Defect radiation has been always considered as the most important loss for an emitter based on band gap emission. Here, we propose a novel approach which goes against this conventional wisdom. Based on the resonance effect between the surface plasmon of metal nanoparticles and defect emission, it is possible to convert the useless defect radiation to the useful excitonic emission with a giant enhancement factor. Through the transfer of the energetic electrons excited by surface plasmon from metal nanoparticles to the conduction band of the emitter, the band gap emission can be greatly enhanced, while the defect emission can be suppressed to noise level.

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We report on the first building of an active spectral narrowing mechanism in a pulsed, multiline optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on a novel aperiodically poled lithium niobate (APPLN) device constructed using the aperiodic optical superlattice technique. The APPLN device functions simultaneously in the system as a multi-channel optical parametric down converter (OPDC) and an electro-optic (EO) gain spectral filter working on the corresponding (multiple) signal bands. When the APPLN OPO was installed in a diode pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser system, highly narrowed dual-wavelength signal lines (at 1540 and 1550 nm) were observed at the output of the system through EO control of the APPLN. Correspondingly, an enhancement of the power spectral density of the source by a factor of ~7.8 with respect to the system operated in passive mode was found.

The 4U 1820-30 is an ultra-compact low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) near the center of the globular cluster NGC 6624. Its negative orbital period derivative, observed from the phase evolution of its sinusoidal-like orbital variation, contradicts the positive value that was obtained from the theoretical prediction. In this paper, we present the analysis of the 4U 1820-30 orbital modulation from light curves obtained from the Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) observations from 2017 to mid-2022. Combined with historical records, the orbital derivative is measured from the orbital phase evolution between 1976 and 2002 is P ̇ / P = ( − 5.21 ± 0.13 ) × 10 − 8 yr−1. No significant second order orbital period derivative is detected with a 2σ upper limit of ∣ P ̈ ∣ < 5.48 × 10 − 22 s s−2. We discuss the possible intrinsic orbital period derivative of 4U 1820-30 and suggest that this binary system may have a significant mass outflow similar to some other LMXBs. In addition, a periodic modulation with a period of 691.6 ± 0.7 s, which is consistent with the superhump period discovered in the far-ultraviolet band of the Hubble Space Telescope, was also detected in the X-ray light curves that were collected by NICER. We conclude that this modulation is probably caused by a period of 0.8 ± 0.1 day apsidal precession of the accretion disk, similar to the SU UMa type dwarf novae and some LMXBs. However we cannot exclude the possibility that it is induced by a hierarchical third star that orbits around the binary system.

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