No abstract

We numerically demonstrate Q-switched operation of Titanium:Sapphire lasers using mono and multilayer graphene, deposited on a totally reflecting end mirror as a saturable absorber. Output energies, pulse duration and repetition frequencies of the Q-switched pulse trains are given as a function of the pump intensity for different number of graphene layers and cavity lengths. For the geometries studied, pulses from 16.2 to 467 ns can be achieved, with energies ranging from 8.7 to 71 µJ and repetition rates from 0.057 to 2.27 MHz. These results can be useful for designing and building laser cavities for Q-switched and mode-locked operation in laser media with short lifetimes as Titanium:Sapphire.

From the middle of the 20th century, the rise of anthropocentric beliefs partly inherited from the Abrahamic religions led to a change in mentality about ecosystems. The measurable signs of environmental exploitation and destruction and their consequences for human health, the shift to post-materialist values, and the growth of ethical philosophies (Land ethics, the Gaia Hypothesis, and Deep Ecology) were predictors of global ecological awareness. Progressively, human cultures (which are inseparable from religion) have become a priority for understanding relationships with the natural world. Alongside beliefs, individual subjectivities, influenced by the New Age, also positively affect sustainable values and practices. One of the community manifestations that demonstrate this is the ecovillage phenomenon. The sociological study of these new social realities influenced by the New Age is a relevant field of research in the frame of secularization or the criticism of this paradigm.

The New Age emerged in modernity as a result of secularization and the recomposition of esotericism and religion in the West. Chronologically it can be placed in two moments. The first takes place after the Second World War, when the movement was embraced by the younger generations, acquiring public visibility. It became popular through apoc-alyptic and utopian subcultures and contestant countercultures, which created a break with the lifestyles of modernity. The second appears in the late 1970s, when a process of collective recognition of New Age spiritual beliefs and practices as alter-native or deviant began. Since then, the diffusion of the New Age has essentially occurred through indi-vidual DIYs. Although these spiritual practices are often seen as framed in the logic of the capitalist system’s neoliberal market and do not bring some-thing truly new (given that most recover old eso-teric and spiritual practices), they also promote, for the most part, ecological values, the physical and psychological well-being, and a sense of belong-ing to communities of various types, namely digital ones. In this article we conclude on underlining the need to broaden the research on the New Age in Portugal, as a way to bolster scientific knowledge on contemporary practices