A multispectral anti-reflective coating of high radiation strength for laser applications in the IR spectrum for nonlinear ZnGeP2 crystals has been developed for the first time. The coating was constructed using YbF3/ZnS. The developed coating was obtained by a novel approach using ion-beam deposition of these materials on a ZnGeP2 substrate. It has a high LIDT of more than 2 J/cm2. Optimal layer deposition regimes were found for high film density and low absorption, and good adhesion of the coating to the substrate was achieved. At the same time, there was no dissociation of the double compound under high-energy ions.
In this work, the parameters of antireflection interference coatings based on alternating layers of ZnS/Al2O3 on the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of ZGP crystals under the action of Ho:YAG laser radiation at a wavelength of 2.097 μm were determined. The coating deposition was carried out using the ion-beam sputtering method. The LIDT of the sample with a coating based on alternating layers ZnS and Al2O3 was equal to = 3.45 J/cm2, and the LIDT of the uncoated sample was equal to = 2.23 J/cm2. An increase in the optical breakdown threshold by ~55% was observed after the deposition of an AR coating based on ZnS and Al2O3 materials. An assumption was made about the absence of local fluctuations in the composition and mechanical stresses in the case of the coated sample, namely that this leads to good adhesion of the multilayer coating to the polished surface of the crystal, and as a result to an increase in the optical breakdown threshold as compared to the uncoated sample due to closure of the dangling chemical bonds and bulk defects emerging on the polished surface.
The effect of doping Mg, Se, and Ca by diffusion into ZnGeP2 on the optical damage threshold at a wavelength of 2.1 μm has been studied. It has been shown that diffusion-doping with Mg and Se leads to an increase in the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of a single crystal (monocrystal), ZnGeP2; upon annealing at a temperature of 750 °C, the damage threshold of samples doped with Mg and Se increases by 31% and 21% from 2.2 ± 0.1 J/cm2 to 2.9 ± 0.1 and 2.7 ± 0.1 J/cm2, respectively. When ZnGeP2 is doped with Ca, the opposite trend is observed. It has been suggested that the changes in the LIDT depending on the introduced impurity by diffusion can be explained by the creation of additional energy dissipation channels due to the processes of radiative and fast non-radiative relaxation through impurity energy levels, which further requires experimental confirmation.
One of challenges that faces diabetes is the wound healing process. The delayed diabetic wound healing is caused by a complicated molecular mechanism involving numerous physiological variables. Low-dose photodynamic therapy (LDPDT) provides excellent results in rejuvenation and wound healing. In this study, the LDPDT effect on diabetic wounds in mice was studied using two photosensitizers, 5-aminolevulinic acid and methylene blue, and two laser dose expositions of 1 J/cm2 and 4 J/cm2 by Raman spectroscopy (RS). The latter was used as a noninvasive method, providing specific information about tissue state based on the fundamental vibrational modes of its molecular components. RS allows high spatial resolution acquisition of biochemical and structural information through the generation of point spectra or spectral images. An approach to in vivo quantitative assessment of diabetic wound healing state was developed. This approach is based on an application of the principal component analysis combined with the Mahalanobis metrics to skin Raman spectra, in particular, intensities of the amide I and CH2 bands.
TiO2 films of 130 nm and 463 nm in thickness were deposited by ion beam sputter deposition (IBSD), followed by annealing at temperatures of 800 °C and 1000 °C. The effect of H2, CO, CO2, NO2, NO, CH4 and O2 on the electrically conductive properties of annealed TiO2 thin films in the operating temperature range of 200–750 °C were studied. The prospects of IBSD deposited TiO2 thin films in the development of high operating temperature and high stability O2 sensors were investigated. TiO2 films with a thickness of 130 nm and annealed at 800 °C demonstrated the highest response to O2, of 7.5 arb.un. when exposed to 40 vol. %. An increase in the annealing temperature of up to 1000 °C at the same film thickness made it possible to reduce the response and recovery by 2 times, due to changes in the microstructure of the film surface. The films demonstrated high sensitivity to H2 and nitrogen oxides at an operating temperature of 600 °C. The possibility of controlling the responses to different gases by varying the conditions of their annealing and thicknesses was shown. A feasible mechanism for the sensory effect in the IBSD TiO2 thin films was proposed and discussed.
The electrophysical process in the discharge circuit of a copper vapor laser (CVL) is investigated. It is shown that the pumping of the active medium of a CVL in gas-discharge tubes (GDT) with electrodes located in cold buffer zones is carried out in two stages. At the first (preparatory) stage, the capacitive components of the laser discharge circuit are charged from the storage capacitor, and at the second stage, the active medium is directly pumped. The transition from the preparatory stage to the pumping stage is carried out as a result of a breakdown. It is shown that breakdown is a transient process of discharge development from a glowing to a non-thermal arc discharge and is characterized by a sharp change in the cathode potential drop across the GDT. The inductance of the discharge circuit is a factor that determines the efficiency of pumping the active medium since the release of the energy stored in the inductance at the preparatory stage provides heating of the cathode spot and determines the conditions for the occurrence of thermal emission of electrons from the GDT cathode.