Programmable multi-wavelength distributed feedback laser array integrated in a liquid crystal polymer waveguide.

Liquid crystal (LC) distributed feedback (DFB) lasers hold significant potential for integrated photonics applications. However, limitations in wavelength spacing for wavelength switching, device size, and compatibility with other technologies have impeded advancements of the LC DFB laser in integration and responsiveness. Herein, we propose a thin-film multi-wavelength DFB laser array utilizing high-resolution patterned programmable nematic LC polymers, enabling rapid switching with high-resolution wavelength spacing between wavelength division multiplexing channels while maintaining a stable single longitudinal mode (SLM) for each laser.

Entanglement enhancement and EPR steering based on a PT-symmetric-like cavity-opto-magnomechanical hybrid system.

We investigate the enhancement of entanglement and EPR steering in a parity-time(PT-) symmetric-like cavity-opto-magnomechanical system. The system consists of an optical cavity, a magnon mode in a ferromagnetic crystal, a phonon mode, and a microwave cavity. Our findings demonstrate that microwave-cavity gain significantly boosts distant quantum entanglement and greatly improves the robustness of bipartite entanglement against environment temperature.

Entanglement generation and steering implementation in a double-cavity-magnon hybrid system.

We demonstrate a scheme for the generation of bipartite and tripartite entanglement, as well as he implementation of stable and controllable long-distance one-way and asymmetric two-way steering in a cavity-magnon hybrid system. This system consists of a magnon mode and two coupled microwave cavities. The first cavity is driven by a flux-driven Josephson parametric amplifier, which generates squeezed vacuum fields, and is coupled to the other cavity through optical tunneling interaction.

Deflecting and routing nematicons via orientation programmable liquid crystal array.

By designing a liquid crystal cell with comb electrode structure, the alignment modulation of nematic liquid crystal in the cell can be realized after the electric field is applied. In different orientation regions, the incident laser beam can deflect at different angles. At the same time, by changing the incident angle of the laser beam, the reflection modulation of the laser beam on the interface of the liquid crystal molecular orientation change can be realized.

Liquid Crystal Assembly for Ultra-dissymmetric Circularly Polarized Luminescence and Beyond.

Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) is attracting much interest because it can carry extensive optical information. CPL shows left- or right-handedness and can be regarded as part of high-level visual perception to supply an extra dimension of information with regard to regular light. A key to meeting the needs for practical applications is to develop the emerging field of ultra-dissymmetric CPL.

Collecting, transporting and sorting micro-particles via the optical slings generated by a liquid crystal q(φ)-plate.

We disclose a transporting/collecting optical sling generated by a liquid crystal geometric phase optical element with spatial variant topological charge, which shows the intriguing repelling/indrawing effect on the micro-particle along the spiral orbit. Two proof-of-concept prototypes, i.e.

Correlation Analysis of the Change Law of Index Gas and Active Functional Groups in the Process of High-Temperature Spontaneous Combustion of Minerals in the Fushun West Mine.

The spontaneous combustion of underground minerals causes huge property losses and ecological damage. Coal and oil shale are co-associated minerals in the Fushun West Mine, and both have the ability to undergo oxidative spontaneous combustion. To study the effect of microstructure changes on the macroscopic gas product concentration during the mineral oxidation spontaneous combustion process in the Fushun West Mine, this study used a high-temperature temperature-programmed test to obtain the change trend of gas product concentration in different oxidation stages of minerals.

Dynamically actuated soft heliconical architecture via frequency of electric fields.

Dynamic electric field frequency actuated helical and spiral structures enable a plethora of attributes for advanced photonics and engineering in the contemporary era. Nevertheless, leveraging the frequency responsiveness of adaptive devices and systems within a broad dynamic range and maintaining restrained high-frequency induced heating remain challenging. Herein, we establish a frequency-actuated heliconical soft architecture that is quite distinct from that of common frequency-responsive soft materials.

Large-area, low-cost near-infrared meta-surface reflector based on a pixelated two-dimensional silicon disk array.

All-dielectric meta-surfaces composed of dielectric meta-atoms with electric and magnetic multipole resonances provide a low loss alternative to plasmonic meta-surfaces in some optical research fields such as meta-lens and meta-surface holography. We utilize the digital holography lithography technique to obtain the large area meta-surface perfect reflector made of high refractive index and low loss silicon discs arrays, with the capability to delicately control the optical response in the near infrared spectrum. Three types of meta-surface reflectors (discs, truncated cones and diamond-shaped discs) were fabricated, which correspondingly exhibited nearly 1 peak reflectance and greater than 97% average reflectance in their respective perfect reflectance spectral regions.

Photoprogrammable Mesogenic Soft Helical Architectures: A Promising Avenue toward Future Chiro-Optics.

Mesogenic soft materials, having single or multiple mesogen moieties per molecule, commonly exhibit typical self-organization characteristics, which promotes the formation of elegant helical superstructures or supramolecular assemblies in chiral environments. Such helical superstructures play key roles in the propagation of circularly polarized light and display optical properties with prominent handedness, that is, chiro-optical properties. The leveraging of light to program the chiro-optical properties of such mesogenic helical soft materials by homogeneously dispersing photosensitive chiral material into an achiral soft system or covalently connecting photochromic moieties to the molecules has attracted considerable attention in terms of materials, properties, and potential applications and has been a thriving topic in both fundamental science and application engineering.

Identification of biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of primary colorectal cancer based on microarray technology.

Background: Primary colorectal cancer (PCRC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in clinic, and is characterized by high heterogeneity occurring between tumors and intracellularly. Therefore, this study aimed to explore potential gene targets for the diagnosis and treatment of PCRC via bioinformatic technology.

Methods: Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) was used to download the data used in this study.

Stimulated transformation of soft helix among helicoidal, heliconical, and their inverse helices.

Dynamic modulation of soft helix in terms of the molecular organization, handedness, and pitch length could result in a sophisticated control over its functions, opening numerous possibilities toward the exploration of previously unidentified applications. Here, we report a dynamic and reversible transformation of a soft helical superstructure among the helicoidal (molecules orthogonal to helical axis), heliconical (molecules oblique to the helical axis, i.e.

Low-threshold organic lasing from a square optical microcavity fabricated by imaging holography.

We propose and demonstrate the versatile fabrication of optical subwavelength microcavities by using imaging holography. As a demonstration, a peculiar square optical microcavity with a periodicity of 400 nm is imaged from a micrometer-scale diffractive optical element, attributing to the interference by the refocusing of the multiple diffractive beams. By spin-coating an active conjugated polymer onto the microcavity, highly directional laser emission with a low pumping threshold of 0.

Light-Driven Reversible Transformation between Self-Organized Simple Cubic Lattice and Helical Superstructure Enabled by a Molecular Switch Functionalized Nanocage.

Self-organized stimuli-responsive smart materials with adjustable attributes are highly desirable for a plethora of device applications. Simple cubic lattice is quite uncommon in soft condensed matter due to its lower packing factor. Achieving a stable simple cubic soft lattice and endowing such a lattice with dynamic reconstruction capability solely by a facile light irradiation are of paramount significance for both fundamental studies and engineering explorations.

Enhanced Low-temperature Electro-optical Kerr Effect of Stable Cubic Soft Superstructure Enabled by Fluorinated Polymer Stabilization.

An enhanced electro-optical Kerr effect of the stable self-organized cubic blue phase liquid crystal superstructure at a relatively low temperature down to -50 °C was achieved through a judiciously designed fluorinated polymer stabilization. The fluorinated sample exhibited not only a rather stable cubic structure, but the promoted electro-optical performances of low driving voltage, weak hysteresis and high contrast ratio at such a low-temperature, which were much distinct from the common non-fluorinated polymer stabilized blue phase liquid crystal without conspicuous low-temperature Kerr response behaviours. Kerr constant, which reflects the obviousness of Kerr effect, of the fluorinated sample at -50 °C indicated a spectacular enhancement of two orders of magnitude in contrast to the commonly material, thereby corroborating the high efficiency of polymer fluorination in enhancing low-temperature Kerr effect.

Light-Patterned Crystallographic Direction of a Self-Organized 3D Soft Photonic Crystal.

Uniform and patterned orientation of a crystallographic direction of ordered materials is of fundamental significance and of great interest for electronic and photonic applications. However, such orientation control is generally complicated and challenging with regard to inorganic and organic crystalline materials due to the occurrence of uncontrollable dislocations or defects. Achieving uniform lattice orientation in frustrated liquid-crystalline phases, like cubic blue phases, is a formidable task.

Controllable Dynamic Zigzag Pattern Formation in a Soft Helical Superstructure.

Zigzag pattern formation is a common and important phenomenon in nature serving a multitude of purposes. For example, the zigzag-shaped edge of green leaves boosts the transportation and absorption of nutrients. However, the elucidation of this complicated shape formation is challenging in fluid mechanics and soft condensed matter systems.

Electrically/optically tunable photo-aligned hybrid nematic liquid crystal Dammann grating.

In this Letter, we disclose a Dammann grating (DG) based on the hybrid photo-aligned nematic liquid crystals (LCs). The LC cell is composed of two substrates, wherein the first substrate is treated to provide the homeotropic alignment, and the other substrate is set to provide an in-plane, patterned alignment with a mutually orthogonal easy axis in the neighboring alignment domains. Thus, the fabricated polarization independent DG generates an optical array of equally distributed energy, which is characterized by a diffraction efficiency of more than 58%, a response time <1  ms, and the driving voltage 3 V/μm.

Preparation and optical properties of FeO nanoparticles-doped blue phase liquid crystal.

The magnetic FeO nanoparticle-doped blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) was found to have a relatively strong contrast ratio in magnetic-addressed display performance compared to the composites in other phases; this is a new application of the BPLC and a way to prepare a new type of power-free magnetically-driven LC flexible display.

Frequency-Driven Self-Organized Helical Superstructures Loaded with Mesogen-Grafted Silica Nanoparticles.

Adding colloidal nanoparticles into liquid-crystal media has become a promising pathway either to enhance or to introduce novel properties for improved device performance. Here we designed and synthesized new colloidal hybrid silica nanoparticles passivated with a mesogenic monolayer on the surface to facilitate their organo-solubility and compatibility in a liquid-crystal host. The resulting nanoparticles were identified by H NMR spectroscopy, TEM, TGA, and UV/Vis techniques, and the hybrid nanoparticles were doped into a dual-frequency cholesteric liquid-crystal host to appraise both their compatibility with the host and the effect of the doping concentration on their electro-optical properties.

The effectiveness of intra-aortic balloon pump for myocardial infarction in patients with or without cardiogenic shock: a meta-analysis and systematic review.

Background: Conflicting reports on the efficacy of intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) incited us to evaluate the utility of IABP in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Methods: Randomized clinical trials comparing patients, who received IABP vs. control (no IABP) during PCI, were hand-searched from MEDLINE, Cochrane, and EMBASE databases using the terms "intra-aortic balloon pump, percutaneous coronary intervention, myocardial infarction, acute coronary syndrome".

Three-dimensional control of the helical axis of a chiral nematic liquid crystal by light.

Chiral nematic liquid crystals--otherwise referred to as cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs)--are self-organized helical superstructures that find practical application in, for example, thermography, reflective displays, tuneable colour filters and mirrorless lasing. Dynamic, remote and three-dimensional control over the helical axis of CLCs is desirable, but challenging. For example, the orientation of the helical axis relative to the substrate can be changed from perpendicular to parallel by applying an alternating-current electric field, by changing the anchoring conditions of the substrate, or by altering the topography of the substrate's surface; separately, in-plane rotation of the helical axis parallel to the substrate can be driven by a direct-current field.