No description available.

Abstract During the last decade, the fast-growing communication need has promoted the development of the wavelength of 1.3 mm~1.6 mm laser light source. The Cr4+ doped YAG solid-state laser has potential to meet this super wideband demand. In addition, solid state laser has the merits of high laser beam quality, long lifetime, compact, and simple structure. In this thesis, crystal fiber was used as the laser gain medium, and coated with optical thin film at its end facets as the laser cavity. Using this configuration, the volume and cost of the laser can be appreciatively reduced, and the heat dissipation can be improved. The laser-heated-pedestal-growth method was used to grow crystal fiber, which can obtain small diameter at very fast rate and accurate control. High quality Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber with the smallest diameter of 50 mm was grown. A glass-packaged technique clothes the crystal fiber with a core diameter as small as 11 mm. Outside the glass clad Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber, Al-Cu alloy was employed as the heat sink to improve heat dissipation. After grinding, polishing, and coating of this device, the Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber laser was fabricated. Some characteristics of Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber, such as the distribution of Cr2O3 and CaO doping concentration, fluorescence intensity, refraction index, propagation loss, and absorption coefficient were measured and analyzed. In the meanwhile, some simulations of the laser output power depending on the absorption coefficient, propagation loss, output coupling, crystal fiber diameter, and crystal boundary temperature were discussed.

During last decade, the fast-growing communication need has promoted the development of 1.3 £gm~1.6 £gm laser light source. The Cr4+ doped YAG solid-state laser has potential to meet this broadband demand. In addition, diode-laser-pumped solid state laser has the merits of high laser beam quality, long lifetime, compact, and simple structure. In this thesis, crystal fiber was used as the laser gain medium, and coated with optical thin film at its end facets as the laser cavity. Using this configuration, the volume and cost of the laser can be appreciatively reduced, and the heat dissipation can be improved. The laser-heated-pedestal-growth method was used to grow crystal fiber, which can obtain small diameter at very fast rate. Outside the glass clad Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber, Al-Cu alloy was employed as the heat sink to improve heat dissipation. After grinding, polishing, and coating of this device, the Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber laser was fabricated. Some characteristics of Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber, such as the distribution of Cr2O3 and CaO doping concentration, fluorescence intensity, refraction index, propagation loss, and absorption coefficient were measured and analyzed. A record-low threshold of 0.75 mW was achieved. It is more than 500 times lower than any previously reported Cr4+:YAG lasers, and a slope efficiency of 6.9% was obtained. The ultralow-threshold lasing is made possible by the low propagation loss of 0.08 dB/cm and the high pump intensity of the core. Such a low-threshold operation makes the double-clad crystal fiber laser be compatible to present optical communication systems. In the meanwhile, some simulations of the laser output power have been developed to predict the experimental results.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-88). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-88). Also available on the Internet.

No description available.

Structures as determined by single crystal X-ray methods for lanthanoid(III) compounds for series of simple homoleptic species with diverse ligands frequently display variations entailing a diminution in coordination number (‘C.N.’), a consequence of the variation in the size of the atoms/ions due to the ‘lanthanoid contraction’. A change from C.N. nine to eight is common, clearly separating compounds of the light/‘early’ or heavy/‘later’ metal atoms. Earlier work on the complexes of the lanthanoid(III) picrates arose out of the exploration of simple reagents which might usefully exploit lanthanoid ion properties for purposes such as solvent extraction. They are also of potential synthetic utility because of their relatively high solubility in apolar solvents. This thesis encompasses a systematic structural study of hydrated lanthanoid picrate complexes (including those of yttrium) with a selection of dipolar aprotic solvent ligands, namely trimethylphosphate (‘tmp’), dimethylsulfoxide (‘dmso’), hexamethylphosphoramide (‘hmpa’), N,N´-dimethylacetamide (‘dma’), N-methylpyrrolidinone (‘nmp’) and octamethylpyrophosphoramide (‘ompa’), all liquids at room temperature and all unidentate, with the exception of ompa which can be considered in some cases to behave as the equivalent of two unidentate ligands, in others as a chelate. Structures of adducts of these ligands with scandium picrate are also included in order to gain further insight into the coordination behavior of the totality of the group ‘3’ transition metals, and, for similar reasons, a study of the structures of complexes of Eu(dipivaloylmethanide)3 with the same (solvent) ligands as a ‘baseline’. In the course of these studies, hydrolysis of the aprotic solvent trimethylphosphate was found to lead to novel adducts of the dimethylphosphate (‘dmp’) ligand; the introduction of polycyclic aromatic nitrogen base ligand complexes resulted in further novel mixed ligand compounds, supplemented by a study of protonated base picrate salts. This work aims not only to establish structural ‘domains of existence’ with a concomitant consideration of the associated stereochemistry for these related series of rare earth complexes, but, also, to enhance our understanding of metal ion solvation and the interactions of aromatic groups within these types of crystal structures.

The microscopic distribution of microspheres and the resulting radiation dose deposition patterns in human liver following hepatic arterial infusion of 90Y labelled microspheres have been investigated. Tissue samples from normal liver, the tumour periphery and tumour centre were taken from a patient following infusion of 3 GBq of 32 pm diameter resin microspheres labelled with 90Y as treatment for an 80 millimetre diameter metastatic liver tumour. Microspheres were found to deposit inhomogeneously in tissues, preferentially lodging in a region approximately 6 mm wide around the periphery of the tumour. A relative concentration of microspheres of 50 to 70 times that of normal hepatic parenchyma and 65 to 94 times that in the tumour centre was measured in this region. The deposition of microspheres in the tumour periphery was not uniform, and cluster analysis showed that the spheres could be classified into clusters. The number of microspheres in a cluster was skewed towards low numbers and cluster sizes varied from 20 pm to 1500 pm. Microsphere deposition in normal liver was demonstrated to be non-uniform, there being significant variations in concentration over distances on the order of 3 to 4 millimetres. The observed microsphere distributions in three dimensions were used to calculate radiation dose patterns, and the results showed that heterogeneous doses were delivered to all tissues. Within the tumour periphery average doses ranged from 200 Gy to 600 Gy with minimum doses between 70 Gy and 190 Gy. The maximum and minimum doses for the tumour centre sample were 920 Gy and 3.7 Gy respectively, the median dose was 5.8 Gy. In the normal liver sample the median dose was 7.3 Gy with maximum and minimum doses of 753 Gy and 5 Gy respectively. Less than 1% of the normal liver tissue volume received more than 30 GY, the level above which complications have resulted for ++ / whole liver exposure using external beam radiotherapy. These calculations suggest that preferential deposition of microspheres in the well vascularised periphery of large tumours will lead to a high proportion of the tumour volume receiving a therapeutic dose, with most of the normal liver tissue being spared substantial damage.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-125).

Thesis (M.Sc.)--Aberdeen University, 2008. / Title from web page (viewed on March 9, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.