Iraqi Journal of Laser

In this work, the effect of different particle size on the nonlinear optical properties of silver nanoparticles in de-ionized water was studied. The experimental observation of the far field diffraction patterns by CCD camera in two and three dimensions. The maximum change of nonlinear refractive index and the relative phase shift were calculated. The self-defocusing technique was used with a continuous-wave radiation from DPSS Blue laser .The wavelength is 473 nm with an output power of 270 mW. All the Ag colloids samples containing the sizes 15, 30, 50, and 70 nm of silver nanoparticles used in the study were chemically prepared. It was found that the nonlinear refractive index is a particle size dependent and of the order of 10-7 cm2/W, while its maximum change is in the order of 10-4. The phase shift increased from 8π up to 14π with particle size increment. The increase in the particle size of the Ag nanoparticles leads to increasing the number of rings and to the material possessing more nonlinearity with the nonlinear refractive index increment.

Two Prototypes of Transversely Excited at atmospheric pressure (TEA) Nitrogen laser systems (One Stage Blumlein Circuit and Two Stage Blumlein Circuit) were fabricated and operated. High voltage power supply with variable operating voltage (0-20 kv) and operating current (1-3A) was built and tested successfully. The gas flow rate of 15 L/ min and 10 L/ min for OSBC and TSBC was used. The performance of the fabricated systems was studied extensively reaching to the optimum operating conditions. The obtained laser output energy for the first system has linear relationship with the applied voltage. The maximum output energy was about (1.14 mJ) with (10.40) ns pulse duration and the half-wave divergence angle was about (0.1455 m rad). In the second system, the laser output energy has exponential relationship with the applied voltage; and the maximum output energy was about (10 mJ) with (8.20) ns pulse duration and the half-wave divergence angle was about (0.0582 mrad ).

Two Prototypes of Transversely Excited at atmospheric pressure (TEA) Nitrogen laser systems (One Stage Blumlein Circuit and Two Stage Blumlein Circuit) were fabricated and operated. High voltage power supply with variable operating voltage (0-20 kv) and operating current (1-3A) was built and tested successfully. The gas flow rate of 15 L/ min and 10 L/ min for OSBC and TSBC was used. The performance of the fabricated systems was studied extensively reaching to the optimum operating conditions. The obtained laser output energy for the first system has linear relationship with the applied voltage. The maximum output energy was about (1.14 mJ) with (10.40) ns pulse duration and the half-wave divergence angle was about (0.1455 m rad). In the second system, the laser output energy has exponential relationship with the applied voltage; and the maximum output energy was about (10 mJ) with (8.20) ns pulse duration and the half-wave divergence angle was about (0.0582 mrad ).Photonic crystal fiber interferometers (PCFIs) are widely used for sensing applications. This work presented solid core-PCFs based on Mach-Zehnder modal interferometer for sensing refractive index. The general structure of sensor was applied by splicing short lengths of PCF in both sides with conventional single mode fiber (SMF-28).To apply modal interferometer theory collapsing technique based on fusion splicing used to excite higher order modes (LP01 and LP11). A high sensitive optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) was used to monitor and record the transmitted wavelength. This work studied a Mach-Zahnder interferometer refractive index sensor based on splicing point tapered SMF-PCF-SMF. Relation between refractive index sensitivity and taper waist diameter were studied through simulation and experiments. The experimental and simulation results show that sensitivity would be increased with a decrease of taper waist diameter. The response of the PCFI is observed for a range of refractive index values from (1.33 to 1.38). When the length of PCF was (4)cm with different taper waist diameter (125,107,90,60)μm, the maximum refractive index sensitivity of (20 pm / RIU) was achieved. When taper waist diameter became (60)μm, the rate of increase in sensitivity was 12.4% compared with the taper waist diameter (125)μm.

In this research, annealed nanostructured ZnO catalyst water putrefaction system was built using sun light and different wavelength lasers as stimulating light sources to enhance photocatalytic degradation activity of methylene blue (MB) dye as a model based on interfacial charges transfer. The structural, crystallite size, morphological, particle size, optical properties and degradation ability of annealed nanostructured ZnO were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and UV-VIS Spectrometer, respectively. XRD results demonstrated a pure crystalline hexagonal wurtzite with crystalline size equal to 23 nm. From AFM results, the average particle size was 79.25nm. All MB samples and MB with annealed nanostructured ZnO catalyst were exposed under sunlight and lasers with (632.8,532 and 405 ) with 1.6 mW\mm2 power density irradiation for (0,30,60 and 90) minutes. UV-VIS Spectrometer was used to evaluate the photodegradiation of MB with and without annealed nanostructured ZnO catalyst where an appreciable photocatalytic generation of hydroxyl was radicals exhibited due to increasing charge separation rate and decreasing recombination rate .Nanostructured ZnO Overall results show that MB degradation achieved 66% after 90 minutes using 405nm laser irradiation, while the reaction rate constant that fits a pseudo-first order kinetics (ka) is 0.011min-1 compared to 0.0001min-1 using MB alone . This study proved that 405 nm laser and sun light are highly efficient sources to enhance interfacial charge transfer to improve photodegredation of MB dye using annealed nanostructured ZnO.