Mapping surface plasmon propagation by collection-mode near-field microscopy
Surface plasmon propagation along striped Gold structures has been investigated by collection-mode near-field microscopy, leading to map the field intensity at the structure surface and to assess the system behavior at the nanoscale.
Determinant role of the edges in defining surface plasmon propagation in stripe waveguides and tapered concentrators
International audience; In this paper, we experimentally show the effect of waveguide discontinuity on the propagation of the surface plasmon in metal stripes and tapered terminations. Dual-plane leakage microscopy and near-field microscopy were performed on Au stripes with varied widths to imag29e the surface plasmon intensity distribution in real and reciprocal spaces. We unambiguously demonstrate that edge diffraction is the limiting process determining the cutoff conditions of the surface plasmon mode. Finally, we determine the optimal tapered geometry leading to the highest transmission.
Nonlinear radiation imprisonment in magneto-optical vapor traps
We analyze nonlinear radiation imprisonment (RI) effects in an optically thick vapor in different temperature regimes. An analytical approach is proposed to treat nonlinear decay problems. Special attention is paid to vapor samples having curvilinear geometries (cylinder, sphere) and being excited by a strong laser pulse. We derive a number of new formulas for different radiative trapping factors as functions of opacity and propose a general approach for RI evaluation allowing us to deal with samples both at room and low, or very low, temperatures, such as those customarily achieved in magneto-optical trap (MOT) experiments. As a result, we predict a "subnatural" decay of radiation escaping…
Nonlinear effects in optical pumping of a cold and slow atomic beam
By photoionizing hyperfine (HF) levels of the Cs state $6{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{2}{P}_{3/2}$ in a slow and cold atom beam, we find how their population depends on the excitation laser power. The long time (around $180\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s})$ spent by the slow atoms inside the resonant laser beam is large enough to enable exploration of a unique atom-light interaction regime heavily affected by time-dependent optical pumping. We demonstrate that, under such conditions, the onset of nonlinear effects in the population dynamics and optical pumping occurs at excitation laser intensities much smaller than the conventional respective saturation values. The ev…
Towards Laser-Textured Antibacterial Surfaces
AbstractEscherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacterial retention on mirror-polished and ultrashort pulse laser-textured surfaces is quantified with a new approach based on ISO standards for measurement of antibacterial performance. It is shown that both wettability and surface morphology influence antibacterial behavior, with neither superhydrophobicity nor low surface roughness alone sufficient for reducing initial retention of either tested cell type. Surface structures comprising spikes, laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) and nano-pillars are produced with 1030 nm wavelength 350 fs laser pulses of energy 19.1 μJ, 1.01 μJ and 1.46 μJ, respectively. SEM analysis, optic…