In future wireless communication networks at terahertz frequencies, the directivity and the beam profile of the emitters are highly relevant since no additional beam forming optics can be placed in free-space between the emitter and receiver. We investigated the radiation pattern and the polarization of broadband continuous-wave (cw) terahertz emitters experimentally and by numerical simulations between 100 GHz and 500 GHz. The emitters are indium phosphide (InP) photodiodes with attached planar antenna, mounted on a hyper-hemispherical silicon lens and integrated into a fiber-pigtailed module. As both packaging and material of the emitter was identical for all devices, similarities and differences can be directly linked to the antenna structure. We found that the feeding point structure that connects photodiode and antenna has a large influence on the radiation pattern. By optimizing the feeding point, we could reduce side lobes from -2 dB to -13 dB and narrow the 6dB beam angle from ±14° to ±9° at 300 GHz.In this paper, the unconventional photon blockade is studied in a three-wave-mixing system with a non-degenerate parametric amplification. A method of only retaining the Fock-state basis in the interference path is used to calculate the optimal analytic conditions of unconventional photon blockade. The numerical results agree well with the analytic conditions, which verifies the validity of this method. Our calculations indicate that the strong photon antibunching can be obtained in the high-frequency mode of the three-wave mixing. And the influence of system parameters on photon blockade is also discussed.Highly accurate short-circuit current measurements of photovoltaic devices require spectrally adjustable radiation sources. This paper presents an optical setup, which is able to generate and adjust the spectral irradiance in the wavelength range from 355 nm to 1200 nm with an optical resolution of 7 nm to 15 nm. A grating light valve (GLV) is used as a spectral shaping tool. We prove the highly resolved spectral shaping capability by matching the spectral irradiance of the generated radiation to the AM1.5g reference solar spectral irradiance distribution, slightly smoothed to consider the limited bandwidth of the spectrometer. Remaining deviations are mostly lower than the spectral measurement noise of 0.5 % to 3 %.Fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) technology with high spatial and strain resolutions has been widely used in many practical applications. New methods to enhance the phase sensitivity of sensing fiber are worth exploring to further improve DAS performances, although the standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) has been widely used for DAS technology. In this work, we propose and demonstrate the concept of enhancing the phase sensitivity of DAS by softening the cladding of the sensing fiber, for the first time. The theoretical analysis indicates that softening sensing fiber cladding is an effective way to improve phase sensitivity. Thus, we fabricated cladding softened fibers (CSFs) and tested their phase sensitivities experimentally. According to the results, it is found that the phase sensitivity of the CSF with 0.48 WT% phosphorus-doping concentration and 80 µm cladding diameter is 22% and 54% higher than that of the non-phosphorus-doping fiber with 80 µm cladding diameter and SSMF, respectively. The results show that by reducing fiber cladding Young's modulus with higher phosphorus-doping concentration, the DAS phase sensitivity can be enhanced effectively, verifying the theoretical analysis. Also, we found that the phase sensitivity enhancement of the sensing fiber has a linear relationship with the cladding phosphorus-doping concentration, i.e. Young's modulus. In conclusion, the reported CSF paves a way for improving the DAS phase sensitivity and would be applied to other major optical fiber sensing systems as a better sensing element over SSMF due to the enhancement in the elasto-optical effect of the sensing fiber.Proofs of the quantum advantage available in imaging or detecting objects under quantum illumination can rely on optimal measurements without specifying what they are. We use the continuous-variable Gaussian quantum information formalism to show that quantum illumination is better for object detection compared with coherent states of the same mean photon number, even for simple direct photodetection. The advantage persists if signal energy and object reflectivity are low and background thermal noise is high. The advantage is even greater if we match signal beam detection probabilities rather than mean photon number. We perform all calculations with thermal states, even for non-Gaussian conditioned states with negative Wigner functions. We simulate repeated detection using a Monte-Carlo process that clearly shows the advantages obtainable.Experimental quantum key distribution through free-space channels requires accurate pointing-and-tracking to co-align telescopes for efficient transmission. The hardware requirements for the sender and receiver could be drastically reduced by combining the detection of quantum bits and spatial tracking signal using two-dimensional single-photon detector arrays. Here, we apply a two-dimensional CMOS single-photon avalanche diode detector array to measure and monitor the single-photon level interference of a free-space time-bin receiver interferometer while simultaneously tracking the spatial position of the single-photon level signal. We verify an angular field-of-view of 1.28° and demonstrate a post-processing technique to reduce background noise. The experimental results show a promising future for two-dimensional single-photon detectors in low-light level free-space communications, such as quantum communications.Metal-dielectric low dispersion mirrors (MLDM) have a promising application prospect in petawatt (PW) laser systems. We studied the damage characteristics of MLDM and found that the damage source of MLDM (Ag + Al2O3+SiO2) is located at the metal-dielectric interface. We present the effect of the interface on the femtosecond laser damage of MLDM. Finite element analysis shows that thermal stress is distributed at the interface, causing stress damage which is consistent with the damage morphology. After enhancing the interface adhesion and reducing the residual stress, the damage source transfers from the interface to a surface SiO2 layer, and the damage threshold can be increased from 0.60 J/cm2 to 0.73 J/cm2.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/l-arginine-l-glutamate.html  This work contributes to the search for new techniques to improve the damage threshold of MLDM used in PW laser systems.