We investigate the scintillation properties of Airy beam arrays in atmospheric turbulence. By utilizing the "self-bending" propagation property of Airy beams, the constituent beamlets propagate through relatively independent regions of turbulence but still largely overlap at the on-axis detector. Through numeric simulations, it is shown that the scintillation of an Airy beam array is significantly reduced and close to the theoretical minimum.

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a proven additive manufacturing (AM) technology for producing metallic components with complex shapes using layer-by-layer manufacture principle. However, the fabrication of crack-free high-performance Nibased superalloys such as Hastelloy X (HX) using LPBF technology remains a challenge because of these materials' susceptibility to hot cracking. This paper addresses the above problem by proposing a novel method of introducing 1 wt.% titanium carbide (TiC) nanoparticles. The findings reveal that the addition of TiC nanoparticles results in the elimination of microcracks in the LPBF-fabricated enhanced HX samples; i.e. the 0.65% microcracks that were formed in the asfabricated original HX were eliminated in the as-fabricated enhanced HX, despite the 0.14% residual pores formed. It also contributes to a 21.8% increase in low-angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) and a 98 MPa increase in yield strength. The study revealed that segregated carbides were unable to trigger hot cracking without sufficient thermal residual stresses; the significantly increased subgrains and lowangle grain boundaries played a key role in the hot cracking elimination. These findings offer a new perspective on the elimination of hot cracking of nickel-based superalloys and other industrially relevant crack-susceptible alloys. The findings also have significant implications for the design of new alloys, particularly for hightemperature industrial applications.

Despite appearing featureless to our eyes, the open ocean is a highly variable environment for polarization-sensitive viewers. Dynamic visual backgrounds coupled with predator encounters from all possible directions make this habitat one of the most challenging for camouflage. We tested open-ocean crypsis in nature by collecting more than 1500 videopolarimetry measurements from live fish from distinct habitats under a variety of viewing conditions. Open-ocean fish species exhibited camouflage that was superior to that of both nearshore fish and mirrorlike surfaces, with significantly higher crypsis at angles associated with predator detection and pursuit. Histological measurements revealed that specific arrangements of reflective guanine platelets in the fish's skin produce angle-dependent polarization modifications for polarocrypsis in the open ocean, suggesting a mechanism for natural selection to shape reflectance properties in this complex environment.

We demonstrate, through numerical simulations, that an appropriately chosen nonuniformly polarized coherent optical field can have appreciably smaller scintillation than comparable beams of uniform polarization. This results from the fact that a nonuniformly polarized field acts as an effective two-mode partially coherent field. The results described here are of direct relevance to the development of free-space optical communication systems.

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