TURBISCAN MA 2000: multiple light scattering measurement for concentrated emulsion and suspension instability analysis.

Emulsion or suspension destabilisation often results from coalescence or particle aggregation (flocculation) leading to particle migration (creaming or sedimentation). Creaming and sedimentation are often considered as reversible, while coalescence and flocculation spell disaster for the formulator. Thus, it is of prime importance to detect coalescence or cluster formation at an early stage to shorten the ageing tests and to improve the formulations.

Optical parametric oscillation in periodically poled lithium niobate driven by a diode-pumped Q-switched erbium fiber laser.

We describe what is to our knowledge the first nanosecond periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) driven by a fiber laser. The source was frequency doubled by a PPLN sample before pumping a second, 20-mm-long, PPLN crystal. The OPO threshold was <10muJ, with pump depletions of as much as 45% and a tunable signal range of 945-1450 nm (1690-4450-nm idler range).

Generation of femtosecond pulses from order-of-magnitude pulse compression in a synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator based on periodically poled lithium niobate.

We demonstrate the generation of compressed, transform-limited 250-fs pulses, tunable in the near infrared, by means of synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillation in periodically poled lithium niobate. The almost 20-fold compression from the 4-ps pulse duration of the cw mode-locked Nd:YLF pump results in signal peak powers well in excess of the pump power.

Luminescence of ultrathin organic films: transition from monomer to excimer emission.

We investigate high-quality evaporated dye layers of N, N'-dimethylperylene-3,4:9,10-bis-discarboximide of varying thicknesses, using temperature-dependent luminescence. Layers with a nominal thickness much less than a monolayer show monomer emission similar to that of dilute solutions. With increasing layer thickness, the luminescence is dominated by excimer transitions.

Picosecond degenerate four-wave mixing in colloidal solutions of gold nanoparticles at high repetition rates.

Time-resolved degenerate four-wave mixing experiments on a colloidal solution of 50-nm gold particles in acetone, using a high-repetition-rate laser source, are presented. The signal is found to depend strongly on the repetition rate of the incident radiation and above a frequency of 300 kHz is impossible to measure.