Color domains in fiber lasers.

We report on the experimental observation of a color domain (CD) phenomenon in a dissipative soliton fiber laser. The CDs are constituted by a wavelength-dependent condensed phase of pulses in motion. Single CD, dual CD, and tricolor domain that occupy all the cavity space are observed. The CDs have flexible tunability of duty cycle, amplitude, wavelength, and wavelength spacing. The CDs derive from the wavelength-dependent slow evolution of gain, and the formation mechanism of multiple CDs can be explained by cross gain saturation.

10 µJ dissipative soliton resonance square pulse in a dual amplifier figure-of-eight double-clad Er:Yb mode-locked fiber laser.

We demonstrate experimentally a double-clad Er:Yb co-doped dual amplifier passive mode-locked figure-of-eight fiber laser that generates high energy, width, and amplitude tunable dissipative soliton resonance square pulses. In our laser system, each loop contains an amplifier that controls a characteristic of the output pulse. The amplitude and width of the output beam can be controlled continuously but, dependently, according to the pump power of each amplifier. The pulse width can be tuned in a range of almost 360 ns while the peak power varies from 8 to 120 W. On maximum possible pumping from both sides without having a pulse break, we report square pulses with 10 µJ energy per pulse with a signal-to-noise ratio of 60 dB.

Generation of high energy square-wave pulses in all anomalous dispersion Er:Yb passive mode locked fiber ring laser.

We have experimentally demonstrated square pulses emission from a co-doped Er:Yb double-clad fiber laser operating in anomalous dispersion DSR regime using the nonlinear polarization evolution technique. Stable mode-locked pulses have a repetition rate of 373 kHz with 2.27 µJ energy per pulse under a pumping power of 30 W in cavity. With the increase of pump power, both the duration and the energy of the output square pulses broaden. The experimental results demonstrate that the passively mode-locked fiber laser operating in the anomalous regime can also realize a high-energy pulse, which is different from the conventional low-energy soliton pulse.

High power L-band mode-locked fiber laser based on topological insulator saturable absorber.

We demonstrate a passive mode-locked Er:Yb doped double-clad fiber laser using a microfiber-based topological insulator (Bi(2)Se(3)) saturable absorber (TISA). By optimizing the cavity loss and output coupling ratio, the mode-locked fiber laser can operate in L-band with high average output power. With the highest pump power of 5 W, 91st harmonic mode locking of soliton bunches with average output power of 308 mW was obtained. This is the first report that the TISA based erbium-doped fiber laser operating above 1.6 µm and is also the highest output power yet reported in TISA based passive mode-locked fiber laser.

Mode-locked Er:Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser with 75-nm tuning range.

We demonstrate a widely tunable Er:Yb-doped double-clad multiple-soliton fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR). Based on both an artificial birefringent filtering effect of the cavity and population inversion related gain variation, the central wavelength can be continuously tuned over 75 nm range (1545-1620 nm). Wavelength tunability is achieved by controlling both the linear loss of the cavity and the polarization controllers (PCs). This is the widest tunable range yet reported in tunable passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber lasers.

Multiscale imaging of plants: current approaches and challenges.

We review a set of recent multiscale imaging techniques, producing high-resolution images of interest for plant sciences. These techniques are promising because they match the multiscale structure of plants. However, the use of such high-resolution images is challenging in the perspective of their application to high-throughput phenotyping on large populations of plants, because of the memory cost for their data storage and the computational cost for their processing to extract information. We discuss how this renews the interest for multiscale image processing tools such as wavelets, fractals and recent variants to analyse such high-resolution images.

Actinomycosis esophagitis in a patient with persistent dysphagia.

Many causes of esophagitis exist in immunocompromised patients. Uncommon pathogens must be considered to facilitate timely and appropriate therapy. A limited number of cases of esophageal actinomycosis have been reported. This report describes an unusual case of esophageal actinomycosis in a patient with persistent dysphagia. The broad differential may have delayed definitive diagnosis in the case study patient. Biopsy and culture are essential for accurate diagnosis. Although actinomycosis is a rare disease, it should be included in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with oral or esophageal complaints. It may also be considered as an opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients. The treatment of choice is parenteral penicillin G, 18 to 24 million units for 2 to 6 weeks followed by oral therapy for 6-12 months.