We present measurements of the optical second-harmonic generation in self assembled multilayer films of PAZO/PAH polymers with the aim to investigate molecular order in the layer-by-layer architecture. The experiments are performed in transmission, using a femtosecond Ti:Sa pulsed laser, which allows a more accurate determination of the amplitude of the second harmonic signal, without interference fringes usually present in nanosecond experiments. We found that the first bilayer, in contact with the substrate, presents a broad distribution of the orientation of the molecules, while the addition of successive bilayers (up to 12) produces ordering of the molecules with a small tilt angle respect to the surface normal. This result, together with the monotonic increment of the second harmonic signal with the number of layers indicates that the molecules grow orderly assembled in these films.
Background/objectives: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly impacted global health, with Malaysia reporting over 5 million cases as of May 2024. While symptoms like fatigue and breathlessness are commonly reported among COVID-19 patients, limited research exists on the vocal and pulmonary conditions of individuals with long COVID symptoms. This study aims to assess vocal impairments and pulmonary function differences between long COVID patients and healthy controls, addressing gaps in understanding how long COVID affects vocal and respiratory health.
Purpose: Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between acoustic and cortical brain features in Parkinson's disease patients.
Methods: We recruited 19 (eight females, 11 males) Parkinson's disease patients and 19 (eight females, 11 males) healthy subjects to participate in the experiment.
We study ferroelectricity in the classic perovskite ferroelectric PbTiO_{3} to high pressures with density functional theory (DFT) and experimental diamond-anvil techniques. We use second harmonic generation spectroscopy to detect lack of inversion symmetry. Consistent with early understanding and experiments, we find that ferroelectricity disappears at moderate pressures.
Nonlinear optics plays important roles in the research of fundamental physics and the applications of high-performance optoelectronic devices. The bulk nonlinear optical responses arise from the uniform light absorption in noncentrosymmetric crystals, and hence are usually considered to be the collective phenomena of all atoms. Here we show, in contrast to this common expectation, the nonlinear optical responses in antiferromagnets can be selectively accumulated near the surfaces, representing a skin effect.
Chiral hybrid organic-inorganic metal halides (HOMHs) hold great promise in broad applications ranging from ferroelectrics, spintronics to nonlinear optics, owing to their broken inversion symmetry and tunable chiroptoelectronic properties. Typically, chiral HOMHs are constructed by chiral organic cations and metal anion polyhedra, with the latter regarded as optoelectronic active units. However, the primary design approaches are largely constrained to regulation of general components within structural formula.
