(J.C. Carter). AbstractWe demonstrate the feasibility of using Drop-on-Demand microjet printing technology for fabricating imaging sensors by reproducibly printing an array of photopolymerizable sensing elements, containing a pH sensitive indicator, on the surface of an optical fiber image guide. The reproducibility of the microjet printing process is excellent for microdot (i.e. micron-sized polymer) sensor diameter (92.2±2.2 microns), height (35.0±1.0 microns), and roundness (0.00072 ± 0.00023). pH sensors were evaluated in terms of pH sensing ability (≤2% sensor variation), response time, and hysteresis using a custom fluorescence imaging system. In addition, the microjet technique has distinct advantages over other fabrication methods, which are discussed in detail.

The validity of the concept of laser-driven vacuum acceleration has been questioned, based on an extrapolation of the well-known Lawson-Woodward theorem, which stipulates that plane electromagnetic waves cannot accelerate charged particles in vacuum. To formally demonstrate that electrons can indeed be accelerated in vacuum by focusing or diffracting electromagnetic waves, the interaction between a point charge and coherent dipole radiation is studied in detail. The corresponding four-potential exactly satisfies both Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz gauge condition everywhere, and is analytically tractable. It is found that in the far-field region, where the field distribution closely approximates that of a plane wave, we recover the Lawson-Woodward result, while net acceleration is obtained in the near-field region. The scaling of the energy gain with wave-front curvature and wave amplitude is studied systematically.

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