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A visible femtosecond laser is shown to be capable of selectively inactivating a wide spectrum of microorganisms in a wavelength and pulse width dependent manner. However, the mechanism of how a visible femtosecond laser affects the viability of different microorganisms is still elusive. In this paper, the cellular surface properties, membrane integrity and metabolic rate of Escherichia coli (E. coli) irradiated by a visible femtosecond laser (??=?415?nm, pulse width?=?100?fs) with different exposure times were investigated. Our results showed that femtosecond laser treatment for 60?min led to cytoplasmic leakage, protein aggregation and alternation of the physical properties of the E. coli cell membrane. In comparison, a 10?min exposure of bacteria to femtosecond laser irradiation induced an immediate reduction of 75% in the glucose-dependent respiratory rate, while the cytoplasmic leakage was not detected. Results from enzymatic assays showed that oxidases and dehydrogenases involved in the E. coli respiratory chain exhibited divergent susceptibility after laser irradiation. This early commencement of respiratory inhibition after a short irradiation is presumed to have a dominant effect on the early stage of bacteria inactivation.

Due to the high attenuation in vitreous silica, acoustic attenuations in the THz regime are typically measured by incoherent techniques such as Raman, neutron, and X-ray scattering. Here, we utilized multiple-quantum-well structures to demonstrate acoustic spectroscopy of vitreous silica up to ∼740 THz. The acoustic properties of silica thin films prepared by physical and chemical deposition methods were characterized in the sub-THz regime. This technique can be useful in resolving debated issues relating to Boson peak around 1 THz.

Four phase-sensitive imaging methods (Talbot, phase contrast, Sagnac, and polarization gating) used for detecting terahertz-frequency waves in structured lithium niobate slabs are compared analytically and experimentally. It is demonstrated that both phase contrast and a self-compensating polarization gating geometry can generate in-focus images of the sample and quantitatively measure the terahertz electric field. Of these two methods polarization gating has better signal-to-noise ratio and so is preferred for most situations, while phase contrast imaging has better spatial resolution and so is preferred for measurements involving fine structures or near-field effects.

We demonstrate generation of frequency-tunable, multicycle terahertz phonon-polariton waves in a LiNbO3 slab waveguide. Because the waveguide modes show considerable phase-velocity dispersion, we are able to enhance frequency-selected narrowband terahertz waves by using femtosecond optical pulses whose intensity fronts are tilted at angles that meet the appropriate noncollinear phase-matching conditions. The pump light is spread across a large area of the crystalline waveguide within which coherent terahertz wave generation occurs, averting material damage, while yielding peak-to-peak terahertz field amplitudes in the waveguide of 50 kV/cm.

We apply phase contrast imaging to enable, sharply focused visualization of terahertz waves in electro-optic media. The approach allows quantitative characterization of THz waves in the 60 GHz - 4.5 THz frequency range in a thin dielectric slab and in-focus observation of THz waves in polaritonic structures.

The authors demonstrate the generation of coherent acoustic phonons in (111)-strained InGaAs∕GaAs multiple quantum wells through piezoelectric coupling by an optical pump-probe technique. Dependence of the induced strain amplitude on the photocarrier density reveals that coherent acoustic phonons can be efficiently excited by the piezoelectric effect with an unscreened built-in electric field. Under high fluence excitation, the generation of coherent acoustic phonons saturates. The experimental results are supported by a macroscopic theoretical model. No backward Raman signal and no zone-folded phonon modes were observed in this low impedance-mismatch and finite-period heterostructure.

Picosecond ultrasonic experiments were performed to generate and detect acoustic pulses in piezoelectric (111) epilayers of InxGa(1−x)As, and the longitudinal sound velocities in the [111] direction of InxGa(1−x)As were thus directly determined by controlling the indium content x. We found that the sound velocity exhibits an obvious bowing with different alloy compositions and can be described as a quadratic function of VL(x)=458x2−1451x+5414. This result supports a nonlinear compositional dependence of the elastic constants of InxGa(1−x)As and indicates that the linear-interpolation approximation is inapplicable for estimating sound velocity in this specific case.

Two-dimensional ultrasonic imaging is demonstrated by using acoustic nanowaves. With a 14nm acoustic wavelength, both axial and transverse resolutions of a few tens of nanometers are thus achieved. This ultrasonic-based nondestructive technique not only images but also reconstructs the subsurface nanostructures including the depth positions of the buried interfaces. By demonstrating two-dimensional nanoultrasonic scans in depth and transverse (or z-x) axes, we show that acoustic nanowaves can be a promising tool for future subsurface three-dimensional noninvasive imaging with nanometer resolutions.

Received October 14, 2005; revised January 7, 2006; accepted January 9, 2006; posted January 12, 2006 (Doc. ID 65391) The two-photon excitation action cross section of Hc-Red fluorescent proteins (Hc-RFPs) is measured and found to be of the same order as that of enhanced green fluorescent proteins. With a 618 nm emission wavelength in the far-red region and with an excitation wavelength around 1200 nm, Hc-RPF-based two-photon fluorescence microscopy (2PFM) can offer deep penetration capability inside live samples and is ideal for in vivo gene expression study and biomolecular imaging in live objects. In vivo 2PFM of the developing heart deep inside a transgenic zebrafish embryo tagged by Hc-RFP is also successfully demonstrated.

We have developed a system to generate arbitrary wave-form nanoacoustic waves (NAWs) with a piezoelectric InGaN∕GaN single-quantum well. Based on an optical coherent control technique, acoustic frequency tunability in the subterahertz range is realized within only one fixed sample. The acoustic generation mechanisms, especially the in-well piezoelectric field Coulomb screening which tends to be saturated at high carrier concentrations, are discussed with optical power dependency. With the generated NAWs propagating in the c axis of a GaN thin film, the lifetime of the 500 GHz longitudinal-acoustic phonon pulses in GaN is measured to be longer than 420 ps, corresponding to a GaN depth more than 3.3μm.

Free exciton and above-band-gap free carrier dynamics in ZnO nanorods have been investigated at room temperature with a femtosecond transient transmission measurement. Following the photoexcitation of above-band-gap free carriers, an extremely fast external thermalization time on the order of 200 fs can be observed. Under high excitation, hot phonon effects were found to delay the carrier cooling process. While the photoexcitation energy was tuned to match the free exciton transition, stable exciton formation can be uncovered while no evident exciton ionization process can be found unless the photoexcited exciton density exceeded the Mott density.

We demonstrate the generation of picosecond acoustic pulses using a piezoelectric-semiconductor-based p‐n junction structure. This p‐n junction picosecond ultrasonic experiment confirms that the piezoelectric effect dominates the thermal expansion and deformation-potential coupling in the generation of picosecond acoustic pulses. The characteristics of the p‐n initiated acoustic pulses are determined by the width and the field strength inside the depletion region. Our study indicates the future possibility to electrically control the acoustic pulse characteristics if we could apply an external bias to modulate the depletion region width.

Observation of resonance modes is the most straightforward way of studying mechanical oscillations because these modes have maximum response to stimuli. However, a deeper understanding of mechanical motion could be obtained by also looking at modal responses at frequencies in between resonances. A common way to do this is to force a mechanical object into oscillations and study its off-resonance behaviour. In this paper, we present visualisation of the modal response shapes for a mechanical drum driven off resonance. By using the frequency modal analysis, we describe these shapes as a superposition of resonance modes. We find that the spatial distribution of the oscillating component of the driving force affects the modal weight or participation. Moreover, we are able to infer the asymmetry of the drum by studying the dependence of the resonance modes shapes on the frequency of the driving force. Our results highlight that dynamic responses of any mechanical system are mixtures of their resonance modes with various modal weights, further giving credence to the universality of this phenomenon.

We studied optimally-doped (Ba 0.6 K 0.4 )Fe 2 As 2 and LiFeAs by using ultrafast optical spectroscopy. Our temperature-dependent experimental results revealed that pseudogap exists above superconducting state in both materials.

Displacement calibration of nanomechanical plate resonators presents a challenging task. Large nanomechanical resonator thickness reduces the amplitude of the resonator motion due to its increased spring constant and mass, and its unique reflectance. Here, we show that the plate thickness, resonator gap height, and motional amplitude of circular and elliptical drum resonators, can be determined in-situ by exploiting the fundamental interference phenomenon in Fabry-Perot cavities. The proposed calibration scheme uses optical contrasts to uncover thickness and spacer height profiles, and reuse the results to convert the photodetector signal to the displacement of drumheads that are electromotively driven in their linear regime. Calibrated frequency response and spatial mode maps enable extraction of the modal radius, effective mass, effective driving force, and Young's elastic modulus of the drumhead material. This scheme is applicable to any configuration of Fabry-Perot cavities, including plate and membrane resonators., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures