Cost-oriented evaluation of ecosystem services under consideration of income risks and risk attitudes of farmers.

Agri-environmental measures are often not as accepted among farmers as is expected. The present study investigates whether changes in income risks and the individual risk attitudes of farmers may constitute an explanatory approach for the low acceptance of the measures. For this purpose, a normative model is developed that calculates the premia claimed by the farmers for adopting environmental measures under the consideration of income risks and different risk attitudes.

Spatially resolved phase imaging of a programmable liquid-crystal grating.

Phase imaging is used to compare near-field measurements with the corresponding far-field intensity distribution. A liquid-crystal device serves as a phase object that can be programmed as a variable grating. Real-time phase visualization then provides an avenue for direct optimization of complex phase gratings.

High-efficiency liquid-crystal optical phased-array beam steering.

Efficient, electrically tunable, agile, inertialess, near-diffraction-limited one-dimensional optical beam steering is demonstrated at the infrared wavelength of 10.6 microm with a liquid-crystal phased array.

Electrically tunable liquid-crystal wave plate in the infrared.

Phase retardance of a liquid-crystal-based, electrically tunable wave plate as a function of voltage and incident light intensity at 10.6 microm is measured using the Stokes-MacCullaugh ellipsometry technique. At intensities of up to 900 W/cm(2), device performance is found to be driven by thermal effects and not optically induced reorientation effects.

Power handling capability of Faraday rotation isolators for CO(2) laser radars.

Faraday rotation isolators for CO(2) laser radars must be capable of handling substantial average power loads without degrading the beam quality or experiencing thermal runaway. For this reason, the semiconductorbased isolators, which are of promise for applications at 10.6 microm, must be cooled.