Label-free somatic cell cytometry in raw milk using acoustophoresis.

A microfluidic system for cell enumeration in raw milk was developed. The new method, preconditions the milk sample using acoustophoresis that removes lipid particles which are larger than a few micrometers. The acoustophoretic preprocessing eliminates the need for conventional sample preparation techniques, which include chemical solvents, cell labeling and centrifugation, and facilitates rapid cell enumeration using microscopy or coulter counter measurements.

Dielectric properties of water in butter and water-AOT-heptane systems measured using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy.

We investigate the dielectric properties of water confined in nanometer-sized inverse micelles in mixtures of water, AOT, and heptane. We show that the dielectric properties of the confined water are dependent on the water pool size and different from those of bulk water. We also discuss the dielectric properties of different vegetable oils, lard, and butter, and use these properties to deduce the dielectric properties of water in butter, which are shown to deviate significantly from the dielectric properties of bulk water.

Harmonic microchip acoustophoresis: a route to online raw milk sample precondition in protein and lipid content quality control.

A microfluidic approach for raw milk sample preconditioning prior to protein and lipid content analysis has been developed. The system utilizes microchip acoustophoresis and is a further extension of our previously reported multiple node ultrasonic standing wave focusing platform (Grenvall, C., Augustsson, P.

Broadband single-polarization photonic crystal fiber.

We demonstrate a single-mode photonic crystal fiber that supports only one polarization state in a 220-nm-broad spectral region centered at 727 nm. The fiber has a mode-field diameter of 15.5 microm and background losses of < 15 dB/km in the single-polarization region.

Large-mode-area erbium-ytterbium-doped photonic-crystal fiber amplifier for high-energy femtosecond pulses at 1.55 microm.

We report a high-energy femtosecond fiber amplifier based on an air-cladded single-transverse-mode erbium-ytterbium-codoped photonic-crystal fiber with a 26-microm mode-field-diameter. 700-fs, 47-MHz pulses at 1557 nm were amplified and compressed to near-transform-limited 100-fs, 7.4-nJ pulses with 54-kW peak powers without chirped-pulse amplification.