We present a simple, robust, space-adjustable dark magneto-optical trap (MOT) for the efficient production of heteronuclear molecules. Double-mixed beams made up of repumping beams and depumping beams propagate in nearly opposite directions in the dark MOT. This optical arrangement can easily adjust the spatial positions of two clouds by changing the power ratio of the two repumping beams, and ensure a good overlap, which is very necessary for the production of heteronuclear molecules. The imaging of cold atoms by camera and the collision-induced loss rate obtained by recording the loading curve of the cold atoms show that we obtain a perfect overlap of atom clouds. The number of RbCs molecules with the double-mixed beams is improved by 70%, which is higher than the one with the single-mixed beam.

A new miniature spectrometer with two entrance slits is proposed to expand the spectral band. The proposed spectrometer is designed such that the two entrance slits share the same concave grating and detector array. The two slits are located at different positions such that the spectral range of the same light source incident on the detector array varies greatly between the two slits. Only one of the two slits is illuminated at a given time; as such, the two spectral ranges are sequentially measured. Theoretical calculation and experimentation are conducted to verify the proposed design.

In an experiment on the round-trip fiber transfer of joint frequency and time signals based on wavelength-division multiplexing technology, a specific bidirectional erbium-doped fiber amplifier (Bi-EDFA) with low noise and high symmetry simultaneously is designed and applied to compensate for the loss of the link. The Allan deviation (ADEV) deterioration of the 1 GHz frequency signal induced by the Bi-EDFA is only 8×10 15 at 1 s and 9×10 18 at 104 s in the forward direction, and is 1.7×10 14 at 1 s and 1.2×10 17 at 104 s in the backward direction. The degraded time deviation (TDEV) caused by the asymmetry of the Bi-EDFA is only 0.8 ps at an average time of 103 s. With the proposed Bi-EDFA, in the field experiment on the 110 km fiber transfer of joint frequency and time signals, the ADEV of the 1 GHz frequency signal is 7.3×10 14 at 1 s and 2.5×10 17 at 104 s. The TDEV of the 1 pulse per second time signal is 6.8 ps with an average time of 1

An adaptive digital backward propagation (ADBP) algorithm is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on the variance of the intensity noise. The proposed algorithm can self-determine the unknown nonlinear coefficient γ and the nonlinear compensation parameter ξ. Compared to the scheme based on the variance of phase noise, the proposed algorithm can avoid the repeated frequency offset compensation and carrier phase recovery. The simulation results show that the system’s performance compensated by the proposed method is comparable to conventional ADBP schemes. The performance of the proposed algorithm is simulated in 40/112 Gb/s polarization-division multiplexing (PDM)-quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) and 224 Gb/s PDM-16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) systems and further experimentally verified in a 40 Gb/s PDM-QPSK coherent optical communication system over a 720 km single-mode fiber.

This Letter proposes to apply full-color computer-generated holograms to the virtual image projection system so that the viewers can comfortably view floating images. Regarding the spatial division and distribution operation, a modified Gerchberg–Saxton algorithm is used for acquiring the phase infographics, which are input into the spatial light modulator for the reconstructed projection. Such a virtual image projection system could reach the vertical angle of view of 15°–75° and the horizontal angle of view 360°, and the mixed-light modulating proportion contains a 3 mW red light laser, a 2 mW green light laser, and a 2.6 mW blue light laser to achieve the full-color mixed-light proportion with a speckle contrast of 6.65%. The relative diffraction efficiency and root mean square error of the reconstructed image are 95.3% and 0.0524, respectively.

The exoplanet search is one of the most exciting research fields in astrophysics. The Antarctic Bright Star Survey Telescope (BSST), capable of continuous exoplanet observation on polar nights, is a Ritchey–Chretien telescope with a three-lens field corrector, and has a 300 mm aperture, 2.76 focal ratio, and a wavelength coverage ranging from 0.36 to 1.014 μm. Equipped with a 4 k×4 k and 12 μm/pixel CCD camera, the BSST can gain a field of view of 4.8°. This Letter presents the optical design, tolerance analysis, and the alignment plan for the BSST, and the test observation results.

A CO2 sensor for capnography, based on a hollow waveguide (HWG) and tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS), is presented; the sensor uses direct absorption spectroscopy and requires neither frequent calibration nor optical filters, giving it a significant advantage over existing techniques. Because of the HWG, the CO2 measurement achieved a concentration resolution of 60 ppm at a measurement rate of 25 Hz, as characterized by Allan variance. The length of the HWG was selected to efficiently suppress the optical fringes. This setup is perfectly suited for the detection of CO2 by capnography, and shows promise for the potential detection of other breath gases.

Due to the excellent electro-optic properties of lead lanthanum zirconium titanate ((Pb,La)(Zr,Ti)O3, PLZT), compact 1×2 and 1×4 PLZT optical switches with a high response speed are proposed and fabricated successfully in this Letter. By introducing a thin isolating layer between the waveguides and the electrodes, the absorption loss of the fabricated 1×2 PLZT switch caused by the electrodes is reduced 8.9 dB with a relatively low driving voltage. The 1×2 PLZT switch shows an insertion loss of 18.3 dB and crosstalk of 20.5 dB at an applied voltage of 9.5 V. The fabricated 1×4 switch array shows an insertion loss of 20.7 dB and a crosstalk of 20.5 dB at an applied voltage of 13 V. The response time of the switches is less than 27 ns, and the device’s size is only 15 mm×6 mm. The switches can be used in optical communication systems.

We report a simple, cost-effective and repeatable method for fabricating a large area and uniform substrate for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The silicon, micromachined by a femtosecond laser, is coated with gold film and then treated through the dewetting process. The morphology shows a higher electric field enhancement due to light trapping. The enhancement factor of the SERS substrate is 9.2×107 with a 5 nm-thick film coated. Moreover, it also exhibits a uniform signal through Raman mapping and chemical stability with the greatest intensity deviation of 6% after a month. The proposed technique provides an opportunity to equip microchips with the SERS capabilities of high sensitivity, chemical stability, and homogeneous signals.

An efficient two-stage KTiOAO4 optical parametric amplifier (OPA) system with walk-off-compensating alignment is designed. By introducing an extra time delay between the pump pulse and the signal pulse, this OPA architecture is capable of obtaining high optical conversion efficiency and high signal gain simultaneously. Finally, a maximum gain of 98 at the 1.57 μm wavelength is obtained with the signal beam quality of M2 around 5.6. The efficiency of the optical conversion from 1.064 to 1.57 μm is around 26%.

A diode-end-pumped tunable twisted-mode cavity Tm, Ho:YAG laser with single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) operation is demonstrated in this Letter. The maximal SLM output power is 106 mW with a slope efficiency of 4.86%. The wavelength can be changed from 2090.38 to 2097.32 nm by tuning the angle of an etalon.

A stable, single-longitudinal-mode, nanosecond-pulsed Nd:YAG laser with a laser-diode dual-end pumping arrangement is constructed. Injection seeding is performed successfully by utilizing a RbTiOPO4 crystal as the intracavity phase modulator to change the optical length of the slave cavity based on the delay-ramp-fire technique. The laser generates 9.9 mJ of pulse energy with a 16 ns pulse duration at a 400 Hz repetition rate. A near-diffraction-limit laser beam is achieved with a beam quality factor M2 of approximately 1.2. The frequency jitter is 1.5 MHz over 2 min, and the fluctuation of the output pulse power is 0.3% over 23 min.

We report experimental progress in weakening the frequency difference lock-in phenomenon in a Y-shaped cavity dual-frequency laser. A cube coil pair is chosen to provide a uniform magnetic field for tunability and uniformity of magnetic field strength. When the transverse magnetic field intensity is 9 mT, the frequency difference lock-in phenomenon is evidently weakened and the frequency difference can be continuously tuned in the range of 0.12 MHz to 1.15 GHz. Moreover, the relationship between the minimal frequency difference and magnetic field intensity are investigated and discussed. Then a Y-shaped cavity dual-frequency laser is expected to be utilized as an optimum light source for heterodyne interferometric sensing and precise laser measurement.

A sideband-controllable soliton mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser is successfully demonstrated utilizing the nonlinear polarization rotation technique. The sidebands can be produced or suppressed by performing simple polarization light tuning with a polarization controller. It is believed that the elimination of the sidebands is due to the dispersive waves that are filtered out by the polarization-dependent isolator in the resonator. With the elimination of the Kelly sidebands, the obtained 3 dB bandwidth is 10.6 nm and the attainable pulse duration is 0.86 ps. In this experiment, it is proven that the existence of Kelly sidebands limits the attainable pulse duration.

Early detection and timely treatment of nerve injury is crucial for the repair of nerve function. One week following a crush injury, heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) is over-expressed along the entire length of the sciatic nerve. Herein, we present an approach to detect injured nerves by photoacoustic microscopy after labeling the injured nerve with HSP27 antibody-conjugated gold nanoparticles. The studies reveal that nanoprobe administration enabled the detection of injured nerves by photoacoustic microscopy, especially during the early stages within 3–7 days post injury. In conclusion, photoacoustic microscopy combined with antibody-conjugated nanoparticles holds potential for the early detection of nerve injury.

Facilitated with stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm for wavefront sensorless correcting aberrations, an adaptive optics (AO) confocal fluorescence microscopy is developed and used to record fluorescent signals in vivo. Vessels of mice auricle at 80, 100 and 120 μm depth are obtained, and image contrast and fluorescence intensity are significantly improved with AO correction. The typical 10%–90% rise-time of the metric value measured is 5.0 s for a measured close-loop bandwidth of 0.2 Hz. Therefore, the AO confocal microscopy implemented with SPGD algorithm for robust AO corrections will be a powerful tool for study of vascular dynamics in future.

In this Letter, a method for detecting the focused beam waist of lasers is proposed by using weak measurements based on the so-called weak-value amplification. We establish a propagation model to describe the quantitative relation between the beam waist and the amplified shift of the spin Hall effect of light (SHEL), which is sensitive to the variation of the beam waist. We experimentally measure the amplified shift corresponding to a different beam waist and the experimental data agrees well with theoretical calculation. These results confirm the rationality and feasibility of our method.

The spectral properties of entangled photon pairs generated via quasi-phased matching in spontaneous parametric down-conversion are proposed and demonstrated experimentally. A general mathematical model for evaluating the spectral properties is developed to obtain the spectrum shape and range of down-converted photons. The model takes into account the effects of phase mismatching due to non-ideal pumping and the relationship between crystal periodic modulation function and the incidence angle of the pump beam. The spectrum curve shape is determined by the discrete Fourier transform of a Gaussian pump beam and the integration of parametric down-conversion generated by an individual plane wave. An experiment is carried out with a PPLN non-linear crystal and dispersing optics, which shows a good consistency in their spectral ranges and shapes with our model predictions within the spectrum of 600–633 nm. This therefore illustrates that both the simulation model and the experimental process are reasonable. This novel method has potential applications in high-accuracy calibration in the wide spectrum using correlated photons.

The formation of long plasma channels and laser-induced high-voltage discharges are demonstrated by focusing infrared picosecond laser pulses in air. Based on measurements of the channel conductivity, the maximum electron density in excess of 1014 cm 3 is estimated. The plasma channels are good conductors, through which long-air-gap high-voltage discharges are triggered. The breakdown voltages show large drops but the discharging paths are not well guided: in this, the plasma spots distributed along the channel might play an important role.