Comparison of 1480 nm and 980 nm-pumped Gallium-Erbium fiber amplifier.

Background: One way to reduce the length of the gain medium in Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) is by doping the fiber core with a high concentration of Erbium. However, this method caused ion clustering effects, which limits the EDFA's efficiency. In this research, the use of Gallium as a new co-dopant in erbium-doped silica fiber is explored. Methods: The new fiber, namely Gallium co-doped Erbium fiber (Ga-EDF), is used as a gain medium in an optical fiber amplifier setup. A 2-meter length of the Ga-EDF fiber was used in a single pass configuration with a forward pumping scheme at 150 mW pump power. The Ga-EDF amplifier's gain and noise figure while pumping at 980 nm and 1480 nm were compared. The amplifier's performance was evaluated as the input signal power varied between -30 dBm to 3 dBm, over the wavelength range of 1520 nm to 1580 nm. Results: The 980 nm-pumped Ga-EDF amplifier achieved the maximum small-signal gain of 22.45 dB and the corresponding noise figure of 5.71 dB at the input signal wavelength of 1535 nm. Meanwhile, the 1480 nm-pumped Ga-EDF amplifier attained the maximum small-signal gain of 20.83 dB and the corresponding noise figure of 5.09 dB at the input signal wavelength of 1550 nm. At the input signal power below -20 dBm and the wavelength range 1520 nm to 1547 nm, the Ga-EDF performs better when pumped at 980 nm. Their performance is comparable at the input signal wavelength range between 1547 nm to 1580 nm. At the input signal power above -20 dBm, the 1480 nm-pumped Ga-EDF outperformed the 980 nm-pumped amplifier. Conclusions: The overall performance indicates that the gain saturation point of the 1480 nm-pumped amplifier is higher than the 980 nm-pumped.

Photosensitivity of gallium-doped silica core fiber to 193 nm ArF excimer laser.

Grating inscription in a Ga-doped silica core fiber (~5 wt. % Ga) has been demonstrated using ArF (193 nm) and KrF (248 nm) excimer lasers. In a comparative study with germanosilicate fiber with similar Ge concentration, a Ga-doped silica core fiber shows greater photosensitivity to an ArF excimer laser due to the higher absorbance in the region of 190-195 nm. In addition, the photosensitivity of a Ga-doped silica core fiber has been greatly enhanced with hydrogenation. Ga-doped fibers are potential photosensitive fibers for fiber Bragg grating production with an ArF excimer laser.

The role of initiator tRNAimet in fidelity of initiation of protein synthesis.

The proper arrangement of amino acids in a protein determines its proper function, which is vital for the cellular metabolism. This indicates that the process of peptide bond formation requires high fidelity. One of the most important processes for this fidelity is kinetic proofreading. As biochemical experiments suggest that kinetic proofreading plays a major role in ensuring the fidelity of protein synthesis, it is not certain whether or not a misacylated tRNA would be corrected by kinetic proofreading during the peptide bond formation. Using 2-layered ONIOM (QM/MM) computational calculations, we studied the behavior of misacylated tRNAs and compared the results with these for cognate aminoacyl-tRNAs during the process of peptide bond formation to investigate the effect of nonnative amino acids on tRNAs. The difference between the behavior of initiator tRNA(i) (met) compared to the one for the elongator tRNAs indicates that only the initiator tRNA(i) (met) specifies the amino acid side chain.

Enantioselective organocatalytic Diels-Alder reactions: a density functional theory and kinetic isotope effects study.

The mechanism and enantioselectivity of the organocatalytic Diels-Alder reaction were computationally investigated by density functional theory at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level of theory. The uncatalyzed Diels-Alder reaction was also studied to explore the effect of the organocatalyst on this reaction in terms of energetics, selectivity, and mechanism. The catalyzed reaction showed improved endo/exo selectivity, and the free energy of activation was significantly lowered in the presence of the catalyst. Both uncatalyzed and catalyzed reactions exhibited concerted asynchronous reaction mechanism with the degree of asynchronicity being more evident in the presence of the catalyst. The Corey's experimentally derived predictive selection rules for the outcome of the organocatalytic Diels-Alder reaction were also theoretically analyzed, and an excellent agreement was found between experiment and theory.