra observed from a liquid sample with an average of 0.3 dye molecules in the probed volume exhibited the expected Poisson distribution for actually measuring 0, 1 or 2 molecules. Difference between the SERRS spectra of R6G excited by linearly and circularly polarized light were experimentally measured.

Simulation of stimulated Raman scattering signal generation in scattering tissues excited by Bessel beams

Stimulated Raman scattering(SRS)microscopy has the ability of noninvasive imaging of specific chemical bonds and been increasingly used in biomedicine in recent years.Two pulsed Gaussian beams are used in traditional SRS microscopes,providing with high lateral and axial spatial resolution.Because of the tight focus of the Gaussian beam,such an SRS microscopy is difficult to be used for imaging deep targets in scattering tissues.The SRS microscopy based on Bessel beams can solve the imaging problem to a certain extent.Here,we establish a theoretical model to calculate the SRS signal excited by two Bessel beams by integrating the SRS signal generation theory with the fractal propagation method.The fractal model of refractive index turbulence is employed to generate the scattering tissues where the light transport is modeled by the beam propagation method.We model the scattering tissues containing chemicals,calculate the SRS signals stimulated by two Bessel beams,discuss the influence of the fractal model parameters on signal generation,and compare them with those generated by the Gaussian beams.The results show that,even though the modeling parameters have great influence on SRS signal generation,the Bessel beams-based SRS can generate signals in deeper scattering tissues.

Controllable Silver Plating on Silica for Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering

We proposed a facile and rapid method for preparing silica-silver core-shell（SSCS） substrates to use Ag electroless plating on SiO2@Au-seed particles.UV-Vis-NIR absorption spectrometer and SEM were employed to monitor the reaction process of the formation of Ag on the surfaces of silica beads,and the optical resonance of the substrate could shift from visible to NIR region.It has been found that surface-enhanced Raman scattering（SERS） enhancement changes with the electroless plating time and the SSCS substrate with the plating time of 90 s（90SSCS） shows the strongest SERS response under the laser excitation at 514.5 nm.Signals collected over multiple spots and substrate of rhodamine 6G（R6G） resulted in a relative standard deviation（RSD） of 9.75%.The calculated enhancement factor（EF） was approximately 105 ＂106.SSCS substrate exhibits high SERS performance,which is due to electromagnetic SERS enhancement with additional localization field within closely packed Ag nanoparticles decorated on the SiO2 nanoparticles.And this substrate presents tunable and broad localized surface plasmon resonance（LSPR）,so this method may open a new way for SERS studies with other laser excitation.

Selective excitation of molecular mode in a mixture by femtosecond resonance-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering spectroscopy

Femtosecond time-resolved coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering （CARS） spectroscopy is used to investigate gaseous molecular dynamics. Due to the spectrally broad laser pulses, usually poorly resolved spectra result from this broad spectroscopy. However, it can be demonstrated that by the electronic resonance enhancement optimization control a selective excitation of specific vibrational mode is possible. Using an electronically resonance-enhanced effect, iodine molecule specific CARS spectroscopy can be obtained from a mixture of iodine-air at room temperature and a pressure of 1 atm （corresponding to a saturation iodine vapour as low as about 35 Pa）. The dynamics on either the electronically excited state or the ground state of iodine molecules obtained is consistent with previous studies （vacuum, heated and pure iodine） in the femtoseeond time resolved CARS spectroscopy, showing that an effective method of suppressing the non-resonant CARS background and other interferences is demonstrated.

Molybdenum Nanoscrews:A Novel Non-coinage-Metal Substrate for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

For the first time, Mo nanoscrew was cultivated as a novel non-coinage-metal substrate for surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS). It was found that the nanoscrew is composed of many small screw threads stacking along its length direction with small separations. Under external light excitation, strong electromagnetic coupling was initiated within the gaps, and many hot-spots formed on the surface of the nanoscrew, which was confirmed by high-resolution scanning near-field optical microscope measurements and numerical simulations using finite element method. These hotspots are responsible for the observed SERS activity of the nanoscrews. Raman mapping characterizations further revealed the excellent reproducibility of the SERS activity. Our findings may pave the way for design of low-cost and stable SERS substrates.

Raman and Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering of Chlorophenols

Raman spectrum is a powerful analytical tool for determining the chemical information of compounds. In this study, we obtained analytical results of chlorophenols（CPs） molecules including 4-chlorophenol（4-CP）, 2,6-dich- lorophenol（2,6-DCP） and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol（2,4,6-TCP） on the surface of Ag dendrites by surface-enhanced Raman scattering（SERS） spectra. SEM images indicate that the SERS substrate of Ag dendrites is composed of a large number of polygonal nanocrystallites, which self-assembled into a 3D hierarchical structure. It was found that there were distinct differences for those three molecules from Raman and SERS spectra. This indicates that SERS could be a new tool of detection technique regarding trace amounts of CPs.

Raman scattering from highly-stressed anvil diamond

The high-frequency edge of the first-order Raman mode of diamond reflects the stress state at the culet of anvil, and is often used for the pressure calibration in diamond anvil cell(DAC) experiments. Here we point out that the high-frequency edge of the diamond Raman phonon corresponds to the Brillouin zone(BZ) center Γ point as a function of pressure. The diamond Raman pressure gauge relies on the stability of crystal lattice of diamond under high stress. Upon the diamond anvil occurs failure under the uniaxial stress(197 GPa), the loss of intensity of the first-order Raman phonon and a stressdependent broad Raman band centered at 600 cm^(-1) are observed, which is associated with a strain-induced local mode corresponding to the BZ edge phonon of the L1 transverse acoustic phonon branch.

Stimulated Raman scattering microscopy for rapid brain tumor histology

Rapid histology of brain tissues with sufficient diagnostic information has the great potential to aid neurosurgons during operations.Stimulated Raman Scattering(SRS)microscopy is an emerging label-free imaging technique,with the intrinsic chemical resolutions to delineate brain tumors from normal tissues without the nood of time-consuming tissue processing.Growing number of studies have shown SRS as a“virtual histology"tool for rapid diagnosis of various types of brain tumors.In this review,we focus on the basic principles and current developments of SRS microscopy,as well as its applications for brain tumor imaging.

Stimulated Raman scattering excited by incoherent light in plasma

Stimulated Raman scattering(SRS)excited by incoherent light is studied via particle-in-cell simulations.It is shown that a large bandwidth of incoherent light can reduce the growth of SRS and electron heating considerably in the linear stage.However,different components of the incoherent light can be coupled by the Langmuir waves,so that stimulated Raman backward scattering can develop.When the bandwidth of incoherent light is larger than the Langmuir wave frequency,forward SRS can be seeded between different components of the incoherent light.The incoherent light can only increase the time duration for nonlinear saturation but cannot diminish the saturation level obviously.

H2 Stimulated Raman Scattering in a Multi-pass Cell with a Herriott Configuration

Stimulated raman scattering （SRS） is an effective method for expanding the spectral range of high power lasers, especially in the regime of near IR and middle IR. We report the SRS of high pressure H2 with a multiple-pass cell configuration. The SRS with the multiple-pass cell configuration is found to be very efficient for reduction of threshold of the first Stokes （S1）. Due to the coherent SRS （CSRS） process, the multiple-pass cell configuration is more effective for reduction of the threshold for the second Stokes （S2） SRS and for increasing the conversion efficiency of S2. This contributes to the relatively low conversion efficiency of S1 for the multiple-pass cell configuration. Multiple-pass cell SRS is also found to be very effective for improving the beam quality and the stability of S1.