Spatial frequency heterodyne imaging of aqueous phase transitions inside multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

The evaporation and condensation of water on multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) surfaces was studied as a function of temperature and time using X-ray spatial frequency heterodyne imaging (SFHI). SFHI is an imaging modality that produces an absorption and scatter image in a single exposure, and has increased sensitivity to variations in electron density relative to more common place X-ray imaging techniques. Differing features exhibited in the temporal scatter intensity profiles recorded during evaporation and condensation revealed the existence of an absorption-desorption hysteresis. Effects on the aforementioned phenomena due to chemical functionalization of the carbon nanotube surfaces were also monitored. The increased interaction potential between the functionalized MWCNT walls and water molecules altered the evaporation event time scale and increased the temperature at which condensation could take place. Theoretical calculations were used to correlate the shape of the observed scatter profiles during condensation to changes in the MWCNT cross section geometry and configuration of the contained water volume. Changes in evaporation time scales with temperature coincided with the boiling point for confined water predicted by the Kelvin equation, indicating that a thermodynamic description of mesoscopic confined water is permissible in some instances.

A 50 EW/cm;2 Ti:sapphire laser system for studying relativistic light-matter interactions.

A 10-Hz repetition rate, 60-TW peak power, Ti:sapphire laser system was developed for use in experiments where relativistic effects dominate the physics. The temporal, spectral, energy and spatial characteristics of the laser pulses were measured in single shot format. The pulse duration ranged from 22 fs to 25 fs and the pulse energy averaged 1.3 J. Atomic photoionization measurements quantified the peak intensity of the laser pulse in situ. The measurements indicated an intensity of at least 510 19 W/cm 2 was produced.

Regenerative pulse shaping and amplification of ultrabroadband optical pulses.

Regenerative pulse shaping is used to alleviate gain narrowing during ultrashort-pulse amplification. Amplification bandwidths of ~ 100 nm, or nearly three times wider than the traditional gain-narrowing limit, are produced with a modified Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier. This novel regenerative amplifier has been used to amplify pulses to the 5-mJ level with a bandwidth sufficient to support ~ 10-fs pulses.

Generation of 18-fs, multiterawatt pulses by regenerative pulse shaping and chirped-pulse amplification.

Transform-limited, 18-fs pulses of 4.4-TW peak power are produced in a Ti:sapphire-based chirped-pulsed amplification system at a repetition rate of 50 Hz. Regenerative pulse shaping is used to control gain narrowing during amplification, and an optimized, quintic-phase-limited dispersion compensation scheme is used to control higher-order phase distortions over a bandwidth of ~100 nm. Seed pulses are temporally stretched >100,000 times before amplification.