We investigate the interaction of intense light with matter: extreme conditions within a medium lead to the generation of remarkable bursts of rainbow light. Intense light can also induce an effective flow in the medium that can be used to create artificial event horizons and study spacetime geometries inspired by general relativity. Answering these questions leads to discoveries at the overlap between laser physics, quantum field theory, general relativity and photonic technologies.
Structural relaxation in the peptide model N-methylacetamide (NMA) is studied experimentally by ultrafast optical Kerr effect spectroscopy over the normal-liquid temperature range and compared to the relaxation measured in water at room temperature. It is seen that in both hydrogen-bonding liquids, relaxation is present, and in each case, it is found that this can be described by the Cole–Cole function. For NMA in this temperature range, the and relaxations are each found to have an Arr...
When salts are added to water, generally the viscosity increases, suggesting that the ions increase the strength of the water's hydrogen-bond network. However, infrared pump-probe measurements on electrolyte solutions have found that ions have no influence on the rotational dynamics of water molecules, implying no enhancement or breakdown of the hydrogen-bond network. Here, we report optical Kerr effect and dielectric relaxation spectroscopic measurements, which have enabled us to separate the e...
A. Bogoni, W. Xiaoxia, I. Fazal, and A. Willner. Optical Fiber Communication - incudes post deadline papers, 2009.
OFC 2009. Conference on, page 1-3--. (2009)