We present first measurements of the pseudorapidity and azimuth $(\eta,\phi)$ bin-size dependence of event-wise mean transverse momentum $$ fluctuations for Au-Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200$ GeV. We invert that dependence to obtain $p_t$ autocorrelations on differences $(\eta_\Delta,\phi_\Delta)$ interpreted to represent velocity/temperature distributions on ($\eta,\phi$). The general form of the autocorrelations suggests that the basic correlation mechanism is parton fragmentation. The autocorrelations vary strongly with collision centrality, which suggests that fragmentation is strongly modified by a dissipative medium in the more central Au-Au collisions relative to peripheral or p-p collisions. \\

The broadband parasitic amplification in a diode-seeded nanosecond ytterbium-doped fiber laser amplifier system is numerically and experimentally investigated. The amplification is originated from a weak and pulsed parasitic signal associated with the 1064-nm seed diode laser. Although the average power of the parasitic pulse is less than 5% of the total seed laser power, a significant transient spike is observed during the amplification. In agreement with the simulation, nonlinear effects caused by the transient spike limits the scaling of signal peak power in fiber preamplifiers. With the utilization of a narrow bandwidth filter to eliminate the parasitic pulse, the power and energy scalability of a multistage diode-seeded fiber amplifier laser system has been significantly improved. At 1064 nm, pulses with the peak power of 120 kW and energy of 1.2 mJ have been successfully generated in the multistage Yb ³⁺ -doped fiber amplifier with an energy gain of 63 dB and 56% conversion efficiency. In viewing of the parasitic pulse's 8.8-nm bandwidth, it has the potential to become a novel seed source for high-peak-power fiber amplifiers.

Glass-clad ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{4+}:\mathrm{YAG}$ crystal fiber is demonstrated by a codrawing laser-heated pedestal growth method. As much as 2.45 mW of superwideband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is generated in the optical fiber communication band with a 3-dB width of 240 nm. The simulation indicates that the ASE power could be in excess of 20 dBm for a $5‐\mathit{\mu }\mathrm{m}$-diameter core at a pump power of 2.5 W.

A novel double-clad ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{4+}:\mathrm{YAG}$ crystal fiber is demonstrated by use of a codrawing laser-heated pedestal growth method. Up to 10 dB of gross gain at a wavelength of $1.52 \mathit{\mu }\mathrm{m}$ is achieved at a pump power of 0.83 W, which, to our knowledge, is the first ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{4+}$-doped fiber amplifier in the optical fiber communication band.

With a Gaussian-like broadband light source from high brightness Ce³⁺:YAG single-clad crystal fiber, a full-field optical coherence tomography using a home-designed Mirau objective realized high quality images of in vivo and excised skin tissues. With a 40 × silicone-oil-immersion Mirau objective, the achieved spatial resolutions in axial and lateral directions were 0.9 and 0.51 μm, respectively. Such a high spatial resolution enables the separation of lamellar structure of the full epidermis in both the cross-sectional and en face planes. The number of layers of stratum corneum and its thickness were quantitatively measured. This label free and non-invasive optical probe could be useful for evaluating the water barrier of skin tissue in clinics. As a preliminary in vivo experiment, the blood vessel in dermis was also observed, and the flowing of the red blood cells and location of the melanocyte were traced.

Cr⁴⁺:YAG double-clad crystal fiber with an uniform 10-μm core was fabricated by using a sapphire tube as a heat capacitor to stabilize the power fluctuation of the CO₂ laser in the co-drawing laser-heated pedestal growth system. The uniformity of the fiber core showed a factor of 3 improvement compared to that without the use of sapphire tube. The variation of the core diameter is within the ±1.35-degree adiabatic criterion and has a autocorrelation length of 1.7 mm. The measured propagation loss is only 0.02 dB/cm. The sapphire tube also reduces the vertical temperature gradient during the crystal fiber growth process so the 10-μm crystal core exhibits a smooth perimeter. The sapphire tube assisted system can be applied to the growth of many other optical crystal materials.