Segregation of particulate mixtures is a problem of great consequence in industries involved with the handling and processing of granular materials in which homogeneity is generally required. While there are several factors that may be responsible for segregation in bulk solids, it is well accepted that nonuniformity in particle size is a fundamental contributor. When the granular material is exposed to vibrations, the question of whether or not convection is an essential ingredient for size segregation is addressed by distinguishing between the situation where vibrations are not sufficiently energetic to promote a mean flow of the bulk solid, and those cases where a convective flow does occur. Based on experimental and simulation results in the literature, as well as dynamical systems analysis of a recent model of a binary granular mixture, it is proposed that "void-filling" beneath large particles is a universal mechanism promoting segregation, while convection essentially provides a means of mixing enhancement.

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K 3 B 6 O 10 Cl (KBOC), a new nonlinear optical crystal, shows potential advantages for the generation of deep ultraviolet (UV) light compared with other borate crystals. In this paper we study for the first time the second harmonic generation (SHG) of a femtosecond Ti:sapphire amplifier with this crystal. Laser power is obtained to be as high as 220 mW at the central wavelength of 396 nm with a 1-mm-long crystal, and the maximum SHG conversion efficiency reaches 39.3%. The typical pulse duration is 83 fs. The results show that second harmonic (SH) conversion efficiency has the room to be further improved and that the new nonlinear crystal is very suited to generate the high efficiency deep ultraviolet laser radiation below 266 nm.

We report on an efficient high-power, widely tunable femtosecond optical parametric oscillator in BiB₃O₆, synchronously pumped by a frequency-doubled mode-locked Yb:KGW laser at 515 nm. Using collinear type I (o→e+e) phase matching, a resonant wavelength range of 688-1057 nm at a 151-MHz repetition rate is demonstrated, with a tunable idler range of 1150-1900 nm. The output power at 705 nm is 1.09 W for 3.6 W pump power exceeding 30% conversion efficiency. Near-transform-limited pulses down to 71 fs are achieved by deploying extracavity dispersion compensation in a pair of SF6 prisms.

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