Measurement of nonlinear refractive indices of bulk and liquid crystals by nonlinear chirped interferometry.

The nonlinear refractive indices (n) of a selection of bulk (LiBO, KTiOAsO, MgO:LiNbO, LiGaS, ZnSe) and liquid (E7, MLC2132) crystals are measured at 1030 nm in the sub-picosecond regime (200 fs) by nonlinear chirped interferometry. The reported values provide key parameters for the design of near- to mid-infrared parametric sources, as well as all-optical delay lines.

Reconfigurable design of a thermo-optically addressed liquid-crystal phase modulator by a neural network.

We present a machine learning approach to program the light phase modulation function of an innovative thermo-optically addressed, liquid-crystal based, spatial light modulator (TOA-SLM). The designed neural network is trained with a little amount of experimental data and is enabled to efficiently generate prescribed low-order spatial phase distortions. These results demonstrate the potential of neural network-driven TOA-SLM technology for ultrabroadband and large aperture phase modulation, from adaptive optics to ultrafast pulse shaping.

Three-dimensional liquid foam flow through a hopper resolved by fast X-ray microtomography.

We probe the complex rheological behaviour of liquid foams flowing through a conical constriction. With fast X-ray tomographic microscopy we measure the displacement and deformation of up to fifty thousand bubbles at any single time instance while varying systematically the foam liquid fraction, the bubble size and the flow direction - convergent divergent. The large statistics and high spatio-temporal resolution allows to observe and quantify the deviations from a purely viscous flow.

An experimental study on the role of inter-particle friction in the shear-thinning behavior of non-Brownian suspensions.

This paper focuses on shear-thinning in non-Brownian suspensions. In particular, it proposes a quantitative experimental validation of the model proposed by Lobry et al. [J.

Kinetics of Aggregation and Magnetic Separation of Multicore Iron Oxide Nanoparticles: Effect of the Grafted Layer Thickness.

In this work, we have studied field-induced aggregation and magnetic separation-realized in a microfluidic channel equipped with a single magnetizable micropillar-of multicore iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) also called "nanoflowers" of an average size of 27 ± 4 nm and covered by either a citrate or polyethylene (PEG) monolayer having a thickness of 0.2⁻1 nm and 3.4⁻7.

Sequential Membrane Rupture and Vesiculation during Plasmodium berghei Gametocyte Egress from the Red Blood Cell.

Malaria parasites alternate between intracellular and extracellular stages and successful egress from the host cell is crucial for continuation of the life cycle. We investigated egress of Plasmodium berghei gametocytes, an essential process taking place within a few minutes after uptake of a blood meal by the mosquito. Egress entails the rupture of two membranes surrounding the parasite: the parasitophorous vacuole membrane (PVM), and the red blood cell membrane (RBCM).

Superpropulsion of Droplets and Soft Elastic Solids.

We investigate the behavior of droplets and soft elastic objects propelled with a catapult. Experiments show that the ejection velocity depends on both the projectile deformation and the catapult acceleration dynamics. With a subtle matching given by a peculiar value of the projectile/catapult frequency ratio, a 250% kinetic energy gain is obtained as compared to the propulsion of a rigid projectile with the same engine.

Method to disperse lipids as aggregates in oil for bilayers production.

Several techniques to assemble artificial lipid bilayers involve the zipping of monolayers. Their efficiency is determined by the renewal of the saturated monolayers to be zipped and this proceeds by adsorption of lipids dispersed in oil as aggregates. The size of these lipids aggregates is a key parameter to ensure both the stability of the suspension and a fast release of lipids at the interface.