BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

Interna tional S tudent C onference on Photoni cs 2012

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT CONFERENCE ON PHOTONICS Sinaia, Romania 8-11 May 2012

EDITORS Cristina Achim Mihai Boni Viorel Nastasa

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest, Romania

ORGANISED BY:
National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest, Romania Insitute for Atomic Physics SPIE Student Chapter

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ORGANIZED AND SPONSORED BY

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SCOPE
The aim of the ISCP 2012, the 3rd edition of International Student Conference on Photonics, is to reassemble young researchers from different countries with the aim of exchanging information in photonics and related fields. ISCP is the annual conference organized by Romanian SPIE Student Chapter and follows the previous ISWLA conferences. This edition celebrates the 50th anniversary since the first Romanian laser was developed by Prof. Ion I. Agarbiceanu and coworkers. ISCP can represent a good opportunity for underlining the importance to belong to a professional association and the prospects offered by SPIE and OSA to permanently up-date and increase the professional level of their members. The involvement of young researchers (physicists, mathematicians, engineers, biologists, medical doctors and educators from all over the world) in organizing scientific events adds new values to their professional profile, such as the management skills and the innovative thinking. Such skills are benefic for young scientist to develop a current and future successful scientific career. Research papers are expected from all domains of the scientific and technological fields related to ISCP.

MODE OF PRESENTATION

Round table (60 minutes); Invited presentations (30 minutes); Oral presentations (15 minutes); Poster session; Young scientists awards.

KEY TOPICS
High power lasers and applications Optics and Optoelectronics Micro and nanotechnologies Advanced Materials (meta & nanomaterials) Lasers in life sciences Laser metrology and industry Physics of plasma sources and applications

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ORGANIZING CHAPTER
Institute for Atomic Physics SPIE Student Chapter

COORDINATORS
Mihai Boni Viorel Nastasa

ADVISER
Dr. Angela Staicu

CO-ORGANIZING CHAPTERS
Munich SPIE Student Chapter Nicolaus Copernicus University SPIE Chapter Taurida National V.I. Vernadsky University SPIE Chapter Vladivostok SPIE Student Chapter Yerevan State University SPIE Chapter National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics SPIE Chapter Sofia University OSA Student Chapter CIMAP/University de Caen SPIE Student Chapter Germany Poland Ukraine Russian Federation Armenia Russian Federation Bulgaria France

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Prof. Dr. Frank Burnet Dr. Eng. Ion Morjan Prof. Dr Nicolae Zamfir Prof. Dr. Alexandru Jipa Prof. Dr. Stefan Antohe Dr. Viorica Stancalie Prof. Dr. Mihail Lucian Pascu Prof. Dr. Dan Dumitras Dr. Cristian Ruset Dr. Maria Dinescu Professor of Science Communication/SPIE trainer NILPRP, General Manager IFIN-HH, General Manager Dean, Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest Dean, Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest NILPRP, Head of Laser Department NILPRP, Laser Spectroscopy Group NILPRP, Optics and Lasers in Life Sciences, Environment and Manufacturing Group NILPRP, Head of Plasma Surface Engineering Laboratory NILPRP, Photonic Processing of Advanced

Dr. Constantin Grigoriu Dr. Angela Staicu

Materials Group NILPRP, Quantum Dots, Nanopowders And Thin Films Group SPIE Student Chapter Adviser

LOCAL ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Dr. Alexandru Achim Cristina Achim Alina Ionescu Florin Jipa Iulian Pana Laurentiu Rusen Gabriela Salamu

YOUNG SCIENTISTS AWARDS

The best presentation as well as the best poster displayed by young scientists will be awarded during the ISCP conference. The competition is conceived to encourage young scientists to properly disseminate the results of the scientific activity. General principles of competition: Every young scientist can take part in competition, including PhD students; The young scientist must be first author or co-author of a paper presented in this conference; The participant in competition must present his own research.

PUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS
The accepted manuscripts of the International Student Conference on Photonics will be published by Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Rapid Communications (OAM-RC) and Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials (JOAM). The proceedings papers must comply with the ethical standards as described at: http://oam-rc.inoe.ro and http://joam.inoe.ro. It will be necessary a copyright releases signed by at least one author for each paper. The signed copyright releases should be sent to the Editors. Then, the Editors will forward the manuscripts to reviewers.

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PROGRAM
Monday May 07, 2012 16.00 Opening of the Registration Desk 19.30 Welcome Party/Dinner Tuesday May 08, 2012 09.30 Opening Ceremony Gen. Dir. INFLPR Dr. Ion Morjan, Gen. Dir. IFIN-HH Prof. Dr. Nicolae Zamfir Micro and nano technologies 10.00 Challenges in nanoparticles synthesis by laser pyrolysis, Dr. Catalin Luculescu, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 10.30 Laser near-field processing using photopolymer microstructures, Jipa Florin, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 10.45 Laser-based polymerization of ormosils for bioapplications, Andreea Matei, Petru Poni Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Iasi, Romania 11.00 Properties of BaxSr1-xTiO3 thin films obtained by pulsed laser deposition, Valentin Ion , National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 11.15 Coffee Break 11.30 Periodical structures induced by femtosecond laser on Tungsten in air and liquid environments, Albu Catalina, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 11.45 Investigation of the mechanism of quasiperiodical surface nanostructures formation by pump and probe experiments, Dr. Marian Zamfirescu, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 12.15 Optical and electrical properties of YBa2Cu3O7- thin films deposited by radio -frequency assisted pulsed laser deposition, George Stanciu, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Material Science, Bucharest, Romania 12.30 Lunch 14.15 The Centre for Advanced Laser Tehnologies (CETAL) opportunity for cutting-edge research in Photonics , Dr. Constantin Grigoriu, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, VII

INVITED LECTURE

Oral communication

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INVITED LECTURE

Oral communication

Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania Photonics and Optics 14.45 Simple modeling of optical feshbach resonances, Dariusz Swierad, Copernicus University, Torun, Poland 15.00 Transversal strain induced birefringence effects on Fiber-Bragg-Gratings, Andre Heke, Institute for Measurement Systems and Sensor Technology, Technical University Munich, Theresienstr, Germany 15.15 Classification of Gear-Oil Raman Spectra by Support Vector Machine, Daniel Dorigo, Institute for Measurement Systems and Sensor Technology, Technical University Munich, Theresienstr, Germany 15.30 In-band Pumped Nd:LuVO4 Laser Mode Locked by (2)-Lens Formation in an LBO Nonlinear Crystal, Veselin Aleksandrov, Department of Physics, University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria 15.45 Study of combustion process for a methane-air mixture using a microlaser system, Gabriela Salamu, Laboratory of Solid-State Quantum Electronics, National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Magurele, Bucharest, Romania 16.00 Analysis of polarization state losses in optical fibers , Avram Ioana , The Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Cluj Napoca, Romania 16.15 Coffee Break 16.30 Analysis of the inscription process of FBGs in a Panda-type-high birefingent fiber, Bianca Berrang, University of Applied Sciences Munich, Laboratory of Photonics, Munich, Germany 16.45 Optical spectrum of a coupled chaotic system, Ionut Relu Andrei, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 17.00 Laser Induced Damage Threshold Test Station: Development and measurements - preliminary results, Alexandru Zorila, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 17.15 End of session 19.00 Dinner Wednesday May 9 , 2012 Advanced Materials 09.00 Phase relation, dielectric and ferroelectric properties of lead-free ferroelectric thin films obtained by PLD and RF-PLD, Dr. Nicu Scarisoreanu, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 09.30 Numerical analysis of non-linear cavity modes in VIII

INVITED LECTURE

Oral communication

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a silicon hole-array photonic crystal , Camelia Daniela Sold, Faculty of Physics, West University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania 09.45 Advanced nonlinear optic crystals for high efficiency visible and UV laser sources based on frequency conversion processes, Dr. Gheorghe Lucian, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Solid-State Quantum Electronics Laboratory, Romania 10.15 Characterization of a low pressure expanding RF plasma jet generated in Ar/H2/C2H2 admixture used for carbon nanowalls synthesis, Daniel Stoica, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Solid-State Quantum Electronics Laboratory, Romania 10.30 Laser processing of soft materials, Prof. Dr. Maria Dinescu, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 11.00 Coffee Break Laser History 11.15 50 years of laser research in Romania (Department of LASERS), Prof. Dr. Dan Dumitras, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania Spectroscopy. Lasers in Life Science 11.45 Miniaturized Mid-IR-Spectrometer for On-line and On-Site Condition Monitoring of Stationary Biogas Engines., Benjamin Wiesent, Institute for Measurement Systems and Sensor Technology, Technical University Munich, Theresienstr, Germany 12.00 Laser beams interaction with pharmaceutical foams: Aethoxysklerol case, Adriana Smarandache, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 12.15 Quantitative analysis of surgical smoke by laser photoacoustic spectroscopy, Ana Bratu, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 12.30 Temperature distribution analysis in laser irradiated tissue by numerical analysis and experimental data, Mioara Petrus, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 12.45 Calibration and artefact minimization in a CW Diffuse Optical Tomography system, Mihai Patachia, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania

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INVITED LECTURE

13.00 14.15

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14.45

Oral communication

15.15

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15.30

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15.45

INVITED LECTURE

16.00

Poster Session

16.30 16.45 19.00

Lunch Progress in 3rd and 4th generation of photovoltaic cells at Research and Development Centre for Materials and Electronic & Optoelectronic Devices (MDEO), Prof. Dr. Stefan Antohe, Dean of Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania Studies about the laser radiation interaction with beads of microliter volumes, Prof. Dr. Mihai Lucian Pascu, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania Study of the properties of micro- and nanodroplets by using the interaction with laser radiation, Viorel Nastasa, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania Measurements of Raman Spectra induced by laser beams on droplets, Mihai Boni, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania Exposure of Chlorpromazine to 266 nm laser beam generates new species with antibacterial properties, Tatiana Alexandru, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy: stratigraphy on painted mock-ups, Dr. Angela Staicu, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania Coffee Break Dinner

INVITED LECTURE

Thursday May 10, 2012 09.00 Why and how to communicate your research, Prof. Dr. Frank Burnet, United Kingdom (Part I) 11.00 Coffee Break 11.15 Why and how to communicate your research , Prof. Dr. Frank Burnet, United Kingdom (Part II) 13.00 Lunch Presentations by the sponsoring companies 14.00 "High repetition rate PetaWatt level Titanium Sapphire laser system for laser wakefield acceleration", Dr. Olivier Chalus, Laser Solution Department,Thales Optronique, France 14.30 High performance spectrometry, Dan Bulik, BERD Trading, Bucharest, Romania 14.45 Photonics solutions: Lasers and Spectroscopy Chiricuta Bogdan, APEL Laser, Bucharest, Romania

INVITED LECTURE

Oral communication

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High power lasers 15.00 High-peak power passively Q-switched Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG lasers, Dr. Nicolaie Pavel, Laboratory of Solid-State Quantum Electronics National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest, Romania 15.30 28-mJ, single frequency, sub-nanosecond NdMOPA system, at kHz repetition rate, Bozhidar Oreshkov, Department of Physics, Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria 15.45 Simple method for synchronization of pulses in GRIP x-ray laser scheme, Romeo Banici, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 16.00 Coffee break 16.15 Progress at the multi-PW ELI-NP laser facility, Liviu Neagu, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 16.30 Study of high harmonics generation at the interaction of an ultrashort and intense laser pulse with an overdense plasma layer, Andreea Mihailescu, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 16.45 Operation of Mo XRL in ultra-low pumping regime, Gabriel Cojocaru, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 17.00 Simulation of spatio-temporal distortions in ultra-short laser pulses, Razvan Ungureanu, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 17.15 End of session 19.00 Dinner Friday May 11, 2012 09.00 Project LASERLAB EUROPE: The Integrated Initiative of European Laser Research Infrastructure, Prof. Dr. Traian Dascalu, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania Physics of Plasma 09.30 Dusty Plasmas: a review of experiments and possible applications, Dr. Catalin Ticos, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Bucharest, Romania 10.00 Helmholtz equations in rectangular-shaped curved optical fiber, Daniel Gustaw, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, Torun , Poland 10.15 Dose distributions in water-equivalent materials irradiated with hadron beams, Chirvase XI

INVITED LECTURE

INVITED LECTURE

Oral communication

Oral communication

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10.30

ROUND TABLE

10.45 11.00 12.00 13.30 19.00

Cezarina-Isabela, Faculty of Physics, Al. I. Cuza University, Iasi, Romania Preparation and characterization of double perovskite targets for thin films deposition by PLD method, Robert Lowndes, National Institute of Materials Physics, Bucharest, Romania Coffee break How to develop a successful scientific research carrier Lunch Visit to Peles Castle Banquet

Saturday May 12 , 2012 09.00 Poster and Oral Presentation Awards 09.30 Conference Closing

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CONTENT
Session 1: Micro and nano technologies ......1 Session 2: Photonics and Optics .10 Session 3: Advanced Materials ...20 Session 4: Lasers History ........24 Session 5: Spectroscopy. Lasers in Life Sciences...26 Poster Session37 Session 6: High Power Lasers.67 Session 7: Physics of Plasma....76 Participants List...81

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Session 1 Micro and nano technologies

Investigation of the mechanism of quasi-periodical surface nanostructures formation by pump and probe experiments
Marian Zamfirescu1,2,*, Catalina Albu1, Sandel Simion1, Jean-Philippe Colombier3, Razvan Stoian3

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Atomistilor 409, 077125 Magurele, Romania 2 National Institute for Microtechnology, Str. Erou Iancu Nicolae 126A, 077190 Bucharest, Romania 3 Lab. Hubert Curien, UMR 5516 CNRS, Universit de Lyon, Universit Jean Monnet, 42000 Saint tienne, France *E-mail: marian.zamfirescu@inflpr.ro
The formation mechanism of Laser Induced Periodical Surface Structures (LIPSS) [1] was for many years attributed to the localised ablation due to interference of the incident laser beam with the scattered surface waves [2]. Recently, different formation mechanisms have been proposed based on self-organization of nanostructures [3]. In this work we present an experimental investigation of formation mechanism of LIPSS structures by means of time-resolved optical diffraction measurement. A pump and probe set-up was configured for characterization of build-up time of periodical nanostructures. Two laser pulses are focused at the sample surfaces at different incident angles. The first pulse the pump creates periodical nanostructures on the sample surface. At delays of the R order of few ps up to hundreds of ps, a second pulse -m the probe is reflected and diffracted by the created periodical structures. NIR The results reveal a formation time of the order of 150 ps for metallic nanostructures. The diffracted signal grows rapidly in the interval of 100 to 150 ps, and then diminishes after 400 ps. These delays are comparable with the melting time (tens of ps) and cooling time (hundreds of ps) of metals irradiated by ultrashort laser pulses. The time-resolved diffraction measurements suggested that the nanostructures are formed by a self-organized process during the liquid phase of the material. The melted surface is modulated with a period given by the wavelength of plasmonics surface wave, within the Drude-Lorentz model [4]. Fig. 1. The schematic of pump and probe experiment for measurement of the formation time of the quasiperiodical nanostructures.

UV

Acknowledgements - This work was supported by the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development (SOP HRD), financed from European Social Fund and by Romanian Government under the contract number POSDRU/89/1.5/ S/63700. References [1] [2] [3] [4] M. Birnbaum, J. Appl. Phys. 36, 3688 (1965). J. E. Sipe, J. F. Young, J. S. Preston, and H. M. van Driel, Phys. Rev. B 27, 1141 (1983). O. Varlamova, J.Reif, S. Varlamov, M. Bestehorn, Appl. Surf. Sci. 257, 5465 (2011). F. Garrelie, J. P. Colombier, F. Pigeon, S. Tonchev, N. Faure, M. Bounhalli, S. Reynaud, and O. Parriaux, , Opt. Exp. 19, 9035 (2011).

Laser Near-field processing using photopolymer microstructures

F. Jipa, I. Anghel, C. Luculescu, M. Zamfirescu, R. Dabu

National Institute for Laser Plasma and Radiation Physics, Atomistilor 409, 077125 Magurele, Bucharest, Romania florin.jipa@inflpr.ro
Optical near-field enhancement of the electromagnetic field using micro- and nano-optical components represents an versatile method to induce local modifications on the material surface [1]. Because of its potential to focus the light under diffraction limit, this method it is used to create nanopatterns on large surface area. This method presents few advantages like lower energy densities and short processing time on large surface. However, when self-assembled monolayers of dielectric microspheres are used as focusing optics, the nanopattern imprinted on the material surface is limited to hexagonal arrangement [2]. In this work we presented an alternative method to overcome the hexagonal geometrical limitation, by creating transparent photopolymer masks for near-field lithography, with arbitrary designed geometry. An inorganic-organic hybrid photoresist- Ormocer, with good optical properties as well as mechanical and thermal stability was used to create transparent mask by Two Photon Polymerization (TPP) method [3]. The propagation of the electromagnetic field through the transparent mask and the intensification factor was computed by finite-difference time domain (FDTD) method (Fig.1), demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed method to process large material surfaces. Experimentally, the transparent mask created in Ormocera) photoresist was used to process the Si material surface by intensifying the electromagnetic field of a femtosecond laser (Clark-CPA).

b)

Figure1. Electromagnetic field intensification. a) photopolymer microstructures; b) intensification value Acknowledgements: This work is supported by National Authority for Scientific Research, Project LAPLAS3, No. PN-0939/2012. References: [1]Theppakuttai and S. Chen, Applied Physics Letters, vol. 83, 758 ( 2003). [2]M. Ulmeanu, M. Zamfirescu, L. Rusen, C. Luculescu, A. Moldovan, A. Stratan, and R. Dabu, Journal of Applied Physics, vol.106, 114908 (2009). [3]Maruo S, Nakamura O, Kawata S, Optics Letters, Vol. 22, pp.132 (1997).

Laser-based polymerization of ormosils for bio-applications

A. Matei1,2, M. Zamfirescu2, C. Albu2, E.C. Buruiana1, T. Buruiana1, C. Mustaciosu3, M. Dinescu2

Petru Poni Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Grigore Ghica Voda 41A, 6600 Iasi, Romania 2 National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Atomistilor 409, 77125 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania 3 Department of Environmental and Life Physics, National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering Horia Hulubei, Bucharest, Romania andreeapurice@nipne.ro
Micro and nano-structured polymeric thin films and multilayers are used in a wide range of applications in electronics, optoelectronics, sensors, medicine, tissue engineering etc. There is an increasing interest in obtaining controlled two- and three-dimensional soft materials structures on the sub-micron scale [1]. This work presents results on photo-polymerization by direct laser writing (DLW) of new organic modified silicates (ormosils), with application in tissue engineering. DLW is a technique that uses a femtosecond laser to create 2D and 3D structures with micron or nanometric size [2]. The polymeric structures with controlled architecture find applications in medical implants and medicine, as well as in optical components. Hybrid methacrylates based on silane derivatives were synthesized and polymerized in 2D and 3D scaffolds and then tested in fibroblast cells culture for morphology, proliferation, and attachment [3, 4].
Acknowledgements: Two authors (AM and TB) acknowledge the financial support of European Social Fund Cristofor I. Simionescu Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme (ID POSDRU/89/1.5/S/55216), Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007 2013. References [1] Matei A.; Zamfirescu M.; Jipa F.; et al., INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON HIGH POWER LASER ABLATION 2010 Book Series: AIP Conference Proceedings Volume: 1278 Pages: 843-851, (2010) [2] Matei A.; Dinescu M.; Buruiana E. C.; et al., DIGEST JOURNAL OF NANOMATERIALS AND BIOSTRUCTURES Volume: 6 Issue: 1, Pages: 29-35 (2011) [3] Matei A.; Zamfirescu M.; Radu C.; et al., APPLIED PHYSICS A-MATERIALS SCIENCE & PROCESSING Volume: 104 Issue: 3 Pages: 821-827, (2011) [4] L. E. Sima, E. C. Buruiana, T. Buruiana, A. Matei, G. Epurescu, M. Zamfirescu, A. Moldovan, S. M. Petrescu, M. Dinescu, JOURNAL OF TISSUE ENGINEERING AND REGENERATIVE MEDICINE, DOI: 10.1002/term.507

Properties of BaxSr1-xTiO3 thin films obtained by pulsed laser deposition

1

V. Ion1, 2, N. D. Scarisoreanu,1, A. Andrei1, A. Nedelcea1 and M. Dinescu1

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Magurele, Bucharest, Romania 2 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, Bucharest, Romania valentin.ion@inflpr,ro

Barium strontium titanate (BaxSr1-xTiO3) thin films were obtained by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) and radio-frequency assisted PLD (RF-PLD) techniques on Pt/Si, MgO and Si substrates. Control of the BST (BaxSr1-xTiO3) thin film epitaxial growth and microstructure quality are important factors for the electronic devices applications. A parametric study on the influence of substrate temperature, composition and gas pressure on the properties of the thin BST thin layer was carried out. Crystalline properties and topography of surface of BST thin films were studied using X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Optical properties were investigated by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The dispersion of the refractive index and optical absorption in the 300 1700 nm range was calculated. Thicknesses of the films and of their rough layer are extracted from the simulations using Cauchy-Urbach model. The thicknesses of rough layer were found to be in agreement with atomic force microscopy results. The final values of refractive indices and extinction coefficients were calculated using a Lorentz oscillator model which is fully Kramers-Kronig consistent. Keywords: SE, spectroscopic ellipsometry, PLD, AFM, XRD, BST, barium strontium titanate

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the project POSDRU/88/1.5/S/56668.

Challenges in nanoparticles synthesis by laser pyrolysis

Catalin Luculescu1
1

Laser Department, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, BucharestMagurele, Romania e-mail: catalin.luculescu@inflpr.ro

The laser pyrolysis technique for nanoparticles synthesis will be presented in close relation with its present challenges. Its advantages and disadvantages will be related with the latest advances in the field of laser engineering and applications in the field of nanotechnology. Among the broad spectrum of nanoscale materials being investigated, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have gained significant attention due to their intrinsic magnetic properties, which enable the controlled release under exposure to external magnetic fields [1-2]. The advances in iron-based nanoparticles synthesis by laser pyrolysis will be presented in regards to their magnetic properties and diameters. From TEM and XRD analysis of the iron-based nanoparticles obtained by laser pyrolysis some interesting core-shell structures were obtained with a few nanometers iron bcc core as depicted bellow.

(a)

(b)

A TEM image of an usual Fe-based nanoparticle (a) and its schematically representation (b)

Acknowledgements: Part of financial support was obtained from EU program, POSDRU/89/1.5/S/60746. References [1] R. Alexandrescu, I. Morjan, F. Dumitrache, R. Birjega, C. Fleaca, I. Soare, L. Gavrila, C. Luculescu, G. Prodan, V. Kuncser, G. Filoti, Recent developments in the formation and structure of tin-iron oxides by laser pyrolysis, Applied Surface Science 257 5460-5464 (2011) [2] I. Morjan, F. Dumitrache, R. Alexandrescu, C. Fleaca, R. Birjega, C.R. Luculescu, I. Soare, E. Dutu, G. Filoti, V. Kuncser, G. Prodan, N.C. Popa, L. Vks, Laser synthesis of magnetic ironcarbon nanocomposites with size dependent properties, Advanced Powder Technology 23 88-96 (2012)

Periodical structures induced by femtosecond laser on Tungsten in air and liquid environments
Catalina Albu*, Magdalena Ulmeanu, C. Luculescu, M. Zamfirescu

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Atomistilor 409, 077125 Magurele, Romania *E-mail of corresponding author: catalina.radu@inflpr.ro
Laser Induced Periodical Surface Structures LIPSS, commonly known as ripples, obtained in metals under femtosecond laser irradiation have been extensively investigated by many research groups. Such ripples were observed after laser irradiation in air of materials such as stainless steel, Ti, Al, Cu, Si, etc [1,2]. Similarly, ripples or nanostructures formation on solid materials covered with different liquids has been recently reported under ablation with femtosecond laser pulses [3-5]. In our experiments, periodic ripples were obtained on tungsten sample by irradiation with femtosecond laser pulses in air and liquid environments. Metallic samples were processed by linearly polarized Ti:Sapphire laser with wavelength 775 nm, repetition rate 2 kHz and pulse duration 200 fs. A laser scanning head with galvanometricmirrors and focusing lens of 100 mm focal length was used for fast processing of the samples. To determine the influence of the irradiation conditions such as laser fluence, scanning speed, or the influence of the processing environments (air or liquid) on the surface morphology, parallel series of lines were produced on the sample. In our experiments the structures formed in liquid are generally several times smaller than those formed in air. The surface morphology is determined from SEM images (Fig. 1). The formation mechanisms of ripples structures are discussed.
Acknowledgments

Fig. 1. SEM images of ripples obtained on tungsten in air. Direction of the laser polarization is indicated with double arrows. Scale bar is 1 m.

This work is supported by National Authority for Scientific Research, Project LAPLAS3, No. PN0939/2012.
References [1] B.K. Nayak, M.C.Gupta, Optics and Lasers in Engineering 48, 940949 (2010). [2] R. Le Harzic, H. Schuck, D. Sauer, T. Anhut, I. Riemann, K. Knig, Optics Express 13, 6651-6656 (2005). [3] C. Wang, H. Huo, M. Johnson, M. Shen, E. Mazur, Nanotechnology 21, 075304 (2010). [4] C. Radu, S. Simion, M. Zamfirescu, M. Ulmeanu, M. Enculescu, M. Radoiu, Journal of Applied Physics 110, 034901 (2011). [5] E.V. Barmina, E. Stratakis, M. Barberoglou, V.N. Stolyarov, I.N. Stolyarov, C. Fotakis, G.A. Shafeev, Applied Surface Science 258, 5898-5902 (2012).

Optical and Electrical properties of YBa2Cu3O7- thin films deposited by radio -frequency assisted pulsed laser deposition
George Stanciu1*, Nicu Doinel Scarisoreanu2, Valentin Ion2,3, Antoniu Moldovan2, Maria Dinescu2 and Ecaterina Andronescu1
1

University Politehnica of Bucharest, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Material Science, Bucharest, Romania 2 National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Magurele, Romania 3 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, Bucharest, Romania * Corresponding author: georgestanciu00@yahoo.com
YBa2Cu3O7- (YBCO) superconducting films were grown on (001) oriented SrTiO3 (STO) single substrates using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and radio - frequency assisted pulsed laser deposition (RF-PLD) [1,2]. Control of the YBCO thin film epitaxial growth and microstructure quality are important factors for superconducting electronic device applications. In this study, the influence of the substrate temperature and post annealing treatment on the optical and electrical properties of YBCO thin films have been investigated using spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) [3,4] and electrical conductivity measurements. Crystallinity and morphologycal properties of YBCO thin films were also studied, using X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy (AFM) tehniques.
References: 1. E. Morintale, C. Constantinescu, M. Dinescu, Thin films development by pulsed laser-assisted deposition, Physics AUC, vol. 20 (part 1), 43-56, 2010; 2. V. Leca, D. Neagu, E. Stefan, E. Andronescu, Growth mechanism and properties of YBa2Cu3O7- thin films deposited by laser ablation on (001) SrTiO3, Revista Romn de Materiale / Romanian Journal of Materials, 40 (4), 365-369, 2010; 3. M. Branescu, A. Vailionis, M. Gartner, and M. Anastasescu, Spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction study of high Tc epitaxial YBCO thin films obtained by pulsed laser deposition, Applied Surface Science 253, 400, 2006; 4. H. Fujiwara, Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Principles and Applications, Maruzen Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, 2007.

The centre for Advanced Laser Tehnologies (CETAL) Opportunity for Cutting-Edge research in photonics
Constantin Grigoriu, Constantin Fenic, Dan Sporea

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics Atomistilor 409, Bucharest-Magurele, 077125, Jud. Ilfov, Romania
The CETAL facility is being developed at the National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest-Magurele. It is the first centre for research in the field of photonics in Romania and in South-Eastern Europe. CETAL will enable new basic/applied exploratory research activities in physics, chemistry, biology /medicine, energy, material science, manufacturing, etc., providing a direct benefit to the Romanian economy and to society. One of the main research fields will be in the frontier scientific domain of laser beam-matter interaction at levels of the electromagnetic radiation density over 1021 W/cm2. The main equipment is a high power femtosecond laser of 1 PW/25 fs. Specific experiments: physics of extreme states of matter in hyper-intense optical fields, accelerated particle beams, higher harmonic generation, X-ray beams, etc.). A suite of equipment (pulsed and CW lasers) will be dedicated for diverse exploratory research activities with applications in material processing or material synthesis, from macro to micro and down to the nanoscale level (drilling, welding, cutting, thermal treatments, cladding, prototyping, PLD, etc.). New advanced technologies will be especially developed for Small-Medium-Enterprises (SMEs). The synthesis of new materials (metamaterials, photonic crystals, nanomaterials, etc.) will also be promoted. Another area of investigations in the field of photonics will deal with the evaluation and application of optical radiation over the entire spectral domain between 180 nm (UV) and 1 mm (THz) (measurements, testing, metrology and education). The laboratory will facilitate studies such as: optical frequency reference based on frequency comb laser, optical clocks, chemical identification/imaging, THz technologies, coherent and non-coherent optical spectroscopy, metrology, etc. CETAL will be an opportunity for the scientific photonics community to accede to the forefront of advanced research and to strengthen the innovative and technological capabilities of SMEs. The implementation of CETAL will foster mutually beneficial research collaboration at a national and European level.

Session 2 Photonics and Optics

10

Simple modeling of optical feshbach resonances

1

Dariusz wierad1

Nicolaus Copernicus University, Grudziadzka 5, 87-100 Torun,SPIE Chapter Torun darek.swierad@gmail.com

The word laser means different things to different physicists, but, no matter which branch of Physics you are interested in, you cannot deny their great significance in modern science . Among countless examples of their application, it is worth mentioning that they enable us to trap atoms in the MagnetoOptical Trap, which can be very helpful in building the apparatus for Bose-Einstein Condensate. As far as ultracold atoms are concerned, the scattering length seems to be the term of crucial relevance. It appears in many aspects, for example it determines the possibility of making a condensate from the atoms. It also helps to decide if an interaction between two atoms is attractive. It should be pointed out that a very slight change in the interaction potential can implicate enormous change in the scattering length. Furthermore, if one of the pair of colliding atoms is excited by using a laser beam, a new molecule is produced - this phenomenon is called photoassociation process. The wave functions in both ground and excited channel can be computed by solving two-channel Schrdinger equation in the matrix form. Then it is possible to observe the relation between laser detuning from the resonance and the scattering length. What is more, adding next channel and laser coupling can make this problem look a little bit more complicated. In my talk I would like to present the approach to solve this problem analytically on the example of square-shaped potential. I shall compare my simple model with experimental data and present arguments for its support.
References [1] R. Ciuryo, E. Tiensiga, P.S Julienne, Physical Review A, 74, 022710, 1(2006). [2] John L. Bohn and P. S. Julienne, Phisical Review A, 60, 414 (1999). [3] E. Enomoto, K. Kasa, M. Kitagawa, Y. Takahashi, Physical Review Letters 101, 203201, 1(2008). [4] S. Blatt, T. L. Nicholson, B. J. Bloom, J. R. Williams, J. W. Thomsen, P. S. Julienne, J. Ye, Physical Review Letters 107, 073202, 1(2011). [5] M. Theis, G. Thalhammer, K. Winkler, M. Hellwig, G. Ruff, R. Grimm, J. Hecker Denschlag, Physical Review Letters 93, 12, 123001-1(2004). [6] R. Ciuryo, E. Tiesinga, S. Kotochigova, P. S. Julienne, Physical Review A 70, 062710, 1(2004). [8] M. Borkowski, R. Ciuryo, P. S. Julienne, S. Tojo, K. Enomoto, Y. Takahashi, Physical Review A 80, 012715, 1(2009) [9] Kevin M. Jones, Eite Tiesinga, Paul D. Lett, Paul S. Julienne, Reviews Of Modern Physics, 78, 483(2006).

11

Transversal Strain induced Birefringence Effects on Fiber-Bragg-Gratings

Technische Universitt Mnchen, Institute for Measurement Systems and Sensor Technologies, Theresienstr. 90 / N5, 80333 Munich a.hesske@tum.de
The usage of fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) sensors is already becoming a common sensor technology to measure linear strains or temperatures. Newest applications are the detection of torque and strain in blades of wind turbines. Here the main reason is the electromagnetic insensibility and their corrosion resistance of these sensors. The correct application of the FBG can be a decisive factor of the measuring accuracy. An influencing temperature field or a longitudinal strain in the fibers direction results in a shifting of the individual Bragg wavelength B. In this case, the spectrum has one main peak, whose center wavelength is B. Transversal strain causes a bifurcation of the characteristic spectrum of the FBG. We developed an experimental setup to induce transversal strain to an FBG. With a load cell, detecting strains in three dimensions, we were able to measure all parasite strains to the FBG. Due to the induced internal stress, we got a double peak spectrum. The Bragg wavelength shift B is derived by the principal strains pij, the effective refractive index neff, and the strain-optic coefficients k,- the so called components of the Pockels strain-optic tensor. It is obvious to select a coordinate system fitting to the elongation of the fiber and the induced force direction. So we were able to differentiate a B,x and a B,y [1]. Thus, the pressing strain raises the x-direction Bragg wavelength, whereas the y-direction B,y does not change its value. We got a birefringence effect in the stressed area of the FBG. Figure 1 shows a typical shift of the induced fast-axis (parallel to the perturbation) and the slow-axis (perpendicular) B-shift. In previous works [2, 3] we derived the transversal strain effects on FBGs in high birefringence fibers. The developed setup is also able to detect the therein predicted effects, like wavelength shift or mode coupling between the fibers fast- and slow-axis Bragg spectra.
wavelength in nm
1548.8 1548.6 1548.4 1548.2 1548 0 50 100 load in N/mm 150 unperturbated induced fast-axis induced slow-axis

A. Heke1, M. R. Rner1, A. W. Koch1

Figure 1: Splitting and peak-wavelength shift of a transversal strain perturbed FBG. Acknowledgements We would like to thank fos4X company for providing the tested FBGs, as well as the TUM Graduate School and DFG for funding this work. References [1] C. Lawrence, D. Nelson, E. Udd,, Measurement of transverse strains with fiber bragg gratings, SPIE 3042, pp. 218 (1997). [2] M. S. Mller, T. C. Buck, H. J. El-Khozondar, A. W. Koch, Shear-Strain Influence on Fiber Bragg Grating Measurement Systems, Journal of Lightwave Technology, 27 (23), pp. 5223 (2009). [3] A. Heke, M. S. Mller, T. C. Buck, F. Jlich, J. Roths, A. W. Koch, Preliminary results of an experimental verification of shear strain influence on fibre Bragg grating reflection spectra, Proc. SPIE 8173, (2011).

12

Classification of Gear-Oil Raman Spectra by Support Vector Machine

1

D. G. Dorigo1, B. R. Wiesent1, T. N. Le1, A. Prez Grassi1, A. W. Koch1

Institute for Measurement Systems and Sensor Technology, Technische Universitt Mnchen, Theresienstr. 90 / N5, D-80333, Munich d.dorigo@tum.de

The increasing energy demand and the goal set by some European governments to increase the contingent of renewable energy make wind power one of the most promising green energy sources. The efficiency of plants built in offshore regions, however, is accompanied by considerable maintenance costs for corrective operations. One preventive action for reducing such operations is the periodic offline control of gear-box oil samples. However, a disadvantage of such analysis is the time delay (up to 5 days) between sample submission and result availability. A solution of this problem is given by in-situ condition monitoring, which allows a better scheduling of preventive actions and a reduction of downtime periods. Important oil parameters affect the Raman [1] spectra and can therefore be deduced and classified by spectral analysis. One of the most important of these parameters is the total acid number (TAN). This is because the TAN, a measure of sample acidity [2], is considered to be a proxy variable for oil age. In this paper, gear-oil classification by means of Support Vector Machine (SVM) is presented. SVM is a supervised learning machine. Gear-oil analysis was performed on Raman spectra gained by excitation of the sample with an 800 mW laser at 1064 nm. The scattered Raman signal was collected by a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometer. Different SVM configurations are tested for the classification of oil samples according to their TAN value. For example, figure 1 (a) shows the Raman spectrum of a typical synthetic gear-oil for wind turbines. The spectral region between 500 cm-1 and 1800 cm-1 is the so-called fingerprint region. The analysis of this region allows a clear identification of the sample under test. The results are compared to those obtained by analyzing the Infrared (IR) spectra of the same samples. Figure 1 (b) shows the classification accuracy based on the analysis of the Raman spectra of the synthetic gear-oil shown in figure 1 (a).
0.2

Intensity (a. u.)

0.15

0.1

0.05

0 4000

3000

2000

1000

Rel. Wavenumber (cm -1)

(a) (b) Figure 1. (a) Raman spectrum of a common commercially available synthetic gear-oil for wind turbines. (b) Resulting classification accuracy rates for a synthetic gear-oil of the type shown in (a). A two-class classification task using different kernel functions (bottom) is presented. The green and yellow bars represent the results for full spectrum and fingerprint analysis, respectively. The used kernel functions are: linear, 2nd order polynomial, 3rd order polynomial, 4th order polynomial, radial basis (RBF) and sigmoid function. The number of used support vectors (nSV) for the classification task is shown on the top.

References [1]D. A. Long, The Raman effect: a unified treatment of the theory of Raman scattering by molecules. John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2002. [2]D. M. Pirro, A. A. Wessol, and J. G. Wills, Lubrication Fundamentals, Second Edi. CRC, 2001.

13

In-band Pumped Nd:LuVO4 Laser Mode Locked by (2)-Lens Formation in an LBO Nonlinear Crystal
V. Aleksandrov, H. Iliev, I. Buchvarov

Department of Physics, University of Sofia, 5 James Bourchier Boulevard, BG-1164 Sofia, Bulgaria e-mail: vn.aleksandrov@abv.bg
Multi-Watt operation of picosecond diode-pumped Nd+3 doped laser oscillators has been demonstrated mainly by two passive mode-locking techniques, one based on semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) and the other on intracavity frequency doubling. Although passive mode-locking by SESAMs is well established approach for ps-pulse generation around 1 m, their residual absorption, leading to heating, is an intrinsic drawback that limits their power-scaling capabilities. Besides, their production requires complicate equipment. However, the potential of (2)-lens formation in nonlinear crystal for second harmonic generation (SHG) related to its transparency at the fundamental wave and shorter pulse generation seems not to have been exploited effectively, yet. Indeed, in diode-pumped mode-locked Nd-lasers using intracavity SHG for instance, mostly crystals with higher nonlinearly have been used up to now and the shortest pulses of 2.8 ps were obtained in the case of Nd:GdVO4 lasers emitting at 1.06 m while the output power is modest [1]. Although the Nd: LuVO4 has broader bandwidth among vanadate family, the shortest pulses obtained so far at multi-watt operation are longer than 10 ps exploiting SESAM mode-locking technique only [2]. On the other hand, (2)-lens mode locking technique shows capability to keep relatively shorter pulse duration at muti-watt level of laser output power [3]. This indicates that this technique has strong potential for high-power mode-locking of broader bandwidth Nd-materials. In this work we present the results on passive (2)-lens mode-locking of a Nd: LuVO4 laser pumped by 808 nm laser diode as well as in-band pumped at 880 nm. An LBO nonlinear crystal has been used for intracavity SHG. With 808 nm pump source and 30 % output coupling, we achieve maximum output power of 2.7 W and 36 % slope efficiency while the measured pulse duration is 7.5 ps. By replacing the pump source with the one having central wavelength around 880 nm, (using the advantages of inband pumping,) we were able to increase the output power with ~ 89 % up to 5.1 W while the pulse duration was 5.6 ps. The shortest pulse duration obtained for Nd:LuVO4 is 1.6 ps while the output power is 0.7 W. The repetition rate in both cases was ~ 111 MHz, determined by the cavity roundtrip time.
Acknowledgements: We acknowledge financial support under bilateral scientific project between Romania and Bulgaria (grant number DNTS 02/24/2010) and grant number DDVU 02/105/2010 of the Bulgarian national science fund. References [1] S. Holmgren, V. Pasiskevicius, F. Laurell, Optics Express, vol. 13, pp. 5270 (2005). [3] G. Xie, D. Tang, H. Luo, H. Yu, H. Zhang, L. Qian, Laser Physics Letters, vol. 5, pp. 647 (2008). [3] H. Iliev, I. Buchvarov, S. Kurimura, V. Petrov, Optics Letters, vol. 35, pp. 1016 (2010).

14

Study of combustion process for a methane-air mixture using a microlaser system

Salamu Gabriela1, Sandu Oana1, Dejanu Marcel2, Voicu Flavius1, Ticos Catalin3, Popa Dinel2, Parlac Sebastian2, Pavel Nicolaie1, Dascalu Traian1

Laboratory of Solid-State Quantum Electronics, National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Magurele, PO Box MG-36, 077125, Bucharest, Romania 2 Faculty of Mechanics and Technology, University of Pitesti, Targu din Vale Street, 110040, Pitesti, Romania 3 Low Temperature Plasma Laboratory, National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Magurele, PO Box MG-36, 077125, Bucharest, Romania
Lean combustion is currently under investigation due to its potential advantages in limiting NOx emissions and in reducing fuel consumption. It has been used in gas turbines and direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engines. In this type of engine (DISI), the fuel is directly injected into the combustion chamber resulting in a distribution of lean fuel/air mixtures. In this presentation we report a compact, diode-pumped, passively Q-switched Nd:YAG/ Cr4+:YAG micro-laser used to replace the spark plug as the source for internal combustion engines. A comparative study of laser spark plug and laser induced ignition in methane-air mixture using this laser system is discussed.

Laser

Air breakdown

Spark Plug
Fig. 1. Sketch of the experimental set-up. Fig. 2. Laser and conventional spark plug.

The experimental set-up is shown in Figure 1. The ignition process of CH4/ air mixture was studied experimentally in a constant- volume vessel at filling pressures between 0.1 and 0.5 MPa. Also, the pressure developed during ignition was measured with a piezoelectric pressure transducer (PCB 112B10 type) mounted on a spark plug-like adaptor (PCB 65 A). For a better understanding of the combustion process different concentrations of the CH4/ air mixture investigated. We have observed that the cross-section area of the flame kernel generated by the laser is larger than the one generated by the spark plug for the same time range. In Figure 2 are depicted the laser and the conventional electrical spark plug. In conclusion, a laser system was developed for ignition of gas mixtures, which has the overall dimensions smaller than that of an electrical spark plug.
Keywords: Methane-air mixture, spark-plug, laser ignition, solid-state lasers, internal combustion. This work was supported through the project 72150/01.10.2008 that is financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports. References: [1] H. Kofler, J. Tauer, G. Tartar, K. Iskra, J. Klausner, G. Herdin, E. Wintner, An innovative solid-state laser for engine ignition, Laser Phys. Lett. 4, 322-327 (2007). [2] M. Tsunekane, T. Inohara, A. Ando, N. Kido, K. Kanehara, T. Taira, High Peak Power, Passively Qswitched Microlaser for Ignition of Engines, IEEE J. Quantum Elecron. 46 (2), 277-284 (2010).

15

Analysis of polarization state losses in optical fibers

Ioana Moldovean (Avram)1, Ioan G. Tarnovan2, Septimiu Crisan3

The Technical University of Cluj Napoca, 28 Memorandumului str. 400114, Cluj Napoca, Romania Ioana.Avram@mas.utcluj.ro
The optical fiber sensor and the communication through the optical fiber are influenced by the state of polarization. The optical fiber core imperfections influence the current state of polarization along the fiber optic cable. The state of polarization is influenced by twisting and coiling the fiber. The paper presents an analysis of the losses of the polarization state in fiber optic cables. Measurement and simulation using Comsol software were made with multimode silica and plastic fiber optic and monomod fiber optic. Propagation of electromagnetic wave through a plastic optical fiber for 3 different dimensions

of optical fiber.

The initial dimension of fiber fiber Acknowledgements

Increase the initial size of fiber

with 20%

Increase the initial size of with 40%

This paper was supported by the project "Improvement of the doctoral studies quality in engineering science for development of the knowledge based society-QDOC contract no. POSDRU/107/1.5/S/78534, project co-funded by the European Social Fund through the Sectorial Operational Program Human Resources 2007-2013 References 1. Arun Kumar, Ajoy Ghatak Polarization of Light with Application in Optical Fibers Spie Press 2. Giancarlo C. Righini, Anna Grazia Miagnani, Ilaria Cacciari and Massimo Brenci Fiber and integrated optics sensors: Fundamentals and applications - An introduction to optoelectronic sensors, World Scientific Publishing Co.Pte.Lte 3. Handbook of optics Third Edition Volume I Geometrical And Physical Optics, Polarized light, Components and Intrumentation 4. Hassan Abid Yasser Polarization Losses in optical Fibers 5. N.Gisin, B.Huttner, N.Cyr Influence of polarization dependent loss on birefringent optical networks Baltimore, USA, 2000 6. Petr Drexler and Pavel Fiala Optical Fiber Birefringence Effects - Sources, Utilization and Methods of Suppression 7. R.L.Sharma, Dr. Ranjit Singh, Vinod Kumar Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD), its limits, compensation and effect on optical fiber networks Journal of computing, Volume 3, Issue 8, August 2011 8. R.Ulrich and A.Simon Polarization optics of twisted single-mode fibers- Optical Society of America 1979 9. Ray Williamson - Polarization Optics Tutorial: Polarizers, Waveplates, Rotators and Lyot Filters

16

Analysis of the inscription process of FBGs in a Panda-type-high birefingent fiber

B. Berrang, F. Jlich, R. Kuttler, J.Roths

University of Applied Sciences Munich, Laboratory of Photonics, Lothstr. 34, 80335 Munich, Germany
We investigated the inscription process of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) in high birefringent (HiBi), polarization maintaining (PM) fibers of the PANDA type from Nufern (see Figure 1). FBGs in HiBiPM fibers have the potential for multi parameter sensing [1] and improved accuracy for temperature and strain sensing [2], compared with FBGs in standard single-mode fibers. Since PANDA fibres are not rotationaly symmetric, the dependence of the FBG writing process with respect to the azimuthal orientation was evaluated in this study. FBGs were inscribed using an Eximer laser operating at 248 nm and the fibers were placed directly infront of a phase mask [3]. Figure 1 shows the alignment of the fiber and the stress applying parts relative to the UV-laser beam and the alignment microscope. The azimuthal alignment angle is defined as the angle between the center of the UV inscription beam and the slow axis of the fiber. Figure 1: Definition of To monitor the inscription process a multichannel FBG interrogator (SM125azimuthal alignment 500, Micron Optics) in combination with a polarization beam splitter (PBS) angle (here: = 45) was used (see Figure 2a). The reflection spectra (Figure 2b) of the FBG in the fast and slow axis were observed simultaneously. A delay of 10 m was used between the channels. The coherence length of the SM125-500 light source is in the order of 1 m. Figure 3a shows the growth process of the FBGs created in the fast and slow axis as a function of applied exposure dose and this growth process was largely insensitive to the orientation of the azimuthal angle. However there was a small dependency of the ratio of the reflectivities of the FBGs in the slow and fast axis with azimuthal angle as shown in Figure 3b. The reflectivities of FBGs in the fast axis Rf were in every case greater than the reflectivities of the slow axis FBGs Rs (Figure 3c).

Figure 2: a) schematic of interrogation setup while inscription b) reflection spectra of one HiBi-FBG

Figure 3: a) graph of inscription process, b) ratio R s / Rf c) transmission spectra of one HiBi-FBG measured with a broad band source, linear polariser and an optical spectrum analyzer Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Bavarian State Minister of Science, Research and the Arts. References [1] D. Wada, H. Murayama, H. Igawa, K. Kageyama, K. Uzawa, Smart Materials and Structures, 20, pp. 8(2011) [2] F. Jlich, A. Koch, J. Roths, Technisches Messen, 1, pp. 52 (2012) [3] E. Mayer, D. Gillett, S. Govorkov, Fiber and Integrated Optics, 18:3, 189-198 (2010)

17

Optical spectrum of a coupled chaotic system

I. R. Andrei, G.V. Popescu, C.M. Ticos and M.L. Pascu

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Department of Lasers, str. Atomistilor 409, 077125, Magurele, Romania e-mail of corresponding author: ionut.andrei@inflpr.ro
Chaotic synchronization effects [1] on the optical spectrum of coupled system were investigated experimentally using two bidirectionaly coupled identical SLs as master and slave. The master is an external-cavity semiconductor laser (LSCE) system with chaotic low-frequncy fluctuations (LFF) dynamics [2] and the slave can be an identical LSCE system or a solitary diode laser with free emission (Fig. 1). The semiconductor laser operating parameters of two lasers were chosen so that the emission spectra to be similar in the absence of external feedback, and for injection currents near the threshold current (the condition to obtaining LFF fluctuations). In the presence of the external optical feedback, in these particular experimental conditions, both laser output emisions shown multimod structures, but in close spectral range. In the present work we experimentally evaluated the effects that the synchronization regimes (lag, zero lag or anticipated synchronization) [3,4] have on optical spectrum of the coupled system. These results are important to understand the mechanisms that contribute to the optical spectrum formation of a mutually coupled systems. It was observed that in the emission spectrum of the coupled system there is the trend to manifest the master or slave modes depending on the synchronization regime. In the optical spectrum there are activated dominant modes that coincide with the laser modes of the two systems operating in LFF regime without coupling. Under synchronization conditions in the optical spectrum of the coupled system there are either the master in the lag synchronization or the slave in anticipated synchronization.The experimental setup used is schematically shown in Figure 1.

Fig.1. Experimental setup of mutually coupling of the coupled system. SL, semiconductor laser; TEC, SL mount with thermoelectric cooler; L, collimation system; BS, beamsplitter; NDF, neutral density filter; ER, external optical reflector; PD, photodetector.

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the National Centre for the Management of Programs (CNMP) under contract no. 72-219.2008 within the PNCDI2 program and by the National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS) under contract Nucleu-LAPLAS 2011 References [1] H. Fujino and J. Ohtsubo, Experimental synchronization of chaotic oscillations in external-cavity semiconductor lasers, Opt. Lett., 25, 625627 (2000). [2] J. Mork, B. Tromborg, P. L. Christiansen, Bistabily and Low-Frequency-Fluctuations with Optical Feedback: a Theoretical Analysis, IEEE J. QE-24, 2, 123 (1988). [3] S. Sivaprakasam, P.S. Spencer, P. Rees, and K.A. Shore, Regimes of chaotic synchronization in externalcavity laser diodes, IEEE J. Quantum Electron., 38, 9, 1155 (2002). [4] H.U. Voss, Anticipating chaotic synchronization, Phys. Rev. E., 61, 51155118 (2000).

18

Laser Induced Damage Threshold Test Station: Development and Measurements - preliminary results
Alexandru Zoril1, 2, Laureniu Rusen1, Simion Sandel1, Aurel Stratan1, Constantin Blanaru1, Constantin Fenic1, George Neme1, 3

Solid State Laser Laboratory, Laser Department, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 077125 Mgurele, Romania, http://ssll.inflpr.ro; alexandru.zorila@inflpr.ro 2 "Politehnica" University, 313 Splaiul Independentei, 060042 Bucharest, Romania 3 ASTiGMATTM, Sacramento, CA 95827, USA, http://astigmat-us.com; gnemes@astigmat-us.com

Keywords: laser-induced damage-threshold, ISO standard, automated test procedure.

The presentation reports the development of an automated test station for Laser Induced Damage Thresholds (LIDT) measurements on various optical surfaces, by irradiating a certain site with multiple-pulses, referred to as the S-on-1 test in the ISO 21254 standard [1]. This test is based on a protocol that applies a series of up to S laser pulses with constant energy density at each unexposed test site, and stops the delivery of the remaining pulses immediately after a permanent damage occurs at that site, generally after N pulses (N S). Therefore, a real-time damage detection system is necessary. Its function is to determine in real-time the appearance of a permanent damage on the irradiated site. This information is further used to determine the exact number of pulses, N, at which that particular site was permanently damaged and to stop the subsequent laser pulses to hit the site after the damage occurred. The damage threshold of a site is defined as the minimum fluence or irradiance level at which a permanent laser radiationinduced change of the surface characteristics of the specimen can be observed by an incident-light microscope having Nomarski-type differential-interference contrast with a total magnification of at least 100x - 150x [2]. The presentation describes the automated S-on-1 procedure and the main characteristics of the measurement setup. Some LIDT measurement results obtained on optical components (laser mirrors and anti-reflecting coatings) for high-power lasers, are presented, too. The automated test-station is developed within the framework of the Project ISOTEST "Facility for laser beam diagnosis and ISO characterization/certification of behavior of optical components/materials subjected to high power laser beams".
Acknowledgments: This work is done within the framework of the Project No. 172/2010 - ISOTESTsponsored by the National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS-POSCCE), Romania. References: [1] ISO 21254 - 2:2011, "Lasers and laser-related equipment - Test methods for laser-radiation-induced damage threshold - Part 2: Threshold determination". [2] ISO 21254 1:2011, "Lasers and laser-related equipment - Test methods for laser-radiation-induced damage threshold - Part 1: Definitions and general principles".

19

Session 3 Advanced Materials

20

Phase relation, electro-optic and dielectric properties of lead-free ferroelectric thin films.
N.D. Scarisoreanu

National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest, Romania snae@nipne.ro

Multiple nowadays applications are using ferroelectric ceramic materials. There are many types of ferroelectric materials: some of them containing potentially dangerous elements like lead zirconate titanate (Pb(Zr1-x,Tix)O3), others having different crystallographic structures (tungsten-bronse, perovskite, etc), and the list can go on. Tungsten-bronze and perovskite types are considered among the best lead-free candidate materials for tomorrows devices which are predicted by todays life standards and environmental laws. Taking into account the toxicity of lead-based systems like Pb(Zr1x,Tix)O3 (PZT), there are a lot of lead-free piezoelectric materials under investigation in worldwide spread laboratories for replacing PZT in future devices. Constant efforts are made to find viable replacements for all these materials which contain harmful elements. Solid-solution systems based on lead-free perovskites such as Na0.5K0.5NbO3 (NKN), BaTiO3 (BT), Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NBT) or bismuth layered-structured SrBi2Ta2O9 (SBT), SrBi2Nb2O9, together with tungsten-bronze niobates like SrxBa1-xNb2O6 are considered as viable alternatives for replacing lead-based materials. Lead-free (Na0.5Bi0.5)1-xBaxTiO3 ferroelectric thin films obtained by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), have been optical, structural and electrical investigated for compositions at and around morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). Unusual characteristics have been found in the meaning of phase transitions temperatures, enhancement of ferroelectric phases or variations of tetragonality ratio. The appearance of these effects has been attributed to the existing intrinsic surface stress in films elongated nanograins. Using phase transitions measurements, the dielectric anomalies present in NBT-BT thin films are identified and discussed. The electric and electro-optic properties of heteroepitaxial strontium barium niobate (SrxBa1-xNb2O6) thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition and radiofrequency assisted pulsed laser deposition on MgO and Nb:STO substrates. As a function of an electric applied field, the birefringence behavior and electro-optic coefficient of the thin films have been measured by reflection-type spectroscopic ellipsometry method using coplanar AZO electrodes.
References : [1] N.D. Scarisoreanu et al, Thin Solid Films, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2011.11.066. (2011). [2] N.D. Scarisoreanu et al, Applied Physics A 93, 795800 (2008). [3] N.D. Scarisoreanu et al, Applied Surface Science 25412921297, (2007).

21

Numerical analysis of non-linear cavity modes in a silicon hole-array photonic crystal

Faculty of Physics, West University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania High Performance Computing Center, West University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania corresponding author: cameliasold@gmail.com
1

C. D. Sold1, O. M. Bunoiu1, C. G. Biris1,2

Photonic crystals (PhCs) are well-known to have important applications in the study and manipulation of light at the micro and nano scales. In this type of structures, one often encounters cavity defect modes, which occur within the photonic bandgaps. Linear defect modes have been shown to exhibit very large quality factors1, an important property in applications to active optical devices. However, there is little information of the behaviour of such modes in the non-linear regime. We show in our work that the properties of cavity defect modes in a PhC can be greatly enhanced by the use of surface second harmonic generation. Our geometry consists of a Si slab with cylindrical air holes in a hexagonal lattice. The central hole has been filled in, in order to form the defect [see Fig. 1a].

Fig. 1 Photonic crystal geometry a); Band structure showing location of defect modes and band-gaps b); Electric field profile for the lower frequency (FF) and higher frequency (SH) defect modes, c) and d) respectively.

The band structure of the crystal was computed using a commercial band solver and clearly shows the formation of two band-gaps and two corresponding defect modes with the second at close to double the frequency of the first [see Fig. 1b]. Figs. 1c-d show the field profiles of these two modes at the fundamental frequency (FF) and the second harmonic (SH), respectively. The profiles were obtained using an advanced implementation of the MSM Algorithm2. It is easy to see that the formation of the defect mode at the FF leads directly to a strong non-linear enhancement at the SH due to surface SHG, which implies that these devices could potentially have novel applications in the field of active optical non-linear devices as we will show during the conference.
Acknowledgements: This research is partially supported by the grant FP7-REGPOT-2011-1-284595 (HOST). The authors would also like to extend their gratitude to N. C. Panoiu for his many useful suggestions. References: [1] H.Y. Ryu, M. Natomi, G.H. Kim and Y.H. Lee, Opt. Express 12, 1708 (2004) [2] C.G. Biris and N.C. Panoiu, Phys. Rev. B 81, 195102 (2010)

22

Advanced nonlinear optic crystals for high efficiency visible and UV laser sources based on frequency conversion processes
L. Gheorghe

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Solid-State Quantum Electronics Laboratory, P.O. Box MG 36, 077125 Magurele, Bucharest, Romania lucian.gheorghe@inflpr.ro
Currently, depending on the emission wavelength, solid-state lasers are used in a wide variety of applications such as scientific research, telemetry, information technology (processing, transmission, storage or information display), surgery and medicine, materials processing, remote detection of utile materials or pollutants, photolithography, laser printing, laser display technology, entertainment, etc. To satisfy all these needs, the laser emission wavelengths must cover a wide spectral range from infrared (IR) to ultraviolet (UV) passing through the visible (VIS) domain. At present, there are very few solid-state lasers with efficient emission in the VIS and UV spectral ranges, and the accessible wavelengths are very limited. The most efficient method to achieve such laser sources is the frequency conversion of near-IR solid-state laser emission by nonlinear optical (NLO) processes in suitable NLO crystals [1]. Thus, NLO crystals play a key role in the development of coherent radiation sources as they permit the frequency conversion of mature solid-state lasers into spectral ranges where lasers do not exist or perform poorly. Up to now, many efforts have been carried out in order to develop new NLO materials and/or to improve their specific properties or workability. The experimental results demonstrated that boratetype compounds constitute a veritable source of NLO crystals with good nonlinear properties [2, 3]. Thus, all the recent NLO crystals discovered in the last 10 years are in majority borate-based compounds such as: CsLiB6O10 (CLBO), BiB3O6 (BiBO), K2Al2B2O7 (KABO), KBe2BO3F2 (KBBF), RECa4O(BO3)3 (RECOB, RE = Gd, Y, La), LnMe3(BO3)4 (Ln = lanthanide, Me = Al, Ga, Sc) [2, 10] etc. Nowadays, two families of borate crystals are known that melt congruently or can include congruently melting compounds which can be grown with high quality and large size by Czochralski method: (i) rare-earth calcium oxyborates RECOB and (ii) binary borates LnMe3(BO3)4 with trigonal huntite-type structure. Two types of new NLO borate crystals with congruent melting behavior belonging to these two families are presented in this work: - Gd1-xRxCa4O(BO3)3 (R3+ = Sc3+, Lu3+) crystals in which function of the substitution degree with R3+ ions it is possible to achieve second harmonic generation (SHG) in non-critical phase matching (NCPM) conditions of some important laser emissions at specific wavelengths in the near-IR range, conditions which ensure obtaining of maximum conversion efficiency into VIS spectral range; - LaxGdyScz(BO3)4 (x + y + z = 4) crystals with wide transparency range from the UV to the IR domain and excellent NLO properties characteristics to huntite-type borate crystals.
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Joint Research Project Romania - France, Project 3 ROFR / 03.01.2012 (project code: BORATESYB). References [1] D. N. Nikogosyan, Nonlinear Optical Crystals: A Complete Survey, Springer, N.Y. (2005). [2] T. Sasaki, et al., Mat. Sci. Eng., 30, pp. 1 (2000). [3] P. Becker, et al., J. Cryst. Growth, 203, pp. 149 (1999). [4] C. Zhang, et al., J. Cryst. Growth, 235, pp. 1 (2002). [5] J. Lu, et al., Opt. Comm., 200, pp. 415 (2001). [6] M. Iwai, et al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 36, pp. L276 (1997). [7] G. Aka, et al., J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, 14, pp. 2238 (1997). [8] H. J. Zhang, et al., Appl. Phys. A, 78, pp. 889 (2004) [9] G. A. Peterson, et al., Intern. J. Inorg. Mat., 2, pp. 101 (2000). [10] S. T. Durmanov, et al., Opt. Mater., 18, pp. 243 (2001).

23

Session 4 Lasers History

24

50 years of laser research in Romania (Department of LASERS)

Dan C. Dumitra

Department of Lasers, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest, Romania (e-mail: dan.dumitras@inflpr.ro)
Last year we celebrated 50 years of laser history. If fifty years ago people thought that the laser is a solution looking for a problem, today lasers have gone on to be one of the outstanding success stories in physics. The development of lasers was possible owing to the general progress in physics and particularly in optics and quantum electronics, with the contributions of Fabry-Prot (1899), Einstein (1916), Ladenburg (1928), Fabrikant (1939), Lamb (1947), Kastler (1950), Purcell (1951), Weber (1953), and many others. But, the first device based on the principles developed by Einstein was built in December 1953 by Townes the ammonia MASER. Other maser types were described theoretically by Basov and Prokhorov (1954) and Bloembergen (1956), and subsequently operated in different laboratories (1957 - 1960). Scientists were looking for a maser at optical frequencies since 1957, and the race to build a LASER was won by Maiman on May 16th, 1960. Since then, many laser pioneers have contributed to the discovery of new lasers and laser operating regimes. These steps will be presented chronologically, emphasizing the role of many brilliant scientists (1960 - 2011). Detailed information will be given on first commercial lasers and on Nobel Prizes for laser related discoveries. The second part of the talk will focus on Romanian contributions in the field (1960 - 1975). Romania is believed to be the forth country in the world that succeeded to operate a laser (October 20 th, 1962). Many details will be presented regarding the scientific and technologic contributions of Romanian scientists in the first two decades of laser history (published papers, communications at conferences, books, PhD Thesis, patents). An important role for our community have played the international conferences organized by our institute (1982 - 2011), that offered the possibility to present our results at international level and to meet researchers from many other countries. 2010 was a yearlong celebration of the 50th anniversary of the laser. Many conferences had special sessions dedicated to this event. The author have participated in several of them (CLEO/QELS, San Jose, May; Laser in the City of Light, Paris, June; LPHYS, Foz do Iguacu, July; ALT, Egmont aan Zee, September) and the presentation will be accompanied by numerous pictures from those celebrations. In 2009 Romania was chosen as a site of the ambitious European project Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) as a result of our efforts and contributions to ELI Preparatory Phase (FP 7 Program, 20072010). The mission of ELI NP (Nuclear Physics) pillar, the laser architecture, the experiments envisaged, and the structure of the future infrastructure will be mentioned. The last question approached is: do masers and lasers exist in nature? The answer is affirmative.

25

Session 5 Spectroscopy. Lasers in Life Sciences

26

Miniaturized Mid-IR-Spectrometer for Online and On-Site Condition Monitoring of Stationary Biogas Engines.
1

Wiesent, Benjamin R.1, Dorigo, Daniel G.1, imek, zlem1, and Koch, Alexander W.1

Institute for Measurement Systems and Sensor Technology, Technische Universitt Mnchen, Theresienstr. 90 / N5, D-80333, Munich b.wiesent@tum.de

Online oil condition monitoring of internal combustion engines may avoid possible engines failures and helps to reduce unnecessary oil changes. Engine oils, especially in stationary biogas engines, are exposed to varying strains depending on the operating conditions and the fuel quality. At the same time unscheduled downtime will lead to a breakdown of heat and electricity supply. Thus oil samples for trending are taken every 200-400 hours of operating service and send to a specialized oil analysis laboratory. In average, it takes about 5 working days (120h) between sample extraction and interpretation of the results. During this period dramatic changes in oil and machine condition are possible, what makes it necessary to establish an online or on-site monitoring system. We recently demonstrated an IR based analysis method providing accurate oil degradation data that show excellent agreement with laboratory based analysis results for wind turbine gear box oils [1]. It has been shown that from the transmission spectra of the sample oil significant and application specific quantitative parameters such as acid number, oxidation, additive degradation and foreign body contamination can be derived.
Tectrol MethaFlexx ZS Plus - LVF - Transmission 80 70 60

Tectrol MethaFlexx ZS Plus - LVF - transmission - parameter: IPH 8 7 6 5 4 3 RMSE 0.2387 SE 0.2456 R 0.9820 R-Square 0.9638 y = 0.9864x + 0.0586

transmission (%)

40 30 20 10 0 1800 1700 1600 1500 1400 1300

-1

Predicted Y

50

Calibration Data Target Calibration Regression Limits (10%) 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 Measured Y 5.5 6 6.5 7

1200

1100

1000

2 2.5

wavenumber (cm )

Fig. 1 Transmission spectra of used oil sample set measured with the miniaturized LVF-spectrometer in transmission mode (left). Predicted vs. measured plot illustrating the prediction of I-pH value of an engine oil. Prediction accuracy of the miniaturized IR-spectrometer lies in a +-10% band (right).

In this paper we present a miniaturized IR-spectrometer without any moving parts that operates in the wavelength range from 5.5-11 m. The miniaturized IR-spectrometer is based on a linear variable filter (LVF) as dispersive element mounted on top of a pyroelectric line sensor. The performance of this miniaturized low cost IR-spectrometer is demonstrated in an online and on-site oil condition monitoring task of stationary biogas engines. For online usage the sensor was operated in transmission mode, whereas for on-site testing the ATR sampling interface was used. Therefore a number of representative used oil samples at different stages of degradation, spanning a wide data space to cover nearly all possible states of depletion, are measured. A sophisticated multivariate data analysis is applied to predict important oil quality parameters from the measured low resolution and band limited transmission spectra resulting in model linearity of >90 % compared to FTIR based complimentary analysis. The developed oil condition monitoring sensor provides accurate testing results of two commonly used engine oils leading to a more reliable engine operation, to an optimized wear dependent drain interval and to a reduction of expensive laboratory oil analysis.
[1] B. R. Wiesent, D. G. Dorigo, and A. W. Koch, Miniaturisierte Infrarot-Spektrometer zur lzustandsberwachung in Offshore-Windkraftgetrieben, Technisches Messen, vol. 79, no. 1, pp. 1-8, 2012.

27

Laser beams interaction with pharmaceutical foams: Aethoxysklerol case

Adriana Smarandache1, M. Trelles2, J. Moreno-Moraga3, Angela Staicu1, M.L. Pascu1
1

National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, P.O.Box, MG-36, 077125, Bucharest, Romania 2 Instituto Mdico Vilafortuny, Cambrils (Tarragona), Spain 3 Instituto Mdico Lser, 28010 Madrid, Spain E-mail of the corresponding author: adriana.smarandache@inflpr.ro

The goal of this study is to investigate the laser light scattering involved in the laser irradiation process of Aethoxysklerol (Polidocanol) foam samples. It is the commercially available medicine used in the sclerotherapy of small veins (less than 4 mm in diameter). Clinical experimental results prove that the exposure of tissues impregnated with Polidocanol in foam form to laser radiation emitted at 1064 nm improves the efficiency of the treatment [1]. Previous absorption studies on Aethoxysklerol 2% solution before and after exposure to Nd:YAG 1064 nm laser radiation have not shown important spectral modifications of it [2]. The effect of the laser light may be enhanced if the Polidocanol is introduced as foam. It is important to investigate the laser light scattering involved in the laser irradiation process of this drug foam samples. To do that, we produced foam by mixing Aethoxysklerol 2% solution and atmospheric air (1:4) using the Tessari method. The batch is passed between the two syringes about 40 times and the resulting foam is stable during 5-6 min. A 10 mm optical cell containing foam sample was introduced into a home-made Raman spectroscopy system. The laser radiation used to excite the Raman emission is the second harmonic of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser (10 Hz frequency, 5 ns pulse duration, 250 mJ energy at 532 nm). The detection is made by a high resolution spectrograph and ICCD camera. The obtained Raman spectra were more intense in foam form than in simple liquid solution (see figure). This shows the fact that the laser light scattering produces a larger optical path of the laser beam in the sample and consequently a larger absorption of it by the foam components.

The compared Raman spectra of the Polidocanol in solution and foam presentation Acknowledgements: This research work was supported by the ANCS (RO), project LAPLAS 3-PN 09 33. References: [1] M. Trelles, J. Moreno-Moraga, J. Alcolea, A. Smarandache, M.L. Pascu In: Synopsis of Aesthetic Dermatology & Cosmetic Surgery, (Nova Science Publishers Inc, NY, USA), Chapter 3, 2012. [2] A. Smarandache, M. Trelles, M.L. Pascu, J. Optoelectronics Advanced Materials, vol. 12, pp. 1942, 2010.

28

Quantitative analysis of surgical smoke by laser photoacoustic spectroscopy

Ana Bratu, Mioara Petrus, Cristina Achim, Consuela Matei, Mihai Patachia, Stefan Banita and D.C. Dumitras

Department of Lasers, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 409 Atomistilor St., PO Box MG-36, 077125, Bucharest, Romania ana.magureanu@inflpr.ro
Personnel in operating rooms have been exposed to surgical smoke for many years, unaware that it may create certain health risks. Exposure has increased as surgical procedures have developed and the use of laser surgery has increased. With the development of laser surgery technology the elements of surgical smoke have come over investigation. Surgical smoke is referred to as the smoke created when energy is transported to tissue cells during surgical procedures [1]. When laser is transferred to a cell, heat is created. This heat vaporizes cellular fluid, which increases the pressure inside the cell and eventually causes the cell membrane rupture [23]. The intense heat created burns the protein and other organic matter in the cell, and causes thermal necrosis in neighboring cells. This charring of cells, which creates smoke, not only hinders the vision of the surgical stuff, but it also release harmful contaminants, both biological and chemical, into the air [4]. Exposure to the noxious odor of surgical smoke is accepted as part of working in an operating theatre, but this odor is an indication of the chemicals which it contains and has been reported to cause headache, irritation and soreness in the eyes, nose and throat [5]. CO2 laser photoacoustic spectroscopy offers a sensitive technique for detection and monitoring of trace gases at low concentrations. The CO2 laser is of special interest, as it ensures high output power in a wavelength region (9-11 m) where more than 250 molecular gases/vapors exhibit strong absorption bands. It is an ideal source to push the sensitivity of photoacustic (PA) gas detection into the concentration range of parts per billion (ppbV) or even lower [6]. The chemical composition of smoke produced with a CO2 laser on different animal in vitro tissues was investigated. Our study employs laser photoacoustic spectroscopy to determine quantitative chemical composition of surgical smoke. Measurements were carried out at ambient pressure and room temperature. A gas of choice (N2 or synthetic air) was pumped into the cell through the gas inlet, while the produced smoke was evacuated through the gas outlet. A fully analysis of the surgery smoke obtained by the surgery CO2 laser is presented; dependences of the smoke composition with respect of the surgery CO2 laser parameters is analyzed. The concentrations of the components in the smoke sample depend on how much animal tissue was cauterized. The qualitative composition of all the samples that we studied was very similar: water, methane, carbon dioxide and ethane were always found, plus additional broad absorptions that could not be identified.
References [1] Biggins, Jill, Renfree, Steve, The Hazards of Surgical Smoke are not to be Sniffed at! Journal of PeriOperative Nursing, (April 2002). [2] Ott, D. E. Smoke Production and Smoke Reduction in Endoscopic Surgery: Preliminary Report. Endosc Surg Allied Tech (1993). [3] Smith, Jerome, Hsu-Chi Yeh, Bruce Muggenburg, Raymond Guilmetter, Linda S. Martin, and Phillip W. Strine, Study Design for the Characterization of Aerosols During Surgical Procedures, Scandinavian Journal of work Environmental Health 2 (1992; suppl 2). [4] Winston, Charlene, The Effects of Smoke Plume Generated During Laser and Electrosurgical Procedures, Minimally Invasive Surgical Nursing, (1994). [5] Ferenczy A, Bergeron C and Richard RM, Human papillomavirus DNA in CO2 laser-generated Plume of Smoke and Consequences to the Surgeon. Obstet Gynecol, (1990). [6] D. C. Dumitras, D. C. Dutu, C. Matei, A. M. Magureanu, M. Petrus, C. Popa Laser photoacoustic spectroscopy: principles, instrumentation, and characterization Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials, Vol 9, No. 12, (2007).

29

Temperature distribution analysis in laser irradiated tissue by numerical analysis and experimental data
M. Petrus, C. Matei and D.C. Dumitras

Department of Lasers, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 409 Atomistilor St., PO Box MG-36, 077125, Bucharest, Romania mioara.petrus@inflpr.ro
Laser is an effective tool in clinical applications [1]. In treatments, that use laser radiation it is important to have a control of temperature, high temperature could lead to thermal damage in the surrounding tissue [1]. Computer models have been used to determine tissue temperatures

during tissue ablation laser irradiation. For numerical modeling, the temperature evolution in tissue is described by the bioheat equation [2]. The numerical solutions are obtained by the Finite Element Method (FEM) [3-5]. To generate the finite element model we used the software Comsol Multiphysics.
The wavelength of 10.6 m is strongly absorbed by the water and the CO2 laser is suitable for vaporization and the precise thermal cutting of tissue and can be considered as a device whose irradiation is absorbed near the surface [1]. Experimentally, porcine vocal cords were irradiated in vitro by a CO2 laser at different laser power and different exposure time.

We applied CO2 laser light at different power density and exposure time and the computational model was simulated for a single tissue layer. For the numerical model validation
we compare the crater ablation depth from the experimental images with the temperature distribution from the numerical analysis. This numerical method of temperature distribution modeling can also be used for extensive parametric studies in order to characterize the stability of various treatment parameters and would allow obtaining a faster and better simulation of laser treatment of biological tissues. The results obtained from the study reveal the important parameters, which significantly affect the thermal response of soft tissue, as exposure duration, power, wavelength of the beam, as well as the area and type of the tissue.

a)

b)

Fig. 1: a) 3D numerical simulation on soft tissue irradiated with a CO 2 laser at 24 W and an exposure time of 100 ms, b) OCT image of crater ablation in simulation on soft tissue irradiated with a CO 2 laser at 24 W and an exposure time of 100 ms. References [1] RH Ossoff, Reinisch L, Chapter 12: Laser Surgery: Basic Principles and Safety Considerations, (C.V. Mosby Company, St. Louis (1986). [2] HH Pennes, Analysis of tissue and arterial blood temperature in the resting human fore-arm, Journal of Applied Physiology, 1: 93 122 (1948). [3] Maruyama S, Okajima J, Komiya A, Takeda H, Estimation of Temperature Distribution in Biological Tissue by Using Solutions of Bioheat Transfer Equation, Heat TransferAsian Research 2008; 37 (6): 375-386. [4] Gupta PK, Singh J, Rai KN, Numerical simulation for heat transfer in tissue during thermal therapy, Journal of Thermal Biology; 35:295-301 (2010). [5]Fanjul-Velez F, Romanov OG, Arce-Dego JL, Efficient 3D numerical approach foe temperature prediction in laser irradiated biological tissues, Computers in Biology and medicine; 39: 810-817 (2009).

30

Calibration and artefact minimization in a CW Diffuse Optical Tomography system

M. Patachia1,2, D. C. Dutu1, S. Banita1, C. Achim1, M. Petrus1, A. Bratu1, C. Matei1 and D.C. Dumitras1

Department of Lasers, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 409 Atomistilor St., PO Box MG-36, 077125 Bucharest, Romania 2 Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania e-mail : mihai.patachia@inflpr.ro

Keywords: Laser diode, diffuse optical tomography, fiber optics, tissue phantom, image reconstruction. Abstract: In most of the tissues, light propagation is dominated by scattering. As results, after travelling the length of a few millimeters, light propagation in tissues can be described as a diffusive process. Different tissue types have distinct scattering properties, and therefore this distinction can be imaged. Using optical measurements at multiple source-detector positions on the tissue surface, one can reconstruct the internal distribution of the absorption coefficient ( a) and the reduced scattering coefficient (s) based on the diffusion and the light transport model in a diffusive media. Measurements on phantoms are used to evaluate the performance of systems and to validate imaging algorithms. The calibration is the pivotal part of the data acquisition due to the variation in characteristics of each laser source, optical fibers, detectors and optic elements. An accurate calibration is achieved in homogeneous phantoms. The work describes how the homogeneous phantoms are used to evaluate the performance of the system and to minimize the artifacts.
Acknowledgements Thank you to Prof. Dr. H. Jiang and Mrs. Xiaoping Liang from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, U.S.A. and Dr. N.V. Iftimia, Physical Sciences, Inc., 20 New England Business Center Drive, Andover, U.S.A. References
Schmitz, C. H., Graber, H. L., Luo, H.,, 2000. Instrumentation and calibration protocol for imaging dynamic features in dense-scattering media by optical tomography, Applied Optics, 39, 6466-6485. Bishop, Y. M. M., Fienberg, S. E., Holland, P. W., 1991. Maximum likelihood estimates for complete tables, Discrete Multivariate Analysis: Theory and Practice, Chap. 3, MIT, Cambridge, Mass. Jiang, H. B., Xu, Y., Iftimia, N.V., 2000. Experimental three-dimensional optical image reconstruction of heterogeneous turbid media from continuous-wave data, Optics Express 7, 204-209.

31

Studies about the laser radiation interaction with beads of microliter volumes
Mihail - Lucian Pascu

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Magurele, 077125, Romania. e-mail: mihai.pascu@inflpr.ro

A survey is made about the optofluidics at micrometre scale, treating on one hand the generation of single droplets and on the other the production of large number of beads in suspensions that contain immiscible materials. The interaction of distilled water microdroplets (volumes of some microliters) suspended individually on a capillary, with pulsed laser beams emitted at 532nm is described. The 532nm wavelength is used because here the distilled water absorption is very low and the interaction of a water bead with the laser radiation is dominated by unresonant phenomena. Following the collision of such a laser beam with a water microdroplet in air, deformations and mechanical vibrations of it are produced. The conditions in which the droplets lose material as a consequence of the impact with laser beams are explored and reported, as well. The effects produced on the droplet were studied pulse by pulse. They depend on: droplets content (in this case water), laser beam wavelength, power and focusing conditions, bead exposure geometry, possibly beads volume and its adhesion to the capillary on which it is suspended. The laser pulses energies were varied between 0.25mJ and 1mJ. The pulse full time width was 10ns and the typical beam focus diameter on the droplet was 90m. The microdroplets and the behaviour of their shapes after exposure to the laser beam were measured by recordings performed at 10kfr/s. Following the microdroplet interaction with the laser beam one may also produce nanodroplets propagating at high (probably supersonic or even hypersonic) speeds and microdroplets propagating at slower speeds. One may produce pendant droplets of smaller dimensions than the initial one as well as micro/nano gas bubbles in the pendant droplets material/volume [1]. Another set of experiments recorded at high speed the evolution of beads of Rhodamine 6G in distilled water at resonant interaction with similar laser pulses (emitted at 532nm), at the same energies. It is shown that function of the laser beam energy, concentration of the absorbent and excitation and optical signal collection geometry, fluorescence emission by droplets may be measured as well as mechanical effects on them.
REFERENCES [1] M. L. Pascu, G. V. Popescu, C. M. Ticos, I. R. Andrei. Unresonant interaction of laser beams with microdroplets, Journal of the European Optical Society - Rapid Publications 7, 120 (2012).

32

Study of the properties of micro- and nano- droplets by using the interaction with laser radiation
1

V. Nastasa1,2, M. Boni 1,2, I.R.Andrei1, M.L. Pascu1,2

National Institute for Laser Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest, Romania 2 Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania e-mail of corresponding author: viorel.nastasa@inflpr.ro

There is currently significant interest in the multiple resistance to treatment using drugs (MDR), developed by bacteria and malignant tumors. One of the alternatives to the existing medicines and treatment procedures in fighting MDR is strengthening the effects of medicines by improving their delivery methods. Such a method is represented by the generation, transport and use of micro/nanodroplets which contain drugs. This approach can reduce the medicines consumption by generating micro-droplets which contain drugs incorporated in solvents substances; the micro-/nano-droplets can favour a faster delivery to the targets and a higher drug concentration in them. Another studied method used to improve the effect of medicines is represented by the laser irradiation of these solutions. It was noticed that laser irradiation can induce molecular modifications in the studied drugs. We have studied the induced modifications on irradiated medicines through different methods: surface tension measurements (ST), laser induced fluorescence (LIF), absorbtion spectra, thin layer chromatography (TLC) and the effect on bacteria strains. The surface tension measurements were made with a Drop Profile Analysis Tensiometer (PAT 1 from SINTERFACE) which allows surface or interfacial tension and oscillation measurements over a period of several hours. The methods to generate layered micro- and nano-droplets presented in this paper are; the use of a coaxial capillary or the generation of multiple emulsions with the help of surfactants. For this we have studied the generation of emulsions of vitamin A diluted in sunflower oil and a solution of Tween 80 surfactant in distilled water. The concentration of surfactant in water was, typically, 4*10-5M. We have studied the dependence of the droplets dimensions in emulsion on the mixing rotation speed, agitation time and components ratio. The droplets diameters were measured using a light scattering method. It is found that at appreciably high energy input (high rotation speed, large pressure drop) and relatively small oil/water ratio, droplets diameters smaller than 100 nm were obtained.
References: [1] V. Nastasa, K. Samaras, I.R. Andrei, M.L. Pascu, T. Karapantsios Study of the formation of micro and nano-droplets containing immiscible solutionsColloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 382 (2011) 246250 Acknowledgements: The research was funded by the PALIRT, 41-018/2007 project of the Romanian CNMP, the ANCS Nucleu Project PN 09 39 01/2009 2011, the COST P21 Action - Physics of droplets, the POSDRU/88/1.5/S/56668 and POSDRU 107/1.5/S/80765 Project.

33

Measurements of Raman Spectra induced by laser beams on droplets

1

M. Boni1,2, V. Nastasa1,2, A. Pascu1, Angela Staicu1, M. L. Pascu1,2

National Institute for Laser, Plasma & Radiation Physics (INFLPR), Bucharest, Romania 2 Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest mihai.boni@inflpr.ro

The paper reports results regarding Raman spectra measurements we performed on (micro-) droplets of ultra-pure water and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). The ultra-pure water and the (DMSO) are some of the most utilised solvents of medicines applied in basic and clinical studies. To understand the interaction of the solutions of drugs with different targets of theirs it is necessary to understand the behaviour of solvents in the conditions in which the drugs are used. The droplets (3 mm diameter and 12.5 l volume), were generated using a computer controlled capillary system (Hamilton - Microlab 500). The water and, respectively, DMSO droplets were exposed to a pulsed, Nd:YAG laser beams (pulse time width at half peak 6ns, =355 nm =532 nm, laser pulses repetition rate 10 pps). The beam was focused into the droplets volume so that the diameter at the focus spot was 2mm and the peak power energy density in the focus was (around) 3.18W/cm2. The Raman spectra were recorded using a computer controlled system (SpectraPro - 2750 monochromator coupled with a Princeton Instruments PI-MAX Intensified CDD camera) arranged in a homemade system. The Raman spectra of DMSO and water were measured in two cases: bulk and droplets. In this paper the Raman spectra obtained from droplets were measured and a comparison was made with the spectra measured on bulk samples. The Raman spectra of the DMSO and water in droplets shapes, when excited at 355nm and 532nm are the Raman spectra of DMSO and water obtained from bulk samples and are in agreement with literature reports [1], [2]. The temperature of DMSO and water droplets, changes insignificantly in particular conditions during the exposure to laser radiation. This is investigated and reported for actually unresonant interaction of the laser beams with micro-droplets.
Acknowledgements The research was funded by the PALIRT, 41-018/2007 project of the Romanian CNMP, the ANCS Nucleu Project PN 09 39 01/2009 2011, the COST P21 Action - Physics of droplets, and the POSDRU/88/1.5/S/56668 Project. References [1] M.L. Pascu, , G.V Popescu, C.M Ticos, I.R Andrei, Unresonant interaction of laser beams with microdroplets, Journal of the European Optical Society - Rapid Publications 7, 120 (2012) [2] R. G. Pinnick, A. Biswas, R. L. Armstrong, H. Latifi, E. Creegan, V. Srivastava, and G. Fernandez, "Stimulated Raman scattering in micrometer-sized droplets: measurements of angular scattering characteristics," Opt. Lett. 13, 1099-1101 (1988)

34

Exposure of Chlorpromazine to 266 nm laser beam generates new species with antibacterial properties
T. Alexandru1*, M. L. Pascu1,5,7, B. Danko2,5, V. Nastasa1,5,7, M. Boni1,7, A. Militaru1,5,7, I. R. Andrei1, A. Staicu1, A. Hunyadi2,6, S. Fanning3,5, L. Amaral4,5

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Atomistilor str., Nr. 409, 077125, Magurele, Romania 2 Institute of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Szeged, Etvs u. 6., H-6720 Szeged, Hungary 3 School of Agriculture, Food Science & Veterinary Medicine University College Dublin, Centres for Food Safety & Food-borne Zoonomics, 4 Dublin, Ireland 4 Group of Mycobacteria, Unit of Microbiology, Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal. 5 COST Action BM0701 (ATENS) of the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium 6 COST Action CM0804 (Chemical Biology with Natural Products) of the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium 7 Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Magurele, Romania *Author for correspondence. E-mail: tatiana.alexandru@inflpr.ro

Phenothiazines exposed to white light or UV radiation undergo a variety of reactions that result in the degradation of the parental compound and the formation of new species. This process is slow and may be sped up with exposure to high energy light such as that produced by a laser. Varying concentrations of Chlorpromazine (CPZ) (2-20 mg/L in distilled water) were exposed to 266 nm laser beam (time intervals: 1-24 hrs). At distinct intervals the irradiation products were evaluated by spectrophotometry between 200-1500 nm, thin layer chromatography, and for activity against the Chlorpromazine sensitive test organism ATCC 25923 Staphylococcus aureus. Chlorpromazine exposed to the 266 nm laser beam of given energy levels yielded species derived from it, whose number increased with duration of exposure. Although the major species produced were Promazine (PZ), Hydroxypromazine or PZ sulfoxide, and CPZ sulfoxide, over 200 compounds were generated with exposure of 20 mg/L of CPZ for 24 hrs. Evaluation of the irradiation products indicated that the bioactivity against the test organism increased despite the total disappearance of CPZ, that is due, most probably, to one or more new species that yet remain unidentified. The amounts of products identified via TLC increased, at any given concentration of CPZ, with prolonged exposure to the laser beam, all of the products formed were more polar than the control unirradiated CPZ. Irradiation of the smallest concentration of CPZ (2mg/mL) resulted in the complete conversion of CPZ into products that fluoresced under the 366 nm UV lamp whereas CPZ did not emit fluorescence. Increasing the concentration of CPZ exposed to the laser afforded the identification of TLC products that could not be detected with the smallest concentration of CPZ (2 mg/mL). Prolongation of exposure increased the presence of these products such that by the end of 16 hrs, the major product was one that migrated behind CPZ in the TLC system. This product could be seen to decrease with further prolongation of exposure to 24 hrs and was identified as PZ.
Acknoledgements: The research was funded by the PALIRT, 41-018/2007 project of the Romanian CNMP, the ANCS Nucleu Project PN 09 39 01/2009 2011, the POSDRU/88/1.5/S/56668 and POSDRU 107/1.5/S/80765 Project.

35

Laser induced break down spectroscopy: stratigraphy on painted mock-ups

A. Staicu, I. Apostol, A. Pascu, I. Iordache, V. Damian, M. L. Pascu

Laser Department, National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Atomistilor 409, 077125 Magurele, Bucharest, Romania angela.staicu@inflpr.ro
Laser spectroscopy techniques are modern and competitive methods for elemental analysis. Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), due to its advantages as minimally invasive method that provides real time monitoring and selectivity, is a suitable tool to analyze sample composition. Based on the known emission spectra of heavy metals such as Pb, Zn, Au, Ca, a stratigraphic study regarding the identification of the painting layers content of different mock-up samples was performed. LIBS was used to monitor the laser induced stepwise selective removal of the painting layers and to analyze their composition. The obtained LIBS spectra were correlated with profilometric measurements.

Figure 1: LIBS spectra recorded for 4.3 J/cm2 laser fluence and for 10 laser shots on a mock-up sample with three layers: gold acrylic spray - lead white - ground.

Acknowledgements This work was supported by ANCS through the Programmes Capacities (ctr. 240 no. 22/2007) and Nucleu (LAPLAS3 Project). References [1] A. Mizioley, V. Palleschi, I. Schchter (Eds.), Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS): Fundamentals and Applications, Cambridge University Press, 2006. [2] D. Anglos, Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in art and archaeology, Appl. Spectrosc. 55 (2001) 186A.

36

Poster Session

37

Femtosecond laser ablation of multilayer coatings

Catalina Albu1*, Biljana Gakovi2, C. Luculescu1, Iuliana Iordache1, M. Zamfirescu1
1. National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Atomistilor 409, 077125 Magurele, Romania. 2. Institute of Nuclear Sciences Vina, University of Belgrade, POB 522, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia. *E-mail of corresponding author: catalina.radu@inflpr.ro

Alumina ceramic (Al2O3), due to its physical properties like high hardness, dielectric strength, chemical and radiation resistance, is used in a wide range of applications such as protective coatings and substrates for electronic circuits [1,2]. Titanium-aluminum based nitride (TiAlN) obtained by incorporation of aluminum in TiN is a material with excellent hardness and a significantly enhanced oxidation resistance [3]. A bi-layered coating composed of dielectric alumina and metallic nitride ceramic (Al2O3/TiAlN) deposited on steel has excellent physical and chemical characteristics, which combine good properties of both coating materials [4]. In this work we investigated the surface modification of double coatings Al2O3/ TiAlN irradiated with single and multiple femtosecond laser pulses in air. The sample structure consists of Al2O3 layer with 1.7 m thickness deposited on 1.9 m TiAlN, with steel substrate. The sample was processed by linearly polarized femtosecond Ti:Sapphire laser with central wavelength at 775 nm, repetition rate 2 kHz and pulse duration of 200 fs. The focusing optics is a 75 mm lens, with 28 m minimum diameter of the focused spot.
1 pulse 10 pulses

The sample irradiation was done in air by single and multiple laser pulses, with energy ranging from 0.3 J to 50 J. After single laser pulse irradiation with highest fluence used, the alumina layer was completely removed without affecting the TiAlN layer underneath. Fig. 1. SEM images of single and After 10 laser pulses irradiation and the same laser fluence, the multiple laser ablated spot at fluence second layer (TiAlN) begins to be modified but not completely level 8.27 J/cm2. removed from the steel substrate (Fig.1). In our experiments, single and multipulse laser irradiation produced a range of modifications, from deep craters in Al2O3, to well defined parallel surface structures on TiAlN. The surface morphology after irradiation was measured by profilometry and SEM images. EDX analyzer was used for determining the sample surface composition.
Acknowledgments

This work is supported by National Authority for Scientific Research, Project LAPLAS3, No. PN0939/2012.
References [1] M. Astrand, T.I. Selinder, F. Fietzke, H. Klostermann, Surface & Coatings Technology 188189, 186192 (2004). [2] X.C. Wang, H.Y. Zheng, P.L. Chu, J.L. Tan, K.M. The, T. Liu, B.C.Y. Ang, G.H. Tay, Applied Physics A 101 271278 (2010). [3] R.M. Souto, H. Alanyali, Corrosion Science 42, 2201-2211 (2000). [4] B. Gakovic, C. Radu, M. Zamfirescu, B. Radak, M. Trtica, S. Petrovic, P. Panjan, F. Zupanic, C. Ristoscu, I.N. Mihailescu, Surface & Coatings Technology 206, 411416 (2011).

38

Waveguides in two-dimensional photonic crystals obtained by femtosecond laser direct writing

I. Anghel1*, F. Jipa1, A. Rizea2, M. Zamfirescu1 National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Atomistilor 409, 077125 Magurele, Romania 2 S.C. PROOPTICA S.A, Gh. Petrascu 67, 745081, Bucharest, Romania * E-mail of corresponding author: iulia.anghel@inflpr.ro
1

The high refractive index of TiO2 (about 2.3) and the ability of the direct laser writing method to pattern the surfaces at sub-micrometer resolution, make such material ideal for the realization of photonic crystal for Near Infrared (NIR) spectral range. Periodical structures were processed by femtosecond laser with 200 fs pulse duration, 775 nm wavelength, energy of hundreds of nJ per pulse, and repetition rate of 2 kHz. A triangular lattice with period of 1.5 m was created by femtosecond laser ablation on a surface of 400 x 400 m2. The energy dispersion diagram, calculated by the plane wave expansion technique, shows that the structure of two-dimensional photonic crystal (2D-PhC) has a photonic band gap (PBG) for the TE mode in the telecomunication wavelength range. The 2D pattern includes a waveguide which is surrounded by the PhC lattice. This waveguide can be considered a defect in the photonic structure allowing the control of the light on a wavelength scale. This line defect consists of missing air holes from the periodical lattice. Before the fabrication of the 2D-PhC waveguide, the photonic crystal structure was designed and calculated with professional soft-ware (RSoft). Figure 1 represents the flow of light in the photonic crystal waveguide.

Figure 1. Simulated flow of light in the photonic crystal waveguide

Acknowledgements This work was financially supported by National Authority for Scientific Research,

Project LAPLAS3, No. PN-0939/2012.

References [1] M. De Vittorio, M.T. Todaro, T. Stomeo, R. Cingolani, D. Cojoc, E. Di Fabrizio, Microelectronic Engineering 7374, 388391, (2004) [2] J.D. Joannopoulos, P.R. Villeneuve, S. Fan, Nature 386, 143, (1997) [3] M. Khatibi Moghadam, Mir Mojtaba Mirsalehi, Amir Reza Attari, Photonics and Nanostructures Fundamentals and Applications 6, 142147 (2008) [4] J. Joannopoulos et al, Photonic Crystals - Molding the Flow of Light (2nd Ed - Prince Ton), (2008).

39

The influence of material with different densities from the environment on the dose distribution in homogeneous media
Cezarina-Isabela Chirvase1, Ctlin Borcia1
1

Faculty of Physics, Al. I. Cuza University chirvase.cezarina@yahoo.com

chirvase.cezarina@yahoo.com

The aim of this study was to highlight the significantly induced changes by materials with high or low density in dose calculation process in order to be administrated to patients undergoing external beam radiotherapy with electrons. When passing through matter ionizing radiation loses some energy, producing excitation and ionization. The physical quantity expressed as the energy deposited in a medium by ionizing radiation per unit mass. After radiation interaction, biological effects occur and the exposed person can be clinically affected. The nature and the severity of these effects depend on the amount of absorbed radiation and its debit. Quantifying these effects is the basis for radiation protection standards. Monte Carlo simulation methods are useful in understanding the physical interactions of radiation with matter and the calculation of absorbed doses in different situations of exposure to ionizing radiation. In this paper we presented the results of simulation study on induced changes in dose distribution in a homogeneous material by different material densities significantly higher or lower. These situations can be encountered when a medical physicist is preparing a treatment plan for patients who have implants. The study we have established in the areas of homogeneous material (simulating tissue irradiated) effects occur overdosing or underdosing and should be taken as measures to avoid the undesirable effects.

40

Petawatt Laser Facilities in Romania

N. Banu, L.M. Munteanu, A. Scurtu, D. Ursescu, R. Dabu, D. Martin, M. Toma, C. M. Ticos, C. Grigoriu

National institute for Laser, Plasma, and Radiation Physics (INFLPR), Str. Atomistilor Nr. 409, 077125 Bucharest, Romania catalin.ticos@inflpr.ro
The Center for Applied Technologies (CETAL) and the Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Pillar (ELI-NP) are major facilities which will be commissioned during the next 5 years in Romania. While CETAL is more of a national project hosted by INFLPR, ELI-NP is a European infrastructure based on an international scientific collaborative effort. Both facilities will host pulsed lasers with peak powers in the Petawatt regime: a single laser delivering 1 PW for CETAL and two lasers each with 10 PW. The CETAL building is currently under construction, and the state-of-the art laser is due to be installed in 2013. ELI-NP is under evaluation by the EU commission and it is expected to be funded starting with 2012. These two unique facilities will perform cutting edge research by bringing together several fields of physics such as high-power lasers and optics, relativistic plasma physics, particle physics, nuclear physics, ultrahigh pressure and nonlinear physics. Major scientific breakthroughs in these fields are expected with the potential of applications in particle accelerators, nuclear pharmacology, oncology, X-ray and gamma-ray imaging and radioactive waste management. Among the 4 branches of ELI (Ultra-High-Field Science, Attosecond Laser Science, High-Energy Beam Facility, Nuclear Physics Facility) ELI-NP will be particularly devoted to studying the interaction of ultra-intense laser pulses with accelerated electron bunches with energies up to 600 MeV which will generate brilliant gamma beams (up to 19 MeV) for nuclear and particle physics research.
Acknowledgements: The authors acknowledge support from ANCS from contract ELI-NP37

41

Laser beams interaction on droplets

1

M. Boni1,2, V. Nastasa1,2,I.R Andrei, Angela Staicu, M. L. Pascu1

National Institute for Laser, Plasma & Radiation Physics (INFLPR) 2 Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest mihai.boni@inflpr.ro

In this paper we present lasing effect in pendant droplets having different volumes. The droplets were seeded with an organic dye (Rhodamine 6G R6G) in ultrapure water at different concentrations and irradiated by pulsed laser beam emitted at 532 nm by a SHG Nd:YAG laser beam, (pulse time width at half maximum 6ns, laser pulses repetition rate 10 pps , peak power per pulse 330 kW/pulse) [1]. The droplets were generated using a computer controlled system Hamilton Microlab 500. The liquid volumes pumped were typically 12.5 l and the produced droplets had diameters around 3mm. In order to observe the lasing emission, we measured the laser induced fluorescence (LIF) emitted by the pendant droplets when excited at 532 nm. The fluorescence signal is collected by an optical fiber (1mm core), and analyzed with HR4000 Ocean Optics spectrometer (0.65mm resolution, 2001100nm). We observed that the lasing effect depends on several parameters, such as: the concentration of the Rh 6G in water; the droplets volume; the interaction angle/geometry of the pumping laser beam with the droplets surface. By varying the concentration of the R6G in water we obtained the typical fluorescence broad band and a narrow peak assigned to the lasing effect. The best results obtained on the measured samples were at the R6G 10-3M concentration in ultra pure water. In the Figure 1 it is shown the typical spectrum of the LIF signal emitted by the droplet when pumped at 532 nm with a pulsed beam having the energy 0.330 mJ.

Figure 1. The emission spectrum of a droplet (R=1.5mm) containing R6G at 10-3M in ultrapure water.

Acknowledgements The authors from NILPRP acknowledge the financing of the research by Rom. ANCS PALIRT, 41-018/2007 project of the Romanian CNMP, the ANCS Nucleu Project PN 09 39 01/2009 2011, the COST P21 Action - Physics of droplets, the POSDRU/88/1.5/S/56668 and POSDRU 107/1.5/S/80765 Project.

References [1] J.Opt. Am. B/Vol. 16, No.8/August 1999, Chemical lasing in pendant droplets; lasing-spectra, emissionpattern and cavity-lifetime measurements, Seongsik Chang, Nathan B. Rex, and Richard K. Chang [2] M. Sc. Thesis, Hatim Azzouz, Liquid Droplet Dye Laser.

42

Layered Double Hydroxides (LDHs) thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition and matrix assisted pulsed laser evaporation
A. Matei1, R. Birjega1, M. Filipescu1, F. Stokker-Cheregi1, C. Luculescu1, M. Dinescu1, R. Zavoianu2, O.D. Pavel2

National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 409 Atomistilor Str., 76900 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania 2 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Chemical Technology and Catalysis, 4-12 Regina Elisabeta Bd., Bucharest, Romania andreeapurice@nipne.ro

LDH are a class of lamellar materials with layers positively charged, and anions trapped in the region between layers. The general chemical formula is: [M(II)1-xM(III)x(OH)2]x+(An-x/n) mH2O, where M(II) is a divalent cation (Mg, Ni, Zn, Cu or Co) and M(III) is a trivalent cation (Al, Cr, Fe, or Ga) [1]. There is an increasing demand for the production of thin crystalline films of LDHs (also known as hydrotalcite-like materials) for possible application as chemical sensors, corrosion resistant coatings, components in optical and magnetic devices etc. In this work, laser based techniques are employed as innovative techniques for the deposition of MgAl based LDH thin films. The successful deposition of crystalline films grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and matrix assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) is emphasized. X-Ray Diffraction, Atomic Force Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Secondary Ions Mass Spectrometry were performed in order to investigate the morphological and structural properties of the thin films.

Acknowledgements: The financial support offered by UEFISCDI through 98/2010 contract is gratefully acknowledged.

[1] E. M. Seftel, E. Dvininov, D. Lutic, E. Popovici, C. Ciocoiua, J. Optoel. Adv. Mater, Vol. 7, No. 6, (2005), 2869-2874

43

Second harmonic generation in new nonlinear optical crystals of Y1-xRxCa4O(BO3)3 (R = Lu, Sc) through non-critical phase matching
A. Achim, L. Gheorghe , F. Voicu

National Institute R&D for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laboratory of Solid-State Quantum Electronics, P.O. Box MG 36, 077125, Bucharest-Magurele, Romania alexandru.achim@inflpr.ro
At this time, the availability of laser frequencies in the visible and UV is limited by laser materials and pump sources. Frequency conversion of solid-state lasers operating in the near infrared range by nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals has become the most available method to obtain shorter wavelength lasers with high beam stability, low cost and compactness. Thus, the reliance on nonlinear methods of frequency generation demonstrates the need for new nonlinear harmonic crystals with the ability to frequency convert a wide variety of laser wavelengths. YCa4O(BO3)3 (YCOB) has attracted great attention as a new NLO crystal for frequency generation since its earliest development [1]. YCOB is a congruent melting non linear material allowing the growth of large dimensions and high optical quality crystals to be used as frequency converters in solid-state laser systems [1-3]. Our previous researches [4] showed that in YCOB crystal, the Y3+ ions can be partially substituted by smaller radius ions Sc3+ or Lu3+ (rLu = 0.861 , rSc = 0.745 , rY = 0.9 ) in order to tune the chemical composition of the crystal. By changing the compositional parameter x of Y1-xRxCa4O(BO3)3 (R = Lu, Sc) crystals, their optical birefringence can be controlled in order to perform non-critical phase matching (NCPM) second harmonic generation (SHG) of specific near infrared laser emission wavelengths shorter than phase matching cutoff wavelengths of YCOB crystal (724 nm along Y axis and 832 nm along Z axis at room temperature [2]). For biaxial crystals like YCOB family compounds, NCPM is the phase matching along one principal axis of the crystal. For frequency conversion applications, NCPM is advantageous because of its large angular acceptance and because it eliminates walk-off between fundamental and harmonic radiations which leads to the highest efficiency. Five new nonlinear crystals of Y1-xLuxCa4O(BO3)3 and Y1-xScxCa4O(BO3)3, with x = 0.19, 0.29, 0.39 and x = 0.07, 0.11, respectively, of good quality with no cracks and bubbles have been grown by Czochralski method, and their NCPM properties were investigated. We have demonstrated that efficient room temperature type-I NCMP SHG of any wavelength from 692.6 - 724 nm and 791.4 - 832 nm spectral ranges, can be achieved in Y1-xRxCa4O(BO3)3 crystals by tuning the composition. This result has very important implications for many of todays tunable solid state lasers (Ti: Sapphire, Cr: LiSAF, Cr: LiCAF, Alexandrite) and laser diodes (AlGaAs, AlGaInP) with emission in these spectral ranges, in order to obtain specific blue and/or near UV laser emissions.
Acknowledgements : This work was supported by the Joint Research Project Romania - France, Project 3 ROFR / 03.01.2012 (project code: BORATESYB). References [1] M. Iwai et al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 36, pp. L276 (1997). [2] D. Vivien et al., J. Cryst. Growth, 237-239, pp. 621 (2002). [3] Y. Fei et al., J. Cryst. Growth, 290, pp. 301 (2006). [4]. L. Gheorghe et al., Optoelectron. Adv. Mater. - Rapid Commun., 4, pp. 318 (2010).

44

Multi-laser System for Surface Processing

Vasile Sava a,c), Nicolae Dan Becherescua,c), Bogdan Chiricutab,c), Mihai Selageab,c), Mircea Udreac)

a) University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics b) University Politehnica of Bucharest c) SC Apel Laser SRL, Bucharest vasile.sava@apellaser.ro
Laser surface processing is a modern area of study that is covered by a lot of recent research works. In this paper we study the processing of the Si (100) and of the titanium alloy Ti6Al4V. These materials are extensively studied in the literature having a large area of applications and also very wide used in research, medicine and industry. An multi-laser system enables us to use three different laser wavelengths (10,6m from a RF excited CO2 laser, 193nm,248 nm and 308nm from an excimer laser, and 1,06 m from a pulsed Nd: YAG laser). The lasers are coupled to a 5-axis CNC system. The results obtained with this laser system are presented and compared. For investigation we used SEM and EDX.

a)

b)

c)

d)

Fig.1 a) SEM image for texturized Si (100) b) microchannel in Si (100) c) SEM image for texturized Ti6Al4V d) EDX graphic for texturized Ti6Al4V
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by project: POSDRU/88/1.5/S/56668 References: [1] M. Halbwax, T. Sarnet Ph. Delaporte, M. Sentis, H. Etienne, F. Torregrosa, V. Vervisch ,I. Perichaud, S. Martinuzzi, Thin Solid Films 516 (2008) 67916795 [2] Multi-Scale Microstructural Characterization of Micro-Textured Ti-6Al-4V Surfaces W.O. Soboyejo, C. Mercer, S. Allameh, B. Nemetski, N. Marcantoniox and J. Ricci [3] Vilhena, L.M.; Sedlacek, M.; Podgornik, B.; Vizintin, J.; Babnik, A.; Mozina, Tribology InternationalVolume 42, Issue 10, October 2009, Pages 14961504

45

LIGA and Laser tehnology for developing bio-compatible micro-pumps

Vasile Sava a), Cristinel Ilie b),Marius Popa b)

a) University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics b) National Institute for R&D in Electrical Engineering ICPE-CA vasile.sava@apellaser.ro
In this paper we describe the results obtained by combining two procesing methods to produce a micro-pump. The two methods used are LIGA (Lithography, Electroplating, and Molding) and surface micro-machining laser system containing an excimer laser, homogenizer optical system with a 5-axis CNC system. This systems can be found in ICPE-CA laboratories. The main purpose was to create a bio-compatible micro-pump by using bio-compatible materials . One of their main characteristic is the capability of controlling the flow rate in ml/min or l /min, with very good accuracy. We describe the steps done in the production process and present the results of some elementary analysis of the LIGA processed materials . The measured characteristics are also presented.

Acknowledgements: This research was funded by core research program of ICPE-CA/ 2009 no. 09350101 . Vasile Sava is grateful for financial support from the POSDRU/88/1.5/S/56668 contract .

References:
[1] Brian D. Iverson, Suresh V. Garimella, Microfluidics and Nanofluidics 145174, (2008) [2] D.E. Lee, S. Soper, W. Wang, Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 6465, San Jose, p. 64650B, 2007. [3] Cristinel Ilie, Marius Popa, Paula Prioteasa, Ionel Chirita, Nicolae Tanase, U.P.B. Sci. Bull., Series D, Vol. 73, Iss. 2, 2011

46

Implementation of Python Programming for the Analysis and Interpretation of LIDAR Signals
1

Mihail Nicolae Dnil1, Florin Unga1, Marius Mihai Cazacu1, Silviu Gurlui1

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Faculty of Physics, 11 Carol I Blvd., 700506 Iasi, Romania
cazacumarius@gmail.com

In our days, a complex research of the atmosphere requires cutting-edge remote sensing techniques. The LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) and RADAR systems represent the main methods of profiling the atmosphere. The high spatial and temporal resolutions (3.5 meters and 1 minute respectively) and the possibility to monitor Earth's atmosphere to heights up to 100 kilometers, make the LIDAR a very attractive and necessary system. The variety of interactions between the atmospheric constituents and the radiation emitted by a LIDAR system allows the determination of the atmospheric variables of state (i.e. temperature, pressure, humidity) and the determination of the aerosol concentration [1, 2]. The implementation of Python programming [3] for the analysis and interpretation of LIDAR signals was initiated in order to obtain the RCS Time Series (Range Corrected Signal) (see figure 1), the atmosphere's molecular parameters and the atmospheric variables of state. Measurements were made with the mini-LIDAR system from the Atmosphere Optics, Spectroscopy and Lasers Laboratory, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, partner of Romanian Atmospheric Research 3D Observatory (RADO).

Figure 1: RCS Time Series example, made using Python programming

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by Romanian Atmospheric Research 3D Observatory (RADO). The financial support from the Grant POSDRU/89/1.5/S/63663 is highly acknowledged. References: [1] M. M. Cazacu, Contributions to the implementation of the first national LIDAR network for atmospheric aerosols optical characterization, Ph. D. Thesis (2011); [2] A. Timofte, M. M. Cazacu, R. Radulescu., C. Talianu, D. Dimitriu, S. Gurlui, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, vol. 10, No.1, 91 97 (2011); [3] The Python Tutorial - http://docs.python.org/tutorial.

47

Computer generated holograms for chirped pulse amplification beam correction

L. Ionel

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laser Department, Atomistilor Str. 409, P. O. Box MG-36, 077125 Magurele-Bucharest, Romania laura.ionel@inflpr.ro
Abstract. An alternative method to correct the shape of the Gaussian beam profile propagated through a chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system employing computer generated holograms (CGHs) is presented. Considering the optical beam path from the experimental setup, the CPA Gaussian beam intensity profile was simulated using the numerical ray-tracing model from Rayica module of Mathematica. An iterative code based on Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm (GSA) was used to design computer generated holograms in order to make the correction of the aberrated Gaussian beam. The input images for GSA were generated in different cases after the stretcher and after the compressor using dispersive and absorbent elements for pulse shaping and varying the values of the angle of incidence on the diffraction grating for angular dispersion study and correction. In this work, two spatial light modulator (SLMs) devices are combined in order to create a dynamic and compact adaptive optical system to correct the beam profile resulted after propagation through a CPA laser system. All the intensity patterns were generated in Mathematica in accordance with the optical path from the experimental CPA laser system, and were addressed on the first SLM. Starting with these images, we calculate CGHs using a MATLAB code based on Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm to correct the altered profiles. These CGHs are addressed on the second SLM which creates in far field the corrected Gaussian beam profile. Thus, it was performed the correction of the beam shape resulted after the CPA laser system by addressing on the SLMs the associate phase-only map in all cases: after the stretcher and compressor using dispersive and absorbent elements and varying the angle of incidence on the diffraction grating. It was demonstrated that this combination for shape of the intensity profile correction is possible using CGHs addressed on the SLM computed with a given incident illumination. This method will be easily implemented in our CPA laser system output in order to compensate the distortions of the pulse during the propagation through the laser system and to improve the quality of the laser beam profile for different applications [1-3].

Fig.1. Correction of the beam shape resulted after the optical compressor when we use an absorbent element positioned in the right side of the laser beam spectrum (red clipping). a) output intensity distribution from the first SLM corresponding to the aberrated beam obtained after the compressor; b) Ideal Gaussian beam profile desired pattern in the image plan; c) associated phase-only map to be addressed on the second SLM; d) corrected beam profile intensity employing CGHs

References [1] L. Ionel, C. P. Cristescu, , Optoelectron. Adv. Mater. - Rapid Commun, 5(9), 906-910 (2011) [2] L. Ionel, C. P. Cristescu, F. Jipa, M. Enculescu, M. Radoiu, R. Dabu, M. Zamfirescu, M. Ulmeanu, Optoelectron. Adv. Mater. - Rapid Commun. 4(11), 1920 (2010). [3] D. Ursescu, L. Ionel, J. Optoelectron. Adv. Mater. 4(1), 662 (2009).

48

ISO Procedure for Laser Beam Diagnosis

1

Laureniu Rusen1, 4, Alexandru Zoril1, 2, Liviu Neagu1, Aurel Stratan1, George Neme1, 3 Solid State Laser Laboratory, Laser Department, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 077125 Mgurele, Romania, http://ssll.inflpr.ro; laurentiu.rusen@inflpr.ro 2 Politehnica University, 313 Splaiul Independentei, 060042 Bucharest, Romania 3 ASTiGMATTM, Sacramento, CA 95827, USA, http://astigmat-us.com; gnemes@astigmat-us.com 4 University of Bucharest, 36-46 M. Koglniceanu Blvd., 050107 Bucharest, Romania

Keywords: beam width, beam propagation, beam propagation ratio M2, CCD beam profiler, ISO procedure
In the last years an increasing demand for laser manufacturing requires new methods and instruments to characterize the laser beam. Accordingly, this paper presents the development of a method for measuring the spatial characteristics of the laser beams according to ISO 11146:2005 [1]. The method can be applied for different types of laser beams with wavelengths from near ultraviolet to near infrared and pulse durations between about 200 fs and the continuous wave (CW) regime. We used the method according to ISO 11146 recommendations and performed a series of measurements on different laser sources: a home-made diode-pumped picosecond laser system, a Thorlabs He-Ne laser, and a femtosecond Clark MRX 2101 laser. The measured beam characteristics and an evaluation of the measurement errors are presented. Some of these results are presented. These preliminary measurements aim at reducing the uncertainty of the measurement results by adjusting the experimental setup parameters. This procedure will be implemented in a facility for laser beam diagnosis under development within the framework of the Project ISOTEST "Facility for laser beam diagnosis and ISO characterization/certification of behavior of optical components/materials subjected to high power laser beams"[2].

Acknowledgments: This work is done within the framework of the Project No. 172/2010 ISOTEST- sponsored by the National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS-POSCCE), Romania.

References:
[1] ISO 11146-1,2,3, "Lasers and laser-related equipment - Test methods for laser beam widths, divergence angles and beam propagation ratios". [2] http://ssll.inflpr.ro/isotest/index.htm .

49

Changes on the Surface of Polymer Films Induced by Femtosecond Laser Irradiation

Laurentiu Rusen, Marian Zamfirescu, Catalin Luculescu and Valentina Dinca* National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 077125 Mgurele, Romania, *dinali@.nipne.ro
Keywords: femtosecond laser irradiation, natural polymers, bio-applications.

The surface morphological characteristics of chitosan and chitosan/collagen films after Ti:Sapphire laser irradiation ( = 775 nm) were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and optical microscopy. The laser irradiation of naturally derived polymers films caused different modifications of their morphological characteristics, from polymer material expansion/swelling onto irradiated surface, to its melting. Due to the local heat and pressure generated by the laser radiation, two and threedimensional polymer bubble, fingertips, and sponge-like structures on the surface were obtained. In the case of bubble or fingertips types of structures, the heights of the irradiated area in the case of chitosan and chitosan/collagen film were between several hundred nanometers up to few micrometers (for fluences between 400 mJ/cm2 - 1500 mJ/cm2). The threshold of morphological changes on the irradiated film surfaces with a single pulse is around 350 mJ/cm2. Along with increasing fluences (beginning from the fluence of 1500 mJ/cm2), the characteristic sponge-like and even folded filaments at the irradiated area edges are observed. We briefly discuss the observed morphological changes. These results can be of interest for cellular platforms bio-applications based on micro- and nano-structuring of polymeric surfaces.
Acknowledgments: This work is done within the framework of the National Program TE 43: Antimicrobial and degradable biohybrid substrates with controlled surface architecture combining localized bio activation with antifouling properties. The financial support is gratefully acknowledged.

50

Constructing specified coherent superposition states of atoms in macroscopic volume

G.Grigoryan1, V. Chaltykyan1, E.Gazazyan1, O.Tichova2, A.Hovannisyan2
1 2

Institute for Physical Research, 0203 Ashtarak-2, Armenia Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, Yerevan, Armenia EmilGazazyan@gmail.com

Creation of needed coherent superposition states of atoms is a key problem of quantum information processing, nonlinear optics, control of chemical reaction (see, for instance, [1]). The adiabatic process is very popular techniques for atomic population transfer [2]. In spite of huge number of theoretical studies on efficient transfer and control of atomic level populations, all of them are mainly concentrated on microscopic processes in isolated atomic systems. Meanwhile, at propagation of laser pulses in resonant media energy transfer occurs unavoidably between these pulses, which may result in essential changes in time envelopes, in parametric broadening of spectra, in breaking of the interaction adiabaticity, and, hence, loss of control of populations [3,4]. In the present work we use relatively simple quasienergy technique to study the possibilities of producing controllable superposition states preserving their stability at propagation of pulses in media. We consider a fivelevel atomic system driven by four near-resonant laser pulses and study the possibilities of population transfer via different combination of Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) [2] and brightSTIRAP [4] processes. We analyze this processes in connection with their realization in macroscopic volumes und use for designing logic gates.
References [1] P.Kral, I.Thanopulos, M.Shapiro, Rev.Mod.Phys.79,53 (2007). [2] K.Bergman, H.Theuer, B.Shore, Rev.Mod.Phys.70,1003 (2004). [3] Shore B.W., , Acta Phys. 58, 243-486 (2008). [4] G.G. Grigoryan, G. Nikoghosyan, T. Halfmann, Y.T. Pashayan-Leroy, C. Leroy, S.Guerin, Phys.Rev. A 80, 033402 (2009).

51

Biocompatible nanosized structures based on mixed iron-cobalt with native cyclodextrin

1

D. Vrincianu1, C. Nadejde1, C. Astefanoaei1, V. Nica1, D. Creanga1

University Al.I. Cuza, Faculty of Physics, Carol I Bd, No. 11A, 700506, Iasi, Romania e-mail:dianavrincianu@yahoo.com

The ability of cyclodextrins to interact with cobalt ions suggested the current application in producing complex nanosystems type iron-cobalt oxide cores/beta-cyclodextrin shell for further biological uses [1-2]. The iron-cobalt oxide cores were prepared by modified Massarts method from precursor metal salts solutions in stoichiometric ratio 2:1 through careful mixing at high temperature. The precipitated that resulted following drop wise addition of 25% sodium hydroxide was several times washed with deionized water and dried within electric oven. X-ray diffraction technique was applied to characterize the crystallite properties of the nanosized powder. Further the metal oxide powder was mixed with aqueous solution of native beta-cyclodextrin (0.016 g/ml) under continuous stirring at high temperature to form coated nanoparticles. The resulted suspension was analyzed from rheological viewpoint by measuring dynamic viscosity coefficient and superficial tension as well as the volume fraction of the suspended colloidal nanoparticles. UV-VIS and infrared spectroscopy techniques were applied to record electronic and vibration transitions of the diluted nanoparticle suspension for confirming the interaction of coating molecular shell with iron-cobalt oxides. The magnetic properties were investigated by means of the magnetization curve and its interpretation with Langevins theory. The main intended application of the magnetic colloidal suspension is focused on possible magnetic carriers of various guest molecules that could be trapped in the host cyclodextrins attached to the nanosized magnetic vectors.
Acknowledgements: This research was partially supported by the projects The transnational network of integrated management for postdoctoral research in the field of Science Communication. Institutional construction (post-doctoral school) and fellowship programme (CommScie), Code POSDRU/89/1.5/S/63663 and Code POSDRU/89/1.5/S/49944. References [1] E. Deunf, O. Buriez, E. Labb, J.-N. Verpeaux, Ch. Amatore, Electrochemistry Communications, 11(1), pp. 114 (2009). [2] E. Norkus, Journal of Inclusion Phenomena and Macrocyclic Chemistry, 65(3-4), pp. 237 (2009).

52

Radiofrequency assisted pulsed laser deposition (RF-PLD) of In2O3 thin films

A. Nedelcea, M. Dumitru, A. Moldovan, I. Valentin, R. Birjega, M. Dinescu

National Institute for Lasers,Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest Magurele, PO BOX MG36 Romania anca.nedelcea@inflpr.ro
Keywords: In2O3, thin films, RF-PLD In2O3 is a transparent conductive oxide with applications as thin film for infrared reflectors transparent for visible light (hot mirrors), antistatic coatings, diffusion barriers ("barrier metals") in semiconductors, e.g. to inhibit diffusion between aluminium and silicon. In2O3 have been deposited by Radiofrequency Assisted Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) starting from an In target and working in oxygen atmosphere. The samples have been investigated with Atomic Force Microscopy techniques, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Spectroellipsometry and X Ray Diffraction.

53

Optical parameters characterization of a volcanic ash intrusion over Northern Romania following the Grmsvtn volcano eruption in May 2011
Florin Unga1, Mihail Nicolae Dnil1, Silviu Gurlui1, Dan Dimitriu1, Nicolae Ajtai2, Adrian Timofte1, 3, Marius Mihai Cazacu1

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Faculty of Physics, 11 Carol I Blvd., 700506 Iasi, Romania 2 Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, 30 Fantanele St., 400294, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 3 National Meteorological Administration, Regional Forecast Center Bacau, 1 Cuza Voda Str., 600274 Bacau, Romania cazacumarius@gmail.com
The eruption of the Grmsvtn volcano (from South-East Iceland: Lat: 64.42 Lon: -17.33) and its long range influence on the environment have been studied by means of specialized instruments (optical remote sensing technology), thus confirming the transportation over great distances of sulphates and ash aerosols produced by the volcano in question. Using the LIDAR methodology [1], the moment of intrusion (fine ash particle intrusion), height of the observed local ash cloud and the atmospheric layers has been observed at IASI_UAIC station (Lat: 47.2 Lon: 27.6). The LIDAR data was processed in LabView, the RCS time series (Range Corrected Signal) being calculated and graphically represented considering the signal correction parameters such as: overlap function, noise correction, background correction, etc. [2]. Optical parameters of the atmospheric layers were also derived from AERONET data collected at CLUJ_UBB station (Lat: 46.46 Lon: 23.33) with a CIMEL 318 A sun and sky tracking radiometer. Several Direct Sun parameters were analyzed (AOD aerosol optical depth, Angstrom exponent -) along with Inversion data regarding Size Distribution, Single Scattering Albedo and Refractive Index. AERONET data [3] clearly shows a coarse particle intrusion on 26th and 27th of May characterized by increased AOD, low and the increase of the coarse fraction in the size distribution showed in Figure1 below:

Figure 1: Sun photometer data (left): Size Distribution for CLUJ_UBB station on May 26th 2011 and LIDAR data (right): RCS Time Series for IASI_UAIC station Acknowledgements: This work was supported by Romanian Atmospheric Research 3D Observatory (RADO). The financial support from the Grant POSDRU/89/1.5/S/63663 is highly acknowledged. References [1] A. Timofte, M.M. Cazacu, R. Radulescu., C. Talianu, D. Dimitriu, S. Gurlui, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, vol. 10, No.1, 91 97 (2011); [2] C. Talianu, D. Nicolae, C. P.Cristescu, J. Ciuciu, A. Nemuc, E. Carstea, L. Belegante M. Ciobanu, Scientific, Computing in Electrical Engineering, Vol. 11, 55- 61 (2007); [3] O. Dubovik, B. Holben, T.F. Eck, A. Smirnov, Y. J Kaufman., M. D. King, D. Tanre, I. Slutsker, Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 59:590-608 (2002).

54

First LIDAR observations using the YR-INC airborne laboratory capabilities

1

Octavian Carp1,2, Andreea Boscornea1,2, Mihai Floriean1

National Institute for Aerospace Research Elie Carafoli, 220 Iuliu Maniu Bvd. 061126 Bucharest, Romania 2 Universitatea Bucureti, Faculty of Physics, 405 Atomistilor Str, Magurele, Jud. Ilfov, Romania

The Airborne Laboratory for Enviromental Atmospherical Research (ATMOSLAB) is based on the Beechcraft King Air C90GTx (registered YR-INC) with its pressurised cabin and twin turboprop engines, capable of ataining an altitude of 9100m and a range of 2200Km, while providing 5 operator seats for the on board instrumentation. The RIEGL LMS-Q680i lidar, at the heart of the ground observations pod placed on the left wing, is based on a 1550nm fiber laser Er-doped[1], with a maximum repetition rate of 400KHz.[2] The equipment is capable of scanning a wide field of view of up to 60 degrees [2] with a maximum scan speed of 200 lines per second[2], meanwhile recording full waveform data on the returned signal to allow for full waveform postprocessing[3] thus enabling observations of vegetated areas.[3] The system features a rotating mirror for parallel scan lines[2] and is capable of multiple-time-around processing meaning that it has more than one laser pulse in the air at any given moment.[4] Complementing the laser scanner is a DigiCAM optical camera with a 60 Mpixel CCD[5] to allow for the coloration of the obtained point cloud[6] as well as to permit the operator optical verification of the scanned region.[5] For georeferencing purposes the ground observations pod is also equipped with a dual band GPS and inertial navigation device capable of recording flight path information down to decimeter accuracy and which is also used to aid the pilot in following the planned flight paths.[5] In this paper we intend to present the first observations for a calibration flight performed with ATMOSLAB. It will consist of several scan lines at right angle to each other to allow for boresight calibration calculations performed with the help of the postprocessing software. Classifications of the observed points will differentiate between local vegetation and man-made structures. Furthermore aerial images will be integrated for the coloration of the point cloud generating the basic appearance of a 3D model of the area. Further analysis will generate a digital terrain model and then we will attempt to automatically detect buildings and generate 3D building models from the lidar point cloud. From the above mentioned analysis boresight corrections values will be calculated for use in further research projects and conclusions on the actual capabilities of the ground observations pod can be drawn.
Acknowledgements: Beechcraft Berlin for providing test flight data. References [1] Martin Pfenningbauer, Andreas Ulrich, Multi-Wavelength Airborne Laser Scanning, International Lidar Mapping Forum 2011, New Orleans, February 7 9, 2011 [2] Riegl laser measurement systems, (01/04/2012) http://www.riegl.com/nc/products/airbornescanning/, Data Sheets RIEGL LMS-Q680i. [3] Mallet, C., Bretar, F., Full waveform topographic lidar: State-of-the-art, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 64 (2009) pp.1-16 [4] Peter Rieger, Andreas Ullrich, "Resolving range ambiguities in high repetition rate airborne LIDAR applications", Proc. SPIE 8186A, 8186A-9, (2011). [5] Ingenieur-Gesellschaft fur Interfaces mbH, (01/04/2012), http://www.igi.eu/brochures.html, DigiCam, AEROcontrol [6] Cihan Altuntas, Ferruh Yildiz, (2012) "Range and image sensor combination for three-dimensional reconstruction of objects or scenes", Sensor Review, Vol. 32 Iss: 3

55

THz Time Domain Spectroscopy in studying supported lipid membranes

A. Ionescu1, C.A. Brandus1, O.V. Sandu1, M.E. Barbanta-Patrascu2, L. Tugulea2, T. Dascalu1

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Laboratory of Solid-State Quantum Electronics,Magurele , P.O.Box MG-36,077125, Bucharest, Romania 2 Faculty of Physics- University of Bucharest, Department of Electricity, Solid state and Biophysics, P.O.Box MG-11, Magurele, 077125, Bucharest Romania e-mail: alina.ionescu@inflpr.ro
Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is a new technique of material investigation and study of chemicals and biological structures as it covers the vibrational, rotational and torsional modes of molecular components [1]. In this study model membranes of bilayer lipids deposited on two different supports were investigated by THz-TDS in the 0.2-3 THz (6 - 100 cm-1) region. The multilamellar vesicles (MLV) and small unilamellar vesicles (SUV) were prepared according to the thin-film hydration method from lipids of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and lecithin. Thus SUV and MLV were used to obtain SPBs (supported phospholipid bilayers) by the vesicle spreading (adsorption) method: a suspension of SUVs (50-100 l) in PBS (phosphate buffer solution) is spread on a support of silicon wafers and kept in the dark, at room temperature, for minimum 6 hours [2]. Broadband THz pulses are generated and detected using photoconductive antennas optically excited by a femtosecond laser pulse emitted from a self mode locked fiber laser (TOPTICA GmbH) SHG at a wavelength of 760nm with a pulsewidths of 100fs [3]. The THz transmission measurements at room temperature provides the transient electric field which allow the determination of both the amplitude and the phase of the spectral components that make up the pulse and thus the absorption coefficient and refractive index of the sample are calculated. In the THz absorption spectrum of both SUV and MLV, the absorption mode at 1.097 THz (36.56cm-1) was attributed to the presence of water molecules in the sample. There was observed a broadband absorption increasing with frequency for both lipids in the THz frequency range which suggest that the collective modes for these systems are IR active.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Romanian Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport through the IDEAS project 37 / 06.10.2011 (Ultraintense THz wave generated in air-plasma by short-pulse high-intensity laser beam) and by University of Bucharest Faculty of Physics, Department of Electricity, Solid state and Biophysics. References [1] B. Yu, F. Zeng, Y. Yang, Q. Xing, A. Chechin, X. Xin, I. Zeylikovich, R.R. Alfano, Biophysical Journal, 86, 1649 (2004) [2] T. Stefanescu, C. Manolea, C. Parvu, M. E. Barbinta Patrascu, L. Tugulea, Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials - Rapid Communications, 4, 33 (2010) [3] M. P. Dinca, A. Leca, D. APostol, M. Mernea, O. Calaborean, D. Mihailescu, T. Dascalu, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials, 12, 110 (2010)

56

Laser measurement system for fast flexural analysis of marble slabs

1

G. Monti1, D. G. Dorigo1, A. W. Koch1

Institute for Measurement Systems and Sensor Technology, Technische Universitt Mnchen, Theresienstr. 90 / N5, D-80333, Munich gianni.monti@tum.de

An evaluation of structural damage cases with significant economical and security relevance [1] caused by mechanical failure of marble slabs clarifies that a comprehensive quality control of each slab used for construction purposes is indispensable prior to their application, ideally immediately after their fabrication. Considering marbles anisotropic fabric, mechanical failure occurs on marble slabs mainly by spreading of internal microcracks caused by mechanical or thermal induced flexural load cycles. Therefore, a non-destructive determination of flexural moduli of elasticity by consideration of this anisotropic behaviour is necessary. Measurement methods of the state of technology determine marble slab flexural moduli of elasticity by analysis of ultrasonic wave propagation properties through marbles fabric. Because such methods can be only applied on specimens with different geometries than slab shapes, merely statistic statements from a strongly limited number of specimens of a charge are possible. This paper introduces a measurement system with a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV) and a related eigenfrequency method. The system is designed for automatic quality control environments and allows a fast and non-destructive determination of a reliable value range of flexural moduli over a multitude of marble varieties. In a first step the measurement system calculates the first order eigenfrequency from a transient oscillation measured by the LDV on the surface of a single-edge clamped marble slab, which has been previously excited by a force impulse. Within a further step a reliable range for the flexural modulus of elasticity Ex/y is calculated for an orthogonal direction x or y of the slabs larger surfaces under knowledge of an anisotropic parameter E and a reliability value E. Both have been calculated through measurements within a charge composed by common aesthetic criteria, applying a comparative aging method, also introduced in this paper which can be additionally optimized through the operating experience of the manufacturer. Measurement results (e.g. Fig. 1) and advantages of the laser measurement system are compared and discussed respectively to a common standardized ultrasonic method [3], based on the evaluation of quasi-longitudinal waves, for a multitude of marble varieties. A fast execution of measurement sequences has been achieved by use of a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) based signal processing taking consideration of industrial environment conditions.

Fig.1: a) Comparison of measurement results over different aging conditions or rather different quasi-longitudinal velocities VD, between the ultrasonic method and the presented eigenfrequency method applied in y-direction of a Thassos Extra marble (E=3,9) slab main surface. b) Reliable range of eigenfrequency method results marked by broken lines.

References [1] S. Siegesmund, T. Weiss, Formbestndigkeit von Fassadenplatten, Naturstein 9, 2000, pp. 80-84. [2] S. Siegesmund, K. Ullmeyer, T.Weiss, E.K. Tschegg 2000, Physical weathering of marbles caused by anisotropic thermal expansion. International Journal of Earth Sciences, Vol. 89, pp. 170-182. [3] EN14146, Prfverfahren fr Naturstein, Deutsche Fassung EN14146 2004-06, Beuth-Verlag.

57

Non-destructive measurement method for evaluation of marble slab shear properties

1

G. Monti1, D. G. Dorigo1, A. W. Koch1

Institute for Measurement Systems and Sensor Technology, Technische Universitt Mnchen, Theresienstr. 90 / N5, D-80333, Munich gianni.monti@tum.de A comprehensive quality control of each marble slab used for construction purposes becomes

indispensable if its application accounts for binding safety regulations. Moreover, financial loss in consequence of possible damage cases [1] should be avoided. The mechanical failure of marble slabs will be accelerated if they exhibit insufficient mechanical resistance against shear stress, which can be effectively determined by measurement of torsional moduli of elasticity. In consideration of marbles anisotropic behavior, measurements have to be executed into different suitable slab directions. Adequate measurement methods of the state of technology apply ultrasonic waves exclusively on rodshaped specimens, therefore such methods allow the examination of slab-shaped objects only in a destructive manner. The eigenfrequency method introduced in this paper explains how to obtain reliable ranges of torsional moduli over a multitude of marble varieties. To this aim a first order eigenfrequency is derived from an oscillation transient measured by a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV) on the surface of a single-edge clamped marble slab, by fast means of a GPU-FFT (Graphics Processing Unit-Fast Fourier Transform). The measurement achieved by the LDV is contactless and non-destructive. A reliable torsional modulus range Gx/y is subsequently calculated for an orthogonal direction x or y of the slabs larger surfaces by knowledge of an anisotropic parameter G, a mean poissons ratio D and of a reliability value, which considers all relevant measurement uncertainties under worst case conditions. Aiming for a preferable small reliable value range, G is calculated from measurement values delimited within a marble charge composed by common aesthetic criteria. Therefore a related cyclic aging process is effected simultaneously on different marble slabs and specimens, which have been cut out along the edges of the same slabs. After each aging progress torsional moduli are detected on those slabs using the eigenfrequency method and on the belonging specimens using a common ultrasonic method. G is finally calculated through a G-minimizing comparison of result trends, obtained from a number of aging cycles necessary to reach slabs mechanical failure. Considering the normalized variance of marble variety charge related poisson ratios, it has been found, that Gx/y can be calculated with acceptable influence on the reliable range, including mean values of poissons ratio. Measurement results (see Fig. 1) and advantages achieved by application of the introduced method are compared and discussed respectively to results of a common ultrasonic method, based on the evaluation of shear waves, for a multitude of marble varieties.

Fig.1: a) Gminimizing comparison of result trends over ultrasonic shear velocities V s, applied in x-direction of a Thassos Extra

marble slab main surface ; b) Probability density of poissons ratio within the considered Thassos Extra marble charge obtained from 225 measurements.

References [1] A. Koch, Deformation von Fassadenplatten aus Marmor: Schadenskartierung und gesteinstechnische Untersuchungen zur Verwitterungsdynamik von Marmorfassaden, Niederschsische Staatsund Universittsbibliothek, 09/2006, ISBN 3938616474

58

A proposed algorithm for tree detection and forest parameters estimation using LIDAR data processing
1

Mursa Paula Florina1

Military Technical Academy, George-Cosbuc Street, No. 39-49, Bucharest Paula.mursa@gmail.com

An airborne optical remote-sensing technology, similar to RADAR, which can also be defined by another two words: laser and receiver system, LIDAR offers several advantages over the conventional methods of topographic data collection. Such high resolution gives higher accuracy for the measurement of the height of feature on the ground and above the ground. For this reason, LIDAR quickly sparked interest among the foresters and forest management received important answers regarding the single tree detection, parameters estimation, species type.Therefore it is desirable to automatically determinate the forest parameters. To make this aim realistic an algorithm has been developed to detect trees top and estimate their shape, an algorithm based on point cloud analysis. Detecting and separating trees provides useful information -parameters-, which can be used in many applications. The algorithm consists out of three main parts. The first part studies the whole points cloud in the segment even if there are more trees, detecting the highest point and defining the levels, the second part treats individual each tree detected and in the last part there are constructed ellipses in order to separate the trees and define their shape. The principle is quiet simple based on math relations, ellipses construction but its importance is clearly highlighted by results. The purpose is to detect trees which had not been detected after watershed segmentation, maxima extraction and selection, to define the shape of the tree in order to estimate parameters and also to separate them.

Figure 1. Algorithm steps

59

Biophysical studies on carbon nanotubes/biomimetic membranes biohybrids

V. S. Raducanu 1, P. I. Varasteanu1, A. Matei1, G. Baranga1, S. M. Iordache2, L. Tugulea1, M. E. Barbinta Patrascu1*

University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, Department of Electricity, Solid state and Biophysics, 405, Atomistilor Street, Magurele, judet Ilfov, Romania, Postal Code RO- 077125 2 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, Nanosciences&Alternative Energy Sources (3Nano-SAE) Res Centre, 405, Atomistilor Street, Magurele, judet Ilfov, Romania, Postal Code RO- 077125 e-mail of corresponding author: p_mareli@yahoo.com
This paper reports the design of new bionanohybrid systems via the self-assembly of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and biomimetic membranes (liposomes). Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted a lot of attention in the last decade, due to their fascinating properties [1]. Liposomes are spherical lipid vesicles formed by one or more curved lipid bilayers enclosing one or more aqueous volumes between concentric lipid layers [2]. Liposomes were obtained by the hydration of a thin lipid film [3] and the nanohybrids were prepared as described previously [4]. The bioconstructs were investigated by spectral methods (absorption spectroscopy, DLS) and the resistance to oxidative stress was checked by luminol chemiluminescence (CL) assay. The CNTs/liposomes hybrids represent promising carriers for biomedical applications.
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the strategic grants POSDRU/89/1.5/S/58852, Project Postdoctoral programme for training scientific researchers (M.E.B-P.) and POSDRU/107/1.5/S/80765 Excelency and Interdisciplinarity in doctoral studies for an informational society (G. B.), cofinanced from the ESF within the Sectorial Operational Program Human Resources Development 2007 2013. References [1] P. Singh, R. M. Tripathi, A. Saxena, Journal of Optoelectronics and Biomedical Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 2, pp. 91 (2010). [2] R. R. C. New (ed.), Liposomes: A practical approach, IRL press, Oxford University (1990). [3] M. E. Barbinta-Patrascu, L. Tugulea, A. Meghea, Revista de Chimie, 60(4), pp. 337 (2009). [4] M. E. Barbinta Patrascu, A. Cojocariu, L Tugulea, N. M. Badea, I. Lacatusu, A. Meghea, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials, 13(9), pp. 1165 (2011).

60

Automation development for the laser induced damage threshold ISOTEST facility
1

S. Simion1, C. Blanaru1, C. Baicu2

Solid State Laser Laboratory, Laser Department, National Institute for Laser, Plasma, and Radiation Physics, 077125 Mgurele, Romania, http://ssll.inflpr.ro; 2 S. C. DELISOFT S. R. L. sandel.simion@inflpr.ro

The major task of the ISOTEST Project is to develop a facility to test and measure the damage threshold of optical surfaces, induced by laser pulses. The method used to perform these measurements is based on the S-on-1 algorithm, as it is described in ISO 21254-1,2,3,4 standards [1]. According to the S-on-1 procedure, each site is irradiated to S pulses, and the irradiation is stopped after the first N pulses induce a permanent damage (N S). For statistical reasons, multiple sites are irradiated with the same pulse energy, and this energy is varied throughout the test. The total number of pulses inducing a permanent damage on a specific site, N, and the energy density (fluence, in J/cm2) applied on that site are the main quantities to be measured and recorded for each interrogated site. These results are used as input data for the computing unit to perform the calculations stated by the Son-1 procedure. Finally, a report containing information about the tested optical surface is generated, with emphasis on the curve of damage threshold as a function of number of pulses which induced a permanent damage on a single site, N. The facility uses two lasers: a 5.5 ns pulsed laser, with 10 Hz repetition frequency, and maximum pulse energy of 500 mJ @ 1064 nm, 200 mJ @ 532 nm, 100 mJ @ 355 nm; the second one, a 200 fs pulsed laser, with 2 kHz repetition frequency and maximum pulse energy of 500 J @ 775 nm. The maximum number of applied pulses on a single site is S = 500 for the nanosecond pulsed laser and S = 100 000 for the femtosecond pulsed laser. To complete one test, about 300 sites are explored on a 25 mm diameter sample, which might take about three working days if the operation is performed manually. Considering the amount of necessary time and the fact that most of the operations are performed repetitively, it is necessary and appropriate to implement the automation technology for the test operation. In this paper the automation development of the facility is presented. The architecture uses one Personal Computer (PC) with associated operating system and programs which directly and indirectly controls the peripheral devices located on the optical table (i.e., laser beam attenuator, shutter, probe positioning motorized stage, etc). The communication between the PC and the peripherals control unit (PCU) is realized with a specific protocol, using the MASTER/SLAVE concept and technology. The MASTER is the PC and the SLAVE is the peripherals control unit. Briefly said, the PC transmits to the PCU instruction and command messages and the PCU responds back the results of the executed tasks or status messages, upon request. The poster depicts, in a functional block diagram manner, the concept and the architecture of the automation hardware and software of the test station.
Acknowledgments: This work is done within the framework of the Project No. 172/2010 "Facility for laser beam diagnosis and ISO characterization/certification of behavior of optical components/materials subjected to high power laser beams" -ISOTEST- sponsored by the National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCSPOSCCE), Romania. References: [1] ISO 21254 1, 2, 3, 4: 2011, "Lasers and laser-related equipment - Test methods for laser-radiation-induced damage threshold - Part 1: Definitions and general principles; Part 2: Threshold determination; Part 3: Assurance of laser power (energy) handling capabilities; Part 4: Inspection, detection, and measurement".

61

Preparation of Nd3+: YAG and Sm3+: Sc2O3 transparent ceramics

1 1

Flavius Voicu, 1Cristina Gheorghe and 2Alina Crisan

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Magurele, Ilfov, Romania 2 National Institute of Material Phisics, Magurele, Ilfov, Romania cristina.gheorghe@inflpr.ro

Cubic YAG and Sc2O3 crystals has been investigated for a long time as a laser-host materials due to their high thermal conductivity, broad spectral region, chemical stability, strong Stark-splitting and relatively low phonon energies. However, it is very difficult to grow large size single crystal with high quality because of their high melting point (~24850C for Sc2O3 and ~19500C for YAG). Transparent polycrystalline materials are very good alternative to single crystals because of their sintering temperature, which is much lower than melting point, possibility of having much more active ions, larger size in comparing with single crystal[1]. In the present work we present preliminary search in producing transparent polycrystalline oxides using ceramics technology[2]. Samarium doped Scandium Oxide (0.1%, 1%, 3% and 5%) and Neodymium (1%) doped YAG translucent ceramics were fabricated by solid-state reaction. Commercial nanopowders was use as the starting materials: Sm2O3 (6 m) and Sc2O2 (20-50 nm) for Sm3+:Sc2O3 and -Al2O3, Y2O3 and Nd2O3 (20- 50 nm) for Nd3+: YAG. For preparation of Nd3+: YAG was use as sintering additive 0.5 wt% tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and PEG (polyethylene glycol-400) as dispersant (1 at %). Powders were mixed in stoichiometric ratio with ball mill in anhydrous ethylic alcohol using alumina balls and jar for 48h for Nd3+:YAG. For Sm3+:Sc2O3, the magnetic stirrer was used for mixing the powders, also in absolut ethilic acohol. Then, the alcohol solvent was removed by spray drying the milled slurrys. The spraydried powders were pressed with low pressure (10MPa) into pellets with half inch diameter in a metal mold and then cold isostatically pressed at 200 MPa. Translucent ceramics were obtained by sintering 16h at 1730C for YAG: Nd3+ and 10h at 15500C for Sc2O3: Sm3+ in air atmosphere. SEM investigation revealed the average of grains sizes of prepared ceramics were between 5-15 m.
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by CNCSIS UEFISCSU, project number PNII Human Resources PD-160/2010. References: [1] A. Ikesue, T. Kinoshita, K. Kamata, and K. Yoshida, J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 78 [4] 1033 (1995); [2] A.C. Bravo, L. Longuet, D. Autissier, J.F. Baumard, P. Vissie, J.L. Longuet, Optical Materials 31 (2009) 734739.

62

Rayleigh scattering of photons by 2p electrons

National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest-Magurele 077125, Romania 2 Department of Physics, University of Bucharest, MG11, Bucharest-Magurele 077125,Romania 3 Department of Physics, Hyperion University of Bucharest, Bucharest 030629, Romania maria.munteanu@inflpr.ro
The scattering of photons by atoms is a standard means to investigate the structure of a target as well as the dynamics of its interaction with an electromagnetic field. Theoretical and experimental studies show the importance of electron correlation effects near the photoionization threshold of K- and Lshells. Many theoretical calculations (analytical and numerical) have shown the importance of the dynamics effects due to the multipoles and retardation both in inelastic (Compton scattering[1] and photoionization) and elastic (Rayleigh) scattering of photons by K-shell electrons[2]. However they were performed for the K-shell electrons in the case of Coulomb field. We want to obtain the analytical expression of the nonrelativistic amplitudes and cross-section in the case of the elastic scattering of photons by 2p subshell electrons. This completes our previous result in the case of elastic scattering of photons by 1s and 2s subshell electrons [3,4]. Using the CoulombGreen function method and considering the nonrelativistic limit for the twophoton S-matrix element, the right nonrelativistic 2p Rayleigh scattering amplitudes are obtained. Our result takes into account all multipoles, retardation and relativistic kinematics contributions, and the old dipole approximation result of Costescu [5] is retrieved as a limit case. The total photoeffect crosssection which is related to the imaginary part of the Rayleigh forward scattering amplitude trough the optical theorem is also obtained. Our Coulombian formulae are used in the more realistic case of elastic scattering of photons by bound 2p electrons in ions and neutral atoms. Screening effects are considered in the independent particle approximation through the HartreeFock method. The effective charge Zeff is obtained by fitting the HartreeFock charge distribution by a Coulombian one [3]. For the K-shell, these screening effects are small (less than one unit), but for other shells they are more important. That is why we want to extend the calculations for complete atoms, both for the K-shell and the L-shell electrons.
Acknowledgements: The work was supported by the Romanian Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research and Innovation (UEFISCDI), under grant PN II 22-139/2008. References [1] A. Costescu , S. Spanulescu 2006, Phys. Rev. A 73 , 022702 [2] A. Costescu, S. Spanulescu and C. Stoica J. Phys. B : At., Mol. , Opt. Phys. 40,2995 (2007); [3] A. Costescu, K. Karim, M. Moldovan, S. Spnulescu, C. Stoica, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 44, 045204 (2011); [4] K. Karim, M.L. Munteanu, S. Spnulescu, C. Stoica Elastic scattering of X-rays and gamma rays by 2S electrons in ions and neutral atoms Paper to be published by Romanian Reports in Physics journal. [5] A. Costescu Rev. Roum. Phys. 21 3 (1976);
1

M. L. Munteanu1, 2, A. Costescu2, S. Spanulescu2, 3

63

Application of graphene in Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells

1

N. Banu1,2, A. Ducu2 E.C. Serban2, A. Trefilov2, S-M. Iordache2, L. Popovici2

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Magurele, Romania 2 University of Bucharest, 3 Nano-SAE Research Centre, Bucharest, Romania, Nicoleta.Banu@inflpr.ro

Recent research has proved that synthesis of Platinum (Pt) nanoparticles with controlled size and shape is one of the most important goals in developing highly active Pt catalysts for many industrial applications. The purpose of this paper is to study the properties of a new anode electrocatalyst based on graphene oxide (GOx) coated with Pt star-shape nanoparticles. By controlling the molar ratio of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and Pt in a polyol process, Pt nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized. Pt catalyst with different size and morphologies was deposited by thermal evaporation process on GOx substrate. The synthetic Pt/GOx composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, and cyclic voltammetry.
Acknowledgements: N. Banu acknowledges with thanks for the financial support from national projects National Program PN-II, PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0815. References: [1] S. Sun, F. Jaouen, J-P. Dodelet, Advanced Materials, vol.20,3900-3904 (2008). [2] J. Fang, S. Du, S. Lebedkin, Z. Li, R. Kruk, M. Kappes, and H. Hahn, Nanoletters, 10, 5006-5013 (2010). [3] Y. Bing, H. Liu, L. Zhang, D. Ghosh and J.Zhang, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 39, 2184-2202 (2010). [4]N. Banu, E.C. Serban, A. Marinescu, A. Trefilov, A. Andronie, A. Cucu, S.N. Stamatin, M. Ceaus, S. Iordache, C. Ceaus, I. Stamatin, OAM-RC,5, 1186 1189 (2011) [5] S. Stamatin A. Andronie, C. Cristesccu, S. M. Iordache, A. Cucu, C. Luculescu, C. Ceaus, I. Stamatin, OAM-RC,12, 2010, 937 940 (2010)

64

Electrical conduction mechanisms in a MFM structure for the Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 epitaxial thin film with different top electrodes
1

G.Ibanescu1, C. Dragoi1, I. Pintilie1, L. Pintilie1

National Institute of Materials Physics, Atomistilor 105bis, Magurele, Ilfov, 77125, Romania andra.ibanescu@infim.ro)

Here we report on the charge transport mechanisms and ferroelectric properties of a metal-feroelectricmetal (MFM) structures based on 300 nm epitaxial grown Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) film and several types of top electrodes (SRO, Pt, Cu, Al). The MFM structures were grown by PLD using a KrF excimer laser with a wavelength of 248 nm. The PZT thin film was deposited on a STO(100) substrate after a SRO epitaxal buffer layer has been deposited on this substrate. This is acting as a bottom electrode and also as an excellent template for the heteroepitaxial growth of a high-quality ferroelectric perovskite. The electrical and ferroelectric properties of these structures were studied via hysteresis, capacitancevoltage (C-V), current-voltage (I-V) measurements performed at different temperatures between 150K-400K. These investigations revealed that the properties of MFM structures based on epitaxial thin films are strongly dependent on the interface with the metal electrodes.

65

Common ways in the description of the classical plasma and quark-gluon plasma
1

A. Scurtu1,2, A. Jipa2, V. Covlea2, C.Besliu2

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Magurele, Romania 2 University of Bucharest, Romania adrian.scurtu@inflpr.ro

Recent experimental results on the possible formation of the quark-gluon plasma in Au-Au collisions at the maximum energy of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) from the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), USA, and Large Hadron Collider (LHC) from CERN opened the discussions on the possibility to use notions, phenomena and specific parameters from the Plasma Physics in the description of the quark-gluon plasma, trying to exceed the differences between the different nature of the basic interactions in the two types of states of the matter. The present work is such attempt. We discuss the possibility to describe the observed quark-gluon plasma at the RHIC maximum energy, supposed in liquid phase, using the parameters for dusty plasmas, strongly coupled plasmas, mainly Coulomb parameter and different wave lengths. The analogies lead at the idea that there are the common behaviours of the parameters sustaining the formation of the quark-gluon plasma in liquid state.

Acknowledgements : A.Scurtu acknowledges with thanks for the financial support from University of Bucharest. References [1] A. Jipa,V. Covlea, C. Besliu, A. Scurtu, et al., Indian Journal of Physics, vol.85, nr.1, 167-175, 2009 [2] C. Besliu, Al. Jipa, V. Covlea, M. Calin, T. Esanu, I.V. Grossu, B. Iliescu, C. Bordeianu, A. Scurtu, A. Jinaru, Nuclear Physics A, 820, 235c238c, 2009 [3] V. Covlea, A. Jipa, C. Besliu, M. Calin, T. Esanu, A.Scurtu, JOURNAL OF OPTOELECTRONICS AND ADVANCED MATERIALS Vol. 10, No. 8, p. 1958 1963, 2008

66

Session 6 High power lasers

67

High-peak power passively Q-switched Nd:YAG/Cr4+:YAG lasers

Nicolaie PAVEL and Traian DASCALU

Laboratory of Solid-State Quantum Electronics National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest R-077125, Romania Email: nicolaie.pavel@inflpr.ro
Passive Q-switching technique is attractive particularly for scientific, medical, or industrial applications that do not require temporal accuracy better than microseconds range. Although this method yields lower output compared to electro-optic or acousto-optic Q-switched lasers, it has the advantage of a simple design, with good efficiency, reliability and compactness. In this talk we will discuss the performances of various passively Q-switched Nd:YAG-Cr4+:YAG lasers realized in our laboratory. The Nd:YAG laser medium and the Cr4+:YAG saturable absorber were single-crystal or poly-crystalline media, and the optical pumping was performed in continuous-wave (cw) or quasi-cw regime by diode lasers. A cw-pumped Nd:YAG-Cr4+:YAG laser that was build of single-crystal discrete elements will be described. The laser pulse energy was Ep= 270 power reached 16 kW. This device was used to demonstrate the first passively Q-switched Nd:YAGCr4+YAG laser with generation into green visible spectrum at 532 nm by intracavity frequency doubling with LiB3O5 nonlinear crystal. Composite, all-polycrystalline ceramics, passively Q-switched Nd:YAG-Cr4+:YAG lasers with high (MW-level) peak power were realized using quasi-cw pumping. The discussion will focus on three applications of such a laser: (i) laser ignition of an automobile engine. Lasers with up to three output beams, each beam inducing air breakdown, were realized; (ii) generation of high-peak power laser pulses in the green visible spectrum at 532 nm by extra-cavity, single-pass frequency doubling of the 4+ 1.064: YAG laser with the pulse energy Ep= 0.54 mJ was used as a master oscillator in a master-oscillator-power-amplifier system, yielding pulses with energy up to 11 mJ (peak power of ~12.8 MW) at a high (250 Hz) repetition rate. A method to control the output performances of a passively Q-switched Nd:YAG-Cr4+:YAG laser by using a volume Bragg grating (VBG) as output coupler is discussed. Compared with operation at room temperature, the Q-switch laser pulse energy was increased, by a factor of two or more, by elevating Nd:YAG temperature and locking the wavelength of emission with the VBG. Furthermore, the emission wavelength was tuned over 0.7-nm bandwidth by changing the VBG temperature, while maintaining laser pulses of mJ-level energy and short less than 4-ns width duration.

68

28-mJ, single frequency, sub-nanosecond Nd-MOPA system, at kHz repetition rate

1

B. Oreshkov1, D. Chuchumishev1, A. Gaydardzhiev1, I. Buchvarov1

Department of Physics, Sofia University, 5 James Bourchier Blvd., BG-1164 Sofia, Bulgaria b.oreshkov@gmail.com

A number of scientific and industrial applications can benefit from reliable laser system providing both high-energy (in the tens of mJ range) and high-peak power (>10-MW) at repetition rate around one kilohertz. These include but are not limited to: high efficient nonlinear optical conversion [1], optical parametric processes [2], LIDAR and remote sensing [3]. However, in the vast variety of the existing kHz ns-laser systems the output pulse energy is not much than few10-ths of mJ while, on the other hand, the repetition rate of the presently existing high pulse-energy systems does not exceed 100-Hz. Besides in the most of the cases the high energy lasers are not single TEM00 mode and single frequency lasers. In this work, we report on the amplification of pulses from a near diffraction limited, single frequency, passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (240-J, 830-ps at 0.5-kHz) up to 28-mJ in a one Nd:YVO4 preamplifier and a diode pumped boost YAG-amplifier, whilst preserving pulse duration, beam quality and linear polarization. The signal from the master oscillator is pre-amplified in one pass through an end-pumped, 9-mm long Nd:YVO4 crystal, with 0.25 at. % doping. The pre-amplifier is longitudinally pumped by a fibercoupled quasi-cw diode laser (Jenoptik Laser GmbH, JOLD70-QPXF-1L) driven with 120-s 80-A current pulses (60W peak power) at 0.5-kHz repetition rate. Further amplification is done by utilizing a boost amplification stage operated in a double-pass with transversely diode-pumped Nd:YAG module. The second stage employs a 0.6 at. % doped Nd:YAG crystal (dia. 3-mm and 90-mm long), pumped by three linear stacks of laser diode bars in a three-fold geometry; each stack composed of five 100-W quasi-cw laser diode bars. Two double-pass amplification configurations are realized and studied. The duration of pulses from the oscillator and from the output of the MOPA system are measured by a 1.5-GHz oscilloscope and an InGaAs photodiode. Beam quality is characterized with a CCD beam-analyzer. The efficient energy extraction from an amplifier stage increases by choosing the energy density of the input pulse close to the saturation density of the laser material used. Nd:YAG has a saturation density of 0.66-J/cm2 and the diameter of the used crystal is 3-mm, therefore it is needed to reach an energy of ~1-mJ for the ~0.8-ns input pulses in order to achieve efficient amplification. By taking advantage of the low saturation density (0.12-J/cm2) of Nd:YVO4, we were able to achieve high amplification in a single pass through the preamplifier. The preamplifier is operated in a saturated regime, providing 1mJ energy pulses at 0.5-kHz repetition rate, with 10% extraction efficiency and near-diffractionlimited beam quality. The achieved output pulse energy from the boost amplification stage is 28-mJ, at 0.5-kHz repetition rate, which corresponds to 18 % extraction efficiency. The beam quality after the master oscillator was measured to be Mx2 x My2=1.2 x 1.4 and no significant deterioration was observed after the pre-amplifier and at the output of first stage. The presented work shows an intermediate stage in a development process aimed at the construction of a high-energy (~100mJ) and high-average power (~100W) master-oscillator power-amplifier system. We plan to equip this system with a down-conversion stage for mid-IR generation in order to explore its potential for advanced medical applications and laser ablation.
Acknowledgements: We acknowledge financial support under bilateral scientific project between Romania and Bulgaria (grant DNTS 02/24/2010) and grant DDVU 02/105/2010 of the Bulgarian national science fund. References: [1] P. Cerny, H. Jelinkova, P. G. Zverev and T. T. Basiev, Quantum Electronics 28, 113 (2004). [2] T. Debuisschert, Quantum and Semiclassical Optics 9, 209 (1997). [3] S. T. Du, J. Zhou, F. B. Zhang, Y. T. Feng, Q. H. Lou and W. B. Chen, Microwave and Optical Technology Letters 50, 2546 (2008).

69

Simple method for synchronization of pulses in GRIP x-ray laser scheme

National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 409 Atomistilor St., PO Box MG-36, 077125 Bucharest, Romania *daniel.ursescu@inflpr.ro
Laser controlled pump-probe experiments with sub-picosecond accuracy are nowadays ubiquitous. Here it is proposed a new approach in pump-probe investigations, using the chirp of one broadband laser pulse. We provide a proof of principle experiment whit applicability in the set-up of plasma x-ray lasers where the synchronization of pump laser pulses with picosecond resolution is essential. A very simple method using basic optical elements is proposed for the synchronization between the long and the short pulse in the Grazing-Incidence Pumped(GRIP) X-Ray Lasers [1,2]. The method is based on the plasma mirror generation using the short pumping pulse on a transparent substrate (TS). The TS is placed at the position of the target. The long pulse is transmitted through the TS, as long as the short pumping pulse didn't reached the TS. The transmitted part of the long pulse is monitored with a spectrometer. Due to the Group Delay Dispersion of the long pulse there is a direct correspondence between the registered spectrum and the temporal domain. With the arrival of the short pulse and subsequent plasma mirror generation, the spectrometer registers a modified long pulse spectrum differing from the full long pulse spectrum. This difference consists in a suppression of a part from the spectrum. This spectral cut-off corresponds to a specific delay between the long and the short pulses. The main advantages of this synchronization method are: it does not need expensive non-linear crystals or broadband oscilloscopes, and the delay is measured directly at the target place. Other advantages are: it can be used in vacuum; the synchronization can easily be rechecked during the experiment; sub-picosecond resolution can be achieved. The method can also be used for a better characterization of the long pulse.
1

R. Banici1, G. Cojocaru1, R. Ungureanu1, R. Dabu1, D. Ursescu1,*

Acknowledgments: The studies were carried out during my work in solid state laser laboratory using financial support from project PN 09 39-LAPLAS 3/2099 References [1] V. N. Shlyaptsev, J. Dunn, S. Moon, R. Smith, R. Keenan, J. Nilsen, K. B. Fournier, J. Kuba, A. L. Osterheld, J. J. G. Rocca, B. M. Luther, Y. Wang, and M. C. Marconi, in Soft X-Ray Lasers and Applications V, Vol. 5197, edited by E. E. F. S. Suckewer (SPIE, 2003) pp. 221-228. [2] R. Keenan, J. Dunn, P. K. Patel, D. F. Price, R. F. Smith, and V. N. Shlyaptsev, Physical Review Letters 94, 103901 (2005).

70

Progress at the multi-PW ELI-NP laser facility

Liviu Neagu, Daniel Ursescu, Razvan Dabu

Lasers Department, National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Atomistilor 409, 077125, Magurele, Romania e-mail of corresponding author liviu.neagu@inflpr.ro Keywords: ultra-short laser pulses, Extreme Light Infrastructure
Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) is one of the major research facilities to be built in Europe within next few years. It aspires to conduct fundamental and applied research at the highest intensity and the shortest duration level, through ultra intense laser beams and further radiation beams that they will generate. The three infrastructure pillars, situated in Czech Republic, in Hungary and in Romania, will address three complementary areas of investigation: laser-produced radiation sources, attosecond pulses generation and laser-based nuclear physics, respectively. A fourth pillar is planned to be built later and to deliver intensities in the range of hundred of PW [1]. The architecture of the multi-PW laser facility at the ELI-Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) infrastructure will be presented [2].

Figure 1. Lay-out of the multi-PW dual arm ELI-NP laser system Among the criteria for the multi-PW laser system are the following: peak pulse power of the order of 10 PW or more per one amplifier arm, beam rate of 1/10-1/60 Hz, the ns & ps contrast more than 1012:1, focused laser intensity 1023 W/cm2 (laser beam focus near the diffraction limit). The corresponding bottlenecks are identified and discussed. References:
[1] J.-P. Chambaret; O. Chekhlov; G. Cheriaux; J. Collier; R. Dabu; P. Dombi; A. M. Dunne; K. Ertel; P. Georges; J. Hebling; J. Hein; C. Hernandez-Gomez; C. Hooker; S. Karsch; G. Korn; F. Krausz; C. Le Blanc; Zs. Major; F. Mathieu; T. Metzger; G. Mourou; P. Nickles; K. Osvay; B. Rus; W. Sandner; G. Szab; D. Ursescu; K. Varj, Extreme light infrastructure: laser architecture and major challenges, SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7721, Solid State Lasers and Amplifiers IV, and High-Power Lasers, Thomas Graf; Jacob I. Mackenzie; Helena Jelinkov; Gerhard G. Paulus; Vincent Bagnoud; Catherine Le Blanc, Editors, 77211D [2] ELI-NP site: www.eli-np.ro

71

Study of high harmonics generation at the interaction of an ultrashort and intense laser pulse with an overdense plasma layer
A. Mihailescu, V. Stancalie, V.F. Pais

National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, P.O.Box MG-36, Magurele, 077125 ROMANIA, Association EURATOM MEdC andreea.mihailescu@inflpr.ro
Ultrashort and intense laser pulses with durations close to an optical cycle in the infrared and visible domains have proven to be well suited in experiments looking for non-linear effects such as high harmonics generation. Focused intensities of about 1017W / cm 2 from a Ti-Sapphire terawatt laser ( 0 0.8m and pulse durations around 100-150 fs) allowed the experimental observation of harmonics up to the 15th order [1, 2]. Using a Nd: glass laser system ( 0 1.05m , 2.5 ps pulses) reaching an intensity of 1019W / cm 2 in the relativistic regime, Norreys et al.[3] have detected harmonics as far as the 68th order. In this work the interaction of a short and intense laser beam ( I2 1017 1019Wcm 2 m 2 ) with an overdense plasma layer is simulated with the purpose of studying the high harmonics generation mechanism and its efficiency. A 1D3V relativistic particle in cell (PIC) code is employed. Charge densities, currents and the electromagnetic field are therefore defined on a 1D grid and are updated after each particle push. Various pulse shapes with different durations normal and oblique incidencehave been chosen while the intensity and the polarization of the laser beam were varied. Influences of the plasma density and of the initial electron temperature have also been taken under consideration. Numerical errors have been quantified by modifying the size of the simulation box, the time steps per laser cycle and the number of macroparticles per cell. Harmonics emission has been found to increase with the intensity of the laser and also when lowering the plasma density. Electron density profiles as well as harmonic spectra are shown and the harmonics emission efficiency is discussed.
References [1] S. Kohlweyer, G.D. Tsakiris, C.G. Wahlstrom, C. Tillman and I. Mercer, Opt. Commun. 117, 431 (1995). [2] D. von der Linde, T.Engers, G. Jenke, P. Agostini, G. Grillon, E. NIbbering, A. Mysyrowitz and A. Antonetti, Phys. Rev. A 52, R 25 (1995). [3] P. A. Norreys, M. Zepf, S. Moustaizis, A.P. Fews, J. Zhang, P.Lee, M. Bakarezos, C. N. Danson, A. Dyson, P. Gibbon, P. Loukakos, D. Neely, F. N. Walsh, J.S. Wark and A. E. Dangor, Phys Rev. Lett. 76, 1832 (1996).

72

Operation of Mo XRL in ultra-low pumping regime

G. Cojocaru1, R. Banici1, R. Ungureanu1, R. Dabu1, H. Stiel2, D. Ursescu1,*

National Institut for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 409 Atomistilor St., PO Box MG-36, 077125 Bucharest, Romania 2 Max Born Institut, Berlin, Germany *daniel.ursescu@inflpr.ro
With the advancement of surface and material sciences, and for the development of unique imaging and metrology tools, there is a major interest in the development of coherent, shorter wavelength sources capable of producing high average power irradiation. Plasma-based x-ray lasers are such sources, that aim to complement large scale facilities such as synchrotrons. First plasma X-ray laser emissions were obtained with high pumped energy in the domain of kJoules [1]. Later, after 1995, femtosecond laser pulses have brought tremendous improvements in obtaining of soft x-ray laser emission [2,3]. Pumping of the 18.9 nm line of Ni-like Mo at 14 degrees grazing incidence with 150 mJ-300mJ of total pumping energy from a 10 Hz laser was reported [4]. TEWALAS laser facility from National Institute of Lasers Plasma and Radiation Physics provides ultrashort laser pulses with central wavelength at 800 nm and 10 Hz repetition rate with an energy up to 460mJ per pulse. It offered us the possibility to implement the grazing incidence pumping scheme for XRL which demands a normal incidence long pulse (hundreds of ps duration) and a grazing incidence short pulse (few ps duration). After careful optimization, a Mo XRL at 18.9 nm was demonstrated at 10 Hz repetition rate. The minimum pump energy during for obtaining lasing during our investigation was 85 mJ, almost a factor of two less than previously reported [4]. Our results, together with the advances in high repetition rate pump lasers with pulse energies in the 0.1J-1J range, can bring XRL to at least one order of magnitude higher repetition rate (100Hz-1 kHz).

Acknowledgements: The studies were carried out during my work in solid state laser laboratory using financial support from project PN 09 39-LAPLAS 3/2099

References [1] H. Daido, Rep. Prog. Phys. 65, 1513C1576 , (2002) [2] P. V. Nickles et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 2748C2751 (1997) [3] V. N. Shlyaptsev, J. Dunn, S. Moon, R. Smith, R. Keenan, J. Nilsen, K. B. Fournier, J. Kuba, A. L. Osterheld, J. J. G. Rocca, B. M. Luther, Y. Wang, and M. C. Marconi, in Soft X-Ray Lasers and Applications V, Vol. 5197, edited by E. E. F. S. Suckewer (SPIE, 2003) pp. 221-228. [4] R. Keenan, J. Dunn, P. K. Patel, D. F. Price, R. F. Smith, and V. N. Shlyaptsev, Physical Review Letters 94, 103901 (2005).

73

Simulation of spatio-temporal distortions in ultra-short laser pulses

National Institut for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 409 Atomistilor St., PO Box MG-36, 077125 Bucharest, Ronmania *daniel.ursescu@inflpr.ro
The space and time dependence of an ultrashort pulse's electric field are often assumed to be separable into independent functions. This assumption fail when coupling occurs between the pulse electric field's space and time dependence, and this is referred to as a spatio-temporal distortion. They are common in ultrafast optics because the generation, amplification, and manipulation of ultrashort pulses all involve the deliberate introduction of such spatio-temporal distortions.[1] Evaluation of the spatio-temporal distortion of ultra short pulses is an active field of research. Firstorder beam propagation for ultra short pulses is usually described in a matrix formalism, known as Kostenbauder matrix formalism (KMF), which is an extension of the ABCD ray matrix formalism. To study laser pulse distortions, today it is very common to use KMF which take in consideration four parameters in the description of a ray of light: space, angle time and frequency. The formalism assumes that optical systems are represented by 4x4 matrices which fulfill the symplecticity property and rays are represented by ray vectors with four elements. [2] We present a friendly and also powerful tool for studying spatio-temporal couplings in ultrashort laser pulses based on (KMF). A direct benefit is the symbolic power of computation offered by Mathematica. This instrument, which is a package of functions in Wolfram Mathematica language aims to provide support for characterizing distortions introduced by optical systems to ultrashort laser pulses. The package contains object functions which describe the basic optical systems such as lens, prism, grating, free space propagation and a general system. Each object contains the 4x4 the ray transfer matrix, the symplecticity conditions and the type of the representation space. The symplecticity property of the 4x4 matrix comes from the energy conservation law and is specific to the representation space assumed. In order to analyze distortions, the program has built-in functions for processing and analyzing, as shown in the figure. One can obtain the transfer matrix for optical systems by composing the matrices of each basic element. For instance, the matrix for a prisms based optical compressor can be generated and then analysed, in order to obtain the ray transfer matrix and to study further distortions of the system.
Acknowledgements : The studies were carried out during my work in solid state laser laboratory using financial support from project PN 09 39-LAPLAS 3/2099 and project 37N References [1] S.Akturk, X.Gu, E.Zeek, R.Trebino, Pulse-front tilt caused by spatial and temporal chirp, Opt. Express 2004 [2] ELI White book, pp. 238 - 240 2011. [3] Miguel Augusto Vieira Fernandes, Analysis of spatial-temporal distortions in chirped pulse Msc Thesis Portugal, 2009
1

R. Ungureanu1, D. Ursescu1,*

74

Project LASERLAB EUROPE The Integrated Initiative of European Laser Research Infrastructure
1

Traian DASCALU1

National Institute for lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Atomistilor Street, No. 409, Magurele, Romania traian.dascalu@inflpr.ro

LASERLAB-EUROPE is in the third phase of its successful cooperation in new shape: the Consortium has become much larger, involving 26 Laser Research Infrastructures from 16 European member states. Over 20 facilities offer access to their labs for European research teams. Given the importance of lasers and their applications in all areas of sciences, technologies and life sciences, the Consortium set up the main objectives:

To form a competitive, inter-disciplinary network of European national laser laboratories; To strengthen the European leading role in laser research through Joint Research Activities (JRA), pushing the laser concept into new directions and opening up new applications of key importance; To engage in the Transnational Access Programme in a co-ordinated fashion for the benefit of the European research community. To increase the European basis in laser research and applications by reaching out to neighboring scientific communities and by assisting the development of Laser Research Infrastructures on both the national and the European level.

We will present the role of LaserLAB III in Romania and Europe, the scientific objectives, Joint Research Activities, possibilities for Networking.

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Session 7 Physics of Plasma

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Dusty Plasmas: a Review of Experiments and Possible Applications

C. M. Tico1,2, O. Sandu2, N. Banu2, , M.L. Munteanu2, A. Scurtu2
1

National Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies, 077190 Bucharest, Romania 2 National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 077125 Bucharest,Romania

Dusty plasmas are often called complex plasmas due do their intricate structure: a collection of charged ions or molecules, electrons, fields and electrically charged particles of matter. This last component differentiates dusty plasmas from all other types of plasmas and confers them some unique properties. The recorded trajectories of dust particles moving in plasma can provide direct information about the physical processes involving dust-plasma and dust-dust interactions. A review of some experiments and their imaging techniques employed in tracking dust present in low ionized gases and in high density plasma jets is presented. Digital recording cameras are used to track the motion of slow or hypervelocity dust particles dragged by plasma jets, or to evidence single or collective dust particles oscillations and vibrations in the plasma sheath. When the charged dust particles are strongly coupled electrostatically, self-organization of the particles into 3-D periodic structures called plasma crystals takes place. A possible application based on scattering of THz waves by a plasma crystal is discussed. The wavelength of the electromagnetic waves is in the range of frequencies between 0.5 to a few THz and corresponds roughly to the interparticle separation distance. It has been suggested recently that a plasma crystal made of micron size dust particles can potentially work as a tunable filter in the terahertz (THz) domain.

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The Template for the ISCP 2012 Summary

1

D. Gustaw1

Student at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics. Poland, 87-100 Torun Grudziadzka 5 e-mail gustaw.daniel@gmail.com

The optical fiber is applied in optoelectronics systems, as well as in integrated optics systems and communication. It can also be used to investigate gentle quantum efects such as quantum force or Bohm potential. Equations describing classical light in optical fiber (Helmholtz equations) are very similar to Schrdinger time-independent equation. Some analogical effect can be observed for massive particle in constrained cavity and for light in the optical fiber. Interesting result appears when the trajectory is curved. The speach presents solutions of the Helmholtz equations in cylindrical coordinate system on the example of a rectangular-shaped curved optical fiber. To simplify the problem, an assumption is made that the solutions of the equations approach to zero on the bounds of the fiber. The most important point of the presentation seems to be apperance of the non-integer order of Bessel function. This result is significantly different than the one in cylindrical fiber. The difference will be considered in the context of angular momentum, Bohm potential and quantum force. There will be presented deep analogy not only between massive particle and classic light, but also between Shrodinger equation and Helmholtz equation. In my consideration the first step is taken to find general solutions of the Helmholtz equtions in cylindrical coordinate system. Next part is dedicated to bound conditions. In the end, there are traversed properties of the solutions and interpretations of the parameters. As it will be shown, rectangular-shaped curved optical fiber is an interesting example, relatively simple in calculations.
References [1] Jan Petykiewicz - Optyka falowa,(wave optics), PWN, Warszawa 1986 [2] C.C. Gerry, P.L. Knight - Wstp do optyki kwantowej,(introduction to quantum optics), PWN, Warszawa 2007 [3] Ramamurti Shankar - Mechanika kwantowa,(quantum mechanics), PWN, Warszawa 2007

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Dose distributions in water-equivalent materials irradiated with hadron beams

1

C.I. Chirvase1

Faculty of Physics, Al. I. Cuza University chirvase.cezarina@yahoo.com

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dosimetric properties of some common tissue-equivalent materials, by simulating the interactions of charged particles beams with phantoms of different materials. Application of proton therapy in medical practice requires a special equipment to simulate a human body, organs and tissues as well as the reference medium, water. The proton interaction cross sections of the phantom materials are to be close as possible to those of respective biological tissues. This problem is well known in conventional radiation therapy by photon and electron beams. Numerous tissue and water equivalent materials were developed for radiation therapy in the last decades and high accuracy in the interaction cross sections simulation was achieved for modern substitutes. In particular, water and tissue equivalent plastics provided by ICRU are close to liquid water and respective tissues within 0.5-1.0% for photon and electron beams. Nevertheless, the applicability of these materials in proton beams is to be specially verified. Using beams of hadrons - protons or light ions - radiotherapists can overcome the limitations of photon beams. As well as depositing most of their energy at the end of their range, hadrons penetrate the patient with practically no diffusion. This means that they can bring about severe damage to the DNA in cancer cells while sparing both traversed and deeper healthy tissue. This characteristic also enables them to be used to accurately irradiate any part of the tumor. Hadron beams allow highly conformal treatment (in which the beam conforms to the shape of the tumor) of deep-seated tumors to the nearest millimeter, while delivering minimal doses to surrounding tissues. In this work, we have performed a theoretical evaluation of tissue and water equivalence of seven phantom materials originally developed for conventional radiation therapy. The simulations were made using Fluka software. Three types of charged particles beam were used: electron beams (at 10, 20 and 40 MeV), proton beams (at 70, 100 and 130 MeV) and carbon ion beams (at 200, 250 and 300 MeV). The materials used for building the phantoms were: PMMA, Polystyrene, Solid water RMI-457, Plastic water (all of these being water-equivalent materials), as well as A-150 (soft tissue-equivalent plastic) and B100 (bone-equivalent plastic).The resulting data was then plotted as depth dose distributions, comparing the depth dose distributions of these materials with the depth dose distributions of water, soft tissue and bone, respectively.

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Preparation and characterization of double perovskite targets for thin films deposition by PLD method
*

Robert Lowndes

National Institute of Materials Physics, P.O. Box MG-7, Bucharest-Magurele, 077125, Romania *Corresponding author: robertj@infim.ro

A multiferroic material possesses two or more ferroic orders from ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism or ferroelasticity within a single phase. Such materials find application in data storage devices and resonant circuits for mobile telephone communication systems. There are challenges that are yet to be overcome; single phase multiferroic materials are rare and the magnetoelecctric coupling effect is often weak. Pulsed laser deposition is a frequently used technique to fabricate multiferroics double perovskites in thin film form with epitaxy of the films a key requirement. Multiferroic double perovskites based on Bi2CoMnO6, Sr2FeMoO6 and Bi2CrFeO6 were prepared by sol-gel and solid-state reaction methods. The aim of this study is the optimization of the processing parameters to obtain high quality targets for the preparation of epitaxial thin films. Pellets were heat treated by conventional methods and spark plasma sintering. The phase development and microstructure of the powders and sintered pellets were investigated by SEM, EDAX, XRD and TEM. The Bi-based compositions were found to have multiple phases present in contrast to Sr2FeMoO6 which was found to be a single perovskite phase. SEM analysis revealed the presence of equiaxed grains with sizes typically less than 5m.

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Participants list
Antohe Stefan Chalus Olivier Dinescu Maria Dumitras Dan Burnet Frank Gheorhe Lucian Grigoriu Constantin Luculescu Catalin Pascu Mihai Lucian Pavel Nicolaie Scarisoreanu Nicu Staicu Angela Traian Dascalu Zamfirescu Marian
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31.

s_antohe@yahoo.com maria.dinescu@inflpr.ro dan.dumitras@inflpr.ro frank.burnet@gmail.com gheorghe.lucian@inflpr.ro constantin.grigoriu@inflpr.ro catalin.luculescu@inflpr.ro mihai.pascu@inflpr.ro nicolaie.pavel@inflpr.ro snae@nipne.ro angela.staicu@inflpr.ro traian.dascalu@inflpr.ro marian.zamfirescu@inflpr.ro alexandru.achim@inflpr.ro cristina.achim@inflpr.ro catalina.radu@inflpr.ro vn.aleksandrov@abv.bg tatiana.alexandru@inflpr.ro ana.magureanu@inflpr.ro iulia.anghel@inflpr.ro ioana.avram@mas.utcluj.ro romeo.banici@inflpr.ro stefan.banita@inflpr.ro nicoleta.banu@inflpr.ro bianca_berrang@live.de mihai.boni@inflpr.ro ana.bratu@inflpr.ro ocarp@incas.ro chirvase.cezarina@yahoo.co m gabriel.cojocaru@inflpr.ro consuela.matei@inflpr.ro d.dorigo@tum.de emilgazazyan@gmail.com gustaw.daniel@gmail.com a.hesske@tum.de aibanescu@infim.ro valentine.ion@inflpr.ro laura.ionel@inflpr.ro alina.ionescu@inflpr.ro florin.jipa@inflpr.ro robertj@infim.ro andreeapurice@yahoo.com

Romania France Romania Romania United Kingdom Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Bulgaria Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Germany Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Germany Armenia Poland Germany Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania United Kingdom Romania

Achim Alexandru Achim Cristina Albu Catalina Aleksandrov Veselin Alexandru Tatiana Ana Magureanu Anghel Iulia Avram Ioana Banici Romeo Banita Stefan Banu Nicoleta Becherescu Nicu Berrang Bianca Boni Mihai Bratu Ana Carp Octavian Chiricuta Bogdan Chirvase Cezarina-Isabela Cojocaru Gabriel Matei Consuela Dorigo Daniel Gazazyan Emil Gustaw Daniel Heke Andre Ibanescu Andra Georgia Ion Valentin Ionel Laura Ionescu Alina Jipa Florin Lowndes Robert Matei Andreea

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32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59.

Mihailescu Andreea Monti Gianni Munteanu Maria-Luiza Mursa Paula Florina Nadejde Claudia Nastasa Viorel Neagu Liviu Nedelcea Anca Nicolae Danila Mihail Oreshkov Bozhidar Patachia Mihai Petrus Mioara Raducanu Vlad Stefan Relu Ionut Andrei Rusen Laurentiu Salamu Gabriela Sava Vasile Simion Sandel Smarandache Adriana Sold Camelia Daniela Stanciu George Swierad Dariusz Unga Florin Ungureanu Razvan Georgian Varasteanu Pericle Voicu Flavius Wiesent Benjamin Zorila Alexandru

andreea.mihailescu@inflpr.ro gianni.monti@tum.de maria.munteanu@inflpr.ro paula.mursa@gmail.com nadej_dia@yahoo.com viorel.nastasa@inflpr.ro liviu.neagu@inflpr.ro anca.nedelcea@inflpr.ro danila.mihail@yahoo.com b.oreshkov@gmail.com mihai.patachia@inflpr.ro mioara.petrus@inflpr.ro p_mareli@yahoo.com ionut.andrei@inflpr.ro laurentiu.rusen@inflpr.ro gabriela.salamu@inflpr.ro sava_vas@yahoo.com sandel.simion@inflpr.ro adriana.smarandache@inflpr. ro rever_3d@yahoo.com georgestanciu00@yahoo.com darek.swierad@gmail.com florin.unga@yahoo.com razvan.ungureanu@inflpr.ro

Romania Germany Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Poland Romania Romania Romania Romania Germany Romania

flavius.voicu@inflpr.ro b.wiesent@tum.de alexandru.zorila@inflpr.ro

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