An attempt is described to replace the present definition of the kilogram with the mass of a certain number of silicon atoms. A prerequisite for this is that the Avogadro constant, N A , is determined with a relative uncertainty of better than 2 × 10 −8. For the determination, silicon crystals are used. However, the difficulty arising thereby is the measurement of the average molar mass of natural Si. Consequently, a worldwide collaboration has been launched to produce approximately a 5 kg 28 Si single crystal with an enrichment factor greater than 99.985% and of sufficient chemical purity so that it can be used to determine N A with the targeted relative measurement uncertainty mentioned above. In the following, the first successful tests of all technological steps will be reported (enrichment of SiF 4 , distillation into silane and chemical purification, chemical vapour deposition of polycrystalline 28 Si, floating zone growth of a dislocation-free single crystal) and new equipment for the production of high-purity 28 Si with an enrichment of not less than 99.99% will be described. All steps are well defined by a Technical Road Map (TRM28) and all key results are measured by new mass spectrometric, IR spectroscopic and other chemical and physical methods, such as Hall effect, photoluminescence, laser scattering and x-ray topographic methods (TRM for Analytical Monitoring and Certification, TRM28-AMC). The initial enrichment of the gas is >0.999 95 and the depletion during the entire process is <0.000 05. The isotopic homogeneity is checked by natural Si crystal growth and does, in the enriched sphere, not

We describe the design and characterization of solid core large mode area bandgap fibers exhibiting low propagation loss and low bend loss. The fibers have been prepared by modified chemical vapor deposition process. The bandgap guidance obtained thanks to a 3-bilayer periodic cladding is assisted by a very slight index step (5.10-4) in the solid core. The propagation loss reaches a few dB/km and is found to be close to material loss.

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We report 33% efficient generation of the first Stokes in a high-concentration GeO(2) fiber Raman laser pumped by a 22 W thulium-doped fiber laser. An output power of 4.6 W at 2.105 microm is demonstrated.

We have fabricated, to our knowledge, the first rectangular cross-section multicore fiber with eight cores arranged in a line. We have shown that the rectangular cross-section remains practically unchanged during the fiber-drawing process. The heterogeneous version of the proposed fiber design could be beneficial for crosstalk reduction because of the low influence of fiber bends on crosstalk between neighboring cores.